by Toby Tate
Jade stood before the closet door, steeling her resolve, willing herself to move forward. She knew that doing nothing was not an option, because when Lawrence realized he could never have her, then he would get rid of her, and that would mean the end of her life.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the iPhone she had pilfered earlier. It had been lying on a table in the living room, apparently forgotten. It probably belonged to one of the guards she saw frequently walking around the house. Something seemed to be wrong with them—they all had that same glassy stare, except for Henry, and he was just downright scary.
She stuffed the phone back in her pocket, opened the closet door and turned on the light. It was a walk-in closet, with shelves lining either side above long horizontal poles used for hanging clothes. Several empty hangers dangled there, but it was otherwise empty. Toward the back was the access panel, barely visible except for a faint outline around its edges and a silver knob for pulling the panel out.
Jade stared at it, then took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
Well, it’s now or never.
As she had done once before, she pulled the door loose by its handle, picked it up and placed it to one side.
She gazed down into the darkness, wishing she had a flashlight. She considered using the dim light from the iPhone, but was afraid to turn it on just yet. All she needed was a cell phone going off while she was outside the house, alerting them to her presence.
She took another breath, slowly exhaled and then sat on the floor and extended her legs into the blackness. She hoped there were no spiders down there. She really hated spiders. And snakes.
God, please help me get through this.
Jade used her hands to edge herself along the floor until she was nearly all the way through. She could feel water pipes beneath her feet. Earlier during the day, she had studied the access area to see where all the pipes were. She knew there were several crisscrossing pipes that she would have to squeeze between to get under the house. She was small and skinny, but it would still be a tight fit, even for her.
She stood with all her weight on one of the big pipes and thought about putting the access door back in place, but decided against it. If they looked in her room and she was gone, they would be searching for her all over the island regardless. Besides, she could definitely use the extra light.
She squatted down inside the tight space, and the darkness below suddenly sent a wave of panic coursing through her body.
Easy, girl, easy. Just take it one step at a time. You can do this. Just focus. Breathe in, breathe out, and focus.
Jade’s mind brought her body back under control, and she calmed herself, then prepared for the next move—another step down.
Even though her room was on the first story, the house had been built several feet off the ground in case of flash floods. But she would still have to crawl once she got under the house. She stuck a tentative foot down below the pipe she was on and felt another pipe. It seemed big enough to hold her weight.
She held on to one of the smaller pipes in front of her as she stretched her right leg down to the pipe below. When her foot finally found it, she let her other foot down until it, too, touched the pipe.
She felt relieved as she released her grip to crouch down and prepare to lower herself once again.
Then, her foot slipped on the cold condensation of the pipe, and she lost her balance. Jade nearly screamed as she tilted backwards, but managed not to make a sound. She hit her back on another pipe as she toppled backwards and gritted her teeth against the pain.
Then, she was falling. She tried desperately to grab on to something as she slid down into the darkness, but her hands found nothing. There was an abrupt stop as her body became wedged in between several pipes, and as she tried to catch her breath, Jade was thankful that she hadn’t broken anything so far.
But she also realized something else—there were pipes pressing her in on all sides. She was stuck.
Thirty-one
They were walking on a beach at sunset. The sky was a brilliant shade of ruby red, the sun peeking out just over the horizon from behind a row of high, thin cirrus clouds. It was a majestic, awe-inspiring sight, reminding Lisa of the entranceway to heaven.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” she said, and felt a squeeze on her hand.
“It certainly is,” a voice said. But it wasn’t Hunter’s−it was someone else’s, someone she recognized.
She turned to look and saw Lawrence Hendricks walking beside her, holding her hand. She gasped and tried to jerk her hand away, but his grip was tight.
“Now, now, let’s not spoil the moment. Doesn’t the color remind you of blood? And there will be blood, won’t there? Lots and lots of blood.”
Suddenly, it was dark. So dark, Lisa could see nothing. They stopped walking and she could feel a presence nearby.
No, not a presence. More like many presences. They were surrounded.
Then, she saw them. There were eyes, as red as the sky had been. Dozens of eyes, watching her, studying, scrutinizing. Eyes full of cunning intelligence. What did they want?
Lisa’s breathing was becoming shallow and labored, her heart racing inside her chest. Still, Hendricks held fast to her hand. It was starting to get hot and clammy.
“They’re waiting, Lisa,” Hendricks whispered from the blackness, releasing her hand.
Now she felt vulnerable and alone, almost wishing that he hadn’t let go. “Waiting for what?”
“For you, of course. For your baby. It’s time to give the ultimate sacrifice…for them.”
Them? Who the hell were them?
Then the eyes began to close in. Lisa spun in a slow circle, looking for a way out, for a break through which she could make a run for it, but there was none. She was trapped, and Hunter was nowhere to be found.
You made a promise, a promise to protect us, Hunter. Where are you?
The eyes were nearly on top of her now, so close that she could smell the rancid, putrid breath of the beasts.
Then she filled her lungs to scream.
* * *
Lisa sprang upright in bed, breathing like she had just sprinted a mile. Sweat dripped from her brow, stinging her eyes.
She reached down to feel her swollen belly, as she did after the previous dream, and felt the firmness of the baby’s body there inside her.
Another nightmare, this one even worse than the last. How much longer would this go on? Would it end with the baby’s birth? Or would she be forever plagued with them?
She heard Hunter stir beside her.
“Hey, are you okay? Did you have another dream?”
Lisa nodded slowly. “Hendricks was in it this time. He was after the baby. Or…something was.”
She felt Hunter’s tender touch on her arm. “Lisa, I love you. There is nothing on this earth that is going to hurt you or the baby as long as I’m around. I guarantee it.”
Lisa turned to look at him, barely able to discern his features in the darkness.
“What if it’s not from this Earth? And what if you’re not around?”
Thirty-two
How in the hell was she going to get unstuck? The water pipes pressed in on all sides, holding her fast, like a sardine in a can. Jade was doing everything she could to control her breathing, fighting the urge to call out for help. If they discovered she was trying to escape, they would never let her out of their sight again. Maybe even kill her.
She craned her neck to look up and behind her, and could see the light from the closet about three feet above. She had to be close to the ground. If she could wiggle herself free, she could climb up and then back down through a wider space.
She reached up and tried to feel behind her head for a pipe. After a few seconds, she found one. It was small, but the pipes were all fairly new, so it should hold her weight. Jade put both hands around the pipe, gritted her teeth, then began to pull upward while moving her hips back and forth.
After several minutes,
her legs slid loose. She dangled her foot on the other side of the place she had gotten stuck and soon she was standing on a large water pipe. She stood there for several minutes, trying to regulate her breathing and thinking about which way she needed to crawl once she made her way under the house.
Jade glanced down at the pipe she was on. It was barely visible, and the darkness beyond was foreboding, but she knew that was the way to freedom.
She crouched on the pipe, like a tightrope walker steadying herself on the wire, and stretched down a foot. Only a few inches below her was solid ground. She breathed a sigh of relief and planted the other foot on the ground, then slowly lowered her arms from the labyrinth of water pipes above her.
She was down. Now all she had to do was crawl toward the outer edge of the house and find another access panel to free herself. Jade had no idea how she would go about doing that. The house was huge, and the crawlspace door could be anywhere, but she figured she would find it eventually.
She looked up at the light from her closet, and knew that the closest outside wall would be in that direction. She began to inch her way along in a duck walk underneath the house, and soon heard voices and footsteps above her. Hopefully, everyone would be too busy to check her room until morning. At least they seemed to respect her privacy.
After several excruciating minutes of walking in a crouch, she reached the outer wall of the house. It took less than ten minutes for her to find a crawl space access door. She slowly pushed it open and saw that she was on the same side of the house where she saw Hendricks disappear over a hill.
That was exactly where she would go.
Jade peered around through the crack in the door, and, seeing no one, pushed until it came loose. She moved the door to one side and slid out through the hole, and then slowly stood up. The blood rushed from her brain, making her head swim, and she swayed slightly, trying to maintain her balance. She scanned the immediate area and saw no one. All was quiet.
She looked up at the house behind her. There was a window and a light on inside, but no movement from within.
With a prayer on her lips, Jade stealthily began to make her way across the yard and over the hill.
Thirty-three
Mac glanced over at the woman he had just made love to. It had been a long time, and he couldn’t remember ever feeling such intense emotion over a female. There had been a few serious relationships along the way, one or two he had even considered settling down with, but it never happened. He always ended up pulling the plug.
Besides, he had always been married to the navy, to his career.
I guess I’m just a rambling man…
But this…this was something different. He let his eyes wander across her chestnut brown hair, tiny nose, high cheekbones, then down to her small, naked breasts, as they slowly rose and fell with each breath. He glanced at her arm.
And that red dragon tattoo…
As if she had sensed him gazing at her, Gabe opened her soft, brown eyes and turned to look at him. She smiled.
“Are you still awake?” she said, her voice cracking from grogginess. She pulled the sheet up to her shoulders. “What’s wrong, can’t sleep?”
“No, just thinking.”
“Oh? About what?”
“Just about life in general.”
“Getting a little introspective, are we?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Men always get introspective after they have sex. It has a calming effect on their nerves.”
Mac laughed. “Are you psychoanalyzing me already?”
“No, I’m just a student of human nature. Want to talk about it?”
Mac turned to stare up at the ceiling. “I guess I’m just worried about what’s going to happen with the whole Hendricks thing, about how we’re going to find Lisa’s cousin. I’m sad about Jensen’s death.” He glanced back at Gabe. “And maybe I’m a little apprehensive about…us.”
Gabe arched her eyebrows. “Us?”
“Yeah, you know. Like, where is this headed?”
Gabe turned on her side, propped her head up with one hand and gazed into Mac’s eyes. “Well, I don’t know. Where do you want it to head?”
“I know that I like you. A lot. Ever since we met last summer, I’ve been thinking about you. But the truth is I hardly know you.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
“Well...I was born in America, raised in Australia. After high school I returned to the states to attend Harvard Business School. But instead of going into business, I joined the US Air Force, became an intelligence officer. Four years and several tours later, I was a civilian applying to the CIA’s clandestine operations division. I went through an extensive background check and several intense interviews, but was eventually accepted and they sent me to train at The Farm.”
“There’s something else I’ve been meaning to ask.”
“What’s that?”
“Where’d you get that red dragoon tattoo?”
Gabe glanced at her arm and smiled.
“That was the result of a little too much Chinese beer on one of my first assignments in Hong Kong. To this day I can’t remember where I got it, or when.”
“Hmmm. Sounds like fun.”
She lifted a hand and smoothed Mac’s blonde hair back. A tingle like an electric current shot through his body. “I’ve been thinking about you, too,” she said.
Mac raised his hand, placed it over hers. “That’s good to know. I thought it was just me.”
“You’re a hard man to forget, Mac.”
“Why don’t you call me John.”
“Okay. John.”
Mac raised his head and kissed Gabe on the lips, then turned and rolled his body gently against hers.
“Maybe I could give you another little something to remember me by.”
Gabe reached down and cupped a hand over Mac’s crotch. “A little something? I wouldn’t call it little,” she said.
Thirty-four
It was a moonlit night and Jade had no trouble seeing where she was going. Instead of taking the narrow road over the hill, she stayed inside the tree line to avoid detection. She had to see where Lawrence had gone. There was something over there, something that required his presence on a regular basis. Were they running a drug operation? Smuggling? Creating weapons of mass destruction? Whatever it was, she needed to find out and let the police know what was going on here at Lawrence’s little island paradise.
She began to feel herself trudging uphill—she was getting closer. She could see light filling the sky above the trees. Then, she began to hear people talking. She stopped in her tracks, then backed a little deeper into the dark forest. Two people passed by on the road. She could tell by their voices that neither of them was Lawrence. They were saying something about a cave, about something nearly being ready.
Now she was more determined than ever to get herself over the hill. Apparently there was a cave on the other side and she was sure that some kind of illegal activity was going on there. Jade waited for a few moments until she was sure the two men were gone, and then continued on a path that was parallel to the road.
After several minutes of hiking uphill, she began to feel it sloping downward. She could make out something just beyond the tree line, illuminated by a dim, blue light. When she got to the edge of the forest, she could see across a clearing into a rocky outcropping, like the side of a cliff, and carved into it was a cave. That was the source of the blue light.
Jade peered out from behind a large tree, glancing both ways. There didn’t seem to be anyone around. She quietly left the protection of the forest and stepped out into the clearing, walking slowly and quietly across it until she reached the outside of the cave. It was much bigger than it had seemed from a distance. She was now directly in front of the cliff, beside the cave entrance. She could hear noises from inside, like the grunting of some kind of huge animal…or several animals. Was Lawrence a poacher? But poa
chers usually killed animals, they didn’t cage them. Besides, the only large animals on Greek islands that she knew were deer, elk and bear, but why would anyone want to collect bears or elk? None of this was making sense.
Jade decided to take a chance on being seen—she had to know what was inside that cave. She edged closer to the entrance, then flattened herself against the cliff and slowly peeked around the opening until she had a full view of the cave.
Her eyes grew wide as she threw a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream—across a small lake and at the back of the cavern was a vision like a waking nightmare.
Illuminated by some kind of unearthly blue light were several large, furry, white creatures like nothing she had ever seen before. They were the same color as polar bears, but were definitely not bears—these creatures were much bigger. They had ears on top of their heads almost like bats, and elongated muzzles with teeth that were angled and so long that they protruded from their mouths. They were quadrupeds, but also looked like they could stand on two legs with little difficulty. Some padded around the cave as if anxious about something, while the rest sat or lay, all with eyes open, watching and waiting for…something.
But most striking of all was what lay on the cave floor in the midst of these monsters—about a hundred slimy, oval objects roughly the size of basketballs were lined up in several rows and imbedded in a gelatinous substance, like some kind of incubating fluid. In the eerie blue light, she could see things moving around inside them.
They were eggs. And eggs meant more of these…things.
But what were they? The only mammals she knew that laid eggs were in Australia and New Guinea.
Whatever they were, if Lawrence was involved, she knew it couldn’t be good.