“Adam!”
Adam looked up. Briggs was leaning out from behind a tree.
It was hard to explain the swoop of relief Adam felt at the sight of the man he had so loathed.
Briggs stepped out from behind his tree. “Is the coast clear?” he asked. “Nobody followed you?”
“I’m alone,” Adam hedged, deeply conscious of the fact that, to the best of his knowledge, the president’s army was following him.
Briggs gave a whistle. Somewhere nearby, Adam heard the Humvee’s ignition roar to life.
“Did you deliver the message?” Briggs asked.
“Yes,” Adam said.
“And what did Riddick say?”
Adam hesitated. He had to be careful here, and he knew it. If Thompson’s superior had told him the truth about Riddick’s death, there was no telling who he might have passed that information along to. It was possible that White and Briggs knew. Both officers had referred to President Riddick on the drive to Omaha. But it might have been a test.
Adam had to give away a little something here if he was going to make it back to Thompson.
“Riddick is dead,” he told Briggs. “The vice president is running things now.”
“You’re kidding.”
Adam couldn’t tell if the lieutenant’s surprise was genuine, and suddenly he was tired of the games. He turned toward the woods and watched as White negotiated the big Humvee between the trees and back to the highway.
White killed the motor and got out of the car. “You made it back,” he said.
“As promised,” Adam said, trying to make his voice sound bright. He overshot the mark, though, and hit mild hysteria instead.
White narrowed his eyes. “Were you able to give General Thompson’s message to the president?”
“He says he did,” Briggs interrupted.
“Let him answer,” White snapped.
“President Riddick has been dead for some time,” Adam said. “Knight holds the office now, and yes, I was able to speak to him about General Thompson’s request.”
“And what did he say?” White asked.
“Shouldn’t I wait and discuss that with General Thompson directly?” Adam asked.
He knew as soon as the words left his mouth that he had made a mistake.
White’s nostrils flared. “They turned him,” he snapped, grabbing Adam by the arm and shoving him up against the side of the Humvee.
Briggs’ eyes widened. “What makes you say that? You can’t know that for sure, sir.”
“He’s questioning my authority!”
“He’s not sure what he’s supposed to do! Come on, he’s been moved around like a chess piece since he got to our camp. He doesn’t know who he’s supposed to be reporting to. Give him a break.”
White shook his head. “You know better. We can’t take him to Thompson if there’s even a chance that he’s wearing explosives, or some kind of recording device…give me your bag,” he said to Adam.
Adam saw no other choice. He handed over his backpack.
“Strip,” White said.
“Oh, come on—” Adam protested.
“Strip!” White roared. His hand moved to the butt of the pistol strapped to his hip, and Adam realized with a sickening lurch of his stomach that it was the same gun they had taken from the girls in the farmhouse.
And my fate might well be the same as theirs. This is where it ends. They don’t need me anymore. I’ve done my job.
Shaking slightly, he removed his shirt and pants and stood in his undershorts, arms spread. White walked around him slowly, as if expecting some kind of explosive to appear strapped to his chest.
Finally, he was forced to concede that Adam wasn’t wired. He waved a hand at the pile of clothes on the ground, and Adam supposed that meant he was allowed to get dressed. Relieved, he dove for them and pulled them on.
White had now turned his attention to Adam’s backpack. He unzipped all the pockets and overturned it by the side of the road, and all of Adam’s possessions came cascading out.
“Do you have a weapon in here?” White was feeling around in the bottom of the bag.
“Of course not,” Adam said, doing his best to sound offended by the suggestion. “Do you really think they’re in the business of handing out weapons to guys passing by?”
“What happened to your arm?” Briggs interjected.
“Nice of you to notice. I was shot.”
“The president’s men shot you?”
“No, not them. Some kid I passed in a little town halfway up the highway. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to base so I can have a doctor take a look at it.”
To Adam’s surprise, Briggs moved toward the Humvee.
But White held up the canteen that Knight had given Adam.
Adam’s heart seized.
“What’s this?” White said. “We didn’t give you this.”
“Yeah, they gave me some water for the walk back.” Adam felt as if his internal organs were vibrating with anxiety. “I’m almost finished with it,” he added, and held out a hand.
White shook the canteen. “Sounds like there’s plenty left.”
If he tells me to take a drink, it’s game over.
But White spun the top off the canteen, raised it to his lips, and took a long swallow.
Adam stared, his heart pounding, feeling as if he had lifted right out of his body.
He drank it. White drank the poison.
Oh, God.
White wiped his lips with the back of his hand, looked Adam in the eye, and slowly turned the canteen over, pouring the remainder of the water out onto the pavement.
“We only have enough food and water for two on the trip back,” he said. “You took so long at the bunker that Briggs and I had to eat your share. So you can just hope you survive. We won’t kill you now, but I’m not taking a bite of food or a drop of water out of either of our mouths to keep you alive. Got that?”
Adam barely heard him. All he could think about was what the president had told him as he’d left that morning. Don’t get a drop on your skin. Don’t inhale it.
And yet, here White stood after taking a hearty drink of the stuff.
Knight didn’t say how long it was going to take to work, Adam thought as the three of them got into the Humvee. He didn’t say anything about it being fast-acting. And there didn’t seem to be any good reason to send Adam back to Thompson with a fake poison.
But either way, the canteen was gone. Whether it had been real or fake, it had been Adam’s only weapon against Thompson. And now it was gone.
How the hell am I supposed to kill him now?
TO BE CONTINUED
KEEP READING FOR A SNEAK PREVIEW OF ESCAPE THE DARK BOOK 5: DO OR DIE
Do or Die
Chapter 1
Adam stared in shock as Colonel White put the Humvee in gear and pulled into the center of the road.
He should be dead, he thought blankly. He should have died.
He glanced out the window at the canteen that now lay abandoned by the side of the road, the canteen that Colonel White had drained before tossing it away. That canteen had been given to Adam by President Knight, the leader of what remained of America’s government in the wake of the nanovirus that had eliminated so much of humanity and thrown the rest into chaos.
That canteen had—allegedly—contained a deadly poison.
Could Knight have been setting me up? Adam wondered. It felt as though his thoughts were coming too slowly, crawling through molasses, struggling to be realized. He said he wanted me to use that poison to kill General Thompson. But what if it was never poison at all?
What purpose would a lie like that possibly serve?
He could have been testing me to see whether or not I’d follow through, Adam thought. Maybe he’s still planning to help me—and Ella and the others—get away from Thompson’s militia base, but he needed to see me prove myself first.
If that was the case, he was out of luck. He wouldn’t be
able to even try to poison General Thompson, whether the poison was real or not, because he didn’t have it anymore.
Colonel White turned in his seat a little, looking over his shoulder at Adam. “So,” he said. “You told the president about the general’s demand.”
“I told him California wants to secede from the union”—Adam sketched air quotes around the phrase—“and that General Thompson would blow us all up with his makeshift nuke if he didn’t get his way. Yeah.”
“I told you Riddick’s boys turned him,” White growled at Lieutenant Briggs, who was watching with concern. “You hear how he talks to me? Like he’s forgotten who’s in charge?”
“President Riddick is dead,” Adam reminded them. “I already told you. Knight is in charge now.”
“Knight. That idiot couldn’t lead a horse to water.”
“And I’m not on his side.”
“Then quit mouthing off.”
Adam sat back in his seat and stared out the window.
“Well?” White snapped.
“Well what?”
“What did he say?”
“Colonel,” Briggs said quietly. “Keep your eyes on the road, sir.”
“Why? In case of oncoming traffic?” White sneered.
How could he joke about the fact that there was no one left alive? How could he find that funny? Adam hated General Thompson and his threats and machinations, but at least he took things seriously. At least he seemed to recognize the dire severity of the situation they were in. Colonel White behaved as if the whole thing was a big joke at somebody else’s expense.
It was maddening. When Adam thought of all that he’d been through, only to end up in this Humvee with this man who was somehow able to laugh about the state of the world, he saw red. So many people had been lost. Adam’s mother. His best friend, Cody. His mentor, Artem, who had given him such crucial advice when it came to survival in this decimated world. Even the Birkins and the McTerrells, entitled country clubbers who had ultimately let their family rivalries drive them to murderous violence…they had taken Adam in when he’d washed up on their shores.
In a decent world, all those people would still be alive.
In a decent world, this road would be bustling, full of traffic, of people trying to reach destinations. Other people. Loved ones.
In a decent world, Colonel White would have to shut up and keep his eyes on the road.
Just as the thought took shape in Adam’s mind, White stomped on the Humvee’s brake hard. The vehicle jerked to a stop and Adam was thrown forward in his seat, the safety harness cutting into his shoulders.
Damn thing stops on a dime, he thought dumbly.
But why had they stopped?
Briggs appeared to be confused too. “Colonel? What’s going on?”
White didn’t answer. He threw open the driver’s-side door and spilled himself out onto the shoulder, hands on his knees. Adam leaned forward to see what was going on.
White retched.
Was he going to throw up?
“You okay, Colonel?” Briggs called. “Need some water?”
White waved a hand behind him as if to tell Briggs to leave him alone for a minute. He staggered slightly to one side and gagged again.
Oh, God, Adam thought suddenly. The poison.
He was certain as soon as the thought came to him that he was right. This was it. He hadn’t been tricked after all. President Knight hadn’t been playing him or testing him. The poison had been real all along, and now it was taking effect. It just must have been slower acting than Adam had originally expected.
He felt a strange hollow sensation in his stomach. I killed him, he thought, the idea seeming to come from far away. He felt as if he were two people. One of him was sitting in the Humvee, watching the final moments of Colonel White life play out before his eyes. But he was also floating somewhere in the middle distance, outside of his own body, detached, watching himself commit a heinous crime.
I murdered him, and he doesn’t even know it yet.
White staggered, then dropped bonelessly to the dirt by the side of the road.
“Colonel!” Briggs jumped out of the truck and ran around the front, dropping to his knees in the dirt. “Are you all right, sir?”
Adam felt frozen, immobile, as he waited for Briggs to discover what he himself already knew.
I killed him.
No. I didn’t kill him. Not really. I was carrying the weapon that killed him, but he took it from me and impaled himself with it. I’m not guilty, any more than I would be if he’d slit his own throat with my knife.
But that wasn’t true. White would have understood what a blade would do to him. He’d had no way of knowing that there was poison in the canteen.
And I didn’t tell him.
I couldn’t have told him. He would have killed me.
Adam shivered. Was he a murderer, or had he simply been acting in self-defense?
And does it matter? I was going to give that poison to General Thompson either way.
He hardly recognized himself.
He had left people to die since all this had started. He had even been party to deaths—he would never forget the fact that he was the one who had been holding his best friend Cody down when he had been strangled. But this felt different. This hadn’t been passive. This hadn’t been impulsive. Adam had carried the poison away from the president’s bunker like a loaded gun.
And I always meant to pull the trigger. It’s just that I hit the wrong target.
Outside the Humvee, Lieutenant Briggs was getting slowly to his feet. Adam watched as he dusted off the knees of his pants, staring off into the distance. Right now, the realization must be settling over him that his commanding officer was gone. He was in charge now.
Briggs was always nicer than White. He had never exactly been an ally to Adam, but he had certainly been more sympathetic. Adam felt a brief glimmer of hope.
Briggs climbed into the driver’s seat, slammed the door shut, and turned to face Adam. His face was a mask of fury.
“You did this,” he hissed. “You killed him.”
“What—what do you mean?” Adam asked. How could he possibly know?
Briggs was practically vibrating with rage. “I don’t know how you did it, but I know it was you.”
“You’ve had eyes on me the whole time,” Adam protested helplessly. If Briggs had any proof that his accusations were correct… He’ll shoot me where I stand, Adam thought. He’ll think I killed White on purpose—no one would ever believe it was an accident—and he’ll probably assume White was right, and that I’m working with the president now.
Of course, the truth was an even worse betrayal. Adam hadn’t been trying to harm White, but he had certainly intended to use the poison on General Thompson. And if that ever came out, Adam knew his life would be as good as over.
Somehow, I have to make Briggs believe that I didn’t have a hand in this.
He thought of Ella, who was back at the compound, waiting for Adam to return and tell her he had secured their freedom. She was counting on him. No matter how overwhelming the odds seemed, he couldn’t give up. Not while there was still any chance of getting her out from under General Thompson’s thumb.
So he looked Briggs in the eye. “I couldn’t have done anything to Colonel White,” he lied, hoping the waver in his voice didn’t sound suspicious. “I came up the road and I got in the truck, and I’ve just been sitting here. You’ve been watching me. I never had the time.”
Briggs looked momentarily stymied.
Adam allowed himself to hope.
Then Briggs shook his head. “I don’t know what you did,” he said. “And I don’t know how you did it. But I know you did something. Healthy people don’t just die for no reason!” He slammed his hand against the dashboard in righteous fury.
Adam didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t further incriminate him, so he sat silently.
“Colonel White was right,” Briggs said through gr
itted teeth. “It was the president, wasn’t it? He turned you against us. Whatever you did, you did it on his orders. He never trusted you to go into that bunker. I was stupid. I thought you’d play your part honestly. I believed you, damn it.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Adam protested. “All I’ve done is what you told me to do. I don’t know what happened to Colonel White.” In spite of the fact that he was lying, he was beginning to feel defensive. Briggs had no proof. He was making baseless accusations.
“The general will deal with you,” Briggs said. “I don’t want to hear another word about it.”
Adam reached for the door handle, thinking that this might be his only chance to run.
Briggs gave a low, unfriendly chuckle. “Don’t even think about it. You’re not going anywhere,” he said, and Adam heard the clunk of the door locks. “You made your bed. Now you’re going back to the general. You’ll be lucky if he lets you live long enough to try to explain yourself. He might just shoot you on sight.”
Adam swallowed.
“Then again, maybe I’m wrong,” Briggs said, and Adam heard a rasp of emotion in his voice. “General Thompson cares for his men, you know. He won’t be inclined to show you any mercy. If I were you, I might be praying to be killed quickly.”
Adam tried the door handle. The door didn’t open. Of course it won’t. It was a military vehicle. The driver had to have the ability to control the rest of the door locks.
And he couldn’t run anyway. He couldn’t abandon Ella. She was waiting for him. She was counting on him.
Even if I’m probably going to be killed, he thought. Even if there’s almost no hope of survival, I have to go back to her. I can’t leave her to the general’s mercy, because he doesn’t have any.
Maybe he would be able to convince Thompson that he hadn’t had anything to do with White’s death, Adam thought. After all, there was no proof. There was only Briggs’ accusation.
An accusation that just happens to be correct.
As Briggs put the vehicle in gear and pulled back out onto the road, another frightening thought occurred to Adam. Not only was he being called to account for a crime he had never intended to commit, but he was also being followed by President Knight’s men. They would be watching him, waiting to see if he did what he had been ordered to do. Waiting to see if he gave the poison to General Thompson.
Escape The Dark (Book 4): Caught In The Crossfire Page 16