The Soul Collectors

84

The SWAT officers draped her arms across their shoulders and carried her out of the lighthouse. The wind slapped her face and blew her hair, and the bright sun pierced her eyes as she looked up the weathered cliff and caught sight of a Coast Guard helicopter.

'It's hidden in the woods,' Darby croaked. 'A hatch. Jack Casey and his daughter. Underground. Need to help them.'

They didn't answer and she realized they couldn't hear her.

She tried again when they brought her inside the helicopter.

'Jack Casey and his daughter.'

They guided her on to a stretcher.

'Below us,' Darby croaked. Christ, how her throat ached. It felt raw and dry and nearly swollen shut. 'Go to the woods and find the hatch, hurry, not much time.'

Darby felt a cool alcohol swab brush against the back of her hand. She turned and saw a Coast Guard officer, a woman, hovering by her side. Darby looked over the woman's shoulder, at the two SWAT officers who had turned away. They had heard her, she was pretty sure. She could see them running towards the woods, the trees shaking in the breeze on a beautiful autumn day.

Darby moaned when the IV needle slipped into her hand.

'Sorry,' the woman said. 'It's your skin. You're dehydrated. We need to get fluids into your system.'

Darby needed to be sure they had heard her. She beckoned the woman closer and told her about the hatch, Casey and his daughter, everything.

The woman straightened, looking confused and frightened. 'I'll tell them.'

'Where am I?'

'Black Rock Island. It's off the coast of Maine.'

'Stay.'

'I will. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere — '

'No. Stay here. On the island. I need to go back there. I need to see.'

'There's nothing out there, hon. Nobody comes out this way.'

'Don't take me away' was the last thing Darby said before she drifted off. Coop came as the sun started to set.

Darby saw him standing near the edge of the woods. She sat up on the stretcher, the IV line still in her arm, and lost sight of him for a moment. Her head was spinning but not as badly as before and she leaned back against the cabin wall.

The aft door slid open and Coop popped his head into the copter, his face washed in the sunset's deep gold and purple hues.

Not Coop but a federal agent with a similar face and haircut.

'Special Agent Martynovich wanted me to tell you he's here.'

'The hatch?' Her throat was still raw but most of her voice had come back.

'They found it. He's about to go down, and he said he'll talk to you once — What are you doing?'

'Coming with you.' Darby slid the IV needle out of her arm. She found a bandage and covered the wound.

'Miss McCormick, you're not exactly dressed for the weather,' he said, looking at her hospital scrubs and bare feet stained with dirt. They had cleaned her up and dressed her while she had slept. 'It's getting pretty raw out.'

'Grab that.' She pointed to one of the bulky orange Coast Guard jackets hanging on the wall.

'What about shoes?'

'I'll manage,' she said. 'Come on, let's get going before it gets dark.' She found Sergey pacing in front of the hatch.

'I don't know anything yet,' he said. 'We discovered the hatches about an hour ago and — '

'Hatches? There're more than one?'

'Two. One here, and one in the southern part of the woods. Before I sent anyone down, I wanted the air tested. I'm glad I did. It tested positive for sarin gas.'

Darby thought about Casey and his daughter, the people she'd seen chained to the walls, and felt a sick and hollow pit in her stomach.

'I was told what's down there is an ossuary created back in the early eighteen hundreds,' he said. 'When the cemeteries on the mainland flooded, they brought the bones here to this island and created this space to honour the dead. There's some old church up there, what's left of it. The locked cells and some of the other things we found, they're probably new. The locals say nobody comes out to this rock.'

'Jack and his daughter are down there. I saw them.'

Sergey nodded, kept nodding. 'I couldn't send anyone down until we had the proper masks and clothing. I'm waiting for mine to arrive, and then I'm going down.'

'You didn't have that stuff on your plane?'

Sergey kicked a tuft of grass with the tip of his shoe. 'The plane's been grounded. My boss and the pencil pushers he works for have decided to conduct an internal audit of this investigation. When we found your signal, I had to make other travel arrangements.'

'Why did they shut down the investigation?'

'Because I've lost too many people — Jack and his daughter, and now Keats. The Secret Service agent has vanished, along with his wife and son, Luke.'

'Keats didn't disappear.' Darby told Sergey what had happened with Keats in the back of the ambulance.

Sergey looked at the hatch and said, 'Did they bring Keats here with you and Jack?'

'I don't know. I didn't see him. Just Jack and his daughter. In the great hall.'

'The what?'

'The great hall. That's what Sarah Casey called it. I know where it is.'

'There's no need for you to go down there, I'm sure they'll — '

'The place is a maze of tunnels. I'm going down. Don't argue.'

'Then you're going to need to be properly dressed,' he said, and barked a request for another suit and gas mask into his radio.