Chapter 64
SPOV
I felt a bit overdressed as we stepped out into the garage but seeing that everyone there was dressed the same made me feel more comfortable. I watched as four men in black Rangemen uniforms separated from the others and walked toward me. I hardly recognized my Dad, he just looked so different. He was walking taller, if that was possible, and seemed so much more confident than I was used to seeing.
"Pumpkin, you all set up?"
"Yes, I am. Thank you for helping us out"
"Hey, I should thank Carlos. Hell, we feel like different men dressed like this"
"You'll be careful, won't you?"
"Of course we will. You know it's made me realize just how dull and dowdy I'd become. This is how we were when we were in the army"
I'd never realized that he felt like that. Was the way he was at home a result of the lifestyle he had now? Was how my Mum always seemed to be in charge of the home something that contributed to how he behaved? Was the expectation of the Burg suppressing people like my father from being who they wanted to be. It had certainly tried it's best to bring me in line. At that moment he pressed a piece of paper into my hands that I put safely in an inside zipped pocket of my jacket.
"You'll need this"
"Thanks. Will I see Uncle Andrew again?"
"I think so"
"Beautiful"
I turned to see Les holding up a very large red coat in one hand and a blonde straight wig in the other.
"Just something to detract anyone being nosey that it's you"
I put the coat on along with the wig, both being far too big, but if I was sat in a car it wouldn't matter. I noticed all of the men were wearing various colored coats and baseball caps, making them look like ordinary guys. Well apart from the fact that they were still well built. Hector handed me an ear bud and mic which I fitted straight away, the mic fastening to the jacket underneath the red coat. There must have been something said because my Dad turned to me.
"See you soon Pumpkin, be careful"
"Bye Dad"
He kissed my cheek before getting into one of Rangeman's black SUVs and then there were four of them heading out of the gate that had opened. As the gate closed, I noticed every man was carrying a rucksack in their hands as they started to head toward the back of the garage.
"Where are we going?"
"Cars are through here"
I followed Tank through a door, along a corridor and then through another door. I had no idea where we were. As I stepped out from behind Tank my mouth dropped open. Holy shit! I was standing looking into another very large garage, but the contents here bore absolutely no resemblance to the one I normally used. There were a couple of old Mustangs that looked to be pristine, a large truck painted green with a canvas top. Several jeeps and a row of beautiful looking motorbikes. Along one wall to my left were glass fronted racks holding rifles, guns and was that a rocket launcher? To my right were sets of drawers that went from the floor to the ceiling.
I felt my chin being lifted and turned to see Carlos grinning at me, yeah grinning.
"This is where we secure all of our equipment"
As he said that I heard a whirring sound and watched as an electric door rolled up. Then there was the sound of car engines starting. I watched as one by one a car rolled forward. Weird because between each car leaving the door would roll down. I suppose they were making sure that the cars were seen to be leaving separately. Carlos helped me into an old looking dark blue Range Rover before getting in next to me.
We were the third car to leave and I watched fascinated as a second door appeared in the lights from the car. Looking round, the door behind us was rolling down, as it came to a stop, the doors in front of us opened which was when Carlos drove out onto a small alley. I couldn't see any other cars as we turned left and headed for a larger street. Once onto the street I recognized where we were, several blocks behind Rangeman. The journey was made in silence, I knew Carlos would need to concentrate on the road and was aware of him constantly checking his mirrors. It made me paranoid, so I started to watch behind us through the side mirror.
"You can take off the coat and wig Babe"
"Are we here already?"
"Ten minutes out"
I was all ready as he parked the car just down from the church. As I looked over at it, I remembered it from the funeral. It really was a beautiful building. The light didn't come on in the car as we got out and I was careful to close the door quietly. My ear bud suddenly filled with voices making me jump a little, I wasn't used to hearing what everyone else was doing.
"Team 3 in position, all clear"
That meant that Tank, Miguel, Bobby and Hal were somewhere around keeping watch.
"Team 2 already inside"
Hector, Ram and Cal were already inside the church. Which left Carlos and I ready to walk inside. Carlos took my hand in his as we walked up toward the front door. Les was waiting for us just inside the door and used a penlight to lead us down to the front of the church. Although I knew that we were looking for a portrait I couldn't remember seeing one when I was here before, but then I didn't really take a good look around. He shone his light onto a painting on the wall just beyond the alter on the right-hand side.
How the hell had I missed seeing it? It had to be at least four feet wide and maybe five or six feet tall. I suppose as I had been sat in a pew on the right and only really looked to my left at the coffin it just never came into my line of sight. Hector had some wires connected to the side of it and was holding a small device that was flashing numbers. Everyone stood in silence waiting for the device to finish. One by one the numbers stayed the same and as the last one stopped flashing there was a clicking sound from behind the picture.
"Hell Beautiful, no wonder he was taken with you"
"Why do you say that Les"
"Have you seen this portrait?"
I stepped in front of the portrait as he shone a light onto it. The woman portrayed was dressed in a long white flowing dress that went to her calves with a blue belt around her waist. She had dark long curly hair, but it was her eyes that captured my attention. They were a brilliant blue and just seemed to look at you. I really didn't see how this painting would have affected how Buckley chose me, I mean she was a very beautiful looking woman.
Hector pulled the portrait forward revealing a doorway, letting Carlos step through the gap in the stones first. I assumed Ram and Cal were somewhere inside the church, but I couldn't see them. I followed Carlos with Les behind me and made my way down a set of narrow stone spiral steps, the beams from their pen lights sufficient to show me where I was stepping. Once we were at the bottom and on flat ground Carlos turned on his flashlight. As I looked around it was similar to what I'd seen when I was researching about crypts. The floor looked to be dried earth with stone walls surrounding us. The room was maybe twenty feet square with several shelves set into the wall. At each corner of the room was a stone sarcophagi or coffin. There was no obvious sign of a box so turning on my flashlight I started to look in more detail at one of the coffins. Carlos and Les were doing the same thing with the others. The writing on the side of the coffin wasn't easy to read and appeared to be quite old. I didn't think that this would be where Buckley would hide a box, he had too much respect for the dead to that.
As I stood up my light shone into an area that would have been underneath where the steps came down. That would make a good hiding place as it wasn't that obvious in the shadows. Once under the steps I shone my flashlight down the wall and steps. Hidden underneath the last lower steps was a stone box. To me it didn't look as old as the others and it was definitely smaller. Maybe two feet square and sat on the floor.
"I think I've found something"
Carlos crouched down next to me and started to try and move the lid.
"Maybe it has an electronic lock inside"
"Maybe, any ideas Santos"
"Will it move?"
"No it's solid"
As Carlos stepped up and back, I crouched down and felt around the lid for anything that might be obvious.
"If Saint Stephanie was"
As I spoke there was a clicking sound that made me fall backwards.
"Good one Beautiful, it was obviously programmed into the word Stephanie"
Les lifted me up and out of the way and between Carlos and Les they carefully lifted the lid slightly until it could then be pulled out.
"Well?"
"You were right Babe, a wooden box"
"That's not going to be lifted out of there, the step's in the way"
"The front must pull down"
As the two of them debated how they could get the box out I moved out of the way and was stood again in the main room. I was aware of a shadow but wasn't fast enough to turn around before a hand clamped hard across my mouth and an arm was around my upper body pulling me back into someone. I had no idea who it was and was confused that anyone had managed to get down here without anyone alerting us. In panic I dropped my flashlight onto the ground that resulted in a loud dull thump that echoed around the room. The sound must have alerted Carlos because suddenly he was stood in front of me and had a gun drawn, directed to the side of me. I wasn't sure what was going on because as suddenly as Carlos had appeared, he seemed to vanish into the shadows. What the hell was going on, why had he disapeared? I could feel my breathing and heart rate increase as the situation I was in suddenly hit me.
I hadn't a chance of moving let alone defending myself or getting out of this hold. And why had Carlos gone, where was he? My head was pulled back and I could feel a breath against my ear.
"Steph don't make a sound we've got trouble upstairs"
The hand slowly pulled away and the arm around me relaxed. I had recognized the voice that whispered to me, it was Cal. He bent down and switched off my flashlight before finding my hand and placing it in it. I was puzzled why we hadn't heard anything through the ear bud, surely if there'd been a problem the guys outside or even inside the church would have warned us. As I thought that Cal's hand came across my front and switched off my mic. He was standing very close to me and moved so that I was behind him. As we stood in the dark I was gripping the back of Cal's jacket just to make sure he was still there. I focused on listening for any sound that might be there within the confines of this underground tomb, trying very hard to control the feelings that were surfacing inside me. The darkness was pressing into me as was the absolute silence around me. Nothing, then I turned my head toward the where I presumed the steps were, as I heard a slight rustle of fabric. Whoever was coming down the stairs was being very quiet. I had no idea what was happening and started to get worried that we were trapped down here. There was only one way out and that was back up the stone steps. I didn't see anything but suddenly heard a scuffle in front of me, immediately a pen light illuminated exactly who had found us.
