by Sofia Grey
Jack’s blood ran cold at the prospect of Yanni getting his hands on Juli.
Jack had to be able to wander freely, if he was to be any help at all. At least he helped Lucky escape. There’d be a rescue operation, without a doubt. But when that happened, Jack would almost certainly have to side with Yanni, as a demonstration of his loyalty, if he was to understand what was going down here.
There weren’t enough puzzle pieces to fit together. MANPADS. Soil samples and GPS references. It wasn’t much to go on.
Scarab collected him for breakfast, and he reported to Yanni for orders. There was a delivery to be made today—one of the crates to be transported to Plimmerton boatyard. There was little chance anyone would recognise Jack there. The boatyard was a good distance from Jordan’s rented house.
Scarab pored over the map and noted the details of the boat they were to meet, while Jack gazed out of the window, onto the yard. He was trying to work out where Juli and the others were being held. Not in his bunkhouse. Not in the barn immediately opposite. That left three potential buildings. It’d be good to narrow it down before Tanner’s team arrived.
He waited until Yanni was free, and then caught his attention.
“Your guests? You want additional security around them?”
“They’re secure for the moment. Why do you ask?”
Jack shrugged. “This doesn’t strike me as the most secure compound. No fences, no gates... I don’t think a cattle grid or two would slow them down.”
Yanni chuckled. “They’re not going anywhere.”
Jack grinned and turned to Scarab. “Unlike us. Let’s go load up.”
Maybe when he returned, he could do a little poking around.
There was no sign of the expected courier at the Plimmerton boatyard, and Scarab phoned Yanni for an update. “We have to sit here and wait,” he told Jack. “If it doesn’t arrive by six this evening, we go back to the compound.”
Damn. They might be sitting here the entire day, while Yanni did fuck knew what. It didn’t sit well with Jack, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had a cover to stick to.
“Sure,” he said to Scarab. He slouched in the seat, angled the sun visor to give a little shade, and closed his eyes. It could be a long wait.
Scarab fidgeted at his side, then lit a cigarette.
Jack reopened his eyes. “Do you mind taking that outside? I don’t smoke.”
“Seriously?”
Jack’s glare propelled him out of the cab, to lean against the side of the pick-up, while he smoked three cigarettes in quick succession. Nervy little guy. Scarab was a good nickname for him. He was small, with shiny, greasy black hair, and a scuttling appearance when he moved. He seemed to be rattled by Jack’s presence when he got back in.
After a further half-hour with no sign of the boat, Scarab started drumming on the steering wheel with his fingers.
“Come on, man,” said Jack. “Give it up.” He glared at him some more.
“I hate hanging around. I’m always scared the police will nail me.”
“That’s the risk you take.” Jack made himself sound bored. “You’ve got a drivers licence, yeah?”
Scarab’s dark gaze flicked left and right. “No.”
“Well let’s hope we don’t get stopped and they ask to see it.”
“You could drive.”
Jack shrugged, the image of laziness. “I could, but Yanni told you to drive. He’s the boss.”
Scarab seemed to make a snap decision. He turned in his seat, to face Jack. “You’ve worked for him before?”
Jack nodded.
“I’ve not been with him long. My cousin recruited me. He’s in Europe, and I haven’t heard from him in months. Are the rumours true? About Yanni?”
Jack shrugged again. “It depends on which rumours you mean.”
Scarab went quiet for a while. Here was a man wrestling with his better judgement.
Jack waited, pretending to doze.
“If you mess up, he feeds you to his dogs. Piece by piece.”
Jack half-opened his eyes. “Dogs, huh?”
Scarab nodded.
He wasn’t as old as Jack had assumed. Barely into his twenties. “Okay. You seen any dogs at the compound?”
“No. Not here.”
“Well, then.” Jack closed his eyes again. “Do you wanna keep watch for an hour? We can take turns.”
Scarab sat restlessly beside him, climbing in and out to smoke again.
Eventually Jack sat up straight and scowled at him, annoyed. “Jesus. Can’t you sit still for five minutes?”
Over his shoulder, Scarab stared in horror at something.
Without moving, Jack whispered. “What is it?”
Scarab gulped. His face was so green, he looked about to be sick. “A police car. It’s stopped right behind us.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
One of the guards collected Juli at lunchtime and escorted her to the main office, where she’d been before. She smelled food as she walked through the door, and her stomach growled. Like before, she was handcuffed to the chair arm before the guard returned to duty on the doorway.
Her stomach grumbled some more. She hated being hungry. She’d never been good without regular meal breaks. It made her edgy and irritable.
Yanni kept her waiting again, but this time he arrived with a tray of food and a friendly smile.
“Julien. I thought you might like a change of diet. I have some excellent stew, if you’d like to try it.”
Tempt her with food? Nope. She was stronger than that. She lifted her chin defiantly. “No, thank you.” She was immune to his sweet-talk.
Yanni shrugged and sat opposite her, dipping into one of the two bowls with a spoon. It smelled delicious, damn him.
“You may as well try some. You’ll get very hungry otherwise.” There was the hint of a smile again. He was clearly used to getting his way.
Juli glared at him. “What about Jordan and Nick? Do they get some too?”
He seemed to consider the request. “If I say yes and let them in here with you, will you give me the benefit of your expertise this afternoon?”
She’d no intention of telling him anything, but this way, she’d get to see the others. “Yes. But we all eat first.”
“Very well.” Yanni gestured to the guard, and then slid the second bowl of food along the desk toward her. “Eat now or wait for them?”
“I’m waiting.”
“Your loss.” He carried on eating, and Juli had to drag her gaze away. She focused on the doorway, hoping desperately to see Jordan and Nick come in.
A few minutes later, the others were hauled into the room and cuffed to chairs. Juli breathed a sigh of relief. They were still okay. They looked equally relieved to see her. There was little opportunity for discussion, though, with Yanni and an armed guard with them.
More food was brought, and they all ate. It was good, but Juli made herself eat slowly and not gorge on it.
The guard cleared away the dishes and went to remove Jordan and Nick again.
“Wait.” Juli appealed to Yanni. “Whatever it is that you need from me, you need them as well. We work as a team. We all have different areas of expertise.”
“Perhaps.” Yanni looked thoughtful. “I concede that Jordan Merrill may be useful, but I don’t see a need for your Marketing Director.”
Nick paled. The implication was clear.
“I need him.” Juli improvised rapidly. “He understands the bigger picture. How everything fits together. So does Jordan. And he’s a technical genius too.”
Yanni looked sceptical but allowed them to stay.
It was a minor victory. They were all together and unharmed.
“At last,” said Yanni, “we can get to business. Take a look at this.” He handed her a tablet.
She tapped the screen. A diagram she recognised immediately flashed up. The design was long familiar to her, but she failed to understand why Yanni would be interested in it
.
“You know what this is.” Yanni didn’t frame it as a question.
“I did my thesis on this at University,” she answered slowly. “It’s a theoretical piece of engineering.” She examined the image more closely. “You’ve made some changes. It’s different to the original design.” She looked up at him and saw a smile on his face.
“Very good. Are you going to tell the others what it is?” Yanni gestured to Jordan and Nick.
“It’s Tesla’s Oscillator. He nicknamed it his Earthquake Machine.”
*
Daisy found Charlie in the kitchen, making a fresh pot of coffee. He looked exhausted. She tried to give him a hug, but he shook her off.
“I’m tired, Daisy.”
“I missed you,” she said. “Why don’t I brew up, while you go unpack? I can bring the coffee to your room.”
“It’s okay. I can manage.” His voice was sharp.
Something was wrong. He was cold toward her at the airport. Why? What did she do?
“Charlie, what’s the matter? I know there’s something bothering you.”
“Bothering me? Apart from my father dying and Jordan being killed in a plane crash? And the possibility of a psychotic Joni trying to kidnap Callum? What could possibly be the matter?”
She hated the contempt in his tone. “I know all that, but I don’t understand why you don’t want to talk to me.”
He cast his gaze up to the ceiling for a moment. “Go play with someone else, Daisy. I’m fed up of your games.”
She was baffled. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Fuck it.” He slammed his mug down onto the counter. It made her jump. He spun around and stepped toward her, anger radiating from every jerky movement. “Tanner. Go play with him.”
She still didn’t understand.
Charlie stood close, his eyes blazing at her.
She couldn’t help herself. She reached out and stroked his stubbled cheek.
He recoiled and turned away, breathing heavily. That hurt.
What did he mean, play with Tanner? Tears pricked at her eyes, and she took a deep breath. Whatever was wrong, she had to sort it now. She couldn’t let this fester any longer. “What do you mean about Tanner? I don’t understand. What have I done to annoy you, Charlie? Tell me, please.”
When he finally faced her, there was defeat in his eyes. “Like I said, we were just a bit of fun. Nothing more. And you’ve already moved on, and that’s fine—”
“Whoa. What do you mean, moved on? I haven’t moved anywhere.”
His stare was cold now. “I saw you holding hands with Tanner. At the airport?”
Relief smacked her in the face so hard she felt dizzy. “That? That didn’t mean anything. It’s what we do when we’re out in public.”
“Whatever.” He moved to the counter, poured his coffee, and added a spoon of sugar. There was a pause while he stirred his drink. “You know,” he said, “it really doesn’t matter.”
“I know, right? That’s why I couldn’t understand you getting upset.”
Charlie glanced at her, his eyebrows raised. “Upset? Don’t flatter yourself. You can hold hands with whoever you like. Why should I care?”
Huh? Daisy opened her mouth to reply, but he spoke over her.
“I’m going to get some kip. I’m knackered. And yeah, if you fancy a fuck sometime, let me know. You’re not bad in the sack. I prefer more experience, but... You know—you’re handy when there’s nothing better around.”
He stepped past her and headed toward his room, coffee in one hand, phone in the other.
What the hell was all that about?
His insult finally permeated her panicking brain. Handy when there’s nothing better around? The arrogant fuckwit. How dare he?
*
Juli gestured to Yanni’s tablet. “So what do you want me to do? Build it?” She was incredulous. “Tesla built one and destroyed it. It’s just another of his wacky inventions. He never patented it, because it didn’t do anything.”
Yanni scooted his chair closer and handed her a sheaf of papers.
She recognised it as an extract from her thesis. “How did you get this? That’s my work.”
He made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “University theses are in the public domain. You didn’t describe it as a wacky invention though; you suggested it could be recreated.”
She ran her fingers through her hair and snagged a knot. “I wanted to get the examining board’s attention. I mean, yes, science has caught up with Tesla’s ideas. We understand more about resonance, but...”
Yanni glanced at Jordan and Nick, who both looked puzzled. “I don’t think your colleagues know what you’re talking about. Would you care to explain?”
What were the chances Yanni would give her some aspirin? Her headache was getting worse. Juli sighed. “Tesla, arguably the greatest inventor of the late nineteenth century, created something that he called the Earthquake Machine, more often referred to as Tesla’s Oscillator.” She paused a moment, to figure out where to pitch this explanation. Jordan had a good understanding of engineering principles, but she didn’t know about Nick.
“Everything in nature vibrates at a certain frequency. When an object is vibrated at its natural resonance, it begins to undergo severe shock, as it tries to shake itself apart. Think about the Millennium Bridge in London. The natural swaying motion of people walking across it caused small sideways oscillations in the bridge, which in turn caused people on the bridge to sway in step, increasing the amplitude of the bridge oscillations and continually reinforcing the effect. The bridge had to be closed and modified. A similar thing happened with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge back in the 1940s.”
“The road bridge that twisted itself apart?” Jordan looked interested.
Juli nodded. “Like a child on a swing, you only need a very small force to maintain a fairly large reciprocating motion. By finding the correct frequency, in theory any structure can be destroyed. In fact, the larger it is, the lower the resonant frequency, so the easier it is to destroy. Tesla once claimed he could split the Earth with one of his oscillators, and no one ever knew if he was joking.”
She hesitated, hating the look of satisfaction on Yanni’s face.
He nodded to her. “Please continue.”
“Tesla’s Oscillator—the one he’s supposed to have made as a prototype—was small, probably the size and weight of a standard bag of sugar. Within a steel outer casing, he designed a special pneumatic piston to be powered by steam pressure. Steam was forced in, and the casing would vibrate at high speed. At one point, while conducting experiments with the oscillator in New York, he generated a resonance in several surrounding buildings. It was enough for people to think it was an earthquake. As the speed grew, he hit the resonant frequency of his own building, and belatedly realizing the danger, was forced to apply a sledgehammer to terminate the experiment. Or so the story goes.”
She glanced around her audience. They all followed her intently. “Today we call this Tele-Geo-Dynamics—the art of producing terrestrial motions at a distance.”
Yanni gestured toward the diagram on the tablet. “Very good. Now please explain how my design is different.”
She gazed at the details and worked through the changes. “You’re using a magnetic field to create the motion, instead of steam.”
“Good. And how will that enhance the design?”
“Using variable frequency AC would allow flawless tuning of the oscillation frequencies.”
Both Jordan and Nick looked blank, and she hurried to explain. “Remember I talked about resonance? These modifications would enable you to adapt the vibrations to different frequencies.” She took a quick breath. “In essence, if it worked, you would be able to target any structure and destroy it.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Charlie lay on his bed gazing blindly at the day outside. Sounds filtered in. Children playing, distant voices, and laughter. People enjoying their lives. Daisy br
ought him dangerously close to unravelling completely. If he hadn’t seen her with Tanner like that, he’d still be thinking of her as someone to be trusted. Someone he could let down his barriers with.
The whole Tanner-hand-holding scenario was probably as innocent as she’d described. Was he using this as an excuse to push her away? That would be a bastard of a move, but he was so fucked up that it was appropriate.
A Foo Fighters song flitted through his brain. Something about lying in bed, waiting for someone? No, he couldn’t remember it. He rolled off the bed, unzipped his bag, and rummaged around to find his earbuds. His fingers contacted a sheet of paper. That damned letter again. He shoved it back, squashing it down.
Should he burn it? Every word was imprinted on his memory. Disposing of the letter would not change a thing. It wouldn’t change him.
What did he want? It was never too early for a drink. He took one of the hire cars and drove to the nearest liquor store, where he spent a pleasant ten minutes contemplating which poison seemed most appropriate for the occasion. He settled on Tequila Gold. Smooth and strong, it’d knock him out the quickest.
Some days, he was really classy. He found a quiet spot on the beach and smoked the last of his dope, while swigging the tequila straight from the bottle. Then he staggered back to his room and collapsed on the bed. He remembered to text Frankie, to put in an order for more supplies, and then lay down and waited for oblivion.
*
When Daisy went looking for Charlie, he was nowhere to be seen. Kate thought she’d seen him driving away, but couldn’t be sure. No matter. Daisy would catch him later. Her pain had evolved into a seething low level of anger. She had things to say to Charlie Jones, and this time she’d wait until he couldn’t run away.
Aiden and Tanner came back to the house. They had news.
Everyone except Charlie gathered together. Alex had his arm around Kate, while Sylvie held Lara.
Aiden looked tired, but his voice was crisp. “It’s a cliché, but we have good news and bad. We had three separate eyewitnesses saying the LindenCore plane was seen flying north, away from the Sounds, after it was supposed to have ditched. At first we thought that meant the search was in the wrong area, but then we hit a breakthrough. Some chatter in a local aircraft-spotting forum mentioned the aircraft registration code assigned to the missing Cessna. It was seen landing at Otaki Airstrip, thirty miles north of here.”
