The barn was in worse condition than it was in Emma’s surveillance photos. The wood had rotted in most places and gaps large enough to fit animals through were plentiful in the large wall the two agents faced. Metal sheets were bolted in place on the inside to patch up the mess.
A rear door below a hay loft in the two-story structure was unlocked and the ground was worn enough to show frequent use. A handful of marigold flowers, a half-eaten cucumber, and doll made of burlap and frayed rope all sat on the top of an overturned barrel was evidence the girls must have come outside to play.
The entire area smelled like mud and wet wood, and the trampled ground was dark as if moistened recently.
“There are no flies present,” Victoria said. She approached the door with per pistol ready and checked the simple brass handle was unlocked. “There should be flies if there is moisture and scraps.” She pointed to the half-cucumber.
“Chemicals, most likely.” Cooper checked their surroundings with his pistol at the ready pointed down. “If they’re using chemically-treated plants for their experiments, then the strange substances they have on hand might be acting like a repellant. Or worse, a pesticide.”
“The way that man wobbled, it was horrible,” Victoria said. She winced and forced memories away. “He was not suffering from the tranquilizer. That was like things I saw in Cuba.”
“I heard about the gas warfare.” Cooper cast a sympathetic gaze at his agent.
“Those are things I hope never to see again,” Victoria said. She shook her head and snapped herself into reality by checking the rifle slung over her back. “Ready to enter on your order.”
“Let’s go.” Cooper took position behind Victoria.
Victoria swung the door open with a careful amount of pressure, but the hinges squeaked to betray her. She opened the door just enough to get through, then fully entered the building once Cooper took the door and closed it behind them. She scanned the cavernous building which was dozens of yards across.
Endless rows of tables lined the floor level of the barn. Many were folding tables, some were picnic tables, and others looked to be stolen diner tables. They were as mismatched as the containers full of soil, most being various storage bins and utility bins from hardware stores. A tangle of wires hung down from the rafters to power hundreds of bright white grow lights. Oak seedlings grew in every container, all of them stricken with a blighted look which was worse the older each plant was.
A constant buzz from the lights was joined by the babbling churn of water through pumps, which was fed through what seemed like miles of aquarium tubing spiraled all around the tables into the containers, out to dozens of pumps, and into vats of black chemicals at the end of each row. A rumble from overhead came from a group of portable generators in the hay loft, which was littered with empty gasoline transfer tanks.
“Are you here to arrest us?” A little girl dressed in a patchwork tunic of rabbit pelts stood up between two rows of tables near the agents. Her terrified blue eyes were wide behind the oily locks of blonde hair which hung over her face. Up close, she was more identifiable as eight or nine years old.
Another girl in rabbit pelts stood next to the first girl and faced the agents with her gray eyes and a pursed expression on her malformed lips. She seemed like she might have been the same age as the other girl if not for her unusual features, such as her scab-covered, bald scalp.
“You poor girls,” Cooper said as he put away his pistol.
“They could still be a threat,” Victoria said with her pistol at the ready, pointed downward.
“Holster your weapon,” Cooper ordered. He went to the girls and knelt in front of them to show a slight smile and friendly face. “We’re here to find a thief. Only him.”
“You want to arrest the Gift Bringer?” The blind girl’s twisted mouth frowned.
“The Gift Bringer is a thief,” Victoria said. She put away her firearm and stood a few yards behind Cooper to watch for movement elsewhere. “He steals things. He hurts people.”
“He helps us,” the blue-eyed girl said.
“What are you names?” Cooper attempted to look at both girls at once, then averted his eyes away from the blind girl. “My name is Joe and this is Vic.”
“I’m Aria,” the blonde girl said.
“Abigail,” the blind girl said. She stood a bit taller at the announcement, which caused the balding strands of white hair to rattle around her scalp. “That used to be my name. But we have new names now. We are the Water Keepers.”
“Water Keepers Aria and Abigail, why do you say the Gift Bringer helps people?” Cooper examined the tables full of growing medium and oaks, but continued to kneel.
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