The Belial Stone (The Belial Series) (14 page)

“So,” Jake said, “now we need to somehow link an archaeologist's research with a bunch of missing ex-cons.  Pretty sure they're not hiring them for their research backgrounds.”

Laney looked up sharply, warning bells going off in her head.  A dark thought was forming in the back of her mind, but she really hoped she was wrong.  “Henry, do you have any background on the missing men?”

Henry hit a couple of buttons on his keyboard.  “Yes.  One of my analysts put it together.  I just sent it to your monitor.”

Laney glanced at the spreadsheet in front of her.  Pulling out the wireless keyboard, she quickly flipped through the list of available statistical programs on the computer.

“There you are,” she mumbled, finding the latest version of Stata.  Importing the data into the statistical program, she stared at the list of variables.  Running some collinearity diagnostics, she nodded.  “Okay. All good.” 

Creating a negative binomial regression model, she ran it and watched in disbelief as the results appeared in front of her.  She looked around the table.  “I think I might have found the link.” 

She exported her results to each of the monitors.

After looking at the monitor, Jake glanced at Laney, his eyebrow raised.  “Laney, did I mention the ‘not going to college’ part of my background?”

Patrick shook his head.  “I went to college and I still don't know what this says.  What exactly are we looking at?”

“Right, right.” Laney said.  She’d forgotten that not everybody spent their down time looking at statistical outputs.  “Sorry.  Basically, I ran a model to check on the health of the missing men.  Prisoners are known for having a slew of medical conditions due to risky lifestyle, substandard health care, and a whole host of other reasons.  The missing men, however, are in the top tier, physically speaking.  None of them have any ongoing medical issues.  They all have clean bills of health.  Hold on a sec.”

Her eyes zipped through the variable list.  Re-working the model, she added a few more variables.  She looked up when the model had run.  “And none of them have any family listed.  On paper, it looks like they’re alone in the world.’

She looked at Jake and saw his jaw tighten.  He wouldn’t show up in any of Tom’s paperwork, either.

Henry drummed his fingers on the table top.  “Okay.  We have a group of physically fit inmates with no family ties.  Why would anyone target this particular group?

“That's just it,” Laney replied, the dark thought now supported by the data in front of her.  “You said we need to link the missing men and the research.  My uncle mentioned this morning that Drew’s paper is on a sister site to Gobekli Tepe.”

At Jake’s raised eyebrow, she quickly explained about the Turkish site that predated the Fertile Crescent and consisted of multiple concentric circles of ruins.

Continuing her original argument, she said, “My uncle’s never heard of a sister site to Gobekli Tepe.  And that kind of site would make a huge impact in archaeological circles as well as being splashed across all media outlets.  So I think it’s safe to say no one in archaeology is aware of the discovery.  But if there is a sister site and for some reason someone was keeping it quiet, they'd need men to dig.  They'd need…”

Patrick finished the thought for her, his eyes wide.  “Slaves.”

She nodded, her eyes searching Jake's face for a reaction.  Whatever he thought had happened to his brother, she was pretty sure he hadn’t thought of this possibility.

Jake shook his head.  “Slave labor?  But why take them only from New York?”

“They probably have an in with the parole department that gives them the location of potential targets.”  Another thought hit her.  “Which also probably means that the site is in the U.S.” 

“Is that even possible?”  Jake asked. “On this scale?  I mean, we’re talking hundreds of men in one place.  How could you hide that kind of operation?”

“Actually, it’s probably not as many as you think.” Laney paused, looking at Jake.  She didn’t want to hurt him, but she knew she had to finish the thought. 

“The monsters who view others as property tend not to take very good care of their ‘property.’  They see the people under their control as expendable.  You said this whole process started over eleven months ago.  If we’re right, I think a large percentage of these men may already be dead.”

CHAPTER  27

Havre, MT

T
om woke up with his teeth chattering.  He forced his arms to move, the blood feeling almost sluggish in his veins.

Sitting up, he shook his legs, which were tingling from the cold. Damn, it must be near freezing.  He could see his breath as he exhaled.  He swung his arms around himself, trying to generate some heat. 

Seeley sat up next to him. “It’s fucking cold, man.”             

He looked horrible.  Seeley’s lips were blue and there were dark circles under his eyes.  His normally warm complexion would now rival a vampire’s.

Tom was pretty sure he didn’t look any better.  He pulled the bedroll from the ground around his shoulders, trying to stave off some of the cold.  “No kidding, man.  Don’t think I can do many more nights like that.”

Seeley nodded and stood up, shifting from one foot to the other.  “They can’t throw us a damn blanket?  How the hell we supposed to dig for them all day, when we’re freezing all night?”

Tom watched the farm truck pull up and drop off a new batch of recruits. “Don’t think they care, man.  We’re not exactly irreplaceable.”

“No shit.  Do you think last night was a fluke or is it gonna be like this from now on?”

“Don’t know, man.  I mean, it’s October.  Gets pretty cold at night back home around now, too.”

Seeley nodded and shifted to jogging in place.  He stumbled over one of the other men who’d been sleeping next to him.  “Shit, man. Sorry.”  He scrambled back to his feet.

The man didn’t respond. 

“Buddy, you okay?” Seeley asked.

Tom looked over at the still form.  No little puffs of cold air appeared around the man’s nose or mouth.  Tom leaned down and pulled the man onto his back.  The man’s arm flung out with the movement, hitting Tom in the leg.  He focused on the man’s chest.  It wasn’t moving.

Tom stood up and shook his head at Seeley. 

“Damn.” Seeley looked over at the enclosure.  “What do you think’s gonna happen when the ground gets too cold?  We’re not gonna be able to dig.”

Tom looked at Seeley, and then to the entrance when he heard a gunshot.  The initiation demonstration was in full swing.  Tom watched two men pick up a body and lumber over to the body pit.  As they tossed the body over the edge, one of the men fell to his knees and puked.  A guard kicked him in the back. 

Tom looked back at Seeley and shook his head. “When the ground’s too hard, we’re of no more use.”

CHAPTER 28

Baltimore, MD

L
aney placed Drew’s paper onto the wrought-iron table.  She’d taken refuge on the expansive, back veranda on the Chandler estate after the meeting had broken up. 

Needing to sort through everything, she’d picked up a copy of Drew’s paper to finally read it.  She’d had the paper for almost forty-eight hours and she still hadn’t had time to sit down and really go through it.  If she was going to find answers, she knew that’s where she needed to start.

Now that she had read it, though, she wasn’t sure she was any closer to finding those answers.  She stared out at a family of deer munching away on the grass a hundred yards away while her mind tried to pull together the logic of Drew's argument.  Her uncle was right, Drew did seem to argue that there was an ancient weapon of mass destruction buried at a sister site to Gobekli Tepe. 

Her uncle had said that Drew had attributed that information to Cayce.  That, however, was only partly true.  He had also attributed it to the Book of Enoch.  Drew mentioned that the Book of Enoch also referred to an ancient weapon.  But that was all he said.  He didn’t elaborate. 

Laney had only a passing familiarity with the book.  She knew it was popular at one point within the early Christian church.  She certainly didn’t remember any mention of an incredible weapon.  She was most familiar with the last part of the book, which depicted Enoch’s visit to heaven.  Toward the book’s beginning, he spoke about Watchers or, as they are better known, fallen angels.  But try as she might, she couldn’t recall anything about a particular weapon that fit Drew’s description. 

She looked up at the windows that made up one side of Henry’s office.  Henry and her uncle were manning the phones, calling in every marker, favor, possible source, to see if they could track down any information about the sister site.  Danny was scouring the internet for information as well.  Jake was getting in touch with his military contacts. 

She felt useless.  A criminologist could tell you why people did horrible things, not where they were doing them.  And she wasn’t really making any headway with Drew’s paper.  All she had were more questions.

If she had spoken with him before, maybe… Grief welled up inside her.  She blinked back the tears.  How could he be gone?

Looking to distract herself, she focused on the family of deer again.  Four of them stood eating grass, occasionally glancing around before returning to their meal.  A rabbit skittered across the ground not far from them and birds called to each other from the trees.  She smiled at the innocence of the scene. 

All that was missing was for the woodland creatures to join hands in a sing-along, and then the movie scene moment would be complete.  I’ll have to get Max out here.  He’ll love it. 

Her smile faded.  The baseball-sized hole that had taken up residence in her chest reminded her that wouldn't be happening.  She couldn't go near Max, or Kati, right now without endangering them. 

Dropping her head into her hands, she thought of Drew, his smile and excitement whenever he spoke of his work.  Unbidden, the image from her dream returned, followed by what she imagined Tom was probably going through.  It was all just so evil. 

Unburdened, the family of deer continued to munch away.  What a simple life.  No gun battles, kidnappings, murders.  Just meandering through green fields all day.               

“Can I join you?”

She glanced up, surprised to see Jake behind her.  “I didn’t hear you come up.”

“It’s my military training.  It teaches us how to sneak up on pretty girls.”

She grinned.  “What an incredibly useful expenditure of taxpayer money.”  Although her tone was light, his words gave her a thrill. 

She pointed at the family of deer in the distance.  “I was just thinking about how idyllic their life must be.”

Sitting in the chair next to her, he said, “Maybe for those guys.  But most deer spend their time avoiding hunters, desperately foraging for food, and trying to keep from freezing in the winter.”

She looked at him for a long moment.  When she spoke, her tone was dry.  “You know, you’re really ruining my Disney moment here.”

He let out a chuckle.  “Sorry.  I’m sure Bambi and his friends are living the high life.”

She smiled.  They sat in companionable silence for a few moments, enjoying the peace.

“Any luck upstairs?” she asked.

Jake sighed.  “No.  If there’s a dig site, no one seems to have heard anything.  The other three are still looking for some leads, but I’m not hopeful.”

“I’m sure we’ll find something soon.”

“Maybe.”  The sound of Laney’s cell phone interrupted her reply.  She glanced down at the caller ID before answering.  “Hey, Rocky.  How are you?  How’s Mike?”

“I’m good,” Rocky answered. “Just a couple stitches and a few pints of blood.  Mike’s in the ICU, but they’re talking about moving him to a regular room soon.  He’ll have to take it easy for a while, but they expect him to make a complete recovery.”

“Thank God.  At least that’s one piece of good news.”

“Well, I also have some news from Dr. Nichols.  Although, I’m not sure it fits in the ‘good’ category.”

“Hold on a sec.  Jake’s here with me.  I’m going to put you on speakerphone.” She punched the speaker phone button and placed it on the table.  “Okay.  Go ahead.  You said the M.E. came back with some results.  Let me guess, Paul’s not human.”

Rocky was silent.

Laney glanced at Jake.  “Rocky?  I was kidding about that not-human thing.”

“Well, you might not be that far off.  The Doc explained it to me and, to be honest, I don't understand all of the science behind it. Hold on.  I wrote this down.”

The sound of shuffling papers could be heard through the phone.  “Okay, let’s see. She said something about healing involving a rush of platelets that create something called a fibrin clot.   That happens within minutes.  Followed by um, angiogenesis, collagen deposition, granulation tissue formation, epithelialization, and wound contraction.”

Jake glanced at her, one eyebrow raised.

She shrugged. “Uh, Rocky?  Any chance you could dumb all this down for us?”

Rocky chuckled.  “Yeah.  I had the M.E. do that for me, too.  Long story short, the entire wound healing process works exponentially faster in our boy.  His platelet count is off the charts, which means he creates a fibrin clot almost instantaneously.  He heals at lightning-fast speeds.  In fact, the M.E. said that some of the shots to his heart already showed evidence of healing.”

“Then how did he die?”  Jake asked.
             

Laney could hear the smile in Rocky's voice.  “Well, apparently someone shot him point-blank in the heart multiple times.  It was shredded.  There was simply no way for him to recover from that fast enough.”

Jake leaned forward.  “Has the M.E. ever heard of any other cases like his?”

“She could only find one case, about twenty years ago in San Diego.  Guy was seventy-five.  He'd been shot and still fought off his attacker.  The two took a fall off a second story balcony.  Guy was impaled through the heart by an iron fence.  Same thing – heart was completely destroyed.”

“Ouch.”  Laney shuddered.

“But that’s all she could find.  She’s doing a wider search because I think now she’s just curious.”

“So he heals almost instantly?”  Laney thought of Paul’s face after the shotgun blast.  What an incredible ability.   “That’s got to come in handy.  Was there anything else?”

“Yup,” Rocky said, “Apparently Paul, whoever he is, was also rather physically gifted.  He had higher than normal levels of type I muscle fibers.  In fact, his body consisted of only this type.  Which means, he utilized oxygen more efficiently, which should have made him incredibly powerful.” 

“I think we can all attest to the truth of that statement,” Jake said.

“No kidding,” Rocky said.  “Dr. Nichols said professional athletes, through hard training, can increase their type 1 muscle fibers by sixty percent.  That’s only a fraction of what Paul had.”

“So he is a superhuman?” Laney asked.

“I guess that’s about as good a term as any,” Rocky replied.

Laney struggled to assimilate the information with what they knew about the men’s abilities.  “But where did he come from?  And how did he find another superhuman?  I mean, one guy was Asian and one was Caucasian.  They can’t be genetically related.”

“I don't know.  But I do have officers scouring the area around the church to see if any cameras picked up a shot of his friend.  Maybe we can ID him.”

“Any luck ID-ing Paul?” Jake asked.

Rocky’s frustration came through loud and clear.  “No.  But I’ll let you guys know as soon as we have something.”

Laney nodded.  “Okay.  Thanks, Rocky.  Take care, okay?”

“You, too.”

Laney looked at Jake after Rocky had hung up.  “Superhumans?  Is that even possible?”

“Well, before my experience in Afghanistan and yours yesterday, I would have said no.  But now?” He shrugged.

Laney blew out her breath.  “Okay, so we know these guys are physically gifted.  We think they’re grabbing men to work at a dig site and we think the site may be in the U.S.  This all seems to be related to Drew’s paper.  We need to get more information.” 

“Any suggestion as to where we get that information?”  Jake asked.

Laney looked away, focusing again on the family of deer.  She had a feeling that as incredible as it might be, all of this hinged on Edgar Cayce and the Book of Enoch.  Drew had used both as references in his paper. 

She struggled to remember more about Enoch, but there was just nothing there.  All she could remember was that Enoch was Noah’s great-grandfather, and the book was about his trip to heaven.  The individual details, though, were fuzzy at best.  How on earth could
that be related to any of this

And then there was Edgar Cayce and his past-life readings on Atlantis.  Somehow, Drew and Priddle had linked them together.  But that link wasn’t clear in Drew’s paper.  If she’d had the chance to talk to him about the paper, she would have advised him to make the link clearer.  But sh
e’d never have the chance now.

Her uncle could probably fill in the blanks on the Book of Enoch, but she only had a passing knowledge of Cayce.  They needed someone with a more
detailed knowledge of the man.

She looked at Jake.  “I don’t suppose you guys have anyone on staff that specializes in the work of twentieth-century psychics?"

Jake's expression was thoughtful.  “Actually, I think we might.”