The Mountain - XII

XII.

                How Lana found herself hiding in the passenger seat of a Cadillac speeding down the highway towards Connecticut she could scarcely connect. The adrenaline and the shock of the last two hours were finally starting to subside enough that she could start to categorize the link of events to understand what was going on. The man driving the car was silent, eyes on the road, shifting and turning when needed. She didn’t look out the windows simply letting the world shift away from here as she recounted to herself what had happened.

                After finding the relevant file about the book she sought she headed towards the office of the professor who last borrowed the book. Upon entering she found his office in disarray. Immediately Lana knew something was wrong. She moved furniture aside and made a way towards the desk in the back. The room was turned upside down and ripped to shreds. Her first thought was: Why had no one noticed this before? Then she saw that his calendar was marked out for a sabbatical. He wasn’t even meant to be here right now so there would be little notion to visit his office. Behind his desk she had her first shock, a hand was laying underneath a heap of papers. Without a second glance she ran from the room to get some help and to her surprise she ran into Carol advancing up the hallway.

                “What’s the matter?” Carol said consoling Lana.

                “There’s…he’s…we need to get help!” Lana said frantically.

                “What? Show me.” Carol said quickly ushering Lana back into the office.

                Lana pointed to the desk and the man who was behind it. Carol stepped over and moved a few papers to reveal the man laying underneath, motionless and pale.

                “Is he dead?” Lana asked frantic.

                Carol looked back and nodded solemnly. The next shock Lana would have is seeing Carol start to sift through the materials on the ground.

                “What are you doing? We need to get help!” Lana cried out.

                “Shut up, it has to be here.”

                “What are you talking about?”

                “The Necronomicon.” Carol hissed.

                “What?”

                “He had it last. Some bastard got to it first!” Carol was seething. Her demeanor was so foreign to Lana she wasn’t sure it was the same woman she had come to know.

                “What are you talking about?”

                Carol in a frenzy rushed to Lana and grabbed he by the arms.

                “I need to find it! It has to be here!”

                Lana was startled beyond sense and grabbed the first thing in arms reach, a lamp, and smashed it over Carol’s head. The woman feel in a heap on the papers.

                “Oh my god! Oh my god!” Lana said kneeling down to check on Carol.

                What’s going on? Lana thoughts were burning in her skull.

                She rushed from the room and ran down the hall to get someone to help but the staff she had passed were gone now. She spun to retreat down another hall but she was caught again by the man from the alleyway. His face was just as fierce and sinister the tattoo on his hand was mirrored by a similar marking on his neck.

                “Don’t go making a fuss now little one.” The man said his accent reminded her of the British exchange students.

                “What do you want?”

                From down the hall she heard a voice, deeper and thick with anger.

                “We want the book.” It was Carol limping down the hallway holding her head.

                “I don’t anything about the book. Just let me go please.”

                “You tipped someone off! I know you did. Someone got to it before we could. I knew you were lying to me. Keeping secrets back in the dark.”

                “What are you talking about Carol!? Please let me go!” Lana cried and pleaded not understanding what was happening. The grip grew tighter on her arms as the British man squeezed. Carol bared her teeth and stared down Lana with a fire she had never seen before.

                “Hey! What’s going here!?” a voice Lana recognized came down the hall. She turned her head and saw that it was Robert.

                “Robert!” Lana cried out.

                “Lana? What’s going on?” Robert said advancing slowly up the hallway.

                “Get him.” Carol said.

                In an instant Lana was dropped by the British man who bolted at full speed towards Robert brandishing a blade. Before the younger man could react he was overtaken and stabbed by the larger man. Lana heard him cry out in pain.

                “No!” Lana screamed.

                Carol was on top of Lana now, blood dripped from her head wound onto Lana’s face.

                “We’ll make you talk, you proxy bitch.”

                “What? What are you talking about?” Lana was crying and wheezing.

                “We know you work for them. Selling them secrets. Well we have our own plans. Once we retrieve that book you’ll be sorry.” Carol wrapped her hands around Lana’s neck and started to squeeze. Lana felt the pain cascade from the top of her head to her chest as the air was stopped. The world was muffled but she heard a commotion. She assumed it was Robert and the British man scuffling. Her vision grew blurry as the blood pulsed in her veins. Then all at once she gasped for air as the weight of Carol was lifted from her. A strong hand pulled her up by her arm and carried her down the hallway. Without recognition she was forced into a car and spirited away. When she finally caught her breath she looked up at her captor and noticed him as well. It was the man from the bar. Frantic Lana started to squirm in the seat.

                “Calm down! Calm down!” The man said forcibly putting a heavy hand on her chest holding her back.

                “Please don’t kill me, I don’t know anything. Please, please.” Lana cried and pleaded and pounded her weak fists on the mans arm.

                “I’m not going to kill you. I just saved you. Now calm down!” the man shouted and the sound cut through the adrenaline enough to make Lana gasp.

                Now she found herself passenger to this mysterious man driving her south away from the college and what was surely certain death by the hands of her old coworker. She couldn’t fathom why Carol was acting so erratically. It made no sense.

                “Are you finally calmed down now?”

                “Where are you taking me?”

                “Somewhere safe.”

                “I want to go home.”

                “You can’t. I don’t doubt they are already there.”

                “Who are they? And what do they want with me?”

                “They think you work for us.”

                “Who are you!? I don’t understand any of this! And Robert! What the hell is going on?”

                “Don’t get hysterical on me again.”

                “Don’t tell me not to be hysterical! I just watched someone get killed, was almost choked to death by someone I thought was my friend, and have been abducted! I think I’m allowed to be a little hysterical!” Lana exploded.

                “I can’t answer your questions if you don’t calm down.’

                Lana huffed and tried to compose herself. She felt a shudder run up her spine as the adrenaline came back in waves. She clenched her fists and breathed heavily trying to calm down. As the last wave subsided she felt new tears emerge from her eyes.

                “Who are you?” Lana said through choked breaths.

                “I’m Theo.”

                “I’m Lana.”

                “I know.”

                “How do you know?”

                “We’ve been keeping an eye on you.” Theo said.

                “Who is ‘we’? And why are you spying on me?”

                “Not spying, just keeping an eye on you. Its nothing sinister.”

                “It sounds pretty damn sinister to me,” Lana said then looked around, “where are you taking me?”

                “I said somewhere safe.”

                “But where!?”

                “A safehouse we have in Connecticut.”

                “You still haven’t said who ‘we’ is. Are you from the FBI or something?”

                “Or something.”

                “Don’t joke with me! I’m freaking out over here and you’re being coy.”

                “I’ll be able to talk more once we are safe.”

                Lana curled up and moved as far away from the man as she could but didn’t take her eyes off him.

                “We’re here.” Theo said.

                She didn’t realize she had fallen asleep until Theo shook her. They were parked in front of a house with a broken fence and boarded up windows.

                “Charming.”

                “Come on. Do you still not trust me? I did save your life.”

                “How do I know you aren’t with them? You have the same damn tattoo!” Lana screamed slapping his hand away.

                “Look, we can’t talk out here. Come inside and I’ll explain everything, I promise.”

                Lana didn’t move.

                Theo sighed and stood then looked towards the building.

                “She won’t come in.” Theo said to the darkness.

                Lana looked out the windshield and saw a light come on. A woman emerged from the building. It was Tatiana.

                “What?” Lana said puzzled. She opened her door and stepped out squinting. As she walked closer she saw that was indeed Tatiana.

                “Come in, we have a lot to discuss.” Tatiana said without her normal attitude. Like Carol this wasn’t the normal person she knew. She wasn’t sure what to think. She followed them hesitantly inside. The rooms were much nicer on the inside than the outside would lead to believe. A good disguise to be sure, but Lana didn’t understand the purpose of it.

                “Have a seat. Theo get the girl something to drink.”

                “Coming right up.” Theo said exiting the room.

                “Tatiana, is that really you?”

                “Yes, I know, hard to believe. I’m not nose deep in a magazine telling the world to piss off like normal but we all have our parts to play. And I’m sorry you had to play this part.”

                “I’m so confused. Please can you tell me what just happened? Who are you people? Who were they?” Lana said holding herself trying not to shake from the adrenaline.

                Theo returned with a mug of hot tea for each of them.

                “Go park the car then come back so we can talk.” Tatiana said to Theo who bowed out. He returned in a few moments and sat across from Lana. His demeanor hadn’t changed, he was still stiff as a board.

                “How best to go about this?” Tatiana said.

                “Tell me why Carol tried to kill me.”

                “Carol?” Tatiana looked at Theo who nodded.

                “She was working for them.”

                “I’ll be damned, right under my damn nose. And to think I thought I had a good idea on my surroundings. Our intel is getting grayer and grayer.” Tatiana clicked her tongue.

                “She had her lapdog as well, the one from the street that I attempted to put down.”

                “How did you fair this time?”

                “I was more concerned in getting this one out safely. We did have one casualty however.”

                One causality, Lana saw Robert’s face flash in her mind.

                “Shame. You still haven’t given me your field report. Did he have the book?”

                “No, the room was ransacked when I showed up. It was already missing.”

                “The book!” Lana jumped in, “Carol said something about a book.”

                “Then they don’t have it either.” Tatiana mused.

                “Hey! Can you explain please!?”

                “Right, sorry. Theo I’ll need your report later. Lana, this will be very hard to believe but I’ll try to do my best to explain. We work for a group called The Union.”

                “Okay?” Lana said eyebrow raised.

                “It’s hard to put into words exactly what we do without coming off as insane.” Tatiana chuckled.

                “Try.” Lana said with a tone she didn’t know she possessed.

                “Fine. We attempt to thwart or curb the actions of The Order. A group of people hell bent on destroying the fabrics of reality.”

                “You’re kidding me.”

                “Deadly serious.”

                Lana scoffed.

                “Lana, Carol and the other man are apart of the Order. That’s where he got this tattoo.” Theo held up his hand where the faded tattoo of a triangle with an emblazoned eye marked him.

                “They were looking for the Necronomicon. Do you know anything about that book?” Tatiana asked.

                Lana shook her head.

                “It’s an old text dating back thousands of years holding incantations, spells, and summons for the Old Ones. A series of gods that…” Tatiana spoke but trailed off.

                Lana looked on confused at the words being told her. It all sounded like a fairytale from a bad novel.

                “Look, here are the straight facts, we are the good guys, they are the bad guys.” Theo said plainly.

                “Then why do you have that tattoo.”

                “I’m a reformed bad guy.” Theo said with a fake smile.

                “Even if I want to believe what you say, what does that have to do with me?”

                “You just got involved in something a little too deep. Just a victim of circumstance.” Tatiana said.

                “If you knew the book was here already, for almost 20 years why didn’t you just secure it before?” Lana asked.

                “It’s complicated. We simply try to keep it out of the wrong hands. A professor at a college is rather innocuous. The Order on the other hand would know what they are doing.”

                “Seems reckless.”

                “After the University in Arkham was defunct all the materials were jettisoned by the Dean to places unknown so that the Order couldn’t get their hands on it. It just so happened that when the book got here it wasn’t kept in storage. We were under the impression it was. The record room was kept a mess to dissuade anyone finding it. We wanted it to be filed away and forgotten about.”

                Lana laughed, that explained why the storage area was a disaster area.

                “It just so turned out that someone deemed it worthy of being used and never actually made it to storage as you found out. We didn’t know this until you did.” Tatiana said looking down at her mug.

                “And apparently neither did they, seeing as how Carol didn’t take notice until the call came down.” Theo added.

                “But now it’s gone.” Lana said.

                “Yes, it seems that someone else got to it first. But we don’t know who.” Tatiana lamented.

                There was a silence then Lana added.

                “When will I be able to go home?”

                Tatiana shook her head.

                “We can’t send you home. It’s too dangerous. We have a program to get you to safety but since the Order thinks you word for us you can’t return to Boston. It’s not safe.”

                Lana’s first thought as about her cat Hank. Meowing at the door wanting food. It made a pit in her stomach.

                “If I can I’ll get your cat for you.” Theo said as if he read her thoughts.

                “How do you…?” Lana started.

                “We know a lot when we need to. Seems we dropped the ball on this one.” Tatiana said.

                “So now what?” Lana asked finally eyeing the mug of tea.

                “We have work to do,” Theo said standing, “they won’t stop looking and neither can we. Since its in the wind we have to find it.”

                “You can rest here tonight and then tomorrow we’ll set about getting you ready for your new home.” Tatiana said standing as well.

                “I’ll show you to your room.” Theo said to Lana extending a hand. Lana accepted and stood grabbing the mug as she did. Her mind was racing with all that she had been told not entirely sure if this was even happening. It felt like a dream. One moment she was talking to a handsome man hoping to see him again the next she was being choked to death, hearing that same man being murdered and then whisked away to safety by a stranger. She hoped that once she laid her head down to sleep she’d wake up at home with Hank meowing at her to wake up and get breakfast.

                That’s it, she thought, I’ll go to sleep and wake up from this. She opened the door to the room she was allotted and laid in the dark for a long time before finally falling asleep.

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