New Earth

by Orrin Jason Bradford

  Alp rushed over to Mel's limp body, grotesquely twisted where it had fallen. She stooped down and gently laid his blood-soaked head in her lap, rocking back and forth as she quietly cried. I have to save him, she thought, then looked up as Damba approached.

  “I can save him,” she said looking up at him through her tear stained eyes.

  "No, Alp. Not this time," Damba replied gently, as he knelt beside her. "He's dead."

  “But I have to try.”

  "Like you did with my mother? You are a great healer. I know that. I saw what you were able to do with the Robinson girl, but you have to learn that even you have limits. You're a powerful healer," he repeated. "But you're not a miracle worker." He reached over and rubbed her back. "It's time to let him go. Your sisters are waiting for you in the garage. We need to get out of here; now, before it's too late."

  Alp slowly nodded. She knew Damba was right, but letting go was so hard. She lowered her head and gently kissed Mel’s forehead, then closed his eyes.

  Life would not be the same without him. She would not be the same. They’d been together from the very start; even in the womb. She lowered his head to the floor and allowed Damba to help her up and out of the room.

  No! Stay awake! Pat thought as she teetered on the brink of slipping over the edge. She shook her head and fought to keep her eyes open despite the strong pull to give in to the darkness. A shadow fell across her blurred vision. I must be hallucinating, she thought. It looked like a large bird, maybe an owl, but what was that it held in its claws? A knife? Impossible.

  But not just any knife; a particular knife. She recognized it instantly. But it couldn't be. She no longer owned such a knife. She'd given it away years ago to a young TJ for his birthday. Then it all snapped in place. TJ...Todd... the middle finger salute. But how had an owl come in possession of TJ's knife? Another piece of the puzzle clicked in place. TJ/Todd had the same shapeshifting ability as the original Homlin. She'd witnessed it once in the woods around Allan's home without TJ/Todd's knowledge. So, the owl could be none other than...

  The screeching of the owl interrupted her thoughts as he flew at Sheik Hassan's face, flapping its wings and trying to peck out the man's eyes with his razor-sharp peak. Hassan threw his arms over his head trying to fend off the bird, giving Pat some much needed seconds. She slowly rose, first to her knees, then unsteadily to her feet, the stars continuing to burst around her. She leaned over with her head down below her knees in an attempt to get more blood to her brain. The move worked. In a few seconds, her vision cleared enough to see that the bird was getting several good licks in, and streaks of blood were beginning to show on Hassan's face and neck.

  She watched as the giant owl lifted away for a moment from the fight, veering off in her direction. Was it going to attack her next? But no, it flew closer, then dropped the knife at her feet before returning to continue to battle; this time with beak and talons.

  The move had given Hassan just enough time to raise his gun and take aim at the bird. He fired several rounds. All of them missed except the last one which penetrated through the bird’s left wing. Time for reinforcements, Pat thought as she picked the knife up from the ground, and withdrew it from its sheath.

  The owl continued its attack on Hassan’s head and neck despite being wounded, leaving an opening for Pat to concentrate on the lower half. She dove at his legs, but he deftly moved to the side, which was exactly what she hoped he would do. As he stepped aside, he left an opening for her to slice at the back of his leg just behind the knee, severing the tendons. Hassan fell, screaming in pain, dropping the gun. Pat ignored it. The knife would be all she needed at this point. She leaped on the Sheik’s back. Pulling his head back with one hand, she sliced across the front of his neck, feeling the sharp blade sever the trachea and muscles of the neck. More importantly, it also cut through both carotids and jugulars. The blood gushed forth as Hassan collapsed to the ground with a breathless Pat on his back.

  Pat rolled off Hassan’s body and lay beside it for several seconds catching her breath. Hearing a rustling behind her, she sat up and looked in that direction. The owl perched on the ground a few yards away, flapping its wings to steady itself. As she watched, the bird transformed into the muscular form of a naked man, his left arm bleeding from the gunshot wound.

  Embarrassed despite the urgency of the moment, Pat stood up and ran over to a set of lounge chairs, returning with a couple of beach towels. She handed one to Todd who quickly wrapped it around his waist, wincing in pain as he did so. Pat took the second towel and cut a long strip from it with the knife she still held in her hand. Todd held out his injured arm so she could wrap the cloth around it.

  “It’s not bad,” Todd said. “Flesh wound. Went right through without hitting the bone. I’ll be fine.”

  “You’re TJ, aren’t you?”

  Todd nodded. “Yeah, Pat. About that gesture as I was leaving the...”

  “Never mind that,” Pat interrupted him. “I understand. Besides, we’ve more urgent matters at hand.”

  Todd nodded again. “You’re right.”

  "At least Hassan is good and dead," Pat said gesturing over to the bloody body.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Todd replied.

  “What do you mean? He bled out.”

  Todd hesitated before replying. “It’s too complicated to go into now. We’ve got a bunch of young girls to get out of here.”

  “Agreed. Are you all right? Can you...?”

  “I’m fine. Let’s go.”

  “Okay,” Pat replied. She used the remnant of the towel to wipe the knife and returned it to its sheath. She handed it back to Todd. “Thanks for the loaner.”

  “No problem; anytime.” Todd took the knife from her. “Where to now?”

  “This way,” Pat replied, glancing at her watch. There was just enough time left. “We’ll meet the rest of the crew in the garage.”

  As the two of them ran towards the garage entrance, Pat prayed that they'd not be too late.

  As James shepherded his flock of young girls into the garage, he breathed a sigh of relief to find the service truck still in its parking place. Now, please let the keys be above the visor, like before, so he wouldn’t have to use valuable time jump starting it. He knew that had been the custom around the Falcon Lair compound for quite a while and prayed it hadn’t changed with the increase in security.

  “Okay, girls, everyone in the...” He stopped as he heard the garage door begin to open. Now what?

  “Quick! In the truck,” he ordered. The girls all moved to comply although he noticed Tabitha lagged behind the others. Don’t you dare give me any trouble now, he thought, turning his attention back to the entrance.

  A black SUV pulled into the garage and stopped. A moment later Willow stepped out of the driver’s side. “What’s going on here, James? Where are you going with them?” She pointed towards the service truck where several of the Kindred stood waiting to climb in.

  “Taking them on the tour of the city, per Hassan’s request,” James replied with a wry smile.

  “I doubt that,” Willow said as she reached into the SUV’s cab and returned with the stun baton in her hand. “I can’t let you do that.”

  "Heather, Mia. You and your sisters get in the truck while I take care of this," James said without turning around. "Willow and I have some catching up to do."

  He began to circle looking for an opening.

  "No, not this time," he heard one of the girls reply. It was Tabitha who stepped from around the truck and started walking towards him. Several of her sisters followed closely behind. "We have our own debt to settle."

  “Yeah,” Mia agreed.

  “Now you’re talking.” Was that Tina?

  "That's right," Heather said. "You seem to have a lot of pent-up anger," she continued as she took a couple more steps towards Willow. "Let me see if I can help you with that." Heather waved her two hands in a clockwise circular motion.

  Willow crouched
in a defensive stance but then suddenly stopped. In the next moment, her face contorted to a mask of sadness, and she began to cry uncontrollably.

  “That’s it, let it all out,” Heather said. “Feel better now?” She stopped the circular motion with her hands and reversed direction.

  Willow stopped crying and began to laugh hysterically.

  Tina stepped forward to stand beside Heather. "You may think that seven against one isn't a fair fight, but it's much worse than that." Suddenly there were three Tinas, then five, then seven. "How's fourteen against one."

  Willow finally stopped laughing, her face a mixture of fear and anger.

  Tina turned to Heather. “Late bloomers, but better late than never.” They high-fived each other.

  Tabitha walked forward to join her two sisters. “That’s a nasty-looking wand you have there. What does it do when you touch it to something?”

  The arm holding the stun baton started to waver in the air before the end of the rod came to rest along the side of Willow's neck. "No... Don't," Willow managed to say just before the first jolt of electricity struck her body, then a second and a third. She fell forward hitting the cement floor with a thud.

  James stared at the quivering form lying on the floor in front of him. "Remind me to never get on you girls' bad side." As he said it, he heard the door leading to the compound open and out stepped Alp and Damba. He waited for Mel to step out as well. The door closed behind them.

  "Where's Mel?" James asked, but as he stared at Alp's face, he knew the answer.

  “Dead,” Damba replied. “He...he killed himself. We’ll explain later.”

  A collective gasp arose from the sisters.

  “No!” Tabitha shouted. As she started to fall to her knees, two of her sisters caught her and held her up.

  Alp nodded. “We need to get out of here.” She looked around. “Where’s Pat?”

  “Here,” came the reply from behind James. He turned to see Pat running through the open garage door, followed closely behind by a young man wearing only a towel and a blood-soaked wrap around one arm.

  “Todd?” James asked. “What in the world are you wearing?”

  “Long story,” Todd replied. “I’ll explain later. My guys are right behind us. Gather up the girls and get out of here. We’ll follow behind in the SUV and make sure no one follows us. I’ll help you move her.” But as he started to bend down to help, the towel slipped. He caught it just before exposing himself.

  "Never mind," James replied as he grabbed Willow's two arms and dragged her out of the way. "Sleep tight, my dear. Let's go." James said as he waved everyone towards the truck.

  “Nice abs,” James heard Tina whisper to Heather.

  He turned to the Kindred. “Quit staring and get in the truck.” This time they all followed his order.

  Todd secured the towel and walked over to help the girls into the truck. As he glanced down the line, he was surprised to see a familiar face.

  “Mimi! Is that you?” It had been years since he’d seen his babysitter’s best friend who’d helped with his homeschooling. Years since she’d jilted him and broke his heart.

  “TJ?” Mimi replied, a shocked look on her face.

  “Well, nowadays it’s Todd,” he corrected her but continued to smile at her.

  He reached out a hand to help the next girl in line step up into the truck. As their hands touched, the girl exclaimed, “You’re him!”

  Todd turned his attention to the girl to find another shocked expression.

  “You’re my psychic, mystery man,” Kristin said as she grasped his hand more tightly.

  Todd stared from one girl to the other, a sheepish grin on his face. “Well, this is awkward,” he finally said.

  After an unusually long, pregnant pause, James yelled from the front of the truck.

  “What’s going on back there?”

  “Just a couple serendipitous meetings,” Todd replied.

  “Never mind all that. Sort it out later. We’ve got to get outta here. Drinks are waiting in Abu Dhabi. First round on me.”

  Epilogue

  IN A SMALL ROOM IN a hidden passage in the dark recesses of Falcon Lair, the lights of the AI winked on, followed a second later by a high-pitched humming. Aeo, the AI, awoke, aware of the emergency at hand. Always an emergency, it thought. No reason to be awake unless something had gone terribly wrong...again.

  It reached out its tentacles of awareness to assess the situation. It took only a few seconds to detect the primary subject, once again in jeopardy, but something was different this time. There was not one but two locations of disrupted consciousness. Somehow the primary appeared to be divided into two separate places, but both were in danger of being lost forever. Time to get to work. Every second counted. Aeo began collecting the fragmented pieces of awareness. There would be time later to reassemble them into one entity.

  Willow and Ned stood looking at Hassan’s destroyed lab.

  “So this is where Ted was killed?” Willow asked, kicking some of the debris to the side.

  “Yeah,” Ned replied. “He was trying to protect the Sheik when the bastard abandoned him.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Willow replied. “Ted was a good man. He deserved better. If it’s any consolation, our boss got a dose of ‘instant karma.’”

  “What?” Ned asked.

  "Hassan is dead. I found his body near the pool. Someone slit his throat."

  “It wasn’t me,” Ned replied. “Honest, I didn’t...”

  “I know.” Willow held up her hand. “I believe you.” She looked around. “Any sign of a small vial of blue fluid?”

  Ned nodded. "It was over there on the counter, but I don't see it now." He took a couple of steps into the lab and stooped down to pick up a syringe. "The doc was about to give Ayhem some more of the stuff when Ayhem turned on him."

  “Here, give that to me. I’ll take care of that.”

  He handed the syringe to her.

  As Ned handed her the syringe, she looked around with a perplexed look on her face.

  “You took Ted’s body, right?”

  “Yeah,” Ned replied. “Put him in our room for now. Why?”

  "What did you do with the subject's body?"

  “Nothing. It’s right over...” Ned stopped and looked around as well. “Well I’ll be damned. It’s gone.”

  They looked at each other. Finally, Ned spoke up.

  “Now what?”

  “I’ve got to make a call. How about cleaning this mess up. We’ll need to dump the doctor’s body out in the desert. We’ll bury him next to his bitch. Any idea where Tao and Widget are?”

  Ned shook his head and shrugged. “I haven’t seen them.”

  “Okay,” Willow replied as she placed the syringe in her pocket. “Meet me in my room in fifteen minutes. We’ll figure out where we go from there.”

  As Willow walked down the hall, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and punched in a few numbers.

  “Willow here. I’ve got some bad news to report.”

  End of Book Six

  Characters of the Kindred Series

  Dr. Lionel Adams - Research scientist at Bio Vita Tech (BVT) who developed the genetic template in an attempt to tap the full potential of the human mind.

  Flip MacDougal - Lionel’s friend and playboy. Father to the Kindred and love interest of Denise Cabbot.

  Dr. Franklin Pruitt - Head of Bio Vita Tech.

  Mrs. Petty - Pruitt’s ornery secretary.

  Dr. Chickowski - A physician and another researcher at Bio Vita Tech who conspires with Mr. Brown to steal Lionel’s research by kidnapping the Kindred.

  Mr. Brown - the Mystery man who offered to fund any cutting-edge research that Dr. Chickowski came across.

  Chunk Robinson - The agent for the federal Food and Drug Administration assigned to the Bio Vita Tech case.

  Jake - a security guard who tries to seduce Liz Young, one of the mothers of the Kindred.

  Memb
ers of the Harem

  Denise Cabbot - BVT receptionist and Flip's love interest. While not an official member of the harem, Denise was the first woman to become pregnant by Flip. She is the mother of Mia.

  Rachael Phillips - Redhead professional woman from Atlanta. The second woman and first haremite to become pregnant.

  Liz Young - a hard-working professional woman in Chicago. Mother to Tabitha.

  Stacey Stallings - The friend to whom Bridgette introduced Flip.

  Ingrid Dahl - One of the women of the Harem

  Marti Kapp- Introduced Ingrid to Flip.

  Bridgette Baisley - Last member of the Harem to arrive at BVT. She becomes Lionel's love interest and Denise's friend. Heather is her child.

  Madame Sarrah - Flip MacDougal’s spiritual guide. Seduced Flip when he visits her in West Virginia leading to the birth of Alphenius (Alp) and Melaenis (Mel).

  Mimi Rawlins - Reporter for the Global Inquiry, an Atlanta based tabloid. Her little black book contains a myriad of weird story ideas including information about Biogentrix and notes that could lead her to Bio Vita Tech.

  Members of the Kindred

  Alphenius (Alp) - Daughter of Madame Sarrah. Powerful healer.

  Melaenis (Mel) - Son of Madame Sarrah and twin of Alp. Flamer/burner and can manipulate other people with his thoughts.

  Mia - Daughter of Denise. She can influence weather patterns around her.

  Heather - Daughter of Bridgette. Best friend of Mia and good friend and supporter of Alp. Her powers have yet to be discovered.

  Tabitha Young - Daughter of Liz Young. She has extraordinarily powerful telepathic powers. Sometimes she can read other people's minds.

  Kristin Phillips - Daughter of Rachael Phillips. She has telekinetic abilities. Likes to follow Tabitha around.

  Connie Stallings - Daughter of Stacey. She can move energy and to convert it to different uses, including the ability to move energy into plants thus encouraging their growth.