reassign us to other law-enforcement duties. As head of security I alone recruit and hire our security force.”
With a thumb, he lifted out the lapel of his brown sport jacket. “I usually wear a uniform. The uniforms help to make people take us seriously so that we can keep everyone off the land. We generally don’t wear our uniforms off the trust property, and, well, your orders meant that I had to pick up this to wear. And if I may say so, I was especially pleased by your grasp of the importance of security.”
“So you can carry weapons?”
The man lifted out his jacket to reveal a large-frame Glock. “Like I said, we have legal law-enforcement status. Only we in the trust can recruit our officers, but they still have to pass state law enforcement tests and extensive background checks.”
“Which reminds me,” Mike said as he opened another folder. “Here is your identification in the name of Hank and Jenna Croft, should you need it. Sign it here, if you would, please. Jax, you too.”
She leaned in beside Alex and signed her full name on the incomplete driver’s license. One of the other men had her stand against a wall so he could take her picture. He snapped Alex’s photo as well and then took the licenses to the bar sink, where he began working with some small equipment. Alex assumed he was placing the photos onto the licenses.
“Here is a State of Maine permit to carry concealed firearms,” Mike said, sliding it across to Alex. He looked up. “This one is in your real name. We assumed that you would be armed and need a CCW for Maine. Just in case, we have one for Jax as well. We’ll put the photo on them, too, after you both sign.”
“You people are pretty thorough,” Alex said as he and Jax signed the licenses. When he was finished, Mike handed them to the man working at the bar sink with the photos.
“We’re very careful in how we look out for the trust,” one of the others said.
Alex wondered why and where they had developed such care. At Mike Fenton’s direction, Alex went back to signing papers. At a few places the man stopped and explained details of the trust.
It seemed to Alex that he was taking on a huge responsibility he didn’t really want. Originally, he had just wanted to take title to the land in order to have a place to paint in peace.
Now, though, he needed to secure the gateway and prevent Radell Cain’s people from using it. He supposed that this was all necessary in order to do that. And, should he need them, it did give him a lot more authority and resources to help him accomplish that task.
When he finished looking over and signing the stack of papers, Alex leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh.
“It’s done,” Mike said. “At long last. We can’t tell you what a relief this is.”
“All right, as lead trustee, I’d like to know what this is all about. What’s going on? What’s really behind the Daggett Trust and the land? What’s the connection?”
49
SOME OF THE PEOPLE LAUGHED NERVOUSLY while others cleared their throats. Alex stood and pushed the chair in so that he could stand beside Jax and see all the smiling faces. He didn’t join in the smiling over the title transfer being concluded. A lot of people had already died because of the land, people close to him. He waited patiently for them to explain about the Daggett Trust.
Picking up on Alex’s sobriety, Mike turned serious as he went on to explain. “Those of us here in this room, along with the security staff who are on property, are members of an ancient society. It’s a small and very secret organization. We are the protectors of this land. Now, you are as well. Us by choice, by passion, by belief, and by dedication. You, Mr. Rahl, by birth as well as by choice.”
Alex looked around at all the suddenly serious faces watching him. “You mean you’re like high priests, or the last Knights Templar, or something?”
“In a way, yes,” one of the other men said.
Alex was a little surprised that they didn’t dismiss such a suggestion out of hand. Since learning about Jax coming from another world and seeing some of the things he’d seen, he was pretty well past being shocked, though. But he was concerned that the inheritance of a piece of land had ended up pulling him into the middle of some kind of secret organization.
Alex glanced around at the faces watching him. “So just what kind of secret ancient society is this? What’s it for?”
“It’s a long story, with a very long history to it, and at some point we will fill you in on all the details,” Hal Halverson said. “But for now I don’t like all of us here in one place together. It’s not how we usually do things. There is no telling if some of the people who are causing trouble might somehow know about us all being here. For all we know, any one of us could have inadvertently led that trouble here. To protect the trust, we rarely get this many members together all at once.”
“Where are the others?” Alex asked.
“The security people are all members,” Hal said, “and there are a few more members scattered around Europe. Other than the rest of the security people, though, this is most of us right here in this room.”
“Hal is right,” Mike said. “We’ll give you the quick version and leave the details for later.”
“This ought to be interesting,” Jax said under her breath as she folded her arms.
“Ages ago—”
“How long ago is that?” Alex interrupted.
Mike waved off the question. “We’re not sure, exactly. Well over a thousand years, we believe. Anyway, back then, ages ago, is when the Daggett Society was formed. It was, from its inception, a highly secret organization. There’s not a lot in the way of written records, other than the accounting and deeds. Most of our history and such is passed down orally. The people who formed the Daggett Society were risking their lives. Revealing its existence to anyone likely would have meant death.”
“What was so important about founding this secret society that they would risk their lives?” Alex asked.
“It was founded on the belief that at least some people in this world resettled here from another place.”
Alex looked around at all the faces. “You mean some space aliens flew people here in flying saucers?” he asked, still not completely ready to let them know that he knew exactly what they were talking about.
Alex didn’t like deceiving these people by playing dumb or by making it look like he was deriding them. He thought they were on his side. They seemed sincerely interested in protecting him, and they seemed devoted to protecting the land where the gateway was located.
But too much was at risk to worry about hurting their feelings. His life, Jax’s life, and the lives of other people from both worlds were at stake. People had already lost their lives. People close to him had lost their lives. He wanted to know exactly what these people knew before he was willing to let them in on everything he knew.
“Not exactly,” Mike said. “The book simply says—”
“What book?” Jax asked as she straightened, her arms coming unfolded.
One of the other men leaned in toward the two of them. He was the only African-American in the group. He appeared to be in his early fifties and in relatively good shape. He had a shaved head and wore small, thin-rimmed glasses. He had on khaki pants and a red plaid shirt, but he looked like he belonged in a herringbone suit.
He extended a hand. “I’m Ralph Overton, I’m the one in charge of the book.”
Alex shook his hand. “Like Jax asked, what book?”
Ralph adjusted his glasses. “Back at the time the society was formed, a book was compiled containing a variety of information, some of it sketchy. It isn’t an elaborate book like monks of the time would make. It’s more homemade, more crude than that. It’s the only written record we have.
“It appears to partly be a record of events, and partly an attempt to set down broader information related to those events. The book has always been an underlying element of the Daggett Society. According to the book, it seems that at least some of the people in this world came from another place.”
When Alex and Jax didn’t say anything this time, he went on.
“The society was formed to be the keepers of this secret knowledge, to preserve it so that it wouldn’t be forever lost, wouldn’t be entirely forgotten, as the people who put the book together believed would happen to everyone who had resettled here. Yet they had sound reason to believe that secrecy was necessary to protect the
