Veil of Civility

Chapter Seventy-Two

"They're out of there and aren't planning on coming back from the looks of it," Osman said, as he ended a call on his cell phone. "Looks like they've been living there, according to the guys I asked to have a look. They found sleeping arrangements in the building for at least twenty, and evidence of homemade explosives."

The black Ford Explorer bounced over a set of dormant railroad tracks as Nazari guided it over the antiquated pavement of a two lane country road, passing tall trees and flat, empty fields on either side. The view was occasionally broken up by the sudden appearance of dilapidated residences that looked as though they had been there longer than the road itself. Even in the darkness of night, the poverty of the area they were heading into was evident.

"They found three bodies in the rear lot of the building, too, stacked up in a storage container."

"That might explain why the police haven't found any bodies to back up my experiences. Baktayev's been taking his dead home with him," Declan said from the back seat. "Any clue as to what kind of arms they're carrying?"

Osman shook his head. "They found spent rounds in a few different calibers, but no weapons. Whatever was there, they've got it all with them."

"Could they tell how long they've been gone?" Nazari asked.

"It can't have been that long," Osman said with a grimace. "They found a young man chained up in a bathroom with his tongue cut out. He was still alive so they can't have been gone very long. It looked from the tire tracks in the muddy lot like they left in two fairly large vehicles, possibly vans or SUVs of some kind. There were multiple sets of tracks laid down over the last few days, so it was impossible to tell when they left for sure."

"They were driving dark red Suburbans when they attacked Kafni and Levitt and they had a white cargo van when they attacked Castellano and me," Declan said. "It could be the same vehicles."

Nazari slowed the vehicle as they rounded a bend in the road and came to a stop sign. Without coming to a complete stop, he looked left and continued driving to the right.

"What's that?" Osman asked, as he craned his neck and looked at a collection of green-roofed, concrete buildings behind several tall fences. Search lights passed over the property from tall towers along the fence.

"A prison," Declan said, as the compound passed out of sight. "It's one of the only major employers in the area."

"Remind me not to put Victoria down as a retirement destination," Osman quipped.

A mile down the road the dark fields began to blend into the lots of more impoverished residences. Stately brick homes that looked to have once belonged to wealthier families in the town's industry-oriented past were cramped between mobile homes and hastily constructed single story dwellings, all with overgrown lawns and vandalized automobiles.

"Charming place," Declan said, as they moved onto the town's main street, where businesses sat boarded up on the bottom floor of two and three story brick storefronts. Outside of one small place a street light flickered and people gathered under it, smoking, in front of what appeared to be a bar.

"We're getting close," Nazari said, looking at the GPS suction-cupped to the windshield. "I call the H&K."

Declan turned and reached over the back seat, grabbing the H&K MP-7 machine pistol from underneath a blanket. "The AR's mine," he said, as he pushed a forty-round magazine into the H&K and handed it forward to Osman, who placed it in Nazari's lap.

"That leaves me on shotgun," Osman said.

"We need to take everything we can with us," Declan said. "Once we're in this there isn't going to be any running to the truck for more ammo. If we're out, we're dead." He handed a Mossberg 590 tactical shotgun with a pistol grip and a box of sabot slugs over the seat to Osman.

"Move past it to the second entrance," he continued, as Nazari began to slow down, the school approaching on their right hand side as they cleared the town. "Nice and casual, if they're in there waiting, I want them to think we're just some wee chancers out for a kiss and a cuddle."

Nazari drove the SUV slowly past the first pitted concrete driveway, a darkened single story building looming above them on the steep incline. Clumps of uncut grass stuck up throughout the sloped front yard giving the place an unkempt appearance. Dingy streetlights illuminated broken glass and barred windows, more evidence of the area's intense poverty, on the front of the building as they reached the second entrance and continued on.

"From the looks of that place you'd think it was abandoned," Osman said.

"Aye, rough place to be a kid, I'm betting."

Declan hadn't seen any evidence outside that anyone was in the building or even nearby. Several of the doors that had been visible looked like they might have been pried opened at some point, but it was hard to tell for sure with the amount of vandalism. "Let's find this Twin Cemetery Road," he said. "If we're the first ones here, I don't want any evidence of it. I want Baktayev to think it's smooth sailing."

Nazari drove three quarters of a mile and made a right. The road looped around past several neighborhoods, empty fields and thick patches of trees. After nearly a mile the residences were gone and only field and forest surrounded them. As the road curved back towards the school, the headlights washed over a roughly maintained cemetery that sat on both sides of the two lane road, a narrow dirt lane just past a rusted wrought iron fence on the right. Nazari slowed the vehicle to a stop. "Twin Cemetery Road," he said, looking at the crooked sign on the corner of the street.

"Right then," Declan said, as Nazari pulled the SUV to the side of the road under some overhanging tree limbs and cut the lights off. He pushed a thirty-round magazine into an AR-15, charged the rifle and extended the stock. "I'm on point," he said, as he pushed open the door and stepped out. "Nazari, you're behind me and Osman, on the rear. Ten paces apart until we know we're alone."