Final Crossing: A Novel of Suspense (34 page)

Rudiger grunted as the cross slowly began its ascent. The top of the crucifix angled upwards as the base slipped soundly into the hole in the ground. When the cross was almost fully upright, it slid the rest of the way into its base with a soft
thunk
, shuddered for a few seconds, then was still.

Rudiger yanked the rope, freeing it from the pulley, then walked over to the far corner of the room.

The light on his head went out.

Total darkness inside the room, save the few gaps near the taped doors and windows where sunlight managed to crawl in for a few feet before dying.

Then the brilliance of a spotlight. The light stunned

Jonas, almost forcing his gaze away.

But he couldn’t look away.

The light shot directly onto Stages, angling down at him from the ceiling, seeming to sear into his fleshy, naked form. The white hot light made his blood brown, and the smears of it across his chest, arms, face and thighs looked like mud.

His weight made him sag, tearing at the holes in his wrists and feet. Still he did not wake, but he was alive. His knees slumped and his chest strained against the force. His lungs screamed to breathe. The man was asphyxiating.

Jonas couldn’t look away. This was fucking real. He could see it.
Smell
it. What was happening to Stages would happen to Sidams. And then to Jonas.

“Rudiger!” Jonas screamed. He struggled again in his chair to no use. “Rudiger!”

Out of the darkness Rudiger appeared, just feet away, a ghost materializing. He wore only his underwear, grey-cotton briefs soaked through with sweat. Blood covered his hands and sprinkled his face. He used his right hand to push the sweat up to the top of his scalp, leaving behind a crimson stain, making him look like some kind of albino warrior.

He stared at Jonas for long time, but did not speak.

Jonas knew he could not beg for his life. There was no point.

“Tell me where she is,” he said. “At least tell me. Even if she’s going to die, tell me where she is.”

Rudiger said nothing.

Finally he disappeared back into the darkness.

Moments later, his headlamp burst once again to life. Rudiger walked over to the center of the room and picked up the hammer from the floor.

Then he walked to the far side of the room, which had been ensconced in darkness the whole time. The light from his head arrived at the destination first, and that’s when Jonas saw the Senator on the ground, tied to his own cross. The light pointed to the floor and Jonas saw the collection of spikes lined up next to the Senator’s leg.

“No!” Jonas yelled.

And then he heard Sidams speak.

“It’s all right, Jonas,” the Senator called out. Jonas heard the strain in his voice, but the words still seemed calm. Surely the Senator watched what had happened to Stages. But he didn’t beg for mercy. Instead, he said simply to his captor, “I can’t pretend to understand why you would want to do this, so I won’t. You just killed one of my dear friends, and now I suppose it’s time for me.” He coughed violently before continuing. “I guess if there’s anything I could do or say to make you stop, now’s the time.” He paused, and the room was silent. “All right, then,” he continued. “I just hope you keep your promise and let that young girl go. No reason she has to die.”

Rudiger spoke, his words grumbled and unintelligible to

Jonas.

There was more silence. Then Rudiger kneeled at the

Senator’s left arm and positioned the spike over his wrist.

“I’ll get help!” Jonas shouted. “I swear to God I will get help.”

Sidams’s voice shook. “You just take care of yourself, Jonas. And make sure you get your girlfriend out of this mess.”

“Yes, sir,” Jonas said. He didn’t want to watch, so he wouldn’t. But nothing he could do would keep him from hearing.

The Senator managed a few words.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; He makes me lie down in—”

The screaming started.

TWENTY MINUTES
later the Senator took his place next to Stages. Upright and wrapped in a loincloth. Bleeding and illuminated. Drooling. His hair matted into sweaty clumps, stuck to his forehead. Left ear gone, also discarded to the floor. The Senator was still conscious, remarkably, though only enough to loll his head from side to side. Every millimeter of movement must be excruciating, Jonas thought. Every breath labored. Every hope diminished.

Jonas watched as Rudiger stood back and surveyed his work. Stages, most likely dead. Sidams, struggling against shock and blood loss. He was a tough man, Jonas thought. But he cannot possibly survive long in that state.

“Dismas and Gestas,” Rudiger said.

Jonas had tried to free himself while the Senator was being crucified. It had been of little use, though it kept Jonas from focusing all his energy on the pain being inflicted on his friend. Still, his chest had more room for movement than just twenty minutes ago.

“It’s just a coincidence,” Jonas said. “It’s just their names. Nothing more.”

“I do not believe in coincidences, Lieutenant,” Rudiger said.

“What
do
you believe in?”

Rudiger turned to Jonas, his headlamp shining directly into Jonas’s eyes.

“Would think it’d be pretty evident by now.”

The Senator coughed, wet, hacking. Blood oozed from his mouth and slid down his chin, hanging off him in a viscous rope, then dropping onto the floor.

Jonas closed his eyes, squeezing them shut for just a moment. Losing himself inside his head. Preparing himself.

“Dismas and Gestas,” Jonas said, opening his eyes. “What did they do?”

“They were thieves.”

“You think those men are thieves?”

“Don’t much matter what I think.”

“It does to me.”

“Why?”

“Because if I’m going to die, I want to understand it.” Rudiger walked out of the pools of light and again into the dark. Jonas, immobile, had the sense of a night swimmer in the ocean, a shark circling beneath. Seconds later a third spotlight burst into light, holding a tight circle next to Jonas. A third cross lay in the center of the light, its beams nicked and marked in a torrent of symbols and letters. Jonas had no idea what any of it meant.

Rudiger’s pale and bloodied form emerged into the light, the shark breaching the surface of the icy waters.

“Who said you’re gonna die?” he said.

Jonas exhaled and pushed the rope outward. Inhaling, he guessed the slack. Half an inch, maybe. Not enough. Not enough to do anything. Except whatever he wants me to do.

“I’m not holding out a lot of hope here.”

Rudiger bent down and picked up the mallet, its head chipped and scarred from use. “There’s always hope, Lieutenant. You should know that.”

“Is there?”

Rudiger smiled. “You survived the Mog. That was more hope than you gave yourself credit for.” He held the mallet loosely, swinging it back and forth, a pendulum slowly making its rounds. “Almost had you again outside your apartment. Probably didn’t have too much hope then neither.”

“You didn’t want to kill me then.”

“No. No, sir, I surely did not. Don’t know exactly what I wanted, just knew you had something to do with it. I didn’t have the answers then.”

Jonas pulled his right arm and felt the rope loosen a fraction.

“You have the answers now?”

“I do. I most certainly do.”

“What’s the question?”

“Question of salvation.”

“You saving yourself?”

Rudiger bent forward and grinned. “Saving
all
of us.”

“Where’s Anne?”

“She’s dying.”

“Where is she? Is she close?”

“Close enough to save her. If you can follow instructions.”

“I can.”

He straightened. “Thought so. Knew I could count on you.”

“I can’t do much for her nailed to a cross.”

Jonas looked over at the Ambassador. In the garish light, he could see the man was already turning blue. His ankles swelled with blood.

The Senator let out a low, hollow moan.

Rudiger walked forward and knelt in front of Jonas. Jonas could smell him, the musk of work. Stench of death. Brutality. Purpose. He reached forward with long fingers, nails bitten to the core. Hand on Jonas’s shoulder.

“That cross ain’t for you.”

HORROR STRUCK
Jonas, a twisted fist shoved deep inside, pulling and tearing.

“Don’t,” he said. “I’m begging you. Don’t do this to her.” He had to stop him. He could not watch him do to Anne what he just did to the Senator. Jonas could not watch her die. Not like that. Not in any way. “
Goddamnit
, you said you’d let her go!”

Rudiger stood and smiled, his lips twisted and tight. “You’re all sorts of panic, sir. All sorts.
Hooah.
”

Jonas recalled the voice on the phone.
Hooah.
That felt like centuries ago. He pushed against the rope again. He thought it gave a bit more, but more likely it was his hope outwitting reality. He had to keep trying.

Rudiger disappeared once again into the dark. When he returned, an unlit cigarette dangled off his lower lip. He reached up with cupped hands and lit it, blowing smoke through flared nostrils.

“That is
so
good,” he said. “Think maybe I’ll even have two.”

He smoked silently as Jonas watched him, pushing with his legs and chest against the ropes. The room filled with a haze, the smoke floating in and out of the spotlights, making everything look like a stage production rather than the site of a mass killing. As Rudiger was nearly done with his first smoke he began to speak.

“Preacherman came to me for a reason. God’s will. Preacherman stole me from myself, him and the whore. They took and took until there was nothing left, and when he finally had his fill I killed him. My first blood. Wish I got her too, but I didn’t. She disappeared like smoke and I never did see her again.” He flicked ash to the floor. “That’s okay. I found her lookalike back in Cleveland, so that felt pretty all right feeling my fists on her.” He looked at Jonas, staring deep into him. “But it was supposed to be that way, don’t you see, sir? Preacherman was
supposed
to do what he did, because all God wanted was for me to learn, and learn I did from him. God gave focus to the desires I have. God gave me direction. God gave me a
mission
. Otherwise who knows what sorts of havoc I might have wreaked in my life.”

Then he fell silent.

Jonas thought the rope was stretched just enough so he might be able to free one arm, but not without a lot of struggle. With Rudiger in front of him, he couldn’t do anything about it.

Then he did as Jonas hoped—walked into the dark. Jonas strained and pulled against the ropes, feeling them dig and burn into his skin, trying to be as quiet as he could. He saw the Senator lift his head and look in his direction, but wasn’t sure if there was enough light for Sidams to see him. Jonas was able to move his right arm up a couple of inches, but the ropes were too high on his chest to slip his arm free. He needed more slack.

Seconds later, Rudiger returned to the light. A freshly lit cigarette occupied his mouth. A hunting knife dangled from his right hand. The blade was stained with the blood of ears.

“Then I remembered something else. This time it was my daddy. I was on the beach. He took me out into the water.” Long, slow drag. Exhale. Eyes closed. “Don’t much matter about the details. But what matters is what he said to me.”

Jonas felt the sweat tickle his neck. “What did he say to you?”

“He said, ‘I am pleased with you.’” He looked at Jonas. “You don’t understand, do you?”

“No. I don’t.”

“You read the Bible?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s why, then.” Rudiger was silent for many minutes. His voiced seemed to echo when he resumed. “Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’ Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.”

Jonas sensed a vague familiarity but nothing more.

“All I needed to do was remember the time before the Preacherman. That one memory of my time in the water with my daddy.” Rudiger’s gaze burned into him. “Don’t you see, Lieutenant? It was jes like Jesus with John.
Jes like that
.”

Fire-eyed and smoke pouring from his nose, Rudiger walked up to Jonas. Down on one knee. Cigarette dropped to the ground. Rudiger lifted his knife and dug deep into Jonas with his gaze.

“Time to go to the wilderness.” Then he cut the ropes off.

RUDIGER STANDS
back and looks at him. Ropes cut and twisted on the floor. Jonas doesn’t move.