Soul Thief (Blue Light Series) (41 page)

Annie laughed.
“Good luck with that,” she said. “By the way, what happened at the house?”

From somewhere
not far away Annie heard shouted voices, and in the distance, the sound of sirens. Dawn was breaking over the estate and a dark cast settled over Greta’s face like a stain. “Your father’s been arrested. But they won’t hold him long. They don’t realize who he is.”

“Don’t you think
I
know who he is?” Annie said. “He’s a monster.”

“
It doesn’t matter what you think,” Greta said. “You’re coming with me.”

Again Greta leapt at Annie, but
this time Annie was ready for her. She pulled the nine millimeter from her waistband, pointed it at the woman and said, “Stop!”

But Greta did not stop.
Again Annie stepped to the side, this time deflecting Greta with a crack on the head from the handgun. Greta didn’t seem to notice. She spun around and with a growl came back at Annie. A small pop stopped Greta in her tracks. Greta dropped the syringe and staggered back, a look of utter amazement on her face. She put her hands to her abdomen and brought them to her face, gazing at the blood on them.

A tall,
bent figure stepped from the shadows holding a silenced handgun. It only took a second for Annie to recognize him as Joe Remy, the dog handler.

Greta stared at
the man in astonishment then fell down in the grass. “Oh, you stupid asshole,” she said. “You don’t realize what you’ve done. He’ll destroy you.”

“Shut
the hell up, you bag of shit,” Remy said. He turned to an astonished Annie. “Don’t you have somewhere to go?”

Annie hesitated.
“What happened out back?”

“Something that should have happened a long time ago.
That evil place is finished.”

“
Where are the dogs?”

“
Locked up for now. Go,” Remy said. “The bitch is right. The feds won’t hold your father long. They know your husband’s alive, and so does he. And they know where he is. They’ll fall all over each other trying to get to him. You need to find him first.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I’ve got ears.”

“Where is he
then?” Annie said.

He motioned toward the injured woman on the ground.
“I don’t know. Ask her.”

Annie went to where Greta lay moaning in the grass
, kicked the needle out of the way and grabbed her by the hair, snapped her head back so that she could look her directly in the eye. “Where is he, you bitch?”

Greta smiled
around a mouthful of bloody teeth. You’ll never reach him before they do,” she said and died.

“Are you the one who
sicced the cops on my father?” Annie asked Remy.

Remy frowned.
“I’ve done things you wouldn’t believe, things that turned my stomach cold and made me question my own sanity. I can’t do it anymore.”

“I need to know where Doug is.”

“I can’t help you. I hope you find him before they do.” Remy turned and made his way back toward the house.

Without further thought
Annie sprinted off in the direction of the beach.

Two hundred yards down she came to the sea wall that marked the end of her father’s property. She went over the wall and slipped into the
tepid water, swimming across the intercoastal with strong overhand strokes. When she reached the opposite bank she did not take time to rest, but moved onward into the pine forest knowing it would not take them long to track her.

When she felt she was well out of harm’s way, she stopped and disassembled the side arm, dried it out and put it back together, just like Doug had taught her to do, all the while thinking of Doug
, her heart soaring at the prospect of him being alive, her heart sick with the reality that they knew where he was and she didn’t.

She
waited for the sun to come up, to warm her body and dry her clothes, the loaded gun at her side. She would not hesitate to use it if she had to. When the sun was fully up she rose and walked on out of the woods with her head high and her spirits soaring. She was through being a victim, done being afraid. She was a strong woman with so much to live for. It was time for action. She hitched a ride to the nearest shopping mall where she bought a disposable phone and placed a call.

When the answering
service picked up, she said, “Rick, Doug's alive. I'm on the run and I need your help.”

Once
Jennings had cleared security at Tampa International he checked his phone inbox and found the message from Annie. He called her right back, got her location and told her to stay put. After renting a car he sped north.

Twelve hours
before Annie called him, Jennings learned that the feds had finally obtained a warrant to search the De Roché estate. It seemed that they’d received information from an anonymous source that the body of a murdered prostitute was buried somewhere on the property. It didn’t matter that the source was anonymous, or that the claim might be fraudulent, it was enough to obtain a warrant and Spencer was all over it. Jennings needed a way to warn Annie. She had to get out of there before the feds showed up.

Much to
Jennings’s amusement, most of the major television news outlets had also received the same anonymous information, and of course the sensationalists were running with the story. The airways and the internet were filled with speculation about the mysterious financial billionaire who might or might not be running for president and the scandal that seemed to be breaking around him. Jennings wondered what De Roché’s chances were now of becoming president. He knew that perception was everything and that you didn’t actually need to be guilty of a crime to be convicted in the hearts and minds of the public. In this twenty-four hour news cycle, accusation was as good as conviction.

Jennings
had immediately booked a flight for Tampa. He needed to get to Annie before Spencer did, so he was elated when she called him. A little over an hour later, he was hugging a very pregnant Annie.

She briefly explained her escape from her father’s house.

“So you’re saying that this guy Joe Remy killed Greta, your father’s assistant?”

“That’s right.”

“Let me get this straight,” Jennings said. “You think Remy is the one who sicced the feds on your father?”

“
I don’t know. Maybe. He told me he’d had enough of the craziness. And he said that they knew where Doug was. He was very specific that both the feds and my father knew where he was and that they’d be tripping over each other trying to get to him.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,”
Jennings said.

“Do you know where
he is?” Annie asked, her eyes hopeful.

“Get in the car, Annie. We need to move
.”

Annie
got in, and as Jennings drove she stared at him. Finally she said, “You didn’t answer my question.”

Jennings
exhaled a long, windy sigh. “I have some information but I don’t know how reliable it is. The feds believe he’s being helped by rogue members of some mysterious religious organization.”

Annie grunted out a short laugh.
“A religious organization? Doug’s not connected to a religious organization. He doesn’t even go to church.”

“True, but it has come to light that this organization,
the Brotherhood of the Order, has been keeping an eye on Doug since he was a child.”

“What? Why?” Annie
asked.

“You mean you honestly
don’t know?”

“No, Rick, I don’t.”

“Ten years of marriage and Doug never confided in you?”

Jennings
was driving north, heading away from the Tampa Bay area using back roads and keeping to the speed limit.

Annie
kept her gaze trained on him. “I don’t know what the hell you mean.”

Jennings
didn’t really want to talk about the Collector, but he didn’t see that he had a choice. Although he’d known Doug for most of his life and had gone through hell with him, it was still difficult for him to swallow the whole supernatural thing, as though if he denied it in his heart it would somehow not be real. But Jennings realized he could not avoid a subject that was so prominent in all their lives. Real? Fantasy? Illusion? It didn’t really matter. Distasteful as it was, he had to deal with it. So he proceeded to tell Annie about the terrible incidents that had helped shape Doug’s young life, the atrocities he’d seen, and the supernatural creature that Doug believed was responsible for it all. Jennings concluded by saying, “I guess he never mentioned it because after he met you it all stopped. Doug once told me that you were his miracle because the nightmares ended when you came into his life.”

Annie was silent in thought for a long time.
Jennings glanced over and saw a tear trace a line down her cheek.

“There’s something
I need to tell you, Rick. Doug’s not the only one who’s had to endure that creature.” Annie then told Jennings the story of her own childhood and how she too had been haunted by the Collector. She told of the recent visitation and the story it had told about her father. “It’s some sort of conspiracy that goes back hundreds, maybe thousands of years. And it has something to do with our child.”

Jennings
gave Annie a sidelong glance. “What do you mean by that?”

“
Just what I said. It’s what all the crap in mine and Doug’s lives has been about. My father made a deal with the devil in exchange for some sort of sick mortality. It’s why Doug and I were chosen.”

Jennings
chewed on this for a long moment. Finally he said, “What’s so important about your child?”

“I don’t know,” Annie replied. “
I’ve heard things but it all seems too ridiculous to be true . . .” Annie shook her head in frustration. “Listen, I honestly don’t know.”

“
It has something to do with an ancient artifact, doesn’t it?” Jennings said.

“I think it does,” Annie said. “
I think they believe that the combination of Doug’s and my child and the artifact will be a catalyst for something important in the future.”

Jennings
stared straight ahead. The sky had clouded over and rain was speckling the windshield. He turned the wipers on and listened to their hypnotic rhythm as they slapped back and forth across the glass.

“All my life I’ve been a staunch believer in the real world
,” Jennings said. “I’ve never wanted to accept anything that I couldn’t touch or hear or see. But when Doug came into my life I was forced to reassess those beliefs. I witnessed things that could not possibly be real, yet they were. After his parents died Doug was like a son to me. I’ve done everything I could do to help him. When I thought he was dead, a piece of me died with him. Now that I believe he’s alive I will do whatever it takes to save him.”

Annie
let out a sigh and fell silent in thought.

Up ahead there was
a sign that said Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. Jennings slowed and pulled into the drive.

“What are you doing?” Annie said.

“Seeing about chartering an airplane.” Jennings replied. “We’re going to find Doug.”

“What do you mean you’ve always been in love with me?” Doug said. He was gazing at Lucy like she
’d lost her mind. “Who the hell are you?”

Lucy cleared her throat. “Doug . . .”

“So it
was
all a lie?”

“No.
I want you to know how deeply sorry I am that it had to be this way. But it was necessary.”

Anger suddenly seized
Doug. He tried to stem it but could not. He stood up and glared down at Lucy. “Who are you?”

Lucy stared directly into Doug’s eyes.
“My real name is Nadia Ziegler.”

“No,” Doug said backing away in horror. “That’s
not possible. Whoever you are you’re
not
Nadia Zeigler. Nadia Zeigler is dead.” He felt a sudden and unaccountable buzzing in his head like it contained a nest of bees. “I went to Nadia Ziegler’s memorial service. I buried her in my heart.”

“Doug,
please let me explain.”

But Doug did not want her to explain. He’d known Nadia Zeigler
since first grade. She’d been his best friend when he’d needed a friend most. She’d been his greatest champion and defender when he thought the entire world was against him. And later, in high school she had become his first true love. But after high school they’d gone their separate ways. Doug had always felt a pang of regret that he and Nadia had not gotten back together. But after he met Annie nothing else had mattered. Then came 911, the tragic news of Nadia’s death, the memorial service. And now this woman who obviously wasn’t Nadia Ziegler was trying to convince him that she was.

“
The Nadia Zeigler you knew
is
dead, Doug. You’re right about that. At least the physical woman. But the Nadia Zeigler inside my head and heart is very much alive and hasn’t forgotten who she is or where she came from. And I never forgot about you. I never stopped
believing
in you.”

Doug was backing toward the door shaking his head. Why was this woman doing a number on him? Who the
hell was she? Did she think he was stupid? Didn’t she know that he could see that she
wasn’t
Nadia Zeigler? “Nadia Ziegler died in the World Trade Center bombings,” he said.

“That’s what everybody thinks, Doug, but it’s not true. Listen, a
fter college I was recruited by a New York financial firm. I was flattered that they sought me out. In the beginning I had no idea who they were and I didn’t care. It was a job in a field I was good at and I was happy to have it and didn’t ask a lot of questions. There were many layers of management that insulated the top brass from us lowly analysts. But after a while I began to realize that there was something wrong in the firm, so I did some digging. Many of its involvements were sketchy at best, even weird. It was as if they were pulling trades out of thin air. I was surprised that they hadn’t been found out, that they’d never been investigated by the FTC. The longer I worked there the more suspicious I became, so I dug deeper and found out that the real boss was a reclusive billionaire by the name of Édouard De Roché.”

Doug
almost stopped breathing. He stared at Lucy. He remembered what De Roché had told him on the day of Rachael’s funeral.
Nadia Zeigler’s and my paths crossed on numerous occasions. Actually she did some very fine work for me. She was a bright young woman who had a promising future cut short. A shame she had to die in such a terrible way.

What the hell was going on
here?

“Don’t you see, Doug, he
knew about me. He knew that you and I were childhood sweethearts. It’s the only reason he hired me. He thought he could use me. He thought he could get to you through me.”

Doug was even more confused now.
“But why would he want to get to me?”

“Doug, isn’t it obvious
? He needed you. He needed the child only you and Annie could produce. But he hated you. He thought once Annie was pregnant he could somehow use me to get you out of the picture. But when he discovered that I was looking into his affairs all that changed. Listen, his firm rarely missed the mark. It was almost supernatural in its ability to pull trades out of the air. I knew there must be some sort of insider stuff going on. I discovered that De Roché and his activities were being monitored by an organization known as the Brotherhood of the Order. They found me in the system while I was looking into De Roché’s affairs and they contacted me, warned me that if they could find me then it was almost certain that De Roché knew I was nosing around. They said they’d been watching him for years. They also said that he was funneling huge amounts of money through banks in the Cayman Islands and into ultra-secret scientific projects all over the world. His organization is huge and mostly secret. They deal with things like gene manipulation, stem cell research, human robotics and private space exploration. De Roché is obsessed with something he calls the ‘guided evolution of man’. We believe that he knows something the rest of us can only guess at and that he’s making plans for the future of the human race.”

Doug remembered the things De Roché had told him that day on the way to Rachael’s funeral
, thinking the old man must be insane. Now this woman was telling him that everything De Roché said was true, that he had some sort of master plan for humankind.

“T
he Order knew about you and me and all the stuff you’d gone through as a child,” she explained. They also told me that you and De Roché were connected, that you had married his daughter. I was stunned beyond belief, but I’d never forgotten what you went through as a child and I began to wonder. The Order tried to recruit me, but I declined. I was very confused about everything, and that’s when I started to realize that I’d never stopped loving you. Even so, I accepted that you and I would probably never be together again.

“The
Order told me that something terrible would happen to me if I didn’t get away from De Roché. All of it . . . everything was too much, too coincidental. I didn’t know what to do. My life was spiraling out of control. They were right. De Roché found out that I was looking into his activities. He sent people to see me. They threatened me and said that De Roché wanted a private meeting with me. The meeting was set for September 12th 2001. The morning before that . . . well . . . you know what happened.”

Doug’s head was really
spinning now. “No, I don’t know what happened. Those bombings were done by a group of Islamic militants. Are you saying that De Roché had something to do with it?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying.
But even if it’s true, no one will ever prove it. He’s above the law. Men like him never pay for the crimes they commit.”

“Jesus,” Doug said
. The implications of what this woman was suggesting were beyond belief. His head was buzzing like it contained a chainsaw. He put his hands over his ears to try to calm the noise. It didn’t help. He felt nausea rising in him.

“Doug, w
hen the airplanes struck the towers I was at my desk working. I felt the impact even though it was many floors above me. We were told by security to stay at our desks. By the time they realized what had happened it was too late, burning jet fuel had begun leaking down through air conditioning ducts and elevator shafts and spilling out onto the floors. People all around me were burning and screaming. I tried to get out but I was struck by a flaming sheet of fuel. I remember the terrible pain of burning alive knowing that my life was over. I awoke in the worst pain imaginable, covered from head to toe in bandages. Somehow the Order got me out before the buildings collapsed. They saved my life. I was burned beyond recognition. It’s a miracle I even survived. They took me to Europe and over the course of the next few years they rebuilt me. They gave me a new face and a new identity and in time I began to see that what they were doing was for the good of all mankind. I had nowhere else to go so I became one of them. I left everything else behind and disappeared inside the protective cocoon of their organization. I went back to school and got my PhD. All the while I was put through the most rigorous mental and physical training imaginable. I learned survival techniques, martial arts and how to use weapons. When the time came I was assigned to you.”

Doug drew a long,
deep breath. “But why?” He was still completely unable to put the pieces of the story together in his mind.

“Because
of our history. Because I knew about your visions, I knew about the Collector. I knew you probably better than anyone alive.” Lucy’s eyes dropped to the floor. “And because I knew about De Roché and understood the connection between the two of you better than anyone else in the world.” Lucy stopped speaking, and it was a long moment before she resumed in a voice that was a mere whisper. “I believed in you, Doug. I still believe in you. You are one of the most important people on the planet and they knew that I was the right person to protect you.”

“Stop it!” Doug said. “I
am not an important person. I just want to live a simple life and be left alone.”

Lucy
gave her head a sad shake. “The only way that will happen is if you disappear completely. If this all works out and you do manage to find Annie, take her and the child and go someplace where no one knows you, where no one will ever find you. Change your name and your identity. Drop out completely or you’ll never be safe. Do you understand me? It’s the only way.”

Doug was silent for a long moment in thought. Finally he said,
“Tell me how all of this happened.”

“The
Order has been watching you since you were a child. I was put in charge of the team five years ago. But like I told you, we were betrayed on the morning your house was destroyed. Someone high up in our ranks betrayed us.”

“Wh
o was it?”

“
His name is Isaac Ross. He’s an ordained priest and was a trusted member of the Order’s security network. I knew him well, or thought I did. We worked together. No one ever suspected him until it was too late. We believe De Roché got to him and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

“
You mean money?”

Lucy shook her head. “
Most men do the things they do out of greed. They lust for earthly possessions, material things. In Ross’s case it was very different. He was seduced with the promise of immortality.”

Doug
stared. He knew there was something unnatural about De Roché. Could the man actually be immortal? Did he have the power to make others immortal, or was he the world’s biggest con man?

“
De Roché is well aware of the Order’s existence,” Lucy continued. “For years he’s been looking for chinks in our armor. He found it with Ross.”

“
If it’s true it would explain a lot,” Doug said. “But there’s something I don’t understand. If De Roché wanted Annie and the baby alive he took quite a chance blowing our house up and sending gunmen after us.”

“It was all calculated, Doug. As you
are well aware, the house didn’t explode until you were clear of it. And none of their gunshots connected. Why do you suppose that is? De Roché only hires the best.”

“Are you saying it was all
staged?”

“It was the only way
he could convince Annie to come back to him, by scaring her nearly to death.”

“And it worked like a charm,” Doug said. “She played right into his hands.”

“You two were herded like cattle.”

“I warned Annie that it was a trick and tried to persuade her not to go back
there. She wouldn’t listen.”

“She had to
go, Doug. Her mother was dead.”

“So wh
y blow up our house?”

“
For dramatic effect. De Roché wasn’t sure Rachael’s death alone would be enough to persuade her back. They’d been estranged for so long. He needed insurance.”

“Did De
Roché kill his own wife?”

“We don’t think so. But her death was the catalyst that set everything in motion.
He knew time was running out so he ordered the hit on your house.”

“Who killed her then?”

“We think it was the Collector. De Roché has become too powerful and we believe he intends to betray the bargain he made with the entity.”

“Then why didn’t he just kill De
Roché?”

“We don’t think he can. Somehow De
Roché is immune to his wrath.”

“What’s going on?” Doug asked.
“Just what is De Roché planning?”

“Some sort of global takeover. The powers that be, the men in the shadows, have been planning this for
millennia. Now they have De Roché. The child is coming and they’re only one step away from the artifact.”

Doug stared skeptically at Lucy
. He was not yet ready to think of her as Nadia. “You referred to my child as the ‘chosen one’,” he said. “What exactly does that mean?”

Lucy
averted her eyes. “The Order is a religious organization. I think you can guess.”

A small, pained expression c
ame over Doug’s face as he shook his head in disbelief. “You’re talking about some sort of messiah, aren’t you?”