Soul Thief (Blue Light Series) (45 page)

He’d been taken by surprise last night.
He’d been arrested and interrogated, and in the midst of it he’d lost his daughter and something else had happened: the House of Bones had been destroyed. He did not know yet what the implications of that particular incident would be, but something felt different with its passing. He did not know exactly what, but his instincts were telling him to be on guard.

He picked up the phone near his chair and pressed a button. “I have a strong feeling of premonition,” he told the person on the other end of the line. “I’m going to give you a set of instructions in case anything happens
to me.”

The
person on the line spoke back to him.

“
Listen to me,” De Roché said. “You must trust that what I’m saying is so. Something is different. Something is wrong. My instructions are to be obeyed implicitly. Am I understood?”

Doug had been traveling southeast on state road 595 for several hours. He’d decided to stick to back roads, careful to avoid major highways and extra careful to watch his speed. If the feds were looking for him, there could be roadblocks. He’d deal with them when and if the time came. De Roché and rogue members of the Order were a different story. If they attacked again they’d make it good this time. They were professionals and he believed they would not make the same mistake twice. 

At
quarter to ten that morning he passed the Richmond, Kentucky city limits. He was coming into an area of commerce where there were strip malls and convenience stores. He needed to gas up so he pulled into a 7-Eleven. Inside he bought coffee and a breakfast sandwich and asked the young clerk where the nearest Walmart was.

“Just down the strip,” she replied.

“Doug thanked her and left. Twenty minutes later he was sitting in the Range Rover in the Walmart parking lot dialing Rick Jennings’s cell phone number.

The chartered
turbo prop taxied to a stop alongside a small hangar. Jennings had stayed close enough to the pilots to make sure they didn’t alert anyone to their arrival. But like the pilot had said, the aircraft was being tracked. He was pretty sure that Spencer was already en route. He needed to get Annie far away from here as soon as possible.

The co-pilot opened the cabin door and he and Annie disembarked.

As they were making their way across the tarmac toward the Avis rental car place Jennings said, “You might want to find a lady’s room and take your clothes off.”

She gave him a puzzled
frown as Jennings held the door for her. “Excuse me?”

“There’s a reason they tracked us. I’d say it’s likely that there’s
some sort of tracking device either in one of your pockets or perhaps sewn somewhere in your clothing. Check thoroughly. We need to lose them once and for all.”

“Okay,” Annie said and slipped into the
ladies room. As Jennings was headed for the rental counter his phone went off.

He answered it and Doug’s voice said, “Rick, is that you?”

“I’ll be a son of a bitch,” Jennings said. “Doug? Where the hell are you?”

“
I’m in a Walmart parking lot in Richmond, Kentucky.

Jennings
spied a local map on the wall and went over to examine it.

“
You’re on Eastern Bypass,” Jennings said. “I’m at the Madison County airport just south of you. About ten miles down I-75. Listen, Doug, I have Annie with me.” Silence. “Doug?”

“Let me speak to her, Rick.”

“She’s in the ladies room. Listen we’re renting a car, and we can pick you up.”

“No need, I have a car,” Doug said. “I’ll pick you up.”

“Things aren’t safe, Doug. They’ve been tracking us and we need to get out of this airport now.” Jennings was studying the map. Take I-75 South until you reach Airport Road. Drive in the main entrance. We’ll find you. What are you driving?”

“A green Range Rover.”

“Get moving. We’ll lay low until we see your car.”

“I’m on my way.”

Annie came out of the ladies room and handed Jennings a small and unimpressive looking device about the size of a quarter. “This what you’re looking for?”

“Bastards,”
Jennings said, examining the object. “Doesn’t look like much but it’s about as high tech as it gets. Works off satellites and there’s no limit to range. Sends out a beacon, which means they know exactly where we are at this very moment.”

“
It was sewn into the hem of my jeans. Must have been one of Greta’s little tricks.”

A
complex question began to nag Jennings. He knew the feds were tracking them, but surely they weren’t doing it using a device De Roché had planted on Annie. He looked at the phone in his hand and he suddenly understood.

O
utside, he dropped the tracking device on the walkway and crushed it into the concrete with the heel of his shoe. Then he ripped the guts out of his phone and threw the parts in a trash can.

Annie
watched him curiously. “What was that for?”

“
We’re being tracked by both your father and the feds,” Jennings said. “By the way, I just heard from Doug.”

Annie’s breath caught in her throat.
“Where is he?”

“He’
ll be picking us up in a few minutes. Come on, we have to get away from this airport.”

The pair left the Avis rental building and headed down
Airport Road on foot toward the main highway. Jennings told Annie to keep her head down to make it more difficult for anyone in a passing vehicle to recognize her. There was quite a lot of traffic going both ways. Jennings kept glancing at occupants but it was impossible for him to determine whether any of them had sinister intentions.

By the time they reached a small wooded area before the highway off ramp, Jennings had given up his game of identification. Near the end of the lane they left the road and walked into the wooded area. Jennings chose a place where they weren’t visible from the road but had a good view of traffic leaving the southbound off ramp and there they waited. Ten minutes later he spied a Green Range Rover leaving the ramp. He took Annie by the hand and together they went out to the road. Jennings put his hand out and the Range Rover began to slow.

Doug pulled the car to the side
, his heart pounding madly in his chest. He could not believe it had been almost four months since he’d seen Annie and he was amazed at how big the baby had grown inside her. He got out and he and Annie fell together in a fierce embrace.

“I thought I’d never see you again,” she said
kissing his lips and face and eyes. Tears of joy streaked her face.

“Me too,” Doug
said. “I love you so much. Let me look at you.” He pushed her away to arm’s length and stared at her. “You’re so beautiful.”

“Oh, Doug, I look awful. I had to escape this morning and didn’t exactly have time to shower and put on my makeup.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Doug said, patting her belly. “Pregnancy becomes you.”

Annie hugged him again.
“How are you? What happened? I thought you were dead.”

In the distance sirens
wailed.

“
Hate to break up the reunion,” Jennings said. “But we have to move. I’ll drive. You and Annie sit in the back and get reacquainted. You can duck down out of sight if I see anything suspicious.”

Doug
handed Jennings the keys and he and Annie got in the back. Jennings took the driver’s seat and did a U-turn, heading back toward the highway on-ramp. They passed two police cars going in the opposite direction, but the cops paid them no mind.

“
Where do you want to go?” Jennings said when they reached the ramp.

“
Maine,” Doug said without hesitation. “I’ve been dreaming about this for months.”

Annie
nodded in earnest. “Me too,” she said.

Doug looked over at Annie as if he still couldn’t quite believe she was sitting beside him. “There’s a lot I need to tell you
guys,” he said.

“They’re not through with you two
,” Jennings said. “They’ll expect you to go to Maine.”

“Yeah, I know,” Doug said. “
But I’ve had a lot of time to think and I want to run something past you.”

On the ride they exchanged stories; Doug told of his ordeal
, purposely skimming over some parts. There would be time enough for all that later. He felt that the important thing was to get the gist of the story told.

Both Annie and
Jennings were flabbergasted that Doug had been shot and nursed back to health by members of the Order. Doug opened his shirt and showed her the scars. Annie touched them tentatively as she fought to hold back tears. “My God,” she said. “I almost lost you.”

Doug did not reply. Neither did he mention Nadia Zeigler.
Jennings had known Nadia as had Doug. They’d gone to her memorial service together. Doug had been with Annie at the time and he’d simply told Annie the truth, that Nadia had been his girlfriend in high school and that she’d died in the 9-11 bombings, which was what he had always believed. What would Annie and Rick think if they knew that Nadia was alive and had become a member of the organization that saved his life? What would they think if they knew he and Nadia had been together for months and that it was she that had saved his life and nursed him back to health? What would Annie think if she knew that he’d made love to Nadia less than twelve hours ago?

He’d tell her eventually. Now was not the time
. His most important job was to keep Annie and the baby safe.

Annie told of her ordeal when she’d thought Doug was
dead, and of her harrowing escape from her father’s house the night before.

When they were
done swapping stories Jennings told what he knew about the feds trumping up the story of Doug bringing down an airliner. “What they really want is the object that priest gave you at Annie’s mother’s funeral,” Jennings said.

“I wish I’d never seen the thing,” Doug said.

“Let me see it,” Annie said.

Doug pulled it
from his shirt and Annie took it in her hand, inspecting it. “It’s somehow important, isn’t it,” she said.

“I’m afraid
so. It’s important to our child, but I still don’t know exactly how or why.” Doug then told them of his conversation the night before with the Collector, and what the Collector had said. “A lot of people believe our child is going to be somehow important. I don’t know how anyone can know such a thing, but one thing’s for certain; she will need to be protected.”

“She?” Annie said.

“I’ve been having dreams,” Doug explained. “I don’t know what they mean but in them a child talks to me. I feel so much love for her that it makes me ache.”

“
Are you able to see her in these dreams?” Annie asked as tears slid down her cheeks.

Doug nodded.

“What does she look like?”

“
Like you,” Doug said. “She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Does she have a name?”

“It’s Ariel, and she said it means Lion of God.”

“I love it,” Annie said. “It feels right
, somehow.”

Jennings
did not comment on the child’s name. He knew the name of the missing little girl from New Hampshire, the one who hadn’t left even a strand of DNA behind as if she’d never existed. He knew her history and what had happened to her family. And now he knew beyond a doubt that none of this was coincidence. “Do you think the Collector’s gone for good?” he asked.

“
He said he was done here, but I don’t know. I’ll tell you one thing, though, that constant pressure I’ve felt in my head since the day Tommy Ricker punched my lights out seems to be gone.”

“So you think
it was him in there?”

“
Yeah, I do. He’s been with me a long time.”

“
So, after all the terrible things he’s done, you believe him now?”

“I want to.
He said there was purpose to everything he did. He showed me some things . . . I don’t know.” Doug sighed in resignation. “Listen, I’ve just had an experience I can’t even begin to explain. The past four months have shown me that life is much more complex than I could have ever imagined. The Collector said our child would be some sort of prophet, an inspiration to millions, and that one day I would understand all I needed to know. I tend to believe him. I
want
to believe him. And I’ll do everything in my power to protect Annie and Ariel.”

Annie gazed
long and hard at Doug. She placed her hands on her belly and took a deep breath. “She’s kicking. It’s like she understands what you’re saying and is somehow responding.”

“
She just might be,” Doug said.

“Why is this happening to us, Doug?
”

Doug
gave another long, tired sigh. “For some reason you and I were chosen, and so was our child. The Collector said that the child must be protected at all costs. We may have to run and we may have to fight for the rest of our lives. I’m sorry, Annie.”

“I never want to lose you again,” Annie said
giving Doug a tearful hug. “I’ll do whatever I have to do.”

“How about hide?”
Jennings said.

“What?”

“You could hide for a while. It’ll be safer for both of you if you just disappear, at least until the child is old enough to understand what’s going on.”

“
Maybe she already understands,” Annie said.

“
How easy will hiding be in this modern society?” Doug asked. “The government wants us, rogue elements of the Order want us dead, and supposedly other, more mysterious factions that we’re not even aware of are hunting us.”

“And my father will never stop,” Annie
added.

Doug
said nothing. He remembered what Nadia had written on the note she’d left for him:
The Collector is gone and with his passing De Roché has once again become mortal.
Knowing how Doug felt about De Roché she’d added a caveat.
But please, do not act upon this in any way.

It would be very difficult, Doug knew, to heed Nadia’s admonition.
After everything De Roché had done, it was tempting as hell to find the bastard and make him pay.

“I have an idea,”
Jennings said, bringing Doug back to the present. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It may be the safest option for you two. At least temporarily.”

“You’re thinking the same thing I’m thinking, aren’t you, Rick?”

“I think I am.” As Doug drove, Jennings explained his idea, and when they stopped for the night at an unremarkable motel just east of Pittsburg, both Doug and Annie were pretty much bought into the plan. They didn’t have a choice, actually. It was the only option that made sense. The question was, could they pull it off?