She frowned. “But you saw it with your own eyes.”
I cut across her. “I saw what? I was shown a lot of smoke and mirrors, and I was given hallucinogenic drugs. Under those conditions, you can make people believe anything you want. I don’t believe in aliens. I don’t believe shit!”
“We…they…are not aliens. They were here long before you were.”
“Cut the crap, sister. You wanting out of this mess does it for me. The bullshit about aliens doesn’t.”
She seemed mad for a moment then sighed. “Fine, aliens or not, they have a huge genetic research program. I am a product of the program. I am a Seraph, like Serafino, with all the privileges and…” She shook her head. “I am a Seraph. Let’s leave it at that. The point is that they have declared war on humanity, and there are those of us who feel it is wrong. Since Sinead and Mary-Jane’s escape, there is a different mood among us—a feeling that our masters are not that powerful, after all.”
“Your masters?”
“The Ael.”
I sighed. “Look… What’s your name?”
“Joanna.”
“Look, Joanna. I’d like to believe you and I’d like to help you.” I shrugged. “But what reason have I to believe you, let alone trust you?”
She stared down at the green tiles again. “None.”
“This is just another one of del Roble’s stupid, over-elaborate ego trips.”
She raised her eyes to meet mine. There was laughter in them. “You’re right. It is exactly the kind of stupid thing he would do. But think it through, Murdoch. What would he gain from it? You’re going there tonight or tomorrow, anyway.”
I spread my hands. “The game…”
She gave a small shout of laughter. “The game would be to trap you in the research facility after you have cut your way through the barbed wire. Or to hunt you through the desert and drag you back, kicking and screaming to be…”
I said, “To be what?”
“Never mind. There would be no sport in catching you this easily, and besides”—she shrugged and echoed my own gesture, spreading her hands—“he’s too intelligent. He knows you would never go for it.”
It had gotten dark while we had been talking. I stepped over to the bed and switched on the bedside lamp. It gave a soft glow. We were real close.
She was looking up at me. She said, “Do you know what drives us?”
I shook my head. “No…”
“We can’t feel the way you do. We are… It’s hard to explain, but we are different. We are not exactly of this world. We call ourselves Asuras. We are of this planet but not of your world. And that means we can’t feel the way you do, with the intensity that you feel. But we are hungry for it.”
My heart was pounding. She was doing something to me. My belly was on fire and I was fighting hard to resist it. I said, “I don’t need to know this.”
She reached out and took my hand, then let her fingers slip down to my thigh. “The other day, at Llyn Celyn, we were together for hours, and I almost felt the way you do. We call it rupa. It’s a transcendent state, when we feel like you. It changes us.”
I said, “Stop it!” But my voice sounded thick. I moved away from her, back to the window and stood staring out at the night. It was black as pitch with a trail of stars making a broken path across the sky. I said, “Supposing I gave it a try. How would this work?”
I turned to face her.
She was watching me carefully. She said, “He is expecting you to approach by car, the way you did earlier today.”
“You saw that.”
“We have satellite surveillance. We have access to every satellite orbiting the planet. We knew you were coming, so we were watching. He expects you to return the same way, cut through the barbed wire, take out the guards then storm the hangars.” She smiled. “He knows you only take sophistication so far, then you go barbarian.”
I didn’t smile. I was pissed that he was right—and that she was, too. I said, “So?”
“So, throw him a curve ball. Let me take you in. You’ll be my prisoner and you’ll be in my charge.” She stood and came over to me. She pressed her body against me and touched my face with her fingers.
I didn’t want her. I didn’t want to touch her, but my body was on fire and there was an insane hunger for her in my belly.
“When the time is right, I’ll release you and we escape together.”
“What about Maria?”
“Forget her. What do we need her for?”
I pushed her hard. She gave a small cry and fell back across the bed. Her dress crawled up her thigh. I turned away. My breathing was coming hard and fast. It wasn’t the only thing about me that was hard.
She glared at me. “When have you ever experienced anything like what you felt with me? I can be anything and anyone you want. Look at me!”
I turned. She had taken off her dress. She was in black lace pants and a black lace bra. Her waist was small, her hips were round and smooth and her breasts were full. I could see her nipples through the lace, hard and erect.
She said, “You know I can take you places you have never even dreamed of. You know I can give you pleasures you can’t even imagine right now.
I went over, gripped her hard by her shoulders and pulled her to me. She gave a small whimper and I felt her naked thigh push between my legs. She eased closer and began unbuttoning my shirt with her small fingers then raking her long red nails down my chest.
She whispered, “Kiss me. I can do things with my tongue…”
I snapped, “No!”
She scratched my chest again and the pain was a spasm of pleasure. “Stop fighting it, Murdoch. It’s what you want. You have always just taken what you want. Take me now.” And she ground her crotch against my thigh as she said it.
My voice was thick and my breathing was shaking. I said, “All right, but we do it my way.”
She pushed her arms around me and squeezed. She was strong, stronger than a woman her size should be. She buried her face in my neck and whispered, “Tell me your way. Tell me what you want. Anything…”
I wrenched her arms from around me and pushed her savagely. She hit the bed and sprawled on the floor. Her eyes were wide. Spread-eagled in her lace underwear, she seemed vulnerable and small. I felt sudden pity for her, but I had to keep up the act. My life and Maria’s depended on it.
I snarled, “I go in from the south, alone! I take the Audi across the desert as far as it will go. Then I dump it and go on foot to allow del Roble to believe I’m coming from the north…” I let my voice simmer down then stepped to the window. I spoke to the blackness outside. “I’ll need at least a couple of hours. Expect my attack about midnight. I’ll take out a few of your men to make it look good, so have plenty there to take me. Then you come and claim the arrest.”
I turned to face her. She was still on the floor, but now she had one elbow on the bed and she seemed to be listening hard.
I said, “Whatever happens, Maria goes free. If she’s hurt, I’ll kill you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You still want her.”
I shook my head and my breathing was hard. “I want you. She goes free. I owe it to her. Where is she?”
Her eyes were like frosted glass, so was her voice. “In the labs.”
I felt sick but I didn’t show it. “Where?”
“In the central hangars at the center of the Pentagon.”
I nodded and I repeated, “She goes free. I get del Roble. Then you are mine. From now on, I own you. Do you understand? You want rupa? You’re going to get more rupa than you know what to do with.”
Her eyes were shining and she was smiling. She started to get to her feet. She started to speak, “Murdoch—”
I snapped, “Save it. Get your damned clothes on and get out.”
Her face went hard and I knew I was over-playing my hand.
“You don’t get something for nothing, Murdoch. Not from me.”
I got to her in two long
strides as she stood. I grabbed her arms and pulled her close. My voice was a hoarse whisper. “You listen to me, you little gray lizard…”
She made an act of struggling, of being mad, but I yanked her tighter so our bodies were pressed up close and my lips were almost touching hers.
“I told you I own you, and if I say leave, you leave.”
Her eyes were telling me she’d do anything I said except leave. I’d put myself in a corner and there was only one way out. This was where I stopped playing del Roble’s game. This was where del Roble lost control, but it was where I had to betray Maria so I could save her life.
I put my head on one side and spoke through my teeth. “You want rupa?” Her breathing quickened and I saw her pupils dilate. My muscles tensed. I knew I was losing control. I knew I had to lose control. She had to believe what was coming next. If she was going to believe it, I had to, too.
It wasn’t difficult. I knew she was doing something to me. I didn’t know what it was, but I had to use it to my advantage.
I growled, “You want goddamn rupa.” I bit hard into her neck.
She cried out and her body quivered. I chewed and sucked hard, until I tasted the salt trickle of blood. She trembled, and I knew it was hurting her. She wanted human feelings and she was going to get them. If I was right, it was the one way to make sure she was hooked.
I picked her up, threw her on the bed and ripped off my clothes. I was stark naked and sweating. I had the hardest erection I’d ever had in my life. The cold desert air touched my back. I knew I was going crazy, but knew I had to go with it. I climbed on the bed and straddled her with my arms and legs. I lunged and bit her shoulder, hard, then her throat and her breasts, in quick, savage bites. I felt her nipples through the lace, growing hard between my teeth. I could hear myself making whimpering noises. I moved down and bit hard into her waist and her belly, then her hips.
I gripped her ass in hands, bruising her soft, white buttocks, then tore a hole in her lace panties with my teeth. I gnawed and bit and licked like a wild animal at a bloody carcass until she was screaming and pushing into my face. Then I grabbed her hips and rolled her onto her belly and straddled her ass with my legs.
I pushed Maria out of my mind and silenced the voice that begged her forgiveness. I had to be here and now and do this like I wanted it.
I grabbed her hair with my right hand. I could feel her smooth, soft buttocks on my inside thighs. My head was wild. I felt crazy, like I had been drugged. My erection was insane, like iron. She was writhing, grinding her ass into me. I gritted my teeth and clawed her back, leaving livid red scratches. Then I positioned myself. She resisted, tight and hard—cried out, groaned and gasped. Then her passage dilated, she came to me and I pushed inside her. I bellowed, shouting like I was mad, as I sank deeper, deeper than I imagined possible. Then we were grinding in a frenzy, her ass hard against my hips, her small waist twisting and arching. I felt her clench hard on me then she was making strange, weird bird-like noises and the spasms hit me like waves of electricity that racked my body.
I fell forward onto her—clutched her, feeling her breasts in my hands. She was thrashing, and with every move she clenched harder and the orgasm shook me deeper. Her skin was smooth, wet with sweat, and I bit her shoulder from behind, tasting the salt on my tongue. Then we lay still.
I was shattered. She was trembling softly against me. I pulled away and swung my legs off the bed. I was also shaking and I felt weak. I stood and picked up the bucket. Most of the ice had melted. I put the rim to my mouth and drank deeply, then tipped the remaining half-bucket of iced water over my head. The shock was violent on my burning, sweating skin and made me shout. But it was good and brought me back to my senses.
I heard her move in the bed but ignored her and made my way to the shower. Standing under the cold stream, I scrubbed hard with soap, trying to wash her off my skin—trying to wash the memory of her off my skin.
Finally, I toweled myself dry and went back to the bedroom. She was lying in only her bra, with the white sheet tangled around her legs.
I said, “Get out. Go and do what you have to do.”
She said, “Why are you like this? What we just did—”
“Can it. You own me now. You know it. I’m as addicted to you as though I’d been mainlining horse. But I own you, too, baby. We own each other. That doesn’t mean I have to love you or even like you.” I gave a nasty laugh. “Hell, you wouldn’t know what love was if it bit you in the…” I faltered.
She smiled and raised an eyebrow. “I think it just did.”
I said, “Get dressed. Get out. Be ready for me.” I checked my watch. It was half-eight. I said, “I’ll be there, at the south perimeter fence, in three or four hours.”
She got off the bed and started dressing. She glanced at me sidelong. She looked almost like a timid teenager. “Then we can be together?”
I threw the towel on the floor and pulled on my pants. I had a sour taste in my mouth. I said, “I told you. We own each other…if we get out of this alive.” Then I stopped and stared at her, aware I was taking the gamble of my life. “You keep your end of the bargain and I’ll keep mine. You’ll get all the damned rupa you can handle.”
She smiled like she’d been promised her favorite toy for Christmas then left, closing the door behind her. I heard her tripping down the stairs, and a minute later, her car door slammed in the silent night and her engine roar, whine and fade.
Then I was running down the stairs, calling Habib at the top of my voice.
Chapter Nineteen
He appeared at the reception desk with alarmed, sleepy eyes, still in his djellaba. “Yes, mister! Yes! I am here.”
I said, “Listen to me. This has to be fast, okay?”
He nodded. Fast.
“I need a Land Rover. Does anybody in this village have a Land Rover?”
He nodded furiously.
I barked, “Who? Where?”
“Salim! Back of…here, here!” He pointed to the back wall.
I got the idea. I pulled five-hundred dinar from my wallet and gave them to him. “I am going to buy his Land Rover, okay? I haven’t got time to ask him. You explain to him in the morning. You understand? I’ll send another two grand by DHL. You give him what you think is right. Got it?”
His eyes were like soup plates, looking at the cash.
I grabbed his shoulders and gave him a small shake to make him meet my eyes. “Look at me.”
“Yes, mister.”
“Keep silent until twelve o’clock tomorrow.”
He nodded more slowly, weighing the risks. The odds were good, and he said, “Okay…”
“Last thing, Habib… Wire cutters. I need wire cutters.”
Now he appeared a bit sick. “Okay. You come.”
I followed him to the kitchen. On the way, he locked the money safely in a cashbox. The kitchen smelled strongly of cumin, cinnamon and mint. He rummaged in a drawer then pulled out a pair of wire-cutters. He still looked sick. He handed them to me and said, “Wait, please.”
Then he reached over and picked up a big meat cleaver with his right hand. He braced himself on straddled legs and, with his left hand, he pointed to his chin. He said, “Now, please, mister. Make good…”
I said, “You’re a pal, Habib. Be safe.” And I smacked him hard as I could on the jaw. I may have broken it. I hoped so. Either way, it was hard enough to convince any investigating cop.
I went back to my room, put on my shoes and a dark shirt then slipped the Sig in the back of my waistband with the silencer and the night-scope attached. I put all my stuff in the kitbag and took it downstairs.
The night was freezing. It might have been zero—or one degree. I was trembling and my teeth were chattering. I loped around the back of the inn and up a short hill. There were a few mud houses set back with walled front gardens. They had palm trees for shade and one of them had a chicken shack. Next to the chicken shack there was a Defender.
It was e
asy to break into. Before I fired it up, I checked a couple of things. It was gasoline, not diesel, which in North Africa is not so surprising. It was also good news. And in the back, he had two twenty-five liter cans that were also full. Also good news.
I released the hand brake and put it in neutral, then pushed it gently out onto the hill. I put it in second, depressed the clutch and it free-wheeled down to the dirt track that passed for the main drag here. When it hit the level, I let out the clutch, hot-wired it and hit the gas. The old brute roared to life and we were away. And Salim still had a good five hours’ sleep ahead of him.
I took the road out of the village, away from the complex, for about ten minutes, then turned off-road, into the desert. There was no moon and I had the headlamps off, so I was driving blind. It felt like I hit every pothole and rock in the desert. But after fifteen minutes, I began to see a faint glow ahead and to my left—south and east. I knew it was the complex and I headed toward it. Another fifteen minutes and I could make out the watchtowers and the barbed-wire fence with the hangars maybe sixty or a hundred yards beyond it. The whole area inside the barbed wire was floodlit.
In the faint glow from the spotlights, I made out some dunes and pulled the Land Rover in behind them then killed the engine. I climbed out and opened the back. The desert air was freezing and it was hard to control my fingers. I emptied the kitbag and stuffed one of the petrol cans in it. Then I strapped that to my back. I closed the door quietly, hit the ground and began to crawl.
I’d told Joanna I was coming in from the south. Between them, del Roble and she would have all their men focused north and south. I was coming in from the west. I crawled for five minutes, till I was right up to the wire but still in the shadows of the desert. There was one watchtower near me. If I went under the wire, the guard would see me. I figured the shot at fifty yards. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t impossible. I knew I’d hit him, but I couldn’t be sure where. I aimed for the middle of his body and double-tapped. The two slugs tore through his chest. He leaned for a moment on the rail in front of him, like he wasn’t sure why he felt dizzy all of a sudden. Then he slowly lay down. That was the end of his story.
The Deepest Cut Page 19