Welch, D [Shadow People 02] Shadow Spies

by Doug Welch

  “I agree, but not for the reason you might think,” Paris replied.

  Dan raised an eyebrow. “Care to inform me?”

  Paris chuckled. “When I met with the one who calls himself ‘Shadoe’, I laid a pattern in his mind. He’s going to find it impossible to resist traveling to Venice, Italy. I also had Tony tip off the Borgias that he would arrive and sent them a copy of his picture.”

  Dan whistled. “The Borgias will wring him dry. That is, before they burn out his mind.” He frowned, appearing a little puzzled. “Why didn’t you just nudge Sanders into letting you tag along?”

  Paris shrugged. “I’m not powerful enough to convince the whole police force. Besides, I can only modify a preexisting inclination unless I pattern him, and that would look far too suspicious.

  “No we’ve got to come up with another plan, one that doesn’t include the police.”

  “And that would be…”

  “I haven’t a clue,” Paris said, dejected.

  * * *

  Just before noon, a couriered package arrived at the suite. Jaime intercepted it and brought it to Paris.

  “Thanks Jaime. Excuse me for a minute.” He took it to the bedroom and opened it.

  Inside were a new cell phone and a note in Alex’s hurried handwriting. He sat on the bed to read it.

  Here’s the new phone, Tom checked it so it should be clean. He found and eliminated the bugs, but then he found more in the new office building. I’d say hiring him was a good idea. I’m off to the hospital to join Caesar. They did the transplant, but Edward’s in critical condition and he might not make it. I’ll call on the new phone to keep you up to date. Any word on Beth? Keep us posted.

  Alex

  Paris checked the address book and found two numbers.

  At that moment the bedroom door opened and Dan entered. “What was in the envelope? Was it a ransom demand?”

  Paris didn’t reply. He held up the phone and gestured to the note lying on the bed.

  Dan read it and whistled. “We may never know about Edward.”

  Paris stared at the phone thinking. “Did you bring your weapon?”

  Dan chuckled. “Never leave home without it. I’m a law enforcement officer. Rox has hers too. At least we didn’t have to take them through security. One of the perks about flying in a private jet.”

  “Can you get me one?”

  “I’m not sure about Nevada law. Might take a few days – days we don’t have to waste, Paris.”

  Paris flopped back on the bed. “Shit!”

  Dan paced the room, thinking. He stopped. “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you ask Bronson? He’s likely to have a source. It’s got to be legal though. You can’t be caught carrying an illegal handgun.”

  Paris grabbed the new cell phone and began to punch in numbers.

  * * *

  Paris stood watching the city through the suite’s windows. The sun had darkened from the ominous clouds that covered the sky, but he knew it hovered near the horizon. He turned to the women who sat in the living room.

  “Dan will be here in a little while. He’s bringing some gear back. Bronson has all his people out trying to find a lead on Elizabeth. Once we have some idea of where she is I’m going into the tunnels to bring her out.”

  “What about the police and the FBI, Paris?” Roxanne said. “Don’t you think we should let them handle it?”

  Kitty snorted. “Huh! They’re more interested in a fire fight with the perps than rescuing Elizabeth. If they start shooting in the tunnels, there will be more bullets ricocheting down there than you can count. Besides, we need to get her out before it starts raining.”

  Roxanne turned to Paris and raised her eyebrows. He shrugged.

  “What Kitty said. I have abilities the police don’t have. They may come in handy to avoid a gun battle and the weapons are with us for backup … just in case.”

  He faced Kitty. “Kitty, can you shoot?”

  A big grin spread her lips. She hitched up her skirt, displaying a thigh holster with what appeared to be a compact automatic encased within. “My ‘girl-friend’. She follows me wherever I go.”

  Roxanne’s eyes widened. “You’ve had that with you all the while? I thought you were flying out of Vegas. How did you ever expect to pass through airport security?”

  “Well duh! I can disappear, remember?”

  Roxanne mock shuddered. “I think Homeland Security has a new nightmare to worry about.”

  Paris interrupted. “All this is moot unless we can locate her. You two need to change into something more suitable for prowling around in the flood control tunnels. We need to be ready to move fast.”

  The women departed to change while he waited for Dan to arrive.

  Soon they rejoined him in the living room and he heard the sound of the elevator opening. Dan and Jaime walked into the room.

  “We have the gear packed in the limo, Paris, but something else has come up. Something I think you need to hear.”

  Paris felt his face blanch. “They’ve found Beth?”

  Dan shook his head. “No, but we may have a lead.” He turned to Jaime. “You tell him.”

  Jaime looked uncertain. “I don’t know if it’s anything more than a hope, Paris. One of my wife’s cousins –she has a lot of relatives in Vegas –knows this guy that lives in the flood control tunnels. They call him Cookie. Anyway, this guy has been telling anyone he can that he knows where your wife is. I don’t know how much to believe. He is a little ah … off, if you know what I mean, but he insists he knows.”

  Paris became excited. “Well, where is he? Get him and bring him here. I want to talk to him.”

  Dan tried to calm him. “Okay, Paris, relax. He’s down in the lobby. Jaime didn’t want to bring him here. The guy is a little eccentric. We didn’t want to get your hopes too high.”

  Paris raised his eyebrows and expanded his mind-glow. “I think I’m qualified to judge that, don’t you?”

  In a little while Jaime returned leading a large, elderly black man with a wild head of bushy gray hair that surrounded his head like a halo. The man gazed around the room, his eyes wide. Then he focused his vision on the group.

  “Which of y’all is Mister Fox, like crazy as a fox?”

  Paris stepped toward him. “I am. What’s your name?”

  “Cecil sir, some call me Cookie ‘cause I used to be a cook.” He studied Paris for a few moments. “Looks like you used to be in the service. Am I right?”

  Paris puzzled over how Cecil could have gained so much from a look but dismissed it. “Yes, I was in the Army. How do you know?”

  Cecil shrugged. “It’s in the eyes. I can always tell.”

  Paris gestured to one of the sofas in the living room. “Why don’t you sit down and tell us what you know?”

  They all sat down in a group waiting for Cecil to speak.

  “I can lead you to your missus. She be holed up in my place in the tunnel. She be safe, at least last when I see’d her.”

  Paris frowned. “How can we believe you?”

  Cecil matched Paris’ frown but this time in obvious concentration. “She told me to tell you somethin’ …wait… almost got it. Something ‘bout deer.” His face relaxed. “She told me to say you met where the deer went. Have I got that right?”

  Paris felt the blood rush from his head and he became dizzy. He felt someone prevent him from falling off the couch and a hand forced his head between his knees.

  “Breathe deep Paris. Take a few deep breaths and keep your head down,” Dan said.

  After a few minutes Paris lifted his head and felt the wetness in his eyes. He looked at Cecil and a profound feeling of affection for the old man flowed through him. He cleared his throat. “Cecil if you can help us find her, you can have anything in this world you want.”

  “Well, Elizabeth did say you could help me hide from the Shadow People.”

  A chill ran down Paris’ back. He looked at Dan who seemed just as shocked. “What
do you know about Shadow People, Cecil?”

  “They bin chasing me for years ever since Vietnam. I jest need you to make it stop. Elizabeth said you could make it stop.”

  Chapter 20

  The Search

  After Paris had made a few phone calls and Cecil was showered, barbered and dressed, the group set out to search for Elizabeth. They all wore clothing suitable for outdoor activities but not so conspicuous as to draw attention. Cecil had drawn a map of the section of the tunnels Elizabeth hid in, and they all held copies.

  Kitty wore her automatic in a clip-on holster as did Dan and Roxanne. Jaime possessed a concealed carry permit and he carried a thirty-eight in a shoulder holster. Cecil went unarmed.

  While they’d prepared, the dark clouds had started to weep. Jaime drove the limo through a light rain to the site of the tunnel entrance that Cecil had indicated would have the most likely chance of bypassing the police and the gang of kidnappers. While the car navigated the Las Vegas streets, Dan handed Paris a long-barreled revolver with a holster and belt.

  “Carry this openly.” He produced a blue card. “Put this card in your pocket. It’s the permit for the gun.”

  Paris examined the card and shoved it into his back pocket. “Listen up everyone, no shooting unless it’s absolutely necessary. These people may have ballistic vests and we don’t. If I go down, then get the hell out of the tunnels.”

  His announcement was met with silence. “Did you people hear me?”

  Jaime’s voice issued from the front seat. “I don’t leave a buddy behind Lieutenant.”

  Paris sighed. “This isn’t the Army, Jaime you’ve got a family, remember? If we do this right, there doesn’t have to be any shooting. Trust me.”

  Jaime parked the limo on a residential side street. The street lay in dark twilight. Dan produced some LED flashlights and handed them out.

  They exited the car and walked through the rain across some vacant lots to a gap in a chain link fence. Beyond the fence lay a channel some forty feet across that connected to four gaping concrete holes –the entrance to the tunnels.

  They examined the entrance.

  “I think we’re gonna get very wet,” Kitty said. “Should’ve worn boots.”

  Water flowed toward the tunnels and split along some dividers. It looked to be about ankle deep. Cecil pointed to the second rightmost tunnel.

  “We’s gotta enter there and we need’s to be right quick about it. Once we’s in there there’s no going back. We’ll have to follow it out downstream.”

  Paris took a deep breath. “Alright, let’s go.”

  They waded out into the channel and headed to the entrance of the black square concrete hole. The water tended to make the surface slippery, so they walked carefully. Fortunately the tunnel mouth held less water, so the going became a little easier once they entered.

  Paris, along with Cecil as a guide, took point while Kitty and Roxanne flanked them some distance behind. Dan and Jaime guarded the rear.

  Cecil pointed down the black tunnel. “We’s gotta ‘bout a mile to go here, then we need’s to take a side tunnel.”

  Roxanne pointed upwards. “This place gives me the creeps. Look at the ceiling.”

  They all looked up at the thick, ropy cobwebs, illuminated by the beams of the flashlights, that hung suspended from the overhead,

  “I hate spiders,” Kitty said.

  Jaime’s voice echoed from the rear. “The snakes are worse, trust me.”

  A short time later Cecil pointed to a square hole at the bottom of the tunnel on the left. “We’s gotta go through there.”

  They all crawled through the hole and entered a new narrower tunnel with a curved roof.

  Cecil pointed to the right. “This way goes under the freeway and then we’s gotta take another one that goes to the Strip. Be careful here. The water sits at the bottom and it gets deep.”

  They followed the passage as it sloped down and as Cecil predicted, the water deepened, becoming nearly neck high for the women at the deepest point. They had to hold the weapons over their heads and they almost turned back, but the tunnel started sloping up and they emerged from the water. Paris looked back down the tunnel.

  “We’re definitely not returning that way.”

  “Told you. We’s gotta go downstream. No going back,” Cecil said. He pointed ahead. “This way.”

  They continued along the passage for a while and then Cecil stopped.

  “Gotta be careful here. Last I knew the bad men guarded the section we’s gotta go through and they might still be here.”

  Paris turned off his flashlight and the others followed him. Utter blackness seemed to envelop them, thicker than any he had experienced in his lifetime. He stretched out his senses to their fullest extent, seeking a mind-glow in the next tunnel. Finding none, his voice echoed in the darkness.

  “It’s clear. I can’t sense anyone.” He turned his flashlight back on.

  Cecil looked suspiciously at him but remained silent.

  Paris ignored the glance. “Which way, Cecil?”

  He pointed to another hole on the left of the tunnel that was nearly submerged in the water. “That way but we’s gotta hurry. Gonna take another dunkin’”

  They crawled through the opening, again clutching their guns to keep them out of the flood. They all emerged, dripping water. “I hope my girl-friend still works after all this shit,” Kitty complained. “Gonna have to clean the hell outta her.”

  Dan laughed. “Paris will buy you a new one, Kitty.”

  Paris grinned. “Don’t encourage her, Dan. I suspect she’ll want an arsenal.”

  They waded in water to their knees toward the site of Cecil’s homestead. The water flow had increased and it threatened to sweep them off their feet.

  Paris kept scanning the tunnel ahead, trying and failing to sense a mind-glow. “The gang may have cleared out. I don’t sense anyone but us in this tunnel.”

  Cecil waved them on. “Jest a little while longer. ‘Bout a quarter mile I ‘spect. Then ‘nother mile outta the tunnels. Gotta hurry.”

  They moved as fast as they could through the rising water, struggling to keep from being swept off their feet.

  After an exhausting trek, Cecil pointed to a slab of concrete. “In there. That’s my home.”

  “Elizabeth,” Paris shouted, “Beth it’s me. We’ve come to get you out of here.” They waited but she didn’t emerge from the space behind the slab.

  Paris squeezed through the slit in the concrete waving the flashlight around. He illuminated a table with chairs and a bed but no Elizabeth. “She’s not in here,” he yelled.

  Cecil joined him. “I tolt her if the water comes, to get up in my hidey-hole, but she ain’t there neither. They musta found her, unless she ran away. See, them’s her shoes.”

  Paris saw a bathroom slipper floating in the water and felt a crushing sense of despair wash over him. He fought it because he knew it would only paralyze him to inaction. Emptiness settled in his heart, but fate would have to decide the rest. “That’s it. We’ve done all we can here, time to leave.”

  They rejoined the rest of the group and Paris leaned against the slab. “She’s not here and I can’t sense her, so she’s either with the kidnappers or she’s trying to find a way out. Either way we’ve got to leave, so I suggest we follow Cecil.”

  As a dejected group, they continued downstream toward the surface.

  Chapter 21

  Elizabeth

  From her perch in Cecil’s hide, Elizabeth heard voices in the tunnel.

  She’d moved up high after she spied the water flowing into his home. It’d been a long while since he left, and she worried he wouldn’t return. If the water rose higher she feared she’d never escape and she didn’t have many options. She’d been about to emerge from the hole when she heard the voices.

  “This is bullshit. This whole operation’s a bust and if we don’t get outta here, we’re gonna drown.”

  A second vo
ice replied. “You wanna tell that to Shadoe?”

  “Fuck him! He’s high and dry. He’s not the one gettin’ soaked down here. I tell you, the water’s gettin’ deeper and if we don’t leave, we’ll be dead.”

  The second voice didn’t reply.

  The first voice resumed. “Well, you coming or not?”

  Still no reply.

  “Well then, fuck you too. You can drown for all I care, I’m gettin’ outta here.”

  Abruptly the second voice shouted. “Wait. I see a hole up near the ceiling. Let’s check it out before we leave.”

  A jolt of dread shot though Elizabeth. She knew the hole he referred to was the one she hid in.

  She kicked the metal plate that she’d used to cover the opening and heard it splash into the water. Looking out of the hole, she saw the water rushing by. She’d left her slippers in Cecil’s place and all she wore on her feet were the oversized socks.

  Don’t have time to worry about it.

  She gripped the rough edge of the hole with her arms and lowered her body over the side.

  One of the voices shouted, “It’s her. Let’s grab her.”

  She lowered herself as far as her arms would support her body and dropped the rest of the way into the rushing water.

  The force of the water nearly swept her off her feet, but she managed to stay upright. Elizabeth knew that an opening into the adjacent tunnel was near the hole, but it appeared to be submerged. She struggled against the flow of water to reach it.

  She looked behind her at the beams of the flashlights the kidnappers held, but her pursuers were bigger and stronger and they gained on her. She felt along the wall, seeking the opening.

  Her fingers gripped the rough edge. She felt a momentary panic. If she ducked into the next tunnel who knew if she would be able to get out? If she went with the kidnappers, at least she wouldn’t drown, but she might never see Paris again. Of a sudden, all of the fear and anxiety boiled up and she turned to face the men who approached her.

  “Fuck you! Fuck you all! If I die here, I hope my husband finds all of you and guts you like fish! I hope he hangs your intestines up to dry while you watch yourselves bleed out!”