Messiahs by Matt Rogers (bookstand for reading txt) 📕

He clicked off.

She stood in the centre of the airport terminal, letting waves of travellers stream past her. King noticed she wasn’t speaking into the phone anymore and approached.

He said, ‘Anything?’ even though he knew from her face what the answer would be.

She said, ‘We’re hunting a ghost.’

He said, ‘So I guess we’re doing this the old-fashioned way.’

‘Which is?’

‘We try to storm this cult by force and they’ll scurry away like ferrets. You know it, I know it. Slater might protest, but deep down he knows it too.’

She said, ‘What are you getting at?’

‘We need to pose as civilians and join the cause,’ King said. ‘It’s the only way.’

She was aware of that, but she didn’t want to acknowledge it. King and Slater were no strangers to deep cover — most of their operations serving the government had banked on the fact they were solo in the field, able to pretend to be anybody at the drop of a hat. But it had been some time since they’d gone this deep.

Especially with so many unknowns.

King saw her stewing. He said, ‘Can I tell you something?’

She said, ‘Of course.’

‘I don’t want you to have any part in this, but I know if I try to force you to bunker down in a motel while Slater and I handle business, you’ll only revolt. And it’s worse if you have to charge in with guns blazing to get us out of a messy situation. Better you’re with us from the jump, even though the last thing I want is to put our kid in harm’s way.’

She said, ‘Why are you telling me this?’

‘Because I want you to know that all I want is for you to get a one-way ticket back to Vegas and stay there. If you choose to do that, I’d be happier than anything.’

‘But then you’d be reckless,’ she said. ‘And you might drop the ball.’

He said, ‘I know.’

‘So I’m staying,’ she said. ‘This is my problem, too. I’m still in the first trimester. Nobody will need to know I’m pregnant, no matter how deep into the cult we go. Let’s infiltrate, sort out who’s in the upper echelon, and take them all out. Then we go back home, and we stay there until this child is here.’

King smiled. ‘I like the sound of that.’

They joined Slater and Alexis, who were standing politely off to one side, out of earshot, and the four of them went to board their connecting flight to Gillette.

But they split up well before they reached the boarding lounge. King and Slater peeled off, leaving Violetta and Alexis on their own.

All part of the plan they’d formed.

They had separate tasks to carry out in the town, separate covers to adopt.

And they didn’t put it past Mother Libertas to monitor incoming flights, ensure potential victims were genuine.

They boarded in pairs, pretending not to know each other.

Game time, King thought.

17

King and Slater checked into the Arbuckle Lodge to the east of Gillette, beside Camplex Park.

The three-storey hotel was a rustic amalgamation of logs and wooden planks — vintage Wyoming. They’d landed in the early morning, and now it was just after ten a.m. They’d collected their luggage from the baggage carousel at North East Wyoming Regional Airport and bled out of the terminal without so much as a second look at Violetta and Alexis, who were on the other side of the small building, gossiping like the backpackers they were pretending to be.

Now, King and Slater secured one of the largest rooms, with two king-sized beds and plenty of space.

The old woman at the reception desk said, ‘How many nights, sirs?’

Slater said, ‘Can we pay for three nights now with the option to extend?’

She smiled. ‘Of course, dear. Unsure how long you’ll be in town?’

King put his elbows on the desk, keeping his face open and warm. ‘Just finished a tour overseas, ma’am. We’re seeing which way the wind blows. Taking in as much of this beautiful country as we can. We’ve missed it.’

She instinctively responded with the necessary, ‘Thank you for your service,’ before tapping at her keyboard for a spell. Then she said, ‘I’ve given you a thirty percent discount. It’s not exactly the busy season right now. It’s the least I can do.’

King said, ‘Thank you kindly.’

Slater nudged him and said, ‘Fuck’s sakes, come on. Ain’t got all day.’

The receptionist fought to stop her face hardening, thrown off by the rudeness.

Good cop, bad cop.

They couldn’t both be polite. Their cover required them to seem slightly unhinged, after all.

She passed over a room key and looked over their IDs. ‘Jason Rake. Will Cousins. Pleasure to have you both.’

‘Happy to be here,’ King said with a smile.

Slater grunted and made for the grand staircase. He could feel her eyes burning a hole in his back the whole way across the foyer.

Upstairs, they found their room and stepped inside. It was warm, lit by yellow desk lamps.

Cosy.

Slater cocked his head to one side with a grimace. ‘I hate doing that.’

‘I doubt you’re the rudest customer she’s had in the last week.’

‘Even still,’ Slater said. ‘She was nice.’

King dumped his bag on one of the beds. ‘We’ve got time to kill.’

Slater went over the plan. ‘Stay in here all day like we’re creatures of the night, and then tonight you head out?’

King nodded. ‘You brought entertainment? It’ll be a long, boring day.’

‘Yeah,’ Slater said.

King half-expected him to pull out a paperback he’d picked up from the airport when King wasn’t watching, but instead Slater dropped to the carpeted floor and started hammering out push-ups on his fists.

King smiled and went to the bathroom to rinse off the grime from flying all night.

Over his shoulder, he heard Slater exhaling hard, already thirty-five push-ups deep.

18

Violetta and Alexis opted for the Budget Inn out west, opposite the Best Western on Rodgers Drive.

The taxi dropped them out front and they looked up at the building from the kerb, their small suitcases perched in front of them. The