DARK VISIONS

by James Byron Huggins

  With a heavy breath, Joe Mac said, “Jodi, you stay beside me. Marvin, you take the flashlight and lead. You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

  “All my life, Joe.”

  “All right. You know what we’re looking for. Let’s get to it.”

  Jodi was beside Joe Mac with Marvin in front as she heard a rushing sound and ducked as Poe flew over her head, diving as it reached the entrance of the tomb, and in a flash the gigantic raven disappeared into the darkness before them.

  She began, “Poe just – “

  “I know,” said Joe Mac.

  “What’s he doing!”

  “He’s a raven.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “He’s protecting us.”

  “How does he know we’re in danger?”

  “He knows death when he’s near it.”

  * * *

  It was a thoroughly unremarkable two miles, and then the tunnel opened up into a gigantic floor as smooth as finished cement and a ceiling that the flashlight could not even reach. But before them, as they continued to walk forward, Jodi began to see something rising from the floor like a leviathan rising from the sea in the midnight dark.

  Monolithic flat stones began to stand – seemingly one by one – as the flashlight slowly illuminated their majesty, and even Jodi, despite her fear, felt thrilled to be inside this fantastic, beautiful work. She had a passing thought that streets so far above their head, so proud of their towering architecture, paled in comparison to this triumphant display of stone wrought by the hand of prehistoric man.

  “Oh, my god,” she whispered.

  Marvin had stopped and was slowly staring from one pillar to the next. Then he retreated to Jodi and said, “Sit right here. You and Joe. And don’t move. I’m going to walk around a little bit and do some measuring, okay?”

  Jodi nodded, “Okay.”

  Marvin stood and turned.

  “Hey,” said Jodi.

  He stared down.

  “Don’t go too far, okay?”

  Marvin smiled, “I’ll be right here.”

  Jodi watched as the flashlight moved in the dark. She couldn’t see Marvin, just the light, but suddenly it would move along the floor, slow and measured, before the blindingly bright beam rose along a stone slab. Eventually Marvin left the circle of stones and wandered far into the distance – so far that Jodi felt compelled to call out to him in case he’d forgotten where they were waiting. But then she saw the light returning, and she blew out a series of breaths and wiped a tear from her eye.

  Joe Mac laid a massive hand on her shoulder.

  “What’s the boy doing?” he asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  Jodi screamed as something huge – Poe! – landed on the floor before her. She almost swatted him before she gained control and hissed, “Poe! Stop it! You scared me!”

  Poe cawed and walked to her, nudging her with his head. Then he lifted and settled on Joe Mac’s shoulder although they were in total darkness. Jodi could see nothing, but she heard Poe shuffling and Joe Mac laughing.

  “What?” she asked.

  Joe Mac chuckled, “He’s just running his beak through my hair checking for bugs. He does that.” He grunted. “Might as well. He might find some.”

  Marvin had been walking steadily toward them and the light had been growing and now he arrived and knelt before Jodi. “You okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah. You?”

  “I’m fine.”

  Marvin tilted the flashlight so that the beam bounced off the wall to their right although the slope was a hundred feet away. But in this complete darkness it was amazing how much difference a little light could make. Even though Jodi had only been sitting in total dark for a few minutes, she had to squint.

  “What’d you find?” asked Joe Mac.

  Marvin sat cross-legged on the floor, took a heavy breath, and said, “Okay. Yes. It’s a replica of Stonehenge as near as memory serves. Stonehenge is not exactly my area of expertise. But I know how many pillars, how many lintels, the sacrificial stone, and the outer posts, which nobody understands. And my best guess is that this place was built by an expert. I mean it was built by somebody who duplicated Stonehenge down to the smallest ditch, hole, and line. Only, there’s one difference.”

  Jodi scowled, “What’s that?”

  Raising a hand, as if for patience, Marvin said, “This is Stonehenge as it was at the height of Stonehenge. You know what I mean?”

  “No” said Jodi. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that this is Stonehenge as it probably looked when it was ‘perfect.’ When it was used every day by that powerful, genius nation that originally built it for whatever kind of ritual or whatever astrological purpose it served. This isn’t a replica of today’s Stonehenge in Salisbury. That one’s broken down. That one’s a skeleton. This is the Stonehenge that dominated Salisbury for eight thousand years. This is Stonehenge before it crashed. Before it was abandoned and disintegrated into ruins. And long before it was discovered by the so-called ‘modern world.’” Marvin stretched out an arm toward the architecture. “This is Stonehenge at the height of its glory. When it was feared by the entire world. When it was worshipped by the entire world.”

  “Huh,” Joe Mac grunted, “which means these people aren’t trying to duplicate Stonehenge. They’re trying to bring back whatever empire built it.”

  “Exactly,” said Marvin. “This isn’t ‘honor.’ This is ‘resurrection.’”

  “God!” shouted Jodi.

  The entire subterranean cavern was sharply illuminated by spotlights that Jodi couldn’t identify because she couldn’t see at all. She found herself twisting away from the brilliance as Marvin rushed forward and threw an arm around her waist fairly picking her up as they crashed into Joe Mac.

  “Hurry!” Marvin hissed and Jodi staggered a half-dozen steps before she gained a blinding white view of the smooth cement floor. Then she saw that Marvin was rushing her along with his right arm and had his left arm wrapped around Joe Mac and they were all charging toward a jagged pile of broken rock.

  Poe swooped across their path shrilling and then disappeared.

  They reached the rubble in a staggering, confused tangle to stumble and crawl over the crest before rolling roughly down the far side where the faintest shadow fell over them. Dust rose above the pile of shattered stone as Jodi threw herself against the gravel and dirt. Her face was toward Marvin and Joe Mac and she saw that both of them were in similar positions – flat against the rubble, heads down, utterly unmoving.

  Voices rose in the cavern.

  “Fill the lamps!” someone shouted.

  “Get this place ready for tomorrow night!”

  It was a second voice, but Jodi heard at least ten or maybe fifteen people talking. Then, “Hurry it up. Come on. You know your jobs.”

  Only then did Jodi notice a black blur at her feet and rolled her eyes to see Poe perched beside her legs. His wings were closed tight, but his head was ever twisting with that quickness that indicated he was hearing and following everything he couldn’t see. And she wondered what marvelous and fearful intelligence this raven possessed that allowed it to somehow understand that it could not make a sound.

  She was too frightened to smile. And her greatest fear was that the uncontrollably fast beating of her heart was so loud that it would give away their position although she hadn’t even moved. But how could they not hear the pounding of her heart so big inside her chest when it was all she could hear herself?

  It was impossible they wouldn’t hear her!

  “Uh,” Joe Mac grunted as his foot slipped on a stone.

  Jodi’s breath caught.

  “Hey!” she heard someone. “Did you guys hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  “I heard a sound. Over there. Hey, Andre! Check that out, man!”

  “Check it out yourself! This is New York. It might be way underneath New York but it’s still New York. There’s
all kinds of rats and zombies and alligators and everything else down here. Just fill the lamp, man.”

  “Fine. I’ll check it myself.”

  “Man, do your job, so we can get outta here!”

  “Just a second! I swear I heard something!”

  Jodi couldn’t hear the approaching steps, but she reached for her Glock and si-lent-ly drew it, holding the pistol tight. She knew they didn’t stand a chance in this situation if they were discovered. She closed her eyes, concentrating, as a voice suddenly erupted on the close side of the shattered stone.

  “It was right here …”

  Jodi clenched her teeth and began to rise.

  With a screech Poe erupted from the floor and landed atop the heap instantly flapping its enormous wings in the face of whoever stood there.

  “God Almighty!”

  A chaotic sound of crashing and falling down the distant rubble.

  Poe stood its perch screaming. Then it exploded into the air and began flying to and fro across the cavern as some of the intruders howled in laugher at something Jodi couldn’t see, but it was clear from the upheaval that the men were no longer concerned about whatever might have lain on the far side of this broken stone.

  “It’s just a crow, man! Forget it!”

  “That’s the biggest crow I’ve ever seen!”

  “That ain’t no crow, fool! It’s too big to be a crow! Look out!”

  She heard Poe diving and rising and diving again and each swoop was following by a curse, and then a gunshot boomed. Then other shots were fired and more curses rolled over the rubble. “Stop shootin’ at that bird!” someone bellowed. “You can’t hit that bird with a nine millimeter! You’re gonna hit one of us!”

  Poe continued his harassment and Jodi heard stones clattering across the hard floor. Then the voices faded and the lights disappeared and, in the distance, she heard a steel door clang solidly shut.

  No one moved for a long, long time. Jodi didn’t hear Poe. She didn’t hear Joe Mac or Marvin. She heard nothing. But, finally, Poe settled on the crest of the rubble and cawed softly as if to tell them he was here, and Jodi knew they were safe.

  A moment later they were on their feet and over the broken stone as if emerging from a tomb. And Jodi stood bent, hands on knees, trying to breath. After five minutes Marvin switched on the flashlight, and they were again alone with the monument.

  Jodi felt Marvin’s arm around her, and she turned as he embraced her and said quietly, “It’s okay. They’re gone.” He held her until she stopped trembling, and, as she separated, she gazed up with an affection she had never anticipated.

  “Thank you,” she managed. “That was brave.”

  Marvin smiled, “I’m an archeologist. I was born brave.”

  Jodi laughed.

  “Let’s go,” said Joe Mac. “We got what we need.”

  As they walked toward the tunnel Poe settled on Joe Mac’s shoulder. And when the gigantic raven leaned forward Jodi saw his powerful profile against the backlight; he was still searching and fearless and faithful unto death.

  She wiped a tear from her cheek.

  * * *

  It was early daylight when they arrived at her squad car without incident and with Poe circling low to follow their every twist through the overgrown jungle fed so voraciously by the inevitable cold crucible of all flesh. And when they reached the road, Jodi simply sat on the bumper of the car leaning forward, elbows on knees, hands over her face.

  Jodi had been in alarmingly dangerous, stressful situations before. But she had never been in a situation where she was so totally outnumbered with no chance of backup or even an eventual ambulance if she were shot or cut into living, bloody pieces. In a way, she was trying to chalk this one up as a “learning experience” but it was a learning experience she would have gratefully missed. Nor did she value what she’d learned. If anything, she’d only learned not to tear off into the wild blue without a decent plan or adequate backup should things go south but, then, she’d already known that.

  She resisted the impulse to believe Joe Mac was a bad influence. She had come to genuinely love Joe; she felt like her father was alive again. And, to be honest, they were making headway with his impetuous if not downright suicidal commitment to disinter the truth beneath this literal and figurative graveyard.

  She knew Joe Mac was standing stoically to the side patiently allowing her to regain her balance mentally and emotionally. And she was actually a bit peeved that Marvin seemed so unaffected.

  Marvin didn’t have the training to handle high-stress situations. He wasn’t some world-famous gravedigger experienced at dealing with assassins and chains rattling inside the walls as the lights go out. But here Marvin was, standing at her side as easily as if he’d changed a car tire in the morning sun. There was just something about it that ruffled her feathers.

  “You okay?” Marvin asked with lamentable timing.

  “I’m fine,” Jodi answered from within her hands. “How are you?”

  “I’m good. I thought it was sort of exciting.”

  “You would.”

  The radio cracked and Jodi turned her head as they listened to an Amber Alert released for a four-year-old boy – his name was Tommy Childers – who had been kidnapped from a daycare center by an offender dressed as a fireman. They released a description of the man, his car, then detailed his last known direction of travel, and Jodi lowered her hands to gaze over Joe Mac.

  Yeah, he’d heard.

  “Let’s go,” said Joe Mac. “We’ve got ‘till tomorrow night.”

  “How do you know that?” she asked.

  “They won’t waste the precious blood of this ‘Messiah’ the day before their Wicker Man ceremony.” Joe Mac was a monolith of judgment that could have blotted out the noonday sun. “They’re gonna give him to the Wicker Man, so they’ll keep him alive and well until tomorrow night’s ceremony.”

  Jodi rose and got into the squad car with Marvin climbing into the back. As they fastened seatbelts, she glanced at the rearview mirror.

  “You sure you’re okay, Marvin?” she asked again.

  “Let’s get ready for tomorrow night,” he muttered. “If you guys don’t come back here with me, I’m coming back alone and crashing this party by myself. But I won’t let them sacrifice that little boy.” He lifted the pistol. “Joe? Can I keep this .45 until tomorrow night?”

  “It’s yours,” said Joe Mac. “You earned it.”

  Marvin nodded.

  “Good enough.”

  NINE

  The war room at the precinct was the last place for chaos, but that’s exactly what Jodi measured when they walked through the door.

  Almost immediately Brightbarton saw the three of them and turned. “We’ve lost another four-year-old boy!” He placed hands on hips. “This one was taken from his kindergarten class at a preschool during a fire alarm!”

  Jodi wasn’t sure what to say since so much of what they’d done so far was downright criminal, and any evidence not legally obtained was fruit of the poisonous tree, which meant it was not only inadmissible in court but could land them all in prison on everything from breaking and entering to theft, obstruction of justice, kidnapping, coercion and conspiracy to commit murder. She had no doubt whatsoever that a determined prosecutor could win them all a good one hundred years apiece.

  Brightbarton walked over with an expression of distinct irritation. “What do you two have?” He stared between them. “Joe? You know something. What is it?”

  “We’re close,” said Joe Mac.

  “Uh huh,” Brightbarton nodded a long moment. “I’ll see the three of you in my office. Right now.”

  Jodi grasped Joe’s elbow. “The professor’s here.”

  Across the room, moving with decided concentration over a long conference table, was Professor Augustus Graven. He was handling the robe they’d recovered on Long Island, studying it closely. Then he seemed to feel the focus of Jodi’s stare and lifted his face. In seconds he
saw them and dropped the ornament; he quickly made his way through the milling crowd until they stood face to face. His frown was grim as he said, “I believe I’ve discovered something you need to know.”

  Brightbarton spun in stride and pointed. “Professor Graven! I want both you eggheads in on this!”

  “Of course,” the professor nodded.

  When they’d convened in the office, Brightbarton solidly shut the door and moved behind his desk. He sat and leaned forward, hands flat, and took a moment before he said, “I am bone tired of you guys keeping this investigation to yourselves. And don’t lie to me, Joe. You’re onto this crew. You’ve been onto them since you started.”

  “How do you know that?” Joe Mac asked.

  “Because I’ve got five dead witnesses, and the only thing they had in common was the fact that you guys were on their trail. So you’re either gonna tell me what you’ve got, Joe, or I’m taking both of you off this case. You’ve got ten seconds.”

  The five of them stood in silence until Professor Graven offered, “Might I, perhaps, tell you what I have gleaned from the evidence?”

  With a sigh Brightbarton crossed his arms. “This better be good.”

  Without knocking, Special Agent Jack Rollins suddenly entered the room and stopped in place staring curiously from face to face although he seemed to linger longest on Jodi before he directly addressed Brightbarton: “I need a moment with you, captain, to coordinate some search grids.”

  Brightbarton stood and spoke on his way out the door. “I’ll be back in a minute, and you better have some answers.” He leaned close to Jodi. “And you need to know your job is on the line, rookie. If you’ve been withholding critical information that resulted in the kidnapping of this little boy, I’ll have your badge.”

  When he was gone, Joe Mac turned to Jodi with, “We need to get our hands on that robe,” he said.

  Jodi blinked. “What?””

  “The robe that the FBI confiscated on Long Island.”

  There was an even longer moment before Jodi blurted, “Are you talking about the Druid robe that’s lying on that table out there in front of fifty FBI agents?”