The Resurrector (The Dominic Grey Series)

by Layton Green

  “How far away are they?” Grey asked.

  “Only ten miles. It must be rough terrain.”

  Using a set of jeep keys he found in the kitchen, Grey cranked the engine. The vehicle rumbled to life. By the barn, a set of rutted tracks circled around the hill behind the house. Grey looked at Jax. “You ready for this?”

  The mercenary laid the phone flat on the console, red dot blinking on the GPS tracker. He cracked his knuckles. “Into the breach, my man.”

  -38-

  As Robey unlocked the jail cell, Viktor thought fast and hard about his options. While the professor was much larger than the other man, and Robey didn’t appear to have a weapon, van Draker’s henchman was a former soldier. Not only that, he had a hardness behind his eyes, visible despite the blankness in his gaze, that told Viktor he was dealing with a killer.

  “You can’t hold me like this,” Viktor said.

  The latch clicked. Robey pushed the door open.

  “What do you want?” Viktor said. “Where’s Captain Waalkamp?”

  Robey took a step inside the cell.

  “Hello!” Viktor shouted. “Is anyone out there?”

  His words echoed in the empty hall.

  Robey’s eyes locked onto Viktor’s. The professor’s hand curled around the bed sheet and yanked it off. He tightened a foot-long piece of fabric between his hands, like a length of chain, and when Robey came within striking distance, Viktor tried to catch his neck with the bed sheet, planning to execute a choke Grey had taught him.

  Instead of dodging the sheet, Robey stepped closer to Viktor and, like the crack of a whip, threw a punch into his gut. The air whooshed out of Viktor’s stomach. As he bent double from the blow, he felt hands grasping him by the throat.

  Robey’s fingers felt like steel rods pressing into Viktor’s flesh. The professor couldn’t draw in enough air. He stopped gasping and tried to break free, but Robey was far stronger than he looked. Viktor clawed at Robey’s face to break the hold, but the former soldier pushed him backwards, causing him to trip and fall on his back on the bed. Viktor recoiled at the touch of Robey’s skin, which felt stronger but also spongier than it should. Unnatural.

  Robey leaned over and tightened his grip, using the leverage of his standing position. Viktor inhaled his smell, the same cheap and overpowering cologne Kristof had worn.

  The professor gagged and flailed, but nothing he did caused Robey to loosen his hold. Van Draker sent him to choke me to death, Viktor realized. No gunshots, no blood, no evidence. Just the fingers of a dead man wrapped around my throat.

  Panic gave way to resignation. The dim light from the hallway started to recede, the strength ebbing from Viktor’s limbs. He was going to die in that cell, his work unfinished, the secrets of van Draker’s laboratory safe from the world.

  Just before Viktor’s eyes closed, a gunshot blasted through the corridor, chipping into the concrete wall.

  “Get off him!”

  Robey’s grip lessened. It took a moment for a mouthful of oxygen to enter Viktor’s system, blessed oxygen, and then he realized the voice was female.

  Someone he knew.

  Naomi.

  Robey straightened, leaving Viktor coughing on the bed. Naomi stepped into the cell, pumped the shotgun, and pointed it at the former soldier. “Step away and hands on your head! Do it!”

  Without a word, Robey came right at her. As Viktor’s strength returned and he managed to sit up, Naomi shot Robey in the gut, knocking him backward. The blast rang in Viktor’s ears.

  Blood spilled from the wound and onto the floor of the cell. As Naomi backed away and pumped the shotgun, Robey hobbled towards the door, holding his gut with one hand.

  Naomi’s eyes widened. Her hands shook as she stood in the corridor, unsure what to do. Viktor could tell she wanted to shoot Robey again but felt torn. He was still an unarmed man.

  “On the floor!” Naomi shouted, with the shotgun pointed at Robey. “Now!” she screamed.

  The soldier swung his head towards Viktor. Robey looked confused, and blood dripped from his stomach wound. For a moment, Viktor thought he was going to attack him again, but Robey turned and looked at Naomi, hesitating a final time before bounding down the corridor holding his stomach.

  “Stop!” she cried, looking shocked by the speed at which he was running.

  She went after him, shotgun raised. Viktor couldn’t see what happened, but a few moments later, he heard Naomi curse and pound on a door. Robey must have locked it behind him.

  The sergeant returned with a grim look on her face. “Are you okay?”

  Viktor gently rubbed his neck. Though painful to the touch, his windpipe seemed intact. “I believe so. You should go after him.”

  She helped him to his feet. “I’m not leaving you alone.” They strode down the hallway together, and she aimed the shotgun at the lock on the wooden door.

  As soon as Naomi and Viktor were safely inside her Land Cruiser, Naomi pulled out of the parking lot and onto the deserted main road that cut through the center of town. Her eyes were in constant motion, moving from the rearview to the street and back again. “I’m taking you home.”

  “What about Robey?”

  “You mean the man who just took a point-blank shotgun blast to the gut and kept on going?” She glanced at Viktor, eyes rimmed with fear. “What about him?”

  “He just tried to kill me. We both know where he’s headed. Can’t you arrest him?”

  “I don’t know, Viktor,” she said sharply. “Can I arrest a dead man? Is that even possible?” She let out a deep breath, and he noticed her hands trembling. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But I don’t think you understand the situation.”

  “Maybe I do,” he said quietly. When he gave her a rundown of the night’s events, her face grew paler and paler.

  “Christ,” she said. “He’s more of a monster than I imagined. We have to put a stop to this.”

  “That jail isn’t in service anymore, is it?”

  She shook her head. “I knew the captain answered to van Draker, but this . . . he allowed Robey to murder you.”

  “To attempt to murder me,” Viktor corrected. “Thanks to you. How did you find me?”

  “The captain was furious about tonight and made me write a report. All night, I kept trying to reach you, but you never answered. At first I figured you were hiding in the manor and unable to talk, but on my way home, I couldn’t take it anymore. I decided to see if you had returned to your pension. On the way in, one of van Draker’s cars passed me, a dark blue Mercedes with tinted windows. I couldn’t see who was driving, but I turned and followed it to the courthouse.”

  “I’m alive because you did.”

  She reached over and squeezed his arm.

  “We have to go above the captain,” Viktor said finally. “To the district.”

  “I’ll try, but you’re my foremost concern. I can’t protect you anymore.”

  Viktor knew she spoke the truth. After what he had glimpsed beneath the manor, he knew van Draker would do everything in his power to keep him quiet. And that Captain Waalkamp would help him.

  “Take me to Cape Town,” Viktor said.

  “The captain knows too many people there. Cops. The Western Cape is a tight community. They’ll trust his word over yours. And if he takes you into custody again, we both know what will happen.”

  “What, then?”

  “Tonight? We’re going to my place. Tomorrow I’ll figure a way to get you out of the country.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  She glanced at him again. “They’ll kill you.”

  “They have to find me to do that. Jacques will send help, once I explain the situation.”

  Naomi looked doubtful, and Viktor knew it wouldn’t be that easy. With the loss of his phone, he still had no evidence other than his word, and that might not be enough to go over Captain Waalkamp’s head and force an investigation. Even if he made headway through the proper channels, the
legal procedure could take weeks or longer, and there was no guarantee of success. He felt certain that van Draker was behind the virus, but time was running out for a cure.

  Yet if he stayed, his life would be at grave risk, and he had no idea how to access the lab again.

  “We’ll worry about the future in the morning,” Naomi said.

  “Isn’t your place risky? Robey saw you—what if he comes back?”

  She patted the butt of the shotgun, lying on the console between them. “Next time I’ll aim for the head.”

  As she turned onto the long gravel road that led to her homestead, Viktor eased his head against the seat rest. He was too tired to think. Once the sun rose, he would ponder his options over coffee. He doubted van Draker would come after them in broad daylight, which gave them a day to decide what to do.

  “A question,” Viktor said.

  “Mm?”

  “Do you really like men in uniform?”

  She cocked her head. “What woman doesn’t?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Naomi cast a sly glance his way. “I like men with family castles more.”

  “Oh,” he said slowly. “I see.”

  She gave a rich laugh. “Look at where I choose to live. Do you think I care about those things?”

  Viktor laughed, too. It felt good.

  Five minutes later, they saw a plume of smoke staining the moonlit sky. After a moment of confused silence, Naomi whispered, “Oh no. Please no.”

  Viktor felt his heart sink. Instead of turning around, Naomi stepped on the gas and gripped the shotgun. The professor held on as the hardy vehicle took the bumpy road at ninety kilometers an hour.

  It was just as they feared. Naomi’s house was on fire. Flames licked out of the roof on the right side of the house, which contained the study. Naomi’s research on van Draker.

  With Max barking furiously as he trailed behind the Land Cruiser, Naomi screeched to a stop, grabbed the shotgun, and leaped out of the vehicle. Viktor shouted at her to wait, but she ran headlong towards her home. Hands shielding her face, she blew the front door open with the shotgun, and Viktor watched in horror as she plunged into the burning house. Moments after she entered, she backed out, coughing, unable to take the heat.

  After following Naomi around the outside of the house, Viktor took her phone and called the fire department. She darted up the steps leading to the rooftop patio and grabbed her telescope. He took it off her hands and carried it to the Land Rover as Naomi ran in frantic circles around the property, seeing if there was another door she could enter, something else she could salvage. It quickly became apparent that the house and everything inside was lost.

  “I called for help,” Viktor said.

  She nodded, her face white as she fought back the tears. “We can’t wait around,” she said, tugging on his arm. “I have to get you out of here. The station monitors those calls.”

  Viktor pulled her into a hug. She buried her face in his chest, shaking all over.

  “I can’t believe it’s gone,” Naomi said in monotone as they drove north out of town on a back road unfamiliar to Viktor.

  “I can’t imagine how it must feel,” Viktor said.

  “I don’t own much. I don’t care about the furniture. But my photographs, my research on van Draker . . .”

  Viktor laid a hand on her arm and gently squeezed. From the back seat, Max looked at his mistress with mournful eyes, sensing the gravity of the moment.

  They drove for some time in silence, until the dawn light illuminated a line of granite peaks glowing mauve in the morning light.

  “Where are we going?” Viktor asked.

  “To the only safe place I can think of.”

  “Thato’s place?”

  “No. Everyone knows we’re friends.” Her mouth curled into what Viktor interpreted as a guilty expression. “I have an ex I’m still close with. Not in that way,” she said hastily. “He lives out of town, and I trust him with my life.”

  I hope so, Viktor thought.

  He kept his eye on the side mirror, expecting headlights from a police car or van Draker’s Mercedes to swing into view. Half an hour later, no one had accosted them as Naomi pulled onto a switchback gravel drive, and a manor sitting atop a manicured slope came into view. A perfect half-moon, white as a seashell, illuminated a sea of grapevines surrounding the estate.

  “Does he know we’re coming?” Viktor asked.

  She shook her head. “I didn’t want to risk a text.”

  Naomi pulled around to the back of the house, out of sight of the road, and parked. The back door opened. A handsome man in his fifties, grey hair curling at the temples, hurried outside in jeans and a windbreaker. He raised a gadget in his hand and a garage door opened. “Quick,” he said. “Pull the car in.”

  After exchanging a look of surprise with Viktor, Naomi did as he asked. Once the garage door closed and the light flicked on, she and Viktor stepped out to meet the homeowner, who entered the three-car garage through a side door. A Range Rover and a pristine MG convertible were also parked inside.

  “I don’t think anyone’s seen you,” Daniel said, after Naomi introduced the two men. “The guest house is empty tonight. You can stay there. Max, too.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Naomi asked. “You haven’t even asked what this is about.”

  Daniel gave her an odd look. “You don’t know?”

  Naomi frowned. “Know what?”

  Daniel took out his cell phone. Viktor leaned in to look, the color draining from his face when he read the emergency alert about a foreign professor and a local police officer, both armed and dangerous, who were fleeing arrest.

  -39-

  Grey and Jax followed a worn set of tire tracks into the rugged interior, the suspension of the Superjeep bouncing like a trampoline as it clambered over rocks and streams and mossy undergrowth.

  Half an hour later, they sped between two hills on the far side of the lagoon. Calving blocks of ice creaked and moaned like old men as they sloughed apart on their mournful procession to the sea. Jax checked the GPS and pointed Grey to the northeast, following a set of tracks that paralleled the hulking glacier.

  As civilization fell further behind, the landscape became a mosaic of steaming geysers, boulders, gushing creeks and moss-streaked ridges, chasms, sumps, waterfalls wreathed in omnipresent mists, earth blown up and settled and then arranged by Michelangelo. Smoking hot pots and dangerous rifts littered the terrain, but Grey avoided the hazards by slowing down and keeping to the path carved out from previous journeys.

  Eventually, the tire tracks disappeared, and they had to rely on the GPS. It seemed to be moving more or less in a straight line. An hour later, they approached a sight that caused Grey to grip the wheel with both hands. At first he thought the road had dead-ended at a cliff face, but then he noticed a sliver of a pass cleaving through a hundred foot tall mesa.

  “The jeep just disappeared,” Jax announced.

  “What?”

  “It stopped moving a few miles ahead, and then the signal died.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “They found the tracker, or went somewhere that interrupted the signal.”

  Grey eyed the approaching mesa. The bottom third of the cliff face was white, as if wainscoted. “Then I guess we keep going,” he said grimly.

  Jax took out a pair of miniature binoculars. “I don’t like this.”

  “Me neither. You still with me?”

  Jax blew out a breath and shook his head. “For now.”

  They entered the hundred-foot wide passage. Jagged rocks stacked on either side of the tire tracks allowed only one vehicle at a time to pass through.

  About a hundred yards in, Jax swore. “Sentries atop the cliffs, and a guard station up ahead.”

  “How many?”

  “Two in the shack, two on the cliff. They’ve already seen us.”

  Grey put a hand on his gun.

  “Keep calm and carry on,�
� Jax murmured, as he lowered the binoculars. “No one seems disturbed. I think they might recognize the jeep, and two of them are wearing the same suits we are.”

  “They won’t recognize us.”

  “Maybe they won’t ask. Who could find this place?”

  “If they do ask?”

  Jax patted his belt. “We take out the guards, and I’ve got a smokescreen to confuse the sentries.” He turned to Grey. “We’ll have to go back, though. You know that.”

  Grey pursed his lips and didn’t answer. If forced, he’d toss the keys to Jax and take his chances on foot.

  But this place felt right, and he wasn’t going back without Charlie.

  The sun had emerged. Grey checked his fake tan in the mirror and slipped on his shades, which helped conceal his face. His chest tightened as they approached the guard shack, a box of wood and steel fronting a spiked iron gate that looked solid enough to withstand a tank assault. Grey stopped on a metal platform right beside the guard shack, just in front of the gate. A red laser flashed and a beep emitted from the magnetic strip attached to the inside of the jeep’s dashboard. Grey had noticed the strip before, thinking it was an employee card. And maybe it was.

  The massive gate slid open.

  A guard waved them through.

  When they passed the checkpoint, Grey unballed his fists and expelled a long breath. On the other side of the pass, the road opened up into a valley surrounded by a mountain range. The snow-topped peaks, serrated as a set of troll’s teeth, looked impassable.

  “Right into the lion’s den,” Jax muttered. “What the hell is this place?”

  The road split a hundred feet ahead. To the left, it hugged the cliff face and disappeared into the distance. To the right, it wound beside a river and led to a collection of low buildings. A settlement of some sort.

  Straight ahead, in the center of the valley, Grey saw a sparkling blue lake, fields of wheat and heather, horses, sheep, and bales of hay wrapped in white plastic that reminded Grey of giant marshmallows. They had dotted the pastures along the Ring Road as well.