Tricks and Traps (Gray Spear Society Book 7) (32 page)

She looked around desperately. The pillars of the wooden awning were heavily engraved. She noticed some bumps which looked like nine tiny spears in a square.

She ran over and pressed a spear. It went in slightly but the door didn't budge. The button seemed inert.

"It must be like the elevator in the basement," Norbert said. "Use the standard code. Two, three, five, seven."

Tawni held all four buttons down at the same time. The secret door popped open an inch.

He pulled it open the rest of the way. Both of them ran inside, went down a sloping corridor, and entered a cubical chamber. A wall light turned on automatically. A steel door slid closed with a loud clang, sealing them in. There was no other way out.

Aaron's voice emanated from a speaker, "If you're hearing this message, it means you're trying to break into my headquarters. Before you can proceed, I must determine whether you're a friend or a foe. If you're me, this will be easy. If you're not, good luck."

"Fuck," Tawni muttered. "It's a test."

Norbert nodded. "Of course."

"You'll notice two slots in the wall," the recording said. "There is also a deck of keys. Take them."

A panel in the wall slid open, revealing a stack of metal plates, and Norbert grabbed it. He gave part of the stack to Tawni.

She examined the plates. Each had an irregular and different pattern of holes drilled in it. There were also words painted on the keys, such as "beauty," "black," and "fear." As she went through the stack, she found scientific terms like "gravity" and "entropy."

"Your task is simple," the recorded Aaron said. "Put the right two keys in the slots. I'll give you a clue. They're the keys to the universe. Only a true friend will know the answer to this riddle."

Tawni grimaced. She was terrible at riddles.

"I should mention one other thing," the recording added. "The ceiling of this chamber is a one hundred ton block of solid cement. If you choose the wrong keys, the weight will fall immediately. Tampering with the equipment or attempting to escape will also trigger the trap. By the way, the room is air-tight. Eventually, you'll suffocate. But don't hurry. You only get one chance."

She looked up. There was a crack around the edge of the cement ceiling. If that weight fell, she would get smashed as flat as a sheet of paper. She grabbed her phone. She had no signal, of course. Aaron always thought of everything.

"We're screwed," she said.

"Don't give up," Norbert said.

"Have you looked at these stupid keys? Fear, time, fluidity? There is no way we're going to pick the right two words, and we only get one try."

"This must be a puzzle that we can solve. Otherwise, Aaron wouldn't have bothered. Use your brain."

Tawni sighed.

The keys to the universe,
she thought. She tried to remember everything Aaron had taught her about the universe. God had a plan, but He didn't control everything directly. The world was a machine that usually ran according to built-in rules.

"The twins like to talk about this stuff," Norbert said, "but I don't usually pay much attention. It's hard to understand them."

Tawni nodded. "I remember them saying the universe has two fundamental principles. What were they?" She furrowed her brow. "That must be the answer."

She began to remember conversations with her teammates, and not just the ones with Aaron. She even recalled discussions with Wesley and the legate. The scattered clues assembled in her mind.

She went through the keys again, but this time, she was more focused. She tossed the obviously wrong ones on the floor.

Smoky shadows wafted from her hands.

"Why are you doing that?" Norbert said.

"I don't know. Maybe God is looking over my shoulder."

"I hope so. We could use the help. Ah!"

He held up a key with the word "love" written on it.

She smiled. "Right! And now I remember the other key. It's why evil must exist."

She went through the keys until she found one labeled "free will."

"Are we sure?"

She nodded. "Aaron always tells us to trust our intuition. This feels right."

"Let's do it together."

Norbert stuck his key in one slot, and Tawni stuck hers in the other. She braced herself for being crushed, but the enormous weight remained in place.

"Well done, friend," the recording said. "Please, put the keys back where you found them."

She gathered up the keys and put them away.

A wall panel slid backwards with a grinding noise.

They proceeded down a short passage and came to a ladder. Tawni looked up into darkness. The ladder went straight up a narrow tube barely wide enough for a man to squeeze through.

"I bet this goes all the way up," Norbert said.

She winced. "Twenty-two stories?"

"Start climbing."

He took the lead, and she followed close behind. It soon became too dark to see. She had to climb by feel alone, but light at the very bottom showed how far she would fall if she slipped.

Tawni was sweating from exertion by the time they reached the top. She could smell Norbert's personal odor in the confined space.

"Quiet," he whispered.

They climbed up into a dark room crowded with bulky items. There was just enough light for her to recognize the location. They were in a cramped storage space behind the security booth. The electronic equipment that controlled the defensive and surveillance systems was here.

Tawni tried hard to be silent as she navigated the dense maze of cables and boxes. Ventilation fans blew warm air across her already overheated body.

Norbert cracked open an access panel which allowed him to peek into the security booth. She looked over his shoulder.

Nancy was lying motionless on the floor. Tawni gasped in horror.

Norbert crawled through the opening silently. He checked Nancy's pulse and whispered, "She's alive."

Tawni felt a wave of relief.

The security booth was otherwise empty. She joined Norbert, staying low so she wouldn't be visible through the window. They used the surveillance controls to check the interior of headquarters.

Aaron and Sheryl were on the floor in the workout room. Their skin color looked good, so Tawni was hopeful they were also alive. She glimpsed Aaron's chest rising and falling. Smythe was on the floor in the medical lab with a spilled cup of coffee in hand. The twins were still hovering above the roof, apparently unaware that anything was wrong.

"Jack is missing," Norbert stated darkly.

"Shit," Tawni said. "I think I know what happened here."

He nodded.

"That man is so dead."

"It looks like headquarters is safe, thank God," he said. "Let's wake everybody up, if we can."

They left the security booth but used a chair to keep the door propped open. If it closed, getting back inside would be very difficult.

Norbert filled a pot with cold water from the kitchen sink. He held it over Aaron's head.

"Stay back," Norbert said. "He can be a little irritable when he wakes up."

Tawni gave him lots of space.

He dumped the pot and immediately sprinted backwards. Aaron was on his feet in a flash. He swung his fists at the air a couple of times before opening his eyes.

He blinked groggily at Tawni and Norbert.

"Are you OK, sir?" Norbert said.

Aaron swayed. "Jack drugged us."

"We guessed that."

Tawni checked Sheryl to confirm she was still alive. Norbert went into the medical lab to wake up Smythe.

"What's the situation?" Aaron said.

"We just got here," Tawni said. "We were really scared when nobody answered their phone."

He blinked a few more times. "What about Nancy?"

"Unconscious in the security booth."

"Wait. How did you get up here?"

She smiled. "We used the garden door."

"Huh?" He drew back and almost fell over.

"We called Marina, and she told us about it."

He seemed to have difficulty with that statement.

Norbert returned and said, "Smythe is alive. It looks like the whole team survived."

"Let me get this straight," Aaron said. "You found the secret door, unlocked it, entered the chamber, passed the keys test, and climbed up here?"

"Yes, sir."

He raised his eyebrows. "I'm very impressed."

Tawni grinned. That was a rare complement indeed.

"Norbert, help me sort things out down here. Tawni, make sure the twins are OK."

She went to the nearest staircase and hurried up to the roof. It was hot outside.

Bethany and Leanna were still shooting beams of light from their eyeballs into the sky, or maybe it was the other way around. All their hair had fallen out, making them look like cancer patients. Something was wrong with their scalps.

Tawni approached. The twins' heads now had a metallic sheen. She touched Bethany's bare skull and discovered it was as smooth and hard as glass. She was feverishly hot. A white glow was coming out of her nostrils and ears.

What is God doing to them?
Tawni wondered.

She listened to the twins' chests and heard rapid heartbeats. They were still breathing, and except for their heads, their skin color was normal.

Tawni went back downstairs.

Smythe was awake now. He was giving an injection to Sheryl.

Aaron came around the corner carrying Nancy over his shoulder. He gently placed her on a blue mat on the floor.

A moment later, Sheryl woke up abruptly. It seemed the injection was a stimulant. She wobbled before getting her bearings.

"Now that we're all here," Aaron said, "we can get down to business. Obviously, I have to deal with Jack, but that's my problem. There are some unpleasant tasks a commander can't delegate. How did the meeting between Cantrell and Ford go?"

"We basically got one name out of it," Norbert said. "Dr. Vidal Santiago. He was a lead scientist on the Indian Head project."

"I'll call Marina, and she'll have her hackers locate him for us."

Aaron made the call. He first had to explain to Marina what had happened in headquarters. After she settled down, he gave her the information.

As he put his phone away, he almost fell over.

"Sir," Smythe said, "do you want a shot?"

Aaron shook his head. "No. I hate drugs. I'll fight through this. I will sit down though."

He went into the kitchen and sat at the table. His
legionnaires
joined him to continue the meeting. He stared at the smoked glass surface with a distant expression.

"Thinking about Jack?" Sheryl said.

He nodded. "I keep wondering how I could've prevented this tragedy. I knew he was unstable, but I never thought..." He grimaced.

"You had faith in an old friend. That's not necessarily a bad thing."

"Now I have to kill that old friend."

"There's no other way, sir?" she said.

"He crossed a line that can't be uncrossed. The worst part is that I know it's not really his fault. The monkey machine corrupted his mind. Unfortunately, the damage may be permanent, which means I can't ever trust him again."

"Wesley could fix him," Tawni said.

Aaron shrugged. "Maybe, but Wesley isn't here, and I'm certainly not going to summon him just for this. He has more important problems to wrestle with."

"The life of a man isn't important?"

"Every member of the Society is expendable. It's our fate to fight and die, and this is Jack's time."

She had never seen her commander look so sad. He was close to actual tears.

His phone rang, and he answered it. "Hello? Thank you, honey. Please text the details to Smythe. Oh, could you do a couple more favors for me? Cut off Jack's access to money. Cancel all his cards and bank accounts. He's gone rogue. Second, try to download the architectural plans for the Pot of Gold Casino. You'll find them in Yellow Tower Construction's computers. I'll call you later privately." He hung up.

"Marina's people found Dr. Santiago?" Smythe said.

"In western Illinois. You and Tawni will go talk to him. Don't be gentle."

"Yes, sir."

"Norbert," Aaron said, "headquarters is yours. Stay in the security booth."

Norbert nodded. "Yes, sir."

"And I'm going back to the Pot of Gold to find Jack. I'll need another pair of eyes to watch my back, which must be Sheryl by process of elimination. That's all. Let's get to work."

Chapter Seventeen

Jack reached into his gym bag full of cash for another hundred dollar bill. He grasped at empty air instead. He rooted around until he found one stack left at the bottom of the bag. He became horrified as he realized he was almost out of money.

He didn't know how much he had started with, but the figure was large. Somehow, he had burned through all that cash over the course of a few hours. He had continuously stuffed bills into the machine with one hand while playing with the other. It hadn't registered how much money he was spending. It hadn't seemed to matter at the time.

The situation was now desperate. He didn't doubt that Aaron had already canceled all of Jack's credit cards. This short stack of cash was the end. Once it was gone, Jack would be kicked out of the casino and doomed to wander the streets. His life of destitution wouldn't last long though. He had made himself an enemy of the Gray Spear Society. His life expectancy could be measured in hours.

Jack needed to get more money so he could keep playing. The temptation to spend the rest right now was almost overwhelming, but he found the strength to resist. He wasn't quitting. He was just taking a break.

He forced himself to leave the game room. Standing in place for hours had made his knees stiff and weak. His right hand had bloody abrasions from yanking hard on the steel controls.

The hallway outside was covered in golden paint. He staggered forward on the soft carpeting and almost bumped into the walls. He didn't feel good. He was reminded of some bad drug trips he had experienced as a youth.

He reached the domed room at the center of the third floor. Blue paint was a welcome change in the color scheme. Padded chairs and couches were grouped into clusters, but nobody was using them. He sat on the nearest chair to rest for a moment. He was starving and nauseous at the same time. He couldn't even remember his last meal.