aHunter4Gotten

by Cynthia A. Clement

  “We have to leave.” Eogan looked down at her. “They’ll send reinforcements. The helicopter pilot will have notified them.”

  Hester nodded and stood. “I thought they were going to kill me.”

  He picked up her backpack from the ground. “It was a trap. They knew that I would come to get you.”

  “How? Unless you were with me at the hotel, you would have had no way of knowing that they had kidnapped me.”

  Hester’s logic made sense, but he was all too familiar with the Albireon methods. No matter how much they had tried to break him and force him to do their bidding, there was one thing he refused. He would never endanger or hurt a woman or child. His captors saw this as a weakness and used it to their advantage whenever possible.

  “They intended to take you to a secure base. From there they would have made me aware that they had captured you.”

  “You’re very familiar with their procedures.” Hester’s voice held a note of doubt.

  “It is a strategy that they have employed before.”

  “And succeeded with?”

  “Many times.” Eogan took her arm and started to move her along the fence toward the gate. They still had a couple of hours of darkness and the sooner they were away from here, the safer it would be. Already he could hear the sirens of approaching fire suppression vehicles.

  “They knew you were nearby.” Hester reached a shaking hand for the door of the jeep. “That means they’re still tracking you.”

  “I need to find the implant.” Eogan slid behind the wheel of the car and turned the key in the ignition. “They must have injected one while I was being transported to Turkey.”

  “How will you find it?”

  “It was probably inserted while I slept. The area I was kept in was gassed with a sleeping drug, so I never suspected.”

  Forced sleep was routine on a mission. There was always a fear that Eogan might try an escape, so they kept him subdued as much as possible. As hard as he fought it, he usually succumbed. He pointed the jeep toward the airport terminal.

  “I may be able to use one of the security scanners that are employed on passengers to determine where it is.”

  “Then what?” Hester clutched her bag close to her chest.

  “It will be lodged near a joint.” It was a standard tracking device that all humans captured or working with the Albireons were injected with. “I will take it out.”

  “At this rate, you’re going to be a mass of cuts before morning.” Her voice was dry and a surge of relieve went through him. Her fear had subsided.

  They drove to the terminal and parked. There were very few people around this early. He got out of the jeep and motioned for Hester to stay put.

  “Not likely.” Hester slammed her door shut. “The last time we separated two big men wearing black coats took me away. Where you go, I go.”

  “As you wish.” Eogan felt a sensation of contentment settle over him. Having Hester beside him was comforting. He didn’t understand why, but it would be easier to protect her if she was near.

  There were only a couple of cleaning people in the terminal when they entered. It was still too early for passenger flights. He followed the signs for departures and assessed the security area. It was empty. Two uniformed guards were chatting by one of the closed airline kiosks.

  Eogan shadowed one of the men when he moved away. He was probably going to walk his regular circuit, but he needed a scanner without causing a disturbance. The best way was to monitor the man until an opportunity presented itself. The guard went into a door marked security.

  “We’ll wait to see if he comes out.” He motioned Hester to sit.

  She pulled her backpack onto her lap. “The place might be full of guards.”

  “It is still too early for any flights.” Eogan sat and crossed his arms over his chest. “That is probably the office and there should be scanners there.”

  “Can’t you try and feel the implant?” Hester’s voice was low. “That’s what you did with the others.”

  “I knew where they were.” Eogan rubbed his arm. “This was the device that the Kaladin gave me when I was created. The Albireons managed to redirect it so they could manipulate me. The one in my neck was implanted after I was captured. It had direct control over pain and whether I lived.”

  “That’s horrible.”

  “That is how the Albireons operate.” Eogan turned to her. “Did those men inject you with anything?”

  Hester shook her head. “They grabbed me from the room and rushed me out before I could yell. In the car they were too concerned with keeping me quiet.”

  “You were screaming?” Eogan had assumed she’d been too terrified to do anything.

  “I recited how many of my human rights they were violating.” Hester shrugged. “It seemed to irritate them, so I maintained the litany until one of them threatened to gag me. By then, we had stopped and all hell broke out.”

  “I will still scan you just in case.”

  The guard left the room.

  Eogan stood.

  There were cameras everywhere and he had to get in quickly before they were spotted. Even though there were few people around, he couldn’t take the chance that someone might be monitoring the feed. The Albireons and their security people would know where he was, but he and Hester would be gone before they could send another team to capture him.

  “Do you have a cloth in that bag?”

  Hester frowned. “Why?”

  “I want to block that camera.”

  She rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a can of spray deodorant. “This might make everything fuzzy.”

  “That should give us enough time.” Eogan took the can and walked up behind the camera. He sprayed the lens before ushering Hester into the office. It was empty. There were a couple of bookcases and one metal desk that was covered with papers and what looked to be the remains of someone’s lunch. There were no scanners in sight. He started pulling out the drawers of the large bureau.

  He found a hand-held scanner in the third drawer.

  “This should tell me if there is any foreign material inside me.” Eogan turned it on to the highest setting and then swiped it across his right arm.

  Nothing happened.

  He moved it down his right leg and up his left. Still the instrument made no noise. He switched hands and ran it across his left arm. It remained silent until it reached his wrist. It signaled that there was metal there. Eogan moved it several more times until he had narrowed the location of the chip.

  “How did they get it in there?”

  “They inject it into your bloodstream.” Eogan put the detector on the desk. “It usually travels upstream. They had to have injected it when I was asleep so that might have affected where it traveled.”

  Hester opened her pack and pulled out the first aid kit. “Is it the same procedure as last time?”

  Eogan nodded and held out his hand to her. “I will put pressure at the base of my wrist so the tracking device doesn’t move. You cut it out.”

  She bit her lip. “Is this absolutely necessary?”

  “If they find us, we are dead.”

  She took a deep breath and slit into his wrist below his thumb. There was blood and a second of pain before she started to probe inside his skin. A few twists and then a metal object was pushed out. She grabbed it and placed it on the desk.

  Eogan applied pressure on the wound and waited while Hester put a bandage on the incision. Then he took the scanner and waved it over her body. She was clear. They hadn’t had enough time to inject her with one of their tracking implants.

  “We are free now.” Eogan took the device and dropped it into a half-entry cup of coffee. It might still be transmitting, but the signal would be intermittent at best. He’d leave it here at the airport which should give them enough time to escape.

  “Where do we go now?”

  “We need to get out of this country.” Eogan took her arm and opened the office do
or a few inches. The area was clear. “I have no papers so that makes air flight impossible.”

  “Next thing you’ll be asking is if I know where to buy fake documents.” Hester shook off his hand. “I don’t, just in case you were wondering.”

  “I have connections.”

  “Since when?” Hester’s voice was doubtful. “I think our best bet is to blend in with the local populace. Maybe we could pretend to be refugee’s and try to escape that way.”

  “Why would they believe us?”

  Hester gave him a quick glance. “I could cover my hair and face, but you’d stand out. They’d be no disguising that you’re not Syrian.”

  “I am a Hunter.” Eogan didn’t understand Hester’s words. A Hunter did not hide who he was. “We need to leave, now.”

  “I was just trying to come up with an escape plan.” Her voice was filled with exasperation. “There are a lot of refugees in this part of the world. This could work to our advantage.”

  “True.” Eogan liked the idea, but they would never blend in successfully. “The borders will be watched, but we can copy the same methods that some refugees use to leave Turkey.”

  “Quite a large number are arriving in Europe by boat. They must be hiring people to take them.”

  “Then we must get to the ocean.” Eogan looked around the airport parking lot. “We cannot take the jeep. They know we are in it and will track it.”

  “Don’t ask me to steal.” Hester crossed her arms.

  “I won’t.” There was a fire orange glow on the horizon as the sun rose. Eogan noticed the car rental kiosks and headed toward them. An attendant was just opening up his office. “Do you have money?”

  Chapter 10

  Thirty minutes later, they were driving west toward Iskenderun. It was the nearest port and they could probably rent a boat there to get them out of the country. Hester’s head was still spinning from all that had happened in the past few hours. She had certainly got the adventure she’d craved. Kidnapping, murder, archaeological ruins, and a hunky rescuer.

  It was more than she’d expected.

  A shiver of awareness went through her as she glanced over at Eogan.

  Lean muscles rippled up his arm as he gripped the steering wheel. She was traveling with a man who was utterly gorgeous. Yesterday, when she woke up, the most she’d hoped from the day was that she’d get to examine Gobekli Tepe undisturbed. She loved everything ancient, but it was no comparison to having a real live man sitting beside her.

  The car braked and Eogan turned off the road.

  “What’s wrong?” Hester expected the worse. She couldn’t help it. After everything that had happened, it was a reasonable assumption.

  “We need to disable the tracking device.”

  “Not another one?” Where did this guy keep coming up with these things? “You scanned both of us. We’re clear.”

  “Not us. The car.”

  Eogan pushed his seat back and started to feel under the dash. He pulled open what looked like a fuse box. He poked around the wires and then snapped the cover back on. “It’s not here.”

  “Why would a leased car have a tracking device?”

  “To prevent theft.”

  “We paid for it.” She wondered if captivity had addled his brain. “They have my credit card number on file. They’ll just charge me if they don’t get it back.”

  “Most rental companies monitor their cars.”

  Hester shook her head. “That’s an invasion of my rights.”

  Eogan raised an eyebrow. “No one has privacy.”

  She opened her mouth and then shut it. He was right. Monitoring, whether by camera, internet, or RFID chips was everywhere. Who was she to argue? If last night had taught her anything, it was that she didn’t have a clue as to what was happening in the real world. She’d spent too much time among musty old books and artifacts.

  “Where would they put it?”

  “Usually it’s plugged into the onboard computer system of the car. This organization took it a step further and hid it.”

  Hester groaned. She didn’t want to walk all the way to the coast. “Does that mean we can’t use the vehicle?”

  Eogan reached below the dash and the hood of the car popped up. “No. I just have to look in a different location.”

  There was no doubt that Eogan was determined. He was also very knowledgeable. If it hadn’t been for him, she would have been lying dead by the side of the road. So much for all the reading and research she’d done on the internet before heading out on her adventure. She didn’t even know the basics about renting a car.

  Hester sighed. There was nothing she could do about what had happened now. The first priority was to get out of this country alive. Once she was back home and safe, she could look at this whole escapade in a new light. She’d also widen her research topics to include tips on traveling.

  Eogan slammed the hood down.

  He was holding a black box in his hand.

  “Is that it?”

  He nodded. “I’m going to leave it here. They’ll think we’ve stopped to sightsee. It shouldn’t raise any alarms for a few hours.”

  “This is going to ruin my credit rating.” Hester felt as if she were on a roller coaster. “Do you think we’ll be safe in Iskenderun?”

  “We will not be out of danger until I can reach the other Hunters.”

  “They know you’re coming?”

  “I’ve contacted them. We are to meet in London.”

  “When did you have time?” Hester’s eyes widened. “Do you have a cellphone? They could be tracking that.”

  “I don’t need such a device to contact my brothers.” Eogan spun the car back onto the road.

  “You probably have some unique system to communicate.” Hester didn’t bother to hide her sarcasm. “You guys sound more like superheroes. It must be nice to land on a new world and have super powers.”

  “I do not have special abilities.” Eogan glanced at her. “This planet gives me some advantages, but as you have seen I bleed, and I can still be controlled.”

  A wave of regret washed through her. She’d been callous, and the worse thing he’d done was save her life twice. Even if he was an alien, he deserved more respect than that. He had risked his life when he could have left her to fend for herself.

  Hester leaned her head against the headrest. “I was out of line.”

  “We are not following a line.” Eogan sounded confused. “You speak in riddles again.”

  “You don’t seem to understand English very well. Is it a second language for you?”

  “It is one of the dialects that was downloaded when I crashed.”

  “Are you certain you’ve been here thirty years? You sound as if you arrived here yesterday.”

  “I do not lie.”

  Hester snorted. “I remember. I suppose being locked away has kept you from mingling with others. You seem to do everything better than the rest of us, except understand the nuances of the language.”

  “The people who held me captive did not care about how I spoke.” Eogan’s voice was dry. “This planet has given me several advantages. I heal quickly and age slower.”

  “Too bad you couldn’t bottle that and sell it. You’d make a fortune.”

  Hester turned to look out the window. The sun was up and the sky was a brilliant blue. The area they were passing through was flat with grass and sparse vegetation. In the distance there was a low mountain range and the outline of another city. She hadn’t considered the scenery of Turkey because she was focused only on seeing Gobekli Tepe.

  “This is a beautiful country, but I suppose you’ve seen it before.” She looked over at Eogan.

  “Never in daylight.”

  “That’s unbelievable.” Hester shook her head. “Didn’t they let you out during the day?”

  “Sometimes.” Eogan’s voice was matter of fact. “Most of my assignments were at night.”

  “How does Earth compare with your home planet?
”

  “It is an oasis compared to Cygnus.” Eogan kept his eyes on the road. “You have trees and water still. It would be a shame to see this destroyed.”

  Hester was intrigued. She believed there were other planets where life thrived, but how they looked had never crossed her mind. The snippets of information she was finding out about Eogan were an anthropological goldmine. He was a giant of a man, with a powerful presence. A skilled killer who lived by a code of honor.

  Every moment she spent with him was a risk to her life because he was an alien hunted by a secret government agency. None of that mattered when she looked into his dark eyes. All she wanted to do was drown in those eyes and forget the rest of the world. It was crazy. And it had to stop.

  Men didn’t notice her, especially if they looked like Eogan. The only place this could lead to was heartbreak. She had to end this insane attraction to a man who was unattainable. Focusing on the academics of this situation would clear her mind and protect her heart.

  “Did the Albireons destroy your planet too?”

  “They would never dare.” His voice was a growl. “The ancients left Cygnus barren thousands of years ago.”

  “If you can travel in space, you must have the technology to restore your homeland.”

  “It is not easy to replace what is gone. We may have the ability to store and manipulate genes, but some things do not return.”

  “Like water and plants?”

  Eogan nodded. “We have artificial water and areas where trees have been preserved, but it is not the same. It’s easier to find new planets to inhabit.”

  “That’s tragic.” A wave of sadness filled Hester. They were close to destroying the environment on Earth, but there wasn’t another planet for humans to populate. “What else is different?”

  “I have found many strange things on this world. The most difficult adjustment was discovering that not all humans tell the truth.”

  “Don’t try and tell me that all people from your world speak honestly.” Hester shook her head. “Nobody is that perfect.”

  “Hunters do not lie. It is against our sacred code.”