by Toby Tate
Jade tore her eyes away from the sight and slid away from the entrance, keeping her back against the cliff face, then slowly reached into her pocket as she kept her eyes on the cave entrance, praying that one of those things hadn’t smelled her.
She pulled out the phone she had stolen earlier and as she did so, a hand was suddenly placed over hers. Jade’s heart jumped into her throat.
“I’ll take that,” a man’s voice said.
Thirty-five
Jade stiffened. She slowly looked over to her side—a young Greek man stood there, watching her. As their gaze momentarily locked, she thought she saw a silvery mass move behind his dark eyes.
His hand was over hers, but he hadn’t tightened his grip, as if he didn’t want to hurt her fragile hand. That gave her a good advantage. She let the tears well up in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to run away. I was just so scared. Please don’t hurt me.”
“Just let me have the phone and I’ll take you back to the house,” the man said. She released the phone and he took it, and then glanced down at the screen, most likely checking to see if she had made any calls. As he did so, Jade cocked her hand back and punched the man in the solar plexus, knocking the breath out of him and doubling him over. While he was facing the ground, trying to gain his breath, she brought her knee up, smashing his nose and sending out a spray of blood as he fell back onto the ground, moaning in pain.
Jade felt bad about hurting the guy, but then again, it was her life or his. She grabbed the phone off the ground where the man had dropped it, and then headed off into the dark forest, praying that the creatures hadn’t heard the commotion.
* * *
Hunter awoke to the sound of his cell phone buzzing on the nightstand next to his head. He blinked his eyes several times, dragging himself back to consciousness, then reached a hand over and grabbed the vibrating phone. He picked it up and realized it wasn’t his phone, it was Lisa’s.
He rolled on his back, reached over and shook Lisa awake.
“Hey, your phone’s buzzing. Probably your lover.”
“You are so not funny,” she mumbled, snatching the phone out of his hand.
“Hello?”
Hunter listened, trying to make out the voice on the other end. It sounded female. Gabe? But why would she call Lisa?
His wife suddenly sprang to a sitting position. “Oh, my God, Jade—where are you? We’ve been worried to death!”
Hunter sat up as well. “Where is she? What’s going on?” he whispered. Lisa waved a hand to shush him.
“Really? An island? Okay, I’ll tell you what. I’m going to give you a number, and I want you to call it. Her name is Gabrielle Lincoln and she’s with the CIA. She can track your phone’s GPS coordinates. Just stay wherever you are and we will come get you. Here’s the number…” Lisa rattled off Gabe’s number and then turned off the phone.
She turned to Hunter. “Jade escaped from wherever they were holding her, some kind of big house on a private island. And we were right—it was Hendricks that kidnapped her. She’s waiting for us right now. We have to go get her.”
Hunter reached over and clicked on the light. “Good,” he said. “I’d rather kick Hendricks’s ass than sleep, anyway.”
Thirty-six
Hunter made Lisa promise to stay at the hotel and wait for him to return. She said yes, but her eyes said she wasn’t happy about it.
Gabe gave Hunter the address of some local docks, and he met her and Mac there.
As they approached the boat they would be using, Hunter’s mouth dropped open. As a boat enthusiast, he had read about the Cobalt 243 Bowrider, known as much for its comfort as for its speed, courtesy of a Volvo V8 engine, with a top speed of over forty knots. It was a sleek, beautiful machine, painted cobalt blue with a white leather interior that could easily seat eight people. A diving deck opened from the back, and below deck was a head and a sleeping compartment that could sleep two. It even had a stereo and cruise control.
“Are you kidding me? How the hell did you manage to get a luxury speedboat?” he said.
Gabe shrugged. “We needed something with speed, and there are a few little add-ons that might come in handy, as well.”
“No shit. I guess it pays to be CIA.”
Hunter and Gabe climbed aboard the craft as Mac cast off the lines holding it to the pier, and then jumped inside.
“Did you call the police? Or is that a stupid question,” Hunter said.
“I don’t trust them,” Gabe said. “Matthias could be in on this. We’re on our own for now.”
“So, where to?” Mac said.
Gabe held up her phone, and Hunter saw a map with a blinking red dot in the middle of it. “Wherever the GPS signal from Jade’s phone leads us. Right now, it’s saying we go south.”
* * *
They rode the calm waters of the Aegean Sea for what seemed like hours as Gabe, Mac, and Hunter each took their turn at the helm. Hunter thought that the sea had never looked so dark and foreboding, despite the lights from the hull and the full moon that shone from above. He wasn’t sure what they would find once they got there, or whether Jade would even be alive. If Hendricks discovered that she had escaped, he would be livid and would probably kill her.
Hunter remembered the last time he had seen Hendricks, inside an apartment in lower Manhattan. Hunter was under the influence of the Lilith creature’s parasite, a mind-controlling entity that left a person with literally no free will. Hendricks had been Lilith’s lover, and when he found Hunter in her apartment and under her control, he became enraged and nearly killed Hunter in the process. Of course, that was after Hunter had bloodied his nose. Fortunately, Lilith herself, already a mutant beast, attacked Hendricks and Hunter escaped the apartment, thanks to Gabe. She had to escort him out at the point of a gun, but she did rescue him.
Hunter noticed lights illuminating the sky no more than a mile or two away.
“I see lights,” Mac said.
“We’re nearly there,” Gabe said, staring down at the screen of her phone. “It should be just up ahead.”
As they got closer to the island, Hunter saw a boat dock with a large cabin cruiser and a couple of smaller boats. Gabe reached down and shut off the boat lights.
“Okay, throttle down and sit tight right here while I go for a little dive,” Gabe said, then disappeared below deck.
Thirty-seven
As the two men watched, Gabe stepped down to the Cobalt’s small dive platform in full scuba gear, with a waterproof bag slung over one shoulder. She fitted the mask in place, gave a thumbs up signal, then dropped over the side of the platform and into the water.
Hunter looked at Mac. “Maybe we don’t want to know,” he said.
* * *
Half an hour later, Gabe swam back to the boat and Mac gave her a hand hoisting her up out of the water. They both helped her remove the scuba tank.
“So, what was that all about?” Mac said.
“Just a little insurance,” Gabe answered. She went below deck and came back fifteen minutes later in bluejeans, sneakers and a white shirt, her wet hair pinned up over her head.
“Let’s go find an empty beach and anchor the boat. Then we’ll go ashore and find Jade.”
Hunter started up the boat and cruised around to the other side of the island, close to where Jade’s GPS signal seemed to be transmitting from.
“This might be a good spot,” Mac said. “It doesn’t look like there are any sandbars or reefs close to the surface here.”
Hunter nodded and turned the boat toward the shore. He slowed as they got close to the beach. About a hundred feet out, Gabe dropped the anchor over the stern and paid out the line until the bow hit the sand on the beach, then she tightened it up and tied it off on a steel cleat.
“I have a few things that will help us with our rescue,” Gabe said, opening a storage compartment just above the dive platform. Inside were several handguns, flare guns, rifles, and grenade laun
chers.
“Wow. I love the CIA,” Hunter said. “Can I join?”
Gabe ignored him and shoved an M16 into his hands, then handed Mac one, as well. She grabbed two Glock 9mm handguns and put one in the waistband of her jeans and the other one in a shoulder holster, then slid on a small backpack.
“Alright, let’s do it. Just follow me, gentlemen, and let’s make as little noise as possible. Hopefully, they don’t have any radar on this island.”
They slid over the bow of the boat and down into the surf, then made their way up onto the beach and into the forest.
* * *
Jade stood in the dark with her back up against a tree, waiting and listening. She was hot, scared, tired, and hungry. She prayed to God that the CIA agent was tracking her signal, because she had no way of knowing. All she could do was wait. There were strange noises and she thought she had heard movement behind one of the nearby trees earlier, but blew it off as imagination. It was easy to imagine anything in this forest. If they had discovered her missing, they would soon track her like a wild animal.
Jade gazed up at the canopy of trees above her and saw the twinkling of stars between them. The moon lit the clear sky, casting shadows across her face. Under normal circumstances, she would have found it mesmerizing and beautiful, but at the moment, it seemed foreboding.
She suddenly felt something on her arm and nearly screamed when a hand was placed over her mouth. She looked up to see a pair of eyes staring at her—female eyes. She relaxed when she realized it had to be Gabe. Behind her stood another man she didn’t know, and next to him was Hunter. They were both carrying rifles. She had never been so relieved to see anyone in her life.
Gabe removed her hand. “Have you seen anybody around?” she whispered.
Jade shook her head.
“Good. Let’s get out of here while we still can.”
Before any of them could make a move, they heard a voice behind them.
“No, I’m afraid you won’t be getting out of here. Not for a long, long, time,” the voice said. “Now please, drop your weapons.”
Jade and the others slowly turned to see Hendricks and his cohort, Henry, standing with semi-automatic rifles pointed at them.
Thirty-eight
Ecological Victims of Evolution, Lilith’s environmental activist organization, created a magazine called Environmental Times as a front for her various exploits, which included everything from anti-military and anti-business protests to raising money for senatorial and congressional campaigns and influencing legislation. But Lilith’s agenda went beyond mere environmentalism—far beyond it. She was going to change the planet, take it back to its primordial beginnings, when her race ruled the earth. And she thought that she had finally found a way to do just that—by acquiring an aircraft carrier, and a nuclear bomb.
Her plan was simple—go aboard the carrier as a writer for Environmental Times, doing a story on the FA-18 Super Hornet, the navy’s latest and greatest fighter jet. But she couldn’t go as herself—too many people knew who she was. She would have to change her identity, then get a pass aboard the ship, along with her “photographer,” Lawrence Hendricks, aka David Lawrence. And who better to do that than daddy?
She had also chosen the perfect target—the USS Gerald R Ford, which just happened to be where her brother, John MacIntyre, was stationed as the ship’s communications officer. She would not only get revenge on her traitorous brother, she would take the public’s view of military down a notch.
Some months later, Lilith MacIntyre became Julia Lambert, writer, editor, and publisher for Environmental Times magazine. She looked the part, dressed in a black skirt and heels, a striking contrast to her platinum blonde hair. A pair of Ray Ban sunglasses covered her dazzling blue eyes as she glanced around the small terminal at the others in her party, all members of the media. She could have been a model, or perhaps a movie star, as far as they were concerned.
Then, she had seen him—the one she would later know as Hunter, a gorgeous man who looked to be of Native American blood, at least partially. His skin, hair and eyes were dark, and his jaw was chiseled and square, like it could take a good punch, and probably had more than once. Unfortunately, a pregnant woman sat beside him, likely carrying his baby. She was dark-skinned and beautiful and appeared to also be of mixed heritage, although hers was more African-American and possibly Chinese. Quite a striking couple, she thought, but not as striking as her. And soon, the man would be hers—she could feel it. Lawrence would probably squawk about it, but he would get over it. Who said she couldn’t have more than one man? After all, she was a queen.
Once aboard the ship, she seduced several key officers and enlisted men and introduced the parasites. It was strange to watch them succumb to her control. At first they would always fight it, especially if the parasite slid from her mouth and down their throat during a kiss. They would thrash and cough as if they were drowning, and then finally go still and silent, deathlike. When they awoke, there was always that look in their eyes, as if she was now their whole world and anything she did or said was all they could hear. It was almost annoying, which was why she preferred not to do it, but in the case of the navy ship it was necessary. There were other problems with the parasites, as well. If you looked closely at the eyes of an infected person, you could actually see the creature swirling around behind the pupils, a silvery substance almost like mercury. Also, if a person was strong-willed enough, and became aware that they were under control, they could actually cause the creature to leave their body. If that happened, the creature would almost immediately evaporate and die.
But the parasites worked for ninety-nine percent of the crew, and soon, she was in control of one of the most powerful weapons ever conceived by man—a nuclear-powered United States Navy aircraft carrier.
Thirty-nine
Hunter knew they wouldn’t be able to raise their M16s fast enough to shoot. He glanced over at Mac, and they both dropped their guns.
“Seriously, did you think we couldn’t track a GPS signal from our own phone?” Hendricks said. “I have to say, Jade, that I am deeply disappointed. I really thought we had something. You could have been my queen. But it is good to see my old friend Hunter again, as well as Mac. I’m afraid I’m not acquainted with the lovely young lady.”
“What the hell are you doing on this island, Hendricks?” Hunter asked.
Jade threw a surprised glance at him. “You know this guy?” she asked.
“Yeah, but he’s not who you think he is. His real name is Lawrence Hendricks and he’s a giant asshole.”
Hendricks smirked. “Hunter, Hunter. Always with the acerbic wit.”
“Yeah, well, it gets me through the tough times.”
Hendricks pointed his rifle at Gabe. “I know you’re carrying some concealed weapons, miss. Pull them out nice and slow and toss them on the ground like a good girl.”
Gabe did as she was told.
“There, now we can all be friends,” Hendricks said. “To answer your question, Mr. Singleton, I’ll have to show you. Since you won’t be leaving here anytime soon, you might as well know what you’re in for. If you’ll all be so kind as to line up single file and walk toward the main road.” Hendricks motioned in the general direction with his rifle barrel.
* * *
Before they reached their destination, Hunter spotted a glowing blue light above the treetops. Soon, a rocky cliff came into view, with a huge cave carved into the front. The opening was rectangular in shape and so perfectly formed, it almost looked manmade. Hendricks held up a hand, indicating that they should stop.
“This is where it will begin,” he said.
“What will begin?” Mac asked.
Hendricks glanced at him. “You were one of us, John. You could be a part of all this. But instead, you chose to be one of them. Humans are a disease. We were here long before, and we will be here long after they are gone. The repopulation is already in progress. See for yourself.”
He
ndricks motioned at the cave with his rifle. The four walked toward the entrance until they could see inside, and then Hunter felt his head begin to spin.
There, across a shallow lake in the back of the cave, and bathed in an eerie blue light, were dozens of furry white monsters, what they had come to know as Lilitu. In the midst of them was something he had seen only once before…eggs. But then, there had only been one egg. Now there were close to a hundred of them, all pulsating with terrifying life.
“You’re crazy, Hendricks, you know that?” Hunter said.
“Is it insanity to want to propagate your own race? Humans do it all the time.”
“You’re human, too, Hendricks, even if you don’t want to admit it,” Mac said.
“No. I have evolved beyond that. I have found my true self. It is you who are the traitor, John. You even betrayed your own sister.”
Mac said nothing.
“What is that weird blue glow inside the cave? It looks like something radioactive,” Gabe said.
Hendricks smiled. “Very astute. What is your name?”
Gabe stood quietly for several seconds before answering. “Gabrielle.”
“Well, Gabrielle, you’re right. It is radiation. There are six stones, but actually only one of them was needed inside the cave. It is so powerful that it not only caused the creatures to mutate to their present form, but also made them reproduce asexually. Of course, that doesn’t mean they can’t still enjoy sex.”
“Those stones came from the case you stole from my wrecked vehicle, after you killed the professor and his assistant,” Jade said.