Equinox (Beyond Moondust Trilogy Book 2)
Page 22
“What should we do about them?” the uniformed man said.
All the man from the sedan had to do was tip his chin and the other understood. A shot was fired. Gabe went down.
“What about this one?” he said in Eden’s direction.
The man from the sedan grimaced. “Her too.”
A shot was fired. Eden fell like a rag doll.
“No, no!” The rumble of the chopper’s blades swept dried leaves and debris. I coughed again, spilling more blood.
Finn appeared. He went through the man who just shot Eden. “Sam!”
“Finn, they killed him,” I said as military personnel came rushing out of the chopper with a stretcher, walking over Finn’s ghost.
A silhouette came into view as Finn’s visage began to fade out from the sun’s rays.
“Well, well, well, look who it is. Samantha Hunter.”
“Banth—” I said in one breath. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Now would I do that, my dear?”
“How?”
“Do you really think the Fosters could destroy me so easily? Oh, but I can’t say the same for them.” He looked down at the Fosters’ bodies scattered on the highway. “Looks like your pathetic entourage has expired.”
I struggled as Banth’s men lifted me onto the stretcher.
“Now, now, my dear, rest easy.” He patted my shoulder where one of the bullets had hit. I held in my cry. “Careful,” he said to his men. “You’ve already done enough damage to her.”
“You’ll never get away with this. The Division will hunt you down. Never,” I said through gritted teeth.
“That’s a possibility. But I wouldn’t count on it,” he said, smiling. “To Dulce!”
“But sir, the President’s orders?”
“And who do you fear more, your President, or yours truly?” Banth shapeshifted into his true form.
The military personnel flinched and looked away. They started for the chopper.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
—Arthur C. Clarke
Special Thanks to Stu Ostrander for his aviation skills. And John Barber.
Learn more about J.E. Nicassio
Author J. E. Nicassio
J.E.Nicassio @jennie3963 www.authorjenicasio.com
A Sneak Peek of
Aurora’s Curtain
The third instalment of From the Sky saga…
Prologue
Banth stood at Dirk Maxwell’s side as he prepped Samantha for surgery. The two men were stern and emotionless, resembling businessmen from the nineteen-fifties.
“She’s just about ready,” Dirk Maxwell said.
“It’s about time.” Banth leaned over Samantha and studied her body like he was memorizing it.
“I trust you will do a good job.” He turned to an older woman, maybe in her early fifties.
“Gloria, I want you to tend to the wounds after Samantha comes out of surgery. You will watch her every move.”
Gloria listened to Banth. She had no choice. She watched the doctors wheel Samantha to the operating room. She gathered the bloody gauze and surgical instruments. Banth walked up to Gloria. His long, pasty gray finger grazed her cheek, pushing her hair away from her face.
“Do you understand? I would hate to repeat myself, human.”
“Yes. I understand.” She stepped back.
“I sense you don’t like me, Gloria. You know I can keep you on this level for the remain-der of your life.”
Row after row of human and alien DNA remains in cold storage. Level seven stored embryos at different stages of development and — this was the most dangerous level. Gloria hated coming here. She hated the vats with human children body parts. She always wondered who the children were. What their names were. Did they have a family at one time?
Gloria shifted her body. Just the thought of being trapped on this level sent chills down her spine. This level was where she was tortured when she was first brought to Dulce. The military men were the worst when it came to torturing. The cries, the beatings, the medical experiments. She wondered if that was what Banth had in store for this new human.
“She has three gunshot wounds. If I don’t operate soon, you will lose her,” said the doctor with a crooked scar running down his left cheek.
“What you waiting for? Get to it,” Banth said. His skull-like face and razor-like teeth were more frightening than ever.
“Wait,” Samantha said intervening. “What about the others?”
“Sam, don’t listen to them. They’re lying.” Finn appeared, hovering over her.
“Dear Samantha, one of the bullets is close to a major organ. There isn’t time to discuss the whereabouts of the Foster Clan.”
Chapter One
This was for sure is the worst nightmare I’d ever had. Oh, right, this is no nightmare. The smell of antiseptic was strong in the cell in which I was kept. The smell. The same rotting odor of the No Whites from the fair. The horrible pain stabbing my chest made it hard to breathe.
My arms and legs were strapped down. The cold metal table proved and added reminder that this was real. The helicopter. That’s right. Banth and his cronies. They shot us on the highway. Lucien and Michael must be dead or close to it. I was barely alive when I was taken on a stretcher.
I was taken into space, nearly killed at Area 51, and this is where I end up: in a bed in a room with walls as gray as cemetery headstones. I moved my arm. When I did, an electric pain ripped through it. I had to try to sit up. I hate you, Banth. I coughed, clearing my throat when a woman came in through automatic door.
“Who are you?” I held my sore throat.
She approached me. “It’s from the anesthesia. The tube was to help you breathe when you were put out for surgery. I’m Gloria.”
“Samantha,” I said with a hoarse voice. I tried to get up.
“You mustn’t. You have to heal.”
“I am not staying in this bed one moment longer.”
Aggravated I brought my legs over the side. When I did, a sharp pain stopped me. “Oh. Ow. I guess not anytime soon.”
Gloria didn’t seem to receive any pleasure from my pain. She stopped me from standing. “Do you know why you’re here?” she asked.
“I can think of a few reasons.”
“Banth must have a good one.” Gloria went over to the basin to get water and dressings for my incision.
“He thinks I’m a commodity because my blood mixed with Lucien’s He saved me and gave me his blood but when I lived, it put my life at risk.”
“This Lucien you speak of…. Is he alien?”
“Yes.”
“I have to change your bandages.”
“Do you have to? Something tells me it’s going to hurt.”
“You’re right.” I watched her gently touch the bandage on my skin. I looked at her long dark hair with a splash of silver around the hairline. Her delicate features and lily-white skin showed no visible signs of aging. I noticed the notch in her chin, reminding me of Lucien. I tried not to go there. Any sanity that I had left needed to be preserved in this under-ground hell.
She began to unravel the gauze in a slow, almost poetic way. Watching her relaxed me.
Gloria lifted the first bandage on my chest. It felt worse than it looked.
“How many incisions do I have?”
“Three. You were shot three times. What did you do to make Banth shoot you?”
I wanted to scream, but I didn’t.
“They did this to me. And my friends.” I gritted my teeth. “They wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting away. I don’t think they wanted me dead. But they almost didn’t succeed. I wish they had
killed me.”
“You must be very important.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
Gloria moved down to my side.
“They just missed your spleen.’’
“How do I get out of here?”
“There is no escaping this place.” She became quiet. Her eyes welled with tears.
“There has to be a way out. They got me in.”
“Samantha, you have no idea what this place is.”
“Then enlighten me.”
She walked over to the garbage can, threw away the bloody bandages, and got some more gauze. She came back to my side, unraveling it. She lifted another bandage on my shoulder.
“This one went clear through to the other side.”
“Ow.”
“I been trying to leave this place since I was thirteen.”
“Jesus Christ. How did you get here?”
“I was scuba diving with some friends in the Blue Hole. And we went too deep. All I can remember was something grabbed my legs and pulled me deep into the cave. They weren’t human.”
“The Blue Hole in Santa Rosa?”
Gloria nodded.
“I’ve read about that. I thought it was Urban Legend. In 1976 some college kids were killed scuba diving, and days later one showed up in Lake Michigan. You’re one of them?”
“Yes.” Her eyes locked with mine.
“But you said you’ve been here since you were thirteen? You look so young.”
Gloria smiled. “Living underground this long without seeing sunlight doesn’t age the skin.”
“I can see that.”
“It was in 1946.”
“Gloria, how old are you?”
“I’m seventy-nine.”