Ripple (Breakthrough Book 4)

by Michael C. Grumley

***

  Even dressed in normal clothes, the emergence of all six men from the tall grasses outside of Yuhong appeared ominous. With the squad leader in front, followed closely by Lam, they quickly covered the open distance of grass and dirt. They then crossed the first major, yet empty, road. Upon reaching the other side, the men split up. Each one moved separately through various side streets and alleys, toward the city center just two kilometers away.

  Peng and one of the leader’s men remained close to Lam, keeping him within eyesight––half for the man’s tracking ability and the other half a result of their second priority. If they found the girl, they were to keep her alive, no matter what the cost.

  This also meant that once the girl was secured, they were to kill Lam immediately.

  41

  Four of the six men were already in position by the time Li Na returned to the mall entrance, including Lam. They waited by the door nearest the cameras that had spotted her.

  They hid in the waning shadows or behind objects, eyes fixed on the entrance. When Li Na appeared, Lam recognized her immediately.

  Through a small handheld scope, he could see her father’s characteristics in her. The shape of her eyes and nose were the same. Even the way she moved.

  “Wait,” the leader breathed, standing several meters away. “Until she’s inside.” He raised a small hidden microphone closer to his mouth and whispered for the last two men to continue around the building to the opposite side.

  The rest of the team continued watching until the teenage girl reached the set of double doors and pulled one open.

  As soon as it closed again behind her, Lam was in motion.

  ***

  The line for food this time was longer, now with over a dozen others waiting in front of the same kitchen. The seating area also had more people, few of them speaking, and the same eerie feeling she’d had the night before.

  But there was something else. As Li Na approached the line, something felt very odd. More than just eeriness. More than the city’s dark mood. This was stronger.

  It was a feeling…or a smell. A strangely putrid sense that quickly grew into something even worse: fear.

  Suddenly, the hair on Li Na’s neck and arms stood up, and the very air around her seemed to stop. It was her last thought before she saw the flash of yellow and felt the air flutter past her face. She turned instinctively to see something large stuck into the shoulder of the man standing in front of her. The man staggered and turned, before abruptly collapsing onto his knees.

  Time slowed, and Li Na watched with confusion as the man fell forward, hitting the marble tiles like a sack of meal, folding at the waist and pushing himself onto his side––his last movement before his frightened eyes went blank.

  The next sensation followed immediately: panic.

  Li Na whirled to see another yellow blur just before it hit her above the clavicle. She stumbled back, squinting at the group of men running toward her.

  She reached down and felt the fibrous yellow tuft. It was a dart. The end was soft, and she plucked it from her skin, unable to feel the sting.

  The momentum of the dart’s tiny steel ball had already pushed the entire dose of vecuronium into her bloodstream, where it immediately began to spread. The first traces instantly reached the closest skeletal muscles.

  The men drew nearer as the teenager’s arms and legs began to tremble and slow. The neuromuscular agent was now binding itself to receptors on the motor nerve cells to block the conduction between cells, rendering Li Na’s muscular functions inoperable.

  ***

  A manic Lam was now almost to the girl with the larger Peng only steps behind. But realizing he wouldn’t reach Lam in time, he immediately reached under his shirt to withdraw his pistol.

  Once firmly gripping the weapon in his hand, Peng slid to a stop and raised his arm, aiming squarely at Lam’s back. “STOP!”

  Lam slowed and looked back at the very moment Li Na collapsed to the floor in front of him. The dark barrel of Peng’s QSW-06 semiautomatic trained directly upon Lam, who glanced at him and then down to the girl.

  “Get away from her.”

  Lam watched Peng intently, inching to within a meter of his target before the soldier’s finger snaked through the trigger guard.

  “Don’t touch her.”

  The shorter man’s eyes narrowed, moving yet again toward the girl. No. He was so close! He had to have her. He tried to step closer. It was so easy. His dream was within reach. Literally within reach!

  “Get…away,” Peng repeated.

  Lam didn’t move. He couldn’t step back. Not now. Instead, he angled himself away, hiding his own gun on the other side of his body, and slowly raised his hand toward his hip.

  In a flash, Lam whipped the gun from his holster and fired three rounds at Peng, who remained motionless. Screams erupted around them with the deafening cracks of the gun, leaving the two men motionless and staring into each other’s eyes.

  But Peng did not fire back. He swayed slightly before finally surprising Lam––by smiling.

  “Get down, or I will kill you.”

  Over the screams, Lam’s face grew nervous, and he stared at the gun in his hand. Blanks. His eyes returned to Peng’s finger now beginning to tighten around his own trigger.

  Without a word, Lam complied and lowered himself onto his knees.

  ***

  Li Na lay still on the floor, the paralytic agent having reached over eighty percent of the teenager’s muscle receptors.

  But something was different.

  The synaptic conduction between Li Na’s muscle cells was in overdrive. And the binding strength of the agent was already beginning to weaken far more quickly than its normal twenty minutes. Moreover, as the bindings decreased, the stalled conduction between the cells began to re-accelerate. The result was that the girl’s muscles were already beginning to respond again. Catching up to her brain cells, which never slowed and were now fully processing what had just happened.

  They had found her.

  ***

  Motionless in front of her, Lam was turned away, facing Peng. His eyes seethed at the officer behind the pistol, who was now flanked by two more of his men.

  “Stay down.”

  Lam did as he was told, not moving. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, he was interrupted by a sudden commotion behind him.

  ***

  Before anyone could reach her, Li Na was back on her feet. She glanced at the men, and seeing one aiming a strange gun, she sprang forward and ran hard for the far exit. Hearing another dart blow past her, she accelerated, driven by two legs surging with renewed strength.

  Another dart caught the corner of her shirt, but the needle found nothing except air on the other side.

  Li Na was now running at full speed, headed for a short hallway ending with double doors. And then she felt it. Again. The same tingling under her skin that had given her the first warning.

  Someone was on the other side of the doors.

  Instead of slowing, Li Na raced even harder and lowered her head. She hit the horizontal release with all of her might, sending one of the doors slamming open and squarely into the face of Peng’s man.

  The impact was a complete surprise, knocking his head against the wall behind him then crashing to the floor.

  Through a short corridor and another set of doors, she reached the cool air outside with only a singular thought.

  Run!

  42

  The most surprising realization upon reaching the garage was how strong she felt. Li Na’s legs carried her with a speed she’d never experienced before. And it wasn’t just the speed. It was the endurance––in her lungs, and more importantly, in her heart.

  It was all driven by sheer panic. The adrenaline releases she had read about in fight or flight situations. But how did they find her? And how did they manage it so fast?

  Li Na was barely winded when she reached the third level of the garage and spotted the cars aga
in. This time she ran straight for them, without hesitation, and opened the first one she found unlocked. She prayed desperately that if the owners worried so little about locking their cars, then perhaps at least one also left the keys behind.

  And they had. In the second to last car, Li Na found a set of keys under the center console. She grabbed them and looked for an ignition but found nothing. No key slot like she’d always seen before. Instead, there was only a round, gray button.

  She pressed it.

  Nothing.

  She pressed it again. Multiple times. Still nothing.

  Li Na turned to scan the garage behind her. They had to have seen where she’d run to. She slammed her hands desperately against the steering wheel and tried again. There was no response.

  She grabbed the keys and began pushing buttons on the remote. The doors locked and the horn immediately began blaring.

  Oh God!

  With frightened eyes, she looked through the windshield across the glass bridge. She fumbled for the remote and pushed the button again to silence it. But it was too late. The echoing through the garage had to have been loud enough for everyone to hear, including the men chasing her.

  She had to find something else. Li Na grabbed the wheel with one hand and opened the door with the other. She slid sideways to leave and had just pushed against the brake pedal on her way out when something happened.

  Several lights lit up on the car’s dashboard. She froze and stared, dumbfounded. With her foot still firmly against the brake, she reached forward and pushed the round button again. The engine came to life.

  With insurmountable relief, Li Na reached out and slammed the heavy door shut again. She then found the gearshift and pulled it back into reverse before punching the gas pedal.

  The gray Jaguar XJ lurched into motion, throwing Li Na hard against the steering wheel. She struggled for control before screeching to a stop. She looked across the glass bridge, which was miraculously still empty.

  She took a deep breath and gripped the wheel tightly. Her father had taught her how to drive…once.

  Li Na carefully pulled the gearshift back further into drive, this time pressing lighter against the gas pedal. The car surged forward, causing her to quickly steer away, barely missing the other cars.

  With a wide, almost uncontrollable turn, she was gone.

  43

  The plunge into the bright blue waters was a refreshing change from the stifling sun overhead. Even the Bimini top of the aluminum-hulled boat could not protect them from the hot breeze blowing across the ocean’s glimmering surface.

  For Alison, getting into the water was a no-brainer.

  Hello Alison.

  “Hello, Sally,” she replied, breathing calmly through her face mask.

  You swim.

  She nodded. “I swim.”

  Before she could continue, Dirk darted playfully past her, leaving her reaching out too late to touch him. Several more dolphins appeared and followed him, diving down and around a large outcropping of coral.

  Who she? One of them whistled, which Alison was surprised to hear from the vest. Lee’s improvements appeared to be working better at separating out different threads of language.

  She turned to capture another approaching dolphin with her camera as it sounded off in reply. But She was all Alison heard before IMIS’s familiar error tone returned through her earbuds.

  She name Alison, Sally replied, as she circled in tightly around her human friend. Come Alison. Play.

  Alison smiled. “Okay, Sally. I’ll play.” She kicked her own fins hard to catch up and grabbed hold of Sally’s powerful dorsal fin. Sally accelerated, causing Alison to quickly grab hold with her other hand as she felt her face mask press harder against her face. Their sleek shape allowed the dolphins to move surprisingly fast through the water, unlike the human figure which added a significant drag to Sally’s effort. Something she hardly ever mentioned. Dirk, on the other hand, always did with a joking tone, calling Alison heavy. It was ironic given Alison’s rather petite frame.

  Still, their abilities seemed almost effortless, even with Alison in tow. Sally had carried her to safety once on her back, leaving Alison stunned and appreciative of the amount of innate strength dolphins possessed.

  She smiled and gripped her hands tighter around the fin, turning side to side to see other dolphins swimming with them––dozens, all darting back and forth.

  “Whoa!” Sally suddenly dove, leaving Alison laughing and clamoring to hang on.

  ***

  On the surface, Lee Kenwood raised his eyebrows and glanced at John Clay. He leaned forward toward his standing microphone. “You okay, Ali?”

  Alison’s voice responded over the speakers as clear as a bell and still chuckling. “Yes! I’m fine!” After a pause, she added, “We’re playing. Wow, you should see this coral. It’s beautiful.”

  Clay peered at the speaker curiously and leaned in. “You don’t mean beautiful like Trinidad?”

  ***

  “No,” Alison shook her head and watched another pod of dolphins skim below them. Like small hills, the coral dipped and rose for as far as she could see. And with life teeming everywhere. “Not like Trinidad. Just…beautiful. Like Costa Rica.” She squealed again as Sally made a sudden turn, rolling up and over above Dirk.

  You fun Alison?

  “Yes, Sally.” She smiled inside her mask. “Very fun. And beautiful.”

  Waves of fish zipped by as the dolphins simultaneously dipped into a large depression. They skimmed along the bottom next, before turning to rocket up over the next rise.

  Hold hard Alison.

  Alison widened her arms and wrapped herself tighter around the base of Sally’s head. “What are you going to do?”

  More hard Alison.

  The clicks of the other dolphins echoed in her ear, sounding like laughter. Alison’s eyes grew larger as she saw the bright water of the surface approaching.

  “What are you going to do, Sally?!”

  More hard.

  She gripped Sally with all of her strength just moments before they broke the surface. One after the other, dozens of dolphins all leaped into the air together with Alison, who was hanging on for dear life.

  She gasped inside her mask as they became airborne. And just for a moment, time seemed to stand still. At the apex of their leap, everything grew quiet, suspended momentarily over the water before gravity reasserted itself and they plunged smoothly back into the waves.

  Alison finally lost her grip and tumbled backward into the turbulence behind them. She allowed herself to relax, twisting with the water before regaining her bearings and floating back to the surface. With her head bobbing above the water, she spun around until she could see the gleaming aluminum boat behind her.

  She reached up and pulled off her mask, allowing her to see Clay and Lee watching from the starboard side of the craft. Alison raised her fist and yelled at the top of her lungs, “WHOO HOO!”

  ***

  Both laughed and Clay clasped Lee’s shoulder zealously. “Yep. She’s definitely okay.”

  Lee smiled and waved, then watched Alison wave back. “Good. I think if anyone needs this right now, she does.”

  “Agreed.” Clay’s gaze moved to the water and the horizon behind them, where he noted that the island of Saint Lucia had disappeared from sight.

  Steadying himself with one hand, he moved closer to the stern of the boat and breathed in deeply. There was something extraordinarily peaceful about seeing nothing but water around him. Something inexplicable. Just the breeze and the lapping of the waves against the hull reminded him there was a certain peace in the world that humans seemed to forget too easily. Nature provided its own pace as a means for nurturing the human soul.

  “You seem to be healing up pretty well,” Lee said.

  Clay turned around. “I am. Thanks to them.”

  “Things are sure different.”

  “Yes, they are.”

  “I just hope
we haven’t given up too much.”

  Clay considered the question. “So do I.” He looked out over the water at Alison, still playing with Sally, head also bobbing above the water.

  He was still staring out over the water when, all of a sudden, both he and Lee heard a loud screech, quickly spinning around. Inside the door, the boat’s VHF radio burst into noise––static, laced with words being shouted through the unit’s small speakers.

  Clay was already halfway to the radio when the shouting stopped, only to quickly resume again. The yelling was now beginning to sound more like screams and was almost unintelligible.

  “What the hell is that?”

  Clay reached inside and checked the channel while snatching up the handheld microphone. He glanced briefly at Lee.

  “It’s a distress call.”

  ***

  From under the water, Alison jumped when she heard the sound of the boat’s diesel engine roar to life. She stared up through the blue water with a look of confusion and kicked her fins hard to reach the surface.

  Once above the water, she pulled her mask off and watched, puzzled, as their aluminum craft turned and charged directly for her with John Clay at the helm. She cleared water from her eyes to see Lee hanging over the starboard hull, his hands cupped over his mouth.

  It took less than half a minute for them to cover the distance. Clay immediately forced the engine into reverse, slowing the boat and swinging its gleaming stern toward Alison.

  “ALISON!” Lee called. “You have to get aboard! Now!”

  “What is it?!”

  “It’s an emergency!”

  Still confused, Alison watched as Clay left the wheel and ran back to Lee. Once there, both leaned out over the rear ladder with their hands extended.

  Alison kicked forward and reached up. The men grabbed and pulled hard, lifting her out of the water like a rocket.