Blood Prize (37 page)

T
he chairman and the Assembly board received live footage from the Raptor Park engagement. The continuous feed failed in the cavern, but Wolf filled in the details when he and Roberto made it back to the helicopters.

The Assembly board knew when Vogel and the two women sampled the Prize. They also knew when the Angel failed and injured their chairman’s son.

The rocket attack brought all of the board members a moment of elation. They witnessed the collapse of the cavern’s roof and rejoiced knowing it caused the deaths of Fox and the girl, as well as Vogel and the twin devils, yet the chairman himself felt a moment of panic.

My only living son … almost slain.

The chairman watched as Wolf rescued a portion of the Prize and dragged his dying son Roberto to the surface.

No … It couldn’t possibly get any worse than this.

Then Wolf surprised him; administering the Prize and saving his son.

Thank you, my God, thank you. My son lives and I now possess the greatest power on Earth.

Antonio cried out. His joy turning to horror, as his son’s helicopter and his life’s work, plummeted from the sky.

No … No … No. This can’t be happening.

_____________

Many hours later the chairman sat considering his fate.

How could I ever talk my way out of this? Impossible.

The last of the Seven Angels lay dead and the Prize gone.

It’s a total disaster.

His hair felt damp with sweat as he pondered his doom. Tomorrow he faced the Assembly board with his official report.

I’ll be removed as chairman and shortly after I’ll be killed. Someone will brush past me and I won’t even feel the slight contact to the skin. The chemicals will take effect within seconds, bringing on a massive heart attack that I won’t survive.

He flicked a long strand of wet hair away from his face and patted it back down on his scalp, with the back of his hand.

The Black Cardinal is bound to the same fate. Once he’s elected, they’ll force him to capitulate and grant them their wishes. Then he’ll suffer the worst of ailments; an untimely death.

Antonio always treated hindsight as an excuse employed by the weak, but now his own thoughts became dominated by it.

I only made one mistake and it cost me everything.

He grossly underestimated the son of Alexander Fox. Who could have guessed that Tom Fox could fight and defeat a vastly superior enemy? Against all the odds, he destroyed the power of the Seventh Angel and the entire Assembly.

Tom Fox … Oh, how I loathe you.

Some, even amongst his own organisation, referred to him as a hero.

A hero …?

Yes. It might be true, but even as I take my last breath, I’ll never admit it.

T
he world turned slowly towards the sun and the horizon glowed with the promise of the day’s beginning. Not long after, a breeze sprang up. It blew through the salt bush and lifted swirls of previously disturbed soil; spinning them into braids of intertwining dust that fluttered and then dissipated into the warm, clear air.

Animals hopped and padded across the plain; heading for burrows and hides before the day’s heat bore down on them. As the sun’s rays fanned the sky, birdsong erupted amongst the eucalypts that flourished alone the banks of Spring Creek. Only then did the creatures of the day begin to emerge.

The grey, yellow-brown and black stripes of the death adder became more distinguishable as it slid from under its protective cover of leaf litter and silently made its way across the plain.

It stopped and waited.

A large red kangaroo bounded close by, followed by several others and the snake perceived the fear in their movement; determining vibrational information through its internal ear.

It felt a strong need to dig itself into the red gravel and hide. It flicked out its tongue and sensed the presence of an even larger animal; a scent it couldn’t determine, but one that fit with the vibrations of fear in the animals hopping by.

It slithered away past several piles of rubble and into the loose dirt of a large sunken pit. It felt like the perfect place to bury itself and set an ambush.

Only the camouflage of its broad triangular head and the tip of its tail lay above the ground. The tip wiggled with the exact movements of a worm, which attracted the prey it desired.

Once again it stopped all movement and waited.

The death adder’s tongue flicked in and out; picking out the scent of dried human blood and the same odour of fear that drove it into the pit.

It sensed movement underground; strange vibrations rising towards the surface. Then in the half light of dawn it saw a large human-like hand break the surface, driven up on the end of an extended arm.

The adder lashed out with the quickest strike of any snake in the world; regaining its original strike position after only one fifteenth of a second; its bite attempting to inject a lethal dose of highly toxic venom. It struck again and again at the creature, until the enormous arm began to glow. As more of it emerged through the earth, the snake connected the vibrations and scent of fear with the image of the creature and decided to retreat.

The death adder rose out of the hole and slithered under the overlap of a large rock. There it remained motionless, as the huge glowing creature broke through the surface and raised itself to its full height.

The End

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