Authors: Angella Graff
“He probably thinks he can charm his way in,” Ben muttered.
“Maybe he can,” Mark offered. “He’s been enough help so far, so we can’t discount what might be able to offer when we get there.”
“This would be so much easier with a warrant and a team of men with snipers.”
“Easier for whom, exactly?” Mark questioned. “You don’t think they’d just give your sister and Yehuda up after going through all this trouble to get them, do you?”
Ben sighed and sat back against the door of the car. “Who knows? This entire situation is so damn crazy I’m starting to think if we just walk in there with guns and demand their release they’ll let them go.”
“You don’t fight crazy with crazy,” Mark warned.
And that was that for the rest of the drive. The GPS on Ben’s phone alerted the three men when they reached the five mile range. Ben sat up, suddenly alert, and Asclepius leaned over, still a bit bleary-eyed from his nap, but looking somewhat refreshed.
At this point, Mark pulled the car over and switched the engine off. “I realize we can’t make a very definitive plan, since we have no idea about the inside structure, no idea who might know we’re coming, and no clue what sort of defenses they’ve got.”
“We also don’t know where to find either one of your little friends,” Asclepius put in.
“Yes, thank you for that,” Mark said irritably. “What we do have is a basic defense method against the gods, as long as we can keep enough on us ready to use without being obvious.”
“We also have a defense method against any moron who tries to get too uppity,” Ben said, touching the butt of his gun.
“I’d like to try and get out of this without committing murder,” Mark said with a small sigh. “But, we do what we have to do. Frankly I’m prepared to let the both of you go down as long as I get out with Yehuda. It’s reached a critical point and as long as I get him away from whomever these people are, I’m calling it mission accomplished.”
“So you have your job, and I have mine,” Ben snapped at him, his face a bit red.
“And what do I do?” Asclepius asked.
“Try and get us in without getting us killed before we reach the front door,” Mark instructed.
Asclepius began to rummage around in the back for a few moments. When he sat back up, he had two capped syringes, filled to the top of their plungers with a clear liquid. “Just a little bit goes a long way,” he said, handing one to Mark and one to Ben. “Right in the arm, just a little pressure, and they’ll get kicked out. It’s likely that the humans they’re in are drugged, or brain-dead, so try and mind the bodies.”
Ben licked his lips nervously as he tucked the syringe into the inside pocket of his coat. “I’ll try and get paramedics out there as soon as we get my sister and Mark’s friend out safely.”
“You realize you’re probably going to get fired for this?” Asclepius pointed out with a small, cheeky smile.
“I do,” Ben said. “Obviously I’ve resigned myself to that fate.”
As Mark switched on the car, Asclepius and Mark switched seats, preparing to enter the compound with Asclepius’s influence. Asclepius put the car in drive as Mark tried to shove down the bubbling panic in his gut, and they followed the soft sounds of the robotic GPS voice leading them to what could resemble a rather small war.
They made the five miles in less than three minutes. Ahead on the long, winding dirt road was a small booth, similar to the toll booths of the bridges in California. A field lay beyond, and several small buildings which looked a lot like the old fashioned log cabins. A tall fence topped with barbed wire surrounded the land for acres and acres, and every so often, unmanned, tall towers stood, likely waiting for a person with a rifle.
The road ended at the entrance to the gate where a tall, rather bored looking, middle-aged man stood behind a window. As the car pulled up, the man held a clipboard close to his face as he slid the window open with his other hand.
“Names,” he said, his monotone voice matching the bored look on his face.
Asclepius leaned over and looked the man in the eye. “They’re not on the list. They’re with me.” Mark caught the flash of light in the god’s eyes, and the guard cleared his throat loudly.
“They’re supposed to be added to the list,” he said in a very hesitant voice.
“Special circumstances,” Asclepius said, his voice almost echoing through the car. “Open the gate… or am I going to have to get out of the car?”
“Sorry, sir,” the guard said and pressed the button.
There was a loud clicking sound, and then the gate rolled back, squealing loudly into the distance as it did so. Asclepius put the car in drive, kept eye contact with the guard, and they drove forward.
The road continued for several more miles before they reached what looked like a fruit orchard enclosing several large buildings made of wood and metal. There were people all over, dressed in street clothes, smiling as they worked, picking fruit, pushing carts, chatting quietly under the canopy of the trees as the rain started to drizzle down.
Mark felt suddenly over-dressed, in his slacks and button up shirt, and Ben, wearing his detective suit, was definitely so. Asclepius looked more the compound part, his yoga bottoms and t-shirt he’d obtained from Mark could only guess where, hung on him limply, and his hair, still a mess, was fitting for farm work.
There was an area, shaded by a large, wooden overhang, where cars were parked, and Asclepius, keeping his head down and face shielded, pulled in and around the back where no one was standing. He switched the car off and let out a small sigh.
“Now what?” Ben asked. “We’re in, but we still have no game plan.”
“Obviously these humans don’t know me, yet, and no one seems on particularly high alert, so I say we pretend I’m escorting you two for something…”
“Healing,” Mark interrupted. “We’re here to be healed and you know, join, or whatever.”
“Fine yes, good,” Ben said, “but what happens when one of your friendly gods recognizes you?”
“Well let’s try and avoid them, shall we? Mark can see them, can’t you?” Asclepius pointed out.
Mark gave a slow nod. “Yes, I can.”
“And so can I,” Asclepius said. “So when we sense them we just… walk the other way. If we get cornered, we have our defenses.”
“What about me?” Ben demanded. “I don’t exactly have any super powers here, and I’m pretty sure if Abby’s afraid we’re on her tail, she’s going to give people that matter my description.”
“Just stick with one of us,” Asclepius said with a shrug. “You got any of your freaky Halloween contacts, Mark? It would probably look a little better if you appeared more blind.”
Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out the pair of contacts he usually carried on him for emergencies. “One pair.”
“Don’t you think he might be able to function a little better being able to see?” Ben pointed out.
“I’m perfectly capable blind or sighted. “I’ve been in this disguise since before your parents were conceived,” Mark replied with a shrug. He uncapped the lenses, and with deft practice, popped them in.
His world went instantly white and his eyes back to their useless state. It took him less than a moment to adjust, and he held out his hand towards Ben. “I shoved my cane into the little pocket in front of you.”
Ben grumbled and slid his hand into the seat pocket to retrieve Mark’s folded white cane. He slapped it in Mark’s hand and said, “So what? We just walk in?”
“You,” Mark said, addressing Asclepius, “need to act like you know the place. Use every ounce of power you have to navigate properly. They’ve cloaked Yehuda, so it’s going to take us some time to find him.”
Mark opened the door to the car and got out, feeling the crunch of gravel under his shoes. He heard the familiar clicking of his cane snapping into place, and felt the cold metal of the damp car under his fingers as he shut the door. This was it, and there was no turning back. Human lives were precious, but Mark lived by the rule that the good of the world outweighed the good of the few who might have to perish in order to secure peace. A warm hand touched his arm, Ben’s hand, and with a deep breath, they prepared to go inside.
Chapter Forty
-one
Asclepius walked ahead of Ben, who had Mark on his arm, and the detective was absolutely terrified. He was a brave man in most circumstances, and he was the sort of man who never ran from something that he considered dangerous. He’d faced his own mortality numerous times, and he’d always come out on top. This time, however, he was barely armed, he was alone, and his sister’s life was at stake.
“Steps,” Ben muttered as they approached the concrete steps that lead to what looked like the main building. The people around them stared curiously, but no hostility showed on their faces. Ben half expected everyone to be slightly psychotic, addicted to some sort of drug, ready to eat their flesh. Something a little closer to the movies.
His mind was racing as the heavy door opened and the warm air hit them. Asclepius stepped aside for Mark and Ben to enter, and Ben looked around at the room. It was furnished sparsely, a lot like a waiting room with a reception desk, chairs scattered, low tables covered in magazines, and a small television on the wall playing what looked like a self-help video narrated by a very blond woman with huge, white teeth.
Asclepius stood in front of them, his eyes closed, and he was humming a little something under his breath. “Okay,” he said after a second.
“Why do you keep doing that?” Ben asked softly, unable to stop himself. “You keep humming that same damn song. What is that?”
“It’s a means of…” Asclepius hesitated with a shrug, “…think of it like a honing beacon,” he finished. “Now, do you want to go, or should we stand around and wait for someone to start questioning us.”
“Where are we going?” Mark asked.
“Chapel,” came a soft, female voice from the hallway at the far end of the room. The three men turned, startled, and were met with the smiling, big-mouthed blonde from the video. “I’ll take them if you’d like?”
“They need a decent escort. Their first time,” Asclepius said, his voice taking on that strange, echoing quality Ben had heard in the car.
“They’ll be safe with me, I promise. The others are probably waiting for you. I’m assuming you had to find new form, sir?” Her voice was tinged slightly with a southern twang, just enough to tell Ben she’d grown up somewhere in the south, but had left a long time ago.
“Yes, fine,” Asclepius said. “This is where I leave you, boys.”
“But my eyes,” Mark cried, grasping out at the air towards Asclepius. “You promised my eyes! They’d be healed.”
The woman raced forward, taking Mark’s hand gently and holding it in hers. “They will be. You need to be purified, but I promise you, if you’re pure of heart, if you truly believe, they will be healed. Gahan heals so many each day, so many worthy believers.”
“What about the ones he can’t heal?” Ben asked darkly. “What happens to them?”
The woman’s smile brightened. “They work harder to believe and when they’re purified, they will be healed. He’s promised us all.”
“What’s your story?” Ben questioned as this woman took Mark’s arm and led them down the hall. He could hear the faint sound of singing coming from somewhere far off, and he knew he had a little time to probe her for information.
“I had a disease in my lungs,” she said, her voice still light and airy. “I was told I wouldn’t live much longer, I was getting sicker. My mother found this place and she told me about it. I’d come to the coast to die, to spend my final years by the ocean, but I always knew that there was something more I was meant to do. Gahan showed me that path.”