Death Comes Ashore

by Corinne O'Flynn

  Something shuffled on the floor above. Corey froze, her eyes to the ceiling.

  She moved through the dining room and tiptoed around the kitchen. Then she snuck down the hall and back toward the front door and the stairs. She turned, pressing her back to the staircase wall. From here she faced the front room again, and the body of Agent Lee. Corey pointed her Glock up the stairs, toward the second floor.

  “Corey?” The voice was a whisper.

  Corey turned her gaze to the front room. Agent Lee’s dead body shifted and fell to the side. Corey blinked. Then Alicia crawled out from the small gap under the tipped sofa that had been hidden by Agent Lee’s body.

  Corey ran to her friend, got down on her knees next to her. “Alicia, where is Agent Gallagan?”

  Alicia gripped Corey’s arm with trembling hands and shook her head. “No. I—I don’t—We need to go.”

  “Alicia. Look at me. Who is upstairs?” She shook her head. “I don’t kno—” The staircase creaked.

  Corey put her finger to her lips, signaling Alicia to be quiet.

  Alicia covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide with panic. She looked like she was about to scream, her whole body shaking with absolute terror.

  A voice called from upstairs. A woman’s voice. “Alicia? It’s okay. You can come out now.”

  Alicia shook her head and pressed herself against the couch, tried to scoot under the gap again.

  Corey stopped her with a touch, tried to reassure her with her eyes.

  A car pulled up in front of the house. Corey stretched to get a glimpse through the window, grateful that backup had arrived so quickly. She peered through the side of the window and watched a man step from the vehicle, his bald head and white suit coat triggering an explosive recognition in Corey’s memory.

  This was the man from the security video. The man in white. The man in the golden mask. The man who killed Greg Cullen. The man who cut away her magical soul.

  “Go!” Corey pushed Alicia back under the couch and squeezed in behind her, pulling the still warm body of Agent Lee back against the couch to conceal them. Corey did a mental inventory of her person and realized she’d left her phone in her jacket, back in the truck. She cursed her stupidity.

  The man in white called into the house, his deep voice thick with a Russian accent. “Agent Gallagan? In need of assistance once again? Please tell me you’ve done your job while I was driving to this beautiful place.”

  Hearing his voice brought it all home. This was the man who broke her. This was the man the Pauls kidnapped her for. Her body started to tremble. Corey turned to Alicia, understanding washing through her like a chill.

  She had to swallow her fear. She had to focus on now. She could unpack what this meant for her later. Right now, they needed to survive.

  The Oasis Group owned an agent in the PIO. How did that even happen? What did they have over her to make Agent Gallagan work for them? Where else did their evil reach? Agent Lee’s body slipped in Corey’s grasp, inching sideways. Corey swallowed and pulled the body back into position, covering the hiding place Alicia had made.

  Alicia touched Corey’s back, her hands like ice through her tank top. “Corey. I’m so sorry.” She inhaled a shaky breath.

  “Shhhh.” Corey closed her eyes, her mind flipping back to the last time she and Alicia had been stuck in another small, dark space together. That time, they were prisoners with no control, no strength. That time, they were completely unprepared.

  This time was different. They were still free. They knew what was happening. And they had an advantage in this hiding place, thanks to Alicia’s quick thinking. Corey opened her eyes, trying to peek through a small gap between the sofa frame and Agent Lee’s navy-blue jacket. “It’s going to be okay. Just breathe.”

  Agent Gallagan came down the stairs and stepped through the front door. “Vladimir. I’m sorry. I can’t find her. But she’s here. I’ve been upstairs watching from the windows in front and back. If she tried to leave, I would have seen her.”

  Corey closed her eyes, relieved that she’d thought to conceal her truck and been supremely lucky that she crossed the yard when Gallagan wasn’t looking on that side of the house.

  Footfalls creaked across the planks. Corey watched through the small gap as the man in white—Vladimir—stood in the entryway. “Where is my Special Dolly? Then let us find her, yes?”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Corey and Alicia waited until Vladimir and Agent Gallagan had both left the area around the front room. Agent Gallagan announced she was going out the back of the house, checking the cabana buildings around the pool.

  Vladimir, having done two sweeps of the main floor, climbed the stairs to check the bedrooms. If she were alone with just the two of them, Corey might have stood her ground and fought back. But it wasn’t just them. Alicia was here, and not in good shape. And after watching how Vladimir had disabled Greg Cullen, a man trained in hand-to-hand combat, a specialist in all things self-defense… it wasn’t worth the risk.

  If Corey had forgotten the strength of the drugs Wingate had used on her in the months since her ordeal with Alicia, it had all come crashing back seeing Greg Cullen fall victim to the powerful sedative.

  There wasn’t any more time to wait for backup to arrive. And now Corey wondered whom to trust. If the Oasis Group had Agent Gallagan under its control, how could she be sure about anyone? She could trust her partner, Young, no question. But if it came down to waiting for backup versus getting out now, she opted for now. No telling who would show up.

  Corey turned to Alicia and whispered. “Quickly. You ready?”

  Alicia nodded.

  “Okay. On three, we go.” She locked eyes with Alicia and mouthed the words. One… Two…

  Corey pushed Agent Lee’s body to the side. She crawled out of the space under the couch and reached back to help Alicia up. They tiptoed along the wall, crouching beneath the windows. Corey gripped her Glock .40 in one hand and held onto Alicia with the other. Together, they made their way out the front door and onto the wide porch.

  Remembering the sound Vladimir’s footsteps made on the creaky steps, Corey pulled Alicia back and motioned to her that they should jump. Corey went first, then reached up a hand for Alicia. They landed on the grass.

  Then they ran.

  Corey thrust her hand through the lilac bush and felt the tall picket fence around which the hedge had been trained. She clipped her Glock back into its holster and made a basket of her hands. Alicia stepped into Corey’s hands and grabbed the top of the fence through the hedge. When she was over, Corey climbed up after her.

  “Proctor!” Agent Gallagan screeched from the back of the house.

  A burst of light hit the fence and exploded, the ricochet sending leaf fragments from the hedge into Corey’s face and blowing a hole right through the fence. She grabbed the top of the fence and pushed with her feet, flipping her torso over the top, ignoring the searing pain as the hedge branches ripped at her skin. Another blast grazed by her legs, pulverizing more flowers and leaves, and knocking a few of the fence pickets off the fence entirely.

  They got in the 4Runner. Corey turned the ignition, gunned the gas, and peeled out.

  As she backed away from the fence, Corey saw the calm face of Vladimir in the upstairs window, a walkie talkie to his mouth.

  She fumbled to get her phone out of her jacket pocket. Hands shaking, she dialed Young.

  “Corey, what the hell? Why don’t you answer your phone? Where are you?”

  She steered with one hand as she sped down the narrow, winding road, unsure where she should go. She had to regroup, gather her thoughts. “I have Alicia. Agent Lee is dead, and Agent Gallagan is working for The Oasis Group.”

  “What? No way.”

  “I’m telling you. The bald man from the security video? He’s called Vladimir. He came to the B&B. He knew Agent Gallagan. She attacked me. Tried to kill me. Ethan. It’s him. The man in white.” She couldn’t ge
t the words out. She didn’t know how to begin telling her partner the rest of her history with this man. She couldn’t believe this was happening here, now… so far from where it all began when she was just eight years old.

  “Damn. OK. Where are you right now?”

  “I’m back near Rocky Hale, the B&B. Heading North on Country Road toward Lynn Highway. I’m bringing Alicia back to the station.”

  “Okay. Good. I’ll call… wait? Jeez. Who should I call? If Agent Gallagan is dirty… How do we know who to trust?”

  “Call Agent Fox. Call the captain.”

  “He’s going to have a cow.”

  “I should be there in twenty minutes.”

  Corey ended the call and dropped the phone into the cup holder on the center console. She checked the rear-view mirror. All clear. If they were lucky, they should get back into town ahead of rush hour traffic. She pulled on her seatbelt and clicked it in place, feeling the adrenalin seep out of her system.

  “Hey, put your seatbelt on, okay?” Alicia rocked in her seat, hugging her knees against her chest. The poor girl was in shock. No wonder. Watching the person who vowed to protect you get killed by their partner, who was also supposed to protect you, then using their dead body to hide behind, while you were only feet away from being killed yourself? It was too much.

  “Hey. It’s all right. You’re safe, right? We’re going to be fine.” Corey put her hand on Alicia’s shoulder and squeezed.

  Alicia stared at nothing, her gaze fixed on the empty foot well in front of her.

  Corey turned her attention back to the road, careful to ease off the gas as they took the tight turns on the winding country roads.

  The SUV came out of nowhere.

  Then time slowed to a crawl.

  One moment they were driving, the Toyota’s tires humming on the pavement. Then the dark SUV screamed around a blind curve in the road. Corey got a glimpse of the driver as he said something into a walkie talkie, dropped the device and sneered at her. She registered his bulging lips and bright green teeth, confused for a moment until she realized he was wearing an athlete’s mouth guard. He appeared to scream as he turned the SUV in a direct line with Corey’s Toyota.

  It hit them, not quite head-on, but on a diagonal. It was enough to activate the airbags and push Corey’s 4Runner toward the shoulder. Spinning tires screamed on the pavement. The scent of burning rubber filled the air. The 4Runner’s cab filled with acrid smoke. Alicia screamed.

  Bright light burst around them and Corey watched the guardrail evaporate with an impossible squeal of metal. Then they were airborne, tipping sideways and rolling off the side of the road down a steep and rocky incline.

  Alicia screamed again as she slammed into the side of the cab, her hands pushing off the ceiling as the truck rolled, as if she could keep herself from falling with her own strength.

  The Toyota landed first on its driver’s side, throwing Corey against the door and Alicia on top of Corey. Branches poked through the open window, scratching their faces. The windshield burst in a spider web of cracks as they rolled sideways, end over end.

  “No!” Corey screamed as Alicia fell away from her and slipped out the passenger window. She couldn’t lose her. Alicia couldn’t die like this. Corey reached out for her, but grabbed the empty air. The heat of panic exploded inside her, but before she could tamp it down, deny it and force it back into its hole, it threw itself through her and streams of bright pink light shot from her hands.

  When she woke, Corey’s ears were ringing. She was seated in the driver’s seat, her seatbelt fastened, deflated airbags drooping all around her. Disoriented, she took a quick inventory of her body, feeling around for broken bones. She inched her neck slowly from side to side, testing her vertebrae for signs of damage.

  Tiny glass cubes filled her lap and had found their way inside her tank top. She checked a cut on her scalp, her fingers coming away bloody.

  Memory flooded back. They’d been hit, run off the road. The Oasis Group.

  Corey turned to the passenger seat to help Alicia. The seat was empty. Alicia was gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The interior terrain of Nahant’s inland is known for its steep, rocky inclines and rough tree-filled lowlands. Rugged is the term most often used to describe the land with its forbidding peaks and lush, overgrown forest valleys. Corey was convinced it was the combination of these things that had saved her.

  She shoved the door open and climbed out of the cab. The door creaked on its hinges. A bell chimed inside the truck, alerting her to the open door. She looked up the almost vertical incline toward the road. It was so steep, almost a cliff-drop—there was no way she could see the road from here—or be seen. She could just make out the sounds of the occasional car as it drove by more than sixty feet above.

  Rustling in the ferns behind her caught Corey’s attention. She reached for her Glock and her hand fell into her empty shoulder holster. It must have fallen during the crash. She stepped toward the cab when she heard a voice.

  Corey froze.

  “Ohhh.”

  “Alicia?” Corey scrabbled toward the sound, tearing through vines and thick ferns, oblivious to the pain in her hands. She pulled the last shrub away and found Alicia floating in a bubble of light, cradled in a patch of thick ferns.

  Corey ignored the tears streaming down her cheeks as she laughed, checking Alicia for injuries.

  “Corey? What happened?”

  “You might find it hard to believe, but the gods are smiling on us today, my friend.”

  Alicia groaned in pain. “I never would have pegged you for an optimist.”

  Corey glanced up to the top of the cliff. “Don’t need to be an optimist to see we’re both lucky to be alive right now.”

  Alicia’s arm was broken above the wrist and she had a nasty cut in the back of her thigh. But all in all, she was doing remarkably well considering that she hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt when they tumbled over the cliff.

  Corey fashioned a sling from her linen jacket, tearing away a swatch of fabric to tie around Alicia’s leg. Then she searched the truck for her phone and her Glock. She found her phone in the bottom of the stream about ten paces from the truck. It wouldn’t turn on. She couldn’t find her gun.

  “Alicia, where’s your phone?”

  “It was Agent Lee’s.” Her shoulders dropped. “The battery died. I left it back at the house.”

  “Well, guess we walk.” Corey knew where they were. She lived only a few miles farther along the road from the B&B. Hiking trails cut through the dense woods about half a mile from where they stood. From there, they just had to follow the river.

  She helped Alicia to her feet.

  The late afternoon sun sat low in the sky as Corey and Alicia rounded the corner of the trail that led to Corey’s backyard. Several homes dotted the area along the river where Corey lived, but she didn’t have any direct neighbors. She’d chosen this cottage for that exact reason, preferring to give up a little of the security she was used to for the gain in solitude and quiet.

  The river rushed noisily along on their right as Corey and Alicia hobbled down the last few yards of hill on the path. They could have cut across the grass from here, but the weeds and vines were thick and tangly and they were both exhausted. Besides, with Corey having to support Alicia, the path was the smarter choice.

  As a result, they had to walk a little farther and on a wider curve, which spilled them out directly behind Corey’s house. And it was for that reason alone that she saw the man waiting in the woods, his back to them, the scope of his sniper rifle trained on the house.

  He’d hidden behind a sycamore tree, its thick trunk offering the perfect cover from anyone looking out the back of Corey’s cottage. But from the rear, with the grass roots offering a contrast to his light tank top, which was much brighter than the dull brown bark, he was clearly visible.

  Alicia gripped her arm tighter around Corey’s neck. Together they retraced their s
teps, moving silently backward until they were hidden behind a large moss-covered boulder.

  They sat down, Corey’s mind a whirl. It made sense that they’d come for her if they came for Alicia. Either one of them could finger Wingate. When the PIO made the half-hearted offer to put Corey into protection, she had refused, and they didn’t push her on it. The PIO didn’t really care so much about Wingate’s trial or Corey’s safety. It was Alicia they wanted.

  When Wingate kidnapped Alicia and Nikki Soto with the intention of pressing them into service with the Oasis Group’s high-end sex trade, he branded them with a magical mark that couldn’t be replicated, and couldn’t be removed. That mark was a ticket to the inside for the PIO. Alicia had that mark, and they planned to protect it—and her—to the end.

  Corey wasn’t worried about them coming after her. She might have been without magic, but she was still a trained cop. They’d have to be terribly stupid, or equally desperate to play that game.

  But things had clearly changed.

  And she knew they weren’t stupid.

  Could it really be that Wingate knew enough to warrant all this trouble to kill him? With six months of opportunity to make a deal and spill the beans, Wingate hadn’t said a word about the Oasis Group, or any part of the organization. Didn’t they trust him by now?

  Without her phone or her gun, Corey had few options. She could try to overpower the sniper with her bare hands, but she was in no shape for a fight. She pondered the possibilities until she came up with a plan.

  Corey motioned to Alicia to sit still and stay put. Alicia nodded, eyes wide, her head leaning against the boulder as she cradled her arm. Corey crawled around on her hands and knees, feeling gingerly under the nearby bushes and ferns until she found a large enough rock to do the job.

  She slid out of her running shoes, stuffing her ankle socks inside. Then she hefted the rock.