The Eye of Madness (38 page)

“Shut your disrespectful mouth!” Garrison growled and delivered Cecil a good swift kick to his abdomen. This accomplished the desired effect of shutting him up as he gasped for air.

“Another word out of you and I'll make that Jezebel wife of yours go first! I'll make you watch!”

Avery's phone rang. He reached in his pocket and answered it. After several short answers, he hung up and put it back in his pocket.

“It was Sebastian and Joan,” he said. “They were confirming you wanted them to go on without us.”

“What did you tell them?” Garrison asked.

“I said, yes and we would catch a military flight in the morning.”

Garrison nodded and gazed back and forth to Musial and Cecil. “Good, we have a lot we need to do tonight.”

“Well, shall we get on with it?” Garrison asked, clapping his hands together. “Colonel Kimbrow is expecting us for dinner and I am starving.”

“Of course,” Avery said, giving Musial's rope a quick jerk.

“When you turn … the lights off, … the dark is going … to go after Barbara.… How are you going to … protect her if you … want to kill her last?” Cecil managed to rasp out between labored breaths.

“She's strapped down,” Avery said with a dismissive wave. “The dark can't do anything to her that she can't do to herself.”

“Oh, by the way, son,” Garrison said in a distant voice as he seemed to stare beyond the maniacal gate. “You can lie to me all you want about your companions. You and I both know the truth.”

“What—do you mean?” Cecil gasped.

“Captain Golden, the one who tried to beat his own brains out. Well, I have it on pretty good authority, he was the one who broke you out of your cell. That in itself is a traitorous act; never mind what he has done since then.”

Cecil's stomach churned like a stormy sea as his heart began to sink into its turbulent depths. He didn't say anymore because what good would it do? He knew his father was going to finish his story; it was too rich for him not to.

“I ordered the base surgeon not to treat him. I saw no point in wasting precious resources on a traitor.” He laughed without humor. “God told me that resources were too valuable to waste on the unfaithful.”

He glanced at Cecil for a response. When none came, he checked his wristwatch.

“He's dead you know. Got what he deserved about an hour ago.”

Cecil's outrage seethed inside, yet he held his tongue and composure. He wasn't going to give his father the satisfaction. Susan crossed his mind. What had they done to her? He decided he didn't want to know. What good would it do him now?

Another blast of thunder rolled through the hangar. This one was much closer than the previous two. For whatever reason, it seemed to instill Garrison with a heightened sense of urgency.

“Let's get to it Avery,” he said as he motioned at Musial, then stepped beside his condemned son.

Avery pulled Musial forward and stood him inches from the edge of the platform. The plan was to shut off the light and when the dark souls tormented Musial a while, he would shove him into the Gate. They hoped to take a number of them with him.

“I hope you've gotten right with the Lord,” Avery hissed in his air. “Because you aren't welcome here anymore.”

“I hope
you
have,” Musial muttered, but Avery didn't hear him over the crackle and hum of the Tesla Gate.

Avery held up a hand and pointed at the soldier sitting behind the control panel. He nodded to indicate everything was ready. A moment later, Avery dropped his arm and the hangar plunged into complete darkness. Only the ethereal blue and gray light from the Tesla Gate remained. Musial jerked and cried out in agony. Cecil jerked backwards as the dark enveloped him. He was in the canoe again, the nest of water moccasins engulfing him like a cold and slimy hand.

His body radiated with pain from head to toe with every venomous bite. He wanted to escape the anguish. If death were the best option then so be it. This time was every bit as potent as the last two times he found himself in the dark, yet it was different. He was seeing a whole new horde of dark souls, along with each and every one of their sins. Each a disturbing example of the evil man is capable of. If this kept up much longer, madness would set in before he could partake of the sweet release of death. He wanted death and nothing else, not even Barbara, his girls, or his friends occupied his thoughts.

Cecil, in his own nightmare, hadn't heard Musial's screams, Musial's fake screams. They were cries that Avery enjoyed at first, until they became his own screams. When Avery began to scream, Garrison shouted for the lights. It did not happen right away. Between the screams echoing through the hangar and the strum of the Gate, the hapless soldier did not hear him at first. The soldier who wheeled in Barbara on the gurney sprinted to the station and relayed the command.

By the time the lights came on, Garrison stood on the platform a few feet from Musial and Avery. His mouth hung open with incredulous disbelief. Avery was now bound with the rope under his arms. Musial grasped him by the back of the shirt, ready to give him a shove off the platform and into the Shredder.

“How? What?” Garrison stammered.

“I told you I was a magician in my former life you arrogant prick,” Musial said.

Without another word and without waiting for a response, Musial shoved Avery with both hands. He screamed, but for only as long as it took him to reach the Tesla Gate. A moment later, the Shredder hummed and buzzed like a bug zapper frying a large insect. Avery died on impact and his body continued to swing back and forth. He bounced against the electrical field, his flesh burning with every jostle. The rope soon burned away and the charred mess dropped to the floor with a wet plop.

“You!” Garrison screamed.

Musial moved toward him, but it was no use. He had no weapon and Garrison did. A single shot struck him in the abdomen. Musial slumped to his knees. He heard Sam Andrews screaming in the back of his mind. This was it. He tried to get up, but another shot echoed through the hangar, this one catching him in the chest. Musial/Andrews toppled off the podium and struck the concrete floor at an awkward angle. The fall may have killed them if the gunshots did not. President Garrison's rage made the other two soldiers almost take flight. He screamed with anger, putting a few more slugs into the body of Sam Andrews for good measure. Then, with wild-eyed intensity, he turned his rage back towards his son.

Cecil was coming around from his encounter with the dark and he staggered as President Garrison pulled him to his feet. The fuming president uncoiled the slack from around the pole and yanked his son inches from the edge of the platform.

“Now!” he shouted, waving his arm at the soldier.

The lights went out and darkness fell yet again.

CHAPTER 41

ILLUMINATION

“There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.”

~Charles Dickens

Panic set in on Rebekah as the thunderous rumble grew louder. It shook her cot as if it were a vibrating bed. Gestas was gone, she couldn't sense him anymore. She called out in her head and shouted at the top of her lungs. There was no answer. Despite the thirty-plus occupants of the tent, she felt alone. The noise outside was terrifying.

Rebekah called out for Malakhi. There was no response. In fact, no one paid her any attention. They were too focused on what was going on outside. A glowing white light permeated the thin cloth of the tent making it seem as if a brilliant sunrise were happening outside. It was still at least an hour until dawn and this light came from everywhere, not just the east.

The blinding radiance made Rebekah squint her eyes, but it also made her feel warm from head to toe. Her heart fluttered when she heard what could only be called a unified scream erupted outside. It didn't vibrate the air, it vibrated her soul like icy fingers plucking a harp. She recognized the voice of the scream, if you could even call it a voice. It was the terrified shriek of the darkness.

Jack looked about his cell in terror as another rumble vibrated the building. Were they under attack and, if so, from whom? He dismissed this thought because as another peal of thunder rang through the building, he knew it was no explosion. It was not thunder either. This sound was different and more frightening.

His heart rate quickened and sweat dripped from his brow as the dark night outside his window filled with a blinding white light. This brightness did not give him any comfort. He found it disturbing. Jack crouched in the corner of his cell, out of view from the doorway, as the blazing light began to fill the hallway outside. He covered his head as the lurid screams of the dark erupted all around him, his dark allies were not angry, they were scared. Jack shivered as the curdling scream mixed with the other worldly rumble. His bladder let go as the light flooded into his cell.

Carmella rested in a conference room of the administration building. An ace bandage covered her forehead where she made contact with the sidewalk. A heating pad warmed her lower back where she made contact with the concrete planter. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Not only because of Steff, but also because of the information just passed on to her by a member of the clerical staff.

President Garrison and Avery were not going to North Carolina tonight in the limo. They would go in the morning. He sent Sebastian and Joan ahead of them. The only good news Carmella could determine from the situation was that the two Secret Service agents had been put out at the gate. What good would they have been to the travelling ambassadors after dark anyway? One of them was in the infirmary nursing a bullet wound to the shoulder. Joan decided to take pot shots at them as they drove away.

Everybody was sympathetic to her treatment at the hands of the president's lone female henchman. None of them liked Garrison's cronies. Even fewer liked the president himself. Carmella could sense it, but she also knew they were guarding their feelings. She was one of the White House secretaries. No one knew how warm or cold her relationship was with the president and his administration.

For the time being, all she could do is wait. She knew there would be repercussions when the bomb went off and it wouldn't take Garrison long to determine who brought the car. When that happened, she would be joining Steff. She wasn't afraid of death. Her faith refused her the notion of fearing death. Almost as important as her faith, she had taken a peek behind the curtain, so to speak, and knew the promise of eternity was real. The Impals proved it. The one thing keeping her from squashing her fears was the wildcard of the eye of the storm. Did it change the nature and disposition of the soul? This uncertainty vexed her. Even as David brought her a cup of coffee and took a seat across the room, she could not manage a smile.

While she appreciated David's efforts, she wasn't in the mood for company. All Carmella wanted was to be alone and to contemplate her life in the short time she knew she had left. She was about to get up and seek solitude when something made her freeze in her tracks. Her tears shut off as if someone turned a faucet. She propped herself against the arm of the sofa as the room began to vibrate. A glowing white light began to drive away the approaching dusk outside. It was like the most brilliant sunrise ever, projecting radiant daylight in a surreal dream. She gasped in amazement, then fell back on the sofa, shielding her eyes from the brilliance.

Cecil's eyes had just become accustomed to the light when they were plunged back into darkness. He was no longer aware of his father, the platform or the Tesla Gate. He was ten years old again, in a canoe filled with vile snakes doing their best to torment him into taking his own life.

Cecil was aware of the sensation of falling, yet in his tortured mind, it was only the canoe sinking deeper in the water. As he cried out and tried to claw his way out of the canoe, he heard a wild shriek. It was around him and inside of him at the same time. The malignant sound chilled him as much as the snakes. However, now the snakes were gone, replaced by a warm and bright light covering him as a warm blanket, driving away the chill. He felt safe and secure. As the screaming faded, Cecil opened his eyes. What he saw convinced him the dark souls did their job. There was no other explanation.

He was still hanging from the rope by his arms and twisting with his feet a yard or so off the ground. The fact he was still hanging from a rope was what confused him. He felt a cold touch on his arms, but it was not disquieting like the serpents. It was pleasing, especially after he started to feel the unusual sensation of hot and cold. Standing beside him with bright smiles were Abbs and Steff. Cecil was overcome by joy, but he was also tempered with confusion. He expected to see Abbs again when he died or if the storm happened to bring the Impals back. Why was Steff glowing with silvery luminescence?

“Steff … what, what … happened?” he stammered.

Before she could answer, his reunion was interrupted by the booming voice of a man insane with rage.

“Demonic filth!” President Garrison screamed. “How dare you impersonate my granddaughters!!”

In a flash, Garrison jumped off of the platform and grabbed a nearby iron chain which had been used to herd Impals. In one quick motion, he swung the chain and struck Steff in the head. She went sprawling across the floor and came to rest less than a foot from the Tesla Gate. The backlash knocked Abbs into the platform and struck Cecil across the arm. Garrison jerked the chain back and took aim at Steff. This time determined to finish the job and knock her into the Gate. Then he would turn his attention back to the demon posing as Abbs and give it the same treatment.

Garrison was so focused on the abominations, he didn't notice the light flooding the hangar. It was due to much more than two rogue Impals. As he reared back to swing again, he cried out with surprise. The chain dropped to the floor with a clatter, echoing through the hangar. Cecil twisted so he could swing sideways and see in President Garrison's direction. He was both relieved and horrified.