Edward raised his hands, palms up. “I assure you, we’ve done nothing untoward. A misunderstanding, that’s all.”
“That ain’t what I heard,” another voice said, and all heads swiveled to identify Art Robbins, another of the paying passengers. “I heard your security people raped one of their kids.”
A shocked silence fell, then all hell broke loose, accusations and denials flying back and forth between Edward’s supporters and detractors. It seemed the “people of Haven” knew more than Edward had thought. Carla drew closer to him and murmured in his ear.
Tobias and Raoul shuffled their feet as some of the vitriol came in their direction. Tobias still had the second spare pistol tucked into his waistband.
“We’re losing them, Edward. You need to take action!” Carla said.
Edward looked at the crowd. There seemed to be more accusers than defenders. He turned to Tobias and Raoul, who studied the ground. He pressed his lips together as he realized that maybe, just maybe, he might have a problem on his hands.
Arriving at the clinic, Veronika and Elizabeth walked through to Sabine’s room on the patients’ ward.
No Sabine.
Veronika looked at Elizabeth, eyebrows drawing together. “Help me check the other rooms.”
They searched the entire clinic, calling Sabine’s name, but she couldn’t be found.
Veronika ran one hand through her hair, distraught. “Simon said he’d take care of her. I don’t think he’d lie. Do you think he moved her somewhere else?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “I don’t know. Why would he?”
“Let’s go home and check with the others, in case she went there. If not, we’ll try the pavilion.”
Simon and Christian arrived at the warehouse to find it deserted.
“Look at this,” Christian said, dropping to a squat and touching a dark, wet stain on the floor. He looked up at Simon. “Blood. A lot of it.”
Simon frowned and rubbed his chin. He didn’t like this, not one little bit.
“Let’s check their houses, starting with the Miller place. I bet they went there.”
Vasily paced outside his house, assault rifle at the ready. Anger burned within him at what they’d done to Joyce, driving him to stay out there, in the rain, even though his stomach growled and his arms felt like lead.
This guard duty was worse than the mission to rescue Joyce. At least then he’d had a specific goal and only had to focus on achieving it. Now he jumped at shadows, not knowing if anyone would come or what he’d do if they did.
Trouble arrived without drama, to bring his nervous watch to an end. Simon and Christian walked up the path, pistols at the ready. He snapped his rifle to his shoulder and found himself in a standoff.
“Stop!”
Vasily had no idea what to do now. He recognized Simon and Christian and knew them to be decent men. He didn’t want to shoot them, but he’d do it if they tried to get inside.
Simon and Christian had seen Vasily standing outside with the rifle. He hadn’t seen them, so it would have been the easiest thing in the world for them to take positions and shoot him to remove the threat. But they decided to just walk up, announce themselves, and try to talk him into surrendering.
As they approached he jumped and snatched up the rifle. Simon flinched, thinking he would shoot them then and there. But instead he drew a bead on them and shouted for them to stop.
“We don’t want to hurt you, Vasily,” Simon said. “Put the gun down and we can talk.”
Vasily said nothing, but continued to aim his rifle at them.
Simon gestured, and Christian moved to his left.
Vasily’s aim followed Christian. “Stop there! Don’t move!”
Meanwhile Simon stepped to the right, putting Vasily into a position where he couldn’t cover both of them at once.
“Be reasonable, Vasily. You can’t shoot both of us before we can shoot you. Put down your gun and talk to us.”
Vasily’s eyes darted back and forth between Simon and Christian, and Simon could taste the potential for disaster.
“Listen, we don’t want to, but we’ll have to act if you won’t talk to us.”
Vasily said nothing, but Simon could see the panic starting to take hold.
“No, Simon.”
Simon spun around at the sound of a soft voice from behind him.
“Sabine?”
She stood there, hospital gown plastered to her slim body by the rain, purple hair sodden. She stepped closer. Vasily and Christian continued to face each other down, although both snatched glances at Sabine.
Sabine looked at Christian, then back to Simon. “You both know you’re on the wrong side,” she said.
Simon grimaced. Her words struck straight at his lingering doubts. He found it difficult to meet her gaze. “I have obligations,” he said.
“To Edward Harper? Why? What has he done to earn your respect?”
Simon’s gun arm fell to his side, and she drew closer and raised a hand to his cheek. He raised his eyes to meet hers.
“I know about your family,” she said, and his eyes widened. “But they’re a long way away. What could he do to hurt them here?” She raised her other hand and cupped his face. “If you do this, can you live with yourself afterwards?”
Simon lowered his eyes again, and he knew the answer.
No. No, he couldn’t.
He looked up at Christian and shook his head.
Christian lowered his gun and closed his eyes for a moment.
Sabine slipped her arms around Simon and hugged him.
“So now what?” he asked.
The crowd in the pavilion swelled as more left the safety of their homes. Ernie arrived with Heidi. Support was fading for Edward, but some still stood with him. He gestured to Tobias and Raoul and shouted to them to restore order. Raoul raised his pistol and fired twice into the ceiling, which had the desired effect of stopping everyone in their tracks.
Kevin slapped Josh and Nigel on the back. “That’s our cue,” he said, and he and Nigel raced off, Nigel around the back of the pavilion while he raced to the front.
Josh shattered the silence following Raoul’s gunshots by smashing the window with the butt of his rifle. He let rip with a burst of automatic fire into the ceiling as a distraction, while Kevin and Nigel got into position.
David didn’t discover as much as he’d hoped from Heinrich, but felt a load lift from his mind when the guard confirmed the others had taken Grace to the stasis chamber.
He stood up and turned to leave.
“You’re not leaving me here like this, are you?” Heinrich asked.
David stopped and turned. “I can’t set you free – I can’t trust you. So it’s either that or a bullet through your head. Which would you prefer?”
Heinrich said nothing.
David smiled, but it wasn’t a smile to warm anyone’s heart. “I thought so,” he said, and turned back to the door.
Outside, the artificial rain continued to fall, and the artificial moonlight cast its eerie glow across the green of the park. Light blazed from the pavilion. He set off toward it, looping around the perimeter of the park near the path to their houses, keeping to cover.
As he came closer, he frowned, and stopped to study the rear of the pavilion, near the window. For a moment he couldn’t make out what he could see, then one of the three crouching men moved, and he caught a glimpse of an assault rifle.
Kevin, Nigel, and Josh.
The gears in his mind shifted as he saw what would happen, and he carried on walking. But before he could get closer, the sound of gunshots rang out from within the pavilion. A moment later, he saw two of the men scatter left and right, and the third stand up, smash the window, and fire a burst into the room. Throwing all caution to the wind, he sprinted for the pavilion entrance.
John was jogging toward the park, the shuttle access keys bouncing in his pocket, when he heard automatic gunfire ahead. Cursing, he sucked in a breath and b
roke into a flat run, rifle held at the ready.
He’d almost reached the park when he had to pull up to avoid colliding with two figures that darted onto the path in front him.
“Shit!” he swore, and fumbled with the safety on the rifle.
The two turned, eyes like saucers, and raised their hands, even though they had weapons of their own.
“Don’t shoot,” one of them said. John recognized Simon and Christian.
He raised the rifle stock to his shoulder and fixed them with a steely gaze. “You boys better put those guns down, real slow.”
“Wait, John, we’re on your side,” Christian said.
“Yeah, I remember,” John replied. “That would be the side where you chucked us into our own warehouse and stood guard outside, eh?”
“Look, I know you don’t have good reason to believe us, but it’s true,” Simon said. “We’ve had a change of heart.” His head dropped with those words, although his eyes still held John’s gaze, and John couldn’t help but feel he spoke the truth. However, letting them run around with guns required taking a big leap of faith.
“He’s right.”
“Sabine?” There was no mistaking that purple hair.
She walked closer. “They’ve joined us, John,” she said. “Just now, they could have shot Vasily and taken all of our families hostage, but they didn’t. They want to help us regain control. Trust them.”
John looked her in the eye, then Christian and Simon. They returned his gaze without blinking.
He sighed and shook his head. “I must be crazy.” He looked at Sabine again. “I hope I don’t live to regret this.”
“You won’t,” she said at the same time as Simon, and they shared a nervous laugh.
“OK you blokes,” John said. “There’s some serious shit going down in the park – we need to get there ASAP. One of you stay with Sabine, the other come with me.”
Simon glanced at Sabine, then back at John.
“I …”
“You go with John,” Sabine said. “Both of you.” She looked at John. “You should stick together. I’m not a little girl, I can take care of myself.”
John opened his mouth then shut it again when she glared at him. “Go!”
He shook his head again and sighed, the same sigh Nathalie often evoked. “OK, let’s go guys.”
They turned and set off down the path at a brisk trot.
Sabine smiled as she heard John mutter under his breath, “I hope I don’t live to regret this as well …”
Her smile changed to a grimace as she clutched at her stomach and dropped to her knees. She stayed there a moment, breathing, then struggled to her feet and shuffled off toward the pavilion, bent over like an old woman.
The first shots from Raoul had startled then quieted the crowd. Josh’s burst of automatic fire panicked them and they rushed for the exit. Confusion only increased as Kevin and Nigel burst in, followed by John, Simon, and Christian.
Some people waited inside to see how events played out, but most clustered out in the park, looking back in.
David arrived and the crowd separated to let him through, like Moses parting the Red Sea. He cut an imposing figure. Although he still wore nothing but a pair of shorts, the way he carried himself and the look in his eyes shouted Danger. No one wanted to be standing between him and Edward.
He still had his knife, but had left the pistol behind.
Kevin, Nigel, and John distributed themselves around the room. They had Edward, Carla, Raoul, and Tobias covered. Josh covered them from the window. Simon and Christian stood back a little and kept their guns lowered, making it clear they preferred to take a less active role if they could.
Raoul and Tobias couldn’t stay still. Outnumbered, they weren’t sure who they should try to cover, or perhaps if they should cover anyone at all.
Carla also held a pistol, aimed straight at David.
Edward had no weapon. He preferred to leave such things to others.
No one moved for a long moment. The entire scene seemed unreal, like life suspended in an enormous stasis chamber. No one seemed willing to move and destroy the perfect tension that held them all spellbound.
Edward broke the silence.
“You know what is at stake here, David. You know. I’ve told you everything. It’s not too late for us to join forces and unite, once and for all.”
His words disappeared into the air and faded into silence.
David said nothing for a moment, then looked at Tobias and Raoul.
“Give it up. You have a place here, with us.” He looked at Simon and Christian, and they nodded in agreement. He turned back to Tobias and Raoul.
“Come.”
Tobias and Raoul exchanged a glance. Tobias shrugged and lowered his gun, followed by Raoul.
Carla’s nostrils flared and she clenched her teeth. The gun she held pointed at David trembled and they could see the whites of her eyes.
David stood there, posture strong and confident. “You too, Carla.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“There’s a place for you.”
The rage in her eyes seemed to fade, to be replaced with something else. Something cold and calculating.
“Lower the gun,” David said. “Then we can all lower our guns and put them away.”
The gunmen ringing the room shifted a little, emphasizing the assault rifles they held trained on Carla, and Carla alone.
An eternity seemed to pass before Carla slowly spread her arms wide, as if in supplication, the gun loose in her right hand.
“Carla,” Edward whispered, his face pale.
She looked at him, but there seemed to be no life in her gray eyes. As her arms continued to spread, her hand rose. Edward seemed fascinated as he watched the gun swing away from David until it was pointing toward himself, like a mouse watching a snake preparing to strike.
The last thing he would ever see was the cold eyes and pinched mouth of Carla Lewis as she squeezed the trigger.
The gunshot sounded like a thunderbolt in the quiet of the pavilion. Somehow, those holding guns managed not to react as Edward fell with a bullet hole in his forehead, blood and brains spraying the walls and floor behind him.
Carla’s pistol clattered to the floor.
She turned to face David, and for a moment nothing happened, then her face crumpled and she burst into tears.
“You don’t know what it’s been like,” she sobbed. “I was so afraid of that man! I had no choice but to do what he wanted. He made me do terrible things.”
David glanced at her, then looked around to see a room full of open mouths and wide eyes. He sighed. “Lower your guns.” He turned to look outside, the click of safety catches sounding in his ears. Turning back to John, he said, “I think we’ve had enough rain for one night, don’t you?”
John nodded. “Yes. Yes, we have.” He reached for his phone and a moment later the steady beat of the rain ceased, leaving only a heavy blanket of silence laced with a curious mixture of relief and despair.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Kevin reacted first. Still aiming his rifle straight at Carla, he advanced. “Don’t believe her! Not for an instant!”
All eyes turned to him.
Carla looked at him, tears in her eyes. She stifled a sob.
David tilted his head. “You don’t think she’s genuine?”
Kevin snorted. “If she’s ever had a genuine thought in her life, I’d be surprised.”
“Please …” Carla said, looking at David.
Kevin just shook his head. “I’d almost be convinced if I didn’t know you to be a pathological liar.”
He looked at David. “Harper wasn’t that bad. A bit deluded, perhaps, but no one could fault his work ethic, and he always kept his word. She, on the other hand,” he said, indicating with his head, “is simply evil. It may seem harsh, but the best option is just to end her now. Cut her out like the cancer she is.”
He turned back and aimed straight at her hea
d. “It’s no worse than she just did to Harper, and it will make our world a much better place.”
David scrutinized Carla and saw, for a split second, a look of pure venom directed at Kevin, before she turned her gaze back to David, the contrite expression back in place.
David had had enough of killing tonight. He felt no regrets for Roberto or Jake. In Kevin’s words, he’d cut a cancer from his colony; had clinically dispatched two criminals that would otherwise poison their world.
But despite what she’d done, killing Carla now wouldn’t feel right.
Something about her gave him pause for thought. He looked at Kevin, all grit and resolve, then turned to John and Nigel. “Clear the room.”
While they moved to obey, he turned back to Carla, slipping his knife from its scabbard. “I sliced one of your men’s throat with this tonight,” he said, fixing her with a basilisk stare. “All in the name of removing a poison from this colony. We don’t have the time or resources to tolerate such people.”
He stepped closer. Carla looked into his icy blue eyes and her face tightened. She seemed to realize she’d overplayed her hand, and maybe, just maybe, this time had pushed her luck one step too far.
“Wait!”
David kept coming.
“Wait! I’m too valuable to you alive!”
David kept moving, heedless to her pleas. His fists clenched and her eyes bulged.
“Stop! If you want the crew to live, stop!”
David hesitated.
“Don’t listen to her! Everything she says is a lie!” Kevin said.
“No! You have to listen to me,” Carla said in a rush. “The crew of the Inspiration, they’re still up there, and the ship’s in a low orbit. You can’t save them without my help!”
David’s eyebrows drew together a little, and he stopped.
“It wasn’t us, you see. We didn’t pilot the ship. We had a crew, and we left them up there.” Her eyes widened and her voice seemed to catch in her throat. “You know them! You don’t want them to die, do you?”
The Seasoning Page 20
