Talia grabbed the necklace. Sophie had given it to her after she had seen them safe in Monte Carlo courtesy of David Sharon’s helicopter rescue from Syria. She pulled the chip and the phone close together and the signal cleared up considerably.
“Okay. I understand. Can you communicate with Keith?”
“Yes. Believe it or not, Drew Summers has a ring set with a corundum ruby. Keith is using it to boost his phone signal. He said the prison was attacked and they are hiding in one of the outbuildings. The warden is with them and agreed to do what he can to help. He has gate access via biometrics. Your aunt is asking if you got Brad Shannon’s text about the transfer?”
“I only got pieces of it.”
“Brad gave Drew legal papers to take the school administrator prisoners to a safe place. They were about to do that when the EMP hit the prison. The electronics were damaged in the van they were driving but they think they can go a short distance. They already have your father-in-law and the others but they can’t afford to have anyone catch them or find the van and trace them if they have to abandon it. They say a big helicopter with a riot squad aboard landed shortly after the EMP and there is a search underway. But the warden confirmed the prison is secure. No inmates escaped. This manhunt has to be directed at finding Drew and the others and stopping this transfer attempt.”
“You see?” Talia said to Mike. “We have to go after them. We can put the van inside your truck, and bring everyone back here. Please say you’ll help.”
“Have they got some people with muscle? That van will have to be empty of fuel and have the batteries disconnected before I can put it in the truck. It makes no sense to risk an explosion. That means strong backs and ramps, and I don’t have any ramps.”
“I’m relaying that to Keith,” Eva said. She paused. “He says they have ramps in the storage building. They will put them in the van and try to get out. If they make it out, I can help you trace their signal and find them.”
“Please help us,” Talia begged Mike. “Please.”
“Okay,” Mike said. “Make sure they drain that van to just enough fumes to get them out somewhere on a road where I can drive the truck.”
“I will tell them,” Eva said. “Talia, later I will explain everything. God forgave me. That’s what people keep telling me. I want your forgiveness too.”
“I want to hear all about it, Eva.” Talia blinked back tears and put away the phone. “Let’s go.”
“You should be very close to them now,” Eva said. “They ran out of gas, and they say they can see down into the prison. The men who came in the helicopter are getting back onto it. Very soon they will be searching by air for the van.”
Mike rounded a corner in the fading daylight and Talia saw a silver van on the side of the road.
“A twelve passenger?” Mike groaned. “This will not be fun.”
He pulled off on the shoulder just past the vehicle. Four people grabbed ramps from the back of the van and hurried to the back of the trailer as Mike swung the doors open. People kept coming out of the Chevy and Talia’s eyes went wide when she recognized Keith in the gray Magnum Security uniform. She ran to hug him.
“Later,” he said into her hair. “Three of the prisoners were hurt too bad to walk by themselves. The rest of us think we can get the van into the truck. Go load up the wounded so we can do that. The batteries are already disconnected, Mike.”
Talia and Mary walked the three invalids, two women and a man, to the cab of the truck and helped them climb in. Talia tried not to listen to the groaning and straining and the grinding noises along with metallic screeching as the crew in the back wrestled with the van. In the distance she could already hear rotor blades beating the air, faintly, but coming closer.
“Okay! Got it!” shouted Keith just as Talia stationed herself in the bushes with a rifle borrowed from one of the security people at the camp. They threw the ramps into the back and Mike secured the barn doors. Mike put his hands on his hips and stared at the exhausted, sweaty crowd and said, “I’m not pushing any of you up into the cab. Come on. Let’s get moving.”
“Look! It’s the helicopter!” someone screamed.
Talia stood up as Keith came by, half-dragging his dad, whose face was a mass of bruises. They jumped back, seeing the gun. Talia lowered the weapon and kissed her father-in-law very gently on the cheek.
“I’m so glad to see you.” She raised the rifle and took aim at the copter, using the trailer as cover. “Get in the truck. Hurry!”
Talia could hear the group scrambling to obey. She sighted on the copter in the twilit sky, not sure where the fuel tank might be. When a side door started to open she decided not to worry and opened fire at any spot she could hit. Others of Drew’s security team also unlimbered their sidearms but no one else had the range yet. Talia prayed that meant the shooter in the helicopter didn’t either.
“Everybody else is in! Come on!” Keith screamed from the passenger side fairing, the door hanging open. Talia ran for the truck and Keith pulled her up and shut the door. They tried to join the mob on the floor and the bunks but there wasn’t any room, so Keith sat in the passenger seat with Talia in his lap.
“Well, I guess they’ll know our truck now,” Mary said. “We should have left the van behind.”
“I know I hit the copter more than once,” Talia insisted. “How many men got off it for the prison raid?”
“At least twenty,” Drew answered.
“They probably sacrificed fuel for payload from the beginning, expecting to take you easily,” Talia. “And kept it running while they searched, right? They’d want to get airborne again in a hurry. If it’s leaking fuel it can’t follow us far.”
“It’s also not as easy to be sure of a truck’s appearance from the air,” Mike said. “Remember it’s dusk, and they weren’t shining any lights on us, because they didn’t want to be a clearer target either. There’s some pretty thick tree cover here, and I played a game one time, just for fun, figuring out how many routes there are to Precious Treasure. I’m topped off – fueled at the truckstop before I got the EMP message. We’ll take the long way around, if your wounded can stand some bumping.”
Before long the copter had passed out of view. The three most seriously injured school administrators all insisted they would rather bounce around than risk being followed to the campground. Talia made her way around to help change dressings and give out pain medication from her and Keith’s duffel bags, with Mary’s help and that of a couple of Drew’s employees. Finally she made her way through to Joshua Bradley and dabbed ointment on his split lip.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“Never mind,” he said, patting her hand. Talia thought he looked as fragile as his mother in that moment. “I’m so glad our warrior angel came to our rescue. We’ll be all right now. We’ll be all right.”
Chapter Eighty-three –What’s the Plan?
In the middle of the night Dr. Ewing arrived at the campground and took over care of the injured. No one asked how she knew about what had happened. Talia and Keith were able to get communications back up shortly after dawn, but before they could get in touch with the Mexico team, Tim Holden asked to see them.
“Carol Sheldon …” he said. “I didn’t know … She and Dr. Williams – that state education woman – they’re sisters. And they have another sister. Her name is Jenny Kaine.”
Dr. Ewing had informed them that Tim Holden had contracted a severe infection. She wasn’t sure if she could treat it successfully. He looked gray and his speech came in rasping bursts.
“Those three women concocted this whole plan,” Tim said. “They wanted attention for that Relief from Belief group and to hook it up with some of those bigger secularist organizations. They wanted the control this repository would give them over religious teaching and knowledge.”
Talia gave him ice chips and Dr. Ewing came in to check his IV. She changed out the bag, checked his vitals, shook her head, and departed. Tim saw her l
ook and forced himself to continue.
“Jenny Kaine found out about this search of yours for those golden copies of the Scriptures. There they were, trying to eradicate religion and reliance on the Bible. There you were, trying to dredge up some indestructible copies of the very thing they wanted wiped out of existence.”
“Why would they even believe or care that such a thing existed?” Talia asked.
“It wasn’t so much that they believed it. They saw other people were starting to believe it. Jenny Kaine – she’s a demon of destruction who wants to choke religious hope out of people.”
“Yeah,” Keith said. “I’ve heard her thoughts on the subject.”
“Carol Sheldon recruited my wife and Vera Gregory, and they in turn bamboozled their husbands into moving into your school’s area. Maybe they considered you especially dangerous. Jenny Kaine thought finding and destroying what you were searching would make her reputation and make people take her seriously. It wasn’t enough to just insult you and act like it was a hoax.
“She didn’t know how you were keeping information from her. She orchestrated all of the out of country spying and attacks but she couldn’t do more than give you temporary setbacks. The one hard fact she had was that no matter how successful they were in choking off reliance on and access to the Bible, you had some kind of backup plan. She also knew you were looking for ways to transmit information outside of the normal channels.”
“Tim, how did you learn all this?” Keith asked.
“After the school board meeting I fought with Julia about all this stuff you and I talked about, but I was still so confused. Carol Sheldon came to our house and said we needed to come with her. I tried to get rid of her but Julia said if I’d just go, I’d get an explanation for everything that had been bothering me.
“How could you leave your children home alone?” Talia asked.
“I swear I thought this would be a short session that wouldn’t convince me of anything, and I’d be back home packing to get the kids away from Julia in an hour. Shows you how messed up my thinking was. The kids were already on their way to your place, scared away by our arguing. Julia got violent with me pretty often in the past, and she was hitting me with her fists and … other things. I don’t blame the kids for being scared, but I’m not saying it wasn’t partly my fault that they ran out.
“We went to the Sheldon place and Carol’s husband Roy, and John and Vera Gregory were already there. Dr. Williams and Jenny Kaine were there as well.
“I have a proposal. Think carefully before you answer,” Jenny Kaine said. “All three of you men have expressed reservations about your wives’ work here in this community and at Bradley Central. It will look bad if your happy families get broken up, but they are in this too deep to stop now.”
“Broken up? What are you talking about?” Roy demanded, staring at Carol. “You can’t kick me out just because I think this campaign against the Bradleys has gone a little too far.”
“I’d like to know what you have against them,” I said. “They seem to be good people who care about our kids.”
“Do us a favor,” Carol snapped. “All you husbands. Just go back to being ignorant, uninvolved, fun dads, not caring about your kids’ education, and you get to stay in your marriages and keep your kids.”
“You’re crazy!” John said. “How is this grounds for divorce?”
Vera stuck a finger in his face. “Don’t tempt me to show you. Just do what we ask.”
‘But –” I said.
Julia slapped me across the face, raking with her fingernails like they were claws. It wasn’t the first time she’d hit me, but it was the first time I was truly afraid of her. I was about to run for it but she grabbed me by the arm.
“Don’t interfere,” she said. “Don’t talk to those Bradleys anymore. Let us do what moms do– take care of our kids’ schooling – and everything will be fine.”
“Julia,” I said. Her fingernails were cutting into my arm. “They’re my children too.”
Carol said to me, “These kids are our validation, our success stories. You think being a wife is some kind of fulfilling job? Just listen to Julia. Stay out of this.”
“Stay out of what?” I asked. Carol laughed and told me everything I just told you, about her and Dr. Williams and Jenny Kaine. When she finished, I said, “Why do the Bradleys matter so much to you?”
“People like them stand in the way of everyone getting over God and religion,” Jenny Kaine said. “We’ll never have freedom and power and control while people keep talking about a Supreme Being who judges us.”
“You’re insane,” I said.
“John? Roy?” Dr. Williams spoke for the first time. “And Tim, you get one last chance. Be good boys and obey your wives.”
Those other two men hung their heads like whipped dogs.
“No,” I said. “I’m done here. I’m going to go get our kids and you can sue me for divorce or custody or whatever you need to do, Julia.”
“Stop him,” Jenny Kaine said. John and Roy stepped forward and grabbed me by the arms.
“Sorry, Tim,” John muttered. “I can’t lose my kids. I can’t.”
“They shoved me inside the Sheldons’ pool house. It was winterized – storm windows and doors. It was like a fort. I couldn’t figure out how to get out. I thought I saw the sun coming up, but I realized the building was on fire. They were trying to burn me alive inside it.
“I … I managed to break one of the storm windows, and … I cut myself, and ran to hide in the woods. I guess I passed out for a long time. I went to our house but I couldn’t find the kids. I didn’t know who to go to … who would believe me.
“So I came to your place. I’m sorry I scared everyone, looking like I did. I just … I needed to tell someone, even though this doesn’t make any sense to me. I was hoping you could explain more about what you’re trying to do, and I could help you. There just wasn’t any time to help … But at least maybe now you know more about what you’re up against.”
“Do you know why those parents never came back home in the morning?” Talia asked.
“No, and I can’t understand that,” Tim answered. “If they’re even pretending to care about those kids, why would they abandon them?”
Keith asked, “Where did they go? What are they going to do next?”
Tim sagged back on the bed. “I don’t know. I’m so tired.”
“Can we pray with you?” Talia asked.
“Will it do any good?” Tim asked. “I saw how your doctor was looking at me. I’m going to die, right? I can’t say I’m a believer, or a particularly good person. How can God do anything for a person who still doesn’t even understand who or what He is?”
“You understand what it means to be a father, right?” Keith asked.
“I used to think I was a good father,” Tim replied. “I tried to be a good husband too. I feel like I’ve failed to be a good anything.”
“Sometimes it’s not you that failed,” Keith said. “I don’t know all your circumstances, but God was the perfect father as our Creator, and wanted to love us like a husband should love his wife. Problem is, we let sin get in the way. We ran from Him to have our freedom or do our own thing.
“We don’t even understand how He can want anything to do with us, much less send His Son to die so we could be right with him. Nobody understands God enough to wrap his head around that. We’re just going to pray for you, and ask God to heal you so you can learn to understand Him better, and be around for Lynette and Ruan.”
Keith put his hand lightly on Tim’s injured shoulder. “God, please show Tim what a loving, healing, forgiving Father you can be. Let Him learn to love You back.”
“Amen,” Talia whispered.
Keith and Talia went to see Joshua Bradley and found his mother already with him. They sat in chairs beside his hospital bed, and he looked vastly improved. “We need to pray for your trip,” he said. “Come over here. Let’s hold hands.”
&n
bsp; “Our … trip?” Keith repeated.
“Back to Mexico,” Mrs. Bradley said. “Don’t you think that’s where you need to be? Someone is trying their hardest to cause the Great Thirst. You need to be trying your hardest to quench it. We can watch over these children and those parents. You need to be on your way, before it’s too late.”
“Let us tell you what Tim Holden said first,” Keith said.
When he had heard them out, his father shook his head. “That doesn’t change a thing. These women have been doing what they are doing for years, and others before them. You’ve hardly started to prepare for whatever their endgame might be. Clearly the tools to fight them are in Mexico, given that Eva could talk to you when they were able to break down all our other communication. You need to go hear what’s been happening down there. Don’t worry about what happens here. I’m sure the key is down there.”
“Okay, then,” Keith said. He grabbed Talia’s hand and his grandmother’s. “Let’s get to praying.”
They hurried out of Joshua Bradley’s room afterwards, headed for the command center to contact the Mexico team and make travel arrangements. Tim Holden and Dr. Ewing met them in the hallway.
“I never mind losing a patient this way,” Dr. Ewing said, straight-faced.
Keith and Talia exchanged looks. Tim wore no bandage. His color looked normal. The IV was gone.
“I guess God answered your prayer,” he said.
“You guess?” Talia retorted. “It looks like you shouldn’t have any doubt that somebody healed you.”
Tim shot Dr. Ewing a look.
“Don’t even consider that I had anything to do with it,” she said, throwing up her hands. “Now, as for you two – Mr. Bradley is mending, and the others are my responsibility. You need not feel tied to any invalids. Go. Mexico is where you need to be.”
“Do you know something we don’t?” Keith asked.
“First, Mr. Holden needs to go reassure his children, plus gain some perspective on what has happened to him.”
The Great Thirst Boxed Set Page 51