14
Michael was still standing outside his house when the SUVs pulled up, and men in black fatigues spilled out of the vehicle and stood at the ready. Michael looked relaxed, but on the inside, he was tense. J was not going to be happy the woman had been in his possession and she’d gotten away. And then, there was Senora. J seemed to have a vested interest in keeping Senora away from the world of shifters. She’d gotten close on her own a few times, and when Ty popped up as a consultant, J had decided to let it play out and see if it kept her away from whatever he was trying to protect her from. But that had backfired too, and it seemed that Senora was drawn to shifters and, more specifically, to Ty. Everyone could see it, but J still insisted on bringing her into the office and keeping her as far away from shifters as possible.
Having Senora interview Naomi had been an utter disaster. No one knew that the agent who had picked her up would bring her to the office instead of the hospital. They’d had a plan to grab Naomi from the hospital, but she’d insisted that she was fine and wanted to talk to an agent as soon as possible. Senora was usually the agent that would handle a circumstance like that, and Agent Patterson hadn’t been in the office to stop it before the encounter had happened. No one knew why he was so worried about protecting Senora, but it was becoming an issue.
Not that Michael was going to tell him. And he doubted any other bear would stand up and challenge J.
When the man finally stepped out of the SUV, he and Michael locked eyes, and Michael met him halfway. J was older than he’d been the last time Michael had seen him, but he was still the fierce, powerful presence that he’d always been.
Michael put his hand out, and J took it, but there were no pleasantries.
“How did she get away?” J asked. “More importantly, how did she end up here?”
“A friend found her on the side of the road, blubbering about being chased by bears,” he lied. “When he called me, I had him bring her here. By the time I put two and two together, she’d slipped out of the car and disappeared.”
J stood there in silence for a moment, and Michael was sure the man was going to call bullshit on his explanation. But, if he knew that Senora was involved, Michael was sure he would have asked how Senora was involved instead of the way he’d phrased the question. It was a gamble, but Michael wasn’t going to change his story now.
He waited for J to digest what he’d said, and when the older man finally nodded, he was relieved.
One bullet dodged. Now to figure out where Naomi had gone and help the bears find her.
“Do you have a map of the area?” J asked. “Preferably satellite so we can see the lay of the land and rule out as many directions as possible.”
“Of course, sir,” Michael said.
He led the way into his home and used a wireless keyboard to pull up the latest satellite map of the area surrounding his property onto the massive flat screen that took up half of one wall in his living room.
“How recent is this one?” J asked.
“It’s the up to the minute one,” Michael said, then realized he sounded boastful, but he couldn’t help it.
He’d worked hard to bypass the software that kept the public a full two years behind and kept the country safe from foreign enemies that might seek to use the satellite images to strategically destroy their country.
“Good,” J said. “Now, tell me, how long was she gone before we arrived?”
“No more than an hour.”
“That’s good. She can’t have gone far, and I’m sure she’s exhausted from surviving the past few days.”
J took the keyboard from the end table Michael had set it on and used his finger to draw areas on the map.
“Team one, you’ll take this area and work your way away from the house. Team two, start here and work your way out, team three, you take the area across the highway to the south.” He looked at Hank and Tristan. “The two of you are going to go with Michael. I don’t know what your issue is, but because of your insubordination, this woman now knows our secret. We had a hell of a time getting her where she was already, and she has fought reprogramming from day one. We don’t need any more complications with her case. I’m not going to have my reputation ruined by two hotheads that can’t keep their egos in check.”
Tristan and Hank looked apologetic, but neither man said anything. J nodded, then turned back to Michael.
“I’ll stay here. It’s a strong woman that can thwart so many and still manage to get away from the best and brightest even when they know she’s a flight risk. I want to meet this woman in person before you fix her. There’s something special about her, and I’m wondering if I can add her to my unit.”
“Doesn’t her family want her back?” Michael asked.
J shrugged.
“She can work out of the Spokane office. There’s no reason she can’t work with us. Look at what she’s been through, and she’s still going. Even if she had help, she’s still beyond anyone or anything we’ve seen in a long time.”
J’s implication was clear, but Michael decided not to acknowledge the implication that Naomi had not been working alone. For the most part, Naomi had been completely alone in her journey, and Michael was going to stick with that story until his dying breath.
The men gathered together in their groups, and Michael went over the plan with the two men that had been assigned to him. He made no mention of their personal issues, instead mapping out the difficulties of the terrain they’d be heading out on. They were the smallest group, but it didn’t matter. Michael was determined to get this woman back to the Campus and get her well again. There was the matter about the little girl, but they would deal with that when they caught Naomi. Matt Baker was a monster, and they wouldn’t be the good guys if they left a toddler to fend for herself just because the woman who had raised her wasn’t her biological mother. Little Evie had no one except Naomi. Whether Naomi would still feel that way when she regained her memory and went back to being herself again was anyone’s guess. But they would take care of everyone involved, and they would take down HUB in the process. They hadn’t been ready yet, but Naomi was forcing their hand, and they had more information now than they ever had. It was time to take down the giant. The trial and the media coverage were sure to be sensational, and after watching the story unfold, it would be a long time before the public trusted their neighbors again.
It was probably for the best, but Michael couldn’t help but wonder how many people would be completely blindsided by all this. It wasn’t just the cult or the fact that your nice, helpful neighbor down the street could be bait for a group like HUB. And women like Naomi Martin fell into the trap all the time.
But Heartsong had gotten more than they bargained for with Naomi, and her strength and wit were too much for the Program. Naomi had retained a piece of herself somehow, and when she’d needed to be Naomi and push Jessica Baker to the side, she had done just that. She was confused now, but it would all fall into place, and Michael hoped that Naomi would thank them for their efforts in the end.
“Let’s get going,” Michael said, leading the two men out the back door and across the field to the woods behind his house.
Of all the places she could have gone, this one was the least likely. Going west or east would have taken her through the woods and directly to the highway they had used to come to Michael’s house. Since she was awake and aware of the highway, it made sense that she would head to the road and make her way back toward D.C. on foot until she was sure it was safe for her to hitchhike. Then, she would head back to her house, and who knew what she had planned? If she was anything like Michael imagined she was, then she would go straight to the Baker house to take Evie. Or she would go to the press and make sure everyone knew what kind of man Matt really was, ensuring that no one would ever doubt that she was the victim in all this.
Going north would take her to another road eventually, but she would spend most of the night in the woods in the dark. There weren’t too many wild predators in the woods on his property because Michael routinely ran the acreage behind his house on four paws, and that had scared so many of the indigenous predators away. It was as if his scent carried for miles, and he didn’t mind the quiet. But he doubted that Naomi would go this way, and they were only going to rule out this direction. He was expecting his cell phone to ring any minute to inform him that she’d been found. This wouldn’t take long. After all, she was only one woman, and there were eighteen bears in the woods looking for her. She’d gotten away from the original six, but she was truly alone this time, and she was grossly outnumbered.
Michael walked into the woods with Tristan and Hank following behind him. They stayed in human form, trying not to scare Naomi any more than she already was. She’d been through hell, and she was halfway through deprogramming when she’d escaped. She was fragile, and anything could send her into the depths of her own broken mind. They didn’t want to risk that. Naomi was too special.
“Any sign of her?” one of the men asked quietly.
Michael shook his head. There was no sign of the woman, and they’d already covered a quarter of a mile. She should have left some kind of trail, but it was looking more and more like she had gone another route. Still, until his cell phone vibrated in his pocket, he was going to assume that she could be in this section of the woods.
The fog was still dense, though it was finally settling in amongst the trees and leaving the trail open and visible. The ground was damp from the fog hanging over it for so long, and as they continued, Michael looked at the now clear path and held his hand up suddenly to signal the other two men to stop.
He squatted down and examined the footprint in the thin layer of damp dirt. It wasn’t a very big shoeprint, but it was obviously a hiking shoe. The treads didn’t show any signs of wear, which led Michael to believe that the shoes were relatively new. He held his own foot beside the print, and his foot was nearly twice the size. This was definitely a woman’s footprint.
The prints continued into the forest. After signaling the two men silently, Michael followed the trail that Naomi had inadvertently left behind. He thought about alerting J, but judging by the footprints, they weren’t that far behind her, and he didn’t want the light from the cell phone to alert her to his presence. The length of her stride suggested that she was running, so there was no way she could hear them over her own breathing and heartbeat. Michael and his men had the upper hand, and he didn’t want to lose the element of surprise with this one. She was too shrewd to let his guard down for one minute. They were going to play this like they would capturing one of their own. That was the only way that this was going to go as planned.
Naomi was good, but Michael was better.
Michael picked up the pace and the two men behind him followed suit. They scanned the right and the left sides of the trail, and Michael kept his eyes locked straight ahead. She was close, and they were going to find her.
He faltered a little when he saw something cut across his line of vision straight ahead. The trail curved there, and he was surprised that she didn’t have a better lead. But he didn’t jog faster. She wasn’t that far ahead, and even though he’d only caught a glimpse of her, she didn’t appear to be frantic. That meant that she didn’t know that she was being followed, and he wanted to keep it that way.
He signaled to the men again, his steps easy and light. Michael didn’t bother to turn his head to see if the two men agreed to his silent orders. J had put them on notice for their behavior earlier in the day, and they would be on their best behavior no matter what at this point, or they would be looking for another job.
The trail curved, then straightened for quite some distance. When Michael peered into the darkness ahead and saw the source of the flash of Naomi he thought he’d seen, he cursed under his breath. Well ahead of him on the trail was a lone deer, and with the foggy air, he’d mistaken the doe for Naomi.
But that didn’t change the fact that he had seen boot prints in the forest, and despite his mistake, Naomi was in the woods. Somewhere.
“Maybe we should call in reinforcements,” a voice whispered behind him.
“No,” Michael said, turning and glaring at the man. “She’s here somewhere, and I’m sure the three of us can deal with one suburban housewife.”
He turned back to face the trail, but before he could take another step, he heard a strange sound like liquid gushing out in a sea of foam, and then suddenly, his face was on fire and he couldn’t breathe.
He hit his knees and gagged, trying to call out to the other men. When the sound came again, he heard the other two men hit their knees and begin to retch.
Bear spray, Michael thought in anger. Where had she gotten bear spray, and why was she using it on them?
No sooner had he asked the question than he was hit with another shot. He gasped and writhed, angry that she hadn’t sprayed them and ran, but also impressed with her skills. Most women that were able to subdue an attacker ran too soon and were quickly caught. By staying and spraying them again, she ensured that they would be struggling to breathe long enough for her to disappear into the woods. She was smarter than they’d given her credit for, and she was getting away.
Tears streamed down Michael’s face, but he was unable to open his tortured eyes. He reached into his pocket, trying to get the phone out and somehow dial J without being able to see his touch screen. Without a standard keypad to feel around, he couldn’t even find the numbers to unlock the phone. He was stuck until he could see again, and he didn’t think that was going to happen any time soon.
He was gagging and coughing now, his body struggling to rid itself of the burning spray as he wheezed loudly. Naomi was long gone, but she could probably still hear them. The other men were taking the bear spray better than most would, but they were in pain, and they weren’t in any better shape than he was.
“Naomi!” he yelled in a last-ditch effort to convince her to stop running. “We’re trying to help you.”
But his words bounced off the trees and went flat into the fog. Even if Naomi had heard him, she was on a mission, and she wasn’t going to stop and chat with her would-be captors. She was a woman on a mission, and Michael had underestimated her big time.
*
Senora was packed and doublechecking her locks, making sure that the oven she’d never used was off when her doorbell rang.
She tensed, pulling a gun out of one of her kitchen drawers and moving along the wall to the door with it by her side. It was really early in the morning, and even though she didn’t need to leave for the airport for a few hours, she couldn’t help the excitement that had found her awake at dawn and packed a few hours later. But her driver wouldn’t be at the apartment until noon, and it wasn’t even ten yet.
“Who is it?” she called out.
“It’s Ty,” came a familiar voice.
She let him in, wrinkling her nose and giving him a look of confusion.
“I thought you were going to let me decide,” she said, gesturing to the suitcases that were in the hall. “Didn’t you trust me?”
“We’re going to have to miss that flight,” Ty said.
“What? Why?”
“Naomi got away from the bears.”
“Which bears?”
“All of them. She disabled Michael and two others with bear spray, then she managed to find someone driving down the road to pick her up. She could be anywhere by now, and J called me this morning and asked me to bring you in to help.”
“Why didn’t he call me?”
“Your work phone is off, and you left your personal phone in the Jeep,” he said with a wry grin, handing her phone over.
“How did he get your number?”
“I’d imagine he knows more about me than I care to think about.”
“I guess. So, what’s the plan?”
“We’re the plan. They’re at a loss. They don’t know what to do with this woman, and they have no idea where she could have gone.”
“That’s easy,” Senora said. “She’s going home to get Evie.”
“That’s what I thought, but Evie is at daycare today, and she hasn’t shown up there.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know that Evie is there today. She’s going to show up at the house at some point, because she can’t just let him have Evie. Even if she doesn’t know who she is, her love for that little girl has been enough to sustain her this entire time.”
“That’s why they need you,” Ty said. “You’re the only one that gets her, and you’re the only one that has a chance of finding her and bringing her in before something awful happens.”
“Do they have men stationed in the likely places?”
“They do. They also have men looking for Matt Baker.”
“Looking for him?”
“He dropped Evie off at daycare today, but he didn’t show up for work.”
“Do you think she has him already?”
“I don’t think so, but with Naomi, we can’t be too sure. Every time we’ve let our guard down with her, she’s gotten away. You should see what she did to Michael and the other two men.”
“Can you blame her? She doesn’t know who she can trust, and she doesn’t understand what’s going on. This has got to be like living in a nightmare for her. I wouldn’t trust anyone if I were her either.”
“You’re right. I just feel awful for Michael. He took two full shots to the face, one when he was already down. It’s exponentially stronger than pepper spray, and I only had it in case I had to bring in a less than cooperative shifter that I couldn’t get close enough to give a shot to.”
Senora let her head fall back and groan.
“Of course,” she said. “It was in the backpack she took.”
“Yep.”
Senora looked at him, his tone setting off alarm bells that she couldn’t quiet.
“Why did you say it like that? What else has she got in that bag?”
“My gun.”
Senora couldn’t believe what he’d said, but she didn’t ask him to repeat it. Naomi had a gun. She was in the middle of a psychotic break brought on by WereBears who were unbrainwashing her, if there was such a thing, and trying to restore the person she once was. It sounded insane to Senora; she couldn’t imagine how Naomi felt. Naomi, who still thought that she was the late Jessica Baker, and who believed with all her heart that a monster had her little girl and that she was the only one who could save Evie.
They were screwed.
“I’ll get my keys,” she said, looking longingly at her bags and back at Ty.
“I was going to go,” she said.
“It looks like you woke up bright and early to pack,” he said. “Don’t worry; the islands aren’t going anywhere.”
“But our plane is.”
“There’ll be other planes,” he said, kissing her quickly, then walking past her and grabbing her car keys off the hook.
“What are you doing?” she asked, but she already knew.
“I need you looking for Naomi,” he lied with a grin on his face. “Which means that I’ll have to drive.”
She rolled her eyes.
“That must be such a sacrifice for you.”
“A terrible one,” he laughed, then followed her out into the garage.
“Wait,” Senora said, running back into the house and returning a minute later. “You can take this one; I have extra.”
“How many guns do you have in this house?” he asked.
“Eleven,” she said sheepishly. “It’s my job.”
Ty laughed and shook his head, then got into the driver’s seat and pulled out of the garage carefully.
“We should start at the Baker house,” Senora said. “Is someone picking up Evie?”
“Not right now. They’re watching to see if Baker shows up. If he does, they’re going to pick him up on attempted murder charges and a laundry list of other charges and keep him from picking up their daughter.”
“What about his mother?”
“His mother?”
“What if she picks up Evie instead?”
“Terry Baker died before Evie was born,” Ty said. “The only family Matt Baker has is Evie and Naomi when she believed she was his dead wife.”
“Someone else had Evie when Naomi was picked up. We need to find out who that woman is and keep an eye out for her.”
Ty handed Senora his phone as he drove the Audi skillfully around the tight corners, taking them a little faster than Senora would like, but the car held the turns as if they were creeping around the corner instead.
“Call Michael and let him know about this woman. They’ll check her out and see if they can get info on her. Evie is still in daycare, and if five rolls around and Baker hasn’t come to get her, they’ll take Evie then.”
Senora nodded. When Michael answered the phone, his voice was hoarse and he sounded like breathing was still horribly painful. She didn’t mince words, explaining the situation quickly, then hanging up when she was certain that Michael understood. She couldn’t tell with his voice sounding like that, but she was sure that he was as concerned with the child’s safety as Senora was, and that made her feel a little better. She didn’t need to be worrying about the child when she had an armed woman and a would-be killer missing in the city. There was already enough that could go wrong, and she didn’t want any more on her plate than necessary.
“He’s got it,” Senora told Ty. “Now, we just have to find Naomi and hope that she’s not falling apart somewhere.”
“That’s one of the things that I was worried about. Reprogramming is hard on most people, but it seems like Naomi’s brain fights it more than most. She’s strong, and in this case, that’s working against her. Naomi was already starting to break through when she was waking up, and now that she’s on the run, there’s no telling what she’s remembered and what she thinks she’s remembering.”
“She told me that she was being kept in a dog kennel in a dark room with other women when she escaped.”
“The Campus is nothing like that,” Ty said.
“You’ve been there?”
“Only once, but it’s like a spa. There are individual rooms, and each room is decorated with the patient’s favorite colors and textures. There’s no television because the simplest thing can jog a memory, and they can’t risk that during the treatments.”
“Why not?”
“Because they go in steps so that the mind doesn’t break. HUB has gotten brainwashing its insta-wives down to the tiniest detail, and fixing that takes time. Naomi was only about halfway done. Whatever set her off and made her remember something from one of her pasts created a crack and sent her running. They have to fix that, then gradually put what made Naomi, Naomi, back together.”
“How do they do that? It’s not like they have people’s brains backed up on a flash drive somewhere. Do they?”
Ty burst out laughing, and Senora immediately felt foolish.
“I’m sorry; I shouldn’t laugh. I’m just not used to you jumping on the conspiracy train and leaving the station that quickly.”
“Being around you has taught me that this world is crazier than I ever imagined.”
“They don’t have people’s brains backed up on flash drives, but they do have a map of Naomi’s brain.”
“Isn’t it just a map of her new identity?”
“Nope. The computer scans new pathways and pulls those out of the map from the newest back, monitoring the memory to make sure that they don’t go too far back.”
“They can see the memories?”
“The computer reads the impulse and is able to generate an estimation of what that memory entails. It’s not an exact science, but I’ve hooked up to the machine for fun, and the memories it recovered were of people I remembered but events that I didn’t for whatever reason. It was a strange experience, and now I remember this one time I went swimming when I was three, even though I’m thirty now. Since I remembered it in the past five years, it’s as fresh as it was when I was eight or nine.”
“That is weird,” Senora said, then went quiet.
Ty glanced in her direction, took one look at her face and shook his head.
“No. That’s not a good idea.”
“Don’t you wonder what happened to me before I was found?”
“Senora, you know what happens to people like you when they’re kidnapped. Do you really want to relive that?”
“Do I have to relive it to get to the memories from before?”
“I don’t know,” Ty said. “But if you do, I don’t think it would be worth it. It’s much too risky.”
“They did it to Naomi.”
“They did it for Naomi, to reverse what was done to her to turn her into someone she’s not.”
“What about the other women?”
“All the victims of Heartsong United Believers that have been rescued so far have benefitted from this treatment.”
“It sounds like a church: Heartsong United Believers. It sounds like a place that is welcoming and loving.”
“It’s a cult. We call it HUB for short. They recruit people through a dating app on smart phones.”
“Are you serious? How does that even work?”
“People sign up and take a long quiz that asks them for answers to questions that they would never answer otherwise. They’re weeded out, and they’re matched with a potential mate. That person is a headhunter, and they date potential victims to make sure they’re good candidates.”
“Who ever thought Naomi was a good candidate? She doesn’t appear to be the ideal victim.”
“That’s true, but Naomi was handpicked for Matt Baker. Baker is higher up in the cult, and when his wife died in childbirth, the community wasn’t told. Because Baker is one of the mystics, and if he couldn’t stop his wife from dying in childbirth, then people might stop believing.”
“Matt Baker is one of the mystics? Are you saying that he has the charisma to convince people to give up everything and join a cult?”
“Did you see how big New Edmonton is?”
“The entire neighborhood?”
“Yes. They’re all members.”
“Are all the women-”
“No. Many of them are there because they chose to be. The app is used to trap men and women, and a believer is gifted their soulmate, hand-chosen by David, the supreme leader, himself.”
“Don’t tell me that’s Matt?”
“It’s not.”
“So, why Naomi?”
“Because she looks exactly like Jessica Baker. They could almost be twins.”
“That’s sick,” Senora said with disgust. “Had he no respect for his dead wife?”
“He did, but part of the illusion requires him to hold up a certain façade.”
“This is so crazy. How does this sort of thing happen here?”
It just does. People have to find new and creative ways to trick people into joining their cult. As people learn about the other cults that have failed or where members have committed mass suicides, they get smarter. They learn to spot the warning signs. So, groups like HUB change their methods, and they gain followers. For every trick that’s exposed to the public, there are hundreds more tricks. They’re always three steps ahead, and part of what the Campus does is help the victims break free from the manipulation.”
“So, they don’t all need these crazy brain scans and these insane treatments like Naomi?”
“No. This group actually uses machines and a medical expert to turn the victims into the people they need to be to help the flock grow. But for the most part, the cults that are operating in this country use the standard power of suggestion, peer pressure and gaslighting to force their members into doing things they wouldn’t otherwise do. Most of those people can return home within a week or two without any lasting effects.”
“How long was Naomi at the Campus?”
“Almost a month, and she was just over halfway through. She’s one tough nut to crack, and I think that’s what made her turn on Matt. He wasn’t prepared for that, and his carefully constructed lie came crashing down.”
“So, he had her kidnapped?”
“No,” Ty shook his head. “He hired someone to kidnap and kill her and make it look like human trafficking.”
“But he actually hired the bears?”
“Exactly. They had eyes on Naomi and Baker, waiting for a good time to swoop in. When they fought and Matt left the house in a huff, we put someone undercover to offer him a way out that would save face. He bought it without a second thought.”
“Poor Naomi.”
“We’ll find her, Senora. And she’ll get the help she needs to go back to her old life.”
“But the program? Won’t it erase the memories from New Edmonton?”
“Yes and no. She’ll remember it, but the feelings that are attached to the memories will be gone. It’s like watching a movie you don’t care about. She’ll see things that happened, though her brain will block the uncomfortable parts out. She’ll know about most of it, but she’ll be indifferent.”
“And Evie will have no one left in this world that loves her as fiercely as Jessica did.” Senora swiped at a tear that escaped when the realization hit her. She wished she hadn’t said it out loud, but it was too late. “What’s going to happen to her?”
“She’ll go into the system, and she’ll be adopted out of this area. We don’t have enough to take the entire cult down, and unless Matt starts talking, there won’t be enough. We can’t risk Evie being adopted by one of them.”
“But aren’t they everywhere? They found Naomi in Spokane.”
“They’re based here. The headhunters are doing a sick kind of mission to recruit more people. When they stop being effective, they’re brought in, and the next wave is sent out.”
Ty turned down the road that led to the neighborhood where Matt Baker and the other believers lived, completely separate from the rest of the world. Senora’s stomach turned as people passing by waved at her. Their community was so big that they assumed anyone on these streets belonged, which somehow made it worse. It was like being surrounded by insanity, and Senora was the only one that knew the truth.
She would never look at the world in the same way again after this.
They pulled up and stopped in front of Baker’s house. Senora didn’t have to look hard to spot the surveillance team that was watching the house, but she didn’t acknowledge them out of habit. She checked her gun and put it back in her holster, then she took a deep breath before she got out of the car. The house looked empty, but that didn’t mean anything. They were walking in blind, and Naomi could be anywhere.