The Pact (A Sarah Roberts Thriller Book 17)

by Jonas Saul

  “Okay. When do I go through?”

  “Don’t know. I’ll get to that.”

  They hopped inside the taxi.

  “Take us to the nearest airport,” Sarah said.

  “That’s in Billund. About an hour’s drive.”

  “Then go. We need out of here yesterday.”

  The taxi pulled away from the police station as more details came together for Sarah.

  Her pact with Vivian was working, but as with any new arrangement, it would take time to develop.

  But time was in short supply.

  Chapter 49

  The taxi pulled up in front of the Billund airport after the driver had talked at length about Legoland and how the owner of Legoland had invested and built the airport so it was easier for him to come and go. He said it started in 1961 when the son of the owner of Legoland built an 800-meter long runway and a small hangar. By 1964, the airport began handling public traffic and continued to expand until today where over two and a half million passengers from around the world use the Billund airport yearly.

  “Legoland even has a Lego version of the airport that you can build,” the driver added, seemingly so happy to have imparted this knowledge to American tourists.

  Parkman paid the driver the huge fee for the one-hour ride and they got out. Sarah led Parkman inside where she found a coffee and pastry shop. Once they had their coffees, she sat at a small circular table and closed her eyes for a moment. A chair scuffed the floor as Parkman pulled one out to sit across from her.

  “You okay, Sarah?” Parkman asked.

  She opened her eyes. “Yeah. Just trying to see more of what’s about to happen.”

  “What’s about to happen?” he asked.

  “Don’t know. That’s why I’m trying to see more.”

  “Right. Okay.”

  They sat quietly for another couple of minutes, eating and drinking.

  “When you’re done with your coffee,” Sarah said as she gestured at his half-full cup, “go buy a ticket to Amsterdam or Copenhagen or wherever. Then see if you can get a ticket from there directly to Toronto. When you’re done, come back here and tell me flight times and numbers. Then I’ll go buy the same.”

  “We can’t do it together?”

  She shook her head.

  “Why not? We’re clear of the mess in Skanderborg. Let’s just buy our tickets and fly to Toronto.”

  Sarah reached across the table to clasp his hand.

  “Parkman, the trouble was never in Skanderborg. Sure we needed to go there, but the trouble is in Toronto. Aaron and Alex are in the thick of it. Oh, and Benjamin got shot.”

  “Benjamin got shot?” Parkman jerked back. “Why is he always the one who gets shot? Is he okay?”

  “A leg wound. He’s still in the hospital.”

  “Do you know all this because of your new arrangement with Vivian?”

  “Something like that. I have to explain it from the beginning.”

  “Is that why you know details about them, but not us?”

  She nodded. “If we separate, we make it out of this airport. Both of us. If we don’t separate, we don’t make it out. I’m just able to see a single detail. Only the end scenes show up in my visions from my sister.”

  Parkman pushed his chair back. “Going to get my ticket now, then.” He walked away without another word.

  Ten minutes later, he was back with his ticket.

  “I fly in one hour.”

  Sarah read his ticket and flights times, then memorized the flight numbers.

  “Got it. Now head through security and I’ll see you on the plane. Going to buy my ticket now.” She hugged him briefly. “Remember, I’ll see you on the plane. But until we’re in the air, you don’t know me. And don’t wait for me.”

  “Got it. Just be there. I can’t leave without you.”

  “I’ll be there. But Parkman, you have to promise me something.”

  “Not sure I’m going to like this.”

  “Whatever happens, whatever you see, get on that plane. Do not stay here. You have to fly out today. Even if that means leaving me behind. Promise me.”

  “I can’t promise something like that—”

  “Parkman, you have to. Promise me.”

  She stared into his eyes, returning his gaze, unwilling to speak again until he gave in.

  Without further delay, he said, “I promise.”

  Sarah gently touched his arm, then walked away. At the KLM ticket window, she bought a ticket in her name and produced her ID. Then she bought a ticket for Clara Olafson and used the ID she had found in Clara’s dresser. The ticket agent printed both tickets and pointed at the security area where Sarah was to go as the plane would be boarding in thirty minutes.

  Once Clara’s ticket was safely stowed, she strode toward security. Something was going to happen, but what exactly was still a mystery. The new pact with Vivian gave Sarah access to Vivian’s psychic eyes and it gave Vivian access to her earthly eyes. Vivian got to live through Sarah as if she was implanted into her consciousness. The opposite was true for Sarah now. She could live in Vivian’s awareness which allowed her to use Vivian’s psychic ability at will. That’s how she knew about the evidence being on Anton’s cell phone. She knew about Benjamin’s bullet wound, and what was happening to Aaron and Alex. She also knew what was coming on Tuesday and needed to find a way to stop it. A lot of what was coming and what she could do to stop it was easy to glean from Vivian as she was as close to Sarah now as if she was in her body. It took dying to have Vivian enter her consciousness in a similar way Sarah’s soul was thrust back into her body.

  The one thing Vivian warned Sarah about was that Sarah would never be allowed to view future events that affected her personally. Whatever was about to happen at the airport affected her and her alone, hence her obstructed view of the events.

  There was one consolation though. Similar to déjà vu, Sarah could see something was coming and how she would feel about it, but not see the event exactly, otherwise she would be walking toward airport security blind.

  It had nothing to do with Officer Martin back in Skanderborg. In fact, in that very moment, Martin was opening an email from a man in Toronto that Sarah needed to see on Tuesday. In that email, Officer Martin would view pictures of Anton Olafson in compromising positions. Once the youth in the pictures were identified, they would match with the case files from a recently deceased suicide victim named Damien. Anton Olafson would have a new list of charges added to his attempted murder charge and would end up dying in prison at the hands of a fellow inmate in a shiv attack two years after he was convicted and placed in a maximum security prison.

  She saw all that coming, but couldn’t see what was going to happen in the next five minutes.

  In line at airport security, her stomach spun with nerves. What she was about to do was a simple thing, really. Just walk through security and leave the country. Her passport was up to date. She wasn’t wanted on any outstanding warrants. She’d only been in Denmark a few days. She was murdered, endured a near death experience, woke up from death, and here she was about to leave Denmark. Simple really.

  An old Shakespeare line from Hamlet flashed through her mind about Denmark and something being rotten. Another thought slipped into her mind. Not knowing the future drove her nuts, yet every single person around her didn’t know the future. She ought to be more grateful for what she was given when it was provided.

  Thanks Vivian for that thought. You’re a real sport. Appreciate it.

  As she stepped up to the metal detector, she spied Parkman on the other side, holding another coffee cup, waiting for her to walk through.

  A commotion to her left caught her attention. Four airport security members were jogging toward her position.

  Here we go. This has to be about me.

  She walked through the metal detector. The woman monitoring it waved her by. She started toward Parkman, a funny feeling in her stomach that she wouldn’t make it him.r />
  Heavy footfalls drew closer. More members of airport security came up from her right and still two others from her left. She slowed her step, then stopped and turned around to address them when she was ten feet from Parkman.

  “Sarah Roberts?” one of the officers said.

  Sarah nodded. “That’s me.”

  “I’m going to need you to come with us.”

  “I have a plane to catch. What could this be about?”

  “Ma’am, you won’t make your flight. Please, come with us.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what this is all about.”

  The officer shot a glance at a few of his colleagues for support, but they all just kept staring at Sarah. They were being cautious. Too cautious.

  Vivian, what the hell is this?

  “Sarah Roberts, you’re on a no-fly list. I can’t permit you to fly. You’re going to have to come with us.”

  Adrenaline pumped through her. She took an extra deep breath as her heart beat in its cage made of sore bones.

  “A no-fly list?” she asked, looking as bewildered as she felt. “How’s that? What list?”

  “The list is issued by your American government. It says it right here. You’re suspected of sympathizing with terrorists. You’re to be detained, Miss Roberts.”

  “Fuck that,” she said.

  She turned and ran toward the two officers on her left, bowled by them before they could grab her, and headed for the exit that led outside.

  When she shouldered into the door, an alarm went off somewhere in the building.

  A quick glance over her shoulder gave her stomach something else to feel sick about.

  Her pursuers had grown in number and a few of them had weapons in their hands now.

  They were ten feet behind her.

  Sarah dropped low, turned and ran past a maintenance van parked by the door.

  Something tripped her. She stumbled to the ground beside the van. A man’s arm lodged around her throat. His hand clamped over her mouth.

  At the second the exit door burst open and airport security officers spilled out, the man wheeled Sarah under the maintenance van and out of view of the pursuing authorities.

  Chapter 50

  Ben Wilson was convinced the universe was working in his favor. How could he lose when everything worked out? Even when things went wrong, he was winning.

  “Amazing, really,” he murmured as he studied the computer screen.

  Sarah Roberts was alive.

  She was revived at the hospital and left the city of Skanderborg. When he’d logged onto the closest airport and sent his spiders searching, her name came up at the Billund airport. She had bought a ticket to come to Toronto, via Amsterdam.

  But that’s where she was stopped.

  If he hadn’t taken precaution earlier and placed her name on the no-fly list, she would have arrived before Tuesday morning.

  It had taken him seven hours to add Sarah’s photo, name, and a brief bio of her terrorist sympathies to get her grounded at any airport she wanted to use. Sarah Roberts was done and there was nothing she could do to get to Toronto on time.

  Absolutely nothing.

  It was late. Anton was done for. Ansgar was off the map somewhere. Aaron was going down for murder. Everyone was tagged and bagged. His job was complete. Now he needed sleep.

  One more evening of mayhem tomorrow and then fate would arrive on Tuesday. He looked forward to that day. No more back pain. No more pancreatic cancer. No more people talking shit about him. Just the lives of assholes either ended or ruined.

  He turned off his computer screens, got up from his desk, thought about one more Mars bar, but declined it as he wasn’t feeling too good, and waddled to the bathroom.

  Ten minutes later, staring at the ceiling in bed, he thought about Jessy. Maybe he would fuck her one more time before he killed her. Really mess with Shawn’s head when they autopsied the body later. Everyone would think it was a rape and murder thing, but Jessy wouldn’t mind. She hated herself. One compliment here, one nice word there, and her clothes would come off thinking they were getting back together.

  He snapped his fingers in the dark. That was it. He would beg for her back. They could make a go of it. She would do it for sure. No issues whatsoever. They would have sex, then he would strangle the life from her worthless emo existence.

  Once Shawn arrived, he would carry her lifeless body outside toward him, the toy gun in his hand. When he tossed her body aside, the toy gun would come up and aim at Shawn and the detective would kill him and have to live with that for the rest of his life.

  He would be doing Ben a favor because there was no way he could kill himself and he wasn’t going to let the cancer kill him over the next few months.

  Ben Wilson would not wither away and die like his mother had.

  He had more dignity than that.

  And more brains.

  Chapter 51

  A small crowd of people stood by and watched at least a dozen security personnel chase Sarah. To see Sarah run like that, pursued by so many airport security on some trumped-up claim that she was on the no-fly list was preposterous.

  And there was nothing he could do.

  Except make his way to the plane.

  He had promised Sarah he would. There had to be a solid reason for her making him promise he would get on the plane no matter what happened. Whether it was something she knew or was quite positive about, Parkman had no choice but to get on that plane.

  It pained him to think he was leaving her behind. What would Aaron say when he landed in Toronto without her?

  When Aaron found out Sarah had died and Vivian had written Parkman a letter telling him to go to Skanderborg, what then? He was just happy no one knew he had been drinking the night of the Burning of the Witch.

  Shoulders slumped, he started along the wide corridor toward his gate just as the announcement came over the speakers above that boarding was commencing for his flight.

  Two more officers raced by him on an airport vehicle. He turned to watch them, knowing they were after Sarah and feeling absolutely useless as he could do nothing to help her. Stepping in now would only get himself detained as well.

  He slowed by his gate. A line had formed. They were boarding the front half of the plane and at least forty people waited to have their passports scanned, ID checked. He waited on the side for fifteen minutes until the final boarding call was announced and the line was down to a few people.

  After one more glance over his shoulder, he pulled out his passport and opened it to the page with his picture.

  The Danish girl in front of him wore a horrid perfume. When the line moved forward, Parkman stayed back. He turned sideways and breathed deeply. It wasn’t that the girl had bathed in the stuff, it was just the smell wasn’t to his liking.

  After a maddening few minutes, he made it to the KLM attendants, got his passport checked, and was waved through to the access tunnel.

  Parkman turned around and stared back at the interior of the airport before entering the tunnel.

  No Sarah. The waiting area was empty.

  He had to leave her behind.

  He’d promised.

  Head dipped, shoulders slumped, Parkman started down the ramp to enter the plane that would take him out of Denmark.

  Chapter 52

  The hand covering Sarah’s mouth was large and firm. He moved below her and whispered in her ear.

  “Friendly. Stay quiet.”

  Her nod was a short burst, suppressed by the hand holding her head back against the man’s chest.

  The officer who had talked to her inside the terminal was talking to someone at the back of the van, describing Sarah, asking if they saw which was she went. Another worker moved closer.

  “Yeah, I saw a girl,” the maintenance worker said. “She ran that way.”

  “That way?” the officer asked, incredulity in his voice.

  The man holding Sarah lightened the pressure on he
r mouth. She took a deep, quiet breath in through her nose and lifted her head enough to stare at the feet of the people talking. With her forehead an inch from the chassis of the van, she surmised it had been parked there for a while as no heat resonated off it.

  “You mean to tell us she ran toward the runways?”