“Let me go, George,” Adam said, his tone of voice rising an octave or two as he tried to pull free.
“Pushed me,” George spat, his eyes glinting with madness. “Pushed me.” He vigorously shook Adam, causing him to stumble back into Eric who winced as Adam stepped on his foot.
“Fucker,” Eric snarled, reaching out and grabbing Adam around the throat with his two, large meaty hands that looked more like claws.
Adam gurgled, his face going red.
“Let him go.” Chase’s voice trembled. She didn’t know what to do. She knew that she should help, but the physical appearance of George and Eric held her back. She could see the change in their features, could see the physical manifestation as their body chemistry altered, and it terrified her.
“Mandy, get away from here,” Chase said. Watching the two men, she suddenly realised that Mandy was one of them, tainted, and susceptible to the change, and in effect, just as dangerous.
Mandy looked at Chase with wide, fearful eyes.
“Mandy, please, just back away and I’ll try and help Adam.”
But Mandy didn’t move. She was rooted to the spot, her jaw beginning to clench while her eyes narrowed into defensive slits.
Adam’s face had turned purple. He thrashed around within George and Eric’s grasp like a fish on a hook. Spittle flew from his lips as he tried desperately to kick out.
Beyond fear, Chase ran to help him. She grabbed Eric’s hands and tried to prise his fingers apart, but his grip was too tight. Frantic, she slipped her bag from her shoulder and took out the kitchen knife she had dropped in there when she was going to meet Adam in the pub – when had that been? It seemed like a lifetime ago.
Without thinking about what she was doing, Chase slashed Eric’s hand, opening a nasty wound across his knuckles. Eric hardly acknowledged the cut and Chase slashed again, almost severing one of Eric’s fingers. Releasing his grip on Adam, he glared at Chase. Freed from the choking hold, Adam toppled backwards, coughing violently. Still holding onto his wrists, George toppled with him, landing heavily on top of Adam.
As Eric moved toward Chase, she held the knife up like a crucifix, a talisman, hoping that the sight of it would stop Eric from advancing – but it didn’t. He was overcome by the change. Nothing scared him.
Backing further away, she waved the knife like an ineffectual wand, hoping to dispel the monster. But of course it didn’t work. Eric Stone was oblivious to the knife. With a sudden burst of speed that took her completely by surprise, Eric was on her, his teeth gnashing inches from her face, a thin drool of saliva hanging from his lips as he forced her to the floor, pinning her arms down and causing her to drop the knife.
Chase screamed.
Eric Stone leaned forward to bite a chunk out of her face, and the next minute Mandy attacked him like a vicious tornado, a whirl of teeth, hands and feet.
Taken by surprise, Eric rolled off Chase, and Mandy – or whatever she had become – seized the upper hand by leaping astride his back and clutching at his face. Like a bizarre, hideous rodeo show, Eric bucked and jerked while Mandy held on to his face. It seemed to go on for ages, but in reality it was only a few seconds before her finger sank into his eye. Almost immediately, Eric slumped to the ground and Mandy rolled off him, breathing in short, controlled bursts as she looked across at Chase, her anger manifest.
Chase wanted to be sick. She felt the bile rising, the familiar caustic burn of acid in her throat.
She knew that she should run, but where to? Nowhere was safe in Paradise.
Mandy advanced toward her, teeth bared in a feral snarl.
Chase was paralysed by fear.
Adam was swearing and shouting for help.
The rain lashed down.
The wind blew.
And help arrived.
CHAPTER 26
“For Christ’s sake, don’t just stand there, help me,” Adam wailed as George tried to bite his ear off.
Drake stood over Adam and George with a supercilious smile on his lips. Three armed men stood either side of him, their faces devoid of expression. Two other men grabbed Mandy, while another man administered an injection to her arm, causing her to slump unconscious to the ground, her features relaxing, returning to normal.
“Now why would I want to help a snivelling runt like you?” Drake snarled.
“Get him ... off me.” Adam could hardly speak, his words coming between bursts of exertion as he fought to restrain George.
“You don’t deserve any help. You were meant to be on our side.” Drake glared at Adam with open dislike. “You were only meant to study the bitch, not try and help her escape.”
“I’m sorry ... but get him ... off me ... and then ... we’ll talk about ... it.” Adam’s face contorted with pain as George tried to pull his ear off.
Drake sighed and shook his head. “What if I told you Moon had given me instructions to kill you?”
Chase didn’t know whether Adam’s eyes went wide in pain or fear.
“He ... he wouldn’t. I’m too ... fuck it Drake, get this madman off me.”
Drake stroked his chin. “The precious doctor asking for my help. I always knew this day would come. What was it you first called me, a hired shit-kicker that you didn’t want in the village in case I ...” he made imaginary speech brackets in the air with two fingers on each hand, “... interfered with the experiment.” He grinned. “And now you’re asking me to get directly involved. You can’t have it both ways doc.”
Chase wanted to help Adam, but she knew Drake and his men would stop her, but she had to do something. “Why don’t you cut the bullshit and just help him,” she snarled. She thought about the gun in Adam’s bag, but one of the guards had picked it up.
Drake turned to glare at Chase. “And why don’t you shut the fuck up unless you want me to cut something other than bullshit.” He seemed to think about something for a moment. “Then again, I could always treat you like I treated your friend, what’s her name, Jane.” He gave a lecherous grin.
“What sort of monster are you,” Chase spat.
Drake laughed. “I think the only monster around here’s growing inside you.”
Chase involuntarily gripped her stomach.
“If it wasn’t for the money, I wouldn’t have anything to do with these Frankenstein experiments, but at least I’m not going to give birth to some genetic fuckin’ freak.”
“That’s enough,” Nigel Moon boomed as he appeared behind Drake, his face reddened with anger. “You men,” he pointed at the soldiers, “administer a sedative to George and help Adam to his feet.”
One of the soldiers grabbed George while another stabbed a hypodermic needle into his arm. The sedative took effect almost immediately and George’s eyes rolled up and he slumped to the ground. Refusing the soldiers offer of assistance to stand, Adam gained his feet and brushed himself down.
“Thank you, Nigel,” Adam said.
“Don’t thank me just yet. Did you really think I would just let you go?”
Adam stared down at his feet like a scolded child. “I ... I don’t know what I was thinking. Everything happened so fast. Nigel, I’m so sorry. You know how much this experiment means to me.”
Drake snorted derisively.
Moon gave Drake a withering glare before turning back to Adam. “Then why betray me? I thought out of all the people who would understand ... of all the people I could trust ...” Moon shook his head. “I asked you to befriend Miss Black; gain her trust, not run off with her.”
“I admit it, I was scared. I know I shouldn’t have been, but ... I’m the one living in the village. You don’t know what it’s been like.”
Drake spat on the ground. “You’re just a pussy.”
“Mr Drake, I will handle this, if you don’t mind.”
“He’s still a pussy.” Drake turned away and ordered one of his men to call up a transport vehicle.
Moon turned back to Adam. “You’re wrong, Adam, I do understand. We’ve all
been under a great deal of strain, but how can I ever trust you again now?”
“Because I give you my word.”
“Adam, don’t listen to him. You know this is wrong,” Chase said.
“No, Nigel’s right. I’ve been a fool. I wanted to be a part of this because I saw how much benefit it would be to people. We would create a Utopia. A place without illness.” He shook his head. “I’ve let Nigel down, I’ve let myself down, but more than that, I’ve let Nicola down.”
“You’ve let her down more by actually being a part of this.” She couldn’t understand why he had renounced all that he had said in Mandy’s house. “You said you’d help me.”
“And I will. By making sure you give birth to your child, I’ll be helping everyone.”
Moon nodded his head. “You know it’ll be a long road back to my trust, don’t you Adam. But I hope you get there, I really do.”
“I don’t know what came over me, but you can trust me. I promise.”
Moon sucked air through his teeth. “I hope so. I would hate to lose you.”
Chase noticed Adam flinch at the word ‘lose’, as though it held more meaning than just letting him go from his position. “Is this what Nicola would have wanted?”
Adam ignored her.
“Perhaps it’s better that she did die then. At least now you can lie to yourself that this is what she would have wanted.”
Adam glared at her. “You’ve got no idea what it’s like for me. You don’t know anything about me ...”
“That’s obvious.”
“And you certainly don’t know anything about Nicola. You don’t know what she was like.”
“If this is what she would have wanted, then I’m glad, but deep down, I think you know you’re only lying to yourself. You’re just using her as a scapegoat, an excuse to justify what you’re doing.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
Chase shook her head. “I don’t know who I feel more sorry for, Nicola or you.”
Adam clenched his fists.
“Now that’s enough,” Moon said, intervening. “Guards, escort these two back to the base.”
Two men stepped forward and grabbed Adam and Chase by the arms.
“Nigel, you don’t need to do this.” Adam struggled against his captor. “I thought we’d sorted things out.”
“Do you take me for a fool, Adam. It’ll take more than a few declarations of remorse on your part before I trust you again. This isn’t a case of saying three Hail Mary’s and finding absolution.”
“But Nigel—”
“But nothing. Now unless you want to try my patience, I would suggest that you do as you’re told.”
“This is your fault,” Adam snarled, turning on Chase.
Moon held his hand up, signalling the men to wait.
“Why don’t you grow up,” Chase retorted. “You should be adult enough to take responsibility for your own actions rather than blaming everyone else.”
“Touché. Game set and match.” Moon smiled. “She is uncommonly perceptive, wouldn’t you say.”
Adam clenched his fists.
“Although Chase was not a part of the equation, things have a way of working out for the best.” Moon chuckled. “If it wasn’t for life’s little accidents, Alexander Fleming would never have discovered penicillin and Louis Pasteur would never have discovered vaccinations. Chase Black will undoubtedly get a mention in history as – if you’ll excuse the pun – having had one of the greatest little accidents of all time. Although of course the greatest accolade will be bestowed upon myself.”
“People will never praise a killer,” Chase spat.
Moon gave a heartless laugh. “Unlike a soldier, trained to kill and being hailed a hero for doing so in battle, you mean. People are so fickle.”
“That’s different, and you know it.”
“Why? They kill. You see my dear girl, the means justifies the end if it furthers the advancement of human life. A soldier kills to ultimately save lives. In my field, people sometimes die, I grant you that, but their deaths lead to greater knowledge. Does the recovering cancer sufferer want to know how many people have died so that they may ultimately live? No. But through the deaths and suffering, cures have been discovered. I offer cures for all cancers, for all disease. Isn’t that worth a few sacrifices along the way?”
“Tell that to the victims.”
Moon shook his head. “You are not looking at the whole picture.”
“No, I’m looking at the whole picture all right. You’ve consigned a whole village to untold suffering. Nothing is ever worth that.”
“If you could go back in time and kill Adolf Hitler, would you?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Humour me. He caused mass genocide, killed thousands, millions even. If you had the chance, would you go back and stop him before he started? Would the taking of one life be worth it to save millions?”
Chase scowled. “That’s different.”
“Is it? Or is it that you could justify taking one life? Well where do you stop? Pol Pot had thousands killed in a radical restructuring of Cambodia. Do you stop him too? Or do you go further back in time and stop Christopher Columbus discovering a country that was never lost. The Native Americans were wiped out as a result of his sojourn. How about Attila The Hun? Caesar? Where would it all end? How many would you have to kill to save the many?” Moon smiled. “I hope you see my point. You would kill if it meant saving lives. What we’re doing now is sacrificing the few to save the many.”
“But these people haven’t done anything wrong. They’re not mass killers.”
“That’s purely incidental, but you get my meaning.” He waved his hands in the air as if swatting a fly.
“Well to answer your question, no, I couldn’t go back in time and kill Hitler. I couldn’t kill anyone. Unlike you, I haven’t got it in me to be so inhumane.”
Moon nodded his head. “I see.” He smiled to himself. “Take them away.” He motioned to the guards before he turned and headed toward a Land Rover that had pulled up at the end of the lane.
Adam gave Chase another withering glare as they were led away.
“And to think I trusted you.” She shook her head.
Adam frowned. “Can’t you see this is ground breaking work?”
“Then why did you have your doubts? For a brief moment, you must have seen it for what it was?”
“And what’s that?”
“It’s just another disease. In finding the cure to other diseases and illnesses, you’ve opened a Pandora’s box and just created a new disease.”
“You don’t know anything,” Adam snarled.
“I know enough to know that people should have a choice, and that they shouldn’t be unwittingly experimented on.”
“Even when the results can far outweigh the risks?”
“Why don’t you ask Belinda that? Oh, I forgot, you can’t. You killed her. Is that the result you’re on about?” She shook her head in disgust before the guard boosted her into the back of a canvas-covered troop carrier. For a moment she thought she saw a look of remorse on Adam’s face, but then it was gone, replaced with a steely-eyed determination as he was forced into the truck.
She couldn’t believe he had changed so much. To think she had even kissed him. But it had all been a sham. He was just meant to pacify her for Moon’s experiment.
As the truck moved through the village, Adam looked down at his feet and refused to look up, even when Chase tried to engage him in conversation. The two guards rode silent shotgun, their guns drawn, fingers tensed on hair triggers.
Through a flap in the back of the truck, Chase could see they had entered the fog, the truck driver navigating an unerring path through the mist. She absently wondered how he could see, but then she realised they must have special devices that allowed them to see where they were going. The ride was bumpy and the truck emitted clouds of diesel smoke, causing her to wonder how a soldier surviv
ed the ride, never mind the battle. The truck stopped once and Chase heard the driver talking to someone before a soldier peered over the tailgate into the back of the truck. She noticed that the soldier had some form of goggles pulled up onto the top of his head. Letting the flap drop back, he shouted something incoherent to the driver and the vehicle started moving again.
After about ten minutes, the truck stopped again. One of the guards dropped the tailgate and the canvas cover was thrown back so they could exit. Without being prompted, Chase dropped to the ground.
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