Incarnate: Mars Origin I Series Book III

by Abby L. Vandiver

  “Who?” I closed my eyes to try and calm myself and get a grasp on what was going on. “Who wants us? Why would anyone want us?”

  “Aaron Coulter. And his henchman. I’ll tell you all about it on the way. C’mon get in.” He patted the passenger seat.

  Logan looking over her shoulder toward the cave, looked back at me. “Mommy, maybe we should leave with him.”

  I hesitated. We really didn’t have a choice. We couldn’t go back in and get the keys from Jairo’s body. I looked out toward the thicket of the jungle. On the other side was the Panama Canal. We wouldn’t be able to make it on foot if people were coming out of the cave after us. “Okay,” I said. “We’ll let you take us back to the hotel.” I looked at Logan. “We can call the police from there.”

  We piled into the jeep, Logan in back, and Simon took off across the jungle floor, juggling us around our seats. Holding on to the roll bar I said, “Do you know where you’re going?”

  “Out of here. Isn’t that where you want to go?”

  “You said Aaron Coulter before. Are you talking about the archeologist?”

  “One in the same.”

  “Why would he be here to for me? Why would he want to kill me? And how are you Logan’s benefactor?”

  He glanced over at me. “Long story,” he said and grinned. “And Aaron is here because I told him about you.”

  “You sent them after us?”

  “I didn’t know they were going to shoot anyone. I take it Jairo’s dead?” I nodded. “Yeah. I just wanted them to take over the dig.”

  “What about Logan?”

  He glanced back at her. “I just needed her to draw you out. I wanted to get you down here.” He eyed me. “Revenge and all.” He grinned.

  “Revenge?” I scrunched up may face. “I’ve never done anything to you.” We were bumping along the makeshift road and my voice was coming out uneven. “So Aaron Coulter is shooting at us because he wants to take over a dig? What happened to just going to get a permit? I thought he had made a big name for himself.”

  Simon laughed. “Sort of like me, I guess. Prodigy boy gone bad. He was having a hard time with something he started over in Egypt. Looking for tunnels under the Sphinx. Thought there would be a library under there.”

  “A library? Under the Sphinx.” I thought about that for a minute. “You mean like Edgar Cayce’s Hall of Records?”

  He chuckled. “Yep. That’s what he thought.”

  Well he thought wrong. I glanced back at Logan. Looked like she’s the one that found a long lost library. Even Jairo, God rest his soul, had said our find was the Hall of records.”

  “I was trying to help him out. Kill two birds with one stone. So to speak.”

  “So you did all of this?”

  “Yes. In a roundabout way. I guess I did. But then I saved you.” He reached over and patted my knee. I knocked his hand off. “I gave them Jairo’s location instead of Logan’s. And then I followed them out here. I waited for you to emerge from the cave. At least I hoped you’d make it out. Lucky you, huh?”

  “How could you have known our location?”

  “GPS. Logan’s phone.”

  I turned to Logan. “Give me that satellite phone.”

  “What?”

  I yelled at her. “Give. Me. Your. Satellite phone.” She handed it to me and I chucked it out of the window.

  “Ma!”

  “Take me and my daughter to my hotel. It’s in Downtown Panama City.”

  “Yeah. I don’t think so.” He glanced at me. “I’ve got something else in mind for you.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  “Micah.”

  He turned to see who called his name.

  “Nikhil? What are you doing in Panama City?”

  Micah had just finished checking into the hotel and was going to find the elevator.

  “I came to find your mother. I called your father he told me she was here. And that you’d come to get her.”

  Micah looked down at the phone he was holding in his hand. “I just talked to my dad . . .”

  “Earlier. I talked to him earlier.” Micah looked at him questioningly. “I know a guy with a plane. Where is your mother?”

  “She’s not here. She and Logan are out somewhere.”

  “Did you try to call them?”

  “Yeah. I did. No answer. Me and my dad put a GPS tracker on my mom’s cell phone. I can see the last place she went, but there’s no signal. It’s like she’s out of range or something. I’m just going to wait until they come back.”

  “Let me see the tracker.”

  Micah pulled out his phone and pulled up the tracker to his mother’s phone and handed it Nikhil.

  “How did you manage to get this? You can use GPS on cell phones? Track anybody?”

  “Family plan. It’s really a phone locator.”

  Nikhil nodded. “I’m going here.” He pointed to a place on the screen. “Where it stopped.”

  “Why?”

  “I need this phone.”

  “You need my phone? Wait. I’ll go with you. Just let me store my bag.”

  “I’m leaving now.” Nikhil started walking toward the door.

  “Oh. Okay. I can just take it with me . . .”

  Nikhil stopped. Stared down at the phone. And then started walking again. “C’mon, Micah. The dot is moving. We’ve got to go to her.”

  ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ ϫ

  “We’ll never be able to find them in here. Let’s back track,” Aaron said to Castor. He looked at Laura. “You okay?” She was bent over, resting her palms on her knees. Out of breath and sweating from running through the cave.

  “We’ll get them outside of here. See what they’ve got.”

  “Do you think we could use an approach other than shooting?” Laura said, tried to catch her breath. “Maybe just talk to them.”

  Aaron laughed. “What about threats? You think they’d be open to threats?”

  “You just can’t come down here and take over things,” Castor said. “It’s not right.”

  “You know you’re the most diplomatic assassin I’ve ever met.”

  “How many do you know?” Laura asked. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

  “I’m not an assassin. Per say,” Castor said. “I don’t kill real important people. I’m more what you call a persuader.”

  “Oh, so now you can persuade dead people to do things?” Laura started walking back in the direction they had come. “Fun fact to know.”

  “I’m just saying. This isn’t medieval times,” Castor spoke to Aaron. “You just can’t go into a government sanctioned research site, uninvited, and bulldoze down everyone and take what they have. You don’t even know what they have.”

  “I was invited by Simon.”

  “Simon is in charge of a site in Belize. At least that’s what he said. This is Panama.”

  “Yeah, I know the difference.”

  They walked in silence the rest of the way out.

  “Their car’s still here,” Laura nodded toward it.

  “You want to wait here until they come out?” Castor asked.

  “No. I want to find that piece of shit, Simon.” He looked at Laura then back at Castor. “Maybe we can talk this out. Find a better way to go about this. Because I really need this. I need this dig.”

  Laura smiled at him. “That’s my guy. Talking is good.” She walked over to him and kissed his cheek.

  “Then, Castor, after I talk to him, I want you to shoot him.”

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  It was muggy and the grime on my face was slipping its way down my neck. I took the inside of my collar and wiped my face. The branches of shrubs and trees were smacking me in my face as Simon drove through the bush. He only drove for a few minutes before he stopped. The word “revenge” was in the forefront of my mind. I didn’t know what he was thinking. Or what he was doing.

  I did know I didn’t want to die out here in the jungle.

  He turn
ed off the ignition and hopped out of the vehicle. He stuck the gun down his waistband and put the keys in his pocket and patted it. “Don’t go anywhere.” He grinned. “I’ll be right back.”

  “What is he doing, Ma?”

  “I don’t know.” She still appeared frightened. I could relate. Simon was definitely someone to be frightened of.

  “How does he know you?”

  “I used to work with him.” I hesitated and glanced back at her. “We used to be friends. You met him before. When you were little.”

  “I knew it. I knew whoever put me in charge of this had something to do with you.”

  “I wish it hadn’t.” I could see the disappointment in her face poking through the fear I knew she was feeling. “But this is your find. Panama. It had nothing to do with me or with him.” I nodded toward the direction that Simon had disappeared. “You did good.”

  She leaned forward and whispered. “What are we going to do?”

  I saw Simon approaching so I just hunched my shoulders.

  “You ladies miss me?”

  “Simon,” I said. “No one is going to play your game. Whatever it is. Just get on with it.”

  He laughed, and threw a black duffle bag in the backseat next to Logan.

  “Equipment,” he said. As if someone had asked. “Thought I might have needed it to find out what the three of you were up to in that cave. First time you stayed in the same place that long. And then with the things you brought out . . .”

  “You’ve been following us?”

  “What kind of benefactor would I be if I hadn’t?”

  He took off through the forest, hitting shrubs and rock, slowly taking us to a place where he could do whatever it was he had planned.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Simon had finally pulled onto a paved road and seemed to be heading toward Panama City. But I couldn’t really tell. He had stopped talking and I sure didn’t try to start a conversation with him. Logan seemed less nervous.

  “Oh shit!”

  The first words to come out of his mouth in a while. He was looking in his rearview mirror.

  “What?” I said.

  “Looks like Aaron doesn’t want to give up on you.”

  “What?” I turned around and looked behind us. The blue car two cars behind us sure did look familiar.

  “Is that him?” I asked Simon.

  “I think so.” He chewed on his bottom lip.

  “Maybe he’s not after me,” I said. “Maybe he’s figured out that you gave him the wrong GPS.”

  Simon sneered at me and glanced up in his rearview mirror again. He veered suddenly off the road and quickly corrected the vehicle sending us flying to one side it.

  “Better watch where you’re going.” I heckled him. The mention of Aaron seemed to upset him. “Run us into a ditch and we’ll be sitting ducks for Aaron’s wrath.”

  “Shut up, Justin.”

  “I think they’ve spotted us,” Logan said. We all craned our necks to look back.

  Simon gunned the jeep, knowing that he couldn’t outrun the sedan, he started driving erratically. He made a sharp turn and me and Logan’s arms went up, instinctively, to grab ahold of the roll bar.

  “How do you think you’re going to outrun them?” I asked. A smirk on my face. I didn’t want to die with Simon. And I figured if I gave Aaron what he wanted, he’d spare me and Logan. I wasn’t the one who had double-crossed him.

  Simon took several more turns, yanking the steering wheel each time, then swerving trying to correct for his reckless handling. I’m surprised he didn’t tip us over. But it looked as if it worked. I looked behind us, and Logan did the same when she saw me. She turned back and found my eyes with hers. I hunched my shoulders. I didn’t see the other car. I didn’t know where they could have gone. Simon pushed his foot down on the gas pedal and followed down a road until we landed on a suspended tied arch bridge – Bridge of the Americas the sign read. I looked over the side of the jeep and saw the waterway below. It was the Panama Canal.

  Simon took a sharp right turn off the bridge and landed us on the dock of the canal. When he turned off the bridge, I saw the blue car catching up with us.

  There they are. Simon would get his.

  We drove down the docks practically on the tracks for the mules that followed the boats through the locks. The noises of the area – blaring boat horns, rush of water – all mixed in with people yelling at us to get off the road. Simon blasted the jeep’s horn and held it down, more noise just to add to the confusion it seemed. The blue car, not too far behind us, was taking advantage of the cleared road made in Simon’s wake. I saw up ahead of us a yard filled with warehouses. Oh no, I thought. An easy place to hide. Simon could get lost there. I turned to look back.

  C’mon, Aaron. C’mon.

  I looked out the side of my eye at Simon.

  How crazy, I thought. I’m rooting for Aaron to catch us.

  Simon weaved around the warehouses. Out of sight of the blue car. After a few turns, he slowed down but didn’t stop. He wove his way deeper into the warehouse lot and pulled behind a huge dumpster before cutting the engine.

  He drew the gun out from his waistband, laid it across his lap and looked at me. “You better hope they don’t find us.”

  “I’m not afraid of you, Simon.”

  “You should be,” he said.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  My heart beat out the minutes that we stayed behind that dumpster. And my prayers was that that car would find us and its occupants would do away with Simon.

  Lord forgive me.

  But I knew if there was an end to Simon, there would be an end to this madness of trying to kill me because of the AHM Manuscripts.

  When we finally pulled off, Aaron’s car was nowhere in sight.

  “I lost them.” Simon seemed pleased with himself. He inhaled and looked over at me.

  “They might just be waiting for you at your hotel room,” I said.

  “Keep it up and you won’t live long enough to find out.”

  He weaved his way out of the warehouses and through Zones Libre De Colón, a street filled with duty free shops and lots of people. Easy place to get lost. If Logan and I could only find a way to break free.

  He turned out of Canal’s stores and after a few more turns onto another bridge, the Centennial Bridge, to get back to the side of the canal we’d originally been on.

  Leaving all the people at the Canal and losing Aaron, made me lose hope. I would fight Simon until my last breath, but I just didn’t know how long that would be.

  As we were driving over the six-lane bridge I saw Nikhil. At least it looked like Nikhil. He was in a car going the opposite direction. My heart skipped a beat. I wanted to cry. I arched my back and sat up straight, hoping to get a better look. Hoping if it was him, he’d see me.

  Oh my goodness, I think that’s Micah with him.

  I turned hastily back in my seat and closed my eyes.

  How could that be? Micah and Nikhil on the same road we were on? Micah was supposed to be in Panama to pick me up. I had plumb forgot. But not Nikhil. And there was no way they could have found me. Could this be just a coincidence?

  Or did God answer my prayer?

  I had to hold my breath to hold back the tears. I turned around to watch where they were going and I saw the car do a U-turn and fall in line behind us. I sucked in air.

  “What are you looking at?” Simon hissed at me. “I’ve saved you from him again. Aaron isn’t back there.”

  “You’re the only one that should be afraid of Aaron.”

  “Don’t make me shoot you, Justin.” He lifted up the gun from his lap and looked at me.

  I didn’t say anything. I knew that Micah could fight. He’d save us from Simon. I figured Nikhil probably couldn’t do much. I’d never even seen him move fast, or run. He probably was on the same level as me when it came to being physical. But he could, I surmised, still help me and Logan. He could help us scream.
r />   Chapter Fifty-Six

  “You may not be afraid of me, Justin. Yet.” He narrowed his eyes and looked at me. “But I will shoot your daughter if you don’t do what I say.”

  We had parked in an underground parking lot of a hotel. The one, I assumed, he was staying in. I looked in the back seat at Logan. She looked really scared. Then I let my eyes roam out beyond her. Nikhil was out of the car, leaning against it, as if waiting.

  Where was Micah?

  We needed Micah.

  “I’m not going to let you hurt my daughter, Simon.” I closed my eyes and shook my head. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Both of you, don’t try anything.” He lifted his shirt so we could see the gun he had placed back in his waist. “We’re taking the elevator up to my room. Just do what I say to do.”

  I nodded my head at him and looked at my daughter. “C’mon, Logan.”

  “I’ll tell you what to do,” Simon said through clenched teeth.

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay. So you want to say it?”

  He inhaled sharply. “C’mon. Both of you. Just c’mon.”

  We walked over to the elevator. I didn’t want to look back to see where Nikhil or Micah was, so I just looked straight ahead. I reached out and grabbed Logan’s hand and squeezed it.

  We got into the elevator and just as the doors closed, Nikhil got in. He waited until after Simon pressed a floor key and he pushed one two floors up. The he stood behind us, up against the wall.

  It was the first Logan had seen of him and she almost called out his name. I pushed my body into hers.

  “Stay calm, little girl,” I told her, trying to hint not to give Nikhil away. “It’ll be okay.”

  Nikhil got off the elevator with us. Simon didn’t even seem to notice. We headed down the hallway to Simon’s room. He pulled out his electronic room key, and as he concentrated pushing it down in the slot, Nikhil pulled out a gun with a silencer and stuck it in Simon’s back.

  Simon swiveled his body around to see who it was behind him.