Tanner- Year One Read online

  His stomach released a growl, the only food he’d eaten since leaving the motel was the sandwich Kate had snuck to him.

  Walking toward the open doorway, he smelled his own sour body odor, then realized he had the urge to urinate. Tanner reached the threshold and saw that there were four sizeable men outside in the hallway. Like the man who had been with Marcus at the gate, they wore the gray garb of the cultists, but theirs was of a darker hue. Strapped to their belts were nightsticks, flashlights, and handcuffs.

  They were all about his age, and they glared at Tanner, as if daring him to make a play for freedom. Even in his wasted state Tanner could have gone through them in under twenty seconds. But then what? He wasn’t up against a security force of a given number of men. No, his opposition was comprised of hundreds of fanatical people who would risk their lives and the safety of their children to stop his escape.

  Tanner stared at the men for another moment, then felt a gentle hand on his arm. It was the girl he’d first seen, the one with the longer hair.

  “Don’t fight, please? You won’t win.”

  “What do you people want with me?”

  The girl’s smile was genuine and radiant. “We want you to become our brother.”

  Her fingers slid down his arm and into his palm. When she felt the cuts and calluses, she leaned closer to examine his hand.

  “You’ve hurt yourself.”

  “It will heal.”

  Her sister took his other hand and he was guided into the hallway. They urged him down a corridor as the four men followed. The hallway was carpeted, and the air was cool upon his bare chest, as he was clothed only in the pants they’d left him.

  Tanner was led into a bathroom that had a large marble tub at its center. The bathtub was square, built into the floor, and filled with sudsy water. The men waited outside the open door, but the girls stayed with Tanner.

  “You must bathe,” said the other girl, her sweet voice was a twin of her sister’s melodious tone. To Tanner’s surprise she reached out and unfastened his pants. He let her, and after unzipping him, the girls slid his pants and underwear down. Afterward, they stood, with their eyes avoiding his crotch.

  Tanner stepped out of the sweat-stained garments and headed toward the toilet. “I need to pee first.”

  The girls stood by as he relieved himself. While standing before the toilet he spoke over his shoulder.

  “Where’s my friend? Is he all right?”

  “He’s being seen to by others. He will not be harmed unless he first harms someone else.”

  As he walked closer to them, still naked, Tanner saw them sneak glances at the area below his waist. He guessed that they were eighteen or nineteen. Under different circumstances, he would have enjoyed the situation.

  The water in the tub was hot. An unbidden sigh of pleasure escaped Tanner’s lips as he eased into it. The girls surprised him once more as they stripped naked and joined him in the soothing water.

  Seeing his grin, the girls shook their heads.

  “We only want to bathe you, not… not what you’re thinking.”

  “Be sure to let me know if you ever change your minds.”

  The girls giggled, then they went to work on him. The one with the long hair was named Anna, and her sister was Anya. They scrubbed him with sponges, and as she attended to his crotch, Anya avoided his gaze again.

  His hair was washed, and dirt was scrubbed out from beneath what was left of his fingernails. Tanner felt like a Saudi prince. He wondered if this was standard cult protocol, to lure a new member into thinking they’d fallen into paradise.

  As they worked on getting him clean, the young women told Tanner their story.

  Anna had just turned twenty, while Anya was soon to be nineteen. They had grown up in a small town in Minnesota where they dreamed of becoming actresses. About a year earlier when Anya turned eighteen, the girls went against their parents’ wishes and headed to Hollywood to seek their fame.

  In the small burg they’d grown up in their beauty and youth made them special, in Tinsel town, they were just another couple of starry-eyed girls hoping to live-out a dream. Within months the harsh realities of life made themselves known to them as they had to do things they never would have done before to have money to eat.

  It started by posing nude for magazines, then they were pressured to perform in porn movies. Anna did so the first time because they were about to be evicted. Her co-star was a handsome young man. She convinced herself that it would be no different than when she’d had sex with the boyfriend she had left behind in Minnesota. It was different, very different; she vomited when it was over.

  However, the money was good, and seductive. Anna found that if she got high first it was easier to have sex in front of a camera, and with strangers. As for Anya, she’d begun dating an older man named Telly. Telly beat Anya, then made up for it by buying her jewelry.

  Seeing how much money her sister was making, Anya also became involved in the porn industry. After being paid for her first movie, she never saw the abusive Telly again.

  Within a few months the drugs weren’t enough to dull the sisters’ pain. They were being pressured to perform acts they weren’t comfortable doing, such as sex with multiple partners or other women. After they were told that they had to have sex with each other or be forced out of the business, the sisters opted to quit the industry. Anna had appeared in seven films while Anya had performed in five. The experiences left them feeling dirty and as if they had lowered themselves to the level of the gutter.

  Wiser, they took jobs working in retail that barely covered their expenses. The jobs also kept them from going to auditions. When they did go to try out for a part, they were both told that they had no talent for acting and that their good looks weren’t enough to make it in Hollywood.

  When the news reached them that their parents had died in a car accident, the girls had to hitchhike home. On a ride in Nevada the woman who offered them a lift turned out to be mentally disturbed. She accused the sisters of having slept with her husband and threatened them with a knife.

  They made it back to their hometown within hours of the funeral. Although they mourned their parents, returning home had made them happy; the sisters realized they never wanted to leave again.

  That became a problem when they discovered that their parents owed more than their small house was worth. During their absence their father had taken out a home equity loan so that he could invest in a franchise. The company offering the business opportunity declared bankruptcy three months after their father sank his money into it.

  The detritus of their father’s franchise, which had been a nutritional supplement, were stacked up in the garage of the home. It consisted of carton after carton of useless powders, vitamin supplements, and sales materials. It was all thrown in the trash when the home was foreclosed on.

  Anna and Anya mourned their parents, and it hurt to lose the home they had grown up in, but they still had family in town. A kind aunt offered them a place to stay. They might have been content to live out their lives in the town, but then Anna’s past came back to haunt her.

  One of the porn movies she’d made was viewed online by her former high school history teacher. Eventually, the whole town was aware of the film, and then they learned that Anya had also appeared in such movies. Their aunt, a pious woman, told Anna and Anya that they could no longer live under her roof. The sisters left town feeling disgraced with sixty-three dollars between them.

  Misery and drudgery followed as they lived in their mother’s old car for a week before getting factory jobs in Duluth. Then, one night, as they returned to their tiny apartment, they met a neighbor who would change their lives.

  The woman introduced them to Shasta Shah’s ministry. Anna and Anya joined the cult weeks later, then moved to Pennsylvania to be near the goddess they worshipped.

  “You really believe she’s a goddess?” Tanner asked. He received solemn nods in return. He decided not to debate the is
sue. People believed all sorts of things. It wasn’t his place to go about disabusing them of their particular doctrines and dogma. He had his own convictions and beliefs that others might scoff at.

  After the bath, Tanner dried off and was given new clothing to wear. The thin cotton shirt and pants were bright orange. It was explained to him that they were the garb of the initiate and that he wouldn’t be given the gray clothing until he had proven himself to be a true member of the community.

  “What about the men in the hall? Why are their clothes a darker shade of gray than yours?”

  “They are the chosen ones. They protect the goddess and enforce her rules.”

  “And are they believers too?”

  Anna’s face grew serious. “Everyone believes, and you will too someday.”

  As Anna applied salve to his hands and placed bandages on his cuts, Anya cleaned the tub and placed the towels in a hamper.

  When they were done, Tanner was guided back into the hallway where the guards in the dark gray were waiting. The group went down another corridor and entered a kitchen.

  There was a woman working at a stove. At fifty-six, she was the oldest cult member Tanner had seen. Her brown hair was turning white and she had a chubby figure. She wore the same simplistic smile as the others, only it reached her eyes and told Tanner that she was pleased to see him.

  “A new member, and I hear you were involved in a chase earlier.”

  “That’s one way to phrase it.”

  “Do you like omelets?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m Glenda.”

  “I’m Ray.”

  “I’ll make you an omelet, Ray, but I’ll get you coffee first.”

  As the woman walked over to a granite countertop, Anna gestured for Tanner to sit. After he was seated, Anna glanced at the guards.

  “These four brothers are referred to as monitors,” Anna explained.

  “Like the hall monitors they had at my grade school?”

  Anna saw nothing humorous in Tanner’s remark and continued.

  “As I said before, they make sure that we follow the community’s rules. Please don’t give them a reason to correct you.”

  When Tanner responded with silence the girls each sent him a little wave and walked off. Tanner watched them until they were out of the room, then he looked up at the men called monitors. Four stoic faces gazed back at him and each man had a grip on a nightstick.

  Glenda returned with a cup of hot coffee and set cream and sugar beside it. The aroma of the coffee was tantalizing, and its taste, like heaven. The omelet followed and looked delicious. Tanner wondered again if he were being drugged or poisoned. He decided he had to take the risk. If he grew any weaker from lack of eating his chances for escape would evaporate. Besides, if they wanted him dead, he’d be dead, and the scent of the food was making his mouth water.

  Along with the omelet, Glenda had added toast with butter and a plate of strawberries. Tanner devoured the meal and washed it down with three cups of coffee. Tanner enjoyed the omelet and complimented Glenda, who informed him she was a chef.

  When he was done with his meal, another trip to the bathroom was in order. His four shadows escorted him to a windowless powder room off the kitchen and waited outside the door.

  Tanner thought over what little he had read about cults.

  Although some used violence on their members, it was far more common for them to employ non-physical tactics, such as mental and emotional manipulation. Right now, they were killing him with kindness, if he stepped out of line or refused to play nice with others, he might find himself back in one of the cinder block Training Center rooms he had tunneled out of earlier in the day.

  Was it the same day, or had he slept long enough for the sun to rise again? No, he’d glimpsed the sky through a window while he was bathing, it was near sunset. Besides, he was still tired from his previous two-day stint without sleep. If he had slept overnight, he would have felt revitalized.

  Tanner hoped that Pullo was doing as well as he was and that the mafia soldier wouldn’t try to escape on his own. Given time, Tanner was confident that he would come up with a plan that could free them both. There was also an ally nearby, the woman with the long braid. Tanner had no idea why she was willing to help them, but her assistance could prove invaluable.

  Kate had rushed through her chores so that she might be granted a period of rest. It was approved, as every aspect of her day had to be approved, and she traveled to the home where the strangers had been taken.

  Two of the cultists that were categorized as monitors stood outside the entrance to the house they called the old home. It was where Shasta Shah had lived before she had her palace erected. The home had become a sort of community center and office space. Kate had heard a rumor that there was a dungeon in the basement. However, she’d learn to view gossip inside the cult with skepticism.

  In any event, what was truly going on was more terrifying. Kate had overheard another conversation between Shasta Shah and Nick Cannon that confirmed a suspicion she’s had for some time. Her sister was not missing; she had been sold as a sex slave. Thinking about it had brought Kate to tears, but she still had no proof.

  Movement caught her eye as the front door of the house opened. When she looked up, she saw Tanner step out onto the porch.

  The four goons in gray escorted Tanner out of the building and across a courtyard. The cultists stared at him and whispered to each other. The words, “Welcome to the flock, brother,” were said by several members as he passed them, and many smiles were sent his way.

  Through all of it, Tanner studied his surroundings while memorizing landmarks and searching for paths that might lead to escape. The beautiful face of Shasta Shah was everywhere with slogans and sayings written beneath her image.

  There were even statues of the woman. Without fail, someone was kneeling before them and praying, while reaching out to touch her image. If it weren’t so pathetic and sad, it would be humorous.

  Tanner thought of the children that had been his ruin. They were growing up in this environment. The thought made him angry. Deceiving gullible adults was one thing, deliberately harming a child’s mind with lies was quite another.

  Sam Giacconi had contracted with Tanner to kill the leader of one group. Tanner thought he might take out Shasta Shah as a public service.

  17

  Point Taken

  While Kate was watching Tanner be escorted to the warehouse, someone else was discussing him. It was Shasta Shah.

  Isaac was with her inside the palace and thanking her for her help in keeping Tanner and Pullo from escaping. Shah turned from the window she’d been looking out of while surveying her kingdom. She was dressed in a green silk robe and wore matching slippers.

  “You say he dug his way out of a Training Center cell?”

  “Somehow he loosened one of the welded bars and used it to break through the concrete floor.”

  “Why did you bring them here in the first place?”

  “I don’t want them in the militia, and I figured you could always use another couple of sheep.”

  “The man sounds more like a tiger to me, and he shot one of my people.”

  “It wasn’t a serious wound, and I’ll break that bastard given enough time. I would love to see him and his friend walking around here like these other grinning fools.”

  “It takes a certain type, but it can happen if you go about it the right way.”

  “I’ve already started. First, we’ll kill them with kindness, then, we’ll yank it away. Before long, they’ll grow dependent and will do anything we ask.”

  “I see you’ve been paying attention since you’ve been here, but this man may be different.”

  “The escape from that pit was a fluke.”

  “How do you plan to break him?”

  “He’s had enough kindness, now he’ll be worked to exhaustion while depriving him of sleep. It will be his punishment for trying to escape. The fatigue will m
ake him more malleable.”

  “And what if he tries to escape again?”

  “I’ll take him down to your dungeon and torture him. After a few days of that he’ll get in line.”

  Shah waved a finger at that idea. “Torture doesn’t work, the trick is to mind fuck them.”

  “Then why do you have that torture chamber down there?”

  Shah grinned. “Every palace should have a dungeon. Knowing it’s there keeps the peasants in line.”

  “You torture your people?”

  “I’ve never had to. I prefer to use persuasion. And remember, people come here voluntarily.”

  “If that’s true, then why do you need the guards and the fence?”

  “They’re not guards, they’re monitors, and yes, the fence is meant to keep people in. They may come here on their own, but they’ll only leave when I say they can.”

  “Or when you sell them?”

  “Yes, they’re mine, to do with as I please.”

  Isaac moved closer to Shah, then placed a hand on her cheek.

  “You’re one hell of a woman, lady, do you know that?”

  Shah gripped his wrist and slowly slid his hand away.

  “I sleep with your boss, not you.”

  “Maybe I’ll be the boss one day.”

  “You plan to take over the militia?”

  “I like Nick Cannon, but he’s in charge because his grandfather was a founder of the militia. The man was only in the army for three years and never saw action. I’ve been to war and know how to fight dirty.”

  “What makes you think I won’t tell Nick your plans?”

  “What plans? I’ve only stated facts. And another thing, I know you don’t like him, you’re only using him because of his connections.”

  Shah laughed. “I think Nick Cannon better watch his back around you, Isaac. You’re smarter than you look.” After moving over to a walk-in closet the size of an apartment, Shah removed a golden gown with white ruffles around the collar.