The Massacre Mechanism (The Downwinders Book 5) (12 page)

No,
Lyman said.
No grave robbing. I
bought them and harvested the fingers while they were still alive.

Winn turned
away from Lyman, looking at David. The two exchanged a horrified glance. Winn
could see that David was trying to process what he was hearing from Lyman. Winn
felt he was two seconds from bolting from the chamber and running down the
tunnel, ready to leave Leeds and never return.

You’re
troubled,
Lyman
said.
Of course you are. I’ll tell you what’s planned, I’ll give you the
entire story, so long as you promise to hear me out.

Winn turned
back around.
The fingers of children, Lyman? I thought we were the good
guys.

Not
children as you know them,
Lyman replied.
Let me explain. Will you sit?

He knows
I’m ready to ditch all of this,
Winn thought to himself.
He wouldn’t be telling me
otherwise.
Winn sat at the table across from Lyman. David remained at the
back of the room with Carma.

The bones
you planted in the massacre field were the tips of the fingers of monochildren.
I took one from hundreds of them, usually the left little finger, and usually
within hours after they were born.

Winn sat
stone-faced from Lyman.

It caused
them little pain and no real harm, Lyman
continued.
They were able to function the remainder of
their short lives with no disadvantage.

Winn’s
expression didn’t change.

Are you
familiar with a place called The Dark River?
Lyman asked.

I’ve
heard of it,
Winn
answered.

People
with the gift can go there, through natural portals,
Lyman continued.
There’s one near
here, in the cave where you and Deem used the Blood River to transubstantiate
that poor man with the hornet stings. Do you remember?

Yes,
Winn replied, recalling the
claustrophobically tight crawl they’d performed to reach the spot.
I remember.

Good,
good.
Lyman paused
as he seemed to consider what to say next.
You know, when I died, years ago,
I was a very angry young man. You know what they did to me, yes?

Winn turned
to look at Carma. The tale she’d told of Lyman’s death was a vivid story, one
not easily forgotten. The image of Lyman’s testicles nailed to the side of a
wall, a warning to other young men not to interfere with the polygamous
marriage designs of the older elders, caused him to sit up straightly in his
chair.

I see you
do,
Lyman said.
Men
always rearrange themselves whenever the subject comes up.
A sly smile
crossed Lyman’s face.

He’s
pleased that I’m uncomfortable,
Winn thought.

Anyway,
Lyman continued,
I spent those
first few years after my death trying to move on. Since I had been gifted
during my life, I understood ghosts to some degree, but being one was an
entirely new experience. I didn’t understand just how extreme a death like
mine, combined with the anger and the injustice, could cause a perpetuation…a
continuance that I couldn’t suppress no matter how hard I wanted it to stop. I
was very, very angry. Not only was I separated from the love of my life, I was
mutilated and left to bleed out. My blood cried out for justice against those
church leaders, those supposed men of God. You’d be angry too, I expect. Anyone
would. The fact that I was sixteen when it happened didn’t help. Love is strong
at sixteen. So are all the other emotions. I’ve learned a lot since then, but
the emotions are still there. Love and anger. You know that I have been on a
crusade ever since.

Yes,
Winn replied.

I
eventually decided that if I was stuck as a ghost, forced to continue because
of my situation, my anger, I might as well make the best of it and find a way
to get back at the people I hated. I resolved to use whatever tools I could.
When I found out about The Dark River, a whole world of new opportunities
presented themselves. It’s where most of this world’s troubles come from, Winn.
It’s not like here. It’s a dark and dangerous place. There are people there who
deal in the most depraved and malignant pastimes, and create pure evil to
inflict upon the world. I met many of those people, and when I discovered what
they were capable of, I realized I could leverage some of it to achieve my
goals. How do you imagine this property, the house above, is so powerfully
protected?

So you’re
peddling evil, now?
Winn asked.
Like I said, I thought we were the good guys.

Monochildren
live only in The Dark River, Winn,
Lyman said.
They’re the result of sexual union there.
Pleasure in The Dark River isn’t what it’s like here. Physical sex there is an
act of violence, something that everyone knows will result in a monochild. It’s
sexless, and has no ears or nose. It lives for a few miserable weeks and then dies.
In The Dark River, they’re just ingredients for other things, harvested like
tomatoes. Their fingers, if taken at a very young age and in the proper manner,
have incredible properties. That’s why I asked you to plant them.

What kind
of properties?
Winn
asked.

The
ability to merge all the anger and desire for justice that has waited in that
massacre field for a hundred and seventy years, with the violent, depraved beings
in my soul cage.

Winn looked
confused.
The soul cage?
He asked.
The one Deem is trapped inside?

Yes. The
one filled with some of the most despicable people I’ve been able to collect
over the past fifty years.

Winn shook
his head.
This is your plan to get Deem out?

It’s my
plan to take down the local gifted church leaders, as many as I can,
Lyman replied.

Winn turned
to look at Carma. She was staring admiringly at Lyman.

Does this
make any sense to you, David?
Winn asked.

No,
David replied, stepping forward.
I
don’t get it.

The
monochild fingers you planted activated the souls of the people murdered there,
Lyman replied.
Each finger is connected to one of the beings I have trapped in the soul cage.
When the right moment hits, the two will merge.

Merge?
Winn asked.

The being
will leave the soul cage and merge with the ghost in the ground at the massacre
site. They will rise from their grave as a blend of the two. Sick, bloodthirsty
individuals merged with ghosts seeking vengeance. It will be one of the most
potent little armies ever created.

Army?
Winn asked.
To do what?

To travel
across land to Caliente, fifty miles to the west, and destroy Dayton and the
other gifted church leaders who will be meeting there in three days’ time.

Winn sat
stunned.
Destroy?
he asked.

Lyman leaned
forward over the table until his face was just a foot from Winn’s.
Utterly
destroy,
he said.
Dayton and those leaders have ancestors who
participated in the massacre. The resurrected ghosts from the field will seek
them out, just as they tried to rise against David. Once they’re found, the
merged degenerate inside them will show no mercy to Dayton and his group.

That
ghost couldn’t pull itself out,
Winn replied.
They’re not coming out of the ground.

Oh, they
will,
Lyman said,
leaning back.
Thanks to your mechanism.

My
mechanism?
Winn
asked.
The one I got from Deem’s family?

The same,
Lyman replied.

What does
that have to do with it?

Dayton
and his group have had many conferences in Caliente over the years,
Lyman replied.
I could have
executed this plan at several different times, but I was never able to
calculate the exact moment the fingers should be planted to coordinate the
resurrection and the merge. It had to be timed out precisely; that’s why Carma
asked you to plant the fingers during a specific window of time, when the moon
was in the correct position. I put so much work into collecting the fingers and
the souls over the years, preparing for a confrontation, I wasn’t going to
waste it on a gamble. I had been trying to come up with a way to make the necessary
calculations for the merge, but nothing seemed reliable. Then — out of the
blue, a perfect confluence of events brought everything into alignment. The
information you lifted from Warren tipped us off to a meeting Dayton is
planning; a large, region-wide conference, scheduled in a few days, packed with
the worst of his contingent…and you, you show up with an Antikythera Mechanism
out of the blue. It’s as though the stars aligned.

You used
my device to figure this all out?
Winn asked.

I used it
to calculate the exact time you should plant,
Lyman replied.
As long as Dayton’s group doesn’t
change the meeting time and place, the resurrection will occur and the combined
souls will travel overland to Caliente to confront Dayton at the correct
moment.

And then?
David asked.

They’ll
be slaughtered,
Lyman replied, matter-of-factly.

And Deem?
Winn asked.

She’ll be
one of them,
Lyman
replied.
Once the task is completed, she’ll be released and I’m hoping
she’ll return to her body.

You’re
forcing Deem to participate in this battle?
David asked.

If I know
Deem,
Lyman said,
it’s
a battle she’ll enjoy being part of. She hates Dayton more than I do.

And if
you’re wrong?
Winn
asked.

Lyman
chuckled.
You’d better hope I’m not. If I’m wrong, those merged beings will
keep going until they get their revenge. If they don’t meet up with Dayton in
Caliente, they’ll continue on until they’re satisfied. Western Nevada will have
to deal with them.

Can you
stop it?
David
asked.

I can
stop the merge,
Lyman replied,
but I can’t stop things after that. Don’t you want Deem
released? This is how she gets out, how she survives. I would think you’d be
supportive.

I want
her out,
David
replied.
I’m just worried about what she’ll be forced to do.

She won’t
be forced to do anything,
Lyman said.
She’s a strong enough personality to override anything
that might be going on inside the ghost she merges with.

And I
suppose you can’t just release her, now?
David asked.

The cage
opens once, and it opens for all,
Lyman replied.
I’m not throwing decades of work down the
drain. This is how Deem gets out, as part of my plan to decimate the local
leadership. It’ll be the single greatest blow against them since the Storehouse
hanging in 1914. It will take them years to recover.

A broad
smile spread across Lyman’s face.
The war is engaged, brethren, and Deem’s
survival is at stake. Don’t let me down.

Winn leaned
back in his chair, trying to assimilate everything Lyman had shared. It was
overwhelming, and he felt the lateness of the hour pass over him, feeling as
though he might pass out from exhaustion.

I need to
sleep,
he said,
rising from the table.

Lyman
reached out to grab his hand, and Winn felt the slight movement against him.

It’s the
only way,
Lyman
said.
It’s what has to happen.

Winn dropped
from the River, and Lyman’s image dissipated, becoming a faint wisp of
distortion across the table.

“I’m going
upstairs,” Winn said, turning to leave the chamber. He heard Carma and David
following. He felt numb; tired from the long day and overwhelmed by the details
of the plan Lyman had laid out. He was only faintly aware of Carma and David
talking behind him, discussing their plans for tomorrow when David would be
leaving to visit his uncle.

As they
reached the ground floor, Winn turned to the staircase that led up. “I’m
turning in,” he said to the others.

“Are you
alright?” Carma asked, concern in her voice.

“I’m fine,”
Winn replied. “Just need to sleep. Goodnight, David.”

“See you in
a week,” David replied.