The Belial Stone (The Belial Series) (26 page)

CHAPTER 64

Beaver Creek, MT

T
he security team performed a search of the grounds, but didn’t find any sign of Laney.  They did, however, find a total of twelve men killed, five belonging to the Chandler Group and seven strangers. 

Jake had personally searched almost every square inch.   He’d failed her.  Guilt and fear engulfed him.  He paced up and down the drive.  “How the hell did they find us?”

Patrick stood against the Suburban, his face ashen.  “Laney said you let her make a call earlier.  Could they have traced us through that?”

Jake shook his head.  “No.  The phone was untraceable and we didn’t call Kati directly.  That’s not what led them to us.”

“It’s my fault,” Yoni said, his head in his hands.  “They must have traced the house rentals and then just checked them one by one until they found us.  I should have found another way.”

Henry placed his hand on Yoni’s shoulder.   “It’s not your fault, Yoni.  They knew we were coming.  They just needed to figure out where we were.  We’ve been too predictable.” 

Henry’s phone rang and he looked at the display.  “Excuse me.  It’s Danny.”  He walked towards the house.

Patrick raked his hand though his hair, wincing as he touched his injury.  “Are we sure they even took Laney?  Maybe she’s just hiding somewhere.”

“We’ve done a search, Patrick,” Jake said, gently but firmly.  “She’s not hiding.”

His attention was diverted to Henry when he heard his tone change.  He watched Henry’s face tense.  Henry spoke with Danny for a few more minutes and from the expression on his face, Jake could tell he was trying to comfort the young man.  This wasn’t going to be good news.

When Henry re-joined the group, Jake spoke before Henry had a chance.  “They have Laney.”

Henry nodded and looked at Patrick.  “Yes. They just contacted the switchboard at Chandler HQ.  Danny got the message.  They said Laney won’t come to any harm as long as no word about the operation leaks and no move is made on the compound.  If we don’t follow their instructions, Laney will be killed.”

“Oh my God,” Patrick gasped, falling back against the Suburban.

Jake turned to Patrick.  “We’ll figure out a way to get her back, Patrick.  I promise.” 

Patrick looked at him for a long minute and nodded his head before walking quietly into the house.

When Jake was sure Patrick was out of earshot, he spoke quietly to Henry.  “That’s not all they said, is it?”

“No,” Henry replied, his expression fierce.  “But Patrick doesn’t need to hear the rest of the message.  The caller explained how they were going to kill her, in slow and painful detail, if we didn’t follow their instructions to the letter.”  

CHAPTER 65

Havre, MT

A
fter the fight with Laney, the Senator had screamed bloody murder.  Gideon had hustled her out of the room and back into the food pantry. 

She’d expected some sort of payback, but instead, he seemed almost happy.  He’d even given her a big grin before locking her in.  She’d stayed there for what felt like hours, but
she was sure it was much less.

Finally, Gideon opened the door and put her in an SUV, after a quick trip to the bathroom.  Gideon cl
imbed behind the driver’s wheel. 

“Where are we goin
g?” she asked from the backseat.

“To the place you’ve been searching for.”

Forty minutes later, she was staring at what seemed like endless flat, barren land.  She’d even started to doze off, when a structure came into view on the horizon.  Although she wanted to remain resolute in her anger, she couldn’t help feel a thrill at seeing an ancient site, possibly ten thousand years old. 

At first, Laney could only make out the outline of a giant wall that seemed to be the length of two football fields.  As they neared, she saw in living color the structure from the pictures Jake had taken.  Was that only this morning? 

The thought of him gave the fears she'd been blocking a road in.  Were her uncle and Yoni all right?  Had Jake and Henry gotten there in time?  She pictured her uncle shot, his blood seeping into the ground where she'd left him. 

She took a deep breath and stared out the window, not wanting Gideon to see her emotions.  Her uncle was fine.  Yoni was fine.  Jake, Henry.  They were all fine.  She would hold onto that.  She had to hold onto that.

“We’re here.”  Gideon sang out.

They pulled to a stop at the yawning gate of the enclosure.  Gideon exited the car.  He jogged around to her side, opened her door, and yanked her out.  “I hope your trip wasn’t too bad.  You seemed a little emotional.  Worried about your friends?”

She ignored him, yanking her arm out of his grasp.  Her attention was drawn to the left as she sensed movement. 

Glancing over, she saw the cage Jake had photographed.   His picture hadn’t done it justice.  It hadn’t captured the palpable despair that it emitted, or the stench that radiated from it.  The fear, despair, terror, and anger of the men on the site slipped below her defenses, flooring her.  

By the entrance, a guard kicked an emaciated man as he passed with an empty wheelbarrow.  The man stumbled, dropping heavily onto a knee, nearly overturning the wheelbarrow.   Another two guards escorted a group of twelve men into the enclosure.  At the back of a ragtag group of impossibly thin men, two men held a third up, quietly urging him to walk. 

She went cold. 
These people are monsters
.  She glanced over at the other SUV as it rolled to a stop. 
And here comes their self-appointed king
. 

The Senator’s driver rushed around to open the door for him.  After their skirmish, the Senator had refused to ride in the same car with her.  When they’d started this little journey, that had given her a sense of victory.  But, staring around her now, she felt nothing but defeat.

A wind kicked up and she caught an odor from the opposite side of the entrance.  She knew that smell. Something was dead.  Unable to ignore it, she glanced over and saw a decomposing hand in view above the rim of the ditch. 

She started to breathe heavily and spots began to appear around the edge of her vision.  This was too much.  She was filled with pain for the men who had been killed here, and the desolation of the men who still lived through it. 

Gideon grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the entrance.  She stumbled as her feet were slow to react to Gideon’s urging, but he didn’t pause.

She caught herself and yanked her arm from his grasp.  He turned to grab her again. 

She glared at him.  “I can walk.”

Gideon bowed his head.  He mockingly gestured for her to walk in front of him.  “But of course, Professor.”

Disgusted, Laney walked through the giant opening and into the enclosure.  Still caught by the inhumanity, she was slow to pick up on the history that surrounded her.  She walked forward and stopped only when she noticed a plank leading into the earth below. 

Following the plank with her eyes, she gaped at the sight.  A set of twelve fifteen-foot monoliths standing in a circle had been excavated from the earth.  Each must have weighed over a hundred tons, and from what she could tell, each seemed to be a single piece of granite. 

Carved into each structure were symbols, humanoid figures, and animals, many of which Laney couldn’t identify.  She glanced around the enclosure.   There were over thirty additional dig sites.  For those closest to her, she could see similar megalithic structures extending out of the earth.

Despite the horror of the site, she couldn’t help but be awed by the history in front of her.  She walked down the ramp on trembling legs and stopped at the first megalith.  She raised her fingers to a carving of a man walking in a field with a lion.  The carving was pristine.  She couldn’t make out any tool marks, just the precision of the artist. 

“My God,” she whispered in awe.

“Perhaps now you can appreciate the necessity of my plan,” the Senator intoned from above. 

Laney snatched her hand from the megalith as if it burned.  Kensington’s words brought her crashing back to the present.  The Senator looked down at her with smug satisfaction, in spite of the sling that now housed his left arm and the bruises that darkened his face beneath his eyes. 

“Appreciating the beauty of this site is not the same as supporting your plan.  In fact, this site has just the opposite effect.  It reinforces my belief that this site belongs to the world.  No one owns it.  It’s a gift to humanity.”

He glared down at her before turning to the large man behind him.  “Gregory, put her in with one of the work details.  You’re in charge of her.” 

At Gregory’s smirk, Kensington grabbed the man with his good arm.  “Let me rephrase that.  You are in charge of her safety.  If any harm comes to her, and I mean any, it will be your head.  She is to work here, but she is too valuable to be harmed.  Do you understand me?” 

Glowering at the censure, Gregory didn’t speak.  He gave the Senator a curt nod. 

“Very well.” The Senator turned on his heel and walked back to the car.

Laney glanced up and saw Gideon give her a little wave before following the Senator.  With trepidation, she turned her attention to Gregory.  The man was huge.  His chest seemed to strain against the fabric of his shirt, and while he wasn’t as tall as Henry, he was easily six-foot-five. 

“You c
ome with me,” Gregory growled.

She stood rooted in place for a few seconds before she could will her legs to work.  She walked back up the ramp towards him.  Her legs trembled yet again, although this time for an entirely different reason.

CHAPTER 66

G
regory marched Laney to a dig site about a hundred yards from the entrance.  She tried to stay an arm’s length away from him, but he wouldn’t let her.  She cringed every time her arm touched his.   

“You address all guards as ‘sir’.  You never make eye contact with a guard.  There is no talking between inmates.  Basically, anything we tell you to do, you do.  If you don’t, it will not be pleasant for you.” 

At that statement, Gregory glanced down at Laney.  His voice was quiet, his tone deadly.  “The Senator said we can’t harm you, but there are ways that don’t leave marks.  Keep that in mind.” 

When they reached their destination, Gregory handed her off to another guard.  “Put her to work.  But don’t let her get hurt.  There’s some special plan in place for her.”

The guard glanced down at her.  “Oh yeah, I’ll be real nice to her.”  

Gregory snorted.  “No marks.  Just put her to work.”

“Yeah.  Yeah.  Got it.”  The guard grabbed her roughly by the arm and pushed her towards a ramp leading down into the trench. 

About ten structures had been partially uncovered.  Two-man teams were carefully shoveling and brushing dirt away from each of the towering megaliths.  Another two men circled the site with a wheelbarrow, filling it with displaced dirt.  Laney had seen a few men sifting the dirt at various locations up above before other men took the sifted dirt to a giant pile outside the enclosure. 

She was led over to one of the two-man teams.  The men, kneeling down to brush the bottom of the structure, focused their gazes down as she and the guard approached.  

The guard kicked one of the men in the back, causing him to fall onto his hands.  “You.  Explain to her what needs to be done.”

The man pushed himself back up and reached for his brush again.

“Hey. I gave you an order.”

“I’ll do it, sir,” the man beside him said in a rush.  “He’s gone a little deaf.  He can’t hear you.”

“Whatever,” the guard mumbled.  “Make sure she knows what to do.”

“Yes, sir,” the man replied. 

The guard turned around and headed back up the ramp.  The man who’d spoken helped the other man find his brush and then gave him a comforting squeeze on the shoulder.  He gestured for Laney to kneel down next to him.  He reached behind him to grab another brush and shovel.

“You’ll need these,” he said, looking her in the face for the first time.

“Tom,” she gasped.

CHAPTER 67

T
om glanced around nervously.  “How do you know my name?”

Laney spoke quickly, keeping her voice low.  “My name’s Laney McPhearson.  I’m a friend of Jake’s.  He’s been looking for you.”

Tom looked startled.  “Wait.  What?  Jake?  Jake Rogan?  He’s looking for me?” 

Laney nodded, taking in Tom's disheveled appearance with a heavy heart.  He barely resembled the picture Jake had shown her.  But his deep brown eyes, the small scar above his eyebrow, and his strong cheekbones were unmistakable. 

“Your pastor called him about two days after you went missing.  He’s spoken to your pastor, the members of your church, Cleo.  They’re all worried about you.”

Tom stared at her for a moment and then looked away.  “I thought I was on my own,” he whispered, tears gathering in his eyes. 

She reached over and gently squeezed his arm before quickly pulling it away.  Glancing around, she grabbed one of the brushes and started brushing the dirt from one of the symbols at the bottom of the monolith. 

“No, Tom, you’re not alone..  Jake tracked you here.   He’s only a few miles away.  They were supposed to infiltrate this place tonight, but then Gideon grabbed me.  I’m not sure what the plan is now.  Whatever it is, though, Jake is not going to leave you here.”  Or me either.

Tom turned to the structure and started shoveling dirt from the bottom.  Tears streamed down his cheeks.  “I thought this was it for me.  I thought I was dead.  This place, it’s just, just…”

“I know,” Laney whispered.  “I saw the ditch out front and the cage where they keep you.  It’s inhuman what they’re doing.”

“You don’t know the half of it.  Sometimes for sport, the guards make the inmates fight each other.  If both inmates are alive at the end, they’re usually in such bad shape that they’re dead within a few days.” 

He glanced over at his dig partner and Laney took a good look at the poor man.  It was obvious he'd been severely beaten.  Bruises poked through the dirt in his face and he seemed to favor his left side.  Through his tattered shirt, she could see dark splotches across his chest.  He needed medical attention as soon as possible.  She was amazed he was still conscious.  The man dropped his tool and couldn't seem to locate it on the ground right in front of him. 

Reaching over, Tom handed it to him with a gentle shoulder pat, before his eyes returned to Laney.  “The guards think it’s funny to spit in our food, or drop it on the ground, and make us eat like dogs.  Whatever I’ve done in this life, I’ve never done anything as bad as these guards.”

“I think there’s a special kind of hell for people like that.”

He nodded.   “But for now, we’re the ones in hell.”