Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (11 page)

“Grandpa Roy?” Jason said, squinting. “You’re here too?”

“I am,” Roy replied. “And this pretty young girl is Deem.
She’s been helping us.”

Deem gave Jason a silent wave, and Jason smiled and nodded at
her.

“What are you all doing here?” Jason asked, starting to
become more like himself.

“We’re here to rescue you,” Steven said. “From Michael.”

“From Michael?” Jason asked. “Why? I don’t need to be
rescued.”

“Let me explain,” Steven said. “Will you hear me out?”

“Go ahead,” Jason said.

“First off,” Steven said, “I want to apologize for not
talking to you about the gift back in Seattle when you came to me. I had my
reasons for not wanting to talk to you about it, but the more I thought about
them, the more I realized you needed to know. And your Grandpa Roy convinced me
too. I was literally about to call you to discuss it when I got your message
about going out of town.”

“How did you find me?” Jason asked.

“I tracked your phone,” Steven said.

Jason seemed confused. “Why would you come all the way down
here after me?” he asked.

“Because I know Michael,” Steven said. “From the past. He
targeted you because of some history that I have with him. It’s bad news,
Jason. Very bad stuff.”

“This place he’s taken me to is great,” Jason said. “You
can’t believe how cool it is.”

“I can,” Steven said. “I’ve seen it. I know what they’re
doing at the hotel. They’re training you, so you can serve some evil creature.
Just like Michael did.”

“That’s not what they said,” Jason said.

“That’s because they lie,” Steven said. “They’re like a cult.
You can exercise your gift without becoming involved with them. Come back to
Seattle with me and Roy, and we’ll train you. If you stick with these people,
you’ll just be sold off to some twisted creature, like Michael was.”

“What are you talking about?” Jason said. “That isn’t at all
what’s happening there.”

“Jason, listen to me,” Steven said. “Your grandfather and I
did battle with Michael and a creature he was serving named Lukas. He and Lukas
had kidnapped and eaten –
eaten
– little children in Seattle, in an
attempt to complete some ritual for Lukas. Roy and I killed Lukas, but Michael
survived. When he saw that you’d moved next door, he took advantage of that.
Jennifer told us how he pressed you, how he ingratiated himself.”

“You talked to Jennifer?” Jason asked.

“We were trying to track you down,” Steven said.

“Everything your father is telling you is true,” Roy said.
“Michael is a child killer. He was trained here at St. Thomas to be an
assistant to Lukas, just as he’s having you trained now. He’s doing it to get
back at both of us for killing Lukas. He told us as much.”

Jason sat stunned, his mouth open. His eyes glanced from side
to side, as though he was thinking through everything he’d just heard.

“So you’re saying he dragged me down here to make me like
him?” Jason said.

“You can practice the gift without Michael,” Steven said.
“All of us do. We make our own way. But there are people who take advantage of
young gifteds like yourself, and turn them into a kind of slave. Once they’ve
finished training you, they sell you to someone like Lukas, and you’ll be
expected to serve them.”

“They said I’d be given a mentor,” Jason said, “for further
training.”

“That’s true,” Roy said. “But the work you’ll be doing will
be evil. Your father and I don’t practice that kind of work. We help people, we
try to protect people from people like Michael and Lukas.”

“Come back with me,” Steven said. “Grandpa Roy and I will
start your training as soon as we get back. There’s a ton of things we will
show you, some really amazing stuff. But you have to leave this place and
distance yourself from Michael.”

Jason slowly nodded his head. “He told me you’d say that.”

“Who?” Steven asked. “Michael?”

“Yes,” Jason said. “I want to believe you, but everything he
told me would happen is happening. He’s been right.”

“It wasn’t that hard to predict we’d come to rescue you,” Roy
said. “Do you think we’d just leave you to him?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said. “I’m…confused.”

“I’m asking for your trust, Jason,” Steven said. “I promise
you we know what Michael’s up to here, and it’s bad. And it’ll be bad for you.
And they’ll tell you anything to get you to stay.”

Steven could see the wheels turning in Jason’s mind. “What do
you want me to do?” Jason asked.

“We have to remove you from St. Thomas carefully,” Steven
said. “It won’t be tonight. You’ll need to go back and play along with their
training. Winn will come back on another night and then we’ll be able to
physically leave, OK?”

“Alright,” Jason said hesitantly. “I think I can do that.”

“I’m so sorry, Jason,” Steven said, taking his hand. “I
should have told you sooner, you were asking me, your grandpa told me I should,
but I didn’t move fast enough. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

Jason smiled at him.

“When you go back,” Deem said, “it’s important that you don’t
give them any indication that we’ve talked or you plan to leave. Just keep on
doing what you were doing.”

“OK,” Jason said.

“We’ll see you in a couple of days, tops,” Steven said, “then
we’ll road trip back to Seattle. Stay safe in there.”

“What happens now?” Jason asked, lying back down. “How do I
get back?”

“Do you know how to initiate a trance?” Steven asked.

“They explained it yesterday,” Jason said. “But I don’t know
how I got there in the first place.”

“Close your eyes and drop into the River,” Steven said, smiling
as he gave Jason his first instruction as a father. “Then concentrate on St.
Thomas and yourself inside the hotel. Think of nothing else. Don’t let any
other thoughts come into your thinking until you’re actually there.”

Deem stepped forward and placed her hand on Jason’s chest,
pressing lightly. “This might help,” she said, holding her hand there for a
couple of minutes, then removing her hand. “I think he made it,” she said,
glancing at his face.

“A natural,” Roy said. “Like his grandfather.”

After a couple of minutes Winn opened his eyes and sat up.

“How did it go?” Deem asked him.

“Quick,” Winn said. “Quickest one I’ve ever done. He agreed
to go talk with you right away. I guess it worked, huh?”

“Yes,” Steven said, “it worked. He’s coming.”

Deem offered Winn her Big Gulp but he declined. “I wouldn’t
mind a beer though,” he said.

“I’ve got a couple in the fridge in my room,” Roy said. “Hang
on, I’ll get you one.”

“What now?” Steven asked. “Tomorrow night?”

“Tomorrow works,” Winn said, “as long as we have a good plan
for Michael.”

Roy walked back into the room, carrying a can of beer. He
tossed it to Winn, who caught it and popped it.

“What are we going to do about Michael?” Steven asked.

“I’m going to kill him, that’s what,” Roy said.

“The issue is the timing,” Winn said. “Thinking out loud
here: while I’m at St. Thomas dealing with Jason and cleaning up our tracks,
you’ve got to take care of him. He’s going to figure out Jason is gone one of
two ways: either by watching us physically leave the motel, or by realizing
that he’s left St. Thomas in the morning, when they wake up and see that he’s
gone. The powder will stop the Callers from tracking us, but it’ll do little
good if he just tells them where we are because he saw us. They’ve got
influences everywhere downwind. You’ve got to get Jason out of here pronto.”
Winn swung his feet off the bed and onto the floor, sitting on the edge of the
bed. He took another swallow of beer.

“It’s eight hours up 93 to Idaho,” Steven said. “Even if we
do this right at midnight, sunrise will hit before we clear the state line.”

“You won’t go that way,” Winn said. “You can’t stay downwind
that long. The quickest way out is west. You’ll go west to Barstow on I-15 as
fast as you can. Once you’re an hour past Vegas and into California you’ll be
outside the downwind area and much safer. Then you can make your way to
Bakersfield and take I-5 home.”

“What happens if they find us?” Steven asked.

“They won’t,” Winn said, standing up and stretching, “as long
as you make it to California. Deem’s powder primarily protects me, since I’ll
still be downwind after you go. They won’t know I was involved, since the
powder gets rid of all the tracks they’d use to find me.”

“Not that we’re planning a trip back anytime soon,” Roy said,
“but how long do we have to avoid the area? And which areas exactly?”

“After six months they won’t care anymore,” Winn said, “and
you can come back and be safe. But until then, stay out of Nevada, Arizona, and
Utah.”

“No problem,” Roy said quickly.

“And I’d stay out of New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, and maybe
Idaho, too,” Winn said. “Pull up a map of the fallout on the internet and
you’ll see where it all went. They’ve got networks throughout the whole area,
so just steer clear. Stay in Seattle.”

 “Back to Michael,” Steven said, turning to Roy. “You’ll have
to track him so you can take him down tomorrow night.”

“We know he’s got a room here,” Roy said. “I’ll finish him
off in the room if here’s there. If not, we’ll have to stake it out and hope he
comes by so we can follow him until the time is right.”

“What do we do with Michael’s body?” Steven asked.

“I know a place we can take it,” Deem said.

“Palmerton caves?” Winn asked.

“Yup,” Deem replied.

“You’re going to bury him in a cave?” Roy asked.

“Nope,” she said. “Just dump his body into the opening. It’s
very deep.”

“Someone might still discover it,” Roy said. “This guy is a
monster and deserves to die, but I’ll still go to jail if his body is
discovered.”

“It won’t be,” Deem said. “It’ll be gone completely.”

“Not if you just dump it into a cave,” Steven said.

“You don’t know what’s in this cave,” Deem said, smiling. She
took another sip from her Big Gulp.

The next morning Roy began his surveillance of Michael by
sitting in the car in the parking lot, watching. He let Steven take the car for
coffee and food while he stood under the shade of a tree across from the motel.
When Steven returned with the food, he joined Steven and they ate in the car,
with the A/C blasting.

“Anything yet?” Steven asked, handing Roy a large styrofoam
cup filled with coffee.

“Nope,” Roy said. “Haven’t seen anything coming or going.”

“We don’t even know if he’s in the room right now, right?”

“Right. I’m going to go up there and check in a bit.”

“It’s gonna be a long day,” Steven said, “keeping tabs on
this guy.”

“I don’t care,” Roy said. “I just want to end it. End him.”

“You sound a little more convinced than after we killed
Lukas,” Steven said.

“I’ve come around to your way of thinking,” Roy said, remembering
Frank Wilmon and how he had to go back and eliminate that threat from the past.
Steven didn’t have any memories of Frank, but the incident had changed Roy. “I
still think it’s a case by case basis, but in general I think your approach of
eliminating monsters that might have a vendetta against us is a good idea.”

“Sounds logical when you phrase it that way,” Steven said,
eating a breakfast burrito. “We know if anyone deserves to go, it’s Michael.”

They sat in the car a while longer. Nothing moved outside
Michael’s door. The maid came and went, ignoring the room since it had its ‘Do
Not Disturb’ hanger out.

“Alright, I’m going to go check,” Roy said. “Keep an eye on
me.”

Roy walked up to Michael’s room and knocked. There was no
answer. He tried to peer inside the window but couldn’t see past the curtains.
He walked back to Steven’s car.

“No answer and I can’t see inside,” Roy said. “I wish Deem
was here to slip through the window. No way I’ll fit.”

“We can call her if it comes to it,” Steven said.

They watched for a while longer, Steven removing his phone
and checking email. He brought up a browser and continued to search for
information on St. Thomas.

“Look!” Roy said, grabbing Steven’s arm. He pointed to
Michael’s door.

Steven looked up, and saw that Michael had emerged from the
room. He was pulling the door closed behind him. They watched as he walked to
his car, an old black Mercedes, got in, and began backing it up.

“Let’s follow him,” Roy said. Steven started up his car, and
they waited for Michael to leave the motel parking lot.

Then they followed Michael around town. He went to Pete’s for
lunch, then stopped at a drug store. After an hour he wound up back at the
motel. They watched as he went back into the room.

“Well,” Roy said, “at least now we know he’s in there.”

“Do you think he knows we followed him?” Steven said.

“I don’t know,” Roy said. “You hung back pretty far. It
wasn’t hard to follow a Mercedes in this town. But Michael’s a cunning little
prick, so who knows.”

“Let’s trade off watching,” Steven said, “and the other can
catch a nap. We’re going to need it if we’re going to be driving all night.”

“Alright,” Roy said. “You go first. I’ve got this.”

Steven left Roy in the car and returned to his room. He
checked on Jason and his IV. He tried to sleep, but the curtains in the room
didn’t block out the light very well, and he was anxious about the pending
events that night. After a couple of hours he traded with Roy, and they
continued to switch off as the day wore on. Steven left Roy briefly to get
dinner and bring it back; they both ate again in the car.

“Something bothers me about St. Thomas,” Steven said,
searching websites on his phone while Roy finished his meal. “The man in
Orderville said they thought the land itself was bad. Is that why it lives on,
fully formed in the River? He didn’t say how it got that way.”

“He mentioned someone whose ancestor had a journal,” Roy
said. “Maybe there’s more information there.”

“Well,” Steven said, “we won’t need it. After we get Jason
out tonight, we’re outta here.”

Roy was a little surprised at this. “You’re satisfied with
Winn’s thinking that after six months they won’t care anymore?” he asked.

“Why not?” Steven said. “He seems to know what he’s talking
about.”

“Doesn’t it seem like we’re leaving another problem behind?”
Roy said.

“A thousand miles away and fading,” Steven said. “That’s a
lot better than Michael living down the street from us.”

Roy
considered this. Suddenly things seemed to have flipped – now
he
was the
one advocating for a more thorough solution instead of Steven. Steven seemed
gun-shy.
Frank Wilmon changed my thinking,
Roy thought,
maybe that
gash on Steven’s arm changed his.

“I’m just sayin’,” Roy said, “it seems like we’re leaving a
group of ghosts angry at us, instead of just one person.”

“I wouldn’t know where to begin, anyway,” Steven said.
“Taking down St. Thomas and all these creatures? We’re outsiders. We wouldn’t
stand a chance. I don’t think even Winn and Deem would try.”

“Just sayin’,” Roy repeated.

“And anyway, we have to get Jason out of here,” Steven said.
“That’s the top priority.”

“Yes, priorities,” Roy echoed. Jason was a priority, that was
for sure.

“One thing at a time,” Steven said, waiting for Roy to reply,
but Roy didn’t say anything.
Unusual,
Steven thought.
He never lets
me have the last word.

◊

Winn and Deem showed up on schedule at midnight. Roy didn’t
want to lose sight of Michael’s motel room, especially after having staked it
out all day, so they met in Steven’s car and ran through the plan one more
time.

“He’s up there?” Deem asked.

“Yes,” Roy said. “He came out around noon and we followed him
around town. Then we saw him go back in. He’s been in there ever since.”

“Alright,” Winn said. “Deem, Steven and I will go up to his
motel room, where Jason is. You come with us. Roy, you stay outside Michael’s
room. Once I’m at St. Thomas, Deem will come over to you, Roy, and the two of
you can enter Michael’s room and finish him off. Get the body down into Deem’s
truck, then come join us in Steven’s room. By then we should have Jason back
and you’ll head out. Everything packed?”

“Yup,” Steven said. “Everything’s in the car. As soon as we
can get Jason down here, we’ll be gone.”

“Any questions?” Winn asked. No one had any. “Alright, let’s
do it.”

They all left the car and walked to the motel. Roy peeled off
from the group and walked to Michael’s door. The motel was silent and dimly
lit; Roy made sure to stay out of the light as he waited, to minimize the
chance of being seen by other people.

Steven, Deem, and Winn entered Steven’s room. Winn placed a
metal frame on the table by the TV. In the bottom of the frame he emptied the
contents of a canvas bag, which looked like a finely ground powder. He pulled a
small plastic bowl from his backpack and placed it on the metal frame,
suspending the bowl upside down over the powder. Then he removed a small glass
bottle from his backpack and sprinkled its contents over the powder.

Steven didn’t see anything happening, but Deem and Winn were
watching the powder intently. He slipped into the River, and saw what they were
looking at – fine, thin wisps of a white substance, almost like a mist or fog,
slowly floating up from the ground topaz. At first he thought it might be
smoke, but the wisps were too substantial and slow moving to be a gas. The
wisps collected in the bowl, and once it was done, Winn removed the bowl from
the metal frame, positioned it near his face, and slowly lifted an edge of the
bowl until one of the wisps rose from its edge and began to travel upwards. He
held his face forward and inhaled, sucking the wisp into his nose. He continued
this until he’d exhausted all of the wisps in the bowl. Then he moved to the
bed and stretched out on it.

Deem moved in next to him, and held her palm down on the
center of his chest. Steven waited in the River, watching Winn enter his
trance. He saw the familiar bubble form around him, the same bubble he’d seen
form around Roy whenever he tranced. After a few moments the bubble became
translucent and Winn’s image began to fade. Deem removed her hand from Winn’s
chest and Steven left the flow.

“I’m going to go to Roy now,” Deem said, looking at Steven.
“You stay here and keep an eye on him. If we’re lucky, Jason will be back in
ten minutes or so.”

“Alright,” Steven said. “Good luck, and you two be careful,
please.”

“I’ll keep an eye on your old man,” Deem said, smiling.
“We’ll both be fine.”

Deem left the room and Steven moved between the two twin
beds. Winn was lying on his right, as still as a board, and Jason on his left,
similarly stretched out.
This has got to work,
Steven thought.

Deem walked down the cement walkway in front of the motel
rooms until she met Roy. “Winn’s left,” Deem whispered to him. “Let’s wait
about ten minutes, then we’ll go in.”

Roy checked his watch and the two of them stood patiently
outside Michael’s room.

Steven began to pace at the foot of the two beds. He looked
down at Winn, appreciative of what he was doing for Jason.
If this works, I
owe him,
Steven thought.
And Deem. They’ve been nothing but helpful.
Then he looked at Jason.
And I’ll have to start training Jason right away,
he thought.
He’ll be anxious. We’ll talk on the way back to Seattle.

Steven checked his watch. It had been ten minutes.
Any
time now.
He continued to pace.

Outside Michael’s motel room, Deem turned to Roy. “How long
has it been?” she whispered.

“Over ten minutes,” Roy whispered back.

“Then let’s go,” she said, pushing Michael’s window open and
slipping quietly inside the same way she’d done the day before. Within a few
seconds the door opened and Roy stepped inside. They quietly moved around the
bed, looking for Michael.

Something’s wrong,
Deem thought.
The bed is wrong.

She reached for the light and turned it on. Michael’s room
was empty.

“The adjoining room,” Roy said to her. She reached for the door
to the adjoining room and opened it. They walked into the second room and
turned on the light. It, too, was empty.

“What the fuck?” Roy said. “He didn’t leave. I know he
didn’t.”

Deem walked back into Michael’s room and began to search. She
walked into the bathroom at the back of the room and found an open window. She
pulled herself up to the window and slipped halfway through it, looking down. Twenty
feet below the window was flat, arid Nevada soil. In the moonlight she could
see tracks below. She fell back into the room and turned to Roy.

“He went out this way,” she said. “He must have known you
were watching him.”

“Fuck!” Roy said. “What now?”

“Let’s go back to Winn and Steven,” Deem said.

They left the room, pulling the door shut behind them, and
walked back the short distance to Steven’s room. They knocked, and Steven let
them in.

“Did you do it?” Steven asked.

“No,” Deem said, “he wasn’t there.”

“Jason’s not back yet,” Steven said, letting them enter the
room.

 “How long has it been, Roy?” Deem asked.

“Fifteen minutes,” he said.

“Let’s wait,” she said. “Be patient.”

Steven resumed his pacing.

“When Jason comes back, we’re fucked,” Steven said. “Without
Michael out of the picture, they’ll know we’ve gone to Seattle. How did he get
out of the room? We watched it like hawks.”

“Back window,” Deem said. “He had to have known you were
watching him.”

“Do you think he suspected we were up to this?” Roy asked
Deem.

“I don’t know,” Deem said. “Winn has extracted several people
before. I know he was worried they might be catching on.”

Steven kept pacing. “How long now?” he asked Roy.

“Twenty minutes,” he said.

“I’m not going to freak out until it’s been thirty,” Deem
said. “Winn might have run into a problem with Jason. He’ll come back and let
us know.”

“What if things have gone wrong?” Steven asked. “What if Winn
and Jason are in trouble?”

“We don’t know that yet,” Deem said, watching Winn for any
signs of movement.

“But what if they are?” Steven asked. “How could we help
them, if we have to?”

“I suppose we could go to St. Thomas and see,” Deem said.
“But trust me, that’s a last resort.”

“Fuck!” Roy said again. “This is going sideways.”