Vanishing Point: A Warner & Lopez prequel novel

by Dean Crawford

  For a moment Ethan saw images of his life flicker through his mind’s eye. His youth, his parents, his sister Natalie, his time in the United States Marines and the things he’d seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. The work he’d done with Lopez, the work that they might do again in the future, everything that he had been and everything that he might become.

  And all of it destroyed by this man and his cult, for their own ends. Ethan knew that his best interests were low on the list of priorities for a man like Shilo, but he also knew that if he wanted to bring the cult down he needed to stay here as long as he possibly could.

  ‘Prove it to me,’ he said to Shilo.

  The man grinned and one thick hand clapped Ethan’s shoulder. ‘I will.’

  ***

  XXI

  Lopez drove into Cairo with Henley at her side in the Corvette. The sky was now almost completely dark, sprinkled with stars that were occasionally obscured by low clouds scudding through the evening sky.

  ‘It’s just down here.’

  Henley directed Lopez to the run–down motel where he felt it most likely that an out of towner would choose to stay. As they drove, Lopez’s cell rang and she saw Honor Creston’s name on the screen.

  ‘Talk to me.’

  ‘I got the bank details you were after, the company that used Chicago Respite Incorporated to bail Dwayne Austin. The account is registered to a man named…’

  ‘Shilo Devilgne,’ Lopez interrupted.

  ‘Will you stop doing that?’ Honor complained. ‘These are my meagre moments of glory.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Lopez smiled. ‘You got anything on him that we can use?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Honor replied, ‘former NASA employee who dropped off the radar years ago. It’s a good bet he’s behind whatever’s going on with the homicide. There’s no details of how much the account contained but if he could bail Austin at the drop of a hat, there’s a good chance that he’s got capital behind him. How you do that without a work record is beyond me.’

  ‘Good work Honor,’ Lopez said, ‘we knew the name already but now we have a confirmed money trail it’s gonna be a lot harder for Devilgne to talk his way out of this one. We’re on his trail now, I’ll call in when I have more for you.’

  Within minutes Lopez and Henley were knocking on an apartment door, and Lopez was confronted by a middle–aged blonde lady who looked like she’d spent most of her days living or working outside.

  ‘Lindsay Trent?’

  Lindsay looked Lopez up and down, then glanced at Henley. ‘Who wants to know?’

  ‘I’m Nicola Lopez, Ethan Warner’s partner. This is officer Henley, from Cairo PD.’

  Lindsay’s eyes widened and she stepped back immediately and ushered them in. ‘Have you heard from him yet?’

  ‘No, I was kind of hoping you had,’ Lopez said as Lindsay shut the door after them.

  Lindsay’s shoulders sank and she rubbed her temples with one hand, but she didn’t reply.

  ‘Where did you last see Ethan?’ Henley asked.

  ‘At the island,’ Lindsay replied. ‘He insisted on going in alone, wouldn’t let me follow.’

  ‘What’s he doing there, and why did you bail him out of Kankakee?’ Lopez asked.

  Lindsay sat on the edge of the bed and explained what had happened. Lopez listened, realizing what had driven Ethan to abandon both her and his bond requirements and flee south.

  ‘So, he’s on a rescue mission?’ Henley asked.

  ‘That’s what he’s down here for,’ Lindsay agreed. ‘He wants to clear his own name of course, and finding and exposing the cult is one way to do that, to draw links between them and Dwayne Austin’s death. If he finds my Ben at the same time, all the better, right?’

  Lopez could see the whole picture now, but what worried her was that Ethan could not. He would have no idea about the government connection, nor that they would probably come down here with force once they realized that the Sheriff’s department was about to converge on Cairo in a heavily armed manhunt.

  ‘There’s no way they’re not going to come through here without finding that cult,’ Henley said.

  ‘Everything would be out in the open,’ Lopez agreed. ‘If this Majestic Twelve or some other major government organisation really is behind all of this then they’re going to clean up here and move on. Anybody who gets in their way is going to be toast, especially folks with nobody out there to miss them.’

  ‘What?’ Lindsay asked. ‘What’s Majestic Twelve?’

  Lopez sat down alongside her on the bed.

  ‘I have no doubt that Ethan’s found what he’s looking for,’ Lopez said. ‘He’s been gone too long and would have returned by now if there was nothing out there on that island.’

  ‘Well then why hasn’t he contacted me?’ Lindsay asked.

  ‘I don’t think that’s his plan,’ Lopez replied. ‘My best guess is that he’s going to stay right where he is and bring the entire Sheriff’s department down on that island. But he doesn’t know about the government funding behind it all. They’ll be the ones who go in there and clean everything up before handing Ethan over to the sheriffs, and you can bet that any evidence of his innocence will vanish into thin air and that’ll be the end of everything for him.’

  Lindsay began to realize what had happened.

  ‘They’ll cover up the cult activity.’

  ‘And with it their murder of Dwayne Austin,’ Henley added. ‘Ethan will be convicted and spend the rest of his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit.’

  ‘Ethan’s got previous,’ Lopez explained, ‘nothing serious but he was in jail briefly after his time in the Marines, before he met me. It’ll be a slam–dunk case.’

  Lindsay stood upright. ‘Then we need to do something about it!’

  Lopez admired the woman’s spirit as she stood up and smiled. ‘Good. The Sheriff’s are right behind us and they’re trigger happy. I don’t know about any other units out there but the sooner we can get to that island the better. I need you to be here to document everything that you see, film everything and anything. The more evidence we have of a cover–up here, the better Ethan’s chances if it all goes south and he’s sent to trial.’

  Lindsay’s resolve hardened before Lopez and she nodded.

  ‘You got it. By the time I’m finished they’ll be hanging a Pulitzer around my neck.’

  Lopez turned to Henley. ‘We need to get to that island and get Ethan off it before who–the–hell–knows comes crashing through there and wipes the slate clean.’

  ‘There’s a motor launch down by Fort Defiance that we sometimes use,’ Henley said. ‘We can go from there and maybe use it to get out again too.’

  Lopez nodded, and Henley pulled his jacket back to reveal his service side arm.

  ‘Even better,’ Lopez said. ‘I’m not expecting anyone in this to play nicely. You sure you’re good to go?’

  Henley let the jacket fall back into place and waited expectantly. Lopez smiled in genuine gratitude.

  ‘Let’s get them out of there,’ she said, and then looked at Lindsay, ‘both of them.’

  *

  Sheriff McBride threw a map down across the hood of a patrol truck as a dozen armed deputies and dog units gathered around under the glow of flash lights. The darkening evening flickered unnaturally from the flashing red and blue hazard lights of other patrol vehicles parked along the sidewalk nearby.

  ‘All right, this guy’s jumped bail but he’s not your average low–life,’ McBride announced. ‘He’s a former Marine, highly trained and he may be armed. He’s wanted for a homicide up in Kankakee, got bailed by a local from the area and took off somewhere down here in Cairo. We’ve got witnesses say they saw him hanging around the area, lookin’ suspicious, and last information we have suggests he kept movin’ south toward Angelo Towbar.’

  McBride pointed at the map.

  ‘If he crossed the border into Missouri or Kentucky then the feds will get involved, but my guess is that he
’s holed up either in south Cairo or out on the towbar. This guy knows how to fend for himself in the wild, but the towbar doesn’t carry enough wildlife for him to last too long out there. We’ve got units from Missouri and Kentucky PD keeping a lookout for him across the rivers, so all we gotta do is keep applyin’ pressure from the north and flush him down their way. Irony of ironies, his partner is a bail bondsman and is hunting him down also.’

  There was a ripple of chuckles from the gathered officers.

  ‘She’s about somewhere down here, and we’re also looking for one Lindsay Trent, who originally bailed Warner for fifty big ones and has also taken off. I don’t think she’s involved directly with Warner but right now she’s a person of interest for sure. You all have images on your cells, so let’s get to it and bring this guy in before he kills anybody else. Lock and load, gentlemen, this one’s serious.’

  ***

  XXII

  Ethan was led into a clearing in the forest that allowed a panoramic view of the heavens above. He could see low cumulus cloud drifting across billions of stars emblazoned across the vault of the night sky, and the gathering of people around him were absolutely silent as they walked through the darkness.

  Shilo Devilgne led them, saying nothing as he guided them along animal trails that led into the clearing. Ethan was aware that the cult members had become experts in the towhead’s topography in the years that they had lived here, able to move silently even in absolute darkness, but he also noticed that many of them were possessed of the glowing eyes, as though there was something mechanical inserted behind their retina that became visible in the darkness, like night–vision goggles.

  Shilo stopped in the middle of the clearing, his head turned up to the stars as the cult gathered around him and sat down amid the long grass. They carried no lights, nothing in their hands, simply sitting down and folding their hands in their laps as they watched Shilo expectantly.

  The cult leader turned and looked at Ethan, who remained standing.

  ‘So many people,’ Shilo said, ‘spend their lives looking down. They stare at computer screens, televisions, cell phones, or walk through streets so busy that their entire awareness is focused on not walking into anybody else. They never, ever turn their heads upwards.’

  ‘Travesty,’ Ethan said, maintaining his aloof stance to Shilo’s melodrama.

  ‘Their loss,’ Shilo countered. ‘Folks think that UFOs are something rare, something that other people see on lonely country roads at night, but they’re here most all the time. Folks just don’t see them.’

  Ethan said nothing, instead just waiting to see what was going to happen. As long as Shilo and his goons were out here staring up at the stars, there was the chance that the police would show up and find both Ethan and close to a hundred missing people, which would no doubt close the books on numerous cold–cases and might even help solve a homicide or two, Ethan certain that he wasn’t the first person to fall victim to Shilo’s cunning machinations.

  ‘We have seen them here at any time we’ve called,’ Shilo went on, raising his hands, ‘we alone have the power and the belief to bring our ancestors and our future here to this…’

  ‘Go big or go home,’ Ethan uttered.

  Shilo lowered his hands, then smiled in the darkness. ‘A shame, that you so willingly ridicule what could become the most important thing you’ll ever see in your life.’

  Ethan did not respond. Shilo took one pace, slammed two big hands down on Ethan’s shoulders and drove him down onto his knees. The force Shilo applied was beyond all human capability and Ethan felt sharp lances of pain bolt through his knees as they slammed into the Earth.

  ‘Show some respect,’ Shilo growled.

  Ethan again remained silent. It occurred to him that he might become some kind of lunatic sacrifice to nameless sky gods if he pushed his luck too far. Shilo glared at him for a moment, and then he walked back to the centre of the circle of his followers.

  ‘Ethan, you see me, us, as an enemy, but we’re here for a purpose far greater than you could have imagined. Tell me, have you ever heard of World One?’

  ‘They a boy band?’ Ethan asked.

  ‘We wish it were so,’ Shilo replied. ‘World One is a computer program devised by scientists at the prestigious Massechussetts Institute of Technology. The program was designed to help predict the future of our civilization, to give humanity an idea of where we were headed. It was originally devised by computer pioneer Jay Forrester, who had been tasked by the Club of Rome to develop a model of global sustainability. The program was fed data from as many modern sources as possible and then run, to predict the future.’

  Shilo sighed, and it appeared that his followers sighed in unison with him.

  ‘When they ran the model, the program predicted the end of civilization by the year 2040. The rise of pollution and unsustainable population growth would cause a global collapse, with both industrial growth and human health suffering sharp declines thereafter.’ Shilo held out his hands as though in supplication. ‘The first major changes in quality of life were predicted to occur by around the year 2020.’

  Ethan peered at the occultists.

  ‘And you guys coming out here and murdering each other will solve that how?’

  Shilo shook his head.

  ‘Still, you don’t understand. Look at us, Ethan. We consume so little, barely anybody knows that we’re here. Even if we did use televisions and other appliances, we could do so with almost no noticeable environmental footprint. We have that ability already, but few choose to use it. This commune is not about changing the way we live, it’s about getting ready for that change.’

  Shilo gestured to the world outside with a grand sweep of his arms.

  ‘Our planet simply cannot support our way of life with the natural resources available to us,’ he said. ‘The predictions made by World One are already coming true: stagnating quality of life, resources unaffordable for most, greater divide between rich and poor, polarising politics and the division of nations. Industry continues to pollute, drawing down the resources even further and causing a run of extinctions, which restricts available resources for many nations resulting in widespread famines, even in western countries. Trust in leaders reaches an all time low, civil protest and disobedience increases, populist leaders take control, fuelling the flames of racism and fascism with heavy rhetoric to drive their rise to power. Alliances crumble in the rush to secure dwindling resources, international trade dries up as a result, food shortages follow and disease spreads. The human population is expected to halve before this century ends.’

  Ethan could not be sure whether or not any computer model could accurately predict the future of humanity in such a way, but he was starkly aware that for the first time since arriving here Shilo Devilgne was actually being sensible. Nothing he had said rang out as untrue and Ethan could easily understand both what he was saying and how the flow of one crisis to another could cause another great extinction of life on earth.

  The question was, would mankind be able to innovate his way out of it?

  ‘The future of humanity is still no excuse for murder, Shilo,’ Ethan replied. ‘You can dress this all up any way you want, but we both know you’re a wanted killer and sooner or later, apocalypse or not, it’s going to catch up with you.’

  ‘This is all more important than any one human being,’ Shilo snapped. ‘You, me, all of us, this is not about humans, it’s about humanity. It is time to bring another unbeliever into our fold. Time to show them the light, and bring them out of the shadows.’

  Ethan saw the cult members glancing at him, many of them smiling in anticipation. Ethan saw Ben among them, just visible in the faint starlight, watching Ethan silently. Ethan figured that seeing as Ben was still alive, and must also have been through this, whatever was coming wasn’t going to kill Ethan, at least not yet. Ethan glanced to his right and could see a faint glow in the sky above the trees, an orange halo on the bottom of the clouds that bet
rayed the presence of the town of Cairo just over the water.

  He’d seen enough. Now he needed to focus on his escape, while at the same time ensuring that the cult was cornered by the police and that their underground lair was revealed.

  He was about to make a break for it when the cult members around him started to hum.

  He didn’t know why he stopped his thoughts of escape, but suddenly he was compelled to stay where he was. There was something about the noise that they made, something that was almost comforting, white noise for the busy human mind. Ethan hadn’t slept well in jail, and he’d been on his feet for almost eighteen hours, so he knew that his fatigue was playing into their hands.

  Ethan glanced at Shilo, the cult leader’s back turned to Ethan and his head raised to the heavens, his arms out–stretched. Ethan could make the treeline before anyone would notice, could be at the water within ten minutes, and back in Cairo within thirty. Every member had their eyes closed and were humming the same note that gently lulled a lazy rhythm back and forth, as though accompanying each and every breath.

  ‘Don’t run.’

  The voice was a soft whisper, barely audible. Ethan turned and saw Ben close by, the boy having moved with startling silence through the darkness. Ethan didn’t say anything, and Ben whispered again.

  ‘They’re all crazy,’ he said, his whispers veiled by the rhythmic humming that surrounded them, ‘but they’re not lying. You gotta see this.’

  Ethan remained where he was, figuring that Ben knew more about this than he did.

  ‘You need to get out of here,’ Ethan whispered. ‘Shilo’s willing to send men to their deaths to protect his little cult, and others to prison for crimes they didn’t commit. He’s a criminal, nothing more.’

  ‘I know,’ Ben replied. ‘But he’s onto something here. I’ve been watching, they’ve done this before. It’s why I didn’t leave.’