Page 28 of Taken

7

Mason

“Seal the deal yet?”

I wiped a bead of sweat from my forehead and rolled my eyes at Thad’s question. “No.”

He chuckled. It came out as a slightly tinny sound due to my cell phone’s shitty reception in Amiens. “I guess you’ve only been out there for three days. I’d be shocked if you even got into the commune by now, let alone anything else.”

“Oh, I got in. I’m just not there right now,” I said.

“Wait… seriously? You actually got into the fucking commune?”

“Yup. To visit for a few hours, that is,” I replied, fiddling with the air-conditioner on the motel wall. Fucking thing broke last night, and now it was barely blowing any air at all. The temperature outside was already eighty-five degrees, and it was barely nine in the morning. Late fall, my ass. There had to be some sort of heatwave going on right now.

Thad let out a low whistle. “I won’t even ask how you pulled that shit off, but color me impressed,” he said. “You must really want to win this bet, huh?”

I frowned. “Honestly, it’s not about that anymore. We both know a million bucks is pocket change to either one of us.”

“True. Don’t go saying that too loudly around regular people, though,” he said. “So anyway, what’s going on?”

I rubbed my temples. “There’s something fucked up happening out at New Eden. I don’t know the exact details yet, but I know there’s something.”

“Fucked up how?”

I briefly outlined the things I’d seen and experienced while I was down in the shelter the other night when I went to visit the commune.

“Wait, it’s underground? In Louisiana?” was Thad’s first response.

“Yep.”

“Christ, I never would’ve expected that. I didn’t even know it was possible to have underground shit there.”

“I think that’s what they’re banking on. If anyone goes there and notices there aren’t any women around, they’ll just assume they’re inside a building somewhere. They’re never gonna think ‘hey, maybe there’s a huge underground lair here’, because who the hell would ever think that in the Deep South?”

“Right. Well, if you think they’re so fucked up, why don’t you call the cops to go there and check them out?” Thad asked.

“I thought of that. Then I realized I don’t have any solid proof. Like, for all I know, Jolie was just messing with me when she said all that shit about the apocalypse or whatever.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

“I don’t think so, though. She seemed serious, and the way they won’t let women outside or let them use electricity kinda makes the men’s general attitude toward them quite obvious. But like I said: no real proof. They’ve had a few visitors out there over the years from the government to check things out, and they’ve always passed those inspections. They’re good at covering their asses when they need to.”

“So what are you gonna do to get this solid proof? And why you?”

I frowned as Jolie’s gorgeous face popped into my mind’s eye for what seemed like the millionth time in the last few days. “I guess I just feel like I have to do something. I can’t explain it,” I said. “As for what I’m going to do… well, I asked to join.”

There was a spluttering sound on the other end of the phone line. Thad must’ve accidentally spat his drink out or swallowed it the wrong way. “You can’t be fucking serious,” he finally said. “You’re joining them? Those fucking crazy cultists?”

“Yup. That way I can actually find out what’s happening there and get real evidence.”

“You’re nuts, man. You can’t just infiltrate a place like New Eden.”

“I can, as long as they trust me. I’ve already taken steps to make them start doing exactly that.”

“Right.” He still sounded suspicious.

“I’m serious.”

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