“Good evening, Jack,” he said. “You must be feeling a bit of déjà vu, I bet.”
Then he crossed over to Elina’s door, and she backed away from the window.
“Ahh, Former Officer Gutierrez.” Vale peered in at her. She could see his yellow-green eyes inspecting her for what felt like an endless moment. “Yes… it’s been quite some time since she has enjoyed the taste of a woman.”
Elina retreated farther into the cell. “What are you talking about?”
Vale chuckled. “You mean you haven’t told them what’s waiting for them, Jack? Down in the caverns? You haven’t told them about Sh’ar Kouhm?”
“Of course I told them,” Jack shot back.
“She’s hungry tonight.” Vale’s eyes again appeared in Elina’s window. “She feeds on fear, you know. She can smell it in your blood. It’s like a drug to her. And women are capable of generating such… pure, unbridled fear.”
Elina’s pulse raced and she pressed against the wall as Carson unlocked her cell door. She could hear Jack and the others yelling and pounding their doors. Her senses heightened as adrenaline surged through her veins. Elina coiled down, ready to attack. She was outnumbered by bigger, stronger men, but she refused to go with them quietly. The door opened and Carson entered, carrying the black stun baton. Elina gritted her teeth against the pain she knew was coming. She would make them kill her rather than take her to this creature. She sprang forward, aiming her foot at Carson’s groin.
She was still in the air when Carson swung the stick toward her. She saw a blue spark of light and felt her limbs involuntarily stiffen. She hit the ground like a sack of rocks, her throat tightening so violently that she couldn’t breathe.
Then Carson pulled the stick away, electricity still sparking from the tip. Elina lay completely stunned and gasping for breath as the other man entered with a rope.
Chapter 37
Jack screamed until his throat was raw, his throbbing fists pounding against the door. He alternated between threatening and reasoning with Vale as Carson and another man entered Elina’s cell.
But Vale ignored Jack, and a few minutes later his men emerged again, carrying Elina between them. She was bound and gagged, her hands and feet wrapped tightly with rope.
They hauled her back up the tunnel, around the corner, and out of sight. Jack leaned his head against the bars, listening to the other voices echo curses through the tunnels.
Jack closed his eyes and struggled to keep his thoughts focused. He tried to talk to the man in the cell across from him. The newcomer they had just brought down. Vale had called him George.
“Hey… hey, George.”
Jack could see a vague shadow moving behind the bars in the window.
“George,” Jack called again. “Did you ever find a way to contact the FBI?”
A voice replied from behind the door. It was husky and hollow, empty of emotion. “No. They were waiting for us as soon as we got out of the tunnel. Vale’s had us locked up in our room ever since.”
“Elina said you were with someone else…. Was that your wife?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
Jack could see the vague shape of George’s face through the bars of his door. “She’s dead. They said they had a cure for her Alzheimer’s, but… they lied to us. It killed her instead.”
Jack heard him begin to sob in the darkness. He stepped back to process this information in silence. It was just like Henderson had described. Vale lured people to town with the promise of curing some disease. George was probably wealthy or had something else Vale needed to continue his smuggling of human beings into town. That must have been why they were chosen.
“I’m sorry for your loss” was all he could think of to say.
The soft echo of footsteps brought Jack up from his thoughts. He strained to listen. Someone else was approaching.
A minute later another figure appeared in the tunnel, carrying a flashlight. He moved slowly down the passage, peering into the cells. The light glared in Jack’s eyes for a moment, then flicked away.
“He’s going to kill her,” a voice said.
Jack’s hope lifted. “Dwight?”
Dwight Henderson’s eyes darted around the tunnel. “We… we have to save her.”
“Save Elina?” Jack said. “Yes, we do. But you need to let us out so we can help you.”
Dwight shook his head. Jack thought he looked disoriented. “I—I begged him not to take her, but… he said she was too dangerous to keep.”
“Dwight, let us out of here. We’re running out of time.”
Dwight shone the light into George’s cell. “I’m sorry about Miriam. I’m sorry that you lost her.”
George’s voice took on a biting tone. “Oh, I’m sure you are.”
“Why didn’t she want to live here? Why would she do that?”
“Because she wasn’t afraid to die,” George said. “She would rather die than be a part of what you people are doing here, and she wanted to set me free. She…” His voice cracked. “She believed something better was waiting for her when she died.”
Dwight leaned closer to George’s window. “Do you?”
George was silent for a moment, then said, “I don’t know.”
“Dwight,” Jack said, “do you have the keys?”
Dwight held up a ring of keys. “He’ll kill me for this.”
“We’ll help you,” Jack said. “Just let us out of here.”
“He’ll kill me.” Dwight stared at the keys, though his gaze seemed unfocused. “He’ll get rid of me like he did with Amanda. He’s going to kill all of us sooner or later. Eventually we’ll all stop being useful to him.”
“Listen to me,” Jack persisted. “We can help you.”
“No, you can’t, Jack. No one can.” He turned back to George. “Do you think Miriam was right? Do you think there’s anything waiting for you when you die?”
“If there is a hell, I know you’ll be there. You and all the rest of the people in this town.”
Jack could see Dwight wavering in the darkness. Teetering on the brink between hope and despair. Struggling perhaps with a newfound conscience. A sense of moral doubt that had been buried too deeply and for too long but that now seemed to be reemerging. Jack tried to tip the balance further, even if he wasn’t quite sure of it himself.
“That’s not true, Dwight. There’s still hope.”
“No, there’s not. I’ve done terrible things.”
“I know it,” Jack said. “Horrible things. I don’t have all the answers, but I have to believe that God’s bigger than all that. I have to believe He can forgive you. That He wants to forgive you.”
“That’s what she thought too.” Dwight furrowed his brow and snorted. “But God left this town a long time ago.”
“No, He didn’t.” Jack felt his heart swelling now with courage. He could sense the tiniest spark of hope in this dungeon. Elina had ignited it in his heart almost without his knowing it. And now it was struggling to shine again right on the other side of his prison door. He just needed to coax it a little. To fan it into flame. “I used to think that way too, but maybe God’s here now. Right here in the darkness. Maybe it’s why He brought Elina here. To help you find Him. Now please, let us out so we can save her.”
Dwight blinked and looked down at the ring in his hands. His jaw clenched, and he slipped the key into the lock.
Jack pushed the door open with a rush of emotion flooding over him. He grabbed Dwight by the shoulders, wanting to hug the man there in the tunnel. “We have to free the others.”
They unlocked George’s cell and the one on the other side of Jack.