Jane and Miriam are in a very precarious position. Can he outsmart Michael at his own game? Thank you all very much for your lovely reviews. I especially enjoy the long chatty conversations I am having with some of you around the world, they make me smile! Damp England, warm Australia, chilly America, cold Canada, we all come together through our love of writing!

The Messenger

Chapter 20

Let The Game Begin

Bobbie and Glenn made Jane stand and face Michael. Jane smiled at him, no hint of his inner worry evident on his face.

"Of course I know how to play. I'm just surprised you play children's games!" he answered flippantly, not sure what he was getting into.

Michael smiled a tight grin and made no reply in the face of this blatant insult. Jane was unaware that it was an impossibility for him come out of this game a winner. No way. Bobbie and Glenn stepped away from Jane and left him balancing on one foot again.

"Shall we begin?" suggested Michael.

"What are we playing for?" asked Jane. Michael leered at him.

"Your soul."

"Don't have one to lose. Anything else?" quipped Jane.

"Wait and see then" oozed Michael with a serpent-like smile. Up close he was all bone and angles. No wonder he looked like a wraith.

Jane considered Michael for a moment, then leaned in close, close enough to whisper in his ear.

"You're good Michael,or whatever your real name is, very good. But you're just an old-time conman. I see you and what you're up to. From one conman to another, I know what this is all about. It's a long con whose time has run out. You just don't know it yet. When your followers discover you have feet of clay, they'll find themselves another Messiah. Time to find a new gig."

Betraying no surprise at this accusation, Michael kept his eyes on Jane as he straightened up and smiled broadly at the assembly of people watching.

"On my count…" he began, as if Jane had not spoken.

"ONE….TWO...THREE!"

Their hands pounded down three times and Jane's scissors cut Michael's paper. Both Jane and Michael smiled. Jane won that round.

"ONE….TWO….THREE!"

Their hands flew down again and Jane's rock smashed Michael's scissors. Even though he was losing, Michael smiled happily. Jane thought it odd.

"ONE….TWO….THREE!"

Once again Jane chose Rock and it smashed into Michael's scissors. The crowd was very still.

"It seems I won three in a row" said Jane.

Michael was grinning too. "Not everything is at it appears Thomas. Your Rock won over my scissors, twice. Rock it is!" he said, turning to the assembled disciples.

"It is Rocks!" he yelled, to their deafening roar of approval.

Jane couldn't figure out what was going on but it sure as hell didn't feel right. He began to back up, trying to get away from this crazy man, but he was grabbed by the men in black suits. This was it. His time had run out. Jane believed he would be stoned to death by this hysterical mob to make an example of him and his many sins against The Messenger. What else could it mean?

Michael returned to the lectern while the crowd tried to calm themselves down. Miriam was weeping at the side of the square and Jane was simply scared and confused.

"You may take Thomas and Miriam out to the field and begin" Michael instructed Glenn and Bobbie. Glenn wanted to return soon to tell Michael about the two people who wanted to visit in the morning. They seemed like great prospects.

Jane didn't go without a fight, struggling manfully as he and Miriam were dragged across the square. He fought back as well as he could, but with his arms restrained by Bobbie and one useless foot dragging along the hard ground, he was no match for the two muscular men ushering he and Miriam into the darkness. He could understand Michael's anger with him, but why stone sweet Miriam? To frighten the women into silence when he raped them too?

The crowd watched them go then waited until Michael walked across the square, entered the sliding doors at the hospital entrance, and disappeared. There was nothing left to see or do, so the crowd dispersed and returned to their work or their cold beds, the spectacle over. Whatever happened next was none of their concern. They had been through this before and knew their role in this little charade was finished.

Jeremiah and John stood waiting for someone to take them back to their Re-education cells. When no one bothered with them, they headed to their dormitory, to their beds as they normally did. If they did have to return to their cells, they were quite sure the men in black would return and find them soon enough.

Michael walked towards his tunnel with a huge smile on his sore face. That little show had gone very well. The disciples were once again reminded of his power over their lives, and Miriam had also been taken care of with dramatic effect. If he wanted to make sexual advances again in the future, he knew no one could or, would, say no. As for the missing button, who the hell cared? That whole issue was just a convenient excuse to scare her into submission. Miriam had been getting a little too eager to bend some rules and had asked to go see her family recently. That had to stop. After tonight, both she and that bastard Jane ceased to be a problem for Refuge Ranch.

Bobbie and Glenn half walked, half dragged Jane around the side of the building and out into deep darkness behind the last building in the compound. Miriam helped Jane along as well as she could, but her fear was hobbling her as well, so they both stumbled several times on their torturous walk. When they were at least 200 feet away from the last building in the compound, the men stopped walking and at a signal to someone at the nearest building, floodlights were switched on, nearly blinding Jane and Miriam. They covered their eyes with the back of their hands and looked around. They were standing in the middle of a large, flat piece of land. The area had clearly been marked off and was the size of a small football field. There were piles of rocks and large stones in little mounds all around the perimeter of the land, but the field itself was covered with rocks and boulders that had sat embedded in the ground for millennia. It would take many days with a backhoe to clear the land of all of the rocks that dented the earth here.

Jane put a protective arm around Miriam. Perhaps he could shield her with his body for a while, until it was too late. He looked from Glenn to Bobbie, gauging which one might be amenable to persuasion, who could be bribed into not picking up that first rock. Glenn seemed to be in a hurry to leave, so he wouldn't be the one to approach. Bobbie hung back, smirking at them like they were nothing, not humans who would soon be suffering at his hands. Jane had to work with him.

"We don't even know your names. Miriam and I deserve to know who we spend our last moments with" he began.

"Shut up!" barked Bobbie. "You don't get to talk. Just stand there and wait."

"But you need to know that I can…"

"You can't do anything now" said Bobbie, knowing full well that Jane was an employee of the FBI. Whatever game Jane was trying to play, he wouldn't fall for it.

Jane turned his back to the suited men and waited. Was this the time that his luck really ran out? He had no hope of Lisbon rushing in to save him now, no Cho with his game face on tackling Glenn while Lisbon arrested Bobbie. That was a fantasy. This was reality.

"Turn around and face me!" Glenn ordered Jane and Miriam. They did so, but very slowly. Bobbie and Glenn were enjoying this very much. Both knew that 'Thomas' and Miriam were certain they were going to die in minutes. Having that kind of power over a smart ass like 'Thomas' was wonderful. Jane held Miriam's hand and stood up as straight as he could before the first stone was hurled.

Glenn reached into his jacket and withdrew two steel hand trowels, the kind used to dig holes in a garden to plant flowers. Handing one to Jane and one to Miriam, he shoved them forward and pointed to the ground. The confusion and relief in their eyes was tangible.

"Dig up every rock you see, every stone and pebble, and carry them over to the piles at the side of the field. Don't miss a single rock or it will be used against you - understand?" he growled. Miriam nodded her head quickly and Jane just glared at Glenn, understanding rolling over him. This was still part of the game. They weren't going to die by stoning immediately! But there was a catch... Pick up every damned rock or be stoned with it anyway. What a great punishment. No wonder Michael was so happy to lose the game in the square. He lost nothing. It was Jane who would lose his life and his freedom, and most certainly his mind.

Both he and Miriam looked out at the field ahead of them and knew it was a useless assignment. It would take more than a trowel to unearth some of the larger rocks underneath their feet.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Work!" yelled Glenn while Bobbie just laughed at these two poor saps.

Miriam took a step or two forward and bent down to grab a rock. She had nothing to put it in and so had to walk to the edge of the field to add it to the pile. At this rate they would accomplish nothing. Jane took off his robe and hopped over to the small woman.

"Here, let's fill the robe and carry it over there together. Saves a lot of walking back and forth" he said kindly, laying it on the ground at her feet. Glenn saw them bend to their work, so he left Bobbie in charge and went to find Michael. He needed to tell him about the two eager beavers who wanted to join their happy little family ASAP. Calvin would be calling back at any time.

Jane couldn't bend over and pick up rocks with his lousy balance, so he plopped himself down on the hard ground and reached for every rock he could find, pitching it into the opened robe with a careful toss. Miriam sat down and did the same, to conserve energy and also to finally speak quietly to this interesting man who was so kind to her. Bobbie was sitting at the side of the field, playing a game on his phone, generally ignoring them as long as they picked rocks.

As Jane worked at loosening a large stone from its' earthen grasp, he leaned over and spoke to Miriam.

"This is just a game to Michael. He wants to teach us total obedience. With me it won't work but I'm sorry if I made any of this worse for you."

Miriam looked up from her work and shook her head, no. "You didn't. Michael was going to make an example of me no matter what. This just made his job easier, to humiliate two of us instead of one" she said with chagrin.

"I'm not humiliated!" said Jane. "Michael can't do that to me! I might be stuck here with a bum foot, but I haven't done anything wrong, and I bet you haven't either. I had to punch Michael in the nose, he assaulted me while I was asleep. This is a game Michael's playing. We just have to play a better game Miriam!" he smiled.

Against all logic, Miriam smiled too. "Mr. Jane you are the strangest man I've met in the last four years! You make me feel… " she struggled to find the right word. Eventually she sighed heavily.

"I make you feel what?" he whispered, tossing a large rock into the robe with a thud. Bobbie looked up briefly and then returned his attention to his game.

"I guess you make me feel hopeful. For the first time in a long time, even though we are stuck here, picking rocks, I feel hopeful that maybe it will all work out. Will it work out Mr. Jane?"

"That's the plan. Things are going very well actually" he said with confidence, giving her one of his megawatt smiles.

"Well now you're just teasing me" she said tossing a handful of stones. "How are things going well - look where we are!"

Jane grabbed one end of the robe and Miriam grabbed the other. Together they shuffled slowly over to the nearest pile of rocks and dumped their load out. Jane bent down and spoke softly to her, his back to Bobbie.

"Number one, we're still alive. I thought for sure we were going to be stoned to death, so anything else is a win-win for us!" he grinned. "And, we're in a very good place! Michael has gone back to his office to play on his computer, Glenn has disappeared, and Bobbie is busy on his phone. The rest of the community is either at work or sleeping. No one is really watching us. We can get out of here tonight. This is the best chance we've had all day!"

"Get back to work!" yelled Bobbie, standing and staring at them.

"OK, OK, just making room for more rocks" said Jane, picking up the robe again. Bobbie sat down again, immersed in crushing candy.

Miriam walked alongside Jane, holding him up. "Michael has a laptop?" she asked. "But he said there was no wifi out here, no landlines and no cell service!"

Jane bent to his task and picked up a large rock, wishing he could lob it Bobbie's head.

"Michael says a lot of things Miriam, but it's all lies. That's how he controls all of his true believers. I broke into his office and let me tell you, he is living in luxury while all of you are living like slaves. He can make a call and search the internet any time he wants. He said he didn't know who I was, but my suit is hanging in his office, with my wallet and ID in the jacket pocket" Jane continued. "This…" he said, waving his hand in the direction of the Ranch buildings "this is the lie. This is what a cult is all about. Please see that and leave when you can. Tonight. You could be having breakfast with your family in the morning" he said earnestly.

If he could just keep himself going long enough on no food and a migraine headache, he was going to make that happen tonight.