As soon as the man was out of sight, Alyssa and her sister made their way over to Ryan. The binoculars were hanging around Alyssa’s neck and she was still holding the small camcorder. Kelsey dropped the pie-tin and white thermos bottle she had been holding to the ground while Alyssa crouched down and ripped the tape from her bound classmate’s mouth.
“Ryan,” said Alyssa anxiously, “what’s going on? Who was that guy?”
“Shhhhh,” he cautioned, his voice barely audible. “Whisper.” He blew out a relieved breath. “Boy am I glad to see you,” he said excitedly, but his mood darkened almost immediately. “Sorry to get you involved,” he added with a frown. While it was true that the stakes couldn’t be higher, if anything happened to Alyssa or her sister he would never forgive himself.
Ryan’s face was pressed against the side of the tree trunk but both sisters had placed themselves within his line of sight. “Don’t let your guard down,” he cautioned. “We’re up against soldiers who couldn’t be more dangerous. There’s a pocketknife in my right front pocket. Reach in and pull it out. Hurry.”
Alyssa did, but when she removed her hand she held two items. Her eyes widened as she recognized the second one. It was a lighter. “You smoke?” she said in surprise.
“No,” whispered Ryan, shaking his head. “But you never know when you’ll need a torch,” he added with a wry smile.
“What?” mouthed Alyssa as she started sawing through the tough plastic handcuffs with Ryan’s relatively dull pocketknife.
“Long story,” replied Ryan.
“Do you know my sister Kelsey?” whispered Alyssa.
Ryan nodded. Both sisters were light on their feet and athletic, but they shared few similarities after that. Kelsey had dark hair, cut shorter than Alyssa’s, and her features weren’t quite as soft. “You’re in Regan’s class, right?”
“Right,” mouthed Kelsey as Alyssa continued sawing.
“Put down the knife!” boomed a male voice coming from deeper inside the woods. A towering mercenary, well over six feet in height, followed the voice. And so did his automatic rifle.
Alyssa dropped the knife to the ground.
“Now turn around!” he ordered the sisters. “Carefully. Make one wrong move and I’ll put a bullet in both of your heads,” he added with a scowl.
CHAPTER 21
Sweating it Out
Neither girl could breathe. What was going on! Where did these soldiers keep coming from! The woods were crawling with them.
“Tony radioed me and told me to move in on this position,” said the towering soldier. “Seems he didn’t completely trust our boy Cole here. Tony has good instincts that way.”
The mercenary slung his automatic rifle over his shoulder and pulled a machine pistol from his vest, set for single shot. “Give me the camcorder!” he barked at Alyssa.
Alyssa was so petrified with fear she could barely move. Finally she extended her arm, which was shaking, and the mercenary snatched the camera from her hand and slid it into his vest.
He pointed his weapon at Kelsey. “Let me see your hands,” he ordered.
Kelsey removed her hands from the large front pockets of her sweatshirt. As she did so a bulky object fell out of her pocket and to the ground.
“What is that?” said the tall mercenary as he studied the object now on the ground at Kelsey’s feet. “Is that a perfume bottle?” he said in disbelief as Kelsey picked it up. He roared with laughter. “I’ve faced men carrying knives, guns and even rocket launchers. But I’ve never faced a dreaded perfume bottle before. Is that an automatic or single shot?” he said, and then laughed again at his own joke.
Alyssa may have been paralyzed with fear but there was nothing wrong with her mind. “Don’t wait for Phase Two,” she croaked to her sister, barely able to get the words out given her petrified tongue and shortness of breath. “We want the missing person to freak out.”
“What missing person?” said the merc, his thick eyebrows coming together in confusion.
Ryan had the same puzzled look on his face.
Kelsey, on the other hand, looked anything but confused. She was concentrating for all she was worth, running Alyssa’s words through her mind until she understood exactly what Alyssa was trying to communicate to her.
The soldier glared at Alyssa. “What are you talking about?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” she replied weakly. “I’m just really scared. I was babbling.”
Kelsey blew out a huge breath. It was now or never.
“Here,” she said, taking a few steps forward and extending the perfume bottle toward the massive mercenary. “You can have it.”
The merc shook his head scornfully. “I don’t want it,” he barked. “Get it away from me.”
Just as he was finishing his sentence Kelsey pumped the bulb several times as forcefully as she could. A heavy rain of mist sprayed on the merc’s face and hair.
Furious, the merc hit the bottle out of Kelsey’s hand with the butt of his pistol and then placed the barrel just over her shoulder. He squeezed the trigger and a single shot was fired, deafening the three kids. Kelsey screamed in fear and pain as a shallow groove appeared in her shoulder and began bleeding into her shirt.
“Do you think this is a game!” shouted the merc. “You think you’re going to blind me with perfume! That was just a warning shot. The next time you try something cute I’ll put a bullet right through your shoulder.”
He wiped some of the mist from his face with the back of his hand, turning up his nose in disgust. “That has to be the worst perfume I’ve ever smelled. What is it called, essence of sweat socks?”
Alyssa was stunned. Kelsey had been shot! This guy wouldn’t hesitate to kill them all. “What do you want?” she said. She tried to say it forcefully but the words almost stuck in her throat and came out in a whisper.
“I want to know where you two came from. And I want to know why Cole here wasn’t affected by the gravity weapon.”
“Leave them alone!” said Ryan. “They don’t have any idea what this is about. Let them go and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
The merc laughed. “Wow. That’s like a line from some really corny movie. But I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way in real life. Believe me, I have no doubt you’ll tell us what we want to know. But these girls have seen my face.” He smiled cruelly. “And we can always use two more hostages.”
Kelsey had tears in the corner of her eyes from the pain and terror of being shot—even if the merc had only grazed her. Alyssa’s legs felt weak and she had to fight to keep tears from her own eyes.
And then a surge of electricity raced through Alyssa as she saw two bees flying around the merc. They circled him a few times and then rushed off. Hopefully to find some friends. Or was it getting too cold and too dark for this to work? They would find out in minutes.
“You!” the soldier barked at Alyssa. “Pick up the knife and free the boy. We need to get moving.”
Alyssa did as she was told, but she did everything she could to stall. Her hands were shaking anyway, so it was easy for her to pretend to drop the knife on multiple occasions. Several minutes went by and Ryan was still bound to the tree.
Finally the soldier’s patience was at an end. “If you don’t hurry it up,” he hissed, “I’m going to shoot through those plastic cuffs. Might not be too good for your friend’s hands.”
“Where are you taking us?” asked Alyssa, now sawing at the hardened plastic with all of her strength.
The soldier gestured in the direction of the Proact grounds. “That way,” he said. “Now hurry up!” he snapped.
“We can’t go that way,” said Kelsey anxiously. “We were here earlier today. There’s a huge hive of killer bees in that direction. Those things could sting an elephant to death.”
The merc rolled his eyes. “What is this,” he said. “Some kind of circus act. First you attack me with perfume. And now you try to scare me with killer bees. Unbelievable. There are n
o killer bees in Pennsylvania.”
But even as he was saying this six bees flew around his face and head. As if on cue.
He glanced up nervously.
And eight more arrived.
He waved his free hand to shoo them away. Killer bees? That was impossible. They liked warmer climates. But even as he thought this twenty more bees arrived and began landing on his face and hair.
Panicked, he slapped at his face, killing a number of them but agitating even more. Several stung him, causing him to forget about everything but the bees. More and more of them now arrived at a furious pace, like a living cloud. They landed on his face and hair until his face could no longer be seen. He now had an ever-moving ball of thousands of buzzing yellow insects sitting on his shoulders where his head should have been.
Screaming, he dropped his machine pistol and began to run, completely forgetting where he was. He had only gone about twenty yards when he cracked his head against a thick, low-hanging branch. He fell to the ground like a sack of bee-infested cement, completely unconscious.
It had all happened in less than a minute.
The mouths of all three kids fell open as if they were unable to believe what they had just seen. No one spoke for several long seconds.
Finally, Kelsey broke the stunned silence. “It worked!” she said excitedly. “You did it, Alyssa. Great job!”
“We did it,” corrected Alyssa. It had been her idea but Kelsey had done the hardest part—and had paid a price. “How’s your shoulder, Kel?” she asked worriedly.
“I’ll be fine,” said Kelsey bravely. “He barely nicked me.”
Alyssa glanced over to where the merc was lying unconscious under a tree, his head still a crawling ball of wings, antenna, and tiny feet. “They’re suffocating him,” she said with a frown. “We can’t let that happen.”
She picked up the thermos bottle from where her sister had dropped it and rushed over to the fallen soldier. She poured its contents onto his shirt and dropped the bottle onto his stomach. The swarm immediately left the soldier’s head and traveled the short distance to his stomach, hungrily drinking in their sugar-water reward.
The tall soldier had sustained about thirty stings, but he would live. Had he stayed conscious and continued to try to fight the mild-tempered bees the outcome would have been far worse for him.
“Good work guys,” said Alyssa to the swarm as she raced back over to Ryan and her sister.
While Alyssa was saving the merc, Kelsey had picked up the pocketknife and had finished sawing through Ryan’s plastic handcuffs. He rose, freed at last from the tree, as Alyssa joined them. “Thanks,” he said to them both. He turned toward the fallen merc twenty yards away and shook his head in utter disbelief. “Wow. Did you see that! That was so lucky!” he said in amazement.
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” said Alyssa, a proud smile coming over her face. “It’s our project for the Science Fair. We’ve trained bees to respond to sweat. That’s what we sprayed him with. A bee’s sense of smell is as good as a dog’s.”
Ryan’s eyes widened. Incredible, he thought. Now that was an impressive science project.
Ryan was about to tell them so when he spotted two mercenaries off in the distance through the trees, coming from the direction of the Proact grounds.
And the soldiers were heading straight toward them!
CHAPTER 22
The Hunt Continues
One of the two advancing mercenaries was Tony DeMarco, the man who had tied Ryan to the tree. He must have discovered that Ryan had tricked him and he was returning to retrieve his prisoner.
There was still some light, but Ryan knew it wouldn’t last long enough for them to risk running for it. Luckily, neither merc had seen them yet.
“Let’s go,” whispered Ryan, so faintly that his two companions read his lips more than they heard him. “No noise. Don’t step on dried leaves or sticks.”
Ryan carefully picked his way among the trees and the two girls followed his lead. When he found an area in which the undergrowth was especially thick he lowered himself to his stomach and motioned for Alyssa and Kelsey to join him. They disappeared within the dense patch of green leaves.
“Don’t move an inch,” whispered Ryan.
And then he realized that he recognized this particular undergrowth.
It was the thickest bed of poison ivy he had ever seen.
Perfect, he thought miserably. He was really showing the girl of his dreams a great time. If he didn’t get them all killed, how could Alyssa not go for him? What girl didn’t like lying in poison ivy while being hunted by professional soldiers?
“Hey kid, listen up!” came a booming voice from where the towering mercenary had fallen. Most of the bees had had their fill of sugar-water and only a few remained on his stomach. “I know you’re out there. You got me good, kid. And it looks like you got my unconscious associate here even better. I don’t know how you did it, kid, but I’ll tell you what—I won’t hold a grudge. Surrender now and I’ll go easy on you.”
Ryan glanced at Alyssa and Kelsey and shook his head no.
Alyssa looked into Ryan’s eyes and found nothing but resolve. Her first instincts about him were not just the product of an overactive imagination. She had been right. Ryan Resnick was anything but a normal high school kid. He was involved in something big. What it was she had no idea, but it was dangerous. And judging by the number of soldiers that were after him it was something important.
“Consider this,” continued Tony DeMarco, his voice getting even louder. “We have two other men deeper in the woods, patrolling. You’re boxed in, kid. And soon it will be pitch dark. We have night vision equipment and you don’t. You don’t have a chance.”
Ryan knew they were right. But there had to be some way out of this. After thinking it through, Ryan decided their only chance was to reenter Proact. The soldiers wouldn’t expect that.
Ryan quietly moved his hand and picked up a small rock lying nearby. He turned to the two girls, ignoring the poison ivy that was touching his face from all sides. “Get ready to move,” he mouthed.
Alyssa silently removed the black binoculars from around her neck and placed them beside her. Ryan was impressed. She must have realized they would only slow her down or hit something and make noise.
“Look, kid. Here’s the deal. All of us are ready to get out of here. If not for you, we’d be gone already. The gravity effect is set to wear off in three hours. No one wants Proact. We won’t hurt you and we’ll let you go when we’re through. We just want to know how the gravity wave missed you.”
Both men continued to advance, looking carefully in different directions. When neither was looking toward them, Ryan pulled himself to a silent crouch and whipped the rock as far as he could deeper into the woods. It didn’t hit a tree but made a thudding sound when it landed on the ground. Just loud enough for the mercs to hear.
The two soldiers rushed right by them, racing toward the sound.
“Follow me,” whispered Ryan as he jumped up and moved quickly and silently toward Proact. When the trio was far enough from the two mercenaries that they thought they wouldn’t be heard, they began running. They passed through the Proact gate five minutes later without seeing anyone else.
It had worked!
While they had been moving, Ryan realized that they needed to go to the Prometheus bunker. There they would be totally safe from the mercs. Ryan’s fingerprints and retina scans would get them inside and the mercs couldn’t follow. Nathaniel could get inside, but Ryan was certain he was long gone in one of the six SUVs. If not, he would have used the Enigma Cube in the woods to pin Ryan to the ground. And the soldiers didn’t have any idea who Ryan was. This was the best evidence of all that Nathaniel had left the grounds. The mercenaries probably didn’t want to contact Nathaniel to tell him about Ryan until after Ryan had been interrogated.
Ryan led the two girls into the decoy building that surrounded the concrete Prometheus bunker. There w
ere only a few small windows in the lobby area, strategically placed so no one could see who was inside at any time. Hopefully, the soldiers wouldn’t think to look for them here. The receptionist impersonator had gone home for the weekend before the gravity weapon had been used, so they were alone.
“You two were amazing,” said Ryan once they were inside, no longer feeling the need to whisper.
And they had been. It wasn’t just that they had conceived such a great plan. It was that they had been able to bring themselves to carry it out. It was obvious they had been paralyzed with fear. But everyone became paralyzed with fear when facing a killer who was pointing a gun at them. The difference was that some remained that way, while others somehow found a way to think and act despite their fear. Until it happened, no one knew which category they would be in. Even the strongest, seemingly bravest man couldn’t know how he would react to such a situation until he was faced with it. And Alyssa and Kelsey had come through with flying colors.
“Okay, Ryan,” said Alyssa, white as a ghost, ignoring his compliment. “Tell us what’s going on. Were those men going to kill you? Kill us?” she demanded.
Ryan took a deep breath. “Proact has been taken over. By professional soldiers.” As he spoke he continued leading them behind the reception desk. He positioned himself behind a bank of video monitors that showed every possible angle of approach to the building.
“They said they don’t want Proact,” said Kelsey.
Ryan frowned. “Maybe they don’t want it anymore. But they definitely have it right now.”
“My mom might still be here!” said Alyssa in horror, her eyes wide. “She was going to a convention for the weekend but I don’t know what time she was leaving.”
Ryan winced at the mention of Michelle Cooper. He had to tell Alyssa and Kelsey the truth about what had happened to their mother. But it would take far too long, and now wasn’t the time.
Stranded (A stand-alone SF thriller) (The Prometheus Project Book 3) Page 13