Ben glared at Asclepius who was fiddling with the TV that wouldn’t turn on. “And you’d better stay put tonight. If I wake up to find you off on some idiotic errand, I will hunt you down without remorse.”
“Why would I go anywhere?” Asclepius said with a small laugh. “I realize I can be a little bit of a pain but I’m here for a reason.”
“You’re here because Greg sent you here,” Mark said, siding with Ben. “It would make me feel better if Greg came through for a bit.”
“No can do,” Asclepius said with a shrug. “I took my dosage, I’m going to be playing around in this meat sack for a while.” With that, Asclepius went into the bathroom and shut the door.
“Is there a window or something in there he can climb out of?” Ben asked.
“I don’t think so,” Mark said. Mark went right to Asclepius’s medicine bag and pulled out a syringe and a bottle of the anti-depressant. “I’m with you though, we could use Greg for a bit.”
Ben was a little nervous trying to pull one over on the self-described god, but Asclepius was also a lot like a child. Mark sat on the chair, the syringe tucked into his sleeve and they waited for Asclepius to come out.
A while passed before he made an appearance, and when he swaggered out, he walked right past Mark and flopped down on the unoccupied bed. He threw his arms under his head and closed his eyes. “Don’t worry about me, boys, I’m drunk and tired. I’m not going anywhere.”
“We trust you,” Mark said, and then with a speed Ben could barely track, Mark was across the room with the needle plunged directly into Asclepius’s arm. He pushed down the plunger before the god could do anything.
Asclepius’s eyes flew open and Ben felt the floor beneath him tremble for a moment, like an earth tremor that happened after a major quake. Ben felt panic rush through him, but before he could react, the man on the bed gave a little cough and the room stopped shaking.
“What did you guys do?” came the hoarse, rough voice of Greg. He sat up, holding his wrist in his lap, looking around the room like he’d just woken up from a long, long sleep.
“We needed you back, I’m sorry,” Mark said, putting the syringe on the table. “I understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, but we didn’t trust him.”
“Okay,” Greg said, wiping his forehead with his good hand. “He’s not going to be very happy in the morning.”
“I don’t care,” Ben said. “As long as we know you’re the one going to sleep in this room, we know we’ll wake up to find you here.”
Greg gave a sigh and winced. “His healing’s going a lot slower than I’d hoped.”
“Well if he’d stop using his powers to have sex with random nurses and play parlor tricks at rest stops,” Ben snapped, “he’d probably have more energy to do you that favor.”
Greg rolled his eyes and shuffled back until he was lying against the pillow. “I swear he’s normally more help. I’ll see what I can do in getting him to help you a little better tomorrow.”
“We’re going to need it,” Mark said grabbing a pillow and one of the spare blankets from the motel closet. He settled himself on the floor despite protests from both Ben and Greg. “Tomorrow’s going to be tricky and we need all the rest we can get. I suggest we go lights out and we can reform our plan tomorrow.”
~*~
Morning came before Mark was ready. Though he could deal with less sleep than most normal humans, he reached his breaking point from time to time, and the night before had been it. The moment the room went dark, Mark fell unconscious and only woke when the sound of the shower filled the room.
He sat up to find Greg sitting on the edge of the bed, cradling his wrist against his chest, rubbing his eyes with his good hand. Mark was still groggy and feeling like he could sleep for another week. He gave a loud yawn and stood up, stretching his aching back.
“You feeling okay?” Mark asked as he walked off the heavy feeling in his legs.
“I’ve been better,” Greg said. “I wanted to take something for the pain, but if I’d done it, Asclepius could have come through and I didn’t need to cause a problem in the middle of the night.”
Mark winced, feeling bad they’d put Greg in that position. “I’m sorry. Did you get any rest?”
“A little. I’m going to let him come over as soon as Ben gets out of the shower. Ben seems to have a little authority over him, for some reason, so I think he’ll behave. He might be a little sullen, but he’s a god. Offer him food and drink and he’ll be putty in your hands.”
Mark snorted, remembering the old myths and sacrifices of food and wine. “I think we can do that. There’s a diner on the corner, and I think we could all use a little food and drink.”
Ben walked out of the shower, hair dripping slightly, but looking more refreshed than he had the day before. He threw the musty motel towel on the floor and sat on the chair to tie his shoes. “We ready or what?”
“I’m thinking breakfast at the diner,” Mark said.
“I’m thinking something more like drive-through,” Ben amended.
“With Asclepius’s impending mood, I’m thinking something big and sit down,” Mark warned.
Ben gave a shrug. “Fine, whatever. This trip is already a joke, why not play road trip and hit the diner.”
Mark felt a little irritated with Ben’s continued attitude, but packed up their stuff and left the key on the table as the three men filed out of the room. They walked down the stairs and passed the car on the way to the small truck stop diner with the flashing open sign.
They found a booth in the corner of the place, right near the back, and Mark squeezed in with Greg near the window. “Alright boys, you have a good trip, and you know how to reach me when you need me.” With that, Greg took a swig from his little bottle and after a moment, his eyes closed and his head slumped forward.
“Shall we order?” Ben said, ignoring Greg’s posture.
“Might want to give him a moment,” Mark hissed to Ben, who was already signaling their waitress.
Just as the older woman with greying blonde hair arrived at the table, their sleepy companion’s head snapped up, and Mark caught the familiar flash of the god-eyes. Asclepius was back, and from the scowl on his face he wasn’t pleased.
“Orders, gentlemen?” the woman asked in her cigarette scarred voice.
Though Asclepius had only been conscious a moment, he managed to order a near feast with a pot of coffee for the table, and a full pie to go. Mark and Ben placed their considerably smaller orders, and though the waitress looked confused, she seemed a little perky at the thought of the large bill meaning large tip.
“Rotten trick, you two,” Asclepius hissed as he poured coffee for the two other men.
“Insurance,” Ben said without mercy. “You’ve been a pain in the ass this entire time, and I wasn’t about to go chase you all over the damn city because you got bored.”
“Greg didn’t enjoy suffering all night, just so you know. No sleep at all, the poor fool,” Asclepius said.
“Risk we had to take,” Ben muttered.
Mark turned to his booth companion and offered him an apology. “We’ll consult you next time.”
“The hell we will,” Ben growled.
Mark ignored him and added liberal cream and sugar to his coffee. “Either way, did you get a chance to roam around while you were out?”
Asclepius gave a shrug. “I might have given the compound a fly-by. I didn’t get too close or they would have sensed me, but they have some serious mojo going on over there. There’s a portal there, and they’ve been invoking some sort of power through it, though I wasn’t able to get a good look. I can tell you that the guards at the gate are plain old humans, and we’ll have no trouble getting in. It’s the getting out part I’m worried about.”
“We’ll figure that out once we’re inside,” Ben said.
Their conversation was stilted by the delivery of food, the table groaning from the weight of everything Asclepius had orde
red. They all ate, quickly and quietly, and before long, even the veritable feast the god had ordered had been consumed.
Mark retrieved the bill and left a wad of cash to cover the bill and leave a generous tip for the poor waitress who he knew would have to clean up after their mess. The three men groaned, bellies full and still exhausted from their poor night’s sleep, and they filed out to the car.
“I’d like to drive,” Asclepius said, holding his hand out for the keys.
“I’m sorry for last night, but I’m not that sorry,” Ben said, handed the keys off to Mark, and gestured for Asclepius to get into the backseat. “Back in the hole you go.”
Asclepius rolled his eyes but squeezed into the rather roomy back seat of Ben’s car, and before long, they were back on the road. Mark knew they needed some sort of plan, even if it was a bare-bones plan, to get them organized, but he wasn’t sure it was going to do any good. He glanced back to see Asclepius snoozing, his head resting against the window, his mouth hanging ajar, and figured it was a good time to chat with Ben.
“I wish we had some idea of where they were keeping Yehuda, or at least where we could find your sister,” Mark said as he watched the scenery passing by. It was a dreary morning, the clouds heavy, threatening rain as they navigated the Washington countryside. “I appreciate that he was able to get a look at the gate last night, but the moment we’re recognized, all bets are off.”
“I know,” Ben said with a sigh. He had his phone out and he was reading over a long page of text. “The website doesn’t give any information about the structure of the compound, anyone’s jobs or even a basic daily schedule. I’m assuming they don’t just heal people all day long, and I doubt anyone can just waltz in there.”
“Asclepius seems to think he can get us in the gate, but I’m not sure how,” Mark replied.
“He probably thinks he can charm his way in,” Ben muttered.
“Maybe he can,” Mark offered. “He’s been enough help so far, so we can’t discount what might be able to offer when we get there.”
“This would be so much easier with a warrant and a team of men with snipers.”
“Easier for whom, exactly?” Mark questioned. “You don’t think they’d just give your sister and Yehuda up after going through all this trouble to get them, do you?”
Ben sighed and sat back against the door of the car. “Who knows? This entire situation is so damn crazy I’m starting to think if we just walk in there with guns and demand their release they’ll let them go.”
“You don’t fight crazy with crazy,” Mark warned.
And that was that for the rest of the drive. The GPS on Ben’s phone alerted the three men when they reached the five mile range. Ben sat up, suddenly alert, and Asclepius leaned over, still a bit bleary-eyed from his nap, but looking somewhat refreshed.
At this point, Mark pulled the car over and switched the engine off. “I realize we can’t make a very definitive plan, since we have no idea about the inside structure, no idea who might know we’re coming, and no clue what sort of defenses they’ve got.”
“We also don’t know where to find either one of your little friends,” Asclepius put in.
“Yes, thank you for that,” Mark said irritably. “What we do have is a basic defense method against the gods, as long as we can keep enough on us ready to use without being obvious.”
“We also have a defense method against any moron who tries to get too uppity,” Ben said, touching the butt of his gun.
“I’d like to try and get out of this without committing murder,” Mark said with a small sigh. “But, we do what we have to do. Frankly I’m prepared to let the both of you go down as long as I get out with Yehuda. It’s reached a critical point and as long as I get him away from whomever these people are, I’m calling it mission accomplished.”
“So you have your job, and I have mine,” Ben snapped at him, his face a bit red.
“And what do I do?” Asclepius asked.
“Try and get us in without getting us killed before we reach the front door,” Mark instructed.
Asclepius began to rummage around in the back for a few moments. When he sat back up, he had two capped syringes, filled to the top of their plungers with a clear liquid. “Just a little bit goes a long way,” he said, handing one to Mark and one to Ben. “Right in the arm, just a little pressure, and they’ll get kicked out. It’s likely that the humans they’re in are drugged, or brain-dead, so try and mind the bodies.”
Ben licked his lips nervously as he tucked the syringe into the inside pocket of his coat. “I’ll try and get paramedics out there as soon as we get my sister and Mark’s friend out safely.”
“You realize you’re probably going to get fired for this?” Asclepius pointed out with a small, cheeky smile.
“I do,” Ben said. “Obviously I’ve resigned myself to that fate.”
As Mark switched on the car, Asclepius and Mark switched seats, preparing to enter the compound with Asclepius’s influence. Asclepius put the car in drive as Mark tried to shove down the bubbling panic in his gut, and they followed the soft sounds of the robotic GPS voice leading them to what could resemble a rather small war.
They made the five miles in less than three minutes. Ahead on the long, winding dirt road was a small booth, similar to the toll booths of the bridges in California. A field lay beyond, and several small buildings which looked a lot like the old fashioned log cabins. A tall fence topped with barbed wire surrounded the land for acres and acres, and every so often, unmanned, tall towers stood, likely waiting for a person with a rifle.
The road ended at the entrance to the gate where a tall, rather bored looking, middle-aged man stood behind a window. As the car pulled up, the man held a clipboard close to his face as he slid the window open with his other hand.
“Names,” he said, his monotone voice matching the bored look on his face.
Asclepius leaned over and looked the man in the eye. “They’re not on the list. They’re with me.” Mark caught the flash of light in the god’s eyes, and the guard cleared his throat loudly.
“They’re supposed to be added to the list,” he said in a very hesitant voice.
“Special circumstances,” Asclepius said, his voice almost echoing through the car. “Open the gate… or am I going to have to get out of the car?”
“Sorry, sir,” the guard said and pressed the button.
There was a loud clicking sound, and then the gate rolled back, squealing loudly into the distance as it did so. Asclepius put the car in drive, kept eye contact with the guard, and they drove forward.
The road continued for several more miles before they reached what looked like a fruit orchard enclosing several large buildings made of wood and metal. There were people all over, dressed in street clothes, smiling as they worked, picking fruit, pushing carts, chatting quietly under the canopy of the trees as the rain started to drizzle down.
Mark felt suddenly over-dressed, in his slacks and button up shirt, and Ben, wearing his detective suit, was definitely so. Asclepius looked more the compound part, his yoga bottoms and t-shirt he’d obtained from Mark could only guess where, hung on him limply, and his hair, still a mess, was fitting for farm work.
There was an area, shaded by a large, wooden overhang, where cars were parked, and Asclepius, keeping his head down and face shielded, pulled in and around the back where no one was standing. He switched the car off and let out a small sigh.
“Now what?” Ben asked. “We’re in, but we still have no game plan.”
“Obviously these humans don’t know me, yet, and no one seems on particularly high alert, so I say we pretend I’m escorting you two for something…”
“Healing,” Mark interrupted. “We’re here to be healed and you know, join, or whatever.”
“Fine yes, good,” Ben said, “but what happens when one of your friendly gods recognizes you?”
“Well let’s try and avoid them, shall we? Mark can see them, can’t you?�
�� Asclepius pointed out.
Mark gave a slow nod. “Yes, I can.”
“And so can I,” Asclepius said. “So when we sense them we just… walk the other way. If we get cornered, we have our defenses.”
“What about me?” Ben demanded. “I don’t exactly have any super powers here, and I’m pretty sure if Abby’s afraid we’re on her tail, she’s going to give people that matter my description.”
“Just stick with one of us,” Asclepius said with a shrug. “You got any of your freaky Halloween contacts, Mark? It would probably look a little better if you appeared more blind.”
Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out the pair of contacts he usually carried on him for emergencies. “One pair.”
“Don’t you think he might be able to function a little better being able to see?” Ben pointed out.
“I’m perfectly capable blind or sighted. “I’ve been in this disguise since before your parents were conceived,” Mark replied with a shrug. He uncapped the lenses, and with deft practice, popped them in.
His world went instantly white and his eyes back to their useless state. It took him less than a moment to adjust, and he held out his hand towards Ben. “I shoved my cane into the little pocket in front of you.”
Ben grumbled and slid his hand into the seat pocket to retrieve Mark’s folded white cane. He slapped it in Mark’s hand and said, “So what? We just walk in?”
“You,” Mark said, addressing Asclepius, “need to act like you know the place. Use every ounce of power you have to navigate properly. They’ve cloaked Yehuda, so it’s going to take us some time to find him.”
Mark opened the door to the car and got out, feeling the crunch of gravel under his shoes. He heard the familiar clicking of his cane snapping into place, and felt the cold metal of the damp car under his fingers as he shut the door. This was it, and there was no turning back. Human lives were precious, but Mark lived by the rule that the good of the world outweighed the good of the few who might have to perish in order to secure peace. A warm hand touched his arm, Ben’s hand, and with a deep breath, they prepared to go inside.
The Awakening (The Judas Curse Book 1) Page 33