Secrets Of The Serpent's Heart (The Arkana Archaeology Mystery Series Book 6) (21 page)

Joshua sat in the front seat of a black van parked in the dirt lane behind the farmhouse. It was still quite dark out—two hours before dawn. A week earlier he’d acquainted his father with Hunt’s surveillance activities. As the Fallen man was still out of the country with Daniel and his trustworthiness in retrieving Hannah remained open to question, the Diviner decided to delegate the recovery operation to the spymaster. Joshua was to observe the activities of the household. When he was sure the time was right, he was to strike quickly to reclaim Hannah. No one was to be harmed in the process. This was less an indication of his father’s merciful nature than it was an attempt to avoid complications with the police.

Joshua stepped out of the van and went around to the back doors. He opened them. Three armed men wearing ski masks and black flight suits confronted him. “You know what to do,” he said curtly, pulling a ski mask down over his own face.

They all nodded silently and got out. Each one held a set of night vision goggles which they donned over their ski masks. The four men then climbed over the privacy fence into the garden and headed for the kitchen door.

***

Faye awoke from a sound sleep. She blinked several times, trying to orient herself. Checking the digital alarm, she saw it was four AM. Her heart was beating quickly with an unaccountable sense of anxiety. She didn’t know why but she could feel something wasn’t quite right. Then she heard a faint sound coming from downstairs. Had Hannah gotten up to find a snack in the refrigerator? She lifted herself out of bed and put on a bathrobe and slippers. Cracking her bedroom door open, she peeped around the edge. There were no lights on downstairs. Surely, if the girl was in the kitchen, the light would be on. Then she heard the faint tinkle of glass falling. Someone was breaking in. She seriously doubted that this was a random burglary. It wasn’t a matter for the police. It was a matter for the Arkana.

Scurrying to her dresser, she slid open the middle drawer and pulled out a cell phone. It was the one she used only to communicate with Arkana personnel. Maddie’s number was on speed dial.

She waited tensely for a groggy voice to answer. When it did, Faye’s words were succinct. “Maddie,” she whispered urgently. “Someone’s trying to break into the house. I believe it might be Leroy Hunt come for Hannah. Send help right away.”

She shut the phone off and hid it back inside the drawer. Rubbing her head distractedly, she tried to think of a strategy. At least Faye still had the element of surprise on her side. She cast around the dark bedroom, not seeing anything she could use as a weapon. In all likelihood, Hunt had come alone. Perhaps she could create a loud enough disturbance to scare him away. All she needed to do was buy ten minutes and Maddie’s team would be there. Her eyes settled on her purse, sitting on the highboy. She ran to it and dug into the front compartment for her car keys. Zachery had insisted on fitting out her old station wagon with an electronic security system.
 
She found the key fob and hit the panic button. Immediately, her car horn blared. She looked through the blinds and saw the flashers blinking madly as well. The commotion would continue until she shut the alarm off or somebody came to see what the noise was all about.

“Granny Faye!”

She could hear Hannah shouting from down the hallway, her voice becoming louder as the girl ran toward her room. “Are you alright?”

Faye scurried out to meet her, keeping the key fob in her hand.

“It’s alright, child. I thought I heard a burglar.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two dark shapes running up the staircase. The old woman barely had time to react before they gained the second floor landing. Darting past her, they lunged for Hannah as a third man charged the old woman. He grabbed her but Faye put up a fight. She managed to knock his goggles askew, gouging him in the eye with her thumb. He grabbed for her arm but she squirmed out of his grasp. Losing her balance at the top of the stairs, she could feel herself twisting in the air. Falling backwards. Tumbling downwards. And then... nothing.

***

Joshua rushed to assist his men with Hannah. He darted past the body of the old woman, now lying motionless at the bottom of the stairs. The girl was screaming as his Argus agents tried to subdue her. The spymaster had come prepared for this. He held a chloroform-soaked handkerchief over the girl’s mouth until she stopped struggling.

Then he found the key fob which the old woman had dropped at the top of the staircase. He pressed the button and the noise outside instantly ceased. By this time, every dog in the neighborhood was barking. He peered out the front windows to see lights flickering on in several houses.

“We need to get out of here!” he commanded.

“But sir,” objected one of his agents. “What about that one?” He pointed down the stairs toward the old woman.

“Not our concern,” Joshua said coldly. “She probably broke her neck in the fall.”

“But if she lives, she might identify us,” another agent hissed.

Joshua wheeled on him. “And what could she tell the police?” he challenged. “That she caught a glimpse of four men wearing ski masks and night vision goggles in an utterly dark house? I think adding murder to our list of tasks tonight might invite more attention from the authorities than the Diviner would wish.”

At the mention of his father’s name, his men immediately stopped protesting.

“We need to get my father’s wife out of here. Now!” Joshua led the way down the stairs.

Zach pulled into the driveway of the farmhouse shortly before 8 AM. Maddie had called him an hour earlier to give him the shocking news— somebody had abducted Hannah and injured Faye. When he heard those words, he felt as if he’d been punched in the stomach and an hour later he still couldn’t catch his breath. The Chatelaine said that the attacker might come back to search the place. She wanted Zach to go to there and collect Faye’s cell phone and computer as well as anything else that might link the Memory Guardian to the Arkana.

The tyro was out the door before Maddie had time to hang up. By ignoring the speed limit and barely slowing down for stop signs, he cut his usual travel time to the farmhouse in half.
 
As he parked the car, he noticed a neighbor hovering nearby. Groaning to himself, he clambered out of the driver’s seat. “Hello, Mrs. Martin,” he said as he darted for the front door.

The neighbor intercepted him. “Oh Zach! I’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother.”

He felt a catch in his throat. “Thank you.”

“What happened? We heard the car alarm from the station wagon go off. It must have been around four o’clock. It woke up the whole neighborhood. Somebody even called the police. A squad car got here but there was already a car from Faye’s security company. Then an ambulance arrived and the driver explained that it was a medical emergency. The police left and the next thing I knew Faye was being carried out on a stretcher.”

Maddie had coached Zach on what to say in case anybody asked. He went into his story. “Gamma woke up with chest pains. I guess she must have known she was having a heart attack. She couldn’t walk so she grabbed her car keys and pressed the panic button to wake somebody up.”

“Thank goodness Ashley had the presence of mind to call for an ambulance.”

Zach had to stop and think for a minute. Ashley was the name Hannah used around outsiders. “Yeah, that’s what she did. After taking one look at Gamma, she saw what was happening and called for an ambulance. Then she... uh... rode to the hospital with her.”

“What hospital is Faye at? I’d like to visit her when she’s feeling better.”

Zach realized that whatever he told Mrs. Martin would be telegraphed around the subdivision in a matter of minutes. “She’s at a private hospital. No visitors allowed except for family. Please don’t worry.” He swallowed hard. “She’s doing fine. I just came to pick up a few things that she’ll need.”

“Poor Ashley,” Mrs. Martin continued.
 
“She can’t stay here all alone with your grandmother away.”

The teenager paused. Maddie’s coaching hadn’t covered this particular question. He thought fast. “She won’t be. My folks offered to look after her until Gamma gets back on her feet.”

“Well, if nobody’s staying in the house for a while you should probably clean out the refrigerator,” the neighbor advised. “You don’t want food spoiling, do you?”

 
That issue had already been anticipated. An Arkana sweeper team would swing by to secure the place after he was gone. To Mrs. Martin, Zach replied, “We have some family friends who are going to come over later and straighten the place out since we don’t know how long she’ll be gone.”

“It’s nice that you all pull together to help out such a sweet old lady.”

Zach could feel tears forming in his eyes. He looked away. “Yeah, we all do our part. I’m sorry, Mrs. Martin, but I really have to be going.”

“Oh, of course.” She gave his shoulder a sympathetic pat. “You take care and give my best wishes to your grandmother for a speedy recovery.”

“Thank you. I’ll do that,” he murmured as he ducked his head and hurried inside.

The parlor seemed eerily quiet. He’d never entered that room in the past year without feeling elated at the prospect of seeing Hannah. Now she was gone. Just like that. He didn’t want to think about how scared she was. He shoved away darker thoughts that hinted she might not even be alive at all. Instead, he focused on the task at hand. He wanted to know how somebody had gotten inside. Scanning the front of the house, he couldn’t see anything out of place.

Fortunately, the Arkana paramedics had sidestepped a police investigation that morning with the story of Faye’s heart attack. The authorities never came inside to investigate which made Zach the first person to inspect the crime scene.
 
Once he walked into the kitchen, he immediately noticed that a panel of glass in the back door had been broken. That meant the intruder had come in through the garden. The tyro walked out into the yard. The ground was still too hard to show footprints though it looked as if one of the withered flower beds by the fence had been trampled. He guessed that whoever abducted Hannah had exited that way. His eyes narrowed as he considered the escape route. The privacy fence was six feet high. Even if Hannah had been drugged, it was hard to imagine somebody scaling that fence with a girl slung over his shoulder. Zach concluded that more than one person was involved in the abduction.

He walked back inside the house, making a mental note to have Maddie tell the sweepers to repair the window. Unplugging the monitor from Hannah’s PC, the tyro carried the computer out to his car. There was no telling if the hard drive might offer a clue about the Arkana so he figured he’d better take it. Then he found Faye’s laptop and carried that out as well. The sweepers would go through all her papers to remove anything incriminating. Zach’s only other task was to find his Gamma’s cell phone. He knew she’d called Maddie from upstairs. He ran up to her bedroom but didn’t see it. Then he rifled through the dresser drawers and found it under a pile of handkerchiefs. Pocketing the phone he was on the point of leaving when he paused and turned his head.

For no good reason, he walked to Hannah’s room and stood in the doorway for a moment. The air smelled like the cologne she favored. It reminded him of lilies. Was it lily-of-the-valley? He hadn’t been paying attention when she told him what it was. In the middle of her bed, propped against the pillows, was the plush stuffed cat he’d given her long ago. It reminded her of her pet kitten—shot on the crazy preacher’s orders. She’d started to cry when she first saw the fake feline. He hadn’t realized she still had it, much less valued it enough to keep it near her when she slept.

His eyes traveled to her closet. A hanger was hooked over the top of the door displaying a fancy pink dress. He ran his fingers across the soft fabric. She’d told him about the outfit but he hadn’t seen it before. She said it was supposed to be a surprise, that he’d see it on prom night. Every time she mentioned this dress her eyes would light up. She was so excited to be going to a formal dance. And now...

He felt himself choking up. Fleeing the room he ran back downstairs, slammed the door and jumped into his car. There was nothing left to see. And too many things he wanted to forget.

***

Maddie stood in a patient’s room in the Vault infirmary watching Faye’s monitor. The blips on the screen were steady. The Memory Guardian’s heart was beating normally. She was in a deep sleep.

The door behind her opened and Zach slipped in. “How’s she doing?” the boy asked.

The Chatelaine shrugged. “As well as can be expected after tumbling down a flight of stairs.”

He came to stand beside her, staring down at his ancestor. In a nervous voice, he asked, “When is she going to wake up?”

“We don’t know, kiddo,” Maddie replied gently. “There was a lot of swelling around the brain. The doctors had to induce a coma. Until the swelling goes down, she’ll have to stay this way.” Changing the subject to take his mind off the problem, she asked, “Did you get the stuff?”

“Yeah, the two computers and her cell phone.” Turning to look Maddie in the eye, he asked, “Who did this?”

“If I had to guess, it was Leroy Hunt. He’s Abraham Metcalf’s hired gun.” She laughed bitterly. “All the time, I thought I knew what he was up to. I guess I made the biggest mistake a person can make. I underestimated my enemy. Turns out he wasn’t such a dufus after all. Somehow, he found a way to throw my people off his trail.”

“I don’t think it was one guy who pulled this off,” Zach said. He explained what he’d found in the backyard.

“Maybe Metcalf sent a few other lackeys along to help out.” Maddie shrugged.

Zach’s temper flared. “How can you be so calm about this?”

“Hey, kiddo, pipe down. Even if Faye can’t hear you there are other sick people in the vicinity.” She grabbed him by the elbow and steered him out of the infirmary and back across the Central Catalog to her office. Once there, she closed the door. “Have a seat,” she ordered.

He sullenly dropped into a chair.

Settling behind her desk, she said, “You’ve obviously got something on your chest, so let’s hear it.”

For once, Zach didn’t seem worried about the war club propped in the corner. He stared at the Chatelaine angrily. “Gamma’s in a coma. Hannah’s been carried off and you’re acting like it’s business as usual instead of grabbing every gun in this place and storming the Nephilim compound to get her back!”

“You think I don’t care?” Maddie challenged. “I think the problem is that loss is a new experience for you.”

The boy refused to back down. He returned her glare. “So you’re saying that once I’ve lost as many people as you have I’ll learn to shrug it off?”

Maddie enunciated her reply through gritted teeth. “I’m saying that I’ve learned not to bleed until I’m cut. Kid, try to remember. Faye is still alive. She might pull through this. Hannah is still alive too.”

“You don’t know that for sure!” he cast back fiercely.

“Yes I do,” she retorted with conviction.

Zach paused in his tirade, stunned enough to look her in the eye. “How?”

“From what I’ve observed and what Faye has told me about her, Hannah is a very smart girl.”

“Yeah, she is,” the tyro agreed, softening.

“But she’s something a lot more important than smart. She’s determined and resourceful. When she was fourteen, she figured out a way to escape a compound protected by armed guards and razor wire. She’s got a powerful will to live and to live life on her own terms.”

The boy wasn’t entirely convinced. “But it’s not up to her, is it!” he challenged. “That old weirdo she was married to probably wants her dead.”

Maddie laughed outright at his statement. “Metcalf? Please. He dotes on her. He’s the last person on earth who wants to see her dead. Trust me on this. She’ll find a way to stay alive.”

The tyro lapsed into silence.

The Chatelaine tapped her long fingernails on the desk blotter, considering. “My biggest problem, at the moment, isn’t what to do about Faye or Hannah. It’s what to do about you.”

A stunned look crossed the boy’s face. “Me? I didn’t cause this mess.”

“No, you didn’t.” Maddie cast an appraising look at him. “But you’ve got an overwhelming urge to finish it. And to finish it right now.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” he admitted.

“You’re so angry that you’re itching for payback.”

“Is that so wrong?’

Maddie smiled. “No, it makes sense given how much they both mean to you. But as it stands now, the only thing you’d accomplish by going off half-cocked is to get yourself killed.”

Zach jumped out of his chair. “So what am I supposed to do? Sit and twiddle my thumbs while you and the rest of the Arkana bigwigs discuss strategy?”

Refusing to be offended, the Chatelaine replied smoothly. “Aside from lots of experience with loss, I’ve had even more experience dealing with reckless young hotheads.”

“Don’t tell me,” he raised his hands in protest. “You’re going to assign me some more filing as penance for going off on you.”

“Nope. I’m going to give you something to hit.”

Zach was so surprised by her words that he sank back down into his chair and gawked at her. “Huh?”

“You’re a little young for this kind of training. I ordinarily don’t approve it til a candidate is at least eighteen but this is a special circumstance. Tomorrow you’ll report to the Security Division. You’ll be taught hand-to-hand combat and how to use weapons.”

“And what am I supposed to do with all that?” Zach asked helplessly.

“In the short term, it’ll satisfy your need to pummel somebody and you’ll learn how to do it properly. It will also tire you out enough so that you don’t get into mischief during your downtime. While you’re busy with that, me and the rest of the old fogies will have that strategy session you mentioned earlier. Once we figure out how to handle the situation, we’ll give you what you want most.”

“And what’s that?”