“Was Jefferson an Illuminatus?” Stone asked. Jefferson’s political opponents had accused him of not only being connected to the clandestine society, but claimed that he was the head of the American sect of the Illuminati. They had even claimed that, if elected President, he and his fellow intellectuals would strip Americans of their religious freedoms and property rights.
“Not as far as I know. At times, he was forced to be their creature, but he tried to confound them as often as he could. Some of the clues Lewis followed were taken from an artifact discovered in a secret Illuminate temple in Virginia that Jefferson’s men raided. A runestone, I believe.”
Stone nodded, remembering the temple he and Alex had discovered.
“What happened after Lewis discovered the canyon?” Trinity said.
“The Illuminati found the creatures on their own, so Lewis kept his silence. As it turned out, the Madoc story was a cover. They had fully expected to find some form of intelligent ape or primitive human living in the West, and planned to study and experiment upon them.”
“What sorts of experiments?” Trinity asked.
“Blood transfusions, organ transplants, dissections, cross-breeding with the local native population.” Ward listed them with the casual indifference of a husband reading his shopping list aloud to the store clerk. “A group of Illuminati remained behind to conduct their experiments, and their names were expunged from the historical record.
“The experiments went nowhere and most of the men abandoned the project after a decade or so. But one man remained behind, a German immigrant named Gebhardt. He had married two native women and sired several children.”
“Two women?” Trinity scowled. She seemed more offended by that detail than the list of horrible experiments.
“Gebhardt brought his family in on the experiments and the work was passed down through the generations, the family becoming more secretive until only legend remained. That legend made its way to Mister Kane. We discovered the facility. One man was living here alone, trying to continue his family’s work, but he lacked the resources to do it well. The research conducted here was primitive, but we gained valuable insights which accelerated our timeline.”
“What happened to the man? Did you kill him?” Trinity asked.
“Hardly.” Ward laughed. “Last I heard, he is living in Germany with a lovely young wife.”
“So, you’ve resurrected all of the old Illuminati experiments?” Stone asked.
“After a fashion.” Ward blanched, hurried on. “But it is more humane. There is no more dissection.”
“Are you Illuminati?” Stone asked.
Ward made a small bob of the head.
“How about John Kane?” Trinity said.
Ward barked a laugh. “I am not important enough to have ever met John Kane, much less know his personal affiliations.”
“Who is the Worshipful Master?” Stone said quickly, trying to catch the man off guard. He succeeded.
Ward flinched, hesitated. “I don’t know.” He immediately held up his hands. “I’m telling the truth. He is so far above me in the order I will never know who he is. All I can tell you is John Kane is the butter and egg man, all the money comes from him, but the Worshipful Master calls the shots.”
Stone had a suspicion the two were one and the same.
“Did you abduct local women for your experiments?” Trinity demanded.
“The lumber camp acquires patients. I don’t ask about that. I am mostly a bookkeeper,” Ward said.
“A man was found beaten to death,” Trinity said. “Did your people do that or was it the Bigfoot?”
“I heard about that. He got drunk and wandered into the wrong area. Davis and his men dealt with them.”
“Were they responsible for causing the avalanche that nearly killed us?’ Stone asked.
“Probably. They have a man who goes around disguised as a Bigfoot and tries to discourage people from going places they shouldn’t.” Ward didn’t quite meet Stone’s eye.
“Show us the lab.” Stone’s words were calm, but inside he was raging.
Ward’s face went white as snow. He swayed, gulped, and cleared his throat. “No. I would be signing my own death warrant.”
Stone calmly laid his hand on Ward’s shoulder. With a sudden movement, he covered Ward’s mouth with his other hand, simultaneously digging the tips of his index and middle fingers into the man’s trapezius muscle in a spot near the spine. He gave a twist and Ward’s eyes bulged and he screamed into Stone’s hand. After a count of ten, Stone released the pressure, and Ward’s body sagged.
“I don’t know how they would kill you,” Stone whispered into the man’s ear, “but I can promise I will kill you slowly and painfully.”
Ward’s moment of resolve crumbled. He led them into the main area and up to an old, overstuffed armchair. He tipped it onto its side and the floor underneath it swung up along with it. Down below, a ladder descended to a lower level. From somewhere down below came a low, mournful wail. A woman called out for someone to help her, but her voice was weak and without hope.
“We have to get down there,” Trinity said.
“You go first. Then Ward. We’ll both be keeping an eye on you,” he said to the man.
The shaft they descended was made of hand-cut stone, fitted together with precision. The short hallway they found themselves in was constructed similarly. Bare light bulbs hung from a thick wife, giving off a weak glow.
“The Gebhardt family built this place. They maintained and improved it over the years. We built the space above and expanded on the laboratory beyond this next door.
They watched carefully as Ward removed a key ring from his belt, selected a key, and unlocked the door. He opened it, stepped inside, and beckoned for them to follow.
Stone stepped inside with Trinity hot on his heels. He knew immediately that he had made a mistake. The door slammed shut behind them and everything went black.
Interlude 7
In the ensuing days, Stone’s life fell into a pattern. Gideon alternated between attacking, feeding, and instructing him. All of it took place in the darkness. He quickly began to notice changes in himself.
His sense of hearing had been honed to a fine edge. Now, he could hear a single grain of sand fall to the floor. His sense of taste was now refined to the point where he could quickly distinguish which among several buckets of water had a single grain of salt added to it. He sharpened his sense of smell by making him identify ever-fainter scents from increasingly greater distances and enhanced his sense of learning to identify words carved in grains of rice.
He used the latter improved skill to explore his cell. He discovered that the floor was riddled with what felt like trapdoors. That was how Gideon came and went so easily. He took to waiting beside them, hoping to catch Gideon entering, but he always chose the wrong one.
There were also conversations, and not always with Gideon. There were three others — two men, and a woman. Stone eventually could identify them before they spoke, and he named them according to their most identifiable trait: Heavy Walker, Lip Smacker, and Curry Woman.
They engaged Stone in a wide range of discussions, but all the while they were picking him apart, forcing him to reveal his deepest fears, regrets, and shame. He knew exactly what they were doing, but he was desperate for human interaction, so he opened up in ways he never had before.
Stone was surprised to find the conversations brought him a measure of relief from the heavy burden of guilt he carried. He had never been much of a talker, which had created problems in his personal life. His old girlfriend, Trinity, had called him a ‘nut she was determined to crack’. Thinking of her brought back painful memories. Stone had cut her, and all the people he loved, out of his life for their own good.