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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