Revenge of the Three (Hand of God) (10 page)

Chapter
26

              I found a guy who was carrying several migrant workers across the border. I didn’t have any cash, so I traded him the gun for a ride. I sat in the back of a box truck packed in with at least thirty other people, none of whom spoke English, for almost four hours. It was so hot back there, I probably lost ten pounds in sweat alone. Don’t even get me started on the smell. I’d have rather stuck my face in a bucket of dead fish, it reeked so badly. I managed to fall asleep, and remained so for the better part of the ride. The old lady next to me didn’t seem to mind my propping my head on her shoulder. If she did, she didn’t say so to me.

             
Once we arrived, the back door flew open and the man told us all to get out. He looked me up and down, shaking his head and gestured for me to keep moving. He apparently didn’t give a lot of rides to white Americans. Once again, I was in the middle of nowhere. There was a large chain link fence, part of it was cut open and bent into place. We all walked through the opening and onto U.S. soil. I was surprised to see no border patrol around, but I guess they couldn’t watch hundreds of miles of border. Once through the fence, there was another truck waiting.

             
We climbed into the back of that truck and drove for another hour or so. It stopped again and let us all out. We were at a bus station in Laredo, Texas; just a few hours from Del Rio. One of my fellow travelers paid for my bus ticket. He must have felt sorry for me. I was filthy, I smelled horrible and probably looked like I just went a few rounds with Chuck Liddell. The bus ride to Del Rio was uneventful. Once back in town, I walked back to my apartment where I kept a spare key on top of the light by the door. I let myself in and walked straight to bed. I was hungry too, but that would have to wait.

             
I carefully peeled off what I could of the borrowed clothes. Most of my burns had healed, but I was still in a lot of pain. I was afraid to look too closely at my feet or legs. I climbed into bed without covering up. I had no idea how long I’d been gone or what was happening with Maria, but I needed some rest if I was to be any good to anyone. Within a few minutes, sleep pulled me into the dark place. Hopefully there would be no dreams. I’d lived enough nightmares the last few days.

             
When I woke up, I felt like a new person. My feet and legs had mostly healed, though I still felt some throbbing throughout my body. I eased out of bed and limped into the bathroom. I climbed into the shower, and let the water pour over me, massaging my aches and pains. It was the best thing I’d felt in ages. Well, besides the other night with Maria. I still wasn’t sure what to make of that.

             
After washing off, I got dressed and pulled out my laptop. I looked through local and national news sites to see if anything had been reported about my arrest or “escape” from federal custody. There was nothing at all that I could find. Someone within the Feds sold me out to the cartel. Chances are, the whole case against me was all made up to get me to the cartel. I needed to find out who was behind it. Problem was, I had much bigger issues on my hands with the Ghost. The cartel was going to be a headache in the meantime. Hopefully after the show I put on in the desert, they’d leave me alone once they heard I was El Blanco Diablo.

             
I heated up a TV dinner out of the freezer and choked it down as if it was the last meal I’d ever eat.  I found my extra keys and headed out to my Explorer, and drove to the funeral home. I doubted Maria would be there, but figured it would be a place to start. The Ghost, or whatever it was, had her, was controlling her, but I had no idea what it’d be up to. When I arrived at the funeral home, it was empty as I had suspected. I knew Lucifer would be no help since he was in the Abyss. It looked like once again I was on my own to fight God.

    
I went into Maria’s office and looked around her desk. There were papers and notes lying around. It was as if she were in the middle of something when she was taken. The sound of the front door opening rang through the halls as the sound of footsteps approached. I stood and walked into the foyer to find Ranger O’Brien and Agent Jenkins.

    
“Well well, Charlie Sims. For a fugitive, you sure didn’t run very far did you?”

    
My blood pressure shot up at the mere sight of them.

    
“I’m not a fugitive. You arrested me on bullshit, then delivered me to the cartel.”

    
The two men looked at each other and laughed.

    
“What are you talking about? You killed a federal guard.”

    
“You locked me up with a cartel thug who was sent to kill me. Then, when I got away, your guards hand delivered me to the cartel, who tried to barbecue me over a bon fire.”

             
“Well now,” O’Brien said, “That’s quite a story. Why don’t you come with us and we can sort this out.”

     “I’m not going anywhere with you two.”

     “Look Charlie,” Jenkins started. “I don’t know what happened at the jail. We had a dozen guards with stab wounds saying you cut them all with a shiv and sliced up your cell mate.”

     “Trust me, if I was gonna cut someone, they wouldn’t be around to tell you about it.”

    “Well, we just want to get to the bottom of this. Not to mention, you’re still wanted on the previous charges.”

     “Bullshit. Someone inside your agency is crooked. This whole thing is a crock of made up shit. You have Federal agents who are working for the cartel. I’d be more worried about that than little old me.”

     Jenkins walked toward me and tried to grab my arm as he reached for his handcuffs. This time I wouldn’t go quietly. I slapped his arm away and placed my hand on his head, feeling my fingers sink in. Within seconds, I knew everything about Agent Jenkins.

Chapter 27

     I killed Jenkins before he could start screaming. Ranger O’Brien looked at me wide eyed as he drew his gun on me.

     “Get your hands
up! Do it! Hands in the air!” he shouted. I did as he said.

     “I get that you’re freaked, but your anger is misplaced. Jenkins was dirty. The
Cartel had dirt on him. He had apparently been coercing female informants to have sex with him and one of them filmed it.

     “What the hell are you talking about? Shut your damn mouth!”

     “I’m telling you. The girl had given the tape to the cartel. They used it to blackmail him. Once he started working for them, he couldn’t stop. He’s been at it for years. Info he’s given them has resulted in deaths to other Feds, Texas Rangers, and Border Patrol officers. Once this was all over, he was going to kill you too. He’s not the only Fed who was dirty either. There is a bunch of them down here.”

     “How do you know that?”

     “I just do. Hard to explain.”

     “You better try to explain. What did you do to him just now?”

     Part of me just wanted to tell him and get it out there. Maybe I could get him on board as an ally. Though last time I made a cop my ally, he was killed before he knew what he was involved in.

     “It’s complicated. Trust me though, I just saved your ass. And would you please stop pointing that gun at me, unless you plan on shooting me.”

     He lowered the gun and looked around. I could tell he had no idea what to do.

     “Where’s your girlfriend?” he asked.

     “She’s not my girlfriend, and her whereabouts is an even more complicated issue.”

     “What the hell are you into son?”

     “Hell sums it up pretty good.”

     “So how was he gonna kill me if you’re so smart?”

     “He was going to shoot you with your own gun and make it look like a suicide. He’s done it before to other cops. He’s good at it.”

     “Jesus Christ on a cracker.”

     That was a new one. I had to try not to laugh.

     “Jenkins was the lead agent out of the Del Rio field office. He had two other agents assigned to him. You suppose they were dirty?”

     “More than likely. I’d say you have quite a mess on your hands. Whatever they are or were up to, they would take out anyone they didn’t trust. They obviously didn’t trust you. Suicide would suck too. You wouldn’t even get the typical hero cop funeral.”

     “Shut the hell up already. What kind of preacher are you?”

     “Not a very good one, obviously. Look, we are both neck deep in shit. We don’t have a lot of time. Maybe we can help each other.”

     “And just why would I need your help? I need to take you in!”

     “Right, so they can hand me back over to the cartel and kill you. Great plan.”

     “How did you get away from them if they had you tied up in some bonfire?”

     “You saw what I just did to Jenkins didn’t you? No one plans for that, so it works in my favor.”

     “My God.”

     “He’s not exactly on our side right now.”

     We stood in silence for a minute. O’Brien finally holstered his gun and looked up at me.

     “So what is going on with your girlfriend or whatever she is?”

     “She’s in danger.”

     “The cartel?”

     “No, worse.”

     He rolled his eyes and looked around.

     “Ok
ay,” he said. “I’ll have to make some calls. We’ll find her, then deal with this situation.

     Sounded like a good idea, if the cartel butted out long enough.

Chapter 28

     Before we left, I took Jenkins’ body and placed him on a gurney in the back, covering him in sheets. Fortunately I worked at the one place were seeing dead bodies was normal. As we climbed into O’Brien’s truck, his phone went off. He held it to his ear grunting as his forehead wrinkled. Then he hung up.

     “Shit,” he said.

     “What?”

     “There’s been another church killing. This one completely imploded
. Everyone’s dead.”

     “Where at?”

     “In San Antonio. Guess that’s where we’re headed.”

     “Great.”

     The drive was several hours long. O’Brien tried to make small talk, but all he wanted to talk about was NASCAR and the Dallas Cowboys. I could tell I made him uncomfortable. I had that effect on people, especially after they just watched me kill a man with my fingertips. By the time we reached San Antonio he had given up on the chatter. The church was on the southwest side of the city. It had been a large Catholic Church, but now it looked like it got blasted by a hurricane. It was nothing but a pile of rubble.

             
“God Almighty!” O’Brien said as we pulled up.

             
“Unfortunately,” I replied.

             
“Huh?”

             
“Long story.”

             
“You know what this is about?’

             
“Kind of. We find Maria, we’ll solve this mess.”

             
“She did this?”

             
“No. Well yes, but no. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. I don’t even know what to tell you so you’ll believe me.” As I spoke, a strange feeling of déjà vu came over me. It made me think of the last time I was involved in this mess, a San Antonio cop named Jim Stanton came after me. After seeing some of the things the Three could do, he decided to help me after I explained it. He died rather early in the process of his involvement. I had no doubt O’Brien wouldn’t fare much better, Texas Ranger or not.

             
“Well, try to enlighten me.”

             
“Later. Let’s see what is going on out here. Trust me, you aren’t going to believe a word I tell you when I do explain.”

     “Shit, I’d believe just about anything at this point.”

     We climbed out of the truck and walked toward the rubble. There were still fire and ambulance crews around. As we approached, a police officer approached us.

     “This is a crime scene. You folks can’t be here.”

     O’Brien flashed his Texas Ranger star and the officer stepped aside.

     “Who is this?” The officer asked, pointing at me.

     “A pain in my ass,” O’Brien said as we kept moving.

     “You’re such a sweetheart.” I said.

     “Go fuck yourself. You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you back in Del Rio. Hell, I still might.”

     “You’ll be dead before you can skin leather.”

     “Well aren’t you just he cowboy.”

     “Try me.”

     “Okay, look asshole. I don’t like you, and I don’t trust you. But as it is, we are in the middle of some multi-pronged shit storm and you seem to have some hand in it not to mention, if you’re right about the Feds, then I need to watch my own ass. So let’s find your psycho girlfriend, deal with her, then I can take care of this shit with the Feds and cartel.”

     He turned away from me and walked toward the rubble, I followed behind him. I wasn’t even sure why we were there. It wasn’t like we were going to find anything.
When we got closer, I saw that crews were sifting through the rubble. I couldn’t see any bodies, but they could have been buried.

     “So how did that little girl do all this?” O’Brien asked.

     “I tried to tell you before, it’s not her, or she’s not herself.” I was going to have to explain. He was already involved, and keeping him in the dark wouldn’t help him at this point. So I told him everything. He kept a straight enough face during most of my explanation. I started with the Bishop, even told him what happened at the Alamodome, except I blamed all the dead people on the Bishop. Then I explained to him about the Ghost, Lucifer and everything else that had happened that I could think of; leaving out the part about me cutting people up and dissolving them in lye of course.

    
He stared blankly at me for several minutes, took off his hat, wiped his brow then replaced the hat.

     “So let me get this straight. You’re telling me that Jesus came back as some crazy old man preacher, did miracles, but was gonna destroy the world. Then he turned a bunch of people at the Alamodome into zombies and you somehow killed him
and the zombies. Now the Holy Spirit is back and is possessing your girlfriend and destroying churches. Oh yeah, and the devil who is really a good guy, was helping you until the Holy Spirit got hold of him? Did I get all that right?”

     “A bit of an over
simplification and she’s not my girlfriend. But yeah, something like that.”

     “You are seriously out of your fuckin’ mind son. Now I know I should have shot you back there.”

     “Look! You saw what I did to Jenkins and didn’t even break a sweat. You should see what I can do when I’m really pissed. And this shit with the churches is just the beginning.”

     “So let’s just say this is all true. How are you gonna stop the thing? Oh and by the way, I’m Southern Baptist, so never mind you just told me my whole belief system I was raised on is complete and utter horse shit. You’re lucky we’re not in Lubbock. They’d draw and quarter your ass up there.”

     “Yeah, I don’t doubt that. And I was a Pentecostal preacher for Christ’s sake. So yes, it is a bit jarring when you learn the truth. But it is what it is. I’d rather know the truth and deal with its ugliness than keep living a lie.”

     Before he could say anything, automatic gunfire went off from behind us. We both dove to the ground as a Dodge Charger raced by; a man leaning out the back window with an AK-47 was firing in our direction. O’Brien remained on his stomach, but returned fire with his side arm. The Charger was already gone by the time he got a shot off. He stood and looked down at me. I slowly got to my feet as he holstered his weapon.

     “Shit son,” he said. “Looks like someone wants you dead, multiple choice.”