Endless (33 page)

Jenny stood. “Wait a minute … You can get Nikolai out of here?”

“I don’t know if I can get him out of the compound. That might require someone faster than I move these days. But I have the keys to the tunnel and the authority to order someone’s protection. If you can get Nikolai to me, I can get him into hiding.”

Jenny paced to the window. Everything was black on the other side, only the room behind her reflected in the glass. There was nothing to think about. Not really. They didn’t have the book. If they didn’t get Nikolai out of the compound and out of Stony Creek tonight, he’d be lost forever.

If it wasn’t already too late.

Jenny turned around. “Where do we meet you?”

“At the back of the cemetery. I’ll be watching for you. And whatever you do, don’t let them follow you.”

Jenny went as fast as she dared up the winding roads of the mountain. Ben rode shotgun, talking to Tiffany in the back about the fireworks.

“Light these ones first,” he said, pointing to two really big rockets with long wicks. “Then light the smaller ones as fast as you can and get the hell out of there before they blow.”

He handed Tiffany the package of fireworks and the lighter Morgan had given them.

“Got it,” Tiffany said. “How long should I wait to light them up?”

Jenny thought about it, trying to guess how long it would take them to find Nikolai. Morgan had told them that the Order held people who were out of time at the back of the compound in some room called the Sleep Temple. She’d given them as much detail about the grounds as possible, telling them to avoid the pond that was the centerpiece of the monastery. According to Morgan, that was where the electromagnetic energy was strongest and where the Order would chant—the vibrations uniquely designed to work with the energy in the ley lines—to open the portal during a full moon.

“Think we should just text her when we’re ready?” asked Ben.

Jenny shook her head. “I don’t want to take a chance with reception up there. Besides, we could be on the run at that point for all we know.”

“Good point,” Ben said.

Jenny thought back to their first visit to the retreat center. “It’ll take us ten minutes to get to the retaining wall bordering the compound and probably another twenty minutes to find the Sleep Temple. Let’s assume it’ll take another twenty to figure out how to get Nikolai out. Let’s call it an even hour, just to be safe.”

Ben checked his phone. “That puts us at 11:35. That’s cutting it close.”

“All of this is cutting it close. But we don’t exactly have a choice.”

“Jenny’s right,” Tiffany said from the backseat. “It’ll take however long it takes. If something happens and you guys get it figured out before the hour, you can always try to text me.”

Ben nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

Jenny spotted the turnout to the trail where she and Ben had parked the first time. Pulling into it, she turned the car around, pointing it toward the road so they could get out fast. She made sure the doors were unlocked as they moved away from it toward the road.

She turned to Tiffany. “We’re going to go up through the woods to the right of the driveway because that’s the way we went before. You go up to the left. Get as close as possible to the retaining wall at the top; that way they’ll still have to get down the hill once they realize what’s happening. As soon as you light everything, make a run for the car. We’ll meet you there when we have Nikolai.” Jenny pulled out her phone. “Check your phones.” Ben and Tiffany did the same. “I’m calling it 11:37.”

“Got it,” they both agreed.

Jenny looked at Tiffany, feeling bad about dragging her into everything. “You sure about this? I’ll totally understand if you change your mind.”

“Are you kidding?” Tiffany grinned. “This is the most excitement I’ve ever had.” Her expression grew serious, her voice softer. “And I want to do this for you.”

Jenny reached in and gave her a quick hug. “Thanks, Tiff. And be careful.”

“You, too.”

They took off at a sprint. When they got to the driveway, Jenny and Ben cut into the woods to the right. Tiffany disappeared to the left.

It was harder following Ben this time. His black T-shirt didn’t provide the same kind of marker as the white one he’d worn the first time they’d come to the monastery, and it was a lot later. Thankfully, the full moon provided a little bit of light. It was a small comfort. Every time Jenny looked up, all she could do was think of Nikolai, getting farther and farther away from her as the clock drew closer to midnight.

They were about halfway to the top of the hill when Jenny heard the chanting. It started as a vibration in the ground, a hum in the air. But as they came closer to the retaining wall, it became louder and clearer. She couldn’t tell if they were saying something specific or if it was just formless notes, but it wound its way through her, sinking through her pores, settling into some lost place in her psyche.

“You coming?” Ben whispered.

She hadn’t realized that she’d stopped walking. She shook off the strange lethargy, ducking with Ben behind the wall and walking, low to the ground, until they came to the place where they could see the torches lit up around the pond. The monks were there, their robes pulled up to hide their faces, standing in a circle. The sound came from them, the chanting rising and falling on the soft summer breeze, drifting through the air toward Jenny.

“Let’s go to the back,” Ben said quietly. “Try to find the Sleep Temple.”

Jenny nodded her agreement, and they headed to the back of the compound, the chanting becoming slightly fainter as they moved away from the pond. They stopped when they came to a cluster of buildings near the dome. Morgan had told them the Sleep Temple was in a long, low building to the left of the dome. Jenny scanned the grounds, looking for it. It took her two passes to come up with a candidate.

The building was separated from the dome by a two-story structure with lots of windows. It wasn’t as low to the ground as Jenny had imagined when Morgan described it, but it was shorter than the others and distinctly rectangular.

“Think that’s it?” Jenny whispered, pointing to the building.

Ben peered at it through the darkness. There were torches at the back of the compound, too, but they were fewer and farther between. It was hard to see all the way across the grounds.

“Probably. I don’t see anything else that matches Morgan’s description.”

Someone was approaching on one of the footpaths from the front of the compound. Jenny and Ben ducked a little lower, watching as two robed monks approached the door to the building. One of them was holding something in his hands; Jenny thought it might be a folded bunch of fabric. The other one went for a metal box mounted to the wall of the building. He opened it, pulling out a key.

“That has to be the one,” Jenny said. She pulled out her phone, consulting it for the time. “It’s eleven-fifteen. How are we getting in?”

The monks approached the door. Jenny couldn’t see what he was doing, but a couple seconds later the door swung open, the crack just big enough to let the monks through one at a time. The door closed behind them.

“The most obvious way in is to grab the key when the fireworks go off, but that’ll only work if the monks leave.”

“And if they leave the key,” Jenny said.

“Right.”

“What if they don’t?”

Ben shook his head. “I don’t know. Let’s work our way around to that side of the compound. At least we’ll be closer.”

They crouched low, making their way to the back of the property. Everything ended at the domed building, and they went around it, crossing in front of a massive garage with several black town cars parked outside its doors. They kept going, continuing around the dome until they came even with the Sleep Temple.

“Now what?” Ben asked as they peered over the wall.

Jenny considered. “You stay here. I’m going to take a look around the building and see if there are any windows in that ground floor room.”

“I’ll come with you,” Ben said.

“No. Stay here and keep an eye on the door so we know if the monks leave or not.”

Ben nodded reluctantly. “Be careful.”

She made her way closer to the building, keeping her head below the line of the fence until she could stop and be sure no one was watching. Then she peered over it, looking for anything that might pass as another way in if the monks took the key with them when they left. Assuming they left at all.

The thought brought on a fresh burst of panic. What would they do if the monks stayed in the room—presumably with Nikolai—right up until they took him to the others out by the pond? How would they get Nikolai away from what were essentially two guards?

She forced herself not to think about it. She’d just have to assume the monks would go running when the fireworks went off or that they would leave before.

And she’d have to hope they didn’t take the key.

Scanning the building for other ways in didn’t help. There were no windows on the ground floor and only the one door leading into it.

She made her way back to Ben, still crouched behind the wall, his head just far enough over it that he could keep an eye on the building.

“Anything?” she said.

He shook his head. “How’s it looking for a Plan B?”

“Not good. No windows and only the one door.”

Ben heaved a worried sigh. “What time is it?”

Jenny consulted her phone. “11:31.”

Ben started to say something and stopped. The door opened to the room, the two monks exiting minus the bundle of cloth. One of the monks bent his head to the door and then walked to the metal box on the wall. He opened it, hanging the key on one of many hooks inside, and closed it.

The two men said something to each other before heading to the front of the compound.

“Do we go now?” Ben whispered.

Jenny thought about it before shaking her head. “I’d rather make sure the fireworks are going to blow. Even if we get in clean now, we still have to get off the grounds. It’ll be easier if everyone’s busy trying to figure out what’s going on with the fireworks.”

Ben nodded. The seconds seemed to slow, stretching like hours. Jenny would be sure five minutes had passed and then check her phone to see that only two had gone by. The fireworks still hadn’t gone off at 11:40 when one of the monks started back toward the room.

Ben swore. “We’re going to have to try and take him and get into the room. Something must have happened with Tiffany.”

“What do you mean, ‘try and take him’?” Jenny asked, a little too loudly.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to hit him over the head or something. Once he has his hands on Nikolai and is taking him back up to that weird ritual thing, everything’s going to get a lot more complicated.”

Jenny was trying to wrap her head around the idea of hurting someone to get Nikolai out when the first crack came from the woods at the front of the compound.

The monk stopped in his tracks, looking back toward the sound. He was still standing there, seeming to deliberate, when an explosion shot through the night, followed by a bunch of popping that sounded like gunfire.

The monk turned and ran, robe flowing behind him, toward the front of the property.

Ben grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”

They leaped over the fence and ran for the Sleep Temple. Jenny made a beeline for the key cabinet, her heart sinking when it revealed not one but at least twenty different keys on hooks, none of them labeled.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ben groaned. “Just … take them all!”

Voices were erupting at the front of the compound, footsteps beating the pathways somewhere in the distance. Jenny grabbed the keys off the hooks and headed for the door of the Sleep Temple. The keys looked mostly the same. She picked one, trying it in the lock and pulling it out when it didn’t work. The lock finally clicked open with the eleventh key.

Ben opened the door, stepping into the room. Jenny stepped in after him, stepping backward as someone jumped on Ben from the side, tackling him to the floor. Jenny almost screamed before she realized who it was.

“Nikolai! Stop! It’s me. It’s … us! We’re here to get you out.”

He stopped, his face contorted with rage, eyes glassy with disorientation. He wore a robe like that of the other monks, the hood down around his neck. “Jenny?”

She rushed toward him. He got up, holding her shoulders and looking at her like she was some kind of mirage. Then he crushed her to him.

“Thank God!” He pulled back to look at her. “Are you alright? Did anyone hurt you?”

She shook her head. “But you might have hurt Ben and he’s here to get you out.”

“Ben?” He seemed to search his memory for the name, then he walked over to Ben, still on the floor, and held out a hand. “I’m sorry.”

Ben took the hand and got to his feet, his own face red with anger. “Whatever. Let’s just get out of here.”

Nikolai pulled off the robe to reveal his regular clothes. He tossed the garment aside and grabbed Jenny’s hand, heading for the door.

They stepped out of the room, looking left and then right. The fireworks had stopped and there was no one on the walkways, though they could hear voices, some of them shouting, in the distance.