Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (15 page)

Jason was trembling.

“We love you,” Steven said, this time softly.

Jason began to cry and his head fell to his chest. Roy
loosened his grip and Jason bolted from Roy towards Steven. At first Roy was
concerned he was going to throw another punch, but Jason threw his around
Steven and began to sob.

Steven wrapped his arms around Jason, holding him tightly.

“I’m sorry,” Jason said, crying into Steven’s shirt. “I’m
sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” Steven said. “I should have listened to you,
back in Seattle. I could have warned you. It’s not your fault. It’s mine. All
my fault.”

Jason cried in Steven’s arms, his feet giving out from under
him from exhaustion. Steven eased Jason down to the ground, still holding him. He
held him until he regained his composure and strength.

Jason looked up from Steven and saw the others. “I guess I
owe you all an apology.”

“Seeing you reconcile with your father was apology enough,”
Deem said, smiling.

“I always wanted to believe you over him,” Jason said, “but
you don’t know what it was like, being in there, with everything they said
about outsiders.”

“I believe you,” Winn said. “I heard the same thing from the
others I pulled out. But now we need to get out of here. We’ll be trapped if
the Callers come looking for us.”

Steven left Jason’s side and walked over to Michael’s grave.
The dirt Jason had piled on top of it was still fresh, but the surface of the
other graves looked smoother. Roy joined him as Steven walked over to one of
the older graves and touched it with his shoe.

“Doesn’t look like dirt,” Steven said.

“Maybe it’s something like the graves on the peninsula,” Roy
said, referring to Eximere.

Steven picked up the shovel Jason had been using and took it
to one of the older graves. He stabbed it into the dirt, but it bounced off the
surface with a clang.

“If it ever was dirt,” Steven said, “it’s not anymore. It’s
become rock.”

“I would guess it’s part of the deal,” Winn said. “Whatever
being exists in this cave seals over the grave as it grants them the abilities
that make them a Caller. As long as they keep feeding the ground here, they
keep their abilities.”

“Do we know exactly what their abilities are?” Steven said.
“How much of what we see down in St. Thomas is them?”

“A friend of mine dealt with Callers outside of Ely,” Winn
said. “They didn’t have a town, no conscripted ghosts doing their bidding. Just
a colony of enterprising ghosts helping some human drug runners.”

“So you don’t get your own town when you become a Caller,”
Steven said. “St. Thomas exists on its own somehow, not because there are
Callers there.”

“That’s right,” Winn said. “St. Thomas showed up ten years
ago when the waters receded. That’s when I first became interested in it. I
explored it, in the River. There were no Callers there back then.”

“Alright,” Steven said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Finally,” Winn said under his breath.

◊

They arrived at Pete’s just as it was opening. They took a
table in the back. Their waitress poured coffee for everyone from a fresh pot.
“I’ll come get your orders in a second,” she said, and left.

“I’m starving,” Jason said. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in
days.”

“You haven’t!” Deem said.

“Jason,” Steven said, “the four of us are going to continue
working on this. I’m not going to lie to you; we’re trying to destroy St.
Thomas and the Callers. That includes Michael. I’m not hiding anything from you
anymore. You’ve got to make a decision – if you’d rather not be part of this, I
understand. I’ll drive you to Vegas right after breakfast and I’ll put you on a
plane back to Seattle. We can start your training as soon as I get back. Or,
you can stay and help us. If you stay, I’ve got to know you’re one hundred
percent with us. It’s your decision.”

Jason looked at his coffee mug. “As I was covering Michael’s
grave, I knew it was a mistake,” Jason said. “With each shovelful I felt his
hold over me lessening. I was still angry at you. Angry for ignoring me, angry
for chasing me down here, angry for not respecting my choices. And I was angry
that you killed him. But I did see those bodies in the cave, and I knew. I knew
it was wrong.”

He sighed. “That said, I don’t know if I’m a hundred percent.
They made St. Thomas feel like a home to me. I worry that if I joined you right
now, you might not be able to count on me. I don’t know what I’m doing with the
gift. Maybe they could still control me somehow.

“I understand what you’re all trying to do. I think the best
way I can support you is to go back to Seattle, so you don’t have to worry I
might fuck it up.”

“You wouldn’t fuck it up,” Steven said.

“You don’t know that,” Jason said. “You said they were
manipulative. I can tell you, sitting here at this table with you, that I’m on
your side. But if we got back in there, I don’t know. Are they capable of
turning me against you? Maybe. Probably. I don’t know. Why take the chance?”

“Putting you in that situation is risky for you and for us,”
Roy said. “Take him to Vegas, Steven.”

“Agreed,” Steven said, “as long as it’s your decision,
Jason?”

“Yes,” he said. “If there’s some reason you absolutely need
me here, I’ll stay. Otherwise, it’s best I not be here.”

“We’ll leave after breakfast,” Steven said. “Vegas is what,
an hour away? I’ll be back by noon.”

“We’ll miss you,” Deem said.

“Yeah,” Winn added. “We were just getting to like you.”

Jason smiled, and the conversation turned to the past, about
college, growing up around Steven, and Steven growing up around Roy. Winn and
Deem listened as Roy and Steven shared more with Jason about the gift and how
Steven had turned from a rational skeptic into a believer.

“Aside from you taking a while to join us in St. Thomas,”
Deem said to Steven, chewing on bacon, “I wouldn’t have known you’re new to
this. You seem much more seasoned. Perhaps that’s Roy’s doing.”

“Probably,” Steven said. “He has a great deal of influence
over me.”

“Too damn much,” Roy said. “It was my idea to hold off on
Michael, when we should have finished him off. Steven wanted to, but I told him
no.”

“Excuse me,” Jason said, rising from the table. “Gotta hit
the john.”

After he’d left the table, Winn spoke to the others. “I think
him going back to Seattle is a good thing. I don’t think he’s all with us just
yet. Get him out of this area and he’ll come back to his senses. I saw the same
thing with the other people we extracted. Even though they agreed to go, you
could see it in their eyes, there was a part of them that regretted leaving. I
heard that once they got away from here, they were better.”

“That’s a relief,” Steven said. “I’d hate to think he’d be
haunted by this place.”

“Give him some time,” Deem said.

“But offer to train him the moment we’re back,” Roy said.
“He’s expecting that.”

“I will,” Steven said. “I plan to. Let’s drop the talk of St.
Thomas and Michael when he gets back. Let’s let him leave in peace. What will
you do while I’m in Vegas with Jason?”

“I’m gonna contact my friend in Ely,” Winn said. “See if he
can add anything to what we know about Callers.”

“Deem, would you be up for a short road trip?” Roy asked.

“Sure,” she said, still chewing on bacon. “Where we going?”

“We need to go to LaVerkin,” Roy said. “I don’t know where
that is, but there’s a man there named Levi I want to talk to.”

“I know the place,” Deem asked. “What’s his last name?”

“Don’t know,” Roy said. “Do you think there’s more than one
Levi in LaVerkin?”

“For sure,” Deem said. “You need a last name.”

“Steven?” Roy asked. “Can you use your doohickey and see if
that guy up in Orderville will give us a last name for Levi?”

Steven removed his phone and composed an email to Bert. Jason
returned from the bathroom, and everyone began finishing up their meals.

“Everyone about done?” Steven asked. “Time to hit the road.
Deem, I’ll call you if I hear back…hold on.” Steven removed his phone. Bert had
replied with Levi’s last name and even his address. Steven handed his phone to
Deem.

“Oh, Gubler,” she said. “I should have guessed. The town is
full of them. I know this address. We’re good, Roy.”

“Alright,” Steven said, taking the phone back and standing
up. “Let’s head out. Deem, I’ll call you as soon as I’m back. If our
electronics fail us, let’s say we’ll meet each other here, at this restaurant.
I should be back by noon, 1 at the latest.”

They all rose and left the restaurant. Jason shook hands with
Deem and Winn, and gave Roy a hug. Then he got in Steven’s car and they took
off.

Roy, Deem, and Winn walked to Winn’s Jeep, and Winn drove
them to the motel, where Deem’s truck was waiting. Roy and Deem said their
goodbyes to Winn, and Deem pointed her truck toward the interstate. Just over
an hour later they were pulling through the small town of Hurricane, on the way
to the even smaller LaVerkin.

Roy noticed the signs for Zion National Park. “Don’t like
Utah,” Roy said, “but I always wanted to see that place.”

“It’s a trip for gifteds,” Deem said. “Lots of ancient spooky
shit in there, most of it Native American. The tourists have no clue. Why don’t
you like Utah?”

“Too nice,” Roy said. “Everyone’s so goddamn friendly.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Deem asked.

“You sound like Steven,” Roy said. “And what’s wrong with
coffee?”

“Nothing,” Deem said.

“But you don’t drink it,” Roy said.

“No,” Deem said. “I think it smells great, but I’ve just not
developed a taste for it.”

“Could be you haven’t had any decent coffee to try with,” Roy
said. “Come up to Seattle and we’ll set you straight.”

The conversation paused for a while. Deem wondered if Roy was
worried about Jason. “You know, Jason’s going to be alright,” Deem said.

“Oh, I’m not worried about him,” Roy said. “Steven is, but
I’ve always had more confidence in the kid than he has.”

“I don’t know if I should tell you this,” Deem said, “but I
guess I will. You’ll want to keep any eye on Jason once you get home.”

“He’s been through a lot,” Roy said, “but he’s tough, it’s
nothing he can’t handle.”

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Deem said. “They do things to them
at St. Thomas. They use thoughts and certain phrases to control them, it’s part
of the training. It’s embedded in their psyche, in their gifted side. I don’t
know how far Jason had gone in his training, but he was there for at least
three days, right?”

“Yes,” Roy said, “I’m not sure when the first day would have
been exactly, but at least three.”

“That might have been long enough for some of the embedding
to take,” Deem said.

“But he decided to leave them,” Roy said. “He’ll disconnect
from them entirely.”

“These are embedded thoughts and phrases he’s not even aware
of,” Deem said.

“Like a Manchurian Candidate?” Roy asked.

“A what?” Deem said.

“Never mind, you’re too young.”

“What’s a Manchurian Candidate? Tell me,” Deem said.

“It’s a movie about a guy who’s running for president,” Roy
said. “He’s been hypnotized by some foreign agents before he ran. Certain words
trigger him to do things. They essentially have control of the president, if he
wins the election.”

“Not quite like that,” said Deem. “I doubt they embedded an
agenda in Jason. Just thoughts that they could trigger that would make him
compliant.”

“Handy,” Roy said. “I wish I could do that with a few people
I know.”

“If you see Jason turn funny, one of those triggers might
have been tripped. I don’t know what the thoughts or phrases are. Winn might.”

“Will it wear off?” Roy asked, “Or is Jason stuck with these
for the rest of his life?”

“Don’t know that either,” Deem said, slowing her truck in
front of a small house off the main road in LaVerkin. “Another question for
Winn.”

Steven was waiting at Pete’s, sipping on an iced tea. He’d
dropped Jason off at the airport in Vegas without incident, promising he’d
tutor him as soon as he returned. Jason wished him the best and they parted
ways at the security checkpoint.

Deem sounded excited when they talked on the phone. He was
anxious to find out what they uncovered in LaVerkin.

While he was relieved that Jason was free of St. Thomas and
on his way back to Seattle, he was still concerned about Michael. He didn’t
know how long before Michael would turn into a Caller, but Michael was still a
ghost somewhere, with revenge upon his mind. Steven felt Michael would take
that revenge out by targeting Jason, even if he was up in Seattle. He felt they
needed to hurry, to figure out how to shut down the Callers and St. Thomas
before Michael could become more powerful. Even as a mere ghost he’d be
formidable.

Steven thought of Winn’s EM gun.
I want to use it on
Michael,
Steven thought.
Just to do it.

Deem and Roy walked into the restaurant, and Steven waved at
them. Deem was grinning.

“How’d it go?” Steven asked.

“Great,” Deem said.

“We found the guy,” Roy said. “His stories weren’t as good as
the guy in Orderville, but we struck the jackpot with his grandmother’s
journal.”

“He wouldn’t let me take it,” Deem said, “but he did let me
take pictures of it. I transferred them to my iPad so they were easier to see.
Look!”

She handed the iPad to Steven, and he began to read. The
handwriting was highly stylized and a little hard to make out. “This is slow
going,” Steven said. “Do you already know what it says? If so, just tell me.”

“The Mormons didn’t leave St. Thomas in 1871 because of
taxes,” Deem said.

“The guy in Orderville said they moved because Brigham Young
told them to,” Steven said.

“And Young told them to move because the mayor of St. Thomas
told him they needed to,” Roy said.

“Because of a man named Ira Bohnert,” Deem said.

“OK,” Steven said, confused. “Backtrack. A man named Ira
Bohnert is the reason the town completely picked up and left? And the mayor
sanctioned it?”

“Here’s the story,” Deem said, taking the iPad back. “It’s
here in the journal. The town of St. Thomas formed in 1865, right? It was
completely Mormon, for the most part. Occasionally people on their way to
California would stop. One of them was Ira Bohnert.

“He got into some kind of trouble in town, and died. The
Mormons might have killed him. They buried him quietly and everyone kept it
hush-hush.

“Ira’s mother, Hannah, was a famous medium. She lived in St.
Louis. When she got word that her son was missing, she traveled out west and
tracked him down, right to St. Thomas. There were stories floating around that
the Mormons had killed him and buried him secretly. She confronted the town
elders, but they wouldn’t admit to anything. She cursed the place.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Steven said, smiling and
looking up at Roy. Roy was smiling back.

“Here’s what she said,” Deem said, looking down at her iPad
and reading from it. “She cursed ‘the ground that surrounded his bones, that it
would forever yield the opposite of its purpose’.”

“The Mormons never had an easy day after that,” Roy said. “When
you bury someone, the purpose is to put them at rest. The curse forced anyone
they buried to become ghosts immediately, without choice. The town slowly
became more and more haunted. They gave up in 1871. It was easier to just move
away.”

“Other people moved in behind them,” Deem said. “Had the same
trouble. When the residents of the town learned that the entire area would be
flooded because of Hoover Dam, they fled to other places.”

“They relocated the St. Thomas cemetery,” Roy said, “to
Overton.”

“But they didn’t move Ira Bohnert,” Steven said, “because no
one knew where he was buried.”

“Bingo!” Roy said.

“The Mormons wouldn’t have buried him in the town cemetery if
they were trying to hide the death,” Deem said. “His bones are still there, in
town, somewhere.”

“That curse is the reason the town still exists in the
River,” Roy said. “The water destroyed the buildings, but the town and the
ghosts were still there, submerged. It never went away. It just became visible
again once the waters receded.”

“And it’s why there were so many ghosts there,” Deem said.
“The curse keeps St. Thomas alive, and it keeps them walking in it. The Callers
came upon the town after it dried out. They found a place they could use for
their purposes, already stocked with ghosts they could manipulate.”

“Is the curse why they can transform?” Steven asked.

“No,” Deem said. “Most of the ghosts around here can do that.
That’s from being downwind.”

“This is the solution to our problem,” Roy said. “We need to
find those bones.”

“Do either of you know how to lift a curse?” Steven asked.

“I don’t think we can,” Deem said. “But I’m not sure we want
to.”

“We lift the curse, the town goes away,” Steven asked. “Why
wouldn’t we want to do that?”

“Because I know the perfect place to reinter Ira once we find
him,” Deem said.

Steven thought, and then it clicked. He smiled and looked at
Deem. “Devil’s Throat?”

“The curse said ‘the opposite’,” Deem replied. “St. Thomas
would no longer be infected by the curse, because the bones wouldn’t be
touching the ground there anymore. The town would go away. The infection would
shift to Devil’s Throat.”

“And the curse,” Steven said, “would apply to the ground the
bones were touching, out there. Would that reverse the power of the Callers?”

“It would be the opposite,” Deem said.

“And the bodies out there?” Steven asked. “What would it do
to them?”

“Not sure,” Deem said. “They were killed there to feed the
creature in the cave that gave the Callers the power they wanted. Burying Ira
there might wipe out all that, too.”

“Or it might turn all of those victims into ghosts,” Roy
said. “Maybe even animate them. That cave would become the scariest place for
miles.”

“If we do this,” Steven said, “and bury Ira at Devil’s
Throat, we have to remove that false rock wall that hides the cavern. And then
we have to report what we found inside, so the families of those poor people
can have some rest.”

“That’ll have to be an anonymous call,” Deem said. “I don’t
want to get wrapped up with the cops.”

“Us either,” Roy said, remembering June’s house in Seattle.

“Alright,” Deem said. “I like this plan. I think it might
work.”

“Next steps?” Steven asked.

“We get ahold of Winn,” Deem said, “and fill him in. We’re
going to need a way to find a buried body. I hope he has some ideas.”

“Oh, I have the perfect person for that,” Steven said.

◊

The next morning, Winn, Deem, Steven, Roy and Eliza sat
around a table at Pete’s, drinking coffee. Eliza had flown in on a redeye, and
Steven picked her up in Vegas. They spent the night at Deem’s house in
Mesquite.

“So you know Jenny, out of Kingman?” Deem asked Eliza.

“Yes, she’s the one who recommended you,” Eliza said. “Jenny
and I go way back to high school. We were in a girls’ band together. It was
called ‘Purple Haze’ because we were so in love with Prince at the time. One
day someone asked us why we were named after a Jimi Hendrix song and we were
like, ‘what?’ We had no clue!”

“I’ll have to remember that,” Deem said. “Jenny will regret
hooking us up.”

“Steven told me everything that has happened,” Eliza said,
“as we drove back from Vegas. So I think I’m up to speed.”

“You know how to detect bodies underground?” Winn asked,
smiling at Eliza. Deem noticed that the edge of his lips curled up a little – a
trick she’d seen him use on women. She rolled her eyes.

“Yes,” Eliza said, smiling back at Winn but quickly shifting
her gaze back to the others. “It’s a specialty of mine. I’ve worked a lot with
artifacts in the past. I can detect about ten feet down, a radius of maybe
fifty feet.”

“Then it might take a little time,” Winn said. “We’ll have to
move you around and have you keep checking until you find it. We’ll keep an eye
out while you do it.”

“From the zombighosts?” Eliza asked. “Is that what you called
them, Steven?”

“Yeah,” Steven said. “That’s what they are. And they’re fast,
and they’re vicious. If you see a ghost, don’t antagonize it. They turn on you
fast.”

“It’s easier if you just avoid them altogether,” Deem said.
“Try not to be seen by one.”

“We’ll go in after sundown,” Winn said. “No tourists, and
less chance of running into the ghosts. They all go to a meeting at the hotel
every night around sundown. They disband after a couple of hours, so we’ll have
some time to work.”

“Once I identify the body,” Eliza said, “the plan is to dig
it up and transfer it to the cave?”

“Devil’s Throat,” Steven said.

“It’ll take a couple hours to get out there,” Deem said,
“because you can’t drive straight across to it. We’ll have to go back up to
Mesquite and down.”

“We’ll be OK once we get out of St. Thomas,” Winn said. “We
can take our time and do it right after that. But while we’re in St. Thomas,
everyone’s got to be on their toes.”

“Sounds so bizarre,” Eliza said. “An entire town out there,
existing only in the River.”

“It’s pretty creepy,” Steven said. “And the ghosts make it
worse.”

“So we bury the body in the cave, then what?” Eliza asked.

“We’re done,” Roy said. “We hope. If the curse moves with the
body, which we think it will, St. Thomas will be free of it, and should disappear.
And the Callers should revert back into ghosts. Or, if we’re lucky, they’ll
move along to the other side.”

“That’s our theory,” Deem said. “But who knows.”

“Curses are tricky things,” Eliza said.

“And who knows if that journal is accurate,” Winn said.
“Maybe his mother cursed the ground itself as evil, in which case St. Thomas
will stay, regardless of what we do with the bones. We’re putting a lot of
faith in that journal.”

“The authorities will go in and remove the bodies from
Devil’s Throat, at least,” Steven said.

“I wonder if they’ll find the Caller’s bodies,” Deem said.
“If they’re under rock, I doubt it.”

“Their graves might become exposed once Ira’s buried there,”
Winn said.

“If the cops become aware of those bodies,” Roy said,
“they’ll search every square inch of those caves. They’ll find the Callers.”

“There are a lot of assumptions going on,” Eliza said.

“It’s the best shot we have at the moment,” Steven said. “But
none of it will work without Ira’s body.”

“Well,” Eliza said, “I’ll do what I can.”

“You’re all welcome to stay at my mom’s place until tonight,”
Deem said.

“I could use a nap,” Eliza said. “I didn’t get much sleep
last night.”

“We’ve got the quietest basement on the block,” Deem said,
smiling at Eliza.

“Alright then,” Winn said, standing up. “We’ll meet in the
parking lot right here at 9. An hour to get out there, and a couple of hours to
try and find those bones.”

They all rose from the table and walked outside. Steven
caught Eliza watching Winn as he walked to his Jeep. Deem stopped next to them,
and noticed they were watching him.

“He’s an interesting one,” Steven said, seeing if he could
elicit a comment from Eliza.

“The way his body moves inside those jeans,” Eliza said.
“It’s disarming.”

Deem let out a semi-disgusted grunt. “Let’s go,” she said,
opening the back door to Steven’s car.

◊

Winn, Steven, and Roy rode in Winn’s Jeep, and Eliza and Deem
followed in her pickup truck, snaking along the small Old St. Thomas road. They
parked at the end of the road, and after Winn gave the ranger a wave, they
continued on with shovels, tarps, and lanterns in hand.

At the edge of St. Thomas, Steven encouraged Eliza to drop
into the flow and see what they had been talking about – the sides and tops of
buildings seeming to rise magically from the empty concrete foundations
sticking out of the dry lakebed.

“They might have buried him anywhere,” Winn said. “So I
suggest we do this systematically, and work our way from the northwest corner
to the southeast. Let’s start here.”

Eliza closed her eyes and concentrated. After a moment she
opened them again. “Nothing, just animal bones,” she said.

Winn turned around and walked a hundred feet east. He was
standing next to another old foundation. Steven dropped into the River and saw
that it was an old two-story house.