The Belial Plan

by R. D. Brady

  Silence descended on the room.

  Jen finally broke it. “Any idea how exactly we should do that?”

  “I have the PR department already working on that,” Henry said.

  Jake raised on eyebrow. “The PR department? Seriously?”

  “Henry’s right,” Matt said. “Look, everything these days is about spin. They need to be ready to explain the Fallen. Point out all of the good they’ve done. And they need to be ready to make that argument as soon as this all hits the fan.”

  “You think it’s going to come to that?” Jen asked.

  “I think it’s amazing it hasn’t happened already,” Matt said.

  “What about Cain? You know they’re torturing him,” Patrick said.

  “No,” Jake said. “Out of all of them, he’s probably the only one that’s not being touched.”

  “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to leave him there,” Henry said. “As soon as we have some intel, we’ll figure out a way to get to him.”

  “Where’s Samyaza in all this? She’s been awfully quiet since her interview,” Jake said.

  “According to the team we have on her, she’s focused on business. There’s hasn’t been a hint of any plans,” Mustafa said.

  Jake frowned. “There’s no way she’s sitting quietly. She has to be up to something. She went to an awful lot of trouble to expose Laney.”

  Matt sighed. “True. But right now we have no idea what that is.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Danny tossed and turned. He flipped his pillow over, looking for a cool spot. Then he lay on his back, staring at the sky. Noriko’s vision had shaken him, and he couldn’t get the image of a young Victoria, helpless and crying, out of his mind.

  It’s not her. It’s not. He’d convinced himself of that hours ago, throwing himself into a programming project with a rapidly approaching deadline. But at one point he’d pulled up the data on all the births the week after Victoria had died. He’d created the file months ago with the crazy idea that maybe somehow he would be able to find her.

  Even he had to admit it was like looking for a needle in an immense haystack. She could have been reborn at any point after her death, making the potential pool that much larger.

  “It’s not Victoria,” he said out loud.

  His black shepherd mix, Moxy, lifted her head from the dog bed next to Danny’s bed. Normally she slept on the bed with Danny, but she’d gotten fed up with all his squirming an hour ago and had hopped down to the floor.

  “I’m okay, girl,” he said. And she lay her head back down. But he wasn’t okay. It’s not Victoria, he reminded himself as the sketch Noriko drew flitted through his mind. The girl from the vision, whoever she was, was not Victoria. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that Victoria was somehow involved.

  Go to sleep. There’s nothing you can do now.

  But his mind refused to shut off. Victoria… She had understood him, had accepted him immediately. He’d never felt that before, not even from Henry. He and Henry had danced around becoming a family for almost a full year. But as soon as Victoria had met him, she had declared him family, biology be damned.

  And he couldn’t get the feeling out of his mind that she needed him now. Danny had gone back and forth on whether to tell Henry. Laney’s disappearance had really taken a toll on him, and he’d only in the last two months been able to crawl out from under the weight of that worry. And Noriko had reminded Danny that she didn’t always learn what her visions referred to. Sometimes they weren’t literal, but symbolic. But Danny had known in his heart that he had to say something when he learned for certain that this wasn’t an abstract vision. Because he’d put a name to the face: Susie McAdams from Ashburnham, Massachusetts.

  So he’d spoken with Henry, Jen, and Jake after their dinner meeting. It had been hard to watch the fear cut across Henry’s face, and Danny had prayed he wasn’t unnecessarily worrying him.

  Henry had told him that he’d look into it. Jen and Jake would go to Massachusetts to speak with the McAdams family early tomorrow. They told Danny to leave it to them. Still, Danny could not get the idea out of his head.

  Finally he threw off his covers. Moxy stretched next to him and got her feet. “Come on, girl.”

  He opened the door of the bedroom and looked around. He was in the student wing of the Chandler School. Unlike most of the kids, he had his own room. Seeing as how he’d finished high school when he was eight, it seemed kind of ridiculous to treat him like a regular student. But he liked being near his friends when he stayed at the school.

  He walked quietly down the hall, and was unsurprised when the door at the end of the hall opened and Lou stepped out. “What are you doing?”

  “I couldn’t sleep.”

  “You’re bothered by Noriko’s vision.”

  “Yeah. You?”

  Closing the door behind her, she fell in step with him, giving Moxy’s head a quick rub. “Same. So what’s the plan?”

  “I just thought I’d run a couple of searches and see what I can find.”

  “Well, I guess I’ll go with you,” Lou said.

  Ten minutes later, they were in Danny’s office at the school. Danny booted up the computers and started writing a search algorithm. Lost in his work, he was shocked when he saw that an hour had gone by. He turned to Lou. “Hey, you don’t have to—”

  Lou was asleep on the couch, Moxy curled up next to her, a blanket over the two of them.

  Danny smiled and turned back to the computer. He finished up the algorithm and set it up to run. He executed it, then pushed back from the desk, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. He headed for the couch across from Lou. Grabbing the blanket from the back, he curled up. I’ll just close my eyes for a few minutes.

  “THEY’RE IN HERE,” Rolly yelled.

  Danny sat straight up on the couch. “What—huh?”

  Rolly chuckled. “Morning, Danny.”

  Danny wiped his eyes and the side of his mouth. “Hey. What’s going on?”

  “Zach and I stopped by your room this morning and you weren’t there. And then we couldn’t find Lou.” Rolly wiggled his eyebrows. “So what have you two been up to?”

  Danny felt his cheeks flame red. “What? No. I mean—”

  “Ignore him, Danny,” Lou said from the other couch as Moxy hopped off and trotted over to Danny. “He’s just teasing.”

  “Right. I knew that,” Danny mumbled, petting Moxy.

  Zach stepped into the room. “Oh, there you guys are. What are you up to?”

  Rolly opened his mouth with a smirk, and Lou blurred across the room to clap a hand over it. “Danny had an idea about Noriko’s vision, and he wanted to try out some searches.”

  Rolly frowned. “I thought you already identified the girl from the vision.”

  Danny rubbed his eyes. “We did, and Jen and Jake should be arriving at her family’s home any minute now. But Noriko said she heard lots of cries, which got me thinking…”

  “Find anything?” Zach asked.

  “I don’t know.” Danny headed to the desk. The other three followed while Moxy curled back up on the couch. Danny scanned the search results. The searches had finished running an hour ago; he must have slept through the beep. He frowned. This doesn’t make any sense.

  “What is it?” Lou said, looking at the data and shaking her head. “I don’t know why I think looking at the screen will answer that question for me. Please translate.”

  “For those of us who do not speak numeric,” Rolly muttered.

  “It’s—well, I set up a search last night. Noriko said there was more than one child in her vision. So I set the parameters for a female child born within the last three years with red hair and blue eyes. Then I set it global.”

  “Okay. And?”

  “Well, red hair and blue eyes is actually the least common hair and eye color combination in the world.”

  “Wait, seriously?” Zach asked.

  Danny nodded. “For someone to have bot
h, each parent has to carry the recessive genes for both, which only one percent of the world population does.”

  “So how many kids with that combination are born in one day?”

  “Only 1753.”

  “Only? That seems like a lot.”

  “Not when you consider that 353,000 children are born each day. And then slightly more than half of those are female.”

  “Okay,” Lou drew out the word. “So how does this help?”

  “Well, I cross-referenced those births with missing child reports.”

  “And?”

  “And something really weird popped up.” Danny went silent.

  “Feel free to share with the rest of the class,” Rolly said.

  “Right. Sorry. Well, a pretty significant number of those children have gone missing.”

  “That’s horrible. But I mean, don’t children go missing all the time?”

  “Yes and no. 797,500 children were reported missing in a one-year period.”

  “Again, that seems like a lot,” Rolly said.

  “It is, but not all of those are what we usually mean by ‘missing children.’ 203,900 were abducted by family members, and 58,200 were abducted by non-relatives who knew the child. Only 115 were classified as being taken by a stranger.”

  “What about the rest?”

  “That’s where it gets difficult: runaways. Children who intentionally left home. Sometimes they return, but the stats aren’t updated. Sometimes they don’t return.” Danny gestured to the screen. “And obviously kids this young are not running away. But according to this, there’s more. There was a spike in missing children who were all born within twenty-four hours of each other, all with red hair and blue eyes.”

  “The same twenty-four-hour period?” Zach asked.

  “When was that?” Lou asked quietly.

  Danny stared at the screen before answering, hoping that maybe he had missed something. But he knew that the fear that had cropped up in the back of his mind as soon as Noriko had explained her vision had been all too accurate.

  “The twenty-four hours after Victoria died.”

  CHAPTER 18

  The charity event had been a bore, as Elisabeta had expected, although she did find an on-the-rise actor who had managed to keep her entertained for the last four nights. She leaned over and ran a finger down Atlas Younger’s toned back. Despite the ridiculous name, he had been fun.

  Atlas rolled over. “Hey.” Twenty-two years old, the star of a cable TV show, and desperately looking to break into movies. His body was toned to perfection. Perhaps it was even a little too large, but that’s what steroids would do to you. His brown eyes looked up at her, a smile barely moving the skin on his chiseled face—the beauty of youth.

  “So, last night was fun. You do all right.” He looked her up and down. “Bet you enjoyed yourself.”

  And then the stupidity. If only he would stay silent, he would be the perfect bedroom partner. “You were adequate.”

  He laughed. “Adequate. Sure. So I was thinking, maybe today you could introduce me to that director you were speaking with at the charity thing the other night.”

  Elisabeta smiled and patted his cheek. “Get out.” She pulled away and started to stand.

  Atlas grabbed her arm. “Hey. You can’t treat me that way.”

  She looked down at the hand wrapped around her wrist. She reached down and yanked his pinky backward.

  He let out a scream and scrambled back. “You bitch! You broke my finger.”

  “Bitch? You called me a bitch?” Elisabeta stormed around the bed.

  Atlas’s eyes went wide.

  She yanked him up by the hair. “I don’t like that word.” She pulled him from the bed, dragging him along the floor.

  “Let go, let go.”

  She pulled him out onto the balcony, and before he could breathe, she picked him up by the neck. “Let go? Sure thing.” She launched him over the railing. He screamed as his body fell the two stories down. He crashed into the concrete surrounding the pool with a crunch of bones.

  Two pool attendants looked up, then hurriedly averted their gazes. One of her security guards blurred into view.

  She waved to Atlas’s body. “Take care of that.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Elisabeta headed back into her room. Honestly, how women tolerated the behavior of the men in this world was beyond her.

  An hour later, she had showered and changed and forgotten all about Atlas Younger. She sat in her office reviewing the changes she had made regarding her holdings in a pharmaceutical company.

  She looked up with a frown at the knock on the door. “Come in.”

  Hakeem entered with a bow. His dark eyes flicked toward the balcony for only a moment before returning to Elisabeta. For a moment she compared the two men. Atlas had been younger and a perfectly trained specimen. But Hakeem… he was virile, manly—his body hardened by actual physical labor. Still, in one way, the two men were sadly alike—their intelligence.

  Elisabeta waved her hand at him. “Update.”

  “The subjects have been moved to the facility.”

  “How many?”

  “Thirty-six.”

  She looked up. “Any problems?”

  “No.”

  She raised an eyebrow, knowing that was probably untrue. But Hakeem wasn’t intentionally keeping things from her. He was simply, maddeningly, unaware.

  “Have you set up the satellite link?”

  “Um…”

  “Go. Set it up. When you’re done, send it to me.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “You’re excused. Send Ada in when you pass her.”

  He gave another deep bow before leaving. Respectful he was. Bright? Not so much. But these days she put more stock in loyalty. Gerard had shown her what happened to the bright ones.

  A soft knock sounded. “Come in,” she called.

  Ada appeared and placed a piece of paper on the desk in front of Elisabeta before taking a seat. Ada was twenty-four and the public face for Elisabeta’s philanthropic endeavors.

  Elisabeta scanned the schedule. She made a note or two. Then frowned. “What’s this? Two events?”

  Ada nodded. “Yes. Both the Children’s Coalition and your stockholder meeting are tonight. I wasn’t sure which one you wanted to attend.”

  Ada was not a Fallen or a nephilim. She was a human and handled all of Elisabeta’s public activities.

  Elisabeta pushed the schedule back across the desk. “The Children’s Coalition. It’s much more important.”

  Ada smiled as she took the paper. “I knew you would say that. I’ll make the arrangements. They asked that you speak as well.”

  “Of course. You know the cause of children is close to my heart. Tell them anything I can do to help.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.” Ada headed to the door, then stopped and turned back when she was halfway across the room. “And ma’am? Can I just say what an honor it is to work for someone who truly understands what is important in life?”

  “I have been given a great deal in my life, Ada. It seems only right to help those not so blessed.”

  Ada smiled again before scurrying out the door.

  Elisabeta’s computer beeped, and she turned to it. Finally. She clicked on the link, and a warehouse came into view. Four dozen redheaded toddlers sat on the ground. A large TV sat in one corner, playing a cartoon. Women wandered among the toddlers, sometimes leaning down to pick one up. Elisabeta scanned them all. “Where are you, Victoria?”

  Using the arrows on her keyboard, she directed the camera to one child crying in the corner, big tears rolling down her cheeks. Elisabeta smiled. Cry all you want. No one can help you now.

  CHAPTER 19

  ASHBURNHAM, MASSACHUSETTS

  Jake pulled the rented SUV up to the curb in front of the blue, two-story colonial. The front lawn was small, as was the driveway. And like most of the houses in the part of Ashburnham, it was built on hill giving it a v
ery steep driveway. He glanced over at Jen, who sat inspecting the house. “You good?”

  “Yeah. Just—” She shook her head. “A missing kid. And right on top of their father’s death two years ago. The McAdamses have already been through a lot. Doesn’t seem right.”

  Jake opened the door. “No. It doesn’t.”

  They made their way up the path. Two other cars were in the driveway. One was the McAdamses’ minivan, and Jake thought the other might belong to a family member. The McAdams kids had seven aunts and uncles, one set of grandparents, and twenty cousins in the immediate area. According to what Jake and Jen had learned from the police on the flight over, there had always been an extended family member at the house ever since Susie McAdams had gone missing.

  Jake rang the doorbell as Jen climbed up the three short steps behind him. After only a few seconds the door was opened by a tall bear of a man with red hair that sprang from his head and a matching red beard. His blue eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

  “Jake Rogan and Jen Witt from the Chandler Group. Mrs. McAdams is expecting us.”

  “Yeah, well, she’s changed her mind. So you need to—”

  “Jimmy, get away from the door and let them in. I told them to come.” A small redheaded woman came into view, pushing Jimmy to the side. Her face was pale, and there were bags underneath her blue eyes. But even with that, there was a natural beauty to her. She opened the screen door. “Hi. I’m Mary Jane.”

  Jake stepped inside, his heart rate picking up a notch. “I’m Jake Rogan from the Chandler Group. This is my associate, Dr. Jen Witt.”

  Mary Jane shook both of their hands.

  “This is my brother Jimmy.”

  Jimmy crossed his arms over his chest and glared at them.

  Mary Jane sighed. “Jimmy, they might be able to help. And I’ll take any help to get—” She cut off and her hand flew to her mouth. Tears sprang to her eyes.

  Jimmy’s anger disappeared, and he wrapped his sister in a hug. “I just don’t want them upsetting you.”