The Eye of Moloch

Chapter 41

The first urgent order of business would be the fabrication of a do-it-yourself anti-aircraft bunker in the barn east of the house.

Watching from cover, after only a few minutes with a pair of proper binoculars, Hollis confirmed that what he’d feared was true: a surveillance drone had been orbiting the ranch and it was still up there, circling. Under the prevailing conditions he might not have been able to spot it had the craft not descended under the overcast to maintain its view. Even at that lower altitude its distinctive outline was only barely visible against the backdrop of featureless gray clouds.

He kept it in sight as it followed an unvarying and apparently automated oval pattern at only a few thousand feet over the land. Not as big or as fast as the latest deployed versions, he noted, it was likely an older, unarmed model, maybe a Gnat, capable only of carrying various cameras and telemetry gear. It slowed drastically as it bucked the breeze on its inbound, upwind leg and was also flying much too low for its own good. Whoever was remotely piloting this thing didn’t seem too concerned that his robotic spy might be discovered—much less that it could be vulnerable to a well-placed shot from the ground.

Night would have already fallen by the time they were ready to flee, but if they managed to bring that thing down then the darkness could be turned to their advantage.

While there was still a bit of daylight Hollis summoned the most skilled rifleman among the Merrick clan and asked him to come to the second-floor loft of the barn. He was to bring one of the family’s Barrett .50 calibers, a tripod mount, and as many magazines of incendiary tracer rounds as they had in the stockroom.

Meanwhile the livestock were discreetly moved out of the barn and then a pickup truck pulled the second weapon into position through the back double doors: an eight-foot carbon-arc searchlight on a four-wheeled trailer, complete with its own diesel generator for power.

This light was of the same type as those used to sweep the night skies at movie premieres and grand openings, a distant cousin of those billion-plus-candlepower units that shone upward from atop the Luxor in Las Vegas. In the past the Merrick family had used this big thing and another like it to add some flash and pageantry to nighttime public gatherings and charity events at the ranch. Though it was not quite of military power, if their luck held out it would be more than bright enough for this job.

With a stopwatch they tracked the drone’s flight path over three circuits and it proved to be regular as clockwork. As it approached the barn straight-on and against the wind there would be a narrow window of time in which that small, moving airborne target would become a sitting duck, appearing almost stationary in the crosshairs.

The tripod for the Barrett M82 was soon bolted down to the floor of the loft with the rifle aimed toward the oncoming leg of the drone’s flight path. The searchlight was rolled into place down below. Both manned positions would be hidden from aerial view by the closed barn doors, at least until the time came to fully commit.

When that aspect of the operation seemed as ready as it would ever be, Hollis returned to the house to go over the rest.

When she laid it out for him again Molly’s brainstorm was just as brash and hazardous a plan as he’d remembered it. The details looked different only in light of the fact that this was no longer just a spine-tingling topic of conversation. Now it was an actual, step-by-step layout of the events in their very near future.

As she spoke he watched a transformation taking place: Molly gradually became her former self again. By the time she’d finished with the overview she’d snapped completely out of her despair and reappeared as the same resolute and determined young woman he’d known for many years. His previous lapse in faith in her went unspoken; he’d let her down but only briefly and no further energy was wasted on apologies or explanations. They had much to do in preparing to leave, and he could also see that she shared his own overwhelming sense that there was very little time in which to do it.

With the plan now officially under way, Molly asked him to call two of the ladies to help her dress and get ready for their departure. While she was busy with that, Hollis gathered the other members of the group and told them what was next.

The meeting was brief and it began with the determination of who would and would not be taking an active part in the coming adventure. With the exception of Molly and himself, he told them, all the remaining Founders’ Keepers were to pack up and make their way to the group’s sanctuary to the north, just as previously planned.

Their trip would be no carefree walk in the park; the way home was difficult and some were still nursing injuries. It would be a brave and necessary contribution that they would make, to go on ahead and prepare a place for the remaining travelers should they somehow manage to return victorious. Since it was clear that the Merrick family had also become targets, any of their number who wished to make the journey upstate were welcomed to go that way as well.

As he returned to his own room and thought through what was coming, a major barrier to success became evident almost immediately: this mission required technical capabilities that none of the core group possessed, and there was no time to begin recruiting any outsiders.

As he considered his options, Hollis recalled that Tyler’s mother might at least have the skills needed for one key phase. After he approached her with the idea, Cathy Merrick went to her dad and her son and they talked it out for a while. Ultimately she volunteered to go along, but with the further complication that Tyler had insisted on accompanying her.

While the young man had some facility with computers and an amateur’s knowledge of Internet technologies, he certainly lacked the level of expertise they’d need if they actually made it to where they were planning to go. Still, Hollis agreed to take them both, with the full understanding that if things began to get too dangerous they were free to leave at any time.

The Founders’ Keepers had always attracted a great army of passive followers and secret admirers, but relatively few active participants. More recently it seemed they had far more backbiting critics and outright bloodthirsty enemies than anything else. But as Hollis sat at the computer putting out urgent feelers for help in this endeavor he was surprised to find a number of people who were ready and willing to offer their service for precisely the things he’d needed.

In less than half an hour he’d booked charter flights and arranged a few levels of backup transport, acquired anonymous funding and lined up supply drops, ordered up a very special overnight parcel to be prepared and anonymously sent to the mission’s final destination, and—most important—he’d scheduled a critical appointment for an upcoming afternoon of final preparations at a large, big-box home-and-hardware store on the outskirts of Butler, Pennsylvania.

He saw another e-mail, then, from an inside man in a detention center near Denver, Colorado. This elderly fellow—Hollis knew him only as Ira—was the source of the information he’d been passed all along about Noah Gardner.

There was news in this note that he had to share immediately with Molly. When he hurried to her room he found her all packed and ready to go.

“You know how you said you wished we could have Noah along on this thing,” Hollis said, “but you knew it wasn’t possible?”

“Yes,” Molly said. “What is it?”

“I got word just now. His father’s died.”

She sat back, and he could see her thinking. There was obviously no love lost for old man Gardner, but his passing might well create just the opportunity they needed. Noah’s help would be invaluable in what they were about to do, and now there was a way that they could find him.

“Where’s Noah right now?” she asked.

“I don’t where he is right now,” Hollis said, “but at this time tomorrow night I know exactly where he’ll be.”

She nodded. “Change of plans?”

“Change of plans.” He checked his watch. “Get ready to go, now. I’ll go see if the coast is clear.”

As he headed out of her room he had to pause at the corner of the hallway to the great room and wait. The sheriff and a deputy were visible on the porch outside the front door, but they were finally bidding good night to the Merricks and were on their way out.

And then as he watched, both of the uniformed men slumped and staggered forward almost at once. The distant sounds of the shots that had hit them arrived, and as they crumpled to the ground the full-on clatter of automatic gunfire erupted from beyond the yard outside.

Hollis wheeled and ran back to Molly’s room. As he came through the door he saw the shadow of a dark figure just outside her window. He grabbed her and turned with her held close so that his body was shielding her. A close-range boom suddenly shattered the glass and a searing impact hit him in the shoulder and knocked them both out into the hallway.

As he turned his head to look behind them, pain subsiding and shock already setting in, he saw Molly’s dog rise up and leap through the blown-out window frame and onto the man who’d shot at them. An intruder alarm was blaring, there were shouts and screams coming from everywhere, and then, all at once, the lights went out.