Chapter 7

As I stepped through the doorway back into the glade, I felt both Jamie and Walter fall away from me. The rush of strength that had accompanied our merging ended when it did, and while I suddenly felt weak and tired, I knew it was returning to being just myself instead of the ... something more, that I had been moments before. It was only a shock because I wasn't expecting it.

"That was awesome!" Jamie cried, then she staggered dizzily away for a few steps, almost falling before catching herself. "Whoa, wasn't ready for that. Guess I should have been though, considering the rush when we merged. Are you okay, Walter?"

I looked, and Walter had reverted to his beast form. He still looked a little shaky to me, but as I watched he stood up into human form again, shaking his head.

"I am well, Milady," he said. "I assumed that four feet would serve better than two. It did not help a great deal, but fortunately it was only a momentary disorientation, and it has passed." He turned to face me. "My Lord, what just happened?"

"What just happened?" Jamie repeated. "We kicked major ass is what just happened! You didn't miss it did you?"

"No, Milady, I experienced all that transpired, and I share your joy at the deed. It is how it was accomplished that I wish to understand. When we joined, it seemed that ... I do not have the words, but it was not the same as before ... and then there is the sword to consider."

"Yes," I said. "There certainly is, only I don't have a clue where to start with that. That was not the sword I gave you before."

"It is the same sword," Walter said. "The form has changed, as the original did not suit me, but the rest," he shook his head. "I can take no credit for that."

My phone rang, and I was surprised to see it was Lizzy calling

"What just happened?" she asked when I answered.

I checked the time, and it was still early, not quite five o'clock.

"I figured you would be up by now." It wasn't an answer really, but then, I wasn't exactly sure how to answer the question, and I was surprised to be hearing from her due to the time.

"I am up," she replied. "That's how I knew something was happening, because I could feel it even though I was awake. I put myself back out just so I could find out, but you weren't here, now you are."

"We were ... busy. As for what happened, we're not really sure. Jamie and I were going after mom and dad, and Walter decided to come along. He merged with us and it was ... different this time."

"Just your mom and dad?" she asked, her voice almost cracking under the strain of holding back the emotion. "Allison wasn't with them?"

"No, she left my parents at a house with four guys, mercenaries I think. Apparently she's got Allison somewhere else."

"Yeah, and I'll bet I know exactly what they had in mind, the bastards. So you got them out?" she asked.

"No, I couldn't get them out without raising a whole lot of questions, but they're not in danger anymore, and Rod should be on the way by now."

"Same difference," she said. "Are you okay?"

I knew she wasn't asking if we were hurt. "You're not going to believe me until you see it for yourself, but yes, I'm fine. We're just trying to figure it all out while we wait."

"Wait for what?" she asked.

"Wait for Allison to wake up so we can finish this. I can't find her until the drugs wear off. We only got this far because my dad was starting to come out of it early. Mom is still out."

"Are they okay?" she asked.

"They'll be confused, wondering how they got there; mom will panic when she finds out Allison is still missing. I'm not sure how they're going to take the news that they're dead. I'm looking for someplace nice to send them. I was thinking Hawaii."

"That would be cool. Maybe we could have the wedding on the beach, you know, when we get around to it. Meanwhile, it might be nice just to visit. I have to go to my parents for Christmas, but maybe we could go for spring break. After a whole winter in Indiana I'm going to need some sun."

"Sounds good to me," I said. "I'm not sure how I'm going to handle you, and Amber, and Allison all in bikinis though."

"That's okay," she said in sultry voice. "I know exactly how we're going to handle you, but I don't want to go there right now. You need to focus on Allison.

"Jimmy, I can't tell you how proud of you I am, and I know you'll get Allison back; just be careful. Henslith is one seriously hard-core bitch, and there's no telling what will happen when she figures out how badly she's screwed up, so don't take anything for granted, okay?"

"I won't," I promised. "I'll let you know when something happens."

"More likely you'll tell me when it's over," she said, "and that's fine. I'd rather you concentrated more on what you're doing than worry about keeping me up to date. All I care about is you and Allison being safe. Beyond that, nothing else matters. I love you."

"Love you, too." I said and then hung up. I turned back to where I had left Jamie and Walter, but now it was only Jamie.

"I sent him back to Amy," she said. "It didn't look like we were getting anywhere trying to figure it all out anyway. I also took us back to the apartment; I figure Rod should be calling soon, and it would probably be a really good idea if we were here to take the call. Besides, I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. Whatever else was going on it seems like we burned a lot of energy. Too bad Lizzy couldn't come; I would have been interested in seeing if she could see the difference. I, for one, don't want to take chances with our energy levels."

We had a light breakfast, and then I fired up my laptop to distract myself and started looking for someplace to send them all: someplace warm, sunny, and peaceful. Hawaii really was starting to look good. Which island to choose just depended on what level of modern convenience and activity they were looking for. There were other questions I probably should have been working on, but I really didn't want to deal with them right now.

I was still at it when Rod called. I noticed the clock on my phone as I answered and was shocked to discover it was almost nine o'clock. I had missed my morning run hours before, and it had thrown off my whole schedule. The ringing of my phone was followed closely by the growling of my stomach. Apparently, Jamie was right and we had used a lot of energy rescuing my parents. Usually a piece of toast and a glass of juice got me through until lunch time.

"David Malcolm."

"It's me, call me back."

I hung up and called him back on my secure phone.

As usual, he didn't even say hello but started right in, "We got your parents out safe. They're at the hospital now. I would have called earlier, but this is the first chance I've had. You have no idea how much trouble it causes when someone gets there ahead of us and kills all the bad guys; especially when one of them dies for no apparent reason. We've had people all over the place since about twenty minutes after the call came in. Forensics is having a fun time trying to piece together what happened."

"You make it sound like they're having a problem," I said.

"You think?" he asked. "Four men break into an FBI safe house, kidnap a family and then turn on each other only hours later? Makes no sense except that the way they died points to someone on the inside. Did you know about the others?"

"What others?" I asked. Had I missed someone? No, that didn't make sense either.

"You didn't notice the décor was a little off for a group of mercenaries? They found two men stuffed into a freezer in the garage. Neighbors said they moved in about a month ago. They weren't too thrilled about an openly gay couple moving into the neighborhood, but they are still pretty upset about what happened to them."

"Careful here," Jamie warned.

"Damn," I said. "I didn't even think about any of that, but — now that you mentioned it — I guess a group of mercenaries kidnapping someone they planned to kill wouldn't be likely to take them to their own home to do it. As for the décor, I'm limited to the perceptions in the dream, and I was a little busy at the time."

"I can certainly understand that," He said. Then his voice got more serious. "How are you doing, son? You okay?"

"Yeah," I said with a sigh. "I'm doing okay. This was like Andrews and Charles, just a little — a lot really — more personal."

"I understand. I figured it had to be you that took those two out, but, like you said, this was more personal, and personal is different. It can be better or worse depending on the situation, but it's different from the 'this needs to be done' category. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah," I said. "I do. This is going to sound bad, but please don't take it wrong. That was protecting an innocent young girl. This was protecting my family. There's a difference."

"I know. Actually I don't, because nothing like this has ever happened to my family. Jimmy, if you need to talk to someone about all this..."

"I'm okay, really."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I can set you up with someone if you want to talk, totally anonymous, they won't know anything about you..."

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm good, really," I said. "I've got Bob if I need help, and Allison."

"Yeah, about her; I noticed she wasn't with them. Any idea where they took her?"

"No, not yet, I can't find her while she's drugged; I have to wait until she wakes up. That's how I found these guys; my dad was starting to come out of it. What about you? Any clues at either scene?"

"I don't think Henslith went anywhere near either location. Everything we've found points to these four. One of the neighbors at the safe house is retired Army intelligence and knows what the house really is. He remembered seeing a white van — possibly a Ford — parked down the street, but that was all they had, no license plate or anything."

"I'm thinking of moving my folks to Hawaii," I said, changing the subject.

"That's a tough one," he said. "Jimmy, I don't have the budget for this. The safe house they were in wasn't in use, so it wasn't a big deal. WitSec won't budget anything because we don't have any kind of case to justify it. With no official involvement..."

"I'm not worried about the money, Rod; I was just wondering what you thought of the idea."

"What I think? Are you kidding? I think you should put them at my house and send me to Hawaii. Aren't you worried about running out of money?"

"No," I said. "I've barely scratched the surface on what I have, and before Rene died he told me there's another account. I haven't even checked it yet. Can you arrange to get them there if I take care of the rest? Logistics and ID, I mean. Actually, ID is probably enough; then they can buy their own tickets."

"Yeah, I can do that much," he assured me. "I can actually do it all; I just can't fund it, but if that's not an obstacle..."

My next call was to Spencer. Now that I realized how late it was, I wanted to get to her before she sent someone looking for me. Not that it mattered any more...

"Mr. Malcolm," she said when the call finally went through. I should have done a little poking around and gotten her direct line just for fun; maybe next time. "So good of you to call; I was beginning to wonder. If you weren't so worried about people getting hurt, I would have sent someone over."

We both knew she was stretching it there.

"Well, you can call back whoever you sent; I'm fine and she's not coming," I answered. "I'd still rather you hadn't, but at least now I don't have to worry about your people dying for no reason."

That sobered her up. "Why don't I like the sound of this? What happened, David?"

Suddenly I was David again. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"I just got off the phone with Rod; she went after more innocent people — people I thought were safe."

There was a pause. "David, I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

"Everything that can be done is being done. I just hope it's not already too late."

"She hasn't got you yet, so she still needs them. That means they have to be alive, and that means there's still hope."

"Yeah, I keep telling myself that. I may have to run into LA again. Any chance that jet is still available?"

"You're cute."

"It was worth a shot. Right now I'm waiting, but I expect I'll be hearing from her soon about what she has in mind to resolve this."

"I understand," Spencer said. "Are you sure there is nothing we can do for you?"

"Not unless you've figured out a way to find her. Aside from that I can't think of anything. It's her game and her move. All we can do is wait."

"If the next move brings the action here, I'd like to know about it. I'm sure you would tell Rod if it was happening in his back yard; all I'm asking is to have the same courtesy extended."

"I'll do what I can, but the last time she wanted me, she gave me two minutes to get outside, and I had to stay on the phone right up the point of contact — at which point her guy verified it was me and tossed the phone back in my front yard before handcuffing me and putting me in the car, so I can't make any promises."

"So what now?" Jamie asked after I turned the phone off.

"I have no idea," I responded.

"We really need to find some hobbies for our down time," she said. "How about if we go down to the Mac Store for some private lessons? We're not exactly what you would call power users."

"That, or try to figure out exactly what happened last night. Merging with Walter was..." I didn't have the words.

"No kidding," she agreed, "but I don't have a clue what it was or why it happened. And then there's the sword ... that was just freaky. That second guy dropped dead like we'd actually cut him in half, and there wasn't a mark on him, on either of them. It went through both of them like ... not really a hot knife through butter, but it hardly slowed down going through three feet of muscle and bone. As for why or how, does it matter?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it works; it gets the job done, and it gets it done in a way that reduces the risk to us. Sure I'm curious, but I don't need to know the how or why."

"Shame on you, Jamie!" I said. "What would Carter say? Just because the gun fired the first time you pulled the trigger..."

"I know, I know," she replied and finished the quote... "'doesn't guarantee it will fire a second time. That's why it's important to know as much as possible about any weapon you may need to use someday. The more you understand, the better your chances of staying alive. If nothing else, you want to be able to make sure an enemy can't use the weapon against you.'"

We were interrupted by Rod calling back.

"I just realized I've been being stupid about your parents' relocation," he said.

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean money isn't really an issue in their case. They have all the money Shannon's family left them, plus what they'll get for selling both the houses, cars, and everything else. They can go anywhere they want. Do you want me to do something with your truck?"

"I'll have to think about that one," I said. "I wasn't worried about the money part of it, but thanks for calling me back."

"No problem," he said. "Like I said, I should have thought of it sooner. I'll talk to you later. Keep me posted if you find anything."

"Actually," I said before he could hang up, "while we're on the subject, how are Britney and her family doing?"

"It's been hard on them," he said. "They're up in Washington. I got Ben a job in Olympia; that man is one hell of an administrator. I've got an agent house-sitting their old place until we see how this plays out. I had hoped they would be able to come home soon, but after last night..."

"I understand. It still may be possible, but ... Are they in a house or apartment?"

"Apartment, why?"

"Just an idea. I'm feeling a sudden urge to own rental property in Washington State. We could have all their stuff shipped up and then rent out their old place until it's safe to come home."

I could almost see him nodding as he said, "Damn you're good. WitSec and the Bureau frequently rent property for safe houses and re-locations..."

"Just as long as whoever is in their place takes good care of it," I said. "It's their home, and I want them to get it back in the same shape they left it — assuming they get to come back. You know, I think I'd like Britney to have my truck; after last night, and with everything else that's happened, I don't think I'm going to be driving it again anytime soon. You can send the paperwork here, and I'll overnight it back to you."

I was going to miss that truck.

I called and got us an appointment for a couple hours of one-on-one training learning the ins and outs of the Mac OS and business software. That got me through lunch, but it wasn't long before boredom and apprehension started to settle in again.

"Maybe we could work on that other little problem," Jamie suggested.

"Which one?" I asked.

"Bastion and the second circle of hell."

"Something on your mind?" I asked.

There was a pause, "Yes. Jimmy, I'm afraid you'll think it's just me wanting to be ... you know ... me, the old me, again. But I really have been looking for another way, and I just can't think of one."

"So, you have a solution, but it's not pretty; and you think I'm going to get mad at you for thinking of it?"

"Something like that."

I had been weighing the conversation against recent events to see what may have changed to make her think that something that scared her to even bring up may suddenly be okay to talk about. I could only think of one thing that was big enough to have that kind of impact, and she was right; I hadn't even heard it yet, and I already didn't like it. Which was all it took to suggest what was on her mind; if it was what I suspected, then I'd found myself thinking about the same thing lately.

"So you think that one way or the other, no matter what else we do, some of them are going to have to die?"

"What?" she sounded truly astonished. "How did you know?"

Go figure.

"I've been thinking the same thing; that some of these people are going to walk no matter what happens; there is just no way to really prove anything. It's what my dad used to call a Catch-22: We would need testimony and physical evidence to even charge and arrest them, but we can't possible get either until they are in custody, or the whole thing could blow up."

"Yeah, that's what I've been trying to figure out. Take Hendricks' wife for instance. That is one truly evil bitch; she set up her own husband, for goodness sake, but we can't prove dick. Not unless the girls were to come forward en masse and accuse her, and even then it would be iffy. Meanwhile, poor Stephen is screwed one way or the other. No matter what we do we can't save him. It just sucks. He could do so much good if he didn't have to worry about her ratting him out, and that got me thinking; maybe the one she has really screwed here is herself. They have evidence on him; they can control him without her. Jimmy, what if she had an accident? What if something just 'happened' to her? She's a voluntary player, but she has no intrinsic value to the group beyond her husband."

"So what are you suggesting? That we arrange an accident for her?"

Again there was a pause and finally a very worried sounding, "Yes." Then she just rushed into her apology, "Jimmy, I'm sorry, but I just can't think of any other way. She's gonna walk, and she's not the only one, and we know what happens if they walk! Jimmy, Sam and the other girls will never be safe if they get off like that, and..."

"Jamie, it's okay," I interrupted. "Calm down. I've been thinking about the same thing. Part of me wanted to call Atkins and ask her about it, but ... First I was trying to keep a really low profile with her, and now, well, now she's just getting to the point where she may actually be starting to trust us — or at least not think of us as the enemy — and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there is nothing she can do either. I thought about talking to Rebecca, but you know she'll never stand for ... this kind of solution. She's too buried in the legalities — not that that's bad — but if the law could handle this, we wouldn't be involved in the first place. That's why you thought now might be a good time, isn't it? Because it's another of those things that just 'needs to be done.' Like killing those men last night to save mom and dad? Well, maybe not exactly like that, because I wanted to kill them, but like Andrews and Charles, there is just no other way, and it needs to ... has to really, be done if we're going to save the others. That's it isn't it?"

"Yeah," she said. "I just thought that maybe you wouldn't be so mad if I suggested it, you know, now, considering everything else that's been going on."

"You were right," I said. "It is easier to look at it now than it would have been, say, last week, and I think you're probably right that for some of them there may be no choice. I came to that conclusion a long time ago. There are a lot of them that we may not be able to get anything on at all besides the girls' testimony, and considering the size of this, the defense is going to be screaming conspiracy, entrapment, and false accusation from day one. They'll insist that something this big was impossible, that all these fine upstanding citizens couldn't possibly be involved in something like this without someone noticing. The scope is going to be all but inconceivable to an average jurist. I was prepared to deal with the ones that fell through the judicial cracks later — but the more I thought about it — the more I came to realize that we may want to start sooner. Not just to make sure we got them, but to make things easier for ourselves as well."

"And that's the part that really bothered you wasn't it?" she asked. "That it might be something we were doing for expediency, just to make it easier?"

"Yes," I said. "Which is why we're going to wait and see if another solution presents itself. Now, I had an idea; you know how Lizzy and Walter have left copies of themselves behind in dreams when I needed them and they were busy?"

"Yeah, Lizzy left one with her friend Carol, and Walter does it with Amy."

"Actually I don't think Walter does it with Amy anymore," I said. "I think he's either there in person or not at all."

I could feel her smiling. "Yeah, the big lug, I'm sure he feels it's disrespectful. He's got it bad doesn't he?"

"Is this how everyone talked about me and Lizzy before..."

"Before you pulled your heads out of..." she interrupted. "Jamie," I said in a warning tone.

"Okay," she said in one of those voices kids reserve for when mom catches them picking on their younger siblings. "We didn't so much talk about it as shake our heads and roll our eyes when neither of you was looking. You guys were just so obvious, and at the same time so obviously clueless ... With Walter and Amy it's different. It's like one of those romance stories where the young squire comes to court and falls in love with the Princess the first time he sees her. But he's so blinded by his station that he can't see that she loves him too, until she tries to rape him in the confessional and then his nobility rises and he won't let her because she's the Princess, and he's just a lowly squire, and someday she must marry a prince and be Queen and..."

"Whoa!" I said, cutting in before it got any worse. "When did you start reading romance novels?"

"Me!?" she exclaimed. "Yuck! No way! But everyone knows how that stuff goes. Personally I like the pirate stories better."

"Shocking," I said dryly. "Only I'm sure in your case the poor damsel ends up cutting the captain's heart out and taking over the ship."

"Damn right!"

"I thought you said you didn't read them?"

"So what was your idea anyway?" she asked, changing the subject.

I couldn't help but wonder who she had been spending time with to pick this stuff up, but I decided not to push it. "I was wondering if that would work with Hightower? You know, using a double?"

Lord Hightower was the reason we were in Vegas in the first place. He was the key figure — the Alpha Predator, as it were — behind the whole thing. It had taken us a long time to figure out who he was because no one could remember what he looked like; even in dreams his face was hidden. The only reason we knew about him, now, was that a girl named Phoebe — who lived in another state — had lost her parents and been taken in by relatives in Las Vegas. Unfortunately for her, her new family just happened to be part of our problem group, and within days of her arrival, her two cousins were trying to recruit her. It began the day she came in from school and found the two daughters having sex in the living room. Not only were they not bothered by being caught, but they actually invited her to join in. Phoebe was a very devout young woman and made it clear that she wanted no part of their activities. They didn't care, and seemed to take it as a personal challenge to get in her pants. Eventually, she discovered that her aunt and uncle were behind the whole thing, and — putting her faith in God — she ran away while everyone else was at school or work — she had stayed home due to complications from her first menstruation — eventually finding her way to southern California, where I found her. I met her the day we went to church with Shannon's family to personally thank God for curing Tom Davis's cancer. It was quickly apparent that she was in trouble, so I made a call and got one of my teacher friends to take her in for a night while we figured out what to do with her. Susan called me later in the afternoon to tell me Phoebe wanted to talk, to me, specifically. Over the next couple hours I learned the girl's history and how she had come to be there.

I'm not deeply religious. I mean, I believe but, well, look at me; I don't exactly live a biblical lifestyle. From the beginning, Easy had pegged me as one of God's chosen ones, and while I didn't really buy it, I didn't argue the point either. I had a feeling that her belief that God was behind her 'gift' helped her deal with it, and based on her track record and the people she had helped over the years ... Sheriff Dobbs had told Rebecca that Easy had saved his life; she shared with Rebecca later that she had prevented two suicides that same year. It's hard to see results like that and argue that she's wrong, despite her methods. Compared to Phoebe, Lizzy would be a pagan priestess living in a hut somewhere. The girl had prayed that God would deliver her from her situation, then hocked everything of value that she had — including a diamond pendant that was a keepsake from her mother — and run away to an unknown future, trusting that God would guide and protect her. She had been living on the street ever since. The morning I met her she had put her last dollar in the offering plate as it went by.

I had spoken to Pastor Keen afterward and discovered that she had been attending for a couple weeks, but that she always disappeared before the service ended and he had a chance to speak with her. This time Shannon and Allison had followed her and discovered that she was hiding out in the girl's restroom waiting for everyone to leave. Listening to her story later and connecting the dots was chilling. I may not understand what God is doing, but I no longer have any doubt that he's out there. You can only argue coincidence so long, and listening to Phoebe's story, and understanding that she had found her way to the one person on Earth that her story would have made sense to, the one person who knew how much danger she was in? No one else would have realized that her cousins and their parents were already dead, or that someone was likely looking for her, and have the connections to hide her from them. Which was no easy task considering the people looking for her were with Las Vegas PD, and had the full weight of law behind them. Her story had provided the key to the puzzle I had been working on for months. I already knew most of the players in the group, both the adults and the girls. What I didn't have was a link between them.