When they were close to the ground, he turned on a landing light. The aircraft became surrounded with blowing sand, and it seemed they were landing in a swirling fog. The helicopter touched down hard with James immediately cutting the light and started to shut down the aircraft. When the rotors quit turning, he turned off all the lights throwing them into darkness.
He twisted around in his seat. “You all stay put until I tell you otherwise. I'll shoot anyone who tries to leave. Understand? You come with me, Alp, in case any of your sisters gets the idea to be a hero.”
He opened the door and climbed out. He walked around the nose of the aircraft, opened Alp’s door and helped her down. He reached into his flight suit pocket, pulled out a flashlight and shone it around. The light bounced off a line of sand dunes loosely held together with clumps of tall grass. Off in the distance, Alp could see the lights of a runway and the rotating beacon on the airfield tower. James walked around the helicopter shining his light around the desolate area while keeping a close eye on Alp.
He returned to where Alp was standing, a confused look on his face.
“They’re not here,” he said. “They must have been delayed by the storm.”
Alp’s mind raced. There must be a way out of this, she thought. She remembered back to her days at the ski resort where she and Mel regularly conned people out of their money. She had honed her persuasive skills and acting abilities to a razor edge. Could she now use those skills to help save herself and her sisters? She had to give it a try.
“Maybe it’s a sign,” Alp said as she held out her hand and touched him on the arm.
“What do you mean?” He asked as he continued to look around.
“Well, you said that you’d grown fond of me and my sisters. You have to admit we’re a unique family, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, why not do the right thing? You don’t really want to turn us over to your boss, do you? Do you really want to be the guy who has us experimented on? Who knows what he’ll do to us? Cut us up to see what makes us tick? At least give us a chance. Let us go. You’ve done your job. You’ve completed your part of the mission. It’s the other guys fault that they’re not here on time.”
“You’re good, girl, you are. I’d like to help, but I’m afraid I have a reputation to maintain. What would happen if it got around that I couldn’t handle a bunch of young girls?”
“But we’re not just a bunch of young girls,” Tabitha said as she slid the door of the helicopter open. “We’re the Kindred.”
“I told you to stay put,” James started but then stopped, a sudden strained look on his face. “What…what are you…”
“I’m tired of people telling me what to do,” Tabitha jumped from the helicopter landing on the ground a few yards from the pilot. She waved her hand in a slow sweeping motion. “I also don’t like you pointing that gun at my sister. She might be overly bossy, but she’s still my sis.”
Slowly the gun in James' hand strayed off like it had a mind of its own, but it was Tabitha’s mind doing the work. He struggled to keep the gun pointed in Alp’s direction, and then suddenly tried to redirect in towards Tabitha, the muscles of his arm straining to do his bidding.
“You know, we all have special gifts. For example, you’re an excellent pilot, aren’t you? Probably a better than average soldier in your day. But we Kindred are a new breed of human being. We have our own special gifts. I discovered mine early in life. You see, my mother was demented; crazy as a loon towards the end. Hell, she even tried to shoot me while I was in her womb. Can you imagine that? What a way to come into the world. But I showed her, didn’t I sisters? Just like I’m going to show you.”
As she spoke the revolver slowly redirected towards James, despite his effort to stop it. It moved up towards his head until the barrel rested against his temple. His face contorted in an ugly mask of anger and fear, as he continued to fight for control.
“Now, dear James. I want you to squeeze the trigger…just a little more…just like my mother did, may she rest in hell,” Tabitha said as she took another step towards him.
“No!” Alp screamed, stepping between her sister and James. “That’s enough.” She froze Tabitha with an angry stare, then quickly walked over to James and wrested the gun from his hand. “You’ve proven your point, Tabitha, but we’re not killers.”
“Speak for yourself.” Tabitha laughed, then turned and walked off. As she did so, James fell to his knees, exhausted from the mental battle in which he’d been engaged.
Mia and Heather jumped out of the helicopter and ran over to Alp, who was now pointing the gun in James' direction.
“Are you okay?” Mia asked as she hugged Alp. “That was close. I thought she was going to kill him and then you.”
“Our sister seems to have strong views,” Alp said with a shaky smile.
“What do we do now?” Heather asked.
“Is there still some rope in there, or did it get tossed?” Alp asked.
“There’s the rope that was attached to your harness,” Heather answered.
“Okay, then we tie him up and leave him to be found by the others when they arrive. We owe him that much. He did get us here safely.”
She turned to James. “I’m sorry it had to end this way. I’ve grown fond of you as well, but like you said, we have to think of our reputations, don’t we?”
Late Night at BVT
After leaving Bridgette and Denise in Franklin’s office with Denise trying to reach her college friend, Lionel took a long walk around the BVT grounds, inspecting the devastation of the day’s holocaust. He finally returned to his lab, tired but still deep in thought. He flashed his ID across the security panel and waited to hear a click of the lock disengaging. As he waited, he glanced down the gray and white hallway that had been more like his home the past five years than his real home. Nothing stirred at this late hour. He breathed a sigh of relief as he pushed the door to his lab opened and walked in. He started to turn on the ceiling lights then thought better of it. Considering what had brought him back this late at night, it made sense to attract as little attention as possible. Instead, he counted off the six steps to his desk and turned on the lamp, adjusting its beam down to minimize the glow.
It had taken him months to come to the decision that brought him back to his lab on this night. So much had happened in that time. Over the past two years, his life had gone on a completely different and unpredictable direction, and it had all started here with the surprise visit from his old college roommate.
He leaned against the desk and looked around. It was a nice lab…no, much more than nice. It was as well furnished and supplied as any genetics lab in the country, probably the world. And if he didn’t have the equipment here, it was just because it was somewhere else in another BVT’s researcher’s lab like the spectrophotometer that he shared with Dr. Chickowski. His eyes wandered over to the stainless steel and glass cabinet. The reason for his late night visit lay inside, hidden in the back behind a stack of textbooks since that night when everything had changed.
He opened his top desk drawer and removed the set of keys, then walked over to the cabinet and unlocked it. He reached behind the books and pulled out a stoppered flask about one-third filled with a light translucent blue fluid. It was all that remained of the genetic template he'd developed over the five years of research. It had changed his life and maybe the world. Somehow, a tiny amount of the blue liquid had found its way into Flip’s reproductive tract, and as the old saying goes, the rest is history. The Kindred was born.
Lionel had spent many sleepless nights trying to decide what to do with the remaining template. He had even resorted to visiting his neighborhood church frequently where he used the quiet setting to meditate on what to do. For so long nothing came to him, so he simply left the fluid in its hiding place. There was so much else going on around the lab that everyone seemed to have forgotten about the original research. But he hadn’t; not by a long shot.
He had thought of discussing it with Bridgette. After all, they had grown close in recent months. He’d shared just about everything else with her, but not this. This was one secret he just couldn’t quite open up to her about. After all, his original research had had dramatic effects on her life as well.
He picked the flask up and gently swirled the blue fluid inside it, watching the light catch it at certain angles. Then he leaned forward and studied the liquid more closely. Something didn’t look right, but he couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong. He had studied the template many times before as he was formulating it. Had it lost some of its blueness? Wasn’t it just a shade redder than it had once been? He carefully uncorked it and fanned his hand across the top to get a whiff. It smelled different. In fact, it hardly smelled at all. Where was the medicinal odor that had reminded him of his mom’s favorite cough medicine that she’d forced him to take when he was a child?
Something was wrong…very wrong. He walked over to the lab counter, pulled out a pair of disposable gloves from a drawer and put them on. He then found a small vial he often used for testing samples and a pipette. He carefully removed a half milliliter of liquid and placed it in the vial. He then returned the flask to its hiding place and locked the door. As he did so, he stopped. He had kept the cabinet locked all this time. He examined the lock more closely but detected no sign of tampering. If something had been done to the reagent, whoever messed with it would have to know where he kept the key. That would reduce the suspect list down considerably.
Well, first, let’s just see if there really is anything wrong, Lionel thought. He’d have Jacob, his lab assistant run a spec on it first thing in the morning. He took a handkerchief out of his back pocket and wrapped the small vial within it, then placed both in a plastic bag with a note to Jacob. Placing it all in Jacob’s box, he made a mental note to follow up with an email to his assistant. He turned off the lamp and went home. On the way, he received a text message from Denise asking him to meet with her and Bridgette the following morning. Despite his fatigue and knowing he had the meeting in the morning, sleep did not come easily that night.
Tina handed the rope down to Heather, who delivered it to Alp, shivering as she did so. While the night air was cool and still moist from the aftermath of the storm, she suspected the shivering had as much to do with their situation as with the weather. Alp stared at the rope for a moment trying to figure out how best to tie the large man up. She handed the gun to Heather.
“Keep him covered,” she said and Heather nodded, a nervous look on her face. Alp turned to James.
“Don’t believe she won’t shoot if she has to,” she warned him. “Now turn around and put your hands behind you.”
James started to do as he Alp instructed, and then stopped. “Before you tie me up, I want to give you something. It’s in my pocket.” He started to reach into the pocket on the calf of his flight suit but stopped as Heather made a threatening motion with the gun.
“Promise, no funny business,” he said. Alp nodded to Heather.
Slowly James reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money. He counted out several bills. He then slowly reached into the upper right pocket on his chest and pulled out a card, adding it to the money. He held it all out to Alp.
“You’ll need cash if you have any hope of escaping. It’s the only safe way to pay for anything you need. Don’t use any credit or debit card. It’ll give your location away.”
Alp stared at the money in his hand, hesitated for a moment, then took it.
“Why are you doing this?” She asked as she stared down at the money and card.
“Like I said before, I have a daughter at home. If she was ever in a situation like this, I pray someone might help her out. Besides, I figure it’s good karma.”
“What’s this?” Alp asked holding up the card.
“It’s how you can get in touch with me if you ever need to.”
“Stepps heating and plumbing?” Alp asked.
“That’s my other business, mostly a front but it does help to pay the bills,” James replied.
Alp stuck the card and the money away in her pocket. “Thanks…now turn around.”
James did as he was told. As Alp tied his hands behind his back, he asked her, “Where are you going from here?”
Alp didn’t answer since she didn’t know.
“Well, if I might offer a suggestion.” He nodded in the general direction of the lights off in the distance. “Over in that direction is the Black Horse Tavern. An old army buddy of mine runs it. He opened it after he ran away from a large corporate job several years ago. His name is Jersey. Kind of a flake around the edges but overall a good guy. Show him that card, and he’ll treat you right; give you a hot meal, maybe help you get off the island. And you want to get off the island as soon as possible. Once my colleagues show up, they won’t be happy to find that the cargo has walked off. They’ll be after you.”
Alp nodded. “Walk over there next to the helicopter and sit down. I need to tie your legs.”
James followed Alp's instructions. As he sat down, several of Alp’s sisters started climbing out of the helicopter. Tabitha joined them as they circled around Alp and James. Alp finished tying his legs together, then stepped back to inspect her work. “There, that should hold you for a while.”
James smiled. “I have just one more favor to ask you.”
“What’s that?”
“Take that gun and smack me in the head with it good and hard.”
“What? Why?”
“It’ll help my reputation. If my friends find me tied up without even a mark on me, they’ll either think I’m a wuss or that I colluded with you. Either way, not good.”
Alp nodded but could feel the blood draining from her face at the thought of hitting him.
“Close your eyes,” she said.
“You aren't really going to hit him, are you?” Heather asked as the rest of the Kindred circled around them.
“Well, he said it would help,” Alp answered back. “So, I guess I should.” She raised the gun over her head and squinted, trying to get up the nerve to strike. Nothing happened.
After several seconds, Tabitha stepped forward. “Oh good God, give me the gun.” She yanked the revolver out of Alp’s hand and before Alp could stop her, slammed it into James' head. His head jerked to one side then hung loosely.
“Damn!” Alp yelled. “You’ve killed him.” She pushed Tabitha away.
“Nah, I doubt it,” Tabitha replied with a chuckle. “Serves him right if I did though.”
“You hit him too hard,” Alp yelled as she crouched down beside James. Heather stood over them and shined the flashlight on them while Alp inspected the damage. There was a two-inch gash on his forehead that was bleeding down his face. She touched the area lightly with her hand and inspected the area with her mind. She sensed swelling beginning to build in the area, and gently worked to calm the swelling.
After a moment, Alp breathed a sigh of relief. “He’s breathing. No serious damage. He should be all right.”
“Yeah, these grunts are hard headed,” Kirstin said. “Where to now?”
Alp stood up and looked around at the circle of sisters. “Anyone hungry?”
The vote was unanimous. Everyone was starved.
Black Horse Tavern
The eight girls headed towards
the lights that James had pointed out with Alp leading the way. Heather and Mia joined hands and followed close behind with Kirstin and Tabitha walking next to each other and Connie, Kim, and Tina taking up the rear.
“Stay close together and try not to attract attention,” Alp instructed as they walked along.
“This place smells heavenly,” Tina said as she took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
“It sure does,” Kim agreed. “It must be all the flowers. I’ve never seen so many growing everywhere.” She reached out and plucked one from a nearby bush.
“That’s because the temperature almost never gets below freezing,” Tabitha said. “I read about it on the internet. So they just grow and grow.”
“Shhh,” Alp said. “Pay attention. Some people are approaching. Be quiet.”
“There she goes…” Kirstin started, but then stopped when Mia and Heather gave her a stern look. A group of men and women, all wearing shorts and brightly colored shirts, walked by talking among themselves. After they had passed without apparently noticing the girls, Alp stopped and gathered her sisters around her.
“I know this is an exciting place. I wish we had time to explore it further, but remember, we’ve some bad people that will be looking for us. We’ve got to get off this island as soon as we can.”
“But it’s just so exciting to finally be out of that place and on our own,” Tina said dancing around.
“I bet it is,” Alp replied. “But if we want to stay free and on our own, we must stay focused.”
The girls all nodded, all except Tabitha and Kirstin, who merely frowned but stayed silent.
“Okay, good. Now, we’re looking for a place called the Black Horse Tavern,” Alp continued once she had their attention. “It shouldn’t be too hard to find. It’s probably one of the few spots opened this late at night. Least I hope it’s still open.”
Kindle Series 3-Book Bundle: A Genetic Engineering Science Fiction Thriller Series Page 34
