“What is it?”
“Your friend make it back?” Ray asked, his voice low.
“No. I’m looking for him.”
Ray’s eyes swept the surroundings, as though being watched. “You can’t tell anyone where you heard this.”
“Spit it out, Ray. What’s going on?”
“I was out last night, before the attack, right? Just some late wheeling and dealing, you know?”
Lucas held his stare without reacting. “And?”
“I was outside The General’s, and I saw your friend come out. He looked hammered.”
“He was okay?”
“For a while.”
“What happened, Ray?”
Ray glanced around warily before returning to Lucas. “He was with the deputy. Alex.”
“So?”
“They walked toward the trees, and it looked like they got into an argument. Alex clubbed him with his gun and carried him off.”
“What? Where?”
“He’s not there. I looked this morning.”
Lucas’s eyes hardened. “Any sign of Alex today?”
“Heard he was helping the sheriff in town. Figured you might want to know.”
“You happen to pick up what the argument was about?”
Ray shook his head. “No. I mean, it sounded like your friend was really drunk, and Alex wanted him to go with him somewhere. That’s all I know.”
“You didn’t see where they went…after?”
“No. I got out of there. Alex can be mean when nobody’s around.”
Lucas nodded. “I know the kind.”
“Don’t tell him I said anything.”
Lucas surveyed the tent city, huge swatches of it in ruins after the battle, his lips a thin line. “Don’t worry, kid. I got your back, and I owe you two now.”
“Hope I can collect.”
“Credit’s good with me.”
Chapter 38
Once in town, Lucas dropped Joel’s horse off at the stable and went in search of Alex. He asked every person he met and got conflicting directions, some saying they’d seen him near the hospital, others by the marina. Lucas finally settled on walking a grid pattern through Astoria, circling each block to ensure he didn’t miss the man. He had no idea what Ray had witnessed, but he would get to the bottom of it – and if Joel had been drinking with Alex before, which he believed highly likely given the new information, he had a prime suspect in the theft of the vaccine; who better than a lawman who understood the victim’s weakness to feed him alcohol and take advantage of him?
Lucas’s thoughts grew darker as he neared the hospital. In his experience, thievery was a habit; and if the deputy was a thief, he was probably responsible for more than just the vaccine disappearing. Could he have been behind the doctor’s inventory vanishing? Lucas remembered Ray’s revelation that Lee had sold him the drugs, but did that mean anything? Probably not, he reasoned – Alex would insert an intermediary between himself and anyone who could finger him, and who better than an outsider who lived within the town’s boundaries? The Chinese would be perfect accessories. They would defer to an authority figure and comply with his instructions, and if some ill-gotten gains wound up sticking to one of them, so much the better.
He could understand why Lee would play ball. But why assault Joel? That made no sense. Maybe Joel had gotten suspicious of his new friend and called him on it after drinking too much? Lucas didn’t know, but he was going to find out.
The afternoon wore on as he completed his search, as methodical as a robot, crossing each block off his mental grid when he confirmed that the deputy wasn’t there and hadn’t been seen. The sky was turning from turquoise to plum as he neared the marina. Lucas turned a corner and nearly ran headlong into Alex, who was carrying a satchel in one hand and his rifle in the other. The expression on Alex’s face gave him away instantly, but he regained his composure quickly as Lucas blocked his way.
“Afternoon, Deputy,” Lucas said, closing the distance between them. “You made it through last night all right, did you?”
“Yeah. Was that hairy or what?” Alex asked, sounding nervous to Lucas’s ear.
“That it was.” Lucas paused. “Wouldn’t happen to know where Joel is, would you? Seem to have lost him.”
Alex shook his head. “Sorry. Haven’t seen him.”
“How about last night? He went missing after nightfall.”
Alex looked over Lucas’s shoulder. “I’m kind of late, Lucas…”
“Don’t want to keep you. Did you see Joel last night?”
The deputy’s eyes flitted left before returning to Lucas. “No.”
“Wrong answer,” Lucas said, and backhanded him hard with a gloved hand, snapping the deputy’s head to the side. Alex dropped the satchel and brought his rifle up, but Lucas slammed Alex’s arm with the butt of his M4, and Alex yelped in pain and dropped the weapon. Lucas pointed his rifle at Alex’s head, his face stony.
“Take your pistol out using your index finger and thumb, and drop it on the ground,” he ordered.
“Have you lost your mind?” Alex demanded from between gritted teeth.
“Do it or you’ll be eating through a straw.”
“I’m the law here,” Alex tried, but Lucas took a step nearer, silencing him.
“My gun’s the law right now, and I’m kind of twitchy after killing so many last night. Wears on you. One more won’t bother me a bit. Now last time – drop your pistol.”
Alex read Lucas’s eyes and slowly removed his revolver as instructed, and dropped it onto the asphalt. Lucas watched as it skittered away. “That’s good. Now we’re going to have a talk, and you lie to me, I’ll break something on you, understand?”
“You got no right.”
“Someone saw you clock Joel last night outside the bar and drag him off. What did you do with him?”
“Someone’s yanking your chain. I wasn’t anywhere near The General’s.”
“I don’t believe you. In fact, I expect I can haul you down there and someone will place you there. So that was your free lie. Next one you’ll pay for with a rib. Someone saw you clobber Joel. Where did you take him?”
“Hayden and the mayor hear about this, and your ass is–”
Alex didn’t get to finish his threat. Lucas struck him hard in the side with his rifle barrel and was rewarded by the faint pop of a rib snapping. Alex went white as a sheet as his pupils shrank to pinpoints, and he doubled over with a low moan of pain.
“Boy, I am going to enjoy kicking you to pieces like nobody’s business,” Lucas said, his tone conversational. “I’m not normally a vindictive man, but I’m feeling regular mean today, and you just seem to bring out the worst in me. Now, I asked you a question. I want the answer, or by the time I’m done with you, you’ll be pissing blood. You read me? You think I’m kidding?”
Lucas waited for Alex to catch his breath. He knew the deputy was a coward deep down – he could sense it – and like most cowards, would abhor physical pain. All Lucas would need to do was keep the pressure on, and he’d crack.
He didn’t have long to wait.
Alex looked up with tears in his eyes. “It wasn’t my idea.”
“Didn’t ask whose idea it was. Where is he?”
“I…I took him to a place in the woods.” Alex grimaced in pain, and then the wave passed. “Grant made me.”
“Grant?” Lucas repeated. “Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“He told you to knock Joel out and drag him into the woods, but he didn’t say why? You a glutton for punishment, Alex? I can take out half your teeth with one kick.”
“It’s the truth. He didn’t say. Just said to find Joel and bring him to him.”
“How’d you know he was at the bar?”
“Lot of people owe me favors.”
“Like Lee?”
Alex bit his lip and said nothing, confirming Lucas’s suspicion.
“Last time you saw Joel, Grant had him?” L
ucas tried.
“That’s what I said.”
“And you don’t know what he planned.”
“I didn’t want to know.”
“Just delivered him and walked away.” Lucas paused. “Where, exactly?”
“I told you. In the woods. A shack.”
Lucas motioned with the rifle. “Take me there.”
Chapter 39
Lucas and Alex retrieved their horses from the stable and mounted up, and then headed into the tent city, along the now-familiar route to The General’s. Alex was leaning over in agony, grimacing with each jolt from his horse’s gait, but Lucas had no pity for him and kept his rifle trained on his back. A few of the squatters watched in curiosity as they rode by, but drew back when they saw the expression on Lucas’s face.
Veins of magenta and eggplant streaked the sky as they worked their way through the remains of the tents and onto the main shoreline road. They veered away from the water once they reached the bar, and Alex slowed as they neared the tree line. He stopped at a gap in the brush and twisted with difficulty to call to Lucas.
“This is the trail. We need to dismount. The branches are too low to do it on horseback.”
“You first,” Lucas said, wary of the deputy even though he was unarmed.
Alex made a big show of lowering himself from the saddle, and Lucas waited until he was standing by his horse to swing down and join him. Alex guided his horse forward with Lucas tailing him, and they walked for five minutes before Alex hesitated, pointing at a ramshackle shed thirty yards away, barely visible from the brush.
“That’s it.”
“Tie your horse to the tree,” Lucas whispered, and did the same with Tango.
They crept toward the shed and Lucas thumbed off the M4’s safety. When they were a few yards away, Lucas murmured to Alex, “You go in first. If he’s going to shoot, you earned the bullet.”
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s here.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about.”
Alex swallowed a knot the size of a rock and reached for the knob with a trembling hand. Lucas stood behind the deputy and raised the M4, Alex’s torso blocking any shot from within. Alex twisted the knob and pulled the door wide.
The copper scent of blood wafted from inside, along with the stink of bodily fluids. Alex stepped aside and vomited, and Lucas pushed him out of the way and stepped into the shed.
Joel was seated on the floor in a small lake of coagulated blood, his wrists bound, his hands missing all their fingers, a crimson pulse oozing from the stumps with each beat of his heart. He was so white his skin looked like alabaster, and Lucas moved to him to remove the dirty bandana stuffed in his mouth as a gag.
Joel was barely conscious from the blood loss and shock. Lucas eyed his bindings before whipping his knife from its sheath and slicing through the cord. What remained of Joel’s hands fell to his sides and he groaned. Lucas set his M4 down and quickly tied the bandana around one wrist and the rope around the other as tourniquets. Alex’s frame filled the doorway, and Lucas scooped up his rifle and turned to him.
“This is on you. He’s about dead.”
Alex shook his head, the shock on his face real. “No. I didn’t know…”
“Help me get him on your horse. It’s a miracle he’s still alive. Looks like he twisted the bindings so it cut most of the blood flow, or he wouldn’t be.”
Joel groaned again and Lucas leaned into him. “We’re taking you to the hospital,” Lucas said, hating the false hope he was trying to engender.
Joel struggled to speak. When he did, Lucas could barely make out the words.
He recoiled from Joel, his scowl deepening. “Shangri-La,” Lucas repeated softly. “That’s why he tortured you? To find out where Shangri-La is?”
Joel managed a nod. Lucas took a deep breath.
“Did you tell him?”
Joel groaned again, and his breathing became shallow as he blacked out. Lucas moved toward his head and growled at Alex. “Grab his other arm and let’s get him on your horse.”
They carried Joel out and laid him facedown across the saddle, and Lucas fought to control the cold rage that seeped through him.
“You brought him here so Grant could torture him.”
Alex shook his head. “I told you I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have if–”
“What did you think he was going to do in a shed in the middle of the night?”
“I…I didn’t think about it.”
Lucas spit to the side and prodded Alex in the side with his gun. “Give me an excuse to shoot you. Any excuse. Please.” He took another deep breath to calm himself. “Lead the way to the hospital. One wrong move and your kneecaps get taken off.”
“I swear I didn’t have any idea–”
“Move.”
The slog back to the gate took ages with Alex on foot. Lucas considered galloping with Alex’s horse and leaving the deputy tied up in the wilds, but dismissed the idea – Joel’s chances of making it with the blood loss he’d sustained were somewhere between zero and worse, and a few minutes wouldn’t make a difference. The ugly truth was that there was little they could do for him at the triage unit other than cauterize the stubs where his fingers had been. There was no plasma, and the few O-negative universal donors in the town had already donated as much blood as they could to care for the wounded, so barring a miracle, Joel wouldn’t last the day.
The guards saw them coming and opened the gate wide, rifles pointed beyond them at the barbed wire, where a few squatters watched the drama with dull gazes, everyone shell-shocked from the prior night’s battle, even though most hadn’t participated. That some important line had been crossed and the tent city established as an enemy encampment was obvious to all, and nobody wanted to be target practice for townspeople looking to settle the score.
They reached the hospital and Lucas growled a warning to Alex not to budge while he tended to Joel. Rosemary blanched when Lucas heaved Joel from the horse and carried him to a vacant cot in the lobby, and she gasped at the sight of his mutilated appendages.
Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, my God…” she whispered. Even after seeing so much death and blood, what had been done to Joel defied description.
“Do what you can,” Lucas said, and turned to where Alex was waiting by his horse, Tango beside him. Rosemary gazed out at the deputy, concern creasing her brow, not understanding what was happening or why Alex hadn’t come in.
Lucas reached Alex and glared at him.
“I–” Alex stammered, but Lucas cut him off.
“Where’s Grant?”
“I have no idea.”
“Where does he live?”
“Over by the other council members.”
“Show me.”
They mounted up and rode along the bay to a neighborhood with towering Victorian homes. Alex motioned at a faded green one near the end of the block. “That’s his place.”
“Same drill as the shed. You go first. Make a sound and I’ll put a bullet through your spine.”
Alex and Lucas dismounted and made their way up the steps to the front stoop. Alex tried the door, but it was locked. He shook his head, and Lucas frowned. “Around the back,” he whispered, eyes roaming over the darkened windows.
They walked along the side of the house, and at the rear porch Alex repeated his experiment with the rear door handle, which also didn’t budge. Lucas edged past him and tried it himself, and when it didn’t give, stepped back and shattered the nearest pane of glass before reaching inside to twist the deadbolt open.
Both men stood motionless, listening for any movement inside. When they didn’t hear anything, Lucas pulled the door toward him and hissed at Alex, “Get in there. First the downstairs, then up.”
Alex hesitated, the fear in his eyes genuine, and then inched forward into the gloomy hallway, past the kitchen, Lucas in tow. The house was smaller than it appeared from the street, and they were done with the downstairs within forty-five sec
onds. Lucas gestured with his rifle at the stairs, and Joel headed over to them.
The upstairs was also empty. There were only a few changes of clothes in the master bedroom closet, and nothing that even hinted at the identity of the occupant. A knot of anxiety tightened in Lucas’s gut as they finished the search – there was only one reason he could think of why Grant would torture Joel and leave him to die from blood loss after questioning him about the location of the new Shangri-La.
“Illuminati,” he whispered under his breath.
“What’s that?” the deputy asked.
“Nothing.” Lucas paused. “Where else would Grant be?”
“I don’t know. I mean, he could be anywhere in town, although…”
“What is it?”
“A few times I met him at the shed, and when we were done, he took off up the hill while I returned to town. If he did the same last night, there might be a trail or something, although it’s getting dark.”
“Don’t worry about the light. I can track with the best,” Lucas said. “Let’s go.”
The deputy hesitated. “You see I’m helping you, right?”
Lucas’s jaw clenched. “Move.”
Alex stood his ground. “I didn’t have to tell you about this. I’m doing what I can, Lucas.”
“I’ll remind Joel of that – assuming he lives.”
Chapter 40
Night had fallen by the time they made it back to the shack on foot, there being no point to taking the horses when Lucas would be nose to the ground much of the time, tracking Grant. The moon hadn’t risen yet, and the darkness was as thick as oil. Lucas surveyed the perimeter of the shack and turned to Alex.
“Where’s the trail?”
Alex looked uncertain. “It’s different at night.”
“Yes, it’s dark. Where is it?”
Alex peered into the shadows and pointed to the left of the little structure. “I think that’s it.”
Lucas moved to the gap in the brush Alex had indicated and flicked on the rifle’s night vision scope. He looked through it for several seconds and then knelt by a bush.
The Day After Never - Insurrection (Book 5) Page 20