The Belial Stone (The Belial Series) (27 page)

CHAPTER 68

P
atrick went through the rest of the afternoon in slow motion.  He knew he was in shock, but he couldn’t shake himself out of it.  Laney was in the hands of that madman.  He couldn’t focus on anything except that one single thought. 

He shook his head. 
Man.  That isn’t even the right term, is it?
 

Henry had arranged for the group to move to an old farmhouse about fifteen minutes from the Kensington compound.  The farmhouse sat on a hundred and twenty acres, and it had been sitting empty since it had been foreclosed on six months earlier.  They hadn’t contacted anyone about it.  They’d just moved in.

No one knew they were there.  Henry didn’t think Gideon would try another assault, but if he did, he wanted to make it as tough as possible to find them. 

Jordan stayed behind to deal with the local police.  As far as the police knew, he was the only member of the Chandler Group alive.  

Time was now more critical than ever, and they couldn't waste it walking the police through everything that had happened.  And besides, they needed to keep a lid on things if they were going to keep Laney alive.

Now, sitting at the old kitchen table, Patrick pushed the food on his plate around before giving up.  He couldn’t stomach it.  He hadn’t protected her.  From what they had figured out, she had, in fact, protected him. 

He was sitting here safe and sound.  And they didn’t even know where she was.  And worse, now her life hung in the balance against the lives of all the men at the site, including Jake’s brother.

Jake, Yoni, and Henry sat with him.  Their food grew cold along with his.  The security detail had been split into two shifts and half patrolled the new homestead while the other half slept.  No one was talking.

They had been debating what to do next.  Henry argued they should just follow the instructions and do nothing for now.  Yoni voted for finding Laney.  Jake had stayed silent.  Now they all sat watching their plates.

Patrick watched Jake, who sat across from him.  He’d said very little since they’d received the call about Laney.  The failure to protect her weighed on him.  Patrick didn’t know how to lessen that burden.  It hadn’t been his fault, but he knew Jake was blaming himself.  Hell, they all seemed to be blaming themselves.

He took a deep breath.  The next step was up to him.  He couldn’t add the burden of this decision to anyone else.  It was his to bear.

He cleared his throat.  “You all know that Laney isn’t just my niece.  She is, in every practical way, my daughter.  And I know her better than almost anyone.  I remember this one time when she was eleven years old, a kid at school was being bullied.  Laney wasn’t even friends with the child, but it didn’t stop her from intervening even though there were three bullies.  She got a black eye that day.  They told Laney to stay out of it and if she tried to stop them again, they’d do worse to her the next day.  So the next day came, and what do you think she did?”

“Tried to stop them again,” Jake said, a smile forming on his lips.

Patrick smiled.  “Yup.  She didn’t go in alone, though.  She brought backup in the form of her friend, Darby.  The other child didn’t get beat up that day, but Laney and Darby took a good few hits.  Of course, they gave a good few as well.  When she came home that night, I asked her what had happened.  She confessed the whole story to me.  I asked her why she took the bullies on again, even though she knew she was going to get hurt.  She told me that life wasn’t about trying to avoid getting hurt, it was supposed to be about doing the right thing.  And keeping that child from getting hurt was the right thing to do.”

“Her childhood…”  His words disappeared for a moment, and he struggled to control his emotions.  “Her childhood was not easy.  But it gave her a very strong sense of right and wrong. And she’s lived her life staying pretty much on the right side, even when it’s been at great personal cost.  She’s always trying to help the person who needs the most help.  But I think you’ve all seen that already.”

The men nodded back at him.

Patrick took a deep breath, hating the words that he needed to say.  “So, I’ve been trying to think of what Laney would want us to do.  And the answer is obvious, although it kills me to say it:  She would want us to help those men in the compound, regardless of the risk to her.  It’s the greater good.” 

His hand was unsteady as he raised his teacup to his lips and took a small sip.  “We need to follow through with the plan to take out the compound.  And we need to do it fast, because they won’t be expecting that.  They’ll expect us to take time, to re-group.  We need to move now.”

“Are you sure, Patrick?” Henry asked.  “We don’t need to make any decision right now.  We can take some time.”

“And if Gideon gets the stone?”  Patrick asked.  “What then?”

“We don’t know for sure it’s even there,” Jake said.

Patrick looked at each man at the table before he answered.  “We have to work on the assumption that it is.  Do you really want to bet the fate of the world on the possibility that it isn’t?  That Azazyel has gone to all these lengths without being sure he’d find it?”

Jake stared at him and then looked away, his jaw hardening.  He shook his head.

Patrick stood up.  “You all know as well as I do, the sooner we do this, the better chance we have at succeeding.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll leave you to finish planning while I get a little fresh air.”

Patrick could feel their eyes on him as he walked out into the night.  He turned right, heading around the side of the house. 

Once out of sight of the windows, he stopped and leaned against the building for support.  He wrapped his arms around his stomach as if he could keep himself from splitting in two. 

Tears streamed down his cheeks.  “Oh, God, please protect her and keep her safe.”

CHAPTER 69

L
aney spent the rest of the day brushing and shoveling dirt from the megalith with Tom.  Her back ached from being hunched over.  Her hands were covered in blisters. 

A layer of horror blanketed her as she worked.  During the day, she’d seen enough brutality and its aftereffects to last a lifetime. 

At the same time, she couldn’t help but be amazed by the history in front of her.  The megalith she was uncovering depicted what appeared to be a history of man.  The pictographs seemed to support Cayce’s explanation of how humans came into existence.

There were
depictions of the thought forms that, at first, took residence in animals.  Then human bodies were created and they took residence there, followed by a time of peace and harmony.  

Later on in humanity’s timeline, others descended from the sky, bringing violence and despair.  The fallen angels.  Destruction began the moment they set down.   With their arrival, the frames shifted from the pictures of peace and harmony to frame after frame of violence. The hieroglyphs depicted murders, wars, human sacrifice.  That was where the depictions stopped, unfortunately; the rest remained buried.

Throughout the megalith, there were also depictions of the Belial Stones.  At first, they appeared to be revered and worshiped.  With the arrival of the fallen angels, though, emissions from the stones were used in violent acts. 

There was nothing, though, in the megalith that indicated where the stones might be found.  And with the guards constantly looking for the slightest deviation from work, she hadn’t been able to take a long look at any of the other megaliths near her. 

Laney rubbed the back of her neck, trying in vain to work out the kinks as the sun began to sink in the sky.  They couldn’t work much longer with the light dimming.  Her hands had started to cramp severely a few hours ago.  Now, they were practically numb, which was actually a blessing because it was less painful. 

The trade-off, though, was that she was having difficulty holding onto her tools.  And her back was screaming from being hunched over for so long. She wasn’t sure she was going to be able to stand up once they finally allowed her to.

She couldn’t remember ever being so physically exhausted.  Tom had seemed to retreat into his own little world, but Laney knew he must be in even more pain than her. 

As the sun finally slipped below the horizon, Laney looked up expectantly.  She breathed deep.  The work would have to end now.   

Spotlights glared on across the enclosure, bathing the dig site in high-voltage light.   She looked around in stunned disbelief, her hope plummeting.

Lights were strung across the entire enclosure.  She hadn't noticed them before.  Despair threatened to send her
into unending river of tears.

Beyond defeated, she picked up her brush and began removing more dirt from the granite in front of her. 
When will this day end?

CHAPTER 70

T
he plans for the assault on the compound lay on the kitchen table.  They would go in just before dawn.  Henry was busy explaining the plan to Jordan, who had just returned from the other house.  The police were still investigating, and they weren’t buying Jordan’s story completely.  But Jordan had been able to prove that he’d just flown in, and they’d been unable to hold him. 

Jake tried to focus on the conversation, but Laney’s face and then Tom’s kept flashing through his mind, distracting him. 

Henry put his hand on Jake’s shoulder, pulling him from his thoughts.  “You okay?”

“Yeah.  I’m fine.” 

Henry didn’t say anything, just waited.

Jake sighed.  “What do you want me to say, Henry?  We’re going to go rescue the men from the compound and by doing so, sign Laney’s death warrant.  So, yeah, I’m great.”

“I know it's an impossible choice.  If we go in, we're signing her death warrant.  If we don't, we're signing the death warrant of every man in that place.  Tell me what you want me to do, Jake, and I’ll do it.  If you don’t want us to go in, we won’t.”

Jake raked a hand through his hair.  “How can I say that?  Tom’s in there and I’ve seen what those men are going through.  How can I say that saving them is wrong?  I just don’t understand why Laney has to pay the price for their lives.” 

Jake’s cell phone rang and he looked down.  Yoni.  He’d gone to scout out the compound one last time to make sure there’d been no changes in security.  “Yeah?”

“She’s here, Jake,” Yoni said.

“What?”

“Laney.  She’s at the compound.”

“Are you sure?” Jake asked, not daring to hope.

“I’m sure.  I got a good look at her when they escorted the prisoners to the sleeping quarters.”

“Does she look okay?”

“No noticeable injuries,” Yoni said, his tone upbeat. 

“Thank God.” Jake released a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.

“‘Thank God’?  I think that Padre has been a good influence on you.”

“What about security?  Any changes?”

“Yeah.  They’ve beefed it up.  There’s an extra patrol truck on the fence and more guards at the enclosure.  We’re going to need more men.”

“Okay.  We’ll figure it out.” Jake hung up.

He turned to find Henry grinning at him.  “So, now it looks like we’re saving everybody?”

Jake returned the grin “Yup."

Then the grin slid from his face.  “But they’ve beefed up security.  Yoni thinks we need more men.”

“We can’t get them in until tomorrow, at the earliest.”

“Why do we need more men?” Jordan asked.

“They’ve increased security at the site,” Jake replied, staring at the map.

With a smile, Jordan pointed to the sleeping enclosure on the compound map.  “I think we have more than enough men.  We just need to get them weapons.”

CHAPTER 71

T
he living room was a buzz of activity as they made the final preparations for the assault.  Jake finished packing the ammunition into his bag.  Yoni was working on the assault team’s communications.  Patrick was familiarizing himself with the weapons they would be using, and Henry was reviewing the plan, adjusting as he saw necessary.

Jake tested the pack for weight. 
Good
.  He glanced over at Patrick. 

The news that Laney was at the compound had given Patrick a renewed determination.  If anyone got between Patrick and his goal of saving Laney, God help them -- although Jake liked to think that with the Father on their team, God wasn’t going to b
e helping the other side much.

Even without divine intervention, though, he had a feeling that Father Patrick was not a man that you crossed easily.  Much like his niece. 

Jake’s thoughts darkened when he thought of Laney being caught in the middle of the fight tonight.  It wasn’t that she was female – Jake had worked with plenty of women in the military, and he knew they were more than capable of handling themselves.  And he’d seen Laney’s skills first-hand.  There was just something about Laney that made him want to protect her. 

And then there was Tom.  What kind of condition would he be in?  Was he even still alive?  If he was would he still be after the assault?

Jake shook his head, clearing it of doubts.  He needed to focus on the plan, and in a few hours, he’d have both of them safely out.