Authors: Jeff Gunhus
A gurgling sound rose from the back of Max’s throat. His legs started to thrash in wild spasms. Jack watched his friend deteriorate before him. His skin drew in on itself, like shrink wrap on wet plastic. His bones stuck out, in some places breaking through the now brittle skin. Max was turning into a corpse right in front of them.
“I don’t get it.” Lonetree said. “He’s had to have killed hundreds of people over the years. Why would he give up now to save one little girl?”
Jack didn’t have the same question in his mind. He knew. He knew because he also was a father and understood the bond. Understood a father’s willingness to sacrifice himself so that his daughter could live. Max wasn’t just saving a little girl, he was saving
his
little girl. Jack knew he would trade his own life in a second if he could get Sarah back safely. He leaned in so that Max could hear him. “That’s it, isn’t it? You did this for Jesse?”
Max nodded but his eyes were unfocused. His head dipped as if he were drifting off to sleep.
“Listen. I need your help. Please, for the love of God, tell me who the Boss is. Tell me where they’ve taken Sarah.” Max was drifting away so Jack reached out to shake him awake. But when he grabbed his arm, his fingers sank into rotten flesh until he clutched bone. He pulled back his hand in disgust, bile rising in the back of his throat.
On a violent exhalation of breath that sent blood and spittle flying through the air, Max tried to form a word.
“Come on. Say it. COME ON.”
Jack pleaded as he watched Max’s eyes turn into pale blue clouds as clusters of cataracts grew like crystals.
“How do I stop them?” Jack shouted. “How do I stop them from killing my daughter?”
It was too late. Max was dead.
They didn’t have a plan. They parked around the corner and kept to the shadows as they jogged up to the hospital grounds. There were a half dozen cop cars in the parking lot, but only one of them was running. Lonetree pointed out the fire escape he’d used to break into the third floor on his first visit to Huckley. Framed in the window was the silhouette of a man in uniform. Lonetree looked through his field binoculars.
“That’s a cop watching the window.”
“Now what?” Jack asked.
“Don’t worry about him. A little diversion in the front of the hospital and he’ll go check it out.”
Jack asked the question that had been nagging at him. “Why didn’t you kill Huckley when you sneaked in there the first time?”
“I needed to find out who would protect him. I knew about Janney, Max and Butcher, but I needed to see who else came out of the woodwork. The Boss is the one I’m looking for. You have to understand, I don’t want to just kill these people. I want to punish them. What happened to your buddy Max back there is fine with me.”
Jack didn’t argue. As long as Lonetree was after the same people he was after, he didn’t care where he got his motivation. Besides, if the unthinkable were to happen and Sarah were killed, he would welcome any punishment Lonetree meted out. In fact, he would be right next to him. “From what Max said, it sounds like Huckley has turned into a loose cannon. I’m surprised someone didn’t finish him off while he was in the coma.”
“I’ve thought about that. I’m guessing the Boss has a use for him. Max said Huckley can communicate with the Source. Either Huckley is insane and he’s imagining things or the Source possesses some kind of sentient intelligence. Either way, I think it’s time to screw with the Boss’s plans. He wants Huckley alive. For me, that’s a good enough reason to kill him. At least it will force the Boss to react.”
Jack nodded, vaguely aware how he now talked about death and killing as easily as if he were planning strategy for a road trip. Still, something bothered him about Lonetree’s first visit to Huckley’s hospital room. “So if you weren’t trying to kill him, what were you doing in his room?”
Lonetree looked away uncomfortably. “I did a ritual my father taught me when I was young. Wards off evil spirits.”
“Huckley said there was something stopping him from getting to you. Called it Indian magic.”
Lonetree shrugged his shoulders. “He hasn’t bothered me at all.”
“Except for almost killing you in the cave.”
“I blame you for that. Maybe I should do the ritual to keep me safe from you and that trigger finger of yours.” Lonetree’s smile stood out in the dark.
Jack laughed. “Don’t try to bond with me.” Then his tone turned more serious. “If Janney’s here, then I’ve got to get to him and make him talk.”
“You think all those deputies with guns are going to let you do that?”
Frustrated, Jack said, “All right, you’re the commando military guy. What should we do?”
“Like I said, it’s time to do away with Huckley. Once he’s gone, we might have a better chance to spook the others into the open. Maybe even give up your daughter.”
Jack realized it was the first time Lonetree had mentioned Sarah in any of his plans. He appreciated the gesture but wondered if the big man was patronizing him. “Why would they do that?”
“No one wants to die. But I imagine guys who have to opportunity to live forever want to avoid death that much more. With a choice of facing me, or releasing Sarah, they might let her go.”
“But you’re not going to stop if I get Sarah back.”
“They don’t know that, do they?” Lonetree said with a smile.
A shiver passed through Jack’s body and every hair stood upright on the back of his neck. He reached down for the gun Lonetree had given him and held it out. “Maybe you should take this. What if it happens again? What if Huckley forces me to use it on you?”
“He hasn’t tried anything since we left the cave, so…” Lonetree said with a shrug. They were both in uncharted territory, the blind leading the blind. “Besides, the first mention of glowing bodies floating through the air, I’m just going to shoot you in both arms. Just to be on the safe side.”
“Before you do that, try disarming me first.”
“I’ll try,” Lonetree said, his tone suggesting that his solution was much easier and more likely his first choice.
Jack looked back at the squad cars in the parking lot beneath them. He saw two uniformed police walk by the glass doors that lead to the emergency room “How about a plan?”
“Well, that depends on you.”
“How so?”
Lonetree nodded to the gun in Jack’s hand, “It depends. Would you rather go to the front of the hospital and create a massive diversion and then hold off about two dozen cops who will be trying to kill you.”
“And option two?”
“Climb up that fire escape, sneak into Huckley’s room and squeeze off five or six rounds into his chest.”
Jack thought through his answer. A week ago he could never have contemplated taking another man’s life. But things were different now. The bastard had his daughter. He nodded toward the fire escape. “Option two. I’ll take Huckley.”
“Are you sure? We’re only going to get one shot at this. I can’t have you getting in there and find you don’t have what it takes to pull the trigger.”
“He wants to torture and kill my daughter. Trust me, I won’t have a problem.”
Lonetree stared into Jack’s eyes for several long seconds. Finally, as if satisfied with what he saw in his companion’s expression, he clapped him on the shoulder. “All right. Here’s the plan.”
Lauren hung up the phone with Sushma, thankful that at least Becky was safe. Her eldest daughter had been quiet on the phone, but didn’t seem mad at her anymore. Lauren figured it was one more thing to thank Sushma for. She imagined that her friend had used the three hour car ride to help Becky understand that her mom was just looking out for her.
Whatever she said, it worked. The last words her daughter said were, “I love you, Mom. Find Sarah for us.”
It had taken everything Lauren had to keep her composure. She managed to talk in spite of the few tears that broke through the emotional wall she’d erected around herself. She told Becky she loved her too, and that she would call again in the morning.
She looked around the room. Police and hospital staff were scattered around, all trying very hard to appear that they had not heard the whole conversation even though the room was small enough and quiet enough that not hearing every word was impossible. It was an act of kindness, this false privacy, but, like everything that night, it took on a devious quality in her mind. Instead of politeness, their faked indifference seemed like spying to her. How gullible did they think she was anyway?
A quick glance at the clock told her it was almost midnight, six hours since her phone call from Jack. She was beyond rationalizing the meaning of his disappearance. Five hours ago she was convinced that he was in traffic somewhere. That he didn’t want to take the time to pull over to a pay phone.
Four hours ago she thought he might be in a car accident, again without a phone. She was worried for him and listened to the police scanners in the room, sure that word of a terrible accident would be announced any second. After that, her excuses for his absence ran out. She’d spent the last couple of hours facing the fact that perhaps her husband’s mental illness was worse than she thought. Maybe Scott Moran wasn’t a liar. Maybe Jack’s delusions were really a leading indicator of more profound psychological issues. He’d sounded so manic on the phone. So paranoid.
Maybe he did take Sarah.
The thought welled up in her mind despite her insistence that it stay away from her. When the possibility first occurred to her, she’d prayed for it to be so, hoped to God that Jack had come in and taken Sarah away. Even delusional, she could never have imagined that Jack would ever hurt their little girl. But now, with hour after empty hour to contemplate Jack’s bizarre behavior, she couldn’t be sure. Maybe Jack was capable of hurting their baby. She hated herself for thinking it, but how could she not wonder? What mother wouldn’t at least wonder?
The many police scanners spread throughout the room suddenly erupted in bursts of voices and static. Lauren couldn’t understand the tinny radio voices but the police and deputies in the room reacted immediately to what was being said. They surged out of their chairs and headed toward the entrance of the emergency room. The ones with their wits about them hung back with their guns drawn.
“What is it?” Lauren shouted to a deputy passing her. “What’s going on?”
“Someone’s shooting outside,” the deputy said. “One of our guys is hit.”
“Who’s shooting?” Lauren called out.
But the deputy was already moving toward a window on the far side of the room. He braced himself in position and knocked out the window with the handle of his gun. Just as the last shards of glass hit the floor, Janney strode into the room.
“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted at the deputy. “What is this, a shoot out in the Wild West for shit’s sake? That window doesn’t even look out over the parking lot, you moron!” He grabbed the deputy by the collar and pushed him toward the emergency door. “Get out there and see what’s going on.”
The voices on the scanner lost their edge of panic and Lauren started to get a feel for what was happening. A gunman, maybe more than one, was taking shots at the patrol cars in the parking lot. No one could tell where the shots were coming from.
Janney grabbed the scanner, “Sorenson? Are you hit?”
Static, then Sorenson’s voice came over, “It’s just glass. I thought I was hit, but the son-of-a-bitch blew out the windshield and the glass nicked me in a few places.”
“Nicked me in a few places,” Janney mumbled under his breath, his rising temper evident to everyone in the room. He pressed a button on his walkie-talkie. “Find out who it is and take him out. Copy that? Lethal force is authorized.” Janney marched toward the exit, striding past Lauren on the way out.
“I know what you’re thinking.” Lauren called out. “But you’re wrong. Jack’s never fired a gun in his life. There’s no way that’s him.”
To Lauren’s surprise, her words stopped the sheriff in mid-step. He stood with his back to her for a few seconds and then spun on his heel to face her. She was surprised to see a smile on his face. Janney walked up to her. “You know what, Dr. Tremont? I think you’re right. Come this way please.” Ignoring her demands to be released, Janney grabbed her by the arm and pushed her past the open-mouthed hospital staff as they marched together toward the elevator.