by Andy Lucas
‘Honesty is a strength. I like that about you, though maybe you could try lying to me at the moment,’ she sighed. ‘You know, soften the blow a little.’
If only you knew, he thought. ‘Okay, I’ll try. They are going to frighten us a bit and then send us both home in one piece. Feel better?’
‘Much, thanks.’
Back up the muddy path, Cathera and Wolf had fixed the small delivery systems beneath each six-foot gas envelope. Although Pace had time for a quick look at the release cylinders, he’d been lucky enough not to try to unscrew the ends. Each cylinder had already been loaded with its multiple, lethal cargo, and sealed.
Once hooked up to a specially adapted eyelet on the base of the fake gondola, each machine was ready. Remote control units had been supplied with the model airships but they were surplus to requirements.
Cathera had paid handsomely to have the airships modified before being re-packed and brought down to the mine. Normally empty passenger gondola was now fitted with a powerful computer and associated sensors, designed to trigger release and detonation mechanisms at the appropriate times along a pre-programmed flight-path.
One fact was set in stone. Once started on their flights, the airships could not be recalled.
23
The sound of multiple electric motors whirring into ominous life told Pace that their time had run out and still he had been unable to free either himself, or Sarah. Helplessness fuelled a growing sense of desperate anger but be forced himself to stay calm.
Sarah had gathered from the men’s conversation that the airships were designed to explode but she had not seen the stores of radiological and biological material inside the container, left over from filling the cylinders. She had no idea yet how disastrous it would be if the model blimps were allowed to reach their destinations and detonate.
She asked him about it and he explained what he had seen, watching the colour drain from her face as the meaning of his words sank in.
‘You mean that he is going to detonate radioactive material up in the air and cover the rainforest?’ she asked incredulously. ‘How can he do that? Why would he? What can he gain from polluting the wilderness with radiation?’
‘I don’t know,’ answered Pace truthfully. ‘And I don’t think that’s important right now. Whatever his reasons are, he plans to do it and those innocent children’s toys back there are about to be used to do the job.’
‘We have to stop him,’ decided Sarah, staring wildly about for the hundredth time to find some way of escaping her bonds.
‘You’re right, and we will, somehow,’ he assured her.
Unaware of the one-way nature of the flights, Pace’s eyes suddenly flicked skywards as the first of the six models lifted into view above the treetops, laboriously struggling for altitude and appearing as if it was carrying a small, narrow beer barrel slung beneath its gondola. Slowly, surely, it reacted to its internal computer and circled as it gained height until it was barely a speck in the grey, cloud-filled sky, levelling off at eight hundred feet and nosing off on a course to the south-west.
Within ten minutes it had been joined in the air by its five companions; each one tracking a pre-determined course that steered it out from the mine. Cathera had programmed their courses to resemble the spokes of a wheel, with the mine being the central point. The six vehicles would fly out in all directions, to a distance of ten miles, before releasing their cargo and detonating. The area covered would be extensive; the ecological damage horrendous.
While they were still watching the last of the dots fade into the distance, Wolf and Cathera appeared at the bend in the path and approached them at a leisurely stroll. Cathera was smiling broadly as he made a quick call on his satellite phone, using his good arm. He made no attempt to disguise the content from his prisoners as he called in his emergency extraction helicopter, parked on top of a large, specially converted river boat seventy miles away.
With the engines already idling, it would be at the mine within the hour. The slow speed of the airships gave them each a flying time of two hours to reach their target areas, so there was plenty of time to have some fun yet and still get well clear of the blast zone in good time.
‘You are too late to stop me,’ he beamed, pausing to stroke Sarah’s wet, bedraggled hair as he drew level with them. He shrugged indifferently as she angrily shook off the offending hand.
‘Get your hands off me!’
‘It isn’t my hands you should be worrying about, Miss McEntire.’
She glanced over at Pace, eyes questioning him. He fixed her gaze and smiled encouragingly.
‘Now, I think it is time that my associate here,’ Cathera jerked a thumb towards Wolf, ‘thinks of a really unpleasant way for you both to spend your last few minutes.’
‘You don’t need to hurt Sarah,’ Pace injected evenly. ‘It isn’t her you want to hurt. She’s far more valuable to you unharmed, you know that,’ he added. ‘Take her out of here with you.’
‘Maybe, maybe not. I haven’t decided yet,’ said Cathera. ‘But, for now, I want to watch you squirm.’
‘Then do what you must to me. Leave Sarah out of it. Come on, Cathera,’ he hissed. ‘It’s me you want, so get on with it.’
‘James, no!’
‘Stay out of this, Sarah. It will be okay.’
‘She’s all yours,’ Cathera said to Wolf, ignoring Pace’s plea.
‘No! Damn you, leave her alone!’
Wolf stepped up to the hanging prisoners with a look of professional interest ingrained into his features. The sexual thrill and necessary arousal would come with the infliction of pain; it always had, so his mind began to coldly plan the sequence of degradation that he would inflict upon her soft body, mindful that the main intention was to cause Pace as much emotional trauma as possible.
The brief red shorts and matching crop top that she still wore were stained, torn and dirty from trekking through the forest, and her sandals had long since been discarded. Hanging before him, helpless, she could do nothing but watch as he stepped closer, reached out a hand and gripped the thin material of her top, ripping it from her body so swiftly that Pace’s string of threats did not even have time to form on his lips.
Shocked, and suddenly all too aware of what was about to happen, Sarah bravely fought back tears and managed to look Wolf in the eye, trying her best to seem strong. Her strength sapped almost immediately when he began to stroke the skin of her bare breasts, caressing them ever so slowly, one at a time.
He paused at each nipple and gave it special attention, tweaking and pinching the sensitive spots until they peaked through overload of sensation rather than any interest. Although she valiantly struggled to twist out of his grip; first one way and then another, it was useless. Eventually, she stopped trying and hung there, submissive in resignation.
‘I must compliment you on a beautiful body, young lady,’ offered Cathera. ‘You were a very lucky man, Mr Pace.’ His use of the past tense was very deliberate.
‘You are both going to die in agony, long before I meet my maker,’ Pace prophesised bitterly. Lava seethed inside him and he strained fruitlessly at the ropes like a dog on a leash, ignoring the pain and the blood that started to flow freely down his bare arms.
‘Just enjoy the show. Watch your lover shamed before your eyes. I want her pain to be the last thing you feel.’
Wolf looked over at Cathera who, slightly breathless now, gave an almost imperceptible nod. Nodding back, Wolf dropped to his knees in front of her and reached out for her shorts. Unfortunately for him, it was only Sarah’s hands that were tied and the sight of him dropping level with her hips stung her back into fighting action.
As his hands reached out for her, she swung herself back out of his reach and then threw her legs forward again, swinging by her tied hands as hard as she could and delivering a hefty double-footed kick squarely in his stomach. Caught off-guard, Wolf took the kick well but it overbalanced him and sat him back down on the muddy ground w
ith a jarring thud.
‘Stay the hell away from me!’ she screamed at him, venting herself at the top her lungs, in a voice that would have been heard a mile away. ‘Stay away!’
She was not as lucky the next time. Springing to his feet, Wolf slammed a fist into her stomach and as she gasped for air, her shorts and underwear joined her top in a torn heap on the ground. Totally naked, every centimetre of her soft skin clearly exposed to the afternoon air, she slumped from her wrists, groaning with pain.
The next few minutes were the most hateful Pace could ever have imagined. The killer toyed with Sarah, mixing periods of gentle touching with sudden outbursts of violent slapping, pinching and pummelling. Her fair skin rapidly became marked with red blotches and angry welts as he abused her.
At the start she screamed out at every blow, her own cries only drowned out by Pace’s bellowing. He threw himself forward as he frantically tried to break his ropes, over and over; nearly breaking his wrists each time. He didn’t care, nor did he feel the pain. He had to get to her. He had to stop her pain. Tears of bitter frustration flooded down his face as the torture went on.
Wolf kept up the beating for a while longer before finally stepping back and pulling out a small knife from his belt. Reaching up, he sliced through the ropes and caught Sarah as she collapsed into his arms. Bleeding from cuts to her lips and no longer able to understand the events going on, her mind decided to retreat from the physical agony and allowed her the blessed relief of unconsciousness.
Laying her on her back, Wolf unceremoniously threw her legs apart and paused just long enough to savour Pace’s impotent fury before reaching down and freeing himself. Pace reviled at the sight, knowing he could do nothing to stop Sarah being brutally desecrated.
‘About time she had a real man, wouldn’t you agree?’ Wolf spat cruelly. Whereas Amanda’s murder had been faked to look like rape, this time Wolf was perfectly happy to commit the actual act. His professional need to ensure that he never left his own DNA at the scene of a job wasn’t necessary here. Nobody would be able to enter the area for so long after the bombs went off that Sarah’s body would have long since turned to dust.
‘Do it,’ piped up Cathera. He remained sitting on the ground a few feet away, his own perverse nature thoroughly enjoying the moment. Penetration, when it came, was swift and brutal. But it was not one that any of them had foreseen.
Instead of forcing himself upon his unconscious victim, penetration consisted of a bullet neatly slicing through the ropes holding Pace’s wrists to the pipe-work. As Pace was already in the process of repeating one of his mad lunges towards Wolf, both men were surprised to find him suddenly free, with his forward momentum bringing him crashing into Wolf just as the killer was about to lower himself into position on top of Sarah’s inert body.
Although the bullet had freed his hands from the pipe, several strands of the nylon rope still looped around his wrists, keeping his hands locked tightly together. Elated to finally be able to act, Pace moved like a blur.
Wolf had placed his knife down on the ground so he could focus on the coming act of savagery. Pace snatched it up, twisted nimbly on the spot and brought the serrated blade flashing down in one ferocious movement. Locking eyes with Wolf, Pace noted them widen as a terrible message charged up to the killer’s brain.
Wolf opened his mouth to scream. The agonised shriek sounded from his throat at exactly the same moment that his rigid manhood, neatly sliced off at the base, dropped silently to the ground between his legs. A firework display of bright red sprayed for several feet in all directions.
His hands automatically flew down to his stump but blood continued to gout from between his fingers as he sank to his knees, unable to cope with the sudden onslaught of indescribable pain. Howling and screaming, Wolf crumpled down next to Sarah, thrashing about like a freshly caught salmon yet still clutching his hands between his legs. Blood covered everything.
Every ounce of hatred drained out of Pace as he watched Wolf’s life pumping out onto the mud all around them. The screaming went on and on until Pace’s own sense of humanity resurfaced. Ignoring Cathera, who remained sitting down and wore a mortified look on his face, Pace leaned down and grabbed Wolf’s pistol from his loose grip.
Without giving the matter a second thought, Pace stepped over to the prone, writhing assassin and pumped two bullets into the back of his head, shooting two-handed because of his bonds. If he’d known the truth about Amanda’s murder, he might have let him suffer for longer but he would not find out the truth until much later.
As the echoes of the screaming and the gunshots faded from the air, an eerie silence descended over the mine.
‘I think that settles the matter,’ came a familiar voice from over his shoulder.
Turning slowly away from the body, Pace found a watery smile for Baker. The veteran soldier looked down at Wolf as another familiar face stepped into view from where he had been standing behind Baker. Hammond was not sure of the reaction he would get from Pace because he hadn’t had any contact with him since having to ditch Cosmos.
At the time, he knew he might have been condemning all his team mates to death, especially as he had last left Pace gravely ill in their little shelter, but he’d had a vital mission to complete. Everyone, including himself, had been considered expendable in the hunt for the radioactive cargo.
‘You look awful, both of you,’ Pace ventured, unsure about his own feelings towards the bald accountant. He was glad they had turned up when they did, so an overwhelming sense of relief was allowed to prevail. Both men were scratched and battered from their separate crashes and subsequent slog through the forest. The M16 in Baker’s hand was the only weapon visible.
While Baker reacquainted himself with Cathera, now pale and cowed after the drastic switch of power, Pace lovingly scooped Sarah up from the ground along with her clothes and carried her up the path, back to the open container. Once inside the shelter of the huge metal box, he laid her down and gently dressed her. She remained mercifully unconscious for the whole time.
The heat and humidity was at its peak at that point, so he had no need to try and cover her. Instead, he settled her down onto her side, pillowing her head with one of her own arms. Kissing her softly on the cheek, he apologised for not being able to spare her the ordeal she had just suffered, before leaving her and rejoining the others.
‘I don’t know your story,’ he said to Hammond when he reached them. ‘I know Baker would not have allowed you to live if you had betrayed us, so I’ll take it on trust that you have a good story to tell me. But that can wait. For now, follow the path up around those bushes. You’ll find a large shipping container. Sarah’s there, resting. Guard her. Here,’ he tossed Wolf’s handgun to him. ‘Just in case.’
‘Okay, James. But there is a story to tell, so don’t judge me yet.’
The truth was that he’d been ordered to make his way to a river extraction point so McEntire could get him out by native canoe, with the help of a friendly local guide. The others were expendable in Doyle McEntire’s eyes at that point but not someone as prized to the organisation as him. The boat only held two people anyway.
It had meant sapping Cosmos and leaving them to their own fate, and he had hated to do it, but he had his orders. There was more to it than that but he needed time to sit with Pace and explain things properly. He hoped he would get the chance to set the record straight but he knew it would be hard, especially as Cosmos and Ruby had been killed.
‘If I was that way inclined, I’d have shot you too,’ Pace said truthfully. ‘Now move.’
Hammond hurried away to take up his sentry duty while Baker and Pace quickly exchanged news. Neither man paid much attention to Cathera. Unarmed, and with one arm in a sling, he posed no threat to them. The airships, on the other hand, threatened to destroy them and much of the surrounding rainforest within the next ninety or so minutes.
Baker told him about the helicopter pursuit and the disastrous end for all of
the machines. He did not tell Pace about Attia not surviving the fall through the trees, not mentioning his name so as not to open a can of proverbial worms.
He related the tale of how he had survived the crash, after Hammond had shot down the transport helicopter.
No one else on board had survived for more than a few minutes due to the severity of the injuries sustained. Other helicopters had appeared above his crash site and, unsure which side they belonged to, he had struck out into the cover of the deep jungle, almost bumping into Hammond after a mile or so, the accountant having managed to survive his freefall through the trees.
Pace had gone through the exact same experience when he was blown off the roof of the science base, so he knew how Hammond must have felt.
‘We back-tracked along the route, planning to make it to the river and try to get some kind of signal fire going on the open riverbank,’ he explained. ‘McEntire will send more people into the area; he had them on standby, so our situation wasn’t dire. Then, luckily, we happened upon Cathera, his associate, and Sarah. They were making so much noise that it was easy to track them without being seen. They led us here but we had to wait before we moved in, sorry.’ He looked a little stricken as he remembered fighting off the urge to help Sarah earlier. ‘I wish I could have helped sooner.’
‘So do I,’ agreed Pace fervently. ‘But at least you did act, and you saved our lives. Don’t feel too bad.’
‘I did what I had to do but that doesn’t make it any easier having to watch that bastard hurting Miss McEntire.’
‘Forget that for now. We have bigger problems.’ Pace briefly filled Baker in about the airships and their deadly cargo. ‘We don’t have long.’ He turned to Cathera and asked him how to recall the airships. Cathera seemed to snap out of his stupor and stood up, puffing out his chest importantly.
‘They cannot be stopped,’ he sneered. ‘They are programmed to fly to a given set of co-ordinates, using an on board guidance computer. They are totally independent. There is nothing anyone can do.’
