CHAPTER 99 Cross
Cross
“DAD! OH MY GOD! DAD!”
Alex Cross is face down on a cold concrete floor. His ribs feel bruised. His back feels twisted. And his ears must be playing tricks on him.
“Dad!”
He feels hands on him, rolling him over. He blinks in the glare of an overhead light. A figure is hovering over him. Alex shades his eyes with one hand.
“Damon?”
Alex’s heart is racing. He tries to lift himself up. Can’t do it. Hurts too much.
“Dad, don’t move!”
Dazed and disoriented, Alex manages to turn his head to one side. The walls are cinder block. The ceiling is steel. The stench is horrific. Pain shoots through his body. He squeezes his eyes shut, praying that he’s not hallucinating. “Damon! Is that really you?”
He feels a hand squeezing his. “Yes, Dad! It’s me! I’m okay.”
Alex opens his eyes again and grabs his son’s arm. “The men! The rednecks. The ones who took your bike—”
“How do you know about them?” asks Damon.
“Never mind,” says Alex. “Did they hurt you? Are they the ones who brought you here?”
Damon shakes his head. “No. They chased me on the main road. I felt too exposed staying there, so I went into the reserve and stayed there all day, until dark. Then I tried going home, but I couldn’t find my way back to the main road.
I was too turned around. I finally saw some lights from a farmhouse, so I headed that way.
Before I even got there, I was whacked on the head and dumped into this goddamn pit. ”
“Brophy,” says Alex.
“Who?”
“Colton Brophy. The guy who owns this place. That’s his name. He’s some kind of Confederate fanboy Civil War reenactor.” Alex sits up with a groan. He touches his belt, feeling for his gun. Nothing but the empty holster. “Damn it! Brophy has my gun. My phone and badge too.”
“You’ve talked to him?” Damon asks.
Alex nods. “Earlier today. I was in his house up top. I showed him your picture. Asked for his help. But something didn’t feel right, so I came back tonight. I got careless, and he caught me. Nobody knows I’m here.”
Alex feels like an idiot. It’s not the first time his independent nature has gotten him in trouble or put him in danger. He should know better by now.
He flinches when he sees movement in the shadows behind his son.
Damon turns and beckons two people over. “Guys, this is my father, Dr. Alex Cross. Dad, this is Professor Lucas and Amy Tyne.”
Holy shit.
Darius Lucas is a slim, serious-looking Black man. Amy Tyne is petite and pale with a short, elfin haircut. “Sorry to meet you this way, Dr. Cross,” she says. She kneels alongside Alex and runs her hands over his legs. “Can you feel this?”
Alex nods.
She places her hands around his ankles and wiggles them. “How about this?”
“Yes,” says Alex impatiently. “I’m fine!”
Amy looks over at Damon. “I think your dad’s okay. He’s just shaken up.”
Alex looks at Lucas and Tyne. “How long have you two …”
“We’re not sure,” says Lucas. “We think we were here for a week before the guy brought Damon down.”
“What about your research trip? Your department head told me—”
“We never left,” says Amy. “Never made the plane.”
“Do you mind telling me where you were going?” asks Alex.
Tyne glances at Lucas, clearly not sure if she should speak.
“Gambia,” says Lucas. “We’re investigating the slave trade to North Carolina in the mid-1700s. We think it was more extensive than previously reported.”
“Gambia was one of the main ports of embarkation,” says Tyne.
Lucas nods. “We’re looking for the names of ship captains, manifests, and the names of North Carolina traders and slaveholders.”
No wonder Reuben Chase wanted to keep this research under wraps. “I can understand why your department head was so secretive.”
“Roots can get really tangled when you go back that far,” says Lucas. “But we’re just looking for the truth.”
“Right,” says Tyne. “But Chase also wants to be sure that nothing we uncover will embarrass the state or the university. Or the donors.”
“So what happened to you?” asks Alex.
Lucas answers. “We went hiking in the reserve the day before we were scheduled to leave. We spotted a huge Confederate flag through the trees and decided to investigate. But someone must’ve come up behind us and knocked us out when we got close to the fence.”
“When we came to,” says Tyne, “we were down here.”
“You’re lucky you weren’t blown to bits,” says Alex. “Brophy’s got the whole place mined. He’s stuck in his own little paramilitary world and seems to think the Confederacy was on the right side of history.”
Damon leans in close, his hands on Alex’s shoulders. “Dad, does he know about Melissa?”
“What do you mean?”
Damon’s voice is pinched and anxious. “He must’ve checked my socials once he knew my name.” Alex sees a flash of fear cross Damon’s face. “When he came down here earlier, that guy told me my girlfriend and I would be reunited soon. And for good.”