The Black Devil's Cave, page 8
“We’re going to Madison, Wisconsin,” Krill said on the phone.
“Madison?” Lisa was surprised. “But there’s nothing important there!”
“Don’t underestimate the Cheeseheads,” Krill responded. “Even Pfizer has labs in Madison. Get ready – I’ve already sent a car to pick you up. We’re taking the corporate jet.”
The last thing Lisa saw before she left was Mike tilting his head in a way that always made her heart melt after he whispered to her ear, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
Chapter 16
Sonia slumped on the couch, but when she closed her eyes, she had a strange feeling that her body was still in motion. In the past, when she worked in the ER—before moving into research—doing twelve-hour graveyard shifts taught her how to stay awake all night. Yet, driving twenty hours straight was a different matter.
Oge and Naneyu were engaged in a quiet conversation in the strange language. Their reunification was emotional, and they were inseparable since Sonia and Oge showed up at Jenny’s door a couple of hours ago. However, the women did not learn much about their guests so far. Jenny confirmed Sonia’s impression that the young man and the boy looked so much alike they had to be closely related. Yet, Oge insisted he was just Naneyu’s guardian, whatever that was supposed to mean.
Most questions remained unanswered. While Sonia was in Texas, Jenny had several chats with the kid, but the boy refused to reveal anything essential.
Oge was equally tight-lipped. He still wouldn’t say where they came from and why—only that they had a plan, some specific and supposedly important purpose, but they had failed their mission.
“I’m grateful for everything you’ve done, and I’ll probably need more of your help before we leave, but I’ll take Naneyu home by myself,” Oge said.
“Where’s your home?” Jenny asked.
“And how are you going to get there?” Sonia added a question of her own.
Oge’s only reaction was a vague response that he didn’t know how to get home yet and had to think about it.
“Does Naneyu have parents?” Jenny wanted to know.
“Yes, he does. But they’re far away,” Oge said.
When Jenny offered her phone to call the kid’s parents, Oge politely refused. He said that there was no phone service where they came from.
“You know what? That’s bull crap,” Sonia frowned. “Nowadays, cell phones are everywhere. You guys came from Mars?”
Silence.
“Well, if you still don’t trust us and refuse to tell us the truth, we won’t be able to help,” Jenny shrugged and started picking up dirty dishes from an impromptu supper she put together after Sonia and showed up with Oge.
“You know, maybe that’s for the best,” Sonia said to her friend when they were briefly alone in the kitchen. “To be honest, I’m tired of all this secrecy, and I want to go back to my regular boring life. Playing a hooker in El Paso doesn’t exactly fit my definition of an adventure.”
“What is it with you and being a hooker? Is it some deep unrealized desire that is now coming to the surface?” Jenny snorted with laughter.
“Well, standing on a street corner for two days fits the job description, doesn’t it?” Sonia grimaced.
It was getting late, and Sonia could feel the growing fatigue. Yet, both women were still in the living room, mostly just staring at Oge and Naneyu and trying to figure out what the two were talking about.
“You know, maybe you’re right,” Jenny finally said. “We did what we could, but the kid is no longer our responsibility. He’s now with his guardian, although that guardian is just a little more than a kid himself. But that’s none of our business. Oge should take him home.”
Naneyu abruptly stopped a conversation and got up, looking alarmed.
“What is it?” Jenny asked.
“Shh, be quiet,” the kid said.
Jenny didn’t appreciate being shushed, especially by a child, but Naneyu’s expression was so intense that she followed his command.
“We have to go,” Naneyu announced. “We can’t stay here.”
“What do you mean, we have to go? Why?” Jenny gave the kid a puzzled look.
“We must go immediately! Now! We’re in danger!” The kid grabbed Jenny’s arm and started pulling her toward the garage.
“When he says we’re in danger, you listen,” Oge said while quickly getting up. “Let’s go!”
There was so much urgency in Naneyu’s and Oge’s voices that Jenny grabbed her purse and the car keys and darted to the garage.
“Wait! Let’s at least take these,” Sonia yelled, picking up a couple of hoodies and sweaters from Jenny’s coat closet and following the others to the car. Ten seconds later, they were gone, with the garage door closing behind.
“Can somebody tell me what the hell has just happened? And where are we going?” Sonia angrily threw the clothes on the back seat, next to the child.
“I have no freaking idea. North. I’m driving north, for no particular reason and with no particular destination in mind, only because a kid panicked, and I followed, like some moron.” Jenny’s frustration equaled Sonia’s.
Jenny drove through Madison’s dark and empty streets, going twenty miles above the speed limit.
“Naneyu has a gift,” Oge started cautiously. “He can feel things. So if he says we’re in danger, rest assured that we are.”
“Bad people from the hospital—they’re here, looking for me,” Naneyu said in a quavering voice.
“They’re here? How can you be so sure?” Sonia turned to the boy.
“They’ve found us. They’re close.” There was no doubt that the child’s fear was real. “Please, don’t let them take me again!”
“They won’t take you. I give you my word,” Jenny said from behind the wheel.
“You may want to slow down a little unless you want to solve our new problems by killing us all,” Sonia whispered to her friend. “What’s the plan?”
“All right. I don’t know if the kid has a gift or not, but better safe than sorry. My friend has a cabin near Eagle River. That’s in the Northwoods, maybe a four-hour drive from here. We’ll be safe in his place.”
“And then what?”
“Let’s get there first. And then, we’ll decide.”
***
Jenny drove for almost three hours when she saw headlights in her rearview mirror. Sonia dozed off on the passenger seat, and the guys were engaged in a quiet conversation in the back. Jenny kept checking the rearview mirror. Maybe that’s nothing. Other people have the right to use this road. Just in case, she stepped on the gas to increase the distance between her car and the one behind. It looked like the other driver accelerated as well. What the heck?
Jenny took the next exit and heaved a sigh of relief—the headlights were gone. However, just when she started to relax, they showed up again.
“Hey, wake up. I think we’re being followed.” She poked Sonia’s arm.
“What? What’re you talking about?” Sonia yawned and rubbed her eyes.
“I’m getting off this road. I can’t lead them to the cabin.” Jenny turned right on the intersection.
The guys in the back seat stopped talking, aware of the new danger.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Sonia asked.
“Not exactly. I’m just trying to lose the tail. Not many people live in these parts.”
The headlights showed up again. There was no doubt that they were being followed. Jenny increased her speed, driving as fast as she could. However, the road was getting worse—narrow and full of potholes. After it took a sharp turn and Jenny was confident that the other driver couldn’t see her, she made a quick decision and took a gravel road leading into the woods.
“Are you sure it was smart?” Sonia asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe we’ve lost him. Do you have a better idea?”
Jenny’s Camry struggled, trying to mitigate the rough terrain. To make it worse, the warning light on the fuel gauge turned on, indicating that they were almost out of gas. Jenny stopped and turned off the lights.
“What are you doing?” Sonia looked at her friend, confused.
“Running out of options,” Jenny said dourly. “You take the kid, get some of these clothes, and hide. Oge and I will try to draw their attention. You come with me,” she turned to Oge.
Jenny and Oge disappeared into the trees. They hoped their maneuver wasn’t noticed, but then, they heard muffled voices that certainly didn’t sound like Sonia’s or the kid’s. They belonged to grown men.
“Run!” Jenny yelled, but Oge didn’t need encouragement. Whoever was chasing them kept getting closer. The night was dark, and Jenny lost all sense of direction, just trying not to trip and fall. Finally, Oge, who was evidently doing much better mitigating their escape route, grabbed her hand, leading the way.
Jenny heard the popping sound. She knew exactly what it was. She heard that sound before, near Binham Priory in England. Only back then, she had Brian by her side, and now she was with a stranger, barely older than a child.
“They’re freaking shooting at us!” she screamed, running even faster.
The woods abruptly ended, and they reached the shore of a lake. Jenny noticed a small pier with a couple of boats.
“Come on!” Now, she was ahead of Oge, running toward the nearest boat. Whoever was chasing them must have realized what she tried to do. She heard shots again. She jumped into the boat and heard Oge falling loudly behind her. At least, he was in. As quickly as she could, Jenny lowered the outboard engine, released the choke, and pulled the starter rope, praying that the engine would start. After the second attempt, it did.
“Hey, untie the boat!” she yelled to Oge but seeing that the young man didn’t move, she did it herself. Spending years in Wisconsin taught her how to handle a small fishing boat. A few seconds later, they moved away from the pier and from people whose silhouettes were now visible on the shore. The shooting stopped, and their adversaries soon disappeared into the darkness intensified by fog hovering over the water.
“Hey, I think we’re safe! We did it!” Jenny smiled and turned toward Oge, her heart still pounding.
He didn’t respond.
“Oge?”
He wasn’t moving.
Jenny turned the boat toward the nearest shore and stopped the engine. She leaned over the young man. His clothes were soaked in something dark and sticky, and his breathing became labored.
“Oh my God, you were shot! You need to take you to the hospital” Jenny reached for her phone.
“No time…,” he whispered. “You must… listen. Take Naneyu home… You must do it.” Oge coughed, blood coming out of his mouth. “Promise me…”
“Of course, I promise. But where’s his home? Where did you come from?”
“Far away… Siberia… Caves in the mountains… People who heal. Naneyu will know….” Oge’s voice became weak, then stopped.
“Oge? Oge, please stay with me. I’ll get help. Oge?” Jenny bent toward the face of the wounded man. He wasn’t breathing.
Jenny started CPR, compressed Oge’s chest, tried to breathe air into his lungs, but to no avail. Oge was gone. Jenny felt every inch of her soul filling with instant despair as if some invisible, evil force grabbed her throat and made it impossible to breathe.
With her hand shaking, Jenny closed the young man’s eyes. Oge was a stranger, and she met him only hours ago, but he was so young, he was a human being, and above all, he didn’t deserve to die. He had his entire life ahead of him.
Jenny heard voices coming from the lake. Did those monsters take the other boat? Or did somebody call the cops? There were cabins by the lake and people could be staying in them in the summer. Somebody could have heard something. She was momentarily blinded by a beam of light and heard shots again. Jenny darted out of the boat and into the nearby woods.
Chapter 17
All of a sudden, Aab’s legs became weak. If not for a walking stick, which she made out of a thick tree branch, she would have collapsed. Her body bent forward, and Aab crouched, paralyzed by a sudden fear. She felt a sharp pain piercing deep inside her and was momentarily engulfed in darkness. Suffering. Danger. Death!
Aab knew what it meant. She dropped to her knees and wailed loudly with pain and grief, “Oh, Uda Yurra, do not take away from me what I love and cherish more than life itself! Have mercy, Uda Yurra! If only death appeases you, I beg you, take my life, but not his!”
A gentle breeze caressed Aab’s face, and she closed her eyes. She knew that something terrible had happened, and innocent blood was spilled. A soul was brutally torn out of a body, which now laid motionless and cold, nothing but an empty shell. But with this soft breeze came consolation. It wasn’t her sweet little son whose life had ended. It was his guide and protector, brave young Oge.
Aab was ashamed that her first reaction was a relief. Oge also had a mother—a woman Aab knew and called a friend. That woman would now go through anguish from which there was no escape. Courageous young Oge volunteered to take the journey when he was still a boy and spent years training and learning the language of people who lived in the faraway land. Oge sacrificed his life to help his tribe survive.
Aab raised and looked around to collect dry branches. She started a fire and sang a song for the dead to honor the fallen hero. When the fire was almost gone, she reached for a knife, cut her forearm, and spilled her own blood to extinguish the dying flames. “May my blood join with the blood of others who mourn your death, and may our blood flow to the world beyond. May it show you the path you must take to connect with your ancestors. They’re waiting for you, and they will greet you with honors. They will find a place for you among the best and the bravest, where you will spend the rest of the eternity never feeling sadness, or pain, or hunger.”
Aab mixed the ashes with blood and dirt and smeared it all over her face. “You are now free, Oge, but you have left us to our tears because we’ll never enjoy your company again, and you’ll never hear our praise for what you have done for us.”
Aab lowered her head all the way to the ground and said, “Thank you, Oge, for your sacrifice.”
The ritual was over, although Oge would be celebrated again, with others, after Aab returned to her village. Aab remained kneeling on the ground, lost in thoughts. So, the death she felt wasn’t her sweet little Naneyu’s. It was Oge’s. But now, Naneyu will never reunite with his guardian and will remain all alone and lost in the faraway land. There will be no one to protect him and show him the way home.
Aab closed her eyes again and used all of her inner power to put herself in a trance. She briefly saw the face of her little boy. His eyes were full of fear. And then, she saw that other face again—the one that belonged to a strange woman. She had blood on her hands. Was she the one who killed Oge? No, no… She cried for him. She didn’t want him to die.
“Will you protect my son? Please, I beg you, bring him back to me!” Aab sent the most potent message she could muster. But the woman couldn’t hear it. She belonged to a tribe that could see only what was on the surface.
Aab raised, grabbed her stick, and started walking down the mountain. She had to continue with her quest until she reached the Great Mother, the only one who could explain the purpose of that strange woman and give it meaning.
Chapter 18
“No way! I did NOT sign up for this!” Lisa couldn’t stop shaking. She paced back and forth along the shore of the lake while two members of Krill’s team pulled the body of a dead man out of the boat.
“Calm down,” Krill said, narrowing his eyes and looking at Lisa with contempt. “And be quiet, unless you want everyone around this lake to wake up.”
“Or what? You’re going to kill me too?”
“Nobody wanted to kill him. It was an accident.” Krill made an attempt to sound conciliatory.
“Oh, come on! Do you think I’m an idiot?” Lisa stopped and turned to Krill. “You’re shooting at unarmed people, and you are saying you’ve killed one by accident? Give me a break.”
“We were shooting above their heads, only to scare them. We thought it’d make them stop running.” Krill grimaced.
“Yea, you thought, you thought… What a freaking nightmare!” Lisa could not believe she was involved in something like that. But, job, or no job, anything would be better than ending up in prison. She started pacing again, unsure what to do.
“All right,” she finally said. “We have to call the police. If it was an accident, explain it to them because I don’t want any part of it.”
Krill gave her a hateful gaze. “Whether you like it or not, you ARE a part of it. Do you want to tell the cops how you’ve experimented on a human being? After it gets to the media, I’m sure you’ll have a bright future. I can imagine the headlines.”
Lisa was ready to strike the man. “You know what? I don’t give a damn. There is a difference between me doing my job and you killing a man.”
She walked toward a tree stump, sat down, and picked up her phone. Krill didn’t follow; however, he watched her every move. Lisa just stared at the phone but didn’t press the keys.
“First, we have to establish his identity.” Krill took a few cautious steps in her direction.
Halting the chase and examining the body was the last thing he wanted to do, but when Lisa panicked and started screaming, he didn’t have a choice. By now, the people they followed were long gone, although he didn’t think the subject was with them. He only saw a woman running into the woods. It was either Ruiz or the owner of the house in Madison. Her name was Jenny William, and Krill would bet a farm that she was the female they saw earlier driving across Nevada with CX-5. She was also some kind of a doctor; however, Krill’s people had to dig deeper to find out which pharmaceutical company she worked for. Although it really didn’t matter right now because they wouldn’t be able to catch up with her. All he could do was damage control.
