CHAPTER 65
Havre, MT
After the fight with Laney, the Senator had screamed bloody murder. Gideon had hustled her out of the room and back into the food pantry.
She’d expected some sort of payback, but instead, he seemed almost happy. He’d even given her a big grin before locking her in. She’d stayed there for what felt like hours, but she was sure it was much less.
Finally, Gideon opened the door and put her in an SUV, after a quick trip to the bathroom. Gideon climbed behind the driver’s wheel.
“Where are we going?” she asked from the backseat.
“To the place you’ve been searching for.”
Forty minutes later, she was staring at what seemed like endless flat, barren land. She’d even started to doze off, when a structure came into view on the horizon. Although she wanted to remain resolute in her anger, she couldn’t help feel a thrill at seeing an ancient site, possibly ten thousand years old.
At first, Laney could only make out the outline of a giant wall that seemed to be the length of two football fields. As they neared, she saw in living color the structure from the pictures Jake had taken. Was that only this morning?
The thought of him gave the fears she'd been blocking a road in. Were her uncle and Yoni all right? Had Jake and Henry gotten there in time? She pictured her uncle shot, his blood seeping into the ground where she'd left him.
She took a deep breath and stared out the window, not wanting Gideon to see her emotions. Her uncle was fine. Yoni was fine. Jake, Henry. They were all fine. She would hold onto that. She had to hold onto that.
“We’re here.” Gideon sang out.
They pulled to a stop at the yawning gate of the enclosure. Gideon exited the car. He jogged around to her side, opened her door, and yanked her out. “I hope your trip wasn’t too bad. You seemed a little emotional. Worried about your friends?”
She ignored him, yanking her arm out of his grasp. Her attention was drawn to the left as she sensed movement.
Glancing over, she saw the cage Jake had photographed. His picture hadn’t done it justice. It hadn’t captured the palpable despair that it emitted, or the stench that radiated from it. The fear, despair, terror, and anger of the men on the site slipped below her defenses, flooring her.
By the entrance, a guard kicked an emaciated man as he passed with an empty wheelbarrow. The man stumbled, dropping heavily onto a knee, nearly overturning the wheelbarrow. Another two guards escorted a group of twelve men into the enclosure. At the back of a ragtag group of impossibly thin men, two men held a third up, quietly urging him to walk.
She went cold. These people are monsters. She glanced over at the other SUV as it rolled to a stop. And here comes their self-appointed king.
The Senator’s driver rushed around to open the door for him. After their skirmish, the Senator had refused to ride in the same car with her. When they’d started this little journey, that had given her a sense of victory. But, staring around her now, she felt nothing but defeat.
A wind kicked up and she caught an odor from the opposite side of the entrance. She knew that smell. Something was dead. Unable to ignore it, she glanced over and saw a decomposing hand in view above the rim of the ditch.
She started to breathe heavily and spots began to appear around the edge of her vision. This was too much. She was filled with pain for the men who had been killed here, and the desolation of the men who still lived through it.
Gideon grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the entrance. She stumbled as her feet were slow to react to Gideon’s urging, but he didn’t pause.
She caught herself and yanked her arm from his grasp. He turned to grab her again.
She glared at him. “I can walk.”
Gideon bowed his head. He mockingly gestured for her to walk in front of him. “But of course, Professor.”
Disgusted, Laney walked through the giant opening and into the enclosure. Still caught by the inhumanity, she was slow to pick up on the history that surrounded her. She walked forward and stopped only when she noticed a plank leading into the earth below.
Following the plank with her eyes, she gaped at the sight. A set of twelve fifteen-foot monoliths standing in a circle had been excavated from the earth. Each must have weighed over a hundred tons, and from what she could tell, each seemed to be a single piece of granite.
Carved into each structure were symbols, humanoid figures, and animals, many of which Laney couldn’t identify. She glanced around the enclosure. There were over thirty additional dig sites. For those closest to her, she could see similar megalithic structures extending out of the earth.
Despite the horror of the site, she couldn’t help but be awed by the history in front of her. She walked down the ramp on trembling legs and stopped at the first megalith. She raised her fingers to a carving of a man walking in a field with a lion. The carving was pristine. She couldn’t make out any tool marks, just the precision of the artist.
“My God,” she whispered in awe.
“Perhaps now you can appreciate the necessity of my plan,” the Senator intoned from above.
Laney snatched her hand from the megalith as if it burned. Kensington’s words brought her crashing back to the present. The Senator looked down at her with smug satisfaction, in spite of the sling that now housed his left arm and the bruises that darkened his face beneath his eyes.
“Appreciating the beauty of this site is not the same as supporting your plan. In fact, this site has just the opposite effect. It reinforces my belief that this site belongs to the world. No one owns it. It’s a gift to humanity.”
He glared down at her before turning to the large man behind him. “Gregory, put her in with one of the work details. You’re in charge of her.”
At Gregory’s smirk, Kensington grabbed the man with his good arm. “Let me rephrase that. You are in charge of her safety. If any harm comes to her, and I mean any, it will be your head. She is to work here, but she is too valuable to be harmed. Do you understand me?”
Glowering at the censure, Gregory didn’t speak. He gave the Senator a curt nod.
“Very well.” The Senator turned on his heel and walked back to the car.
Laney glanced up and saw Gideon give her a little wave before following the Senator. With trepidation, she turned her attention to Gregory. The man was huge. His chest seemed to strain against the fabric of his shirt, and while he wasn’t as tall as Henry, he was easily six-foot-five.
“You come with me,” Gregory growled.
She stood rooted in place for a few seconds before she could will her legs to work. She walked back up the ramp towards him. Her legs trembled yet again, although this time for an entirely different reason.