Chapter 97
The phone on the stand beside the couch began to ring, the sound shrill and accusing. Wolf sat straight up on the couch, its noise shattering the trance-like state he’d fallen into. Laura eyed the phone with horror. “Christ,” she said. “Not now.”
“I thought you said nobody knew where we were,” Wolf said.
“Nobody does.”
“Then why is the phone ringing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s spam. Let it ring. We need to talk about what you just remembered.” Laura was staring transfixed at the phone, her sweaty hands wringing in her lap. Wolf’s heart rate was rising rapidly.
Finally the phone stopped ringing and an answering machine picked up. A robotic voice asked the caller to leave a message. Laura sighed in relief.
A static-filled voice that sounded like it was being broadcast from some distant galaxy whispered the words, “Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.”
Wolf’s body convulsed as if it had been struck by a cattle prod, the movement nearly tumbling him from the couch.
“Danny?” Laura said. “For Christ’s sake, what the hell’s happening to you?”
Wolf is no longer in the room with Laura and therefore he cannot hear what she is saying. His eyes have rolled back in his head and he is looking inward at a time in his life best forgotten. In his trance he sees the interior of a very large room. The room has sterile white walls and very bright blue lights.
He is naked and lying on his back on an examination table, his arms and legs immobilized by restraints. The examination table is equipped with sensors and diodes and monitors and tons of other electronic equipment, all of it far too sophisticated for an eight-year-old boy to comprehend. Some sort of device has been inserted into his mouth to prevent him from swallowing his tongue and his head has been rendered immobile by a neck brace. There are electrodes attached to his head in a multitude of places and still more electrodes have been taped in strategic places on his body, their wires running back to a large portable monitor panel beside him.
The center of the large room is dominated by a smaller, dome-shaped object that in itself is quite imposing. The object is surrounded by oval windows, and Wolf sees that the nearly blinding blue light is emanating from within the object. Also there is a ceaseless low-frequency hum similar to that of a running engine, but different somehow. Although Wolf’s experience is limited, considering his age, it is a sound like none other that he’s ever heard.
There are several men in Wolf’s field of vision and they are all wearing sunglasses. Above him stands a man who wears the familiar robe and white collar of a priest. And even though the priest is wearing sunglasses, he recognizes him as Father Patrick Byrne. Another of the men wears a dark suit with his shirt collar open and his tie hanging askew. He is a harried looking young man, tall and thin, with bushy red hair and a freckled face, and he paces constantly as he nervously combs the splayed fingers of his right hand through his hair. A second man also wears a business suit. He is shorter than the first man and has close-cropped sandy hair and a tanned complexion. Wolf knows him as Boss Man, because that is what all his subordinates call him.
A third man crosses Wolf’s line of sight, and he recognizes him immediately. He is a much younger version of Dr. Hardwick. This revelation is so shocking that a series of painful and powerful contractions ripple through his body.
“Danny!” Laura cried. Wolf had just slipped from the couch and was lying on the floor twitching with spasms, eyes rolled back in his head with only the whites visible.
Although Wolf does not actually hear Laura, not in the physical sense, somewhere deep inside his psyche he is acutely aware of her presence. He realizes that he is somehow occupying two totally separate planes of existence simultaneously. He understands that he is a man in his mid-thirties in a house on a lake with a beautiful policewoman, but he also knows that somehow he has been transported back more than twenty-five years to a time in his life he had completely forgotten about.
As his trance-state deepens Wolf sees that the room’s sterile walls are lined with work stations. Atop the stations rest a variety of sophisticated-looking electronic equipment. Sitting in front of computer monitors working keyboards are a variety of technicians wearing white lab coats and the ever-present sunglasses.
The man Wolf recognizes as a young Dr. Hardwick has just filled a syringe with liquid from a small medical vial. As he depresses the plunger, a small amount of the liquid shoots through the air in a silvery arc. Now he moves toward Wolf with the needle.
“Okay to go, Boss Man?” he asks, and the short man with sandy hair nods.
Several other people in white lab coats have gathered around the table to watch. Dr. Hardwick insert the needle into Wolf’s neck, directly into the carotid artery, and in just a few short seconds Wolf feels pain like he never thought possible. It is as if liquid fire is pumping through his veins. He writhes against his restraints and tries to scream, but his throat is nearly closed and he is unable to make a sound. Soon even his struggling ceases as his system succumbs to the drug’s dark influence. A trap door opens up in his mind as he begins to experience something he can scarcely believe.
“We’ve got something here,” one of the technicians says excitedly. He is staring intently at his monitor. “Holy shit, this is amazing. Look at this kid’s vitals. He’s the best one so far.”
“Well, it’s about time,” says Boss Man. He moves closer to the table and stares down at Wolf. “Maybe we’re finally getting somewhere. Danny, can you see into the light? Is the light communicating in any way with you? Is the light talking to you?”
“No!” Wolf fires back in reply, but he is lying. He has to lie. The light does not want him to reveal what he knows about it because he believes if the children give these men what they want they will no longer have any use for them. He doesn’t know why this irrational thought is plaguing him, but he suspects it is coming from the light.
“Are you sure the light’s not talking to you, Danny?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“I don’t believe you, Danny. I know you know what that thing is. You know why it’s here and what it wants. You see it, you understand its purpose. You’re connected to it, aren’t you?”
“Noooo!” Wolf screams. The pain is now so severe that he nearly loses consciousness.
“You’re lying!” the man says angrily. “You are a little troublemaker and if I don’t hear the truth from you soon I will punish the other children.”
“It will kill you,” the child says, and his voice is cold, eerily calm. “Some day the light will kill you for what you’ve done here.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just do.”
For a long moment Boss Man stares curiously down at the child. Finally he says, “You’re just making that up, you clever little bastard.”
“Are you sure about that?” Father Byrne asks.
“All right then,” Boss Man says. “If that’s how he wants to play this.” He spins around and speaks to one of the techs, “Ramp it up all the way!” His voice is filled with carefully controlled fury. Wolf stiffens, his body pressing painfully against his restraints as the technician obeys the order and sends what feels like a high voltage stream of electricity surging through his body. Wolf’s brain squeals in intense pain. His heart is beating so wildly that he believes it will actually punch a hole out through his chest and skip across the floor.
Beside him the bank of electronic equipment is beeping crazily with noise.
“Stop this!” Father Byrne shrieks. “You’re killing him. Can’t you see he’s had enough! I will not allow this to continue!”
“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice, priest,” says Boss Man. “I’m in charge of this facility, and my orders are quite clear. If you cannot stand to witness what goes on in this laboratory then I suggest you get the hell out.”
“This is not a laboratory, it’s a torture chamber,” the
priest rails. “I’m here to monitor the treatment of these children, and I do not like any of this!”
“These are not children,” Boss Man shoots back. “These are test subjects. Property of the United States Government.”
“You’re crazy,” says the priest. “You’ve gone crazy with power.”
“Shut up, Byrne. I’m tired of listening to your shit, and I’m not going to warn you again.”
The pain in Wolf’s head is screaming with such ferocity now that he wishes for death. Then, without warning, something happens. The light inside the dome-shaped room begins to brighten and pulsate, the low-frequency hum ramping up to a nearly unbearable level.
“Jesus, God, what’s happening?” says one of the techs who slaps his hands over his ears, leaves his chair and begins to back away. “I’ve never seen it do that before.” Every man in the room has turned and is staring in awe at the strange spectacle. Now jagged and angry licks of electric-blue lightning are flying away from the light and ricocheting around the great room.
“I don’t know,” says Boss Man, “but you’d better unhook him. Do it now, and get this little piece of shit out of here. He’s been nothing but trouble from the beginning. Bring in the girls. I promise you they’ll tell me what I want to know.”
Wolf hears what Boss Man has just said but he suspects that he is bluffing. The light is angry and Boss Man knows he’s gone too far. But Wolf is certain that he will try again later, once the light has settled back down.
In that moment Wolf sees the other children in his mind’s eye. He sees their individual beds lined up in neat rows on the shiny tiled floor of a dorm-like room. And each bed is occupied by one of the chosen. Some are sitting patiently waiting their turn, some are crying and others are lying there looking up at the ceiling.
The children are not all normal. Some are normal, but some are far from normal. One child is small and his body is twisted unnaturally, his skin the color of parchment paper. His eyes are pink and he has no hair. Wolf knows him by name. Wolf knows all the children by name. This one is Eli. Eli comes from a family on the opposite side of the island. At least that’s what he told Wolf. Wolf is the only child in the home that has befriended Eli. Although Eli is highly intelligent, he has never been popular. Wolf knows it is because of his deformities. When Eli is not with the doctors he spends most of his time alone and brooding and talking to himself.
Besides Eli there is a very large but gentle boy with a huge head and hands like baseball gloves, and he is completely covered in hair from head to toe. Although he is not stupid, he cannot talk; he makes grunting noises when he wants to communicate with the other children and Wolf knows that he is being taught sign language. Wolf feels a strong kinship to this big compassionate boy he knows by the name of Sam. It strikes him that he knows why this is so. He and Sam are brothers. They have come here to the orphanage together after some terrible tragedy claimed the lives of their parents. At least that’s what they were told.
And there are others. Wolf sees them now in his trance and he knows all their names and he remembers their faces and most everything about them. Johnny is there, and Shaun, and more. He recognizes another child, a few years older than the rest, and wonders now, considering that he is immersed in two separate realities, if it is just bleed-over from the other reality or something else entirely. All of these children are special in their own individual way. Some are physically superior, like his brother Sam, while others are special in intellectual and emotional ways. That’s why they are in this group. They have been chosen because they are unique, because they are all connected to the light-thing these terrible men want so desperately to understand.
There is another dorm room beyond the one that houses the boys. This is where the girls live, and Wolf can see them now just as clearly as he sees the boys. There are just two girls left; there were more in the beginning but some have gone away, and the talk amongst the children is that they have died. Wolf knows both of the surviving girls and he loves them like sisters.
But Siri is special. Although Wolf is only eight years old and he cannot yet articulate the idea of romantic love, he holds a special place in his heart for this sad and beautiful little girl named Siri. Siri is crying. She is both frightened and angry and his heart nearly breaks because he wants to kiss all her tears away and tell her not to be afraid anymore. Siri is one of the most gifted students in the school and she is crying because she has been chosen to be the next subject of these experiments.
He needs to do something to save her. He needs to do something to save all of these kids but he doesn’t yet know what that will be.
“Please, father, don’t let them hurt us anymore. Don’t let them hurt Siri.”
Wolf was totally unaware that he’d come back to the present and that he’d spoken those last few words out loud.
“Danny?” Laura asked in a tentative voice. “Danny, wake up!” Wolf was completely still now, his face as white as a bleached bed sheet. She was kneeling beside him staring intently into his face. Oh, God, no, don’t let him be dead.
Then she saw movement; his eyelids fluttering, the color returning to his face.
Wolf heard Laura’s urgent plea but he could not immediately act upon it, caught as he was between two totally separate realities. Ever so slowly, as the present world began to come into focus, he opened his eyes and saw the young woman leaning over him, her face twisted with fear.
“Oh, God, Danny, what just happened?”
“I just remembered something. No, that’s not entirely true. I just remembered everything.”
“Everything?” Laura said, exhaling a lung-full of pent-up air.
“You were right,” he said, easing her out of the way and getting up. “They screwed with our minds and our bodies and then they threw us away like so much trash.”
“You just said, ‘Please father, don’t let them hurt us anymore. Don’t let them hurt Siri.’ My God, Danny, was Siri in the orphanage with you?”
“Yeah, I think she was.”
“And you didn’t remember until now?”
Wolf shook his head.
“Are you okay?”
Wolf was standing now, bent over, hands resting on his knees to support his weight, breathing in harsh rasps. “No, I’m not okay. I’ll never be okay. Not until this is over.”
“What are you going to do?” Laura sensed a resolve in Wolf that had been absent up until now and it made her uneasy.
“I need to go there. I need to settle this once and for all.”
“Go where, Danny?”
“Apocalypse Island. You were right, there’s something over there.”
“What is it, Danny?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure I can trust my memory. I have to see for myself.”
“Please, Danny.”
“It’s something that made me the way I am. Something that shaped us all, something I don’t fully understand, but if it’s real, it’s something amazing.”
“That’s why the place is still off limits, isn’t it?” Laura said. “The government is trying to hide it from the public.”
Wolf nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
“I felt it the day I went there,” Laura said. “It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. The government’s been hiding more than what it did to you kids.”
Wolf nodded.
“I’m going with you.”
“No you’re not—”
Wolf was cut off by sudden darkness as all the lights in the house went out. The only illumination left was the small fire guttering on the hearth.
“Damn,” Laura said, leaping from the sofa. She spun to take in the entire room, but saw only moving shadows. She turned back to Wolf, her expression stark and afraid in the dim illumination.
“Someone’s out there,” Wolf said.
Laura’s expression turned angry. “And the bastard just cut the power to the house.”
In that moment Laura’s phone went off. She sprang into act
ion and dove for her purse.
Chapter 98
Sufficient enough illumination bled in from the outside for Jennings to see clearly what he thought he’d seen through the window. Kate Cavanaugh hung on the wall like some sort of macabre Christ thing, naked, tied to spikes that had been driven into wall supports. Her body had been stabbed multiple times and a large cross had been carved on her torso. On the wall above her, scrawled in her own blood were these words:
Cross my Heart and Hope to Die, Stick a Needle in my Eye.
“Oh, Christ,” Jennings whispered crossing himself. He’d been raised Catholic but had never been very good at it. Other things always seemed to get in the way of religion. Like trying to figure out why people butcher other people. Now, looking at the brutally murdered body—the second one he’d seen today—of a woman he’d known for almost two decades, he wondered if this was a good time to renew his faith. He dismissed the thought almost immediately.
He strained to take in as much of the scene as possible in the dim light. The woman’s eyes looked like those of a demon. They were rimmed with black that ran down her cheeks like rich ink. She looked sad and gothic and very dead. As far as he knew Kate was just a normal everyday American woman. Not some fashion vampire or club goth. So why did the killer make her look like one? Why did the killer insist on making all his victims look this way? Exactly what kind of message was he trying to convey? Christ, he hated serial killers. Why did the fuckers have to be so cryptic? And what the hell did Cross my Heart and Hope to Die, Stick a Needle in my Eye mean?
He could not see well enough. He moved toward the light switch, but hesitated. What if…?
No way was this place rigged with explosives. Just the same, he moved furtively away from the light switch deciding not to touch it. He was keenly aware of the fact that he’d lost an officer today because a similar crime scene had been rigged with explosives. But of course this wasn’t really a similar crime scene. This was the home of a fellow officer and friend, and his dead wife was hanging from the wall like some sort of religious icon. These killings were so brutal, so surreal that they bordered on the absurd.
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