Different (31 page)

It's just knowing how
, he thought, as he sped west along the freeway. He would keep to the speed limit until dark, before transferring power to the new rotary linear engine that would power the car's wheels in excess of two hundred miles an hour. The foils that ran the length of the vehicle's body to keep it from rising off the road gave the car a distinctly alien look. Not that it mattered ... nothing was going to stop him from reaching Jay and the others. He could sense her more with each passing mile, and abandoning caution, he switched engines. The car leapt forward, silent except for the wheel noise. Adam promised himself that he'd eliminate that too later.

The car was rocketing along when he saw the flashing lights of a pursuing traffic car in his rear-view mirror. He slid the power lever forward and was jerked back in his seat as the Chevrolet surged forward and immediately the lights of his pursuers receded and then vanished from sight. Grinning, Adam drove towards the setting sun.

Russell and his men arrived back at the cabin just before 11 a.m. Rebecca Carlyle and Scott Mallard sat apprehensively in the back seat with their hands shackled behind them. Russell had laughed as he told them that one of Mary's legs had been amputated and that he would make them all join her and watch the dogs eat it.

"Oh, you can refuse to watch of course,” he said without humour. “But if you do I guess I'll just have to cut off her other leg or maybe an arm!"

"You're insane!” The woman hissed as she glared at him and struggled ineffectually with her manacles and Russell decided he would enjoy cutting her up personally. He could see the despair in the Scott's eyes as the younger man realised that he was powerless to protect himself let alone the women. He decided that he'd force Scott to kneel in front of him, and then slit his throat as a warning to the women to do exactly what they were told.

Russell was half out of the car before he sensed that something was wrong and it took him a few seconds to realise that he didn't hear the dogs. Drawing his automatic, he turned towards the compound and saw that the gate was open, Nathan's dogs were gone, and the cabin door was open.

"Blake, you come with me!” he barked. “The rest of you check out the back and shoot anything that moves, and I mean anything!” He waited until the other men disappeared around the far side of the cabin. They were carrying enough firepower to cope with the freak if she was there, he thought. Cocking his gun, Russell gestured to Blake and cautiously they walked towards the open door. Russell, holding his pistol in a two handed grip, flattened himself against the rough log-wall a few inches from the doorway on his right. He nodded to Blake who spun with the gun held in his extended arms pointing into the opening.

"Clear!” Blake said.

Blake inched into the room swinging his gun from side to side before bending his arms so the pistol pointed towards the roof. Russell crossed quickly to the cellar door, opened it and something hit him in the chest, sending him sprawling. The dog seemed huge with saliva dripping from its mouth, and it seemed to be grinning as it launched itself at Russell's throat. He raised his arm to protect himself and waited for his arm to be shredded by the dog's wicked looking fangs. The dog was hurled sideways and the sound of shot's from Blake's automatic filled the room.

Russell barely had time to raise his own gun and loose off a burst to take out the second dog that had silently emerged from the cellar behind Blake. It fell into an untidy heap and Russell regained his feet, stepping over the dog's body he descended the cellar steps. Nathan lay stretched out on the table his body torn and mutilated by his own dogs, there were bloody paw prints everywhere.

The steel door of the cellar was open and Russell knew that somehow the freak had escaped. He swore under his breath, there was something that wasn't quite right, something he couldn't quite put a finger on. He looked at Nathan's corpse again.

There was a neat cluster of bullet holes in his chest. He looked at Blake in surprise. “He's been shot!” he exclaimed. “That means there must have been someone else here! Let's get back outside and check it out!"

They were climbing back up from the cellar when the sound of gunshots came from outside. They reached the doorway just in time to see the car containing Scott Mallard and the British woman careering away down the dirt track. Some of his men were firing futile shots after it and Blake shook his head, the idiots knew the car was bullet proof.

Their other car refused to start; some of the wiring had been wrenched free.

"Call up a chopper, Blake!” Russell ordered. “You lot scout around, there was someone else here and I want to know who."

The men scoured the area, carefully scanning the ground and then one of them found the tracks.

"There's some footprint's over here, it looks like a child or maybe a woman's, but they're heading towards the cabin all right!"

Russell and Blake joined in the search and casting around found a second pair of tracks leading up into the hills. Russell recognised the distinctive pattern left by the sole of a trainer, they were Mary's and in one of her shoes he'd planted a tracer bug. But who was the other woman? By the time the helicopter arrived they had found the spot where the footprint vanished and a vehicle had been parked.

There was definitely another player in the game, an unknown and Russell didn't like it one little bit.

After Janine and Mary had left, Jay lifted Nathan's dead body onto the table and then went outside to fetch his dogs.

The first dog leapt for her throat but she side-stepped it with ease, and caught the animal by the fur at the scruff of its neck. She held the ferocious beast out at arms length while it scrabbled in mid-air and tried to twist itself out of her grasp.

"Bad dog!” she said, cuffed it around the ears and shook it. “Bad dog!” She released it and as the dog fell to the ground, the other one attacked.

It took about five minutes of repeating the lesson before the dogs reluctantly sat when they were told. She led them out of the compound and down the steps of the cellar and they went wild when they smelled Nathan's blood.

"Good dogs!” Jay said as she ascended the steps and shut the dogs in the cellar with their former master.

Suddenly, she reeled back against the wall as a vision filled her mind. She saw a man who had black hair and piercing blue eyes, a man who looked vaguely familiar. The boy in the ice! Jay remembered him now. It was definitely the same boy, although he looked older now, but it was definitely the same boy.

He was like her! How she knew that she didn't know, but she was as certain of it as if she'd seen it verified in print. He was coming to her, and she had an almost overwhelming urge to go and meet him. But she couldn't. She had to stay and help Rebecca and Scott. The boy/man would find her, she knew.

Jay left the cabin door open and knew that the absence of the dogs coupled with the open door would alert Russell to the fact that something was wrong. She thought he'd be so preoccupied with checking it out that he would be careless about his prisoners. Not that it mattered too much, she would free Rebecca and Scott anyway, but if she could avoid hurting anyone, so much the better.

There were no trees by the parking lot, but there was a grassy mound a few feet to her left. It would have to do; Russell and his men would be focusing their attention in front of them. Walking over to the mound she sat on it and waited.

It was getting dusk when she heard the vehicles approaching and slipping out of her clothes she rolled them up and pushed them behind the mound. When the headlights of the cars drew near, Jay lay down on the mound and after wriggling herself into a comfortable position, she became.

Two cars pulled up and stopped less than fifteen feet away from her and she saw the rear door open and Scott and Rebecca sitting in the rear. Russell had his gun out and was pointing first to the compound and then to the open door of the cabin. The men from the other car ran around the back of the cabin while Russell and his driver cautiously enter the cabin.

Jay moved quickly, not even bothering to dress, she simply tucked her clothes under her arm. The driver's door of the rear car was open and Jay reached behind the steering rack and wrenched free a handful of wires. A shot sounded from inside the cabin.
They've found the dogs,
she thought.

Opening the driver's door of the other car, Jay slipped behind the wheel and tossed her clothes onto the passenger seat. “Hi, gang,” she said grinning over her shoulder at Rebecca and Scott. “Shall we go for a ride?”

She was a little disappointed that she wouldn't have to display her new knowledge of how to hot-wire the car, but the keys hung from the ignition. She turned it and the engine started. Accelerating, she swung the car around in a wide arc and sped away from the cabin. There was a metallic pinging sound at the rear of the car and in the rear view mirror, she could see the flashing of gunfire. Then she was sweeping around a bend and out of range. She kept her foot down on the accelerator though; she wanted to find a drive off amongst the trees where they could hide until morning.

About fifteen minutes later, she found a turnoff that she thought would do and pulled into it. About a mile along the narrow dirt road, she decided it would be safe to stop. Turning off the engine, she looked into the rear and Scott looked at her anxiously.

"Mary?” he asked.

"She's safe, Scott!” She wouldn't tell him about the foiled rape now. She thought he'd go back after Russell in a rage. “This woman, Laura Green came along and saved her, she's taking her somewhere safe. No, let's get you two out of those handcuffs."

"I must get to the British Embassy and contact the Prime Minister. He's the only one I can think of that could help us.” Rebecca said.

Jay examined the handcuffs and fashioned a paperclip into a crude but effective key and freed them both. While both Scott and Rebecca started to massage their chafed wrists, Jay realising that she was still nude slipped on her clothes, but the others seemed not to notice.

She heard the helicopter approaching slowly, it was obviously searching for them and so restarting the car, Jay drove them deeper into the trees.

"You've changed,” Rebecca said, as she peered anxiously up through the trees towards the sound of the helicopter. “You seem older somehow and I have something to tell you. There's a boy over here looking for you, he's like you and was born on the Devil's Footprint. His name's Adam."

"Adam ... I dreamt about him ... being trapped in the ice and today I saw him in my mind! He's older now and on his way to find me."

"The helicopter's leaving!” Scott said excitedly, “It's going away!"

He was right. Jay could hear the machine turning away from them and she smiled at Rebecca. “We'll find Mary and then go to the embassy.” They sat for a while on the grass and recapped their adventures.

Scott frowned. “When you say you're the future, the next step in the evolutionary chain, what do you mean exactly?"

"I have an increased awareness, an understanding of how things work, it's as though my IQ has not just increased but shot off the scale. Take your watch for instance, it's simply driven by a battery driven micro-chip impulse drive. A few days ago, I would never have known that, but now I not only understand how it works, I can see that could be made much more efficient and less energy consuming. It seems quite primitive to me now."

"This mystery woman Laura Green, you have no idea who she is?” Rebecca asked.

"She was consumed with the need for revenge against Russell Downey.” Jay kept her knowledge of Janine's identity to herself. Janine had saved Mary's life and although she wasn't aware of it yet, she had changed. If the hatred for Russell didn't destroy her, Janine could have a new life too.

"Well, I suppose we'd better make a move if we're going to find her and Mary before it gets dark.” Rebecca said. “Where are they?"

"I don't know, but they would've gone south and I'll sense it when we're near them.” Jay accepted her new abilities easily. She was herself at last.

They climbed back into the car and Scott drove them back onto the road and headed south. Rebecca, who was sitting in the back, suddenly cried out.

"Stop Scott, pull over!"

Jay could hear the fear in Rebecca's voice and as soon as the car rolled to a stop, she climbed in the rear next to her. Rebecca was looking at what appeared to be a small video screen and in the centre a small red dot pulsated on and off. The other door opened and Scott poked his head in.

"What's happening ...?"

"It's a trace!” Rebecca cut him off and pressed a button and map appeared with the red dot in the centre. She pressed another button and zoomed in and they could read the name on the map, The Deer Lodge Motel and in smaller letters above the trace were two letters. MS. “That's Mary!” Rebecca said. “They've planted a bug in her clothes and know exactly where she is!"

"We've got to get to her!” Scott said, “Where the Hell is the motel?"

Rebecca pressed the button and the map re-focused and she pointed at a stationary green dot at the left hand corner of the map. “I think this is our car and this,” she pointed a few inches above it and they saw an identical green dot moving steadily away from them “is the other car. You know the one from the cabin. They must have fixed it and according to the map, they're almost two hours ahead of us and they're heading towards the motel!"

Russell surveyed the debris around him and sinking to his haunches scooped up a handful of the powdered rust. Henry was right, with a weapon like that they could control every nation on earth. Straightening, he went into the Mallard house where the intelligence agent's had set up their headquarters. Walking past rows of men and women operating computers, he went into Henry's temporary office.

Henry was sitting scowling at the TV news. He turned and nodded to Russell.

"There's been a goddamned leak! Some hunters have been telling reporters how their guns and all the other metal they had with them simply disintegrated. They claim Aliens armed with a space guns attacked them."