by R. D. Brady
“You had a visual.”
“Yes, sir. But the subject is gone and the breach team is down.” The voice paused. “The backup team is also down.”
“What the hell happened?”
“Not sure yet, sir.”
“Well find out, Goddammit!”
“Roger.”
Patrick struggled to his feet. He searched for Henry, Jake, or Jen. He didn’t see them, but he heard raised voices coming from behind the SWAT van and recognized one of them as Jake’s.
“You are not part of this operation!” a man yelled.
Patrick walked around the end of the van and saw Jake toe to toe with a giant of a man.
“And I told you I’m not leaving until I know what happened!” Jake barked. Patrick could tell he was two seconds from ripping the man’s throat out.
Patrick rushed forward. “Jake—she’s not in the cabin.”
Jake turned toward Patrick, and Patrick read the hope and the fear.
He placed his hand on Jake’s arm. “She wasn’t there.” He turned to the SWAT officer. “I can take it from here.”
With a glare, the man stormed off. Henry and Jen appeared from the woods, their cheeks red from the cold, snow covering their pants from the knees down.
“Where were you two?” Jake asked.
“Checking the cabin,” Jen said. “Someone took out the agents stationed at the back. There was a trail leading into the woods. We followed it. They must have had a car waiting. They were gone before we got there.”
“Did you sense anyone?”
“No. Which means they were either human or full-fledged Fallen. And I don’t see how a human could have done that. We were at the cabin seconds after the team went in. We should have caught up with any human who was trying to escape.”
“So it was a Fallen,” Jake said.
“But who? Matt?” Patrick asked.
Henry shook his head. “No. Matt was still back east this morning.”
“Gerard?” Jen offered.
“I can’t see him helping,” Henry said. “In fact, I can’t think of any full-fledged Fallen on our side besides Matt, or maybe some other SIA agent.”
“Matt would have told us if he was sending someone,” Patrick said.
Jake cut in. “Either way, she’s alive, right?”
Henry nodded. “Yes. There was a little blood in the cabin but not much. She’s alive.”
Patrick smiled. “Now we just need to find her again.”
CHAPTER 116
Laney sat in the passenger seat of a tan 1990 Ford Bronco next to Drake. The seats were ripped, and the car reeked of secondhand smoke. Fast food wrappers and cups were strewn everywhere. “Is this yours?”
“Nope, I borrowed it.” Drake grinned, and Laney knew “borrowed” meant “stole.”
She looked behind them, but no one was giving chase. Some of the tension left her shoulders, and she slumped lower in the seat.
Drake nodded toward the glove compartment. “If you’re hungry, there’s some food in there.”
“I’m good,” Laney said. “How are you here? Why are you here?”
Drake glanced over at her. “Was there a ‘thank you’ in there somewhere?”
Laney smiled. “Thank you. Now why are you here?”
Drake shrugged. “I had some vacation time coming and I thought a ski vacation was just the thing. By the way, I really like the new hair. It suits you.”
Laney ignored the remark. “So you had some vacation time and you thought a quick pit stop through a police raid sounded like a good idea.”
“Well, you know how much I like a good fight.”
“Seriously, Drake. How did you even know I was there?”
“I have my ways. Archangel, remember?”
Laney could only shake her head. “So what’s the plan?”
“Well, I figure we’ll drop off this marvel of American craftsmanship in another hour or so, pick up another car, and head for the airport.”
“By ‘pick up another car,’ you mean steal, right?”
“You know, for a woman wanted for trying to start World War III, you’re awfully concerned about the law. If you really wanted to be a Girl Scout about it, you should have turned yourself in.”
“Well, seeing as that would have meant signing my own death warrant, I elected for a different route.”
Drake’s voice was soft, and for a second the levity that was always on his face disappeared. “I heard. I know how hard it was for you to reveal yourself in Israel. I’m assuming you had no choice.”
Laney was taken aback at the concern in his face. “Yes.”
“Then everything is playing out the way it has to. And you’ll overcome this.”
“I don’t know about that.” She paused. “How did you find me anyway?”
The levity returned. “Oh, I have my ways.”
Laney fingered a new hole in the arm of her jacket. She was thankful to the archangel; without him, she would no longer be breathing. But this incident just confirmed her need to stay away from those she cared about. “Well, let me out somewhere along the way and I’ll be out of your hair.”
Drake raised an eyebrow. “Did you miss the part of the conversation where I explained my plan?”
“No, I heard it. Now pull over.”
“We need to keep going.”
“No, I need to keep going. You need to leave.”
Drake’s eyes flicked toward her, but he pulled over to the side of the road.
“Thank you for saving me,” Laney said. “But I need you to go. I’m not letting anyone else get hurt because of me. Not even you.”
“I’m pretty hard to kill.”
Laney nodded. “You are. But not impossible.”
Drake sighed. “I’m sorry about this.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about it. None of this is your fault. And you did just save my life.”
“No, I don’t mean for any of that.”
Laney frowned. “Then what for?”
“This.”
His fist moved so fast Laney didn’t have time to react. Pain exploded across her temple, and then her world turned black.
CHAPTER 117
The path behind the cabin led to a dirt road that, according to the map Jake had pulled up, dead-ended in one direction and emptied onto a highway in the other. Having no idea which way Laney might have gone, they had split up: Jake and Patrick had managed to borrow a car from the Colorado PD and were heading north on the highway. Henry and Jen were heading south. Henry also had a team of Chandler analysts keeping an eye on every single video feed they could identify, anywhere in the area. But the truth was, there weren’t going to be many cameras out here; it was mostly open country.
Henry and Jen had now been driving for thirty minutes without seeing even a single car, and Henry was growing more tense with each passing mile. Who had taken Laney? Was it a friend or foe? Had Elisabeta sent someone in to finish the job?
Henry felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin. He loved Laney, but right now he could kill her for worrying them all like this. She should have stayed. They would have faced all this together.
But even as he thought it, he discarded the idea. If Laney had stayed, she’d have been incarcerated at best. She’d had to run. He just wished she’d let them run with her. Better together than Laney alone, and everyone else flailing about in complete ignorance.
Jen’s phone rang, and she answered it. “Where?” she said after a moment. “We’re on our way.” She disconnected the call and turned to Henry. “Turn around. Patrick and Jake found the car she was in.”
“How do they know that?”
“They're not sure. It was abandoned. But Jake spoke with the local police and cars abandoned along that strip tend to be moved pretty quick. And the engine was still warm when they reached it.”
“Damn it!”
Henry turned the car around, but he knew it was futile. There was nothing to go on. Perhaps the analys
ts would spot something on a camera somewhere, but Laney had already evaded their search for a month—there was no reason to think that would change now.
What Henry couldn’t figure out was how Laney had escaped. Because she was definitely in there. The spotter for the breach team insisted he saw her, and his description certainly sounded like her. And he saw her moving, so it wasn’t a dummy or decoy. Besides, they would have found a dummy or decoy in the cabin if that had been the case.
No, someone had obviously been there. And someone had clearly been hurt—they had spilled a great deal of blood.
And now that person was gone.
Could Laney have escaped on her own? Those agents had filled that cabin with holes, and Laney didn’t have a healing ability or enough speed to get away. It didn’t make sense.
Henry’s phone beeped. Jen grabbed it and answered. “Hello?” She paused. “Great, send it.”
“What is it?” Henry asked.
“Laney’s been spotted. She was at the Perry Stokes Municipal Airport in Trinidad, Colorado. It’s east of Pagosa. There’s video.”
Henry pulled over and Jen grabbed the iPad from the back seat. She pulled up an airport security feed, showing a black and white image. A twin prop plane stood in the background, and a light-colored car pulled up in the foreground. A man stepped from the driver’s seat. Jen froze the film as the man turned toward the camera.
“Who is that?” Jen asked.
Henry frowned. “I think that’s Drake.”
“Drake? The archangel slash Vegas entertainer?”
“Yeah.”
Jen restarted the video, and they watched Drake walk around to the passenger side. He opened the door and gathered a woman into his arms.
Henry’s pulse picked up. Laney.
Drake turned and walked to the plane. It was a white twin prop with a dark stripe along the side. He opened the back of the plane and placed Laney inside. Then he stood there for a minute, his back to the camera.
“What’s he doing?” Jen asked.
“I think he’s buckling her in.”
They kept watching. Drake got into the plane. A minute later, they taxied out of view.
Henry was on his phone immediately, and the information he wanted was relayed back to him only a few minutes later: the plane belonged to Drake. There was no flight plan. And Drake had taken an indefinite leave from his Vegas show.
Henry shut off his phone and stared out the windshield. But he didn’t even see the snowy landscape in front of him; instead, he was watching Drake carry Laney to the plane.
Drake took her.
What the hell was he up to?
CHAPTER 118
An insistent buzzing outside Laney’s head competed with the loud pounding inside her head. She groaned.
“Oh, good, you’re awake.”
Laney squinted. “Drake?”
“Morning, sunshine.”
Laney blinked, and the interior of the small plane came into view. She turned her head—too sharply—and groaned. Okay, no quick movements. She looked out the window, and saw only a barren landscape. “Where are we?”
“Right now, just over Northern California. There’s some binoculars back there if you want to try your hand at spotting Bigfoot.”
Laney gritted her teeth. “Why are we flying?”
Drake gave her a bewildered look. “Because walking would take way too much time.”
She gritted her teeth again. She’d forgotten how difficult it was to get answers from the archangel. She narrowed her eyes as her last moments of consciousness came back to her. “You—you hit me.”
Drake grinned. “In my defense, you were being unreasonable.”
“Unreasonable? I was trying to protect you, you jackass.”
“Tsk, tsk—such language.”
“Drake, land the plane and let me out.”
He sighed. “You know, for the ring bearer, you’re a slow learner. The last time our conversation went down this path, you ended up unconscious. Besides, you need my help.”
“I—what?”
“You have a mission to complete.”
Laney stared at him in disbelief. She knew he was extravagant and not afraid to take a risk, but she’d never before gotten the impression that he was unhinged. “You do realize half the world’s law enforcement is after me, right? Not to mention more than one death squad?”
“True,” Drake said happily.
“So why would you want to get in the middle of any of that?”
“Well, now that Ralph is no longer with us, keeping you on mission falls to me.”
“‘On mission’? My ‘mission’ is over for the time being.”
Drake shook his head. “No. You need to get ready.”
“Get ready for what?”
The smile dropped from Drake’s face, and for once Laney saw the warrior underneath. “The war.”
She met his gaze, startled at the seriousness in it. “War? What war? Didn’t I just help avoid a war? The priestess is contained. There is no war.”
“That’s not the war I’m talking about. I’m talking about the one against Samyaza.”
Laney groaned. “Drake, I can’t even poke my head out in public. And in case you missed it, I’m completely on my own. I mean, I know the military has that whole ad campaign about being an army of one, but against the Fallen, I think I’m going to need a few more soldiers.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. You’ll have the world helping you when you need it.”
“The same world that’s trying to kill me? And there is no war, Drake. Samyaza, horrible individual that she is, isn’t starting a war.”
“She already has. You just haven’t seen it. So now you need to get ready so you can win it.”
Laney laughed. “Drake, I’m not up for fighting any war. And I’m certainly in no position to win one.”
“Oh, but you are. You’ve been in this position before. You just need to remember.”
Laney tried to make sense of what he was saying. War? She knew that the world had gone to war in the past with the Fallen—but they were nowhere near that point, were they?
“It’s coming, Laney,” Drake said quietly.
Laney looked away from his probing eyes. Even if it was, how was she supposed to help? If she came out of hiding to fight the Fallen, she’d also have to fight the humans who thought she was responsible for everything that had happened in Israel and Australia. Oh, and Washington, DC, and probably another half dozen incidents at this point.
She shook her head. To say her image was in tatters would be an understatement. The situation was impossible.
“I can’t. Not now, not with everything that’s swirling around me. Samyaza’s made it so I’m public enemy number one.”
“True. But it’s not the first time she’s employed this particular approach. You just need to remember what you’re capable of. How you overcame before.”
“You said that already. Are you talking about one of the ring bearer’s past lives?”
“You are the ring bearer, Laney. You have to accept that in your soul. Those past lives are you. You are the same now as you were then.”
“Which incarnation are we talking about?”
Drake smiled. “Your most famous and most maligned.”
Laney thought back. Most famous? Who—
Then she went still, remembering her conversation with Cain. “Helen.”
Drake nodded. “It’s time you learned the real story.”
Laney shook her head. “Drake, I appreciate that you want to help, but you’re not exactly inconspicuous. So just land somewhere safe and let me out.”
Drake sighed. “You’re always so stubborn.”
“What do you mean?”
Drake pointed out the window. “Oh, look! Bigfoot.”
“Drake.”
“Seriously—you’re going to miss him.”
Laney turned. “What are you—?” She felt a pinch at the back of her neck. Her hand flew to th
e spot, and she whirled back around. Drake held a small needle in his hand. “What did you do?”
“You were being unreasonable—again. Now, close your eyes and take a nice little nap. When you wake up, I’m sure you’ll see things more clearly.”
The drug was already working. Exhaustion washed over her. “I hate you, Drake,” she mumbled as her eyes closed, the darkness pulling at her again.
“But you haven’t always,” he whispered softly.
FACT OR FICTION?
Thank you for reading The Belial Guard. I hope you enjoyed yourself and took a break from life for a little while to get lost between its pages. As with all the books in the Belial Series, The Belial Guard is a mixture of fact and fiction. I take some facts and try to weave them into the story line. So, here we go!
Honu Keiki. Honu Keiki is a fictional group, as is their island of Malama. The Children of the Law of One and Lemuria, however, were mentioned by Edgar Cayce, among others, in their discussion of the world during its early, early history.
Alternative Jewish Homelands. Other potential Jewish homelands besides Israel were suggested at one time or another. As mentioned in The Belial Guard, Grand Island, New York was one of those suggestions, although the settlement went nowhere. And Hitler did indeed consider moving Jews to Madagascar before moving on to his more horrific final solution.
Lizard People. I was looking for information on the number of people who believe in the Antichrist when I came across an interesting finding. According to a conspiracy theory poll conducted by Public Policy polling, four percent of Americans believe that the government is being controlled by “lizard people.” Yup, lizard people.
Leper Colony in Hawaii. There was a leper colony on Maui. The colony existed for a hundred years. During that time, over eight thousand people were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to the isolated peninsula. Since it was closed in the 1960s, the colony has been unused, although there is talk about opening it up to the public as a park.
Australian Aborigines. The Aborigines have one of the longest known histories of any people in the world. As described in The Belial Guard, their early history had no direct ties to Lemuria. However, the lifestyles were extremely similar.