Chapter 64: Gun Shop

Chapter 64: Chapter 64: Gun Shop

Chapter 64: Gun Shop

Watching the taillights of Heather’s car disappear into the Texas night, the Carson estate fell silent again. Lionel Cosgrove stretched his shoulders and glanced toward the empty driveway. "Considering everything that happened here, those three are pretty lucky to be leaving in one piece." Axel Vance shook his head because the situation was nowhere near that simple.

"Ryan and Nikki probably aren’t important to the cult, but Heather Miller is different," Axel said. "Verna specifically named her as the successor to this operation, which means somebody higher up may already consider her part of their unfinished business." The relaxed look on Lionel’s face immediately disappeared as he realized what that meant.

"Right... those lunatics aren’t going to forget about her that easily." Lionel looked toward Axel and asked what arrangements he had made for them. Axel explained that he had given Ryan a trusted federal contact in Miami, where Heather and the others could find help if the cult came looking.

"I already destroyed the cult’s local operation in Miami, so it should count as a relatively safe zone for now," Axel continued. "But that only solves the immediate problem. Whether Heather is actually safe in the long run depends on how well we handle what comes next."

Lionel slowly nodded. Verna’s letter had said the cult’s research was approaching some important breakthrough, which meant the timing of their trip might not be accidental at all. If the abandoned federal testing facility in New Mexico turned out to be one of the organization’s primary sites, hitting it could cripple a large part of the network.

"And if it isn’t their main base?" Lionel asked. Axel gave him a flat look. "Then things get complicated."

Lionel scratched his head before suddenly remembering something. "Hold on, wasn’t our original mission just supposed to be dealing with some ghosts at an abandoned government site and helping Seth recover data?" He spread his hands helplessly. "How did that turn into a possible war against a nationwide cult?"

"Cultists are like chewing gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe," Axel replied calmly. "Once you step in it, you either scrape the whole mess off or keep spreading it everywhere you walk." He then looked toward Seth Brundle, who was already hunched over a table inside the mansion and writing furiously. "Unfortunately, we also have someone on the team who can’t wait to study the gum under a microscope."

Seth finally looked up when he heard his name. He closed his notebook and regarded Axel and Lionel seriously. "I’m not abandoning the mission. That ledger gave me several ideas that might actually help my own work."

The more Seth spoke, the more excitement returned to his expression. He admitted that Verna’s methods were crude, grotesque, and scientifically absurd in execution, but the basic concept of converting spiritual energy had given him several ideas related to material transmission. Most importantly, he still needed the experimental data hidden inside the abandoned facility if he wanted to protect his telepod project and secure future funding.

"A lot of funding," Seth emphasized as he stood and began gesturing with both hands. "Enough to keep the project alive and finally finish what I started." His eyes brightened as he added that he did not care whether the facility contained cultists, ghosts, mutants, or even dinosaurs smart enough to conduct their own experiments. He was getting that data.

Lionel slowly turned toward Axel.

Axel sighed. "Get some sleep. We prepare properly tomorrow."

That night, the three men chose relatively intact rooms inside the Carson estate and made do with what furniture remained. The mansion was unnaturally quiet after dark, although considering how many bodies and secrets had been hidden inside it, the silence felt appropriate. None of them encountered anything else before morning.

Early the next day, Lionel woke because his stomach felt completely empty. He sat up from the couch and immediately touched the massive wound through his chest, discovering that it had healed considerably overnight but was still far from closed. New tissue had grown across part of the opening in a tangled mass that would have made an ordinary person sick just looking at it.

"This regeneration burns through way too much energy," Lionel muttered. He dragged himself upright and headed toward the kitchen, already searching for anything edible. "If I don’t eat soon, I’m going to start chewing the furniture."

Axel had already been awake for some time and was sitting in the living room with the enchanted chainsaw resting across his knees. He carefully wiped away the grime and dried residue that Leatherface had left on the weapon over years of use. Now that it had become a genuine Spirit Binding artifact, Axel wanted it clean enough that carrying it around did not feel disgusting.

The enchantment had made the chainsaw much more useful than before. A small amount of Psionic Power could start the engine without the normal starter, while the chain moved more smoothly, cut more efficiently, and resisted jamming. Axel was already considering making the weapon easier to carry and handle once they found proper tools, although that could wait until after the current mission.

Across the room, Seth looked considerably worse than either of them. Dozens of sheets of paper surrounded him, his eyes were bloodshot, his hair stuck out in every direction, and it was obvious he had barely slept. He kept muttering to himself while writing equations inspired by Verna’s ledger.

"I think I understand part of it now," Seth murmured. "Their spiritual extraction method is primitive, but the conversion principle might have applications to material transmission stability." His pencil moved rapidly across another page as he began connecting the cult’s crude supernatural observations with his own teleportation theories.

Lionel stopped beside the table and stared at him. "Greatest scientist of the century, could you first invent breakfast?" He rubbed his stomach and added, "Because I currently feel capable of eating an entire steer."

Seth barely reacted. Instead, he pushed a booklet filled with formulas toward Lionel and told him to look at the calculations he had made over the last two days. Lionel stared at the equations, diagrams, and arrows for several seconds before silently turning toward Axel with an expression that begged for rescue.

Axel put down the chainsaw and walked over. He grabbed Seth by one shoulder and Lionel by the other, then pulled both men away from the table before Seth could begin another lecture. "Enough. We have actual work to do today, so clean yourselves up and move."

A short while later, the three climbed into Seth’s white cleaning-company box truck. Seth gripped the steering wheel with renewed enthusiasm and asked, "So are we going straight to the cult stronghold now?" His voice rose excitedly as he suggested hitting the place before anyone there knew they were coming.

Axel gave him a sideways look. "We’re buying equipment first. Do you seriously want to walk into an abandoned government facility that might be full of cult-modified killers carrying nothing but your notebook and lab coat?" That single question cooled Seth’s enthusiasm immediately.

Seth unfolded the map across the steering wheel and studied the surrounding area. "The Houston region is the closest major market, but we don’t need to drive all the way downtown just to find what we need." He traced several nearby communities and explained that one of the surrounding cities should have enough stores and supplies for the trip.

Lionel leaned forward from the back seat. "Aren’t you attached to the FBI? Why don’t you just request weapons and equipment through them?" Seth immediately released a long, suffering sigh.

"You mean write a threat assessment, submit it, wait for somebody to decide whether the threat is real, then wait for a field team to confirm it?" Seth asked. "After that I submit another request for equipment, wait for logistics and procurement, then pray that somebody actually approves it before my project dies from lack of funding." By the time he finished describing the bureaucracy, Lionel looked exhausted just listening.

"Hearing it like that, buying the stuff ourselves sounds much easier," Lionel admitted. Axel remembered how differently his earlier Miami supernatural investigation had been handled, because Woody and the federal side had used special emergency procedures to bypass much of the normal process. Seth clearly did not have that kind of authority for what officially remained a simple data-recovery assignment.

After leaving Newt, the group stopped at a roadside diner. Lionel proceeded to consume enough breakfast for several ordinary customers, barely pausing while plate after plate disappeared in front of him. The waitress eventually began watching him with the same wary curiosity Seth usually reserved for impossible laboratory results.

Once Lionel finally declared himself temporarily functional, they continued until Seth found the gun shop he had been looking for. The three stepped inside and saw a large, hard-faced man behind the counter cleaning a revolver. Before the owner could even greet them, Seth walked straight toward the displays.

"I’ll need this, probably that, and something heavier than those," Seth said while pointing around with growing enthusiasm. He frowned at several options and asked whether the shop had anything with more stopping power. The owner slowly stopped cleaning the revolver and stared at Seth as though deciding whether to press an alarm button.

Then his gaze shifted toward Axel and Lionel before returning to Seth. "You boys planning to rob a bank?" he finally asked.

Seth shook his head immediately. "A bank? That would be way too ordinary compared with what we’re doing." His joke only made the shop owner more suspicious, forcing Axel to close his eyes for a moment in silent frustration.

Seth finally realized he was making the situation worse and reached for his credentials. "Relax, we’re working an official federal assignment and need some specialized equipment on short notice." The owner carefully examined the identification before some of the tension left his face.

"High-powered equipment, huh?" the man asked. He leaned one arm against the counter and said he had some heavier inventory available, but none of it was cheap. Seth barely reacted.

"Price isn’t the problem," Seth replied confidently. Then he suddenly paused as if remembering something far more important than the weapons themselves. His expression became completely serious.

"One question," Seth said.

The owner raised an eyebrow.

"You give proper receipts, right?" Seth leaned slightly closer to the counter and added, "I need something accounting will actually reimburse."

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