by Toby Tate
She slowly climbed into the hole on her knees, dragging the gun and the backpack behind her, then turned in the confined space and sat back against the rocks. She unfastened the bayonet from the big gun, stuck it in the sheath on her ankle, and leaned the gun against the wall. This should be a good place to defend, in case someone showed up while she was sleeping. Gabe tended to be an extremely light sleeper, and it was unlikely anyone would be able to sneak up on her. Years of being a paranoid CIA operative probably had something to do with that, as well, she figured.
She considered making a booby trap, maybe a tripwire, but without some C4 plastic explosive, it wouldn’t do much good.
She felt the fatigue pulling at her like weights strapped to her limbs, her bones and muscles aching. Her mother’s voice, gentle and soothing, drifted into her mind like a cool summer breeze, comforting her—an old Irish lullaby she used to sing to Gabe at bedtime when she was a small girl:
Over in Killarney, many years ago
My mother sang this song to me in tones so sweet and low
Just a simple little ditty in her good old Irish way
And I'd give the world if she could sing that song to me this day
Toora, loora, loora
Toora, loora, li
Toora, loora, loora
Hush, now, don't you cry.
She crossed her arms over her chest, thankful she had the camo shirt to keep her warm from the cold night air, and drifted off into a deep, fitful sleep.
Chapter fourteen
She ran through the darkness of Manhattan’s abandoned subway tunnels, footfalls splashing in puddles of water that stank of urine and feces as the squeaking of rats echoed off concrete walls. She was hundreds of feet below the streets, and it felt as though the weight of the entire city could crush her at any moment. She held a small flashlight, but it was growing dimmer, ready to burn its last and leave her in pitch blackness. Why the hell had she come down here? What did she hope to accomplish?
Then she remembered—the bomb. There was a nuclear device somewhere beneath Madison Square Garden, where tens of thousands of people had gathered after the hurricane, the one caused by her. Lilith had purposefully planted the bomb there to do the greatest amount of damage, create the biggest number of casualties. It was a backpack nuke, one Lilith had gotten by way of her stepfather, a former navy intelligence officer and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Lilith’s blonde-haired, blue-eyed sexual appeal broke down the walls of a man with seemingly unbreakable character, and she had played him right up until he had put a gun to his own head and pulled the trigger.
There was no way Gabe could have disarmed the nuke herself. Only Lilith could have done that. The problem was that Lilith had no longer been human, but two-tons of animal fury with knife-edge teeth and claws and human intelligence—the most dangerous beast that ever walked the earth.
And Gabe knew that beast was somewhere down here with her in the subterranean darkness.
Gabe continued along the tracks until she reached the next platform and then climbed up. She ran toward the station and the elevator shaft, and stopped outside the door.
There, in the bottom of the empty shaft, was a large backpack. She could hear the timer inside ticking down the minutes to utter annihilation.
There was a small stream of light from above inside the shaft, illuminating the area directly around her, and for the first time she realized she was alone. There should have been other people there with her—Hunter, Lisa, the black ops team—but there was no one. Her stomach clenched with sudden anxiety, a feeling that she was sealed inside a tomb, the door locked and escape impossible. But her instincts told her she wasn’t alone at all, because there was someone, or something, watching her. She could hear the breathing, deep and hollow as a machine.
She slowly turned and saw the beast not more than ten meters away, barely visible in the darkness, huge paws the size of dinner plates with claws like curved raptor talons, bared dagger-teeth protruding from an oversized muzzle. Its eyes were silver pools of mercury dotted with black-hole pupils, watching her from below wolf ears that stood straight up from its enormous head. Snow white fur covered what she could see of its body. Only days before, Gabe knew this thing had been a human female.
“So, this is how it ends,” Gabe said, the fear gnawing at her, but knowing there was nowhere she could run.
But then, something happened—another beast appeared out of the darkness. But it wasn’t after her—it was after Lilith. It sideswiped the other beast with a paw, knocking her to the ground, and then turned its gaze toward Gabe. Somewhere in those eyes, Gabe saw compassion and…recognition.
She knew this beast.
Suddenly, there was a beeping behind her, and she wheeled around on her feet in time to see a micro-second of a flash before her eyes melted in her head and her flesh and bones were blasted into ashes. Then, she felt as if she was flying…
* * *
Gabe was violently jarred awake as she found herself airborne, twisting in the wind like an out of control acrobat. She hit the ground with a thud and continued to roll until she slammed into a eucalyptus tree, which knocked the breath out of her. She glanced toward the rocks where she had been sleeping as she struggled to suck air into her lungs and saw a blonde-haired woman in blue jeans and a white t-shirt. She recognized the woman immediately—it was the one who had kissed her, infected her with that damned parasite.
“You are one little tenacious bitch, you know that?” the blonde said. “Now I want something that you have—the flash drive—and I want it now, or you’re going to feel more pain than your little brain could even imagine.”
Chapter fifteen
Gabe lay on the ground gasping for breath and eyeing the blonde woman who stood over her like an executioner.
“So, your memory came back,” the woman said with a lopsided grin. “You remember Olivia, the girl with the kiss of death?”
Gabe nodded, saying nothing.
“Well, then you know what I am and what I can do to you if you don’t give me that fucking flash drive.”
Gabe let her right hand drift slowly down to her waist as if reaching into her pocket for the flash drive. As Olivia moved toward her, she rolled quickly, grabbed the handle of her knife, and cut the woman across the shin. She screamed out in pain and fury, and with the other foot, kicked the knife out of Gabe’s hand. Olivia reached down, grabbed Gabe by the front of her camo shirt and hoisted her off the ground, holding her so closely that Gabe could smell the pheromones on her breath.
“You bitch,” she breathed. “I am going to take you apart one little piece at a time, and enjoy every minute of it, until I find that flash drive.”
“You may not be able to do that with one hand,” Gabe said, staring into Olivia’s ice-blue eyes.
“What the hell are you…”
Before she could finish the sentence, Gabe raised her right knee, pulled the M9 bayonet from her ankle and deftly severed Olivia’s arm at the wrist. A spray of blood hit Gabe in the face as she fell to the ground, the sound of Olivia’s wailing and howling filling her ears. She had to move now, or she would be facing an animal enraged by pain. Her only chance was to run as far and as fast as she could. She glanced down and saw that a hand still grasped her collar, then yanked it off and flung it away into the darkness.
Fueled by fear and adrenaline, Gabe crawled away from Olivia, who seemed to be transfixed by the blood pumping from the stump of her arm. She saw her lost knife and grabbed it, stood on her feet and took off across the desert.
* * *
Olivia had never felt this kind of searing pain in her life. Every pump of blood through her veins was agony and it was all she could do to keep from falling down and writhing in the dirt. But her mental powers were stronger than any injury of the flesh With intense focus she willed the pain to subside, her eyes fixated on the wound, commanding the bleeding to stop, the nerves to cease sending pulsating signals to her brain.
As t
he pain began to subside, she glanced around the desert floor until her eyes found what she wanted—her severed hand. She shuffled toward it, feeling the weakness from blood loss, then leaned over and picked it up, her head spinning with the effort. She wiped the dirt off the hand onto her shirt, and then pressed it onto her wounded arm and with all of her will power concentrated on regenerating the blood vessels, nerves, bone and skin that connected the two together. The wound immediately began to heal, and as she stood watching the miracle take place before her eyes, Olivia reveled in her hatred for Gabrielle and the sheer joy that revenge would bring her.
Chapter sixteen
Gabe now had no food, no water, no firearms, and no idea where she was.
I am royally fucked.
She alternated between walking and running for what seemed like hours, tripping over scrub and rocks, trying to put distance between herself and the animal that called herself a woman. It was dark enough to follow the stars, but the problem was that it had grown cloudy during the night, leaving her nothing to follow. She could have been backtracking for all she knew, but was pretty sure she was heading in an easterly direction. If she maintained this heading, she should run into something eventually. She considered going back to get her backpack and guns, but knew that would be foolish. She had no idea which direction it was, how far she had come, or whether Olivia would be waiting in ambush. Besides, she still had her knives, a hat and her camo shirt. At least that was something.
But Gabe knew her chances of survival in the outback without food or water were severely diminished. The killer that was tracking her brought that survival down yet another notch. She would be lucky to make it out of this alive.
She had barely gotten any sleep when that bitch had pulled her out of her hole and tossed her through the air like a bag of laundry. She was exhausted and needed to find another place to stop for at least a couple of hours. If she covered her tracks, she could at least confuse Olivia long enough to buy her some time. Off in the distance to her right was a pile of rocks big enough to hide her from anyone following her path, although she knew Olivia would probably figure she had stopped there once she saw it.
She was coming up on a hill and had an idea. To her left, a few meters away in the darkness, she saw a small bush. She walked to it, pulled out the serrated M9 bayonet and cut the bush above the root. She walked back to her original path, dragging the bush and covering her tracks as she went. She held the bush up high as she continued up to the top of the hill on her original path, then stopped and began to backtrack in her own tracks. When she had gone about a hundred meters, she headed for the rocks, dragging the bush behind her and covering her tracks.
Once she got there, she looked behind her and made sure there were no visible prints. She couldn’t really see in the dark except for the small amount of moonlight that managed to filter through the clouds, but as far as she could tell, nothing was visible. She was so tired it was getting harder to focus. She turned and dragged the bush behind her to the other side of the rocks, then fell down on her ass and leaned up against the rocks as the energy drained from her body like air from a balloon.
That woman had thrown her at least ten feet through the air, and every bone and muscle in her body ached from where she had struck the ground. She hated to think of what Olivia might have done to her if she had not been able to act, and what she still might do the next time. But if Gabe had her say, there would be no next time.
With her legs stretched out in front of her and well-hidden from the path she had been walking, Gabrielle felt safe enough to finally let her heavy eyelids close and she soon drifted off into blackness.
* * *
Olivia stood in a trance-like state as the final stages of the healing process continued. The flesh, bones, arteries and nerves between her severed hand and arm were mending themselves so perfectly, it would be as if they were never cut. But of course, they had been. And the pain…God, she hoped she would never have to feel anything like that again. The memory of it made her stomach churn. On the other hand, it had made her stronger in one respect—she was now more determined than ever to find Gabrielle and cut her fucking heart out. There was no way in hell she was letting this little incident go unpunished.
She continued to focus on her arm, like a doctor performing surgery with her eyes alone, willing each cell back into its original shape and position. The Lilitu physiology was capable of things that would astound a human physician, Olivia thought. There was no sickness or disease, no weak human pride, nothing that would stand in the way of taking their rightful place at the top of the food chain.
She released her grip on the wounded arm and watched it for a moment. Like magic, the last tiny line where the cut had been disappeared, leaving no scar.
Eat your heart out, David Blain.
She wiggled her fingers and then made a fist. It functioned perfectly. One of the many perks of being a Lilitu.
Olivia turned and glanced down at the dirt. The tracks went east, just as before. She looked over at the recess in the rocks, where Gabrielle had been sleeping, then walked over and peered inside. She left her supplies. She reached in and grabbed the backpack, dumped the contents in the dirt and spread them out with her foot. She rummaged through each pocket, and then threw the pack down in disgust.
No flash drive.
But Olivia knew that without her supplies, Gabrielle, already weakened from exhaustion, would be dead in a matter of hours. Could she take that chance? No, probably not. She would have to continue to give chase and get back that flash drive. Otherwise, the ASIS and the CIA would have the information it contained and that couldn’t be allowed.
Olivia looked out over the desert floor, lit only by a dim cloud-obscured moon, and eyed the tracks left by a human running for her life. Olivia smiled.
Run little rabbit. Run.
She took one last look around, and then began her pursuit across the bush.
Chapter seventeen
Gabe awoke with a start—she had heard some rustling nearby, like an animal scratching in the dirt. Then, she heard the tell-tale growling.
Dingoes.
She knew it was bound to happen. Packs of Dingoes and wild dogs would follow other animals or humans around the outback, sizing them up for prey. If they started to appear weak from the heat and lack of water, the dingoes would begin to close in until they thought they might have a chance to attack. Or they might just wait until you died, and then feast on your corpse.
She wasn’t about to go out like that, she thought—as dog chow.
She instinctively reached down and fondled the handle of her Ka Bar Zombie War Sword. Warmth radiated up her arm, as if the knife was sending out a vibe of its own, reassuring her with its steely presence. The growling ceased, and she heard the patting of paws on desert dirt disappear into the distance. Sounded like just one Dingo, or a dog, maybe a scout checking out the situation, seeing whether she was alone and helpless, and whether or not she smelled of death.
If the animal returned, it was likely to have others with it.
The thing was, she knew the dogs were only following their instinct, and really didn’t relish the thought of killing one. But with her survival at stake, she wouldn’t hesitate to do just that.
Gabe checked her watch. It was three a.m. She had already gotten a couple of hours of sleep, which was all she could afford before having to move on. Olivia would catch up to her soon enough, and that bitch would never get tired, or hungry, or thirsty. She would keep coming and coming until Gabe eventually grew so exhausted that she would collapse with fatigue and just give up. She had to pray that she would find help, and find it soon. Otherwise, this was likely to be the last night of her life.
* * *
Olivia could sense that she was close, but she didn’t know how close. The tracks seemed to lead up to a hill about a hundred meters away. The woman was definitely easy to follow, she thought, which surprised her since Gabrielle was supposed to be an expert at escape and evasion
. Wasn’t that what the CIA was all about?
But Olivia knew better than to let herself underestimate her opponent. Once had been enough—she wouldn’t be making that mistake again, she thought as her fingers lightly stroked her recently-healed wound.
She continued through the brush, picking out an imprint here, an imprint there, until the trail began to incline up a hill. She walked on, looking down at the tracks, when they abruptly ended. She walked on a little further, thinking that she might pick them up again, but there was nothing. It was as if she had disappeared. Had a helicopter come and evacuated her? No, she would have heard that from kilometers away. What then?
She glanced around into the darkness. There were some rocky outcroppings, any of which she could be hiding behind. She knelt on the ground and peered more closely at one of the more prominent imprints. It looked as if it was somehow distorted. She moved backwards to look at another one. It was the same. It was as if someone had stepped in that exact spot…twice.
Then she realized what had happened. Gabrielle had backtracked, and then gone off her original trail to another location. But she had somehow covered her tracks.
That resourceful little bitch.
Now what the hell was she going to do? There was no telling how she would be able to pick up the trail again.
Then she heard it…howling. She glanced over to the left, her eyes piercing through the darkness with her built-in night-vision, and saw them—a small pack of dingoes staring off into the distance, as if watching something…or someone.