The Abyss (The Island Book 3)

by Amy Cross

  “A real warrior wouldn't let herself get captured,” Nissa continues. “A real warrior -”

  She flinches as I place a hand on her shoulder.

  I wait for her to continue, but there are tears welling in her eyes now and she seems a little flushed. It's clear that her faith in Asher has been shaken, and I never realized until now just how important that faith has been to her. Ever since she was old enough to understand that her mother was gone, Nissa has idolized Asher and aspired to live up to an impossible standard. Now that she's met Asher and seen her in action, the bubble has been burst.

  And that's when I realize that there's only one thing I can do now.

  Slowly, I hold my hand out toward her, but this time I don't touch her shoulder.

  This time, I wait.

  She looks at my hand with suspicion, as if she expects me to try forcing her into something.

  “I just want to sit here,” she whimpers finally.

  I shake my head.

  “There's nothing out there,” she continues. “People are going to look at me funny, like I'm a monster.”

  Again, I shake my head.

  “They are!” she hisses, and it's the first time she's raised her voice since we got back from the beach. “Half my face is missing!”

  She reaches up and touches the skinless side of her face, although she immediately flinches. There are various balms glistening in the meat, and I'm sure that Olivia has applied the right home-brewed concoctions, but the damage is still very much evident.

  “I don't want to go out into that stupid town,” Nissa continues, with a hint of bitterness. “Steadfall is stupid! This whole island is stupid!”

  I wait, with my hand still outstretched.

  “What do you want?” she shouts.

  Still, I wait.

  “Shut up!” she yells, before finally taking my hand. “Fine, whatever you want me to do, show me. But then you have to leave me alone! Deal?”

  She gets up from the ground and I lead her out of the hut. As soon as we're in the company of others, Nissa holds her damaged hand up to the other side of her face, to cover her injuries. She starts walking faster, as if she wants to get out of sight, and I'm very much aware that most of the other townsfolk are watching us now.

  As we reach the gate, Ripley furrows his brow.

  I nod briefly, to let him know that everything is under control.

  He opens his mouth, as if he's about to ask a question, but then he seems to think better of getting involved. Turning, he gets back to work on some wooden sticks he's been sharpening all morning in anticipation of creating a better defense system.

  I lead Nissa out of Steadfall and into the forest, leading her between the trees.

  “Where are we going?” she whines. “Iris, I don't want to be out! I still feel poorly!”

  There's no way I can answer her, so I simply keep walking. Nissa, in turn, doesn't slip her hand away, even though she has ample opportunity. Still grumbling and complaining, she nevertheless keeps pace with me as we pass the edge of the forest and see smoldering piles of burned machinery that have been left on the beach. I feel Nissa squeeze my hand a little tighter, as if she's troubled by the memory of the few hours when the war briefly came to the island. I don't blame her for feeling a little scared, and sure enough she loosens her grip a little as we finally make our way past the rocky outcrop that separates this beach from the next section.

  “My legs hurt,” she tells me a few minutes later. “Iris, there's nothing to see! Can't I just find somewhere to rest?”

  Still we keep walking, and still she holds my hand. It's hard to believe that she hasn't figured out where we're going by now, but then again I guess sometimes I forget that she's just a kid. At the age of nine, she's already lived through so much, and there's a part of me that wants to take her somewhere else on the island – away from Steadfall, away from her mother's memory – so that she can try to grow up on her own terms.

  I know that wouldn't work, however, which means that I'm going to have to take the harder option.

  The more dangerous option.

  The more terrifying option.

  Finally we stop at the shore of the next beach along, and I look down at Nissa's face. She's staring straight ahead, and her tears have begun to dry. I can tell that she doesn't quite understand what I'm suggesting, but after a moment she furrows her brow a little more, as if she's concentrating very hard and trying to figure out the plan. And then, slowly, I see a sense of realization cross her features. Her eyes widen a little and her mouth opens, and I see fear and anxiety and hope and determination in her face all at once.

  She's not going to turn this chance down.

  She's going to want to do it.

  I watch her for a moment longer, as the waves crash against the shore, and then I turn and look out toward the damaged but still seaworthy boat that brought Doctor Nicole Phillips to the island. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that with a little work and a lot of luck, this boat will have no trouble taking us back to the mainland in search of Asher.

  Chapter Sixty

  Asher

  “Get her in here,” Lennox sneers as I'm led through a set of double doors, into an office that I immediately recognize.

  Once, years ago, this is where Doctor Phillips told me about the abyss. I guess at some point Lennox took the place over, and I can't help but notice that all the doctor's plants and paintings have been taken away, leaving the office bare and utilitarian.

  Beyond the desk, the windows look out across a view of the city at night. Millions of lights shine bright on the sides of tower buildings, and I can only assume that the abyss still exists in the dark in-between spaces.

  “I'm taking special charge of your interrogation,” Lennox says firmly as I'm shoved toward him. “I hope you feel privileged.”

  “Go to hell,” I mutter, wincing as I feel a broken rib burning in my chest. “Go -”

  Suddenly he kicks my legs from under me. I slam down so hard and so fast, I don't have time to react. Even if I did, my arms are chained behind my back and I'd never be able to stop myself hitting the floor. I land with a gasp, and my head bumps down, banging my forehead against the marble. I immediately roll onto my back, but two soldiers haul me up onto my feet.

  “Sir,” a woman's voice says nearby, “you have a call on line one.”

  “Tell them to try again later,” Lennox says firmly, not taking his eyes off me.

  “Sir,” the woman continues, “it's important. John Logan wants to -”

  “John Logan wants to stop bugging me every five minutes,” Lennox replies, interrupting her as he steps closer to me. “Della, tell your sponsor to leave a message, and I'll get back to him when I get the chance. And tell him I might be busy here for the rest of the night.”

  “Of course,” she replies, and I hear her hurrying away. She sounded young, maybe still in her teens. Too young to be bowing and kneeling in front of a man like Alistair Lennox.

  “I can't claim to understand why Phillips went all the way to the island to find you,” Lennox tells me, “but I'm going to figure it out sooner rather than later. I don't need you to say a word. I'll root around inside your body and your mind, and I'll peel away every thought you ever had until I understand you inside and out. Doctor Nicole Phillips was part of a very dangerous group that managed to sneak into our midst here in the city. It's our responsibility now to figure out how far their rot spread, and to make sure that it's all flushed out.”

  He pauses, as if he's waiting for me to speak, and then he takes another step closer.

  “At least you've accepted the inevitable,” he continues. “That's good, Asher. Hopefully you'll make this a little less traumatic than it needs to be.”

  He turns to the soldiers.

  “Scan her. I want an up-to-date bio record.”

  “A bio record already exists,” one of the soldiers replies. “It's a little old, but it should still -”

  “I want an up-to
-date bio record,” Lennox says again, sounding more than a little annoyed. “Who knows what she might have contracted out there on that savage island? Get her into the database one more time.”

  I'm quickly shoved forward, and I start walking toward a scanning terminal on the far side of the room. As I walk, I think back to Doctor Phillips' claim that my DNA has somehow been turned into a kind of virus that can cripple the city's entire network. The idea seems completely absurd, but then I guess only an absurd idea would ever have a chance of working against an enemy that prides itself on covering all its bases. As I reach the terminal, I feel a crushing sense of anticipation in my chest.

  “Hand on the scanner,” one of the soldiers grunts.

  I pause for a moment, worried that I might be about to lose the one thing I still possess.

  Hope.

  “I said, hand on the scanner!”

  He grabs my hand and forces it against the clear panel, and the machine immediately comes to life. I watch as a thin beam of light flashes across and then through my hand, and then I see that the machine is already sequencing the DNA sample it just obtained.

  25% complete.

  50% now.

  76%.

  93%.

  Sequencing complete. I guess my sample is in the system now. With every computer in the network locked down to avoid incursions, these scanners seem to be the only way through the firewall.

  I feel dizzy.

  “Alright, you're done.”

  My hand is yanked away and then somebody grabs my shoulder, quickly spinning me around until I find myself once again facing General Lennox.

  “Boys,” he says firmly, “I'd like a few minutes alone with this young lady, if that's alright with you.”

  Immediately, the soldiers starts walking to the door. Unless something major has changed over the past few years, they must be aware that it's against protocol to leave a prisoner alone with any one officer, but I guess Lennox has a way of ignoring the rigors of any protocol that gets in his way. As the soldiers leave the room and the door slides shut behind them, however, I can't help feeling a shudder pass through my chest as I realize that I'm now completely alone with a man who can basically do whatever he wants. Even all those years ago, before I went to the island, there were whispers of prisoners who'd disappeared after being taken into Lennox's custody.

  “Do you know what I think?” he asks, taking another step toward me, until the lights from outside catch the edge of his features. “I think you're too stupid to even know how you were supposed to be used.”

  I swallow hard.

  “I think you're in way over your head,” he continues, with a faint smile, “and you've been riding your luck. Unfortunately, Asher, your luck is about to -”

  Suddenly his face falls noticeably darker, then darker still, and I realize after a moment that the lights beyond the window must have gone out.

  Turning, I look toward the other towers in the city, and I watch with a sense of shock as all the lights switch off. It takes only a few seconds before the entire city is in darkness. Even this room is now completely unlit, and a moment later I realize I can see something else outside, beyond the tall, pitch-black towers.

  For the first time in the city, I can see the stars.

  “What the hell's going on?” Lennox mutters, and I hear him storming over to his desk. He taps at one of the screens, but evidently the entire network is down.

  The city has fail-safe after fail-safe, and it's supposed to be impossible for something like this to happen. I look out at the darkness again, convinced that at any moment the lights will come back. As the seconds pass, however, I feel a growing sense of awe as I realize that Doctor Phillips might have been telling the truth after all. Maybe my DNA sample did act as a code, coursing quickly through the networks and shutting down the power. And if the code succeeded at that, it's impossible not to wonder what else it might have done.

  “Do you remember how people said the revolution never came?” I hear Doctor Phillips' voice whispering in my head. “It was a common phrase for a while. People said the revolution never came, so we just had to accept the world as it is. Well, I think there might still be hope yet. We might – might – be on the cusp of a revolution right now, but only if we do the things we need to do.”

  “What did you do?” Lennox stammers, clearly shocked.

  A moment later, I hear a faint clicking sound, followed by another and then another.

  Turning, I see him silhouetted against the stars, holding his right hand toward me. It's obvious that he's trying to fire a gun, but even the weapons are networked around here.

  “What did you do?” Lennox asks again, before tossing the gun aside and storming toward me across the pitch-black office. “Tell me! How did you make this happen?”

  “I -”

  Before I can finish, he lands a punch on the side of my face. I fall back against the wall and then I slump to the floor, and I can already feel blood in the back of my throat. I start to get up, but then I flinch as I hear Lennox coming closer.

  “What did you do?” he shouts, before kicking me hard in the side of the head.

  I slump back down, and now I can feel loose teeth.

  “What did you do?” he screams again, and this time he unleashes a series of kicks against my chest. “Tell me what you did! Tell me how to undo it!”

  Each kick seems to crack a fresh rib, and I can barely breathe as I slump down against the floor. In this cold, dark room high up near the top of a powerless tower, I turn my face toward the window in a desperate attempt to protect myself. The kicks continue, however, and Lennox yells over and over again, demanding to know what I've done and how it can be reversed.

  Outside, the only lights are the stars in the night sky. I can just about see the reflection of my face, and after a moment I realize that – although my body is shuddering under the force of more and more kicks – I'm actually starting to smile.

  To be concluded in

  THE LAST TERRORIST

  (THE ISLAND BOOK 4)

  Coming soon

  Also by Amy Cross

  THE ASH HOUSE

  Why would anyone ever return to a haunted house?

  For Diane Mercer the answer is simple. She's dying of cancer, and she wants to know once and for all whether ghosts are real.

  Heading home with her young son, Diane is determined to find out whether the stories are real. After all, everyone else claimed to see and hear strange things in the house over the years. Everyone except Diane had some kind of experience in the house, or in the little ash house in the yard.

  As Diane explores the house where she grew up, however, her son is exploring the yard and the forest. And while his mother might be struggling to come to terms with her own impending death, Daniel Mercer is puzzled by fleeting appearances of a strange little girl who seems drawn to the ash house, and by strange, rasping coughs that he keeps hearing at night.

  The Ash House is a horror novel about a woman who desperately wants to know what will happen to her when she dies, and about a boy who uncovers the shocking truth about a young girl's murder.

  Also by Amy Cross

  HAUNTED

  Twenty years ago, the ghost of a dead little girl drove Sheriff Michael Blaine to his death.

  Now, that same ghost is coming for his daughter.

  Returning to the small town where she grew up, Alex Roberts is determined to live a normal, quiet life. For the residents of Railham, however, she's an unwelcome reminder of the town's darkest hour.

  Twenty years ago, nine-year-old Mo Garvey was found brutally murdered in a nearby forest. Everyone thinks that Alex's father was responsible, but if the killer was brought to justice, why is the ghost of Mo Garvey still after revenge?

  And how far will the real killer go to protect his secret, when Alex starts getting closer to the truth?

  Haunted is a horror novel about a woman who has to face her past, about a town that would rather forget, and about a little
girl who refuses to let death stand in her way.

  Also by Amy Cross

  THE BRIDE OF ASHBYRN HOUSE

  “I have waited so long for your return.”

  In the English countryside, miles from the nearest town, there stands an old stone house. Nobody has set foot in the house for years. Nobody has dared. For it is said that even though the lady of the house is long dead, a face can sometimes be seen at one of the windows. A pale, dead face that waits patiently behind a silk wedding veil.

  Seeking an escape from his life in London, Owen Stone purchases Ashbyrn House without waiting to find out about its history. As far as Owen is concerned, ghosts aren't real and his only company in the house will be the thin-legged spiders that lurk on the walls. Even after he moves in, and after he starts hearing strange noises in the night, Owen insists that Ashbyrn House can't possibly be haunted.

  But Owen knows nothing about the ghostly figure that is said to haunt the house. Or about the mysterious church bells that ring out across the lawn at night. Or about the terrible fate that befell the house's previous inhabitants when they dared defy the bride. Even as Owen starts to understand the horrific truth about Ashbyrn House's past, he might be too late to escape the clutches of the presence that watches his every move.

  The Bride of Ashbyrn House is a ghost story about a man who believes the past can't hurt him, and about a woman whose search for a husband has survived even her own tragic death.