Chapter 15

Early afternoon

Ready Enterprises Manufacturing

Near Harborton, Washington

Maria felt a shocking tingle the instant she entered the workshop. The key tattooed on her right wrist started pulsing and she was drawn toward the back wall where a door opened into a smaller room. Kelly and Dr. Belle were carefully examining the bodies around them looking for clues as to what and how the massacre had happened while John and Carl provided security.

Maria slowly pushed the door open and gasped at the sight of a slender young Hispanic man sprawled across the cracked and peeling beige linoleum floor with a small neat hole in his forehead.

“There’s one more here!” Maria shouted over her shoulder as she made her way into the small room.

She could see some handcuffs still attached to a single chair sitting alongside a small steel desk. So this must be where they had held Nikki after she tried to go to the sheriff. Maria wasn’t sure why she did it but she knelt next to the young man and laid her wrist across him. A loud roaring sound filled her head and her vision turned a swirling black and gray. She could feel herself losing her grasp on consciousness when she heard a single crystal-sharp chime. She blinked to clear her vision and suddenly, she was back in the stone room with the staircase where she had met her sponsor goddess.

Only this time she wasn’t alone. The young man was there as well. Startled, he rose from where he had been sitting, his back to the wall.

“You are back!” he said in Spanish. Then he looked again. “So sorry- no it’s not you, is it?”

Maria couldn’t think clearly for a second, then she realized what the Lady had meant about communicating with the recently dead.

“No, I think you must have met the Lady of the Land of the Dead. Apparently, she and I are somehow related. I am Maria,” said Maria tentatively, holding out her hand.

“Maria, I am Miguel,” The young man said. “I’m not sure how I got here exactly. Am I dead?” Miguel said, shaking her hand.

“I’m afraid so Miguel,” said Maria.

The young man, hung his head sadly then nodded, “I thought so.”

“What do you remember about getting here?” asked Maria gently.

“I ... I am having a hard time remembering. I know I was shot, then what felt like seconds later I could see my body on the floor. Some time later I was in a horrible dark place lit only by stinking flames. Horrible beasts and human-like things were about to tear flesh from my body. I knew this would happen over and over again, But then the Lady appeared and the beasts and demons drew back from her.”

“How did you get here?” asked Maria.

“The Lady took my hand and led me up those stairs into this room,” said Miguel with a nod toward the dank stairs leading downward out of the room behind Maria. “The beings there would not follow her.”

“Did she say anything?”

“My memory is not good. But I think she said that one of my deeds had gotten her attention and she felt that I deserved a chance at redemption. She then left me here and said to wait.”

“Ah, I think I see. Are you the one who helped Nikki escape?”

“Nikki? Oh yes, Nikki. She is a very nice lady who was very kind to me. And she loves her sons so much. I remember now. They were hurting her badly. I think Yakov was going to kill her soon. I ... I am not a good person, but I could not allow that.”

“Miguel, thanks to you she escaped and we were able to rescue her children,” said Maria.

“Oh thank God for that!” said Miguel with the first smile Maria had seen from him.

“You did good Miguel and your life made all the difference for those three,” said Maria touching his shoulder softly. “But if you can, we need to know what has been happening here. Can you think back to before you were in the dark place?” asked Maria.

“Maybe,” Miguel nodded.

Maria could see him gather himself and concentrate and then nod.

“Yes, before then, but after I was shot, I could kind of move about a bit, even though my body remained here on the floor. There was a trailer for a big truck, a semi, I think they are called. We were filling it with what Yakov thought were explosives and some other shiny metal-looking pellets we made into sheets. There was also a metal canister about the size of a small garbage can. A guy we didn’t know was hooking it up to some other electronic controls. Everything was finished just after I was shot.”

“Do you have any idea what it was for,” Maria asked.

“No, but Yakov said something about a huge explosion.”

“Where is the trailer now?”

“I’m not sure. A driver with a big truck and two other guys came early today and hauled it away. I was curious so I followed them out to their car and they said something about a warehouse in Kent. They also mentioned a date, next Thursday I think. Wait. I’m certain it was Thursday because they said the Seahawks were playing and there was also a festival in Seattle that day.”

Maria’s heart sank. She could only imagine what all these things meant together.

“Thank you, Miguel. This is very helpful,” said Maria.

Just then they heard another chime.

“Miguel, I think it’s time for you to go,” said Maria.

Miguel hung his head once again. “Yes, I thought so. It’s no more than I deserve. I was not perhaps as bad as the others. I did not kill or maim people, but I stood by why the others did, and I was not who I should have been.”

“Miguel, that is not what the Lady intended. There is another way out of here.” said Maria as she took his hand gently and guided him to the other corner of the room where torches suddenly flared revealing the staircase upward.

Miguel carried a quizzical look on his face as they ascended the stairs. When they reached the landing, a heavy-looking, old wooden door opened onto sunny green fields with mountains in the far distance.

‘Thank you, Maria. You have been most kind,” a smiling Miguel started to step out and then hesitated- turning back toward Maria. “One more thing. I think I remember the name “Hassan ... something” on the side of the truck. Also, I don’t know if it’s important or not, but everyone except Yakov seemed to be very sick these last few days.”

Miguel smiled brightly then turned back and stepped out into his new life in the Land of the Dead.

Early evening

County Road

Near Harborton, Washington

Ben was on his way home when he saw the lights in his rearview mirror. ‘Crap, just what I need to finish out the day,’ He thought to himself.

“Lizzie looks like the County Mounties are about to pull me over. Can you double-check that my cover is in place and alert the Field Office that we are going to need some additional cleanup on aisle two?” said Ben over his headset. As he pulled off onto a wide spot on the shoulder of the county road.

“You got it, love. Oh- Sarah, saw the lights and is turning around- she should be there shortly,”

Ben grimaced slightly, somehow he didn’t think this was going to make things any better. His girls could be very protective of him and each other. He didn’t want to think about the carnage that Sarah alone could wreak on the local sheriff’s department. She was still outraged at what the Sheriff had allowed to happen to Kelly and then to Nikki and she hadn’t even known Kelly at the time.

Ben had just gotten clear of the administrative mess at the Bratva warehouse and was looking forward to getting back to the ranch. Lanie had coordinated a skillful turnover of the crime scene to an FBI team loyal to the Field Office. Now they just had to get word about what happened up the chain as far as possible. He suspected that Sgt Major Winters had contacts inside the White House and it looked to Ben like this qualified as a hair-on-fire, Oval Office kind of shitshow. There was no way this wasn’t connected to the terror alert intelligence they had received a few days ago from Senator Campbell.

He wasn’t optimistic about getting out of the current situation quickly when one car slid diagonally in front of him, another blocked him in from the rear and then yet another pinned him into the shoulder. It occurred to him that tactically, if you were going to arrange an assassination by Law Enforcement scenario this would be precisely how you’d do it. There were limited sightlines and very little traffic on the road right now, and a heavy thicket of Fir and Alder covered both sides of the isolated road. Oh well, he was going to have to rely on his instincts. Worse case- he’d fry every one of these goat fuckers if he had to.