Guarding the Treasure (25 page)

“It's drugs, Taylor, something time-released. That's what made the people suddenly change, become quiet.”

“Do you think that's what is happening here?”

“I'm not sure, but we need eyes in there,” Kevin said, looking toward the top of the wall. “What do we have here?” he asked, stepping closer to the wall for a better look at a grated opening near the top of the wall.

Taylor put a light on the grate. “Maybe an air vent for a chamber built into the wall?”

“Do you have a mobile surveillance camera with you?”

Taylor pulled the pack off his back. “Yeah, but I don't have a viewer.”

“Send the signal to my phone,” Kevin said.

Taylor worked on getting his camera in position as Gates programmed his phone. “Ready,” he said.

“Copy that. Initiating camera now,” he said, watching the thin, metal, telescopic arm raise the tiny camera into position on the ledge of the opening. “You should be getting a picture right about now,” Taylor said, looking at his partner.

Kevin looked intently at the screen. “Static. The picture has static. Wait a second. Images are coming in. No one inside,” he whispered, continuing to monitor the information. “I see a bed and a small floor lamp. The room looks about nine by thirteen with one door. I've got a call coming in from the chief. Bring the camera back down.” Kevin stepped a few feet from his partner.

Taylor zipped his pack as Gates rejoined him. “So what's up?”

“There's a team waiting for us in Dool. We're supposed to meet them ASAP,” Kevin said, beginning to walk hastily back to the car.

Taylor could sense his partner's annoyance. “The chief knows what he's doing, Gates. We need to trust his judgment.”

Without thinking, Kevin turned quickly on his heels, grabbing Taylor's jacket and pulling him close. “Don't you get it, man? She's in there, and we need to be doing something to get her out. Not later, and not tomorrow. Now.” Just then, Anya's words lodged in his mind, words that made him sick and increasingly angry.

“Three, my case for hating men has been sealed. My body is bleeding, and my head? Three, I can hardly think.”

Kevin loosened his grip on Taylor as he nursed the words once more in his head. “So help me, if Sophie has to go through anything from that old diary, I'll make sure someone pays,” he said, following after Taylor as they hurried toward the car. Kevin's mind raced. “Three, huh?” he whispered. “He didn't take care of Anya, what makes me think he'll be there to protect Sophie?”

“
So will you speak my name with belief?”

Kevin stopped at the sound of the voice and turned. A man stood directly in front of him. His shoulder-length hair was brown, matching his eyes, and he wore a long monk-like blue robe. Kevin was speechless.

“What's the matter, Mr. Gates? You now have nothing to say?”

Kevin studied the man. “Who are you?” Kevin asked. “Tell me, I'm waiting for an answer.”

The man was still.

Beads of sweat covered Kevin's upper lip as a strange edginess came over him. He slowly stepped closer, feeling drawn. “Are you the one? The one they call Three?”

There still was no sound from the man.

“There was never a mention in the diary that Anya had seen you with her eyes. She always said she just knew you were there.”

“She did know, Kevin. She knew me and trusted even in times of all-consuming pain and total despair
.
But you, on the other hand, know little of me and frankly don't believe that I exist even though Sophie has begun to put her trust in me.”

A lump formed in Kevin's throat as he tried to regain his slipping composure. “How do you expect me to trust someone who allows such degrading pain to those who are completely innocent?”

“All things will be to Sophie's good benefit as it was in Anya's life.”

“Good?” he said, moving closer to the man. “What type of good are you talking about? Taking young women and allowing them to be used by selfish men? What kind of keeper are you anyway?” he yelled.

“Kevin, this is as much about you as it is Sophie.”

Kevin pressed his lips tightly together to stop their quivering. He stepped back before he hit the guy but didn't take his eyes off Three. “I don't understand this, why Sophie, and why now?”

“She was destined to find the diary, Kevin. It was her time, her way to me.”

Kevin closed his eyes as he linked his fingers together behind his neck. “That diary has been nothing but trouble.”

“Also because you love her.”

Kevin felt a chill as he drew his eyes to the man. His voice broke. “More than you know.”

“No, Kevin, I know how much. That is why you have been chosen.”

“Chosen? Chosen for what?”

Kevin took one step closer, and then the stranger was gone, vanished. He now saw nothing but partial moonlight reflecting on the brick wall.

“Gates, are you coming?” Taylor asked in a loud whisper. He was waiting near the car. “Let's get back and seal the rescue plan before it's too late.”

Kevin looked over his shoulder and then back to the wall. “Was I dreaming?” he asked out loud, trying to shake the anxious feeling in his stomach. He turned and picked up the pace to join Taylor in the car.

“I got a message from the chief. We'll have a conference call as soon as we get to the apartment. We'll be joined by another team of specialists and—” He looked over at his partner. “Did you hear me, Gates?”

Kevin stared at the wall.

“Did you hear me? C'mon, if this is too close for you then we'd—”

“No, I'm fine,” he said, adjusting his ball cap.

“You don't look fine. You look like you just saw a ghost or something.”

Kevin looked out the window. “I think I just did. Drive, Taylor. Get us to town.”

“Who's there?” Sophie asked, feeling the presence of someone standing near her. She sat up quickly. “Ouch!” She grabbed her head, feeling a rush of blood to her temples.

“Dear Sophie…”

“Three,” she said, tears developing in the outer corners of her eyes. “Gipson—”

“I know, Sophie, I was with you. I saw everything, and I felt everything.”

“But Three, I can't remember what happened to me,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “What's happening to me? I'm talking to someone I can't see.”

“Sophie, listen to me. The drugs they gave you made you very sick. It saved you from the terrible advances of Mr. Gipson.”

She turned, trying to see Three. Her tears turned into deep sobs. “Why am I here?”

“I brought you Anya's diary, Sophie. You must read the ending. Her fate is yours.”

“Maybe I don't want to know, Three. It might be too hard to see what's going to happen to me.”

“You need to know, Sophie. You need to know that there is a man who needs to—”

She cut him off sharply. “I don't need a man to do anything for me. They just need to leave me alone.”

“Just as Anya thought, but you will see, dear one.”

“You're not leaving me alone in this cell, are you?”

“I have never left you. I will always be close. Now lie down and rest. Your comforter is with you.”

Sophie looked around once more, still seeing no one, but she knew he was there. “Thank you, Three,” she whispered.

She heard a jingling of keys at the door. She turned to look. Someone was opening the door.

“Ah, I see you're finally awake, Sophie.”

The voice was disgustingly familiar, but the man was still concealed in the shadows.

“What do you want from me?”

Professor Smith stepped into the light near the bed. “Come now, Ms. Hanes, is that any way to talk to your host?” he asked. “After all I've given you? I've provided you with a place to sleep, given you clothes and food.”

“I didn't ask to be here, and I don't need any of your charity!” she yelled. “I need to get out of here!”

He moved in closer. Sophie felt the sting of the back of the professor's hand on her cheek. He grabbed her arm and pulled her roughly from where she was sitting. As his hands grasped her arm, she noticed a copper band with a red light embedded in it secured to her wrist.
When was that put on? And what is it for
? she wondered.

“You're not going anywhere. It's people like you, Ms. Hanes, who have prevented me from getting the education I rightfully deserve. It's my duty to keep you and others like you from doing that to anyone else,” he snarled.

Sophie looked into his eyes. They were bloodshot, sunken in. His entire body was shaking. She knew he was barely in control, and if he lost it… She sat back quietly on the bed, not wanting to agitate him any further.

“I'll be back,” he said.

She watched him turn and move back into the darkness before opening the door. He looked back at her, and she could feel his cold eyes. Sophie lay on the bed, holding her hand to her bruised cheek. She now knew Smith's motive for abducting her. But why the wristband? And he'd said ‘people like her.' Were there others? “Oh, Three, I need to get out of here,” she said, her thoughts going back to her conversation with the unseen one before Smith came to visit. Her mind went to Kevin. “I need you, please help me.”

“How are things going, Gates?” A. J. asked.

Kevin heard apprehension in his superior's voice and saw the look he always gave him when he questioned his ability to remain calm. Skyping was a great tool for communication except when you didn't want the whole truth to be known. Kevin thought back to the last time he'd gotten too close to a situation, and it wasn't good. But he didn't want to be pulled from this case, not now. “Sir, I'm good with this.”

“Excellent, keep it that way,” he said, his eyes conveying a strong warning.

A. J. turned his attention to the team sitting in the hotel room turned command post. “Gentlemen, get to know who you're working with. You're going to have to work together like one unit, as if you've trained together for years. You'll be given a set of command words. You need to memorize them. Let me remind you to use only those words to trigger actions. We've talked with the owner of the Regal, and he has agreed to cooperate with us fully. This means he is out of the way so we can do our job. He has also provided us with the blueprints of the facility and a plot chart of the entire grounds. The owner has been advised not to talk to anyone associated with the Regal until this operation is completed.”

Taylor looked over at Gates and then at the other four agents, each one highly trained and a specialist in his field of expertise. As the youngest and least experienced, this was the first time he had been in this type of operation. He wondered if it would go like clockwork as indicated. It had to, he thought. People's lives were at stake.

“I'm putting Sergeant Young in charge of the ground operation,” A. J. said, and a man near the front of the room raised his hand. “He will run the operation from an armored vehicle on location. This vehicle is equipped to monitor each of you and guide you in any unstable situation you may encounter,” there was silence. “Gentlemen, let me remind you of one last thing, there are no heroes in this operation—you are a team. We need you to get in there, do your job, and get out. Does everyone understand?”

Each nodded his head.

“Good luck, gentlemen, and now I'm turning this over to Sergeant Young. Please address him only as ‘commander' while communicating over the radio.”

Commander Young stood. He was black, medium height, about forty, and fit beyond belief. “Here are the prints and the plot charts,” he said, spreading them out on a table in the front of the room. “The Regal was remodeled three years ago. We have an informant who has told us that what we see here on the prints isn't totally accurate. Note the six circles. They indicate exit only doors found on the north, south, and east walls.” Commander Young then pointed to the west wall of the diagram. “There's a row of air vents high on this wall. We're told there have been twelve rooms, similar to cells but without the bars, built within the outer wall. These cells aren't visible from within the facility. They're located behind a dummy wall and accessible only from the north and south ends of the wall.

“So getting in shouldn't be that difficult,” said an agent in the front row.

Young held up his hand. “Hold on just a second. Entrance is by finger scans and a scan of the right side of the right hand, so getting in will be a little trickier than anticipated.”

He looked at one of the agents from their South American affiliate. The man said, “We can use powdered explosives, sir. They're quiet and go virtually undetected.”

“Good, make sure you have enough vials for each team and make sure each one knows exactly how to use it. Now, as Gates and Taylor already know, there are no cameras on the outer perimeter of the south and west walls. There are none on the east, either, but the north outer perimeter has cameras every ten feet, and the inside of the entire facility has cameras every ten feet. So remember, you can be detected until we get those cameras disabled. Now as far as our mission,” Young held his right hand up for several seconds, wanting each to listen closely. “There are ninety-six registered residents with mild to severe mental disabilities. We suspect that there are an additional three women from an unsolved case and our newest, Sophie Hanes. She is an American from Washington State.” He looked hard at Gates. “All patients are drugged with a time-release form of Actsford. It creates a zombie-like disposition. Residents are easily controlled and non-combative when the drug hits their system.”