by Phoef Sutton
From the phone I heard a rasping sound as if someone were dragging it over the rough surface of the tunnel wall. And then there was a voice. A voice the likes of which I had never heard before and never wish to hear again. A deep, gelatinous, hollow, unearthly voice that sounded like, and yet didn’t sound like, Renee’s father!
And this was what it said: “You fool, Renee is gone!”
Then the rain came. With terrible and horrendous force, it burst forth from the heavens as if summoned to wash away this evil blight that had been awakened. It seemed to give Caleb the strength he needed. With a great wrenching sound, the gentle giant ripped one of the bars out of the gate. As he pulled it free, I squeezed through the opening and went running down the tunnel. But as far as I ran and as much as I called out and as far as I shone the flashlight beam, I could find no sign of Renee Zerbe.
I reached the other end of the tunnel. There was only the broad expanse of the Hahamongna Watershed and the 210 Freeway off in the distance. K.C. regained consciousness and called the police. The authorities searched the area for a week.
No trace of Renee Zerbe was ever found.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Noel closed the notebook and looked up. “That was the first indication I ever had that I was a Targeted Individual. It’s been a long journey. Thank you.”
As Will crossed to give Noel a hug and everyone applauded, Crush felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin. The clapping for Noel was a bit longer and louder than the applause for the others had been. They knew a good story when they heard one.
Crush turned to Gail, “Now?” he whispered.
Gail gestured to him to wait. Crush ground his teeth.
“Is that how it happened?” Gail whispered to him.
“No,” Crush said. “And yes.”
The man next to Gail crossed his legs again. The meeting progressed. No doubt about it, this man was definitely as annoyed as Crush was. Crush took a longer look at him. It was Evan Gibbard.
Christ, Crush thought, this really is old home week.
The meeting was over. Crush leapt to his feet and grabbed Noel by the arm. He tried to hurry him out, but Will came over to them. “We’re pleased you could join us,” Will said, offering his hand. Crush ignored him and hurried out.
Gail gave Will a regretful smile. “He doesn’t believe in shaking hands. The Overlords can take control of your mind that way.”
Will nodded. “A lot of people believe that.”
“But not you?”
Will shot back his shirtsleeve and exposed a bracelet. “I wear copper to protect me.”
“Good idea.” Gail moved on.
When Gail got outside she found Crush leading Noel to the Buick. Before he could get him there, the man in the surgical mask came up to Noel and grabbed his arm. The man was so upset that he even lowered his mask.
“Why?” Evan Gibbard asked. “Why do you insist on reading that crap to us every month?”
Gail hurried to join them as Crush said, “Sorry, we’re in a hurry,” and tried to brush by Evan.
But Noel stood his ground. “Why do you object, Evan? Because you don’t like hearing the truth?”
“That’s not the fucking truth and you know it. It’s a fucking fabrication.”
“You’re in denial, friend. Either that or you’re in league with them.”
“Shut up!” Evan said. “You know I’m not in league with anybody. You’re the one who’s in denial. You could have saved her and you know it.”
“I’m not listening to this. You’re just channeling the enemy.”
“Channeling the enemy? You’re the one who’s channeling H.P. fucking Lovecraft. Don’t you think anybody in the group has ever read a book?”
“The group supports me,” Noel said. “You’re the only one with a problem.”
“My problem is I know what really happened. I’m the only one who was there.”
“You think so? You think you’re the only one?” Noel turned to Crush. “Caleb. You remember Evan?”
Crush nodded. “I remember him. How have you been?”
“Caleb?” Evan said, amazed. “I thought you’d be dead by now.”
“I’ve tried, but it doesn’t stick,” Crush said. Evan didn’t look like quite as much of an asshole as he had at seventeen. The years had either been kind to him or cruel. Either way, he seemed to have mellowed.
“Caleb,” Noel said, “you were there that night. What I said was the truth, wasn’t it?”
“It was your truth. That’s the important thing,” Crush said.
“Yes, it was my truth because it was the truth,” Noel insisted. “Right?”
“Well, to be honest,” Crush said, “I remember a few things a little differently.”
“Like what?”
“Like…just about everything,” Crush said. “Except the parrots. You got the parrots right.”
Noel stared at him with the look of a man betrayed. “I thought you were on my side, Caleb. I thought you were with me. But now I see you’re with them.”
“I’m not with anybody, Noel,” Crush said. “I’m with me. Come on.”
“Do you refuse to corroborate my story, Caleb? Is that what you’re saying?”
Crush rolled his eyes. “Look, I corroborate the broad outline. Just not the details.”
Noel looked hurt. “The only reason I shared that story was that I thought you’d back me up, Caleb. That you’d make Evan see that he’s been wrong for saying I was lying.”
“I never said you were lying,” Evan told him. “I said you were conflating.”
“It’s the same thing.”
“No, it’s not. Lying is telling a falsehood. Conflating is combining two different things until they make something new.”
“You’re playing the psychiatrist game now,” Noel said. “Trying to make people think I’m crazy.”
“I don’t really have to try very hard,” Evan said.
Noel ignored him and turned to Crush. “Have you heard from my brother?”
“No. That’s why we have to go.”
“K.C.?” Evan asked. “Has something happened to him?”
“He’s been kidnapped,” Noel said, as if he was letting Evan know his brother had been suffering from a little head cold. “He’ll be all right.” Noel turned back to address Crush. “What did my father say after he heard the message?”
“He said to fuck off,” Crush replied.
Noel nodded. “That sounds like my father. So that’s what he told them? The ones who have my brother?”
“He hasn’t told them anything,” Crush went on. “They haven’t called again. Your sister’s trying to talk your father into being more cooperative.”
“That sounds like my sister. When are they going to call?”
“We don’t know,” Crush said. “That’s why we have to go.”
Evan looked at Crush, alarmed. “His brother’s been kidnapped?”
“Yes,” Crush said, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say. “We have to go.”
Then Will, the friendly group leader, approached Noel and took his hand. “Noel, do you have a minute?”
Crush tried to object, but Evan was still talking to him. “The Overlords are getting bolder and bolder. The End Times approach.” Evan smiled. “It’s good to see you again. We should talk.”
“Sure,” Crush said, watching Noel and Will talk on the sidewalk. “About what?”
“Iraq.”
“Were you there?”
Evan nodded gravely. “I was.”
“In the Marines?” Crush asked, surprised.
“No. Blackwater,” he said. Blackwater was the infamous private military company now renamed Academi, to distance itself from the unfortunate massacre at Nisour Square. “Sonny and I joined in ’06.”
“Sonny Kraus. How is he?”
Evan made a face. “They say he had PTSD. But we know what that really means. The Overlords were trying to discredit him. In the end, they ma
de it look like he killed himself. Typical.”
“I’m sorry.” What else could Crush say to that?
“Maybe we could talk sometime? About the truth,” Evan said.
“Great. I’ll call you. What’s your cell number?”
“I don’t have a cell phone,” Evan said. “They listen to all wireless communication. Why don’t we meet at the Devil’s Gate Dam?”
“Really?” Crush couldn’t help but ask.
“Not down at the Gate. On top of the dam. The microwaves can’t read you there, because it’s on a ley line. How about six tomorrow night? I’ll be there. You will be, too. And remember to come alone. You can’t trust anyone.” He nodded significantly, pulled his surgical mask back over his face, and walked off.
“Why do you want to talk to him?” Gail asked.
“I want to find out what happened that night. Hear his version.”
“His version will probably be crazier than Noel’s version. Besides, weren’t you there? Don’t you know what happened?”
“I was there,” Crush grumbled, “but I don’t know what happened. Come on.”
Crush started to walk toward Noel when a truck drove up and bounced over the curb, screeching to a halt in front of Will and Noel. The two of them looked up, startled and afraid. But they weren’t nearly afraid enough, Crush thought.
He recognized the truck. It was the decoy UPS truck that had delivered the bomb to the Zerbe mansion.
Crush took off running as the truck’s doors flew open and two men in ski masks jumped out, pushed Will to the ground, and grabbed Noel. They threw him into the truck and slammed the door just as Crush ran up to it. He hammered on the window as the truck pulled out and drove down El Centro.
Not even stopping to think, Crush ran to his Buick. Gail was almost as fast, jumping into the passenger seat just as Crush started the car and pulled out.
The truck passed the post office, driving straight through a stop sign and heading toward the library. Down the street toward Orange Grove Boulevard and the freeway entrance.
Crush tore away from the curb and flew down the tree-lined street. He blew through the stop sign at Fremont. Passing cars hit their brakes and honked their horns.
“You were supposed to stop at that,” Gail said.
“I know,” Crush said.
They drove on. They could see the truck tearing past the library and turning right on Meridian. It went out of sight.
“Fuck,” Crush said and drove faster, taking the turn at Meridian with a squealing of brakes. The back end of the Buick fishtailed, but Crush was able to keep it under control and he barreled down Meridian toward Mission Street and the freeway entrance.
At the last moment, Crush slammed on the brakes and the car squealed to a halt just inches from the back of the UPS truck, which was stopped dead still. In front of it, the crossing gates were lowered and signal lights were flashing. The Metro Gold Line would be here any second.
Crush leaned forward, grabbed a heavy flashlight from the glove compartment, and leapt out of the Buick. Running up to the passenger window of the truck, just as the Gold Line sped past them, Crush slammed the butt of the flashlight into the glass, smashing it to bits. He reached in and grabbed the first person he could grab and hauled him out through the window.
It was one of the men in the ski masks, and Crush drove his elbow down on the man’s head and threw him aside. The passenger door flew open and crashed into Crush’s side, knocking him over. Another man in a ski mask jumped out, with a jack handle in his fist.
He moved in on Crush while he was down, ready to brain him with the weapon. But Gail was behind the man. She smacked him in the back of the head with a spinning roundhouse kick that sent him crashing into the hood of the truck. Crush sprang to his feet and slammed the man’s head into the windshield. The window cracked but it didn’t break. The same couldn’t be said for the man.
Crush rushed around to the driver’s door just as it swung open. He kicked it shut and smashed the door against the driver as he was climbing out. The driver was pinned halfway out the door. He was holding a gun in his right hand. Crush pushed on the door and at the same time slammed his forehead against the man’s face with a vicious head butt, crushing his nose with a loud crunch.
But then Crush’s head began to spin. The world twirled around him as he stumbled and fell on one knee to the pavement. He toppled over like a toddler who was just learning to walk. I forgot about my concussion, he thought, as the bright day started to go dark.
The driver pushed the door off him with a groan and looked down at Crush, lying stunned on the pavement. He leaned against the truck, breathing heavily. Then he raised the gun that was still in his right hand and pointed it at Crush’s head.
From behind him, Gail came at the driver with a left hook straight to his head, instinctively turning her foot and popping her elbow out to give it more force, twisting her hip to put her whole body weight behind it. Her fist hit the back of the driver’s head with the force of a hammer. He staggered and she grabbed his right hand and twisted it around his back until she heard a satisfying crack and the gun fell to the curb.
The driver dropped into the cab of the truck, clutching his arm, and Noel came clambering over him. Gail was already kneeling over Crush to see if he was all right, so when Noel climbed out of the truck, he fell right on top of her. Gail scrambled to get out from under Noel when the crossing gate began to rise.
The driver and the two henchmen struggled back into the truck and it pulled out, turning to the left and disappearing down the road.
“They’re getting away,” Crush said. He sat up, shaking his head, then holding it steady with his right hand. “Remind me not to shake my head again,” he said.
“Or give somebody an Irish kiss,” she said, using the politically incorrect slang term for a head butt. “At least, until you’re healed.”
“My head used to be my strongest weapon,” Crush said.
“Used to be,” she said.
Noel staggered to his feet and looked down the road. “They tried to kidnap me,” he said.
“That’s right,” Gail said.
“Why would they do that? They already have K.C.,” he said, as if he were arguing about a referee’s bad call.
“Maybe they think your father needs more pressure,” Crush said. “To stop the bullet train.”
“Is that what this is about?” Noel asked.
“Apparently,” Crush said.
Noel shook his head. “Then they don’t understand my father very well.”
“What do you mean?” Gail asked.
“That high-speed rail means more to him than any of his children do.”
“That’s a pretty harsh thing to say,” Gail admonished.
Noel looked at her in blank surprise. “Why would you say that? Children live and die. The high-speed rail will be forever.”
Gail didn’t know what to say to that. “Won’t it break down eventually?”
“Of course,” Noel said. “And then it will be replaced with an even better one. Can you say that for children?”
Gail didn’t know what to say to that either.
Crush made it to his feet, feeling pretty steady actually.
“We should get you to the hospital,” Gail said.
“I’ll go,” Crush conceded. “After.”
“After what?” Gail asked.
“After we get Zerbe back.” He took Noel by the arm and started leading him back to the Buick. “I need to ask you some questions.”
“Oh, right,” Noel said. “You want me to take your car, so they can listen to everything we say?”
“The Overlords, you mean?”
“Yes. They’re everywhere. I’m taking a random Uber. They aren’t prepared for that.”
“An Uber?” Crush said. “You know who runs Uber, don’t you? The Masons, that’s who. And you know if the Masons are involved, the Trilateral Commission can’t be far behind!”
Noel’s expres
sion grew more confused. “Well, what do we do?”
“It’s only about two miles,” Gail said. “We could walk.” They both looked at her as if she were insane; she had suggested the craziest thing they’d heard all day: walking in LA.
“We can take my car,” Crush said. “It’s safe. I had it modified with special spinel ceramics so the delta rays can’t penetrate it.”
This seemed to convince Noel. Crush led him to the Buick, opened the rear door, and got in. Noel joined him, and Gail got in the front seat and started the car. There was no argument about her driving this time. Crush grabbed the seat in front of him to keep his balance as the car pulled away from the curb. He shut his eyes and winced.
“Are you okay?” Noel asked.
“I’m fine,” Crush said.
“He should be in the hospital,” Gail said. “He has a concussion.”
“We don’t know that,” Crush said.
“We don’t know that ’cause you won’t get an MRI,” Gail said.
“Well, I don’t blame you,” Noel said. “Those MRIs can read your mind.”
Crush shook his head and tried to clear his double vision. It didn’t work. Never mind. It was time to ask his question. “Did you tell anybody else about your plan? To kidnap K.C. and get him arrested?”
“No,” Noel said. “Well, the group, of course.”
“You told the group?” Crush asked in disbelief. “The Targeted Individual group?”
“Yeah, I shared about it. But that’s okay,” Noel reassured him. “It’s a safe place. And it’s anonymous.”
Crush rubbed his temples. “So you only told fifteen people about your plan?”
“Fifteen anonymous people. And actually, I think there were more there that day.”
“Was Evan Gibbard there?” Gail asked.
“Let me think,” Noel said with a frown. “Yes, I guess he was. Why?”
“Well, think about it, Noel,” Crush said. “The person who really kidnapped K.C. had to know he’d be at the warehouse, right?”
Noel smiled at Crush as if he were a simpleton. “You’re forgetting about their time-traveling abilities. They could’ve asked anybody, at any time, where K.C. was that night and then gone back in time to kidnap him. Understand?”