Michelle Cooper stared at them callously, without the slightest hint of compassion, and then turned away as if they were of no further concern. Ryan saw the intense hurt this caused in every line of their faces and would have given anything to at least explain to them why their mother was acting this way, but there was nothing he could do.
The four prisoners were marched to two white SUVs parked outside of the building, their doors still open. Ryan and Carl were pushed into the back seat of one of the two vehicles while Alyssa and Kelsey were pushed into the other.
They drove through the woods for ten minutes, the going slow, until they reached a two-story wooden cabin with a modern satellite dish on its roof, which looked decidedly out of place. The cabin faced a tiny lake on one side and was surrounded by numerous trees on the other. The structure was totally isolated, probably for dozens and dozens of acres in all directions.
Carl and Ryan were ushered up wooden steps into one room while Alyssa and Kelsey were locked in another.
The cabin may have been rustic on the outside, but inside it was well appointed with a modern kitchen, a large plasma television and several laptop computers. Ryan’s hands were freed and he was shoved onto a high-backed wooden chair. His ankles were bound a foot apart and he was loosely tied to the chair with rope, his arms at his sides. Carl was pushed into a standing position next to him, still bound as before.
“Go back to base camp and await my instructions,” Michelle Cooper ordered the mercenaries now that the prisoners had been dealt with to her specifications.
All five mercs exited the cabin and drove off in one of the two SUVs. Only Michelle Cooper, her two daughters, Ryan and Carl remained.
“On your stomach, Colonel!” commanded Michelle icily, holding the Cube suggestively in front of her. Its brilliant luminosity made the brightly lighted room seem murky and drab by comparison.
Carl eyed Michelle and calculated his chances of mounting a successful attack. Even bound as he was he was skilled enough in combat to overpower her, but she was smart and was carefully maintaining a safe distance away. He had no other choice but to lower himself to the floor as instructed, knowing his risk of injury was far less if he was already pressed to the ground when the Enigma Cube was activated rather than collapsing there.
Michelle pointed the Cube at Carl and touched a small indentation on its edge that glowed a vivid blue. He was instantly pressed even further into the floor as if an invisible steamroller had parked on his back.
Michelle walked over to Ryan and yanked the tape from his mouth as hard as she could. Ryan thought his lips would come off in the process.
“Ryan Resnick,” she said in disdain. “My least favorite kid in the world. I’m going to leave your gravity alone for now. Because you and I need to have a little talk.”
Michelle Cooper pulled up a chair and faced him from five feet away. She put the cube on the floor by her side and glared at him. Ryan’s eyes were drawn to the Cube but he forced himself to look away and into the blazing blue eyes of the woman in front of him. “I stranded you at the center of the galaxy,” she spat. “And even this didn’t get you out of my hair.” She shook her head in disbelief. “You have a lot of questions to answer.”
“I’ll answer them all,” said Ryan. “Honestly and completely. If you’ll answer a few of mine.”
Michelle laughed maliciously. “Oh, I know you’ll answer my questions, Ryan. But let’s be very clear: this is not a negotiation.” She lifted the Enigma Cube and pointed one of its twelve edges toward Ryan. “I touch this yellow indentation and your body collapses in on itself. Like a grape being hit with a sledgehammer.”
She put the Cube down but continued to glare at him. “My mercenary friends finally told me about finding a kid coming out of Proact. From their physical description and the way you managed to escape, I had no doubt that it was you they had discovered. Which is impossible! The first thing I did after stranding you and the others on Isis was to incapacitate everyone inside Prometheus. So who rescued you?” she demanded.
Ryan told her the same story he had told Carl. That he had been helped by a safety feature of the Isis shield.
She considered him for a long moment, as if weighing his story. “I have no choice but to believe you. There’s no other way you could have gotten through the barrier.” She shook her head in disgust. “You truly are the luckiest person who ever lived.”
At that moment Ryan didn’t feel so lucky, but he remained silent.
“How did my daughters get involved?”
Ryan told her the truth, leaving nothing out.
“How were you able to see through my deception,” she asked next. “How did you realize Nathaniel was a decoy?”
Ryan’s eyes widened. So it wasn’t just a coincidence that she had captured them when she had. But how could she have known Ryan and Carl were on to her. Ryan had just figured it out and they had not told anyone.
Michelle read Ryan’s surprised expression. “You’re wondering how I knew that I’d been discovered,” she guessed. “Aren’t you? Well, I’ll tell you. After the city was mine, I planted bugs inside the headquarters of Prometheus and Proact security, inside the cavern, and inside the Prometheus elevator. To spy on all the idiots hunting Nathaniel.” She grinned icily. “I bought this cabin last month. It appealed to me to hide right under your noses and keep Proact in range of the Cube. Close enough to take over again at a moment’s notice if I had to.” She smiled again, very pleased with herself. “Which turned out to be the case.”
Ryan searched his memory to determine just what she had overheard. He had been in Prometheus security headquarters but had only spoken when he was in Carl’s office. And she couldn’t have planted a bug there. It had been locked securely while Carl was away.
So she had only heard them talking in the cavern and the elevator. In the cavern they had discussed her probable strategy. In the elevator, Carl had said he wanted to tell Michelle’s daughters that she was behind everything before telling anyone else.
That was it! Of course Michelle had pounced when she had.
She must have been listening to her bugs from this very cabin. She had learned she had been discovered but also that she had a window of opportunity. So she had almost immediately sent a gravity pulse from the cabin outward—to Proact and beyond. Then all she had to do was drive calmly to Proact to capture them.
Michelle Cooper could see the understanding in Ryan’s eyes. “That’s right,” she said coldly. “However you figured things out, I got to you before you told anyone. So everything will continue to go forward exactly as I planned. The gravity effect will wear off on everyone shortly. The rest of the Isis team will be rescued and tell everyone the tragic tale of the crazed physicist and his poor, helpless hostage. Then I’ll appear with a heroic tale of escape and lead security right to Nathaniel, just as you guessed.” She raised her eyebrows. “And they’ll bomb him into oblivion. After that, everything will return to normal.” A cruel smile came over her face. “At least they’ll think it has. Until I’m ready to make my real move.”
“What about me and Carl?”
“Are you really that stupid?” she said in disdain. “You can’t possibly think I’m just going to let you go. No, I’ll be using the Enigma Cube on such a high setting that you and Carl will be turned into paste. Later, I’m going to tell everyone how Nathaniel Smith tortured and killed you, probably becoming teary-eyed when I do. People will wonder why he went to the trouble of capturing you and Carl from the decoy building, but this will remain a mystery. After all,” she said with a sneer, “who can possibly guess the motives of a psychopath like Nathaniel?”
Ryan knew she wasn’t bluffing. Once she was finished interrogating him he was dead. He had a vision of a large cockroach being crushed by a hard shoe—of the insect’s repulsive guts exploding through its shell accompanied by a sharp crunching sound. He shuddered, knowing this exact fate was in his immediate future. He forced himself not to think about it. When he
did he couldn’t breathe and his mind became paralyzed with fear.
While he was alive there was always a chance, always hope, as Carl had said. But he had mere minutes to come up with a plan and nothing was coming to mind.
“Look,” said Ryan. “You’re not yourself. Let me explain what—”
“Don’t try to change the subject!” thundered Michelle. Then, calmly, as if her outburst had never happened, she added, “I think you were about to tell me how you knew Nathaniel was a decoy.”
Ryan took a deep breath. “I figured it out because I realized you weren’t yourself. Not since you returned from your visit to Isis three months ago.”
“What are you talking about?” she spat. “How am I not myself?”
“Would the old Michelle Cooper shoot Dr. Harris? Strand innocent people on another planet?” He leaned forward intently. “You bound and gagged your own daughters!”
“There is nothing wrong with me!” she yelled. “There is something wrong with the pathetic species called Homo sapiens. I’ve grown. I realized now how much I loathe humanity. And my daughters are no different. I despise them just as much!”
“Think about it. This wasn’t true before three months ago. Something terrible happened to you on Isis.”
“Enough!” shouted Michelle Cooper, picking up the Enigma Cube and pointing it at Ryan. “Answer my question! How did you know Nathaniel was a decoy? Tell me now or I’ll use a gravity setting that will make the one I used before seem like a picnic.”
“I’m trying to tell you. The Isis animals give off some kind of emotional energy that—”
“Time’s up!” hissed Michelle hatefully, touching an indentation on the Cube.
Ryan felt as if he was hit by a falling wall of two-foot thick concrete.
With a sickening crunch he crashed through the chair, which splintered around him, driving a dagger-sized piece of wood two-inches into his thigh. The moment he landed his increased weight flattened him against his back on the floor. Gravity was so strong that blood refused to pour from his wound. Ryan’s heart couldn’t beat and one of his ribs fractured. He didn’t scream or even grunt because he couldn’t draw a breath to do so.
He was an instant away from blacking out when his gravity returned to normal.
“That was five seconds,” said Michelle calmly. “I’ll bet it seemed like a lot longer.”
Ryan remained on his back and said nothing. Blood began pouring from his leg and onto the floor. And he couldn’t think! Not through the agonizing pain that flooded his brain from his broken rib and gashed leg. His entire body felt as if it had been through a blender. Maybe it was finally time to give up: to face the fact that he would die here in this isolated cabin. He had finally come to a situation he couldn’t trick or bluff his way out of. If only the pain would go away. But that wouldn’t happen. If anything, it would get worse.
“I’m going to ask you one last time,” said Michelle. “How did you know Nathaniel was a decoy? And I don’t want to hear a single word about Isis.”
Ryan’s eyes were dead and defeated. But as he stared into the depths of Michelle Cooper’s pitiless blue eyes, they suddenly sparked back to life.
Ryan laughed. He laughed as if he had heard a very funny joke.
“What are you laughing about?” she demanded.
“I’m laughing at you. I’m laughing because you’re just as dead as I am. You just don’t know it yet.”
“How do you figure?”
“Carl rigged a boobie trap. In case he was captured. After I convinced him to call off the air strike on Nathaniel, he told me all about it—luckily in his office where you couldn’t listen in. It’s a high powered spray hidden in a shirt button. As powerful as a sneeze. While I had you distracted he was able to move just enough to activate it.”
Michelle sneered at him. “Don’t try one of your famous bluffs on me,” she said scornfully. “I’m not a fool. And your bluff is insultingly poor. Maybe the great Ryan Resnick has lost his touch.”
“It’s not a bluff,” said Ryan. “He got the spray from the bioweapons people at Fort Dix. It’s the most deadly virus ever designed, and the virus particles are so light they’ll stay afloat even if their gravity is increased. Some of them have already reached us. We have about ten minutes to live.”
She shook her head. “The U.S. doesn’t do bioweapons research anymore. We’ve signed several treaties that prevent it.”
“If you say so. Just do me a favor, kill me now before the virus starts eating away all my skin.”
“You’re making this up. You’re acting too bravely for it to be true. You would never act like your own death meant so little to you. Why?” she demanded. “This bluff gains you nothing.”
“I’m not making it up. You’ll see.”
Ryan was hit once again by a gravity wave. Just as intense as the last one. While it lasted the same five seconds, this time Ryan blacked out just before the effect ended, and at least one more of his ribs cracked under the strain.
Michelle Cooper waited patiently for Ryan to regain consciousness. When he did, thirty seconds later, she rose from the chair and held the Enigma Cube over him menacingly. “I’m only going to try this one more time,” she said through clenched teeth. “Why are you bluffing?”
Ryan fought through pain that threatened to completely overwhelm him. “Do what you want to me,” he croaked weakly. “It doesn’t matter. We’re both already dead.”
“Yeah,” hissed Michelle, touching another indentation on the Cube. “Well you first!”
Ryan felt bone crushing weight return. It wasn’t as high a setting as the last time, but it was higher than she had used when she had captured them in the decoy building. He fought to stay conscious. If he blacked out he would be unable to fight for breath and he would die within a minute or two.
“You’re helping me conduct a little experiment right now, Ryan,” said Michelle calmly. “Once a scientist, always a scientist, I guess.” She glanced at her watch. “You see I’ve never used this exact setting before. As a biologist, I’m making an educated guess that you can survive for about fifteen minutes.” She sneered at him. “But do try to hold out for as long as you can. I want my data to be accurate.”
Ryan fought through the enormous pain for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, he could struggle no longer, and he collapsed into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER 32
The Return
Unconscious, Ryan was unable to draw even a shallow breath for his already oxygen depleted body. Starved for air, his body and brain began shutting down.
Suddenly, gravity returned to normal.
Although still unconscious, Ryan’s breathing resumed. His heart—no longer struggling under a crushing weight—sped to pump oxygen to the trillions of cells in his body.
Two minutes later, Ryan returned to consciousness and forced his eyes open. An image slowly came into focus. Michelle Cooper. Kneeling over him and wrapping his thigh with bandages and gauze.
“Ryan,” she said in surprise and profound relief. “You’re awake.”
Ryan nodded weakly.
“I’m so sorry for what I did to you,” she said, looking a little dazed.
Ryan smiled thinly. “You used the Med-Pen on yourself after all,” he rasped, barely above a whisper. Given that he no longer felt any pain, he knew she had used it on him as well.
“Yes,” she replied. For some reason she was having trouble remembering further back than ten or fifteen minutes earlier. She wasn’t even sure how she had gotten here. Or why she had been so intent on hurting Ryan Resnick.
“But you were sure I was bluffing,” said Ryan.
She thought about this. “I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “I remember you telling me we would both die from a deadly virus. And thinking you were bluffing. But I also remember thinking that since I had a Med-Pen, I might as well use it—just in case you weren’t. That it would only take a second.”
Michelle Co
oper shook her head in confusion. “But what’s going on, Ryan? I hated you. I wanted to kill you so badly I could taste it. Then all of a sudden I would have given anything for you to be okay.”
“It’s a long story,” rasped Ryan weakly. “The short version is that you were infected on Isis. Your first trip there made you temporarily insane.”
Michelle’s eyes narrowed. Could this be true? She thought back to her first visit to Isis, and as she did so a dam burst open, freeing all of her memories of the past three months. They all came rushing back to her, crashing into her like a tidal wave. Ryan was right! She had behaved horribly. She had done vile, despicable things. She gasped, feeling sick to the very core of her soul.
“I feel like I just woke from some terrible nightmare,” she said in horror.
“You did,” whispered Ryan. “You weren’t yourself. The Med-Pen cured you.”
Michelle Cooper knew in her heart that this is exactly what had happened. The alien device had restored her mind to its normal state.
As she thought about the past fifteen minutes, her eyes widened. “So that’s what your bluff was all about,” she said in wonder. “You needed to trick me into curing myself.” She stared at him in admiration. “Incredible.” There was a pause. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”
Ryan had never come so close to giving up. It had been hopeless. The pain made it almost impossible for him to think clearly. But the pain had been the key to finding an answer because he had realized that the only way it would go away is if he had a Med-Pen. And then he remembered that Michelle had stolen one. That she had one with her. In a flash he realized what he had to do. If he could trick her into using it on herself, it might cure her. Ryan hadn’t been sure it would still work since her mind had been in an altered state for such a long time, but he knew this was his only chance. And it had worked perfectly.
Maybe he was the luckiest person who ever lived.
Carl managed a grunt from his position on the floor. Michelle jumped up as if she had been electrocuted. “Sorry, Carl,” she said as she trained the Enigma Cube on him. “Didn’t mean to forget about you.”
Stranded (A stand-alone SF thriller) (The Prometheus Project Book 3) Page 20