The Collective Protocol (13 page)

The most obvious—and easily faked—clue was that she held a surgical scalpel. What made Jimmie think that she’d mutilated herself were the blood trails along her wrists and arms. Her hands were covered in blood, while her forearms looked like they’d been vertical while she continued to cut, causing the fluid to run down her arms towards her elbows.

“Did she do that to herself?” Jimmie asked Rob as the others continued on their way into the museum.

The big man examined the scene and replied softly, “Looks like it.”

“How… Why?” he muttered.

“Probably drugs.”

Jimmie nodded in disgust. “Something’s not right about this place, man. It feels weird.”

“Yeah. Place feels… evil or something.”

“That’s the same way I feel,” he answered.

“Let’s catch up,” Rob reminded him.

They hurried forward and tucked up into the back of the SWAT team’s movement as they crossed the end of the European Sculpture hall. They were headed towards the Great Hall from the back side, intent on clearing that and then bringing in the diversion team to help clear the building.

Jimmie looked up towards the ceiling and then across the exhibit hall. The night vision goggles allowed him to see perhaps 200 feet and then it faded to total blackness.
This place is huge! We’ll need every cop in Manhattan to clear it
, he thought. Members of the cult could disperse and hide in here for days. The LT had said that rumor had it that there was an entire sub-level below the building that would need to be cleared also. Employees that the SWAT team interviewed before Jimmie and Rob arrived called the area “the Catacombs.” If the perpetrators went down there, it would complicate the operation tenfold.

As they walked, the smell of blood and feces became evident. It became so overwhelming that the men had to raise their undershirts up over their noses to try and diffuse the smell in any way possible. Jimmie glanced at his partner and muttered, “I think we made a mistake.” Rob just grunted and pushed past him, annoyed.

The lead man finally made his way to the side entrance of the Great Hall. “
Uh… You need to get in here Lieutenant
,” the officer who’d discovered the mutilated girl called over the radio.

The diversionary team at the front entrance burst inside, ready to get into a firefight. They were met with total silence and a scene from a macabre haunted house. The new group hadn’t been
gently
introduced to the carnage by the naked woman’s body like Jimmie’s team had and several of the men vomited.

Bodies hung suspended from the balcony by their own entrails. Severed heads sat on the counter of the information desk. Detached feet were lined up along the wall like shoes in a foyer. Even arms were laid out on the floor in tic-tac-toe patterns and human fingers and ears made up the X’s and O’s respectively.

“What the… What’s happened here?” the SWAT commander asked.

“I don’t know, LT,” the team’s sergeant who’d entered with Jimmie said.

“Have you found anyone else?”

“We found a mutilated body in the first hallway, but it didn’t even come close to this level of depravity,” the sergeant answered truthfully.

“No, I mean, have you found anyone alive in here?”

“We haven’t seen anyone, sir. But this place is huge and we haven’t even begun to search it yet.”

“Alright, I think we need more–”

“They’re all dead!” a girl’s voice called from the balcony overlooking the hall.

Twenty-four lasers redirected towards the mezzanine railing. “Who sees her?” the lieutenant yelled.

“I got nothing,” one of the men answered. A chorus of voices confirmed that no one actually saw anything.

“I’m up here, on the second floor!” the girl’s voice echoed through the hall once more.

Lieutenant Burgos pulled his face away from his rifle’s sight and looked around. “Where are you? We can’t see you,” he said.

“I’m just up here. Send Jimmie up, I haven’t talked to him in forever,” she replied.

“I… I don’t know who that is,” the commander answered.

“Oh, he’s the cop from lower Manhattan who lied about his SWAT experience so he could get some action. He came in the side door.”

The lieutenant looked towards the first group and Jimmie raised his hand tentatively. “Get over here!” he ordered.

Jimmie Rollins trotted over to the commander, who said, “Do you know who’s up there?”

“I have no idea, sir.”

“Are you Jimmie?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I have Jimmie here, ma’am. How do you know him?”

“Oh, we were friends as children,” she replied. Her voice seemed to come from everywhere at once in the domed room.

The lieutenant looked back at Jimmie, who hunched his shoulders; he had no clue what was happening. Lieutenant Burgos glanced towards the balcony once more and shouted, “Are you hurt?”

“The only thing that hurts me is that Jimmie doesn’t want to come up here and talk to me.”

“What happened here?”

“The only person I’m interested in talking to is Jimmie, Lieutenant Burgos.”

The commander looked stunned and said, “How do you know my name? We haven’t even made it to introductions yet.”

“We haven’t? Are you sure? Maybe I heard one of your men say your name. Is Jimmie gonna come up here or not?” the woman asked.

“Why don’t you come down here instead?”

“Nice try, lieutenant. Send Jimmie up.”

The younger officer placed a hand on Burgos’ arm. “Look, LT, this is going nowhere. I’ll go up and talk to her.”

“That’s a big risk, Officer Rollins.”

Jimmie swallowed the growing lump in his throat and said, “I know.”

Lieutenant Burgos looked at him hard through the night vision goggles and finally relented. “Okay. Be safe, we’re right here.”

“I’m waiting, Jimmie!”

“Hold on, I’m coming,” he yelled back.

It took him a few minutes to work his way around to the area where she sat waiting on a simple plastic chair. He didn’t hesitate even once as he made his way around the multiple staircases and corners, almost like he’d been here before. As he got closer to the woman she bent down and pushed a button on the power strip sitting near her chair which activated several lamps positioned around the mezzanine.

Jimmies NVG’s exploded with white light and blinded him. He jerked them up and off of his face while he crammed his knuckles in his eyes to help clear away the retina afterimage. When he took his hand away he was face to face with a blonde woman, about his height. She wore a gaudy gold necklace that must have come from one of the museum’s collections and nothing else.
What is it about the women in this place not wearing any clothes?
he thought

“I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering why I’m nude,” she stated.

“Well, yes, ma’am,” he replied while he tried to avert his eyes.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m totally comfortable in the buff. I like the feeling of freedom that it gives me.”

“To be honest, it’s a little uncomfortable for me,” he replied.

“I know.”

He stared at her.
What kind of game is she playing?

“I’m not playing any games, Jimmie.”

What the…
“How do you know my name, lady? I ain’t ever met you before.”

“Sure you have,” she countered. “We grew up together. I was your foster sister until the State of New York finally stepped in and stopped Lance Morris from doing those awful things to us.”

He staggered backwards like he’d been hit. “Paige?”

“The one and only.”

“Oh my God. I’ve always wanted to know what happened to you. I looked, but I couldn’t find anything other than you ran away as a teenager.”

“Oh, you know, same thing that happens to lots of people,” she shrugged and turned around to walk back to the chair. “I bounced around the foster system for a while, met some more bad people, ran away, met some good people, then attended a lot of therapy sessions and now here I am.”

“I, uh… I’m sorry, Paige. I should have tried to stop him. I wanted to stop him, but he was too strong for me.”

She sat down in the circle of white light cast off from the lamps that were connected to some type of battery box. Jimmie couldn’t help but notice that she spread her legs wide as she leaned back in the chair. “I know you couldn’t stop him. You had problems of your own. But the fact remains that you
tried
to stop him. That means more to me than you could ever imagine.”

“Paige, I’m sorry, this is all very strange,” he said, gesturing around them. “What happened in here?”

“You like it?”

“Are you serious? No, I don’t like it. Those people were butchered.”

“They were all
very
bad people,” she replied with a pouty lip.

“Did… did you do this, Paige?”

She jumped up from the chair and bounced on the balls of her feet while she clapped. “I did! It’s exciting isn’t it, Jimmie? We always talked about doing things like this; killing the bad people. It’s so liberating.”

He started to raise his rifle but stopped halfway up. “Don’t do that. You wouldn’t like what happens when I get angry,” she warned.

“I can’t move my arms,” Jimmie whined. “What the hell is happening?”

“Are you going to play nice,
Officer
Rollins?”

Jimmie looked around for some type of help, but couldn’t find anything. “What are you talking ab—” he began to say but suddenly lost the ability to speak.

“Are you going to be nice to me, Jimmy?”

He nodded his head frantically and his weapon suddenly became heavy again as he regained the sensation in his arms. “What’s happening? Did you do that?”

“Of course I did, don’t be silly. Come on, it would be a little too coincidental if you had some type of epileptic seizure at that exact moment.”

“Paige, you’re scaring me.”

“You don’t have to be scared, Jimmie. I would never hurt you.”

“But you hurt these other people.”

“They deserved it. You should see what they did to those women.”

“Where are they?”

“Hmm?” she asked innocently.

“Where are the women, Paige?”

“Oh, they were much too damaged to salvage so I put them out of their misery.” She held up both hands in front of her and shook them. “Oh no, don’t worry, they didn’t feel a thing. Quick and painless.”

“Did you murder that girl in the western emergency exit hallway?”

“She did that to herself, Jimmie.”

He thought about how he’d
volunteered
to come on the assignment with the SWAT team, the premonitions of evil when they entered the building, the way he knew exactly where to go when he began walking up here and the way his body was locked down a moment before. Everything that happened was too much to be a coincidence. “Did you
make
her do that to herself?”

“Oh, okay, you got me, Officer Jimmie. I got bored waiting for you to show up and I just wanted to have a little fun.”

“Paige, I need you to come with me,” he said as he gestured towards the stairwell.

“No way, Jose. I am not going to get arrested. That is definitely not any fun. Besides, you’re on my good list. You don’t want to get moved over to the naughty list.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I just wanted to see you again, Jimmie. Oh, and to tell you that you need to quit the police force and leave the city.”

“What?!”

“Jimmie, there are things happening that you couldn’t fathom. You’re a good person. You took the beatings every day trying to stop that man from touching me. In a few days, bad things are going to happen to the police officers here and I can’t protect you from it.”

“Paige, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Stop right there, Officer Dzanrsky!” she yelled towards the shadows.

“You okay, Jimmie?” Rob asked softly.

“Didn’t I say to come alone?” she screeched.

Jimmie thought for a moment and said, “No. You just said that you wanted to talk to me. You didn’t say anything about anyone else.”

“Get a good eyeful, beefcake,” she said towards Rob and then refocused her gaze on Jimmie. “Hmpf, I must be slipping. I get to take a rest after today—that’s why you have a couple of days to quit. Once my break is over, there’s no stopping what will happen.”

“Paige, please. I don’t understand,” he muttered.

“You can’t understand. It’s so much bigger than you. Just understand that you’ve got to quit. I know that you love being a cop; I don’t even have to go into your head to figure that out. It oozes from your thoughts.”

“So you know that I can’t quit.”

“If you don’t quit, you’ll die. It’s that simple. And for the sake of your sanity, Officer Dzanrsky should quit too. Both of you grab your families and leave the city.”