Dark static a novel, p.34
Dark Static: A Novel, page 34
"Stay down!" the deputy barked.
The old man did not heed the deputy's command. He rolled onto his side and grabbed at something. It was a length of broken steel pipe about the length of a baseball bat. The pipe gleamed in the lantern light. The bum raised the makeshift weapon above his head, and cried, "She's my meat! MINE! MINE! MINE!"
The deputy sighted his pistol on the bum. "You got one last chance, bud. Put the pole down. Don't make me shoot your stupid ass."
The bum didn't even consider the threat, he simply screamed and bounded from his spot toward the deputy.
The old man didn't get two steps before the deputy fired two rounds into his chest. The bum collapsed mid stride like a rag doll. He didn't move again.
The shots were deafening in the confines of the mine. The explosive booms echoed along the shafts long after the deputy had kicked the bum onto his back and checked for a pulse.
"Goddamnit," the deputy said, confirming the death. "Now who's going to take care of these two?"
He looked around for a moment as if trying to decide what to do next. He holstered the gun, leaned down, and dragged the bum across the stoney ground to the edge of the pit, unceremoniously tossing the old man's body into it. There was a clatter and several thuds before a final bone-breaking crash somewhere far below. Then silence.
The deputy walked to the pile of gravel near the minecart, unzipped his fly and made water.
All at once the man’s name came back to Ethan. Engleman. Deputy Engleman. The sheriff’s deputy who had responded to his 911 call the night of the Change.
Mina elbowed Ethan. He turned and saw her pointing to an area to their left that sloped away from their ridge. Ethan followed the path with his eyes. It wound around the face of the stope and down to the floor of the cavern. It was their way down.
Mina didn't wait for him. She duck-walked, gun drawn, leaving her flashlight at the mouth of the adit. Ethan followed suit, Rocky in tow.
Ethan saw Mina rush ahead as the deputy groaned and huffed his way through the micturition process in some obvious discomfort. The deputy's back was to Mina, who fairly flew across the stope floor like a cat after prey. In one swift move she kicked the deputy in the back of the right knee, pulled his service weapon from its holster with her free hand and had both guns aimed at his head before the deputy hit the ground.
"Freeze!" Mina ordered. "Move an inch before I say so and you die."
The deputy was obviously a lot smarter than the bum had been. He lay absolutely still on his back. "Can I zip up my pants?" he said.
Mina pointed the deputy's gun at his crotch. "Try it, and I'll blow it off and toss you down the pit too."
"That man was a convicted kiddie rapist, lady," Deputy Engleman said slowly, clearly. "We've been after him for years. You're interfering with a police investigation. Who the hell are you?"
Ethan stepped behind Mina, Rocky at his side. "How's the ulcer, Deputy?" he said.
Rocky growled low in his throat.
Engleman's eyes went from Ethan to Mina to the dog. He swallowed. "I-I know you…"
"I'm sure you do, Querent," Ethan said.
Engleman appeared confused. "Wait a minute…"
"Where are they?" Ethan asked.
Engleman looked at Mina. "I've got backup on the way. If you don't want to spend the next twenty years in state prison, I'd advise you to put away your weapon, return mine, and stand down."
Mina motioned with her weapon for the officer to stand. "Keep your hands above your head. If they drop below your ears, I will shoot you dead. I will not miss. Do you believe me?"
Engleman hesitated before nodding. He raised his hands slowly toward his buzz-cut scalp. "You kill me, you'll get the death sentence."
"Keep them up," Mina said, "and get on your knees."
Engleman complied stiffly.
"Ethan, take the deputy's handcuffs and place them on his wrists. Deputy Engleman, when I tell you to, place your hands behind your back slowly. Move too fast or reach for your belt and you die."
Within a minute the deputy was handcuffed. Mina got him to his feet, removed his utility belt, and sent him over to the lean-to, where more lights glowed inside.
"I'll stay with him," Mina said. She held out the deputy's service weapon.
Ethan took it, nodded. Rocky, aware the danger was over, shot from his side, ripping the leash from Ethan's hand. The dog disappeared behind a blue tarp that served as a makeshift doorway into the lean-to.
"This is a kidnapping situation," Engleman said.
Mina pressed the muzzle of her gun into the deputy's chest.
Ethan pulled the tarp aside. The smell hit him at once. Sour sweat, booze, piss. He looked and saw three cots. Two were occupied. Rocky was up on his hind legs, whining, barking. Ethan saw the large figure of a man tied at the ankles, hands tied over his stomach, the fetters connected with a single length of rope. A black gag had been tied around his mouth. Ethan tore the gag away. The man's lips were chapped and bloodied. His eyes were open, wide.
"Joey!" Ethan said.
The eyes blinked. The look was confusion, then disbelief. "E-Ethan? What… How?"
"Don't worry about that now," Ethan said. He turned and saw the other prisoner. Tamsin Anderson. She coughed and mumbled around her gag, bucking at her ties.
Ethan removed her gag.
"That filthy asshole!" she screamed.
"Let me get your ropes off," Ethan said. "Hold still!"
"That dirtbag tried to touch me!" she screamed. "He tried to touch me!"
"It's okay, he's gone," Ethan said.
"Rocky?" Joey said from the cot. "Good boy, come here, oh Jesus, it's good to see you, boy."
Ethan worked at the ropes until they were free. Tamsin, who had been kidnapped only the day before, was in much better condition than Joey Herdsman, who had been tied and bed-bound for three days. The big man got to his feet, stumbled, regained his balance. He sat back down on the cot.
"Bro..." Joey said, rubbing his bruised wrists. Rocky leaped up into his lap, licked his dirty face. Tears ran clear streaks down his filth-caked cheeks
"It's okay," Ethan said again. "Let's just get you both out of here."
Tamsin didn't have to be told twice. The girl stormed out of the lean-to.
By the time Ethan, Joey and Rocky emerged, Tamsin was on her tiptoes, screaming into Deputy Engleman's red face. "Call yourself a cop? My daddy's gonna sue your corrupt ass, sue the whole police department, the county, the whole damned state…"
"You need to go," Mina said to Ethan. "Take Joe and the kid topside."
"Kid? Who's the old bitch?" Tamsin demanded, looking at Ethan as if she had caught him with another woman.
"Are you sure Tommy wants her back?" Mina said.
"Bro, listen," Joey said gently, cutting through the chaos.
Ethan turned to his friend. It felt so good to have Joey back by his side, even if he did look like he'd spent three days in Hell. Ethan felt renewed confidence, that things could work out okay after all.
"What is it, Joey?"
"The night I left your house, I was followed. I recognized the car and pulled over. The guy who kidnapped me—"
Ethan grabbed Joey's arm. "I know, it was Steve. He told me everything. Look—"
Joey shook his head. "I thought maybe you called him too, but he kept flashing his brights at me. So I slow down, pull over on the highway. Next thing I know I'm on the ground, tasered. Something over my mouth and nose...chloroform, I guess. I woke up here."
"I know," Ethan insisted. "Steve confessed. We can talk about it topside."
But Joey wouldn't move. "Where's Steve?"
Ethan hesitated.
"Bro?" Joey said. "Where is he?"
Ethan glanced at Mina. "He's...dead, Joey. I'm sorry."
"Holy shit," Tammy gasped.
Joey took a breath. Closed his eyes. "Where's everyone else? Tommy and the others?"
Ethan looked at Tamsin. "Tommy was...hurt."
Tamsin put her hands over her mouth and squealed.
"He's going to be okay," Ethan said quickly. "He's at St. John's, he's going to be fine."
Joey put both his big hands on Ethan's shoulders. "Duskman, where are the others?"
Ethan said, "Up at the radio station. The town... It's all gone to hell. The station was the safest place. Please, Joey, we can talk about this on the way—"
"Duskman," Joey said. "Something's not right."
That was the understatement of the century. Ethan, impatient now, nodded.
Joey said, "No, Duskman, listen… That night... It wasn't Steve who took me down."
Ethan's mouth went dry. He felt as if the entire mine was collapsing on his skull. Somewhere in the background he was aware of Deputy Engleman's dark chuckle.
"But Steve said..." Ethan began. But he already knew the answer. Steve had lied to him. He didn't understand why, but even in death his friend had not told the truth.
Joey closed his eyes again. "Duskman, where's Rusty?"
45
Deputy Engleman's laughter echoed throughout the mine. It sounded to Ethan like a cave in, like a grave. Like death.
He had left everyone he loved at the radio Station, in Rusty Williams' care. The safest place he could think of. The man he trusted more than his own father.
"Steve was here, too," Joey continued. "Later. I heard the two of them talking, arguing. It got heated. Rusty said that if Steve told anyone about him that Sam would die. He kept saying it wasn't his fault, he didn't wanna do it, but it was 'in the cards.'"
"The tarots," Ethan said.
"They kept talking about a man named Lock. That the dude's behind all this. That they had no choice."
Engleman laughed even harder. Mina jabbed the gun into his ribs to shut him up.
"Duskman," Joey said, his voice barely a whisper, "I think he was here. The guy they kept talking about. It felt like Death standing over me, man. Who is Judea Lock?"
Ethan pulled away from his friend. "There's no time for that, Joey. We have to get to the radio station. I left everyone in Rusty's care."
Engleman was almost doubled-over laughing now. Joey's usually cool eyes flared. He stomped over to the deputy and grabbed him by the shirt. "I heard everything. You kidnapped the girl, why?"
Engleman grinned. His eyes were like two blown bulbs in oversized sockets. Lifeless. Dark. "What have you got to lose, eh? Wife? Kids? A career? House? You don't do exactly what the Boss Man says, you lose it all, son. The Game. You play, or you lose everything." He started laughing again.
Joey released him.
"Can we just get the hell out of here?" Tamsin said.
Rocky barked in agreement.
"We need to get the deputy secured," Ethan said. "He didn't walk here, his cruiser must be nearby."
Mina raised her pistol. "No."
Ethan paused. He looked at her in confusion.
"He's a Querent," she said, nodding at Engleman.
"He's our prisoner now," Ethan said.
Mina shook her head. "That's not how this works."
Ethan stared at the woman in disbelief. "What do you mean?"
Mina said, "Haven't you learned anything? Querents are the hands and feet of Judea Lock. We don't tie them down, we cut them off."
Ethan dry swallowed. "What the hell are you saying?"
Mina's eyes flicked to Engleman, then back to Ethan. "We get the info we need and neutralize the Querent."
Ethan approached Mina. "You're talking about murder."
"It's damage control. What exactly is it that you think we do, Ethan, rehabilitation?" Mina asked.
The words of Federal Agent Vincent Schmitt at the motel came back to him. "Suffice it to say that where Miss Kreuz goes, death follows. She has left a trail of bodies from D.C. to Seattle. And we are talking about murder, Ethan."
"They're goddamn terminators," Deputy Engleman chuckled.
Mina's face remained static. Her gun was pressed to Engleman's back.
Ethan glanced at the deputy. "You're not hunting Lock, you track down Querents and execute them," he said, the words like jagged shards of glass in his throat. He felt his hand go to his waist, to the deputy's service weapon. He drew the pistol in one smooth motion with a hand and fingers that felt like someone else's.
"Lock can only be contained," Mina said, not reacting to Ethan's gun. "His power grows with every Querent. The more thralls under Lock's command, the more people he controls, the stronger he becomes. You've seen what's happened to Jawbone. That's one town."
"We can stop Lock, end this," Ethan said.
Mina said, "We need to contain the spread, Ethan. Imagine the entire North American population under Lock's control. Imagine. The whole world, living in terror. Do you want to wake up to that reality?"
"Don't do this," Ethan said.
"Engleman is Lock's tool now, nothing more," Mina said. "We take him out, that's one less player we have to deal with."
Ethan cried, "And what am I? Lock's tool? Or yours?"
Mina said nothing.
"Shoot the bitch!" Tamsin squealed.
Joey put a restraining hand on the girl's arm.
Ethan blinked back tears. "This whole time, you were using me, keeping me around to lead you to the other Querents. You're a death squad."
"Imagine a world where no one has any say in their own destiny, where every single decision is handed down by Judea Lock and ones like him. He'd allow millions to perish in senseless violence just to prove that humans are nothing more than automatons following a predetermined path. Judea Lock will enslave every last man, woman and child. He wants only to debase this world and everything in it. He cares nothing for humanity."
"You know this?" Joey Herdsman asked, astonished.
Mina kept her eyes locked on Ethan's. She said, "Yes."
"How?" Joey demanded.
"Because it’s been done before," she said coolly.
Engleman began to giggle.
"What are you talking about?" Ethan demanded. "Before? When?"
"She's full of crap!" Tamsin spat. "Ethan, please. My daddy needs me. Let's just go."
Ethan didn't dare blink. He didn't look away from the woman with the gun to the deputy's back. "You're lying," he said.
Mina said, "Judea Lock is one of the most powerful qumans alive. A scholar, a scientist, logician and mathematician, a magician of unmatched power, a murderer of untold countless lives. He was worshipped in his time. He wants only to return the world back to that devotion. But it will not be by the raising up of man, rather an endless spiraling pit. He will finesse the worst of our traits, cultivate greed, murder, war and death, egoism. He did it before. The spread got out of control. They tried to contain it but there were too many Querents. The result was Hell on Earth. Extermination was necessary. Only a few untouched by Lock's corruption were saved."
Deputy Engleman stifled his laughter, he fell to his knees, and said, "'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil. And it grieved the Lord that he had made man. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth!'" He broke down in a fit of laughter, fell on his side and wept into the dirt.
Ethan continued to stare at Mina.
"Now do you see?" she said.
"That's impossible…" Ethan whispered.
"After everything you've seen?" Mina said. She nodded at the exit. "Your friends are in danger. Let me do my job here."
"I can't just leave you," Ethan said.
Mina swung the weapon to point at Ethan. "Yes, you can. Because I'm telling you to."
Ethan turned to Joey and Tamsin. Rocky whined at Joey's leg while Tammy's mascara-smeared eyes silently pleaded with him to go. Finally, Ethan holstered the weapon in his waistband. "We need to get to the station."
Joey and Rocky moved to the ramp, Tamsin behind them. Ethan looked at Deputy Engleman on the floor. His eyes were squeezed shut. He was mumbling the Lord's Prayer.
"Go!" Mina said.
Ethan did. At the top of the ramp he retrieved the flashlights, handed one to Joey. He glanced down to see Mina pulling Engleman to his feet and marching him toward the pit.
46
Ethan's hike out of the mines and back to the van was a series of lucid snapshots from a fever dream.
The night air had chilled further. Below, the fog that swaddled the city now strangled it, as if the gases of creation were condensing into a singularity pinpointed at Jawbone, poised to collapse into a new universe, one of total fear and endless darkness.
"Bro, Steve's van," Joey said.
"It's thrashed!" Tamsin exclaimed, pointing at the smashed windshield.
"Yeah," Ethan said, getting into the driver's seat for the first time. "There's food in the back, water. Help yourselves."
"You want me to drive?" Joey asked.
"I'm good," Ethan said, buckling his seatbelt.
Joey grabbed a handful of granola bars and water bottles. He put Rocky in the back bench with Tamsin before slipping into the passenger seat. He had to move the seat back several inches to get his knees to fit under the glove box.
Ethan grabbed the keys from the dash and started the van.
"Drop me at the hospital," Tamsin said from behind Ethan. She leaned forward. "I need to see Daddy!"
Ethan's jaw tensed. "We're going to the station."
"Then let me out in town, I'll walk," she insisted.
"No," Ethan said.
"Daddy needs me!"
"He wants you safe. It's not safe in town," Ethan said.
Tamsin was about to argue when Ethan said, "Shut up and put your belt on."
Tamsin lingered for a moment before huffily sitting back in her seat. She did not put her belt on.
"I'm a few chapters behind on the plot, bro," Joey said as they left the park and hurtled up the highway. "Who was that woman?"
Ethan heard Tamsin curse under her breath.
"She's a...an agent," Ethan said. "She's working the Jawbone area, trying to capture Judea Lock."
