“Oh, my God. Seriously? You turned your phone offnow? Listen, Rebecca and I are on our way to the farm to get the kids. Samuel has gone full kool-aid drinking Jonestown crazy and may actually be making everybody drink literal kool-aid. Rebecca has a gun and a car, and if you get this, please come save me because I don’t want to die the same day I find out I’m not going to jail. Bring your A-Team or the X-Men, whoever, and please find us. My phone is on. You can trace it, right? Oh, God, please tell me you can trace it. Oh…and I love you. I really love you. Just in case you don’t get this in time.”
Adrenaline sent a shock of panic along his spine. He didn’t bother listening to the other messages. He found Webster’s number and dialed.
“Sup.”
“I need you to trace Robby’s phone.”
“Trouble in para—”
“Now, Webster. I don’t have time for this shit. I also need a location on this place called ‘the farm.’ The one Linc talked to the ATF about. Drop everything and get me that fucking address. Tell Linc and Connolly to meet me there. This gets critical priority. I’m serious. Don’t fuck this up.”
“Yeah…okay. Yeah. What do we need to know?”
“Samuel is accelerating some kind of end of days Jonestown timeline. Robby and his sister are en route and the sister’s armed. They said they are going to save ‘the kids.’ I can only assume he means the kids at the compound. There are weapons and bombs on this property. Everybody needs to keep their head on a swivel. Linc should probably let the ATF know too but I’m not waiting.”
“Calder—”
Calder disconnected, tossing his phone onto the seat and turning over the truck’s engine. He didn’t even know which way to go. Until Webster got him a location, he was stuck there, doing nothing, while Robby was driving towards a man who had no fucks left to give. He pounded his fist on the steering wheel once and then again.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” he shouted. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes. “Shit. I don’t even know how to do this anymore, but please, please, please, God, please don’t take him away from me. Not now. Fuck, please. Please, let him be okay.”
His phone began to light up with Webster’s name on the screen. “Yeah.”
“I’m sending you the coordinates now. We’re seventy minutes from the location. We’ve got backup en route. We’ll meet you there.”
“I’m not waiting for you,” Calder said, already tearing out of the parking lot, leaving the small group of kids still playing staring.
“We never thought you would. Stay alive, brother.”
That’s the plan,Calder thought as he hung up. For all of them to get out alive.
Robby’s body felt numb. He’d never imagined a scenario where he’d be forced to attempt to break into the farm, much less in broad daylight, but there they were, ducked down low in a crouch, creeping through the trees along the fenceline. Since he’d never been to the new farm, he had to rely on Rebecca to lead, which wouldn’t have worried him so much if she wasn’t clenching a gun in her right hand as she crept along in front of him.
To their left, just beyond the fence, there were nothing but rocks and pebbles, bleached white from the sun. Robby shivered. He remembered those stupid fucking rocks. Having to pick up handfuls at a time, having to dig the larger ones from the earth until his fingers bled, just to carry them to another pit. Then, once the one pit was empty, they’d go to the pit they’d filled and do it all over again. It was painful, it was demoralizing, it had made him feel helpless.
But there was nobody out there now, and that was almost worse. Samuel would never let the children stop working before the sun went down, and it was hours before sunset. Had he taken them all into the great hall? Was he currently encouraging each of his loyal followers to drink poison? If so, they were too late. The thought of a small boy, barely six, with his mother’s hair and eyes, drinking poison had his stomach clenching. Would he get to meet his brother? “We need to hurry.”
Rebecca gave him an exasperated look. “We need to be careful. We got no idea what we’re walkin’ into. If Dinah didn’t manage to get the kids to the barn, we’re screwed. I have no idea how we’ll get them out without usin’ the tunnels, and if they’re already in the hall with the adults…” She broke off, her voice catching. “Then I don’t know what we’ll do.”
“Don’t panic. We’ll find them. We will. Calder will come for me. He’ll bring his team, and we’ll be fine. All of us.” He wished he believed his own pep talk. Calder had never called him back. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t try to save Robby. Of course, he would. But there just might not be enough time, and Robby had to make peace with the fact that this was probably a suicide mission.
They stopped outside what looked like an old miner’s shaft with a board leaning across it. Rebecca pulled a necklace out of her shirt and yanked it off. There was a key dangling from the end. It was no key Robby had seen before.
“Here, help me,” she said, gripping one side of the board and dragging it out of the way.
That’s when Robby saw the grate with a large padlock holding it closed. Rebecca unlocked the iron grate, swinging it open, before plunging into the darkness. Robby followed blindly, his shoes splashing into ankle deep water. He really hoped this wasn’t a sewer. Robby fumbled for his phone, flipping on the flashlight, swinging it around wildly as he took in the concrete walls and the dirty water at his feet. It smelled like rot and mold, a fungal smell that made Robby feel like just breathing in there might actually kill him. It would suck to save the kids for all of them to die from toxic black mold or some kind of weird disease carried by rodents.
At the other end of the tunnel was another grate. Rebecca unlocked it and carefully swung it open. She gave Robby one last look and stepped into a small closet sized room before climbing up a steel ladder and pushing up the door at the top. When she disappeared, Robby scrambled after her. He stumbled as he lost his balance. He would have fallen if there had been any room to do so. The whole area was stocked floor to ceiling with crates with only a narrow path between them. Both Robby and Rebecca had to turn sideways to squeeze by, stopping just short of an opening that led to what Robby assumed was the actual barn.
Rebecca held her hand up, listening carefully, repositioning her grip on the gun in her hand. It was eerily silent. If there were thirty children in there, at least one of them would be crying, moving, whispering. Robby’s heart sank as Rebecca’s shoulders sagged. Still, she kept her pistol in hand as they crept into the two story barn, open but for the hayloft above the two large entryway doors.
At first, he thought they were alone, but then he saw a small girl sitting on a hay bale in a dirty shift dress, her bare foot drawing patterns in the dirt below. She couldn’t be more than twelve or thirteen.
“Dinah?” Rebecca said. “Where are the others? Where are the children?”
Dinah’s head jerked up, her gaze darting towards something behind them. A trickle of unease shivered along his spine as he slowly turned to see what the girl looked at.
Robby’s mouth fell open at the sight before him. Samuel held a small boy against his chest, an enormous knife leveled against the child’s throat. Ezra. He would have known him anywhere. They looked just alike.
