Logan had opened the front door as quietly as he could, but when he heard Alex yell, he moved quickly through the house, his gun drawn. Monty followed behind him.
Then he heard a scream coming from somewhere in the kitchen and found an open door. He hurried down the stairs and was surprised to be greeted by Mike Monroe, who pointed a gun at his chest. Logan started to lower his weapon, but then Alex yelled, “Shoot him!”
Logan pulled the trigger twice, and Mike fell. Logan shifted his gaze to a disguised Walker, who smiled at him. He walked around a large table and stood over a woman tied to it.
“Thank you for being here,” he said. “I’m so happy you’ll get to see the beginning of a war that will kill millions. But don’t worry, angels. I’ll ask the Master to allow you to live. You can reign with us.”
He picked up a dagger and slowly raised it over the terrified woman. “Washed in the blood of the Lamb—and now her own,” he said.
“Put it down!” Logan said.
Walker looked at him as if he couldn’t understand what he was saying. Then he raised his eyes toward the ceiling. “Behold the last sacrifice, Master.”
Before he could bring down the dagger, Logan shot him in the head. Walker looked surprised. As if he couldn’t accept what had happened. Then he fell backward to the floor.
Alex shouted as he turned to look at her. “Logan, he’s got the virus in a syringe. It can’t break. The pathogen is airborne!”
He stepped to the other side of the table and looked around. Then he moved to the area of the basement where the syringe must have rolled. He stood and looked at Alex. “Too late,” he said. He looked around and found a metal bucket, then covered the broken syringe with it.
“You’re all probably safe for the moment.” He pointed at Monty, who was standing near the stairs. “Get them out quick,” he said. “Drive back toward that convenience store. As soon as you have cell service, call Harrison. Tell him I’ve been exposed.”
“But—”
“Just do it, Monty. Okay?”
“Okay.” Monty took a knife out of his pocket and cut the girl free. She pulled the tape off her mouth. “Thank you, thank you,” she said, crying. “I prayed God would send someone to help me and you came.”
Monty took off his jacket and put it over her shoulders as she sat up. “Let’s get going. Come on,” he said to Alex. But she didn’t move.
“Did you hear me?” he shouted. “We’ve got to get out of here while we still have a chance.”
“Monty, go,” Alex said. “It’s too late for me. Please. You may be our only hope for survival. Go.”
“All right, all right,” he said. “Just don’t die.”
“We’ll do our best,” Logan said.
Once Monty and the girl were gone, Logan turned to look at Alex. “What do you mean, it’s too late for you?”
“Walker injected me right before you came downstairs.”
“But you said it’s airborne.”
Alex smiled. “I think sticking it directly into my body works too.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure they got out in time, you know.”
“I know. Monty knows that too. He’ll be careful and tell Harrison when he talks to him.”
Logan sat down on the floor next to Alex’s chair. She hadn’t moved from it. He leaned his back against the wall.
“By the way, I’m pretty sure you’ll find Agnes Walker under the floor somewhere,” she said.
“Did he tell you that?”
“No, but I think his mother was living here when she died, probably at the hands of his father. Adam had to perform the sixth sacrifice in a holy place. If this is the room where his mother died, it probably qualifies in some twisted way.”
“That sounds right.”
“Small comfort,” Alex said.
Logan shrugged. “Gotta take what we can get.” He smiled at her.
He watched her face change as a roach ran out from beneath the cold, dead furnace in the corner of the room. Logan could see she was horrified. “It’s just a bug, Alex. It can’t hurt you.”
“It’s just . . . when I moved in with Willow, her house was infested with roaches. I . . . I hate them.”
Logan had the distinct feeling there was more to the story, but he wasn’t going to ask her about it now. “Just try to ignore them. We’ll be out of here soon and in a nice, sterile hospital room.”
She was silent for a moment. For the first time, he noticed the only light came from a couple of lanterns, and the flames were getting low. He watched as Alex scanned the floor, no doubt looking for bugs.
“What happened before we got here?” he asked, trying to get her focus off the roaches—especially since more and more would come out as it got darker.
“Walker thought he lived here with his family, but I don’t think Sally and the kids ever existed. He experienced a complete psychotic break.”
Logan was surprised. “So this whole family thing was only in his imagination?”
Alex nodded. “He found an identity through the Train Man and a calling as the Destroyer, but he still yearned for a family. The kind of family he never had. He was too damaged to obtain a real one, so he created his vision of the perfect wife and children. He had to break with reality to find happiness.” She sighed. “I wish we could have kept him alive. Gotten him help. Maybe he could have found some kind of fulfillment in the real world.”
Logan couldn’t help but look at Adam’s body only a few yards away. He wanted to move him so they didn’t have to see him, but he couldn’t. It would be tampering with evidence. And he couldn’t cover the body. Anything not completely clean could leave fibers and false evidence. Although the cause of Walker’s death was obvious, he still couldn’t go against his training and contaminate the scene.
“Sorry about Mike,” he said, looking at Alex.
“Yeah, me too.” Her voice broke, and she turned her face away from him.
He didn’t know what to say, so he stayed silent.
“He blamed me for what he did. He killed Willow and Nettie.” When she looked down at him, he saw tears in her eyes. “He was angry when I left without telling him. Then for some reason he tried to become the person I wanted to be by joining the FBI. But when he was never promoted, he became enraged about my success. Enraged with me. And then he joined the Circle and met Walker. . . .”
She shuddered. “It’s my fault. He was a friend, and I shouldn’t have left Willow’s without telling him I was leaving and where I’d be. But I just wanted to get away from there. Away from her. I guess Mike thought we were closer than I did. If I could go back in time . . .”
“But you can’t. And it’s not your fault.” He looked up at her. “Look, Alex. You, Adam, and Mike all experienced bad things. Especially Adam and you. But you all had choices to make. To give in to the hurt and pain and let it twist you or to fight back. To become something good. Someone who would add positive energy to the world. Adam had a terrible childhood, but he could have made a different choice. Mike was hurt that you left. He must have idolized you and wanted to become like you. He couldn’t. But I suspect other things in his life went wrong too.”
Alex told him what Mike said about his parents.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Logan sighed. “But it was still his choice to follow a dark path.” He gazed up into her eyes. “Why did Adam and Mike go one way while you went another way?”
“Because some of us are angels and some of us are demons?” Alex’s sardonic grin told him she was trying to be humorous. It worked. He laughed.
“Funny. But I’m being serious. No one has to choose a destructive path. God gave us free will. We choose. God addresses this in the Bible. Forgive me for paraphrasing, but it goes something like ‘I’ve set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life that both you and your descendants may live.’ That passage goes on to talk about how we can choose to love God or we can reject Him. He was talking to the children of Israel, but He still gives everyone that choice. What Mike did is not your fault, Alex. Blaming yourself is destructive. Stop doing that.”
Alex leaned her head back on the chair and looked up.
The lantern began to sputter.
“I can’t walk over there and add fuel to the lantern,” he said quietly. “Can’t tamper with—”
“The crime scene. I know.” She stared down at him, her eyes locked on his. “Logan, I heard a voice.”
“A voice?”
“Yes. It said, ‘Just trust me. Everything will be all right.’”
Logan smiled at her. “Who do you think that was?”
“I know you want me to say it was God, but everything isn’t going to be all right, is it? We’re going to die.” She started to cry. “I keep thinking about Krypto. What will happen to him? Will he think I abandoned him?”
Logan reached up and put his hand on her cheek. “I don’t believe we’re going to die. We have no idea what this virus will do. Alex, if God told you we’ll be all right, then I believe Him. He would know.”
She finally looked away from him. “Okay” was all she said.
The lantern finally went out. Although he knew it was a risk, Logan reached for her hand. She didn’t pull away. Instead, she held on so tightly it almost hurt.
“I . . . I hate the dark.”
“Nothing can hurt you. I’m here. You’ll be fine.”
Logan leaned his head back against the wall again. How long would it take Monty to get help?
“Did you hear that?” Alex said.
“No, I—”
Then he heard steps overhead. Two men came down the stairs in hazmat suits. They held flashlights and swung them around until they found Alex and Logan. Alex quickly pulled her hand from his.
“Where is it?” one of them asked, his voice muffled by the mask.
Logan stood. “On the other side of the table,” he said. “Under a bucket. We’ve both been exposed. And you need to check the other agent and the kidnap victim.”
The men walked to the other side of the table. One of them took something out of a pack he wore around his waist. His partner had his flashlight directed toward him as he opened a small box and knelt down on the floor. Logan wanted out of that room, but he knew they would have to be escorted carefully so as not to expose anyone else. At least there would be no pandemic. Hopefully, this vicious virus would stop with him and Alex. He prayed silently for Monty and the girl who’d been abducted.
Logan wanted to look at Alex, to take her hand again. But he couldn’t do it. She was trying to be strong. He needed to be strong too. To help her. Right now, he kept thinking about what he would say to his family. How could he tell them he’d been infected with a deadly virus? They’d all made it through COVID-19. Now this. At least they all had a strong faith. His mother was an intercessor. She spent more time on her knees than anyone he’d ever known.
Comfort and peace settled over him.
After what seemed like an eternity, the man looking at the broken vial stood, then nodded at his partner, who moved to the bottom of the stairs. He took off his hood, mask, and breathing apparatus, then called up to someone. “Come on down.”
“You shouldn’t do that,” Logan said to the man, shocked. “You can’t be sure you’re safe in here.”
“I’m fine.”
Then the other guy removed his gear too. He lifted fuel and matches from a nearby shelf. Dumbfounded, Logan watched as he filled one of the lanterns and then lit it. He was just about to ask what was happening when someone came down the stairs.
Harrison.
“Sir, what’s going on?” Logan asked.
“This virus could be dangerous,” Alex added. “You all need to—”
“It’s inactive,” Harrison said. “There’s no danger.”
“What do you mean?” Logan asked. “I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain it to you later. Just know you’re not in danger.” He looked at Alex. “You’re going to the hospital, though. You too, Logan. Just to be safe.”
Logan didn’t know what to say. He looked at Alex, who had a strange smile on her face.