With difficulty Armstrong pulled his cellular out of his jacket pocket with his left hand and swore, realizing that this was the start of a whole new life. Just yesterday he’d been right handed…very right handed, but now he’d have to learn to do everything all over again. The real problem was his left hand was an idiot, a grunt! He never did anything with his left hand that took even the slightest amount of finesse. He shook his head and swore again as Evans moved through the nearly vacant streets. Luckily the command trailer was positioned only a few miles north of the hospital in an abandoned parking lot of a now defunct hardware store.
Armstrong punched a button…the wrong button and swore. He forced himself to slow down and eventually managed to call Agent Collier though now they were only a few blocks away.
“Collier,” she answered.
“We have someone watching the apartment building?” Armstrong asked, already missing Demond, his number two man.
“Yes…and so do the feds,” she answered.
“We have someone in the apartment?” Armstrong asked suddenly as a strange feeling rushed over him. ‘Maybe the women could go anywhere…anytime…instantly.’ It was a terrifying thought, and if true Armstrong knew they would be very, very hard to track…hell, they’d be impossible to track.
“Inside?” Collier asked.
“Yes inside…inside damn it,” Armstrong answered sharply, now absolutely positive that Dawkins and his group would not walk through the front door if they returned to the apartment. They’d just appear.
“No we don’t have anyone inside,” Collier replied utterly confused by the question. Keeping their mission covert would become much harder if they were forced to move part of the team inside the building.
“Get a team up there right now!”
“Yes sir. Our presence will be compromised,” she added.
“It’s already fucking compromised!” Armstrong shouted into the phone. “We lost four men last night and the Bureau Boys are crawling all over us at the moment. How much more can we be compromised? Get someone up there now!”
“Yes Sir!” Collier answered and hung up.
The three man team arrived inside Ratner’s apartment just seven minutes after Adam and the rest departed from the garage, riding comfortably in the Buick.
†
Vio found herself clutching the seat and Galen’s right arm as the car pulled out of the garage and onto a side street. Of course she’d heard all about cars but actually riding in one was something of a religious experience to her. They were moving, but she had no idea how or why. She watched closely as Adam spun the wheel and they turned right onto Skinker. There were cars everywhere going in seemingly all directions, how Adam managed to keep from running into them was a mystery to her.
“Where should we go?” Christine asked, apparently at ease with Adam’s operation of the vehicle.
“I don’t know,” he answered, “out of St. Louis to start. We need to get as far away from here as possible before they realize we have Harold’s car.”
Adam drove down Skinker then pulled onto the ramp to interstate 40 heading west. He accelerated up the ramp and merged onto the interstate. Vio clutched Galen’s arm tighter and used all of her courage not to scream as they picked up speed.
“Wow!” Avigail exclaimed as they drove faster and faster along the road. Everything was flying past now at an incredible speed, much faster than a horse could run…much faster than she’d ever gone over the open road before. Adam smiled and glanced into the rearview mirror. He caught the smile on Galen’s face and then the look of terror on Vio’s. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at the woman.
“Relax,” he said. “We’re safe for now.” He turned back to watch the road as Galen said something to Vio…presumably repeating what he had just said. He checked on her again in the rearview mirror and saw that her eyes closed and she was taking deep slow breaths. His heart did a little flip; she was truly lovely.
Vio was doing some of the relaxation exercises she’d learned on Noble, and they worked to some degree, but feeling the wheels buzzing along beneath her didn’t help her anxiety one bit. Thankfully, however, the road was very, very smooth with hardly a bump or imperfection and after several minutes Vio found that she was indeed much more relaxed. She opened her eyes and the sight of the landscape moving rapidly past, while astonishing, was not quite so alarming. She glanced over at Avigail, but the girl showed absolutely no fear and appeared to be enjoying their ride tremendously. Remarkably she was holding Galen’s hand, completely at ease while Galen pointed out various places rolling past beyond the windows. The two seemed completely comfortable with each other; as if it were natural they should be holding hands and showing each other tiny, yet meaningful affections. Vio had no idea why this should be so, after all they’d only just met.
“We could go to Chicago…to see Paula’s Uncle. What was his name?” Christine asked.
“Stanfield…John Stanfield,” Adam answered with a frown. “It would be a big risk. You have his number?”
Christine shook her head. “No, but we can look it up easily enough.”
They continued on for several miles in silence then Adam shook his head, glanced back at Vio, whose face was smooth and in control again. “I think we should avoid the big cities for now. They’ll have a much greater FBI presence than out in the country. They’ll be hunting us…after what happened at the pavilion.”
Christine shuddered, sat thinking a moment and then gingerly snapped on the radio with her wounded arm. It was on an AM talk station so she flipped it to FM and found some classic rock. She turned it up wanting to lose herself in the music. After a moment Adam turned it down a bit. Christine glanced at him, annoyed.
“You’re scaring the angels,” he explained, and Christine turned and glanced back. Vio’s eyes were wide with fright, but Avigail was turned completely around with her head up by the back window. Galen was talking loudly to them both. He smiled at Christine.
“They think it’s magic music,” he explained.
Adam turned the music down a bit lower, and shrugged at Christine.
“Galen, turn her around and put her seat belt back on,” Christine said and after few more moments of investigation, Avigail cooperated. They traveled on and on heading north. The women in the back chattered constantly about the various sights they passed. They drove through Troy, Missouri and continued north before finally stopping outside Hannibal for gas.
“Galen,” Christine said as they pulled up to the pump, “they have to remove their swords. They can’t walk around with them.”
Galen spoke to them both. Avigail frowned but then agreed. She removed her swords and placed them on the back floorboard, and after hesitating briefly Vio did likewise.
Adam pumped while Christine herded the girls together for a trip to the bathroom. Luckily the gas station was newer than most and the bathrooms were relatively clean so Christine didn’t have to feel too bad about taking the “angels” inside, though she did have to demonstrate the proper way to pee without actually touching anything.
Adam was inside paying with cash by the time Christine managed to coax the two women out of the restroom. Avigail kept flushing the toilets and Vio spent a bit of time before the row of mirrors fixing her hair and then using the sink to wash her face. Avigail then had to wash her face and play with the faucets and the hand dryer before finally another woman entered and distracted them both.
“Let’s go,” Adam said when they finally emerged, and grabbed up the snacks he’d collected from the counter.
“Where’s Galen? Don’t you have to use the bathroom?” Christine asked.
“We already did,” Adam said and shot his sister a look, but he wasn’t too surprised. Women were slow in the bathroom, it was a fact he’d learned long, long ago.
“Galen,” Adam said loudly. The boy was back by the coolers talking animatedly to a pair of weekend bikers, a man and a woman, both dressed in leather, but from the looks of them they
were a husband and wife team. They were smiling broadly but the sight of the boy becoming so chummy with strangers made Adam’s stomach roll over. “Galen,” he repeated and finally the young man looked over and grinned at Adam. He said something to the couple and the man actually reached out and patted Galen on the shoulder as the boy left to rejoin his own group.
“Let’s get moving,” Adam said and gave the couple one last look. They were watching Galen’s every move, their faces happy and open. Adam shook his head and led the group back to the car. Both Vio and Avigail walked slowly across the blacktop, gawking at everything and everyone around them. There were several cars and trucks filling up, and one large delivery van idling on the side of the building. Adam wanted to hurry them along but was reluctant to bark at Vio, so he resisted. It helped that no one seemed to be paying the least bit of attention to the group.
“Vio!” Avigail yelled loudly and pointed up into the sky. Adam glanced up with Vio and noticed the jet airliner flying high, leaving contrails. After a moment he looked down at the two women who continued to stare up in wonder. They spoke excitedly in their strange tongue until Adam moved over and put a hand on the woman’s back. She jumped at his touch and when she turned her face down to his he saw that she was flushed. They stared at one another for a long moment and then Adam coughed.
“Airplane,” he told her softly but she just looked at him quizzically. “Airplane,” he repeated and pointed up in the sky.
“Arrrplane,” Vio repeated as best she could and smiled. Adam’s breath caught in his throat but he managed to smile back before pulling open the rear door and allowing Vio to slide back into her seat.
He handed Christine the snacks as he climbed in behind the wheel.
“Adam, we’re going to need some proper food,” she said. “I’m starving.”
Adam sighed and started the engine, happy they now had a full tank of gas. “Fine,” he said and they pulled out of the station and back onto the main road, searching for something fast to eat.
No one in the car noticed the bald man back at the station watching them with interest as they pulled back onto Highway 61 heading north.
XVIII
“Time can be a friend and time can be a bitch.”
Solitary N’dori
May 7th 2015 Old Earth
“Yes Sir,” Agent Armstrong said into the phone and cursed inwardly, but he knew enough after nearly twenty years of government employment not to argue. At least his boss, Colonel Bradford, agreed with him about taking the boy alive. Bradford was smart, there was no denying that, and after hearing Armstrong’s story he focused instantly on the most compelling part…the women; those strange women…the women who appeared out of nowhere. At Armstrong’s urging Bradford agreed that the women were a threat to National Security and if possible they would be interned and studied until the powers that be could determine just who and what they were, and where exactly they came from. Armstrong was looking forward to finding the bitch that had cut his hand off; maybe pay her back in kind during the interrogation. It was a pleasantly gruesome thought.
“Alright,” Armstrong answered into the phone. “We’ll be expecting them,” he added and then hung up.
‘Shit! The NSA...they’re worse than the FBI,’ Armstrong thought, but had to admit with them on board the matter of finding the boy and Dawkins would be infinitely easier.
The National Security boys would also be an asset in acquiring Cryogen. The company could no longer be allowed to operate autonomously. What Cryogen wanted was no longer in the picture. The company would have to be taken over by the DOE. Dr. Dawkins’ work needed to be studied by the best and the brightest in the country. The doctor had made a major breakthrough without even realizing it. The boy was something special and people…some very important people, were just now beginning to realize it.
“Sir!” Collier yelled from the other side of the command trailer.
Armstrong looked up at his number two.
“The Honda is on the move,” Collier reported and Armstrong smiled. It’d been nearly eighteen hours since the target disappeared from the park with no sign of him since. The trail was going cold and with each passing hour the chance of any of them returning to the apartment was dropping.
“Where?”
“Heading north along Skinker,” Collier reported as Armstrong reached her.
“Dawkins?” Armstrong asked expectantly, but Agent Collier shook her head.
“Occupant unknown,” she informed him, “an older gentleman.”
Armstrong frowned. “Stop him and take him down to Market Street, we’ll meet them there. Let’s just hope the old man knows something; he’s our only link now.”
Collier raised her eyebrows. “The FBI?”
Armstrong nodded. “The NSA is in route to St. Louis and Bradford is going to report to the National Security Council within the hour.”
“Shit,” Collier responded and Armstrong could only nod his head in agreement.
“We’ve blown it…now the important factor is containment,” Armstrong added as they left the trailer and headed for the group of Escalades.
†
Nico watched as the target and his group pulled back onto Highway 61 heading north and felt a wave of relief. At the station he’d fixed a GPS tracking device to the rear bumper while everyone was inside and he’d been surprised how much his hands shook while he worked. At first he did not recognize the emotion and played it off. But when the two strange women followed Dawkins and the boy out of the station, Nico was hard pressed not to drop everything and run. He caught just a glimpse of the younger woman before turning his back on the lot of them, but even then his heart was pounding and his palms were sweating to such an extent that it was hard to hold onto the pump. It took every ounce of self-control not to glance over his shoulder and he half expected to feel the point of a sword plunge through his back and out the front of his chest. Only his faith in the Lord allowed him to remain still as the group piled back into the car. Nico had been fortunate to spot them as the Buick left the parking garage back in St. Louis…yes fortunate and blessed, but the fact that he was blessed didn’t stop his shaking as the car pulled slowly from the station.
‘My Lord…I’m afraid of her,’ Nico thought crazily as he watched the Buick recede in the distance. He almost smiled. It had been many years since he’d been afraid of anything and the emotion made him feel somehow more alive.
He held out his right hand in front of him and watched it shake slightly for a moment, then slammed the pump back into its cradle. He thought about climbing behind the wheel of his Volvo and following closely, but then decided it would be better to keep his distance. He walked slowly into the station to use their facilities.
‘I’m afraid of her,’ he thought once more as he stood silently at the urinal and a shiver traveled down his spine. Nico closed his eyes, trying to bring the young woman’s face to the forefront. It was easy. She’d been very beautiful. He pictured her running; her long dark hair flying out behind her and her eyes blazing like a Fury.
‘She would have killed me,’ he thought not moving, just remembering. He had no doubt about the girl’s ability to kill; he’d seen her in action through his scope. She was fast…and very deadly. And her friend, the older woman, was even more so. He might have to kill the older one first and he would have to be very, very careful.
‘If I could somehow capture her,’ Nico suddenly thought and imagined the feel of his body lying atop the girl, his hands around her perfectly sculptured throat. ‘I could squeeze the life from her very easily,’ his mind continued to play out the fantasy of the girl’s death. Nico could almost feel her squirming underneath him and he felt a deep shiver of pleasure course through his body.
Nico opened his eyes and was surprised to find he was sporting a large, hard erection. He looked down, aghast to find his right hand fondling his member absently. He jerked his hand away quickly, slightly disgusted. The woman was unclean and thoughts of her were maki
ng Nico unclean as well. After a moment, Nico carefully zipped up his pants and moved to the sink where he washed his hands once, twice, three times before he was finally satisfied. He was blessed. He was the Left Hand of God and could not be tainted by sin or desire. The girl would have to die; she would have to die soon, only then would he feel truly clean again.
Nico remained in front of the mirror for a long moment and only opened his eyes after a heavy knock sounded at the door.
“Come on buddy,” a voice said from the far side of the door. Nico sighed and moved to the door. The large man on the far side seemed about to speak but thought better of it and slipped past silently. Nico smiled at the memory of the dying girl; the image still fresh in his mind.
He sauntered out to the Volvo, feeling better than he had in years. He was calm now and as he climbed into the leather seat and behind the wheel he knew just what he wanted. He wanted the girl’s neck in his hands, his fear replaced by the desire to kill.
The Best of All Possible Worlds Page 27