Faith Defiled (Gray Spear Society Book 14) (22 page)

A man carrying a shotgun ran out of the farmhouse. He was wearing a sheepskin coat, a baseball cap, and plaid pants. A thick white beard covered the lower half of his face.

"Just keep moving," he said. "No reason to stop."

Marina turned to the farmer. "We need your truck. It's an emergency."

"Sorry. I can't help you."

"We'll pay."

"It's not for sale." He made a threatening motion with his shotgun. "Go."

"Why are you so afraid?"

"You might be cannibals. One of my friends turned into one. It can happen to anybody. Get moving!"

"Thirty thousand dollars?" Marina said. "Does that sound fair?"

He furrowed his brow.

"Forty. Cash. You can buy a brand new truck with all the extras."

"You have the money?"

She hefted the bag in her hand. "We're prepared to do business."

"Sounds like a dirty deal," the farmer said.

"The money is clean. We're not criminals, but we are in a great hurry. It's a matter of life and death."

He narrowed his eyes. "Fifty."

"Done."

The team had brought plenty of cash with the rest of their supplies. Ipo dug out five bundles of hundred dollar bills. The farmer inspected the money critically and flipped through it twice before he was satisfied.

He gave the car keys to Marina. "Don't we have to sign paperwork?"

"No time for that." She shook her head. "Just report the truck as stolen in a day or two." She faced her team. "There is only room for two in the cab. I hate to be sexist, but I think it should be the ladies."

Ipo, Hanley, and Yang grumbled as they climbed into the snowy bed of the pickup truck. The bags were loaded in after them.

Marina and Katie sat in the cab. Marina started the engine and turned the heater to full blast. She couldn't wait for the truck to warm up.

She backed up, turned, and drove out of the farm. The big tires handled the difficult conditions easily.
We got lucky,
she thought.

She continued south. There was so little traffic, she felt comfortable driving down the center of the road. Hidden patches of ice forced her to be cautious on the turns.

Katie pulled off her cap. "Ah! That heat feels so good."

Marina nodded. The warmth was like a breeze straight from Heaven.

"I feel bad for the guys." Katie glanced through the rear window at her teammates.

"It will give them a story to brag about. Men like to suffer. It makes them feel tough."

The Rosemont Tower Hotel was very near O'Hare Airport. Marina had never lived in that headquarters, but she had visited Aaron a few times and had stayed there as a guest. She knew exactly where she was going. She stuck to the back roads, hoping to avoid more trouble.

She was passing through Palatine when she noticed an accident up ahead. A car had slid sideways into a tree, but she didn't see anybody inside. She was about to drive past when a suspicious movement caught her eye. Something was happening behind the wrecked car.

She stopped the pickup truck, put on her hat, and got out. She heard a grunting noise.

"What's going on?" Marina said. "Are you OK?"

She cautiously walked around the car. A dead woman was lying on the snow, and she had obviously been dragged out of the car. A man had his face buried in her guts. He was chewing noisily, and fresh blood was everywhere. He had already eaten his way deep into her organs.

The cannibal was just wearing jeans and a T-shirt, but the cold didn't seem to bother him. His bare skin was flushed.

Marina glanced back. Ipo, Hanley, Katie, and Yang had assembled behind her.

Marina faced the cannibal again. "Hey! Stop that! I'm talking to you!"

He looked up and growled. Blood covered his face and hair, and he had bits of meat in his teeth.

"I don't think he's in a talkative mood, ma'am," Hanley said.

"He'll talk to me." Marina drew her gun.

The cannibal sprang at her. He was much faster than she expected, and she barely had time to lash out with a defensive kick to his face. He sprawled onto the road and shook his head.

"The next time you do that," she said, "I'll use the gun instead of my foot. What's wrong with you?"

He jumped at her again. She put a bullet through his face. He twitched a few times before dying on the frozen road.

Marina walked over to take a closer look at the female victim. Her fingernails were broken on the ice. The pattern of blood spray showed her heart had been beating when she had been ripped open.

Hanley came over. "It looks like she was eaten alive, ma'am."

"I noticed." Marina nodded grimly. "This is what Aaron has been dealing with, and we thought San Francisco had a problem. It just goes to show, it can always get worse."

The team returned to the pickup truck. The men climbed into the bed and huddled down to get out of the wind. Marina and Katie sat in the nice, warm cab. Marina almost felt guilty, but rank had its privileges.

She continued driving south. The snowstorm was getting worse, and she turned on the headlights so approaching cars would see her. It was just a precaution though. Traffic was nonexistent. She imagined all the citizens hiding in their homes, praying for salvation.

"You still think this is all about the twins, ma'am?" Katie said.

Marina nodded. "Nothing else is as important."

"Why cannibals? I don't see the connection."

"I'm sure Aaron has figured it out. He'll explain it to us."

Marina couldn't wait to see her lover again. They had been apart for far too long. She hadn't expected their reunion to take place under such adverse circumstances, but she wasn't complaining. Any reason to be with him was a good reason.

It was getting to be evening, and the low angle of the sun made it harder to see. Sunlight reflected from falling snowflakes and dazzled her eyes.

An obstruction ahead made her suddenly veer to the side. An Army truck had almost plowed into her head-on. Her pickup truck slid to a stop in a snowbank. She looked over and saw an entire convoy of trucks and Humvees rumbling down the road.

Marina took a deep breath to regain her composure. She backed up and continued onwards.

"It's a good thing the Army is here," Katie said. "They'll help get the situation under control."

"If that were true, God wouldn't have summoned the entire Society. No, this battle will be ours to fight."

"Who are we fighting? It can't be the cannibals. The guy we saw was dangerous, but he wasn't part of an organized force. What kind of threat justifies the need for a thousand supernaturally tough warriors?"

Marina furrowed her brow. "It has to be something huge. A real army." She glanced at Katie.

Katie's eyes widened. "The United States Army! But that's impossible." She shook her head. "It can't be."

Marina stared at the road ahead. "We'll find out when we get to the hotel."

A few minutes later, she saw flashing red and blue lights in her rearview mirror. She stopped on the shoulder, and a police car pulled up behind her.

"What now?" She rolled down the window and let in a blast of icy air.

A cop walked up to the pickup truck. He was wearing so much winter gear, he looked puffed up. Only the middle part of his face was exposed.

"Is there a problem, officer?" Marina said.

"Yes," the cop replied through a scarf over his mouth. "One, this is a restricted area, and there is a 4 PM curfew. Two, it's illegal to have passengers in the bed. Three, this truck was just reported as stolen. Get out slowly. Hands in the air." He put his hand on the handle of his gun.

"I won't give you any trouble."

She got out with her hands up. She leaned against the truck facing forward so the cop could pat her down. Her team watched but seemed more curious than concerned.

As soon as the cop touched Marina, she spun around and jabbed her fingernails into his neck. The dose of venom was enough to knock him out for an hour or so. He collapsed onto the street.

"Ipo," she said, "get him back in his car. He'll freeze to death out here."

Ipo hopped down from the truck. He picked up the officer and carried him easily back to the police car.

"This curfew will be a problem, ma'am," Hanley said. "Every cop between here and our destination will try to stop us."

Marina nodded. "I have a solution. We just need a police escort. I'll drive the squad car, and you follow in the truck."

He smiled. "I get to have heat? What a luxury!"

"Enjoy."

Marina ordered Ipo to put the cop in the back seat of the police car. She cuffed his hands and took his gun in case he woke up prematurely. She sat in the driver's seat, and Ipo rode with her as a precaution.

Hanley drove the pickup truck. Out of fairness, Marina ordered Katie to ride in the bed the rest of the way so Yang could warm up in the cab. She wasn't happy. As sunset approached, the air was getting even colder.

Marina pulled away with the police lights flashing but the siren off. Hanley followed close behind in the truck.

As they entered the dense urban area around the airport, the condition of the streets improved. At least, they had been plowed within the last few hours, but there was still plenty of ice. Visibility was decreasing as the storm worsened.

Marina saw several more military caravans, some impressively long. The Army seemed to be everywhere. If the rest of Chicago was the same way, entire divisions had to be guarding the city. It already felt like a war zone, and the real fighting hadn't even begun.

The police were also out in force on the otherwise deserted streets. The pickup truck would never have gotten through by itself. Marina patted herself on the back for coming up with the escort idea. It had turned out to be a lifesaver.

Finally, the Rosemont Tower Hotel came into view. The building was sheathed in glass the color of a new penny, and it gleamed in the light of the setting sun. There were no seams or protrusions. A climber would have absolutely nothing to hold onto, and even suction cups wouldn't stick to the lightly textured surface.

The opaque windows made it hard to count the number of stories, but subtle cues suggested there were twenty, and most people believed that lie. In fact, there were twenty-two, and the top one was the secret home of the Chicago cell. It was one of the taller buildings around and easily seen from a distance despite the snow.

I'm back,
Marina thought.

She parked the police car before getting any closer. She removed the cuffs on the still unconscious cop. She and Ipo climbed into the bed of the pickup truck, and she instructed Hanley to drive the rest of the way.

Poor Katie was huddled in a fetal position.

"I can't feel my face, ma'am," she said through chattering teeth.

"Almost there," Marina said.

During the final approach, she was particularly watchful. Something very bad was going to happen, and she sensed it could start at any time.

Hanley pulled into the half-empty parking lot around the hotel. There was a lot of uncovered space along with a parking garage for people who wanted to get out of the weather. Some trees and bushes were planted on islands of dirt, but all the trees had lost their leaves. Snow had been pushed to the edges to form hills big enough to sled down.

Hanley parked as close to the front door as he could get. The team gathered on the snowy surface of the parking lot. Katie huddled against Ipo for warmth, and he put his arm around her.

Hanley looked up. "It's just a nice hotel, ma'am."

"Appearances are deceiving," Marina said. "I was here when the team built this place, and it cost a billion dollars. There are hidden weapons everywhere, and some are extremely nasty. The structure is strong enough to withstand five hundred pound bombs. The occupants are protected from bullets, poison gas, and radiation. The Chicago headquarters is on the top floor. The walls there are two feet thick and made of special composite concrete reinforced with carbon-steel. This building could hold off an army, and that may be exactly what's about to happen."

"Why did you build it so strong?"

"Aaron is paranoid. He wanted to live in a place where he felt absolutely safe. I think he also sensed the twins needed special protection even back then. Bethany and Leanna are best buddies with God, even more than Wesley. Let's get inside before we freeze to death."

Marina led her team into the spacious lobby. Black and gold carpeting had an interlocking hexagonal pattern which was subdued and stylish. Dark stone tiles with golden flecks covered the walls. A suspended water sculpture was an unusual feature. Pure water cascaded across rectangular glass panels, and clear tubes at the bottom sucked the water away to continue the cycle. The sound of water striking glass was very soothing.

She was enjoying the warmth more than the décor. The hotel felt balmy after the bitter cold outside.

Smythe and Odelia were sitting close together and holding hands in the lobby. Smythe was one of Aaron's
legionnaires
and a good friend of Marina. The three of them had served together under Ethel in Chicago. With his broad chest, big shoulders, and tapered torso, Smythe had the body of a Hollywood action hero. His hair was a rusty red, and it was cut to exactly half an inch all around. A square jaw and watery blue eyes added to his strikingly handsome appearance.

Marina was much less familiar with Odelia. The two women had met only a few times a year ago. Odelia was a
legionnaire
from Los Angeles. Her long hair was as white as snow, and her skin was a delicate pink. Her ethereal beauty made Marina feel an instinctive jab of jealousy. Odelia's most interesting feature was the odd reddish-brown color of her eyes. She had a red dress which struck Marina as a little too flashy for the circumstances.

Smythe jumped up, ran over, and gave Marina a warm hug.

"I finally made it," she said. "That was a nightmare trip!"

He stepped back. "What happened?"

"Soldiers are everywhere. All the roads are blocked. It was like sneaking into a giant prison camp. And the weather is a bad practical joke. I've never seen so much snow! Who else is here?"