Chapter 2: Pueblo, Part II
Mumbling curses after Ms. Wong's abrupt departure, Helena turned back to the ornate door. Solid looking and heavy, it was decorated with intricate designs of dark steel that had been shaped and curled over it. But most curious was the middle where a metal triangle sat over a circle with deep engravings that almost formed two crudely hewn circles within the steel.
Helena looked at the trinket Ms. Wong had tossed into her hands. The golden circle was dotted with indents around the core, which formed the insignia she was becoming all too familiar with. She turned the piece over in her hand to see jagged, uneven rock pieces sticking out the back. They matched the crude indentations in the steel.
This place had thrown stranger things at her yet. Ms. Wong had given it to her for a reason, she knew.
Cautious at first, she matched up the golden trinket to the door. The jutting back fit perfectly to the door's indentations, but nothing immediately happened when Helena pushed it in. She waited a second, thumbing the edge of the golden circle. The insignia was upside down against the others Helena had seen. Carefully latching her fingers around the medal, Helena applied a bit of force.
It turned. Something clicked behind the door like a latch, but the insignia wasn't upright yet. Helena applied more force with her fingers and rotated it another third, hearing another faint click behind the door. Again, it happened, three turns before it locked into place.
Helena stepped back in surprise when something heavy shifted on the other side, resounding slowly and heavy like old stone. She pulled free her Picador and stepped back from the door, readying herself for a fight. When the noises stopped, she took cover, waiting to see if a guard would come out to investigate but no one came, nor did she hear any voices or footsteps. If anyone was in there, they were waiting for her.
Slowly, Helena pushed open the ornate door. Nothing jumped out at her or made a quick noise. She couldn't even hear a scuffle, save for the creak of the door. She checked the room and rafters before entering, but there was no one.
Stepping into the room and looking both to her left and right, she found three thick steel bars that had been drawn back against the walls. They seemed to be attached to some old aged system. Were those what she had heard being pulled back from the door? Somehow, the key was linked to the mechanism that pulled back those bars. Amazing for people who seemed to be living in the medieval age, really.
Turning away from the oddly sophisticated locking mechanism for this old church, Helena turned back to the room. Directly ahead of her, that same insignia shone over the whole room, high above the altar like a curse. The church was small and felt damp with only three rows of old pews and a faded, trampled carpet that had seen too much use over the years. Candles at the front and back illumined small pockets of the room.
As she approached the small altar with heavy, faded curtains on either end, she checked the room for any possible guards. She could see the thick layer of dust that had settled over everything had been disturbed in this room. Someone had been here.
Helena tripped suddenly and barely caught herself on the haunted looking altar. She swiveled around fast, gun raised at her possible attacker, but there was no one again. Rather, there was an arm, limp and sticking out in the hallway. Helena's eyes lowered to the floor at the limb, it was obviously dead judging by its disgusting, white color. Following up that limp arm in the faint light of the candles, Helena found the body of its host. A villager dressed like a priest had burns all over his clothes and body, an arrow sticking out of his shoulder.
Helena frowned and cautiously stepped towards him, ready in case the man's head would burst open and he would become reanimated like the other. When the corpse remained still, she turned her attention to the arrow. It looked just like the ones Ms. Wong carried with her. Helena doubted any of the villagers carried a high tech crossbow and specialized arrows; the burns marks on the man suggested Ms. Wong had incendiary arrows of some sort.
Helena gripped her gun in need of renewed assurance. Ms. Wong led her straight to the president's daughter, but what for? What was she after? There were too many unknowns.
What does she gain from helping me? Helena wondered.
Turning back to check the altar where more dust had been disturbed, she found two more bodies behind the stand, a spear through one of them and the other headless. Helena checked behind the stone thoroughly, searching for clues or a secret passage back there. These people were the type for passages underground, she'd noticed. She backtracked to the front of the church past the brittle, little pews. There were two side passages branching off to the sides. Helena checked the right one first.
Nothing. The trail led her back to a dark corner that had been walled off and separated from the rest of the church for some reason. Helena left the stonewall alcove quickly, wanting to avoid being cornered in case of an ambush. She checked the left side and found another body next to a ladder against the wall. Hurrying through the cramped passage, she nudged the body away from the ladder with her foot.
When she reached the top of the stairs, she found herself facing an even dimmer corridor of walled stone. Helena turned right to follow it, but went slow. Nothing here had shown her signs of life yet, and she had a feeling that with Ms. Wong having been here, she wouldn't run into any, but still, she wouldn't leave it to chance. The president's daughter, Ashley Graham, was supposed to be in here somewhere and Helena was determined to find her, prepared for the very real possibility of finding a corpse instead of a girl.
Nothing moved or made a sound. Helena already passed four bodies, five including the one just up ahead. Ashley could very well turn out to be the sixth. Maybe that had been Ms. Wong's purpose for being here.
Shaking off the sinking feeling that she may have been traveling with an assassin in tow, Helena rounded the corner and met an unexpected obstacle. With a wide opening across the middle section of the platform, the dim light from the candles carried a little further now, and from what Helena could see, the path she wanted to take was blocked off with metal bars.
Helena crossed to the left side to see if the metal was rusty enough to pull down, but she faced no such luck this time. The metal almost looked new and may have been freshly installed like the door's lock mechanism, but there was no latch for a key this time.
Cursing, Helena turned back to the middle opening where there was no wall. An open ceiling made room for a grand chandelier of old make and style. Helena surveyed the ledges around the gaping square hole. They were gated by waist-high rails. She could make her way across the sides being slow and careful. She even had a rail to hold onto.
Or… Helena's eyes drifted to the chandelier. It was round, heavy duty and bulky, held up by black chains. Small candles had been lit around the outer circle. It looked to be about two hundred pounds of solid metal hanging there. She could use that, too.
But that was foolish, Helena chastised with her rational mind. One false step or a missed landing or missed grab could finish her with a broken arm or leg. The chains were holding it up now, but it wasn't moving or being forced on with more weight or swinging. She could even burn herself on those candles. Swinging across the chandelier would be dangerous, reckless and stupid, she could hear Hunnigan say.
With that, she took the outer ledge by the railing. Helena moved quickly, but carefully enough. It wasn't hard, not even when she hit the stone pillars because they weren't big. When she crossed the gated line, she simply hopped over.
Immediately facing her was another wooden door, this one with a regular handle, but that wasn't all. There was a thin, tiny wire tied from the door handle to rail. It wrapped to the handle from the stone three times, and when she touched it, it didn't give way at all.
Someone locked this door from the outside. Which meant something, or someone, worth capture was on the other side, someone like the president's daughter.
Helena pulled out her knife and struggled with it for a moment, the wire digging into her fingers as she cut the thin metal. It eventually gave way and she sheathed the knife in favor of her Hydra. There could still be guards inside or worse, and this would all be close quarters.
Taking a breath, Helena gently touched the door handle and turned it slowly, careful not to make a sound. She held her breath as she gently nudged it open, praying it wouldn't creak. It didn't, but even the slightest of openings didn't betray a sound. She couldn't even hear breathing inside. Carefully, Helena pushed it a little more.
The dim light of the hallway seeped into an empty room. Helena pushed it the rest of the way open, revealing a small, empty stockroom with a few stores and barrels and a couple of old shelves lining the walls. The whole thing smelled of dust and soot with the faint scent of urine standing out, but the dirty decay of death hadn't touched this place yet. Not that Helena could smell of, anyway.
The lighting was even dimmer in here than outside, the only source coming from the corridor, which was only dimly lit at best, but Helena opted not to use her tactical light just yet. The door had been locked from the outside and it was the only way in the room. Ashley still had to be here somewhere inside.
Helena didn't want to scare her. The girl was only nineteen and probably terrified, but even with the place so dark, there were only a couple of places she could be hiding. Helena suspected she jumped into one of those barrels for cover. Clearing her throat, Helena spoke softly to the room.
"Ashley," Helena called out, putting her gun away as she did. There was no one else here and it would probably frighten her more.
"Ashley, I'm not here to hurt you." Goosebumps rose on the back of her arms as she spoke into to the silence. "My name's Helena Harper. I'm with the US government, and I'm here to help."
No one responded. Helena couldn't blame the girl for being terrified, she only hoped she wasn't speaking to a dead body. Helena shivered at the thought, but approaching the barrels to open them herself would probably scare the girl more. Helena hoped to avoid that.
"Ashley, I know you're here," she continued with as soft as a tone as she could manage. "You don't have to be afraid. Your father sent me. I'm here to get you out."
Not even a hint of movement from the barrels. Helena's heart started to sink. She took a step towards them, calling the girl's name again.
Something touched her cheek, so faint, Helena would have missed it if she weren't so attentive an agent. She reached up fast, but it wasn't a hand or anything striking her. It was… water. A tiny droplet, to be exact. Helena turned her head up.
Above the rafters, the smallest, darker outline of a body lay rigid and softly trembling near the ceiling top.
Smart girl, Helena thought.
"Ashley."
"No," Ashley mumbled, realizing she was caught.
The faintest shimmer of another glistening tear caught the light before it fell. Ashley trembled more. "Go away!" Ashley tried to say sharply then, but fear and meekness marred her voice. "I'll shoot!"
She has a gun? Helena blinked in surprise and alarm.
"Ashley, don't shoot," she said, more out of concern for the girl's safety than for her own. "I'm here to help, I swear. I can show you my badge."
"The man who kidnapped me had a USSS badge, too!" Ashley protested, not moving an inch. "If you turn around and walk away, I'll let you live. Now, go!"
"Ashley, I'm not one of them," Helena insisted. She didn't want to have to subdue the poor thing, not after all she'd been through already. "I can contact headquarters and they can reach your father, he may even be there."
"You're… you're trying to trick me." Ashley argued weakly, protests dying in the face of a glimmer of hope. Helena could see her steadying herself up there. She couldn't believe it, poor thing.
"To what end?" Helena waited a moment for her to move, but she didn't. "Ashley," Helena called again when the girl didn't respond. "You know I can come get you if I wanted to, don't you? I don't want to have to do that. Will you come down? Please?"
There was a sniffle up above before Ashley softly mumbled, "I can't."
"You can't?" Helena asked, bewildered.
"No. I…" Ashley swallowed in the middle of her sentence, clearly nervous and scared. "I'm afraid of heights."
"You're afraid of heights," Helena repeated, staring up at her shaking form, "and you climbed into the rafters."
"Are you here to help me or not?" Ashley asked, actually sounding a little annoyed.
"I can catch you if you jump," Helena offered.
"Or you could let me fall to my death because you're evil," Ashley said, scoffing.
"Do you want me to come up there?"
"Yes."
"I can do that," Helena said, glad that the girl was being more responsive. "I'll carry you down, but I'm going to need something from you, too, Ashley."
"What's that?"
"I'm going to need you to drop the gun," she said, and Ashley went silent. "I don't want either of us getting hurt. Will you trust me, Ashley? Will you please drop the gun?"
"How do I know you won't shoot me with it if I do?"
"I have my own guns, I could have shot you anytime."
"Was that supposed to be reassuring?"
"It was supposed to be honest," Helena answered and waited, but Ashley didn't make a move to drop anything. "Ashley?" She didn't answer again, and this time, Helena had an inkling why. "Ashley, you don't have a gun, do you?"
"I have a crowbar," Ashley blurted defensively, "and I'll use it just as well as a gun."
Helena was starting to like this girl.
"I'm coming up," she told Ashley. "Don't hit me with the crowbar, please."
"No promises."
Helena smiled faintly as she began to climb up one of the crumbling bookshelves and jumped from the bottom shelf, not sure anything else higher would hold her. Ashley's head turned to her direction as she gripped one of the wooden rafters and hoisted herself up. Gleaming eyes watched her in the darkness, shiny and a little wet.
"I'm coming, Ashley," Helena assured, scooting her way over there carefully. She wasn't sure how sturdy this old wood was. Holding a skinny little teenager compared to holding her were two vastly different things, so Helena moved cautiously until she'd reached the middle where Ashley had laid flat. She was indeed clutching a two foot crowbar tightly to her chest.
"Do you think you can sit up for me?" Helena asked kindly when she'd gotten close enough to take her in.
The poor girl. With skin as pale as the moon, it looked like she hadn't seen daylight for days. Her clothes were dirty and unchanged, and she still hadn't stopped shivering yet.
"I don't want to fall off," Ashley admitted. "I can barely see anything in here without the lamp."
"You had a lamp?"
"I put it out when I heard the locks opening downstairs," Ashley explained, "and then, I ran up here to hide. I haven't moved for twenty minutes, because if I fall…"
"Here," Helena offered softly, reaching behind her ear for her tactical light. She turned it on to illuminate the rafters for the scared girl. "Does that help?
Ashley nervously looked at her again, then to the rafters around her from her spot. Slowly, she finally sat up, clutching both the crowbar and the floor rafters for support. Her breathing was still shallow, though. Helena scooted over a little closer to her yet.
"Are you okay?" she checked, lifting a hand to the girl's back for support. "Are you injured?"
"I'm okay," Ashley said quietly, much meeker now. "Can you… get me to the floor?"
"Yeah, I've got you," Helena assured, maneuvering around her a little until she crouched next to her. Helena slid an arm under her legs and kept the other at her back, secure. She hoisted and lifted Ashley with her, rafters creaking under their weight. "I'm going to jump down with you, okay?"
"Okay," Ashley whispered, finally abandoning her crowbar in favor of wrapping her arms around Helena's neck and burying her face so she couldn't see the jump. "Don't hurt me," Ashley pleaded quietly, arms tightened around Helena's neck in fear during the plummet. She stayed there a moment longer, and Helena felt she just needed someone to hold. She didn't move to set her down until Ashley eased up.
"You still okay?" Helena checked again, wanting to make the girl feel better if she could. Ashley hadn't stopped shaking yet, she noted with a frown. "Are you cold?"
"A little," Ashley admitted, not quite meeting her eye. Helena immediately took off her jacket. It was a little dirty from killing villagers, but she attempted to get it clean as best she could. By the state of her own, soiled clothing, Helena didn't think Ashley would have objections to the coat.
Not like Ms. Wong, a little voice in her head said snidely.
"Wear this," Helena offered, holding it out for her to pull on. "It's a little dirty," she said, "but it should keep you warm."
"Thanks," Ashley mumbled slowly, casting a sour look at one of the bloodstains, but she took the coat. "Um, Agent…"
"Harper," Helena reminded, "but you can call me Helena if you like."
"Helena," Ashley repeated, then finally looked to meet her eye. "Did my dad really send you?"
"He did," Helena confirmed, trying to cheer her up a little. "I'm going to get you out of here, Ashley. You must be starving," she said, then nodded to her jacket. "There should be some energy bars and trail mix in those pockets. Eat up for a minute," she told the girl, who began to search her pockets like she was looking for gold. Helena grabbed her spare, full canteen of water and handed it over. "Water," she assured, and Ashley almost dropped the food as she reached for the canteen.
When Helena started towards the door, Ashley looked back up quickly with a hint of fear and asked, "Where are you going?"
"I'm just outside this door," Helena reassured again, then showed her handheld. "I need reception to report in that I've found you, it's a little weak in this room."
"Don't go far," Ashley said, both a plea and an order. Helena gave her a small smile to comfort her and showed her she wasn't going anywhere, just outside the door.
"Right here," she repeated, then finally got back to Hunnigan, whose call she ignored a half hour ago. "Hunnigan- "
"I've been trying to reach you for the past five hours!" Hunnigan snapped immediately back through the phone. "You could have been injured, unconscious and lying in a ditch for all I knew!"
"Hunnigan, I'm-"
"Don't even try to finish that sentence, Helena! I've got the president here looking over my shoulder and I can't even get in touch with my operat- "
"The president's there?" Helena asked in a hushed tone.
"Of course he's here! His daughter's missing and he's been pressuring us to know every corner we turn and I can't even tell him if you're dead or alive over there! What's your status, Helena? Have you reached the church? Please tell me you have something to report after going dark the last five hours."
"I have the president's daughter."
Hunnigan's eyes popped like saucers.
"What? She's there? She's with you now? You've recovered her?"
"Yes."
"Is that your agent, Hunnigan?" another, more frantic voice spoke and rushed over. Helena could see the suit before his face bent over and joined Hunnigan's in the small screen. "Agent Harper! What is the status of your mission, Agent Harper? Where is my daughter? Have you found her?"
"Mr. President- " Hunnigan started to protest this unusual intrusion.
"Mr. President, sir," Helena said, speaking over Hunnigan. "I've located your daughter and she's in my custody now."
"You have? She is?" the frantic father blurted, losing all signs of professionalism in light of the news. When he was this close on the screen like this, Helena could see every line of age and stress on his face. Dark blonde hair like his daughter's even appeared to be threaded with more white than Helena remembered.
Helena felt horrible for him. As the President of the United States, he could show the nation no fear. Very few people even knew his daughter was missing at all, let alone taken to another country.
"Is she alright?" he asked desperately. "Agent Harper, let me see her!"
"I will, sir," Helena said, speaking quietly so Ashley wouldn't hear her. She was trained for these situations. Right now, the president was nothing more than a man desperate for his baby girl.
"But first, I'm going to need you to take a breath, Mr. President," she continued in a soft tone. "Ashley's scared. Seeing you will help, but not when you're like this, sir. I need you to calm down before I let you speak with her."
"Yes, of course," the president agreed, doing an impressive job of switching back to a former state of control. Helena imagined he's had to do so enough in other situations, but it was still impressive how quickly he recovered and composed himself. "You're right. Thank you, Agent Harper," he said, resuming a less desperate but still hopeful expression. "Please. Let me see my daughter now." he added, more in control. "That's an order, Agent."
"Yes, sir," she responded, and behind the president, she caught Hunnigan giving her an approving smile, looking proud of her.
She walked back into the room with the phone in hand, "Ashley," she alerted, making Ashley look at her. "I have your father on the phone."
Ashley dropped her chewy bar, gasping, "Daddy?"
Helena sat beside her and held up the handheld for her. Just watching her face and eyes light up was painful. Ashley reached for the handheld like it was the holy grail and cupped trembling fingers around it reverently. Helena wished she thought to clean up Ashley's face a little before showing her to her father, that poor man already had enough stress.
Helena tried to give them as much privacy as she could while sitting next to Ashley. She picked up the half-eaten energy bar that had fallen to the floor and pocketed it as father and daughter exchanged tearful words, tearful on the part of Ashley while the president kept from it.
Putting away the energy bar because they needed to ration, Helena checked the canteen and winced when she found it empty. She understood Ashley was probably dehydrated and needed it badly, but it was a mistake to neglect telling her to conserve their water. Now, they just had Helena's canteen left over. She hoped to get out of here well before water and food became an issue.
"You listen to Agent Harper," the president told his daughter after an emotional conversation. Helena could tell just by the way Ashley leaned to her that she wanted her father. "Whatever she tells you to do, Agent Harper's going to keep you safe. You must follow her orders to the T, Ashley. You understand, sweetie?"
"I'll listen, Daddy," Ashley promised, then glanced to Helena for just a second there. "Thank you for finding me and sending her to save me."
"I'd send the army if they could make it there in time," the president countered, and Helena believed him. "Ashley, I love you. I love you so much, my girl, and I'm going to see you soon. The extraction team will be there to pick you up. Just listen to Agent Harper, okay?"
"I will, Daddy," Ashley promised like a younger girl than her age, afraid. "I love you so much. Please tell Mom, too..." with the mention of her name having passed, Helena tried not to listen to give them a little privacy for one more moment. The president and Ashley used all of it to exchange their love, then finally, when Helena feared she'd have to interrupt them, the president spoke up.
"Agent Harper."
Helena looked back his way to the little screen.
"Take care of my daughter," he said, maintaining the brave front for his daughter. "I expect to see you both on home soil by tomorrow."
"Yes, sir." Helena agreed. There was no way she could guarantee that, but Helena didn't take away what little faith and hope they had left. With the President's final goodbye to Ashley, Hunnigan came back on the screen.
"Helena," Hunnigan began, back to her usual, professional self. "We're sending more teams to your location, we're directing all our resources and manpower there. I'm still trying to get a hold of Leon, he must tracked down Ashley's kidnapper in Russia. I've sent you a map and directions to the extraction point. It's the tower just past the Salazar family castle."
"Got it," Helena said. "Anything else?"
"Yes, I have some intel for you. I managed to trace back that insignia to the time of the first castellan in that region. It was used by a religious group who called themselves Los Illuminados. I'm still trying to look into it, but whatever they were doing or teaching bothered the first castellan so much that he had them wiped out."
"I've been seeing that symbol all over this village," Helena added. "Is Saddler their leader?"
"I can't confirm that. We're still working through lists of names and so far, nothing suspicious has come up. I did, however, find Luis Sera. Apparently, he's a native of Pueblo who left to attend school in the US. He has several masters in science and engineering, but he took a job as cop in Madrid despite more lucrative job offers. He quit two years ago and there hasn't been a trace of him since."
Helena nodded, taking it all in and wondering about Sera's intentions.
He used to be a cop. Was he investigating this group? Was he the anonymous caller who tipped them off about Ashley?
"I assure you, Agent Harper, I am a lot smarter than I look," she remembered him saying.
Smart enough to earn all those degrees, she thought, possibly smart enough to be involved in bio-organic weapons like the scientists in Racoon City, and maybe smart enough to know how to stop them.
Helena glanced at Ashley, finding the girl right next to her, listening in.
"Hunnigan, put word out that any hostiles are to be treated like BOWs. They're strong, fast and resistant to pain. There are organisms inside these people, probably parasitic. I've seen one, it came out from a man's neck after I killed him," she said, relaying all the information she could to the teams en route. "Tell them to keep their distance. It had tentacle-like appendages that had a lot of reach. One of the tentacles had something that looked sharp attached to it - it looked like bone - and it swung at me."
Though Hunnigan looked worried, she nodded.
"I'll get right on it. "
"And look up Ada Wong," Helena added. "You'll probably find nothing on her but it's worth a try."
"Alright," Hunnigan said after a short but noticeable pause. "You should get going, Helena."
"We will," Helena complied, ending the call.