~ ~ ~
Blood sprayed all over Jake’s shirt as the man next to him was shot. He flinched and leaned reflexively away from the violence. He hadn’t realized he had closed his eyes until he heard and felt the door open and the space next to him suddenly empty. The car accelerated away and Jake saw he was now alone in the back with the man they called John Miller. The sudden brutality with which Bart had acted surprised even Jake and he knew he was dealing with pure evil. This man, and probably the rest of his group, placed no value on human life and it was going to be impossible to base any decision Jake needed to make on any sympathies he had hoped they possessed. He would have to think of something else or die in the process.
A loud thumping could be heard from the trunk and the women in the back were yelling and screaming, no doubt from the gunshot they had heard. He was sure Maddy was terrified.
They arrived at the lab and drove around to the back entrance, where Bart instructed Elise to investigate the lab and determine if it was safe for them to enter. Apparently they were worried it may be occupied by some undesirable people. Mainly Peter and his special ops soldiers.
Elise returned quickly and nodded. The building must be empty and Jake’s heart sank. He was hoping for some help. Surely Peter must know what had happened and doing a little math in his disoriented head, he arrived at the conclusion that Peter could, and should, have arrived in Florida approximately 8 hours ago.
John exited the vehicle and signaled for him to follow. Bart pointed the pistol at Jake and said, “John, you get the girls. Doctor, this way.” He gestured with the gun and Jake followed. Elise was already back inside.
Jake entered his lab feeling like a stranger. He had walked through this doorway a thousand times or more, a familiar place of comfort and complacency, a second home that he had built, destroyed and then rebuilt. Today, shoved into it at the end of a gun, it looked foreign and dark, a place as alien as the void he had lived in for what also seemed like a lifetime. He glanced around and things seemed to have shifted in their spots. Not by much, but just enough that he wasn’t able to call it his. He knew he was imagining things, but the aura of the lab was something that he could no longer call his own.
Was it these invaders? Had their portal opening changed a subtle vibe that had existed, one he could put a finger on, but now that he was not feeling the familiar pulse of his lab, he recognized as alien? He was unsure, and this seemed to bother him the most.
Bart pushed him down into a chair as Elise turned the power on and worked the computers, booting them up and engaging the cooling system in preparation for God knew what. A commotion at the back of the lab caused them all to turn.
“Get your freak hands off of me!” Maddy shouted and then kicked at John with her feet. She connected with his shin and he swung at her head. She ducked and he missed. Ginny moved in and kicked him in the groin. He bent over, grabbing his crotch, and even through his scars, Jake could see the pain and anger in his face.
“Fuck you!” Ginny yelled and moved to land another kick to the incapacitated man. A gunshot rang out and as Jake flinched, the girls froze.
“Enough!” Bart shouted and moved to stop them. The gun was leveled at Maddy’s head. Jake prayed she would behave. The girls backed away from John and when he regained his composure, he lunged at Ginny and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off of the ground.
“I’ve had enough of you,” he said, and he shook her like a rag doll.
“Release her, John!” Bart said and the man did not respond. Bart walked up to him and pressed the pistol to his head. “John. Now!” John seemed to realize that Bart was next to him with the gun shoved into his temple and his face only grew angrier.
“I’m tired of you also,” John said and his hand shot out, grabbing Bart by the throat. The brutality of the attack must have caught Bart by surprise, because the gun clattered to the ground and both his hands went to John’s grip, trying to pry the man’s fingers from his windpipe. Another gunshot rang out and Jake turned to see Elise pointing a smoking pistol at the tangle of bodies. Maddy screamed and Jake watched as John Miller’s head sagged to the side, a hole opening in it you could stick your fist in, and his eyes roll up into what was left of his head. Bart and Ginny fell from his grasp and he collapsed to the floor where his body seized briefly and was then still. Blood and small bits of brain had splattered over Maddy and she was shaking and screaming uncontrollably.
Bart went to his knees, gasping for air, and when his hands closed around his own gun, he brought it up and pointed it and Maddy. “Shut up!”
The portal opened above John and he was pulled inside. It clapped shut quickly and silence returned except for the sound of Maddy crying.
She sobbed harder and Bart thrust the gun at her. Jake flinched. “Shut up!” he screamed and Jake didn’t realize he had moved until he was standing next to Bart.
“It’s okay Maddy,” he said. “Come on. Come with me.” He reached his hand out and she clasped it in her bound hands and went to him. Bart, wild eyed and still struggling for breath, tracked them both with the gun all the way back to the console, and then he seemed to realize there was another dangerous person behind him and quickly turned to Ginny, leveling the gun at her. She spat in his direction, and then moved inside the lab without being told. She sat in a chair and asked, “Where’s Lucky?”
~ ~ ~
Bodey shouted for Mike to stop. Lying in the road was a man. His shirt was covered in blood and he did not move. If he had to bet his life on it, Bodey was positive that he was somehow connected to all that was going on.
They had made an attempt to follow Benjamin Tolaver, who had abducted the woman in Maddy’s van, but after taking the time to make sure that woman was alive and well, they had lost the advantage and lost their quarry. They rode up and down Wells Road, trying to find some clue as to where the man had disappeared, yet they felt for sure that he was somewhere in the vicinity, because Maddy had to be somewhere nearby also. The GPS position they had gotten confirmed it. The van had been somewhere on Wells Road when it had been found by the system. Then it had moved.
Now, as Mike came to a stop next to the bleeding man, he hoped the guy was still alive.
“He isn’t moving,” Winslow said as she hung out of the Chevelle’s window.
“He’s alive,” Bodey said as he bent over him and felt for a pulse. The man came to as he spoke. He moaned and then rolled to his side.
“Winslow, help me,” Bodey said, and she got out of the car.
She knelt next to them and looked over the guy. He still hadn’t spoken. “Gunshot,” she said as she examined him. “Clean through the shoulder. Doesn’t look like any major organs were hit unless he’s hit somewhere else too. Lots of blood. He could have a pneumothorax though.”
“A what?”
“A hole in his lungs. Could be life threatening if it’s a tension pneumo.”
“Can you hear me?” Bodey said to the man.
He nodded his head slowly. “Hurt.”
“I’m sure you do my friend. Are you having a hard time breathing?”
He shook his head and then turned to look at them. “Where are they?”
“Who?” Bodey said.
“Ginny.”
“I’m not following you dude. Who’s Ginny?”
“Some psychos kidnapped us and a doctor and his wife. My friend Ginny is still with them. They shot me when I tried to stop them.”
“Did one of them have a scarred face?” Bodey asked.
The man’s eyes focused on him and he nodded. “Scarface. John something.”
“Shit! That’s who we’re looking for. You’re not with the Air Force are you? Were you in Jackson Hole?”
He nodded. “How do you know that?” he asked.
“We’re looking for the same people. Come on. Let’s get you up. You’re gonna be okay. Clean shot through your shoulder.”
He sat up and looked a little better. “We have to get to them. They’re going to
open that portal thing again and the Doc said that would be very bad. I’ve been in there. He’s right. It’s very bad.”
“We don’t know where they went,” Winslow said.
“To that lab we came to through the portal. I think that’s where they’re going.”
Bodey looked at Winslow and then Mike who was leaning across the seat listening through the open door. “We have a destination,” Mike said. “Let’s move.”
“Can you walk?” Bodey asked.
He nodded.
“I’m Bodey. This is Winslow and the driver is Mike.”
“I’m Lucky,” he said and he stood looking a little stronger.
“You may want to rethink that name dude.”
“Yeah. No shit.”
~ ~ ~
Peter was about to leave his carefully scouted observation position for a cup of coffee, when a car pulled into the lot and he watched as Jake was marched into his lab at gunpoint and then Maddy and Ginny were pulled from the trunk by some disfigured asshole and roughly shoved into the building. Just inside the door, some kind of scuffle took place and then he heard a gunshot and scream. He had to hold himself back to keep from running into a situation he would probably not have survived. Time for his training to take over. He took a deep breath and moved to analyze the situation. Just as he broke from cover another vehicle pulled into the back lot and Peter froze. It pulled right up to him and the window opened to someone peering out at him. The pale face he recognized first was that of Lucky Cardmen. Apparently he had been shot.
Peter moved his hand to the gun in the small of his back and approached the car cautiously.
“It’s all right General,” Lucky said. “These are friends.”
“Hey Peter,” Bodey said from the back seat and Peter removed his hand from the gun. “We were wondering where you went.”
“I’ve been here. Waiting,” Peter said. “They’re inside.”
“You know the General?” Lucky asked.
“Yeah. He shot me once. Cool dude.”
Lucky looked confused at this
“We don’t have time right now Lucky,” Peter said. “Later.”
“Is Ginny okay?”
“As far as I know. I was just about to take care of the problem. I heard a gunshot, a scream, and then you drove up. I think we need to move fast.”
Lucky stepped out of the car quickly and Peter saw all the blood. “You’re in no condition to even be walking around.”
“I’m all you have, General. Everybody else is a civilian.”
“I’m a green beret,” the man driving said and Peter suddenly recognized him. Maddy’s father.
“Sorry I didn’t recognize you sir. You up for this?”
“That’s my daughter and son-in-law in there. I’m up for anything.”
“I don’t have a weapon,” Lucky said.
“I have plenty,” Mike said and got out of the car and opened the trunk. Peter smiled for the first time in over 48 hours.
“Nice,” he said and hefted the shotgun. “This is mine.”
“I’ll take the Berretta,” Lucky said.
Bodey and Winslow joined them and looked a little lost. “You too can help by cutting the power and opening the door for us,” Peter said. “But I don’t want you in the crossfire. You got me?”
Bodey nodded, as did Winslow.
“Okay, this is what’s going to happen.” And Peter explained his plan.
~ ~ ~
“Nothing you do to me will result in success for you,” Jake said as Bart held a gun to his head. “Even killing me will do nothing. I will not allow the portal to be opened.”
“You’ll have no control over it if you’re dying,” Bart said.
“Are you sure about that?” Jake asked. “How sure are you that what you do to me will cause the effect you want? I have been given a glimpse of what I can and cannot control and I assure you, the portal will not open.”
Bart pulled the gun away and stared at him. Jake felt like a serpent was slithering into his soul. The man’s eyes had taken on a look he couldn’t explain. A dark shimmering festered just beneath the surface and he wondered who or what was in there with him. He was almost positive that Bart was no longer his own person. Elise either.
Bart smiled then. A smug look of one who knows that he will win. Jake’s confidence slipped just a fraction as he realized he may have misjudged something.
“Elise, bind him to the chair he is in.”
Elise came behind him and used some chord from the blinds and bound his wrists together and then to the chair. He watched as they grabbed the Ginny girl and took her to the chamber. She kicked and bucked but finally settled down when Elise struck her in the face with her gloved fist. Stunned, she moaned and let them do whatever they were going to do to her.
They bound her to the chair with more of the chord and then connected her to ANDEE. Maddy, looking horrible, only wept in her chair as they hooked Ginny up. Jake wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he would do whatever it took to keep Bart and Elise from opening that portal. He just hoped Maddy wouldn’t have to watch him die.
Elise came back over to the console and loaded a program up and started to play it. He recognized it immediately as that of Benjamin Tolaver’s Near Death Experience. Though he had never seen the whole thing played all the way through, he knew the part he was seeing now. His brother was smothering him with a pillow and he heard and then saw Ginny struggling in the chair as if she were being smothered too. This new process that ANDEE was performing was something he hadn’t even considered. Of course, he had never hooked someone else up to the machine and played another person’s NDE back. The catalyst that conveyed the portal to open could also thrust the vision into someone else’s psyche. How horrible.
“Do you understand what is happening, Doctor?” Bart asked.
Jake nodded. “You need to stop. You’re torturing that poor girl.”
“No shit. That’s the idea. Soon I’m going to shoot her in the head and we’ll have our catalyst one way or another. You can stop this. You can be the catalyst and no one has to die. You have the ability to open the portal just like she does, only your NDE will do it without the death of this innocent victim.” His speech was given in a mocking tone and the grin on his face made him appear uglier than he already had become. Jake had to stall for time.
“Stop! All right! Don’t kill her!” Jake struggled against his bindings but he was not going to break free. He watched Bart nod and Elise shut the playback off. Ginny gasped for air in the silence that followed and she sobbed as she realized it was over.
“What were you doing to me?” She said. “I was dying. I was not myself. You people are monsters.”
Elise came over and they disconnected her from ANDEE, removed her from the chair and then bound her near the console next to Maddy. Jake was released from his bindings and escorted to the chamber where Elise quickly hooked him to the computers while Bart held the gun on him.
“You know the drill, Doctor. Time to relive your own death.” Bart signaled Elise who had moved back over to the console.
Jake was unsure how to proceed. He could not seem to find a way out of this and his hope of someone coming to their aid had evaporated as the minutes ticked off on the clock. He turned and looked at Maddy across the room and she slowly shook her head. She looked as defeated as he felt. Apparently she knew that he could not do what Bart and Elise asked and the girl was probably going to die.
“It’s time Doctor. Or do I put the girl back in and take her life.”
Jake closed his eyes and thought of the seashore. The surf, the spray, children playing, birds flying. Anything to keep his mind away from his Near Death Experience.
Bart came up to him and whispered in his ear. “Her death will be on your conscience. I’ll drag it out too. All to make it more powerful. She’ll suffer until I decide it’s time. All because of you.”
“Eat shit,” Jake said and then the power went out.
Chapter 37
Lucky watched as Winslow pressed her palm to the security lock and the door clicked open. She whispered into her cell phone, “It’s open. Kill the power.” Bodey was standing next to the power box and he threw the switch. At the same time, Lucky entered the front door while the General and Mike came in from the rear. A shot immediately rang out and he watched the General dive for cover behind a low wall. Mike fell to the ground and fired in return, hitting nothing but air.
Ginny and Maddy were tied to chairs by the computers and the Elise woman walked directly to Ginny and put the gun to her head. He knew in his heart that she would die in a matter of seconds. He reacted without thinking. “No!” he shouted and raised his pistol to fire. A shot rang out and he felt the bullet enter his left upper arm, but his firing arm remained strong. He pulled the trigger and watched Elise’s head snap back and she collapsed to the floor.
A portal opened above her and the void pulled her in. The noise of the void opening and closing was deafening, and even though more shots were being fired, mainly because he saw the muzzle flashes, he could hear nothing but the roaring of the wind and the sound of some horrible symphony playing a horror of music.
The General and Mike were both firing at Bart and he returned the fire ineffectively. Lucky ran to Ginny and tried to untie her, but his left arm hung useless at his side. He worked the knots with his good hand and finally freed her. She helped him with Maddy and then they were all running behind the console as the bullets continued to fly. Lucky watched Jake sit up in the chamber and rip electrical leads from his body. He leapt at Bart and knocked him to the ground where they wrestled for the gun as it skidded across the floor.
~ ~ ~
Jake used his elbow and struck a blow to Bart’s face as he lay on top of the man. It seemed to have little effect. Bart slammed his fist into the side of his head and the blow rocked Jake back and off of Bart. Bart grabbed for the weapon and stood, pointing it at Jake. He waited for the blast and when it came, he felt nothing. Peter stood just outside the chamber door, holding a shotgun pointed at Bart and as Bart’s face changed, blood began soaking his shirt front. He staggered toward Jake and fell to his knees in front of him.
Near Sighted (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 2) Page 23