Different (32 page)

"So what, no one's going to believe them, what's the cover story?"

"A spillage of corrosive gas from a military aircraft, we've isolated the area to protect the public. Now listen Russell, I want that boy ... but even more I want that weapon of his. You've got all the men and equipment you need to find him and the girl, so get onto it. Use the military, CIA, FBI and anyone else you need but find the girl before he does, we need her for bait!"

"She's changed Henry, we found a shed skin, and it's hers! She's like a damned reptile and just as dangerous. I need a cage made of high tensile steel to be sure of containing her."

"Have you any idea where she is?"

"I know exactly where she is. She's heading for a motel where Mary Slymond's staying with the woman who helped her escape. Blake's in one of the two cars heading there to take them out, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the freak will turn up there and when she does, I'll be waiting for her!"

"Who is the woman who helped her escape and why didn't Jay Mallard go with them? Why did she stay behind?"

Russell, who'd been wondering about the mystery woman himself but still had no idea who she could be, shrugged. “I don't know who the woman is but I think she went down into the cellar and surprised Nathan. After she'd killed him, she and Mary took off leaving the freak behind. I've told you what happened back at the cabin, when the freak took off with the prisoners in my car. But it doesn't make any difference. Blake will take out both Mary and her mystery friend, and when the freak turns up, I'll see to her personally and then dispose of the others. Then all we have to do is to wait for Adam to show. Believe me, Henry. I'll have the area so well covered that even a snake couldn't wriggle its way out of it."

They had been driving for hours and it was getting dark before Janine pulled into one of the motels that were situated along the freeway. Mary had remained in the jeep while Janine had booked them in as Mr. and Mrs. Green, hoping to throw anyone checking the Motel for two women off their trail.

"Mary, we have to decide what you're going to do.” Janine said after they'd finished their TV dinner. “There's no way of knowing what's happened to Jay or the others. I'm sorry if I'm being too blunt but for all we know they could be dead."

"I don't know what to do.” Mary said miserably. “I can't go home or go to the police. I just don't know what to do!” She looked at Janine helplessly.

Janine looked at the wretched girl and swore silently, a few weeks ago she'd have simply walked away and left Mary to get on with it, but now somehow, Janine felt responsible for her.

"Well, we'll get some sleep and tomorrow we'll go shopping and I'll pick you up some hair colour and plain glasses. We'll try and make you look a little less attractive and then head for New York. We can loose ourselves in the city until we decide what we're going to do."

Mary smiled gratefully and nodded before undressing and slipping into one side of the king-size bed. Within minutes, she was asleep but tossed and turned and Janine guessed that her dreams were anything but pleasant. Standing, Janine stretched and decided that she would have a cigarette and stroll around outside. She knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep for a while.

It was warmer outside than she'd expected and as she strolled past the other cabins she heard snatches of conversation from some of them.

"Please Marie, you promised!” a man's voice sounding aggrieved.

"But I've never done that to another girl before...” a young woman said.

The crunching of tyres on the gravel parking lot made her step back into the shadows between two cabins. There was no engine noise just the swish of tyres on gravel and then she saw the car, its light's extinguished. Just a dark shape that looked just as predatory as the shark she'd seen, as it freewheeled down towards the cabin where Mary lay asleep.

As she ran to the jeep Janine wondered how they had found them. Unlocking it, she reached behind the driver's seat and grabbed the pump action shotgun. Without bothering to shut the door, she wheeled round and sprinted after the car and pumped a cartridge into the breach.

The car coasted to a stop about fifty feet from the cabin and about two-hundred-yards in front of her. There was a brief betrayal of light from the interior light as the car door opened and a man holding what looked like a rifle with a bulbous end aimed towards the cabin.

"No!” she screamed, but even as the cry left her lips there was a muffled explosion and the bulbous thing arced through the air and crashed through the cabin's window. The cabin seemed to explode in a ball of flame and the man with the weapon lifted his arm to protect his eyes from the heat.

Raising her shotgun, Janine fired from a distance of thirty feet and the man was hurled forward away from her. Without slowing her pace and ignoring the cries and screams from the alarmed occupants of the other cabins who'd rushed outside, she chambered another round. She looked into the open passenger door pointed the weapon at the driver.

She recognised Blake immediately and he stared at her in surprise and then swung the pistol that he was holding towards her. Janine pulled the trigger of the shotgun and he screamed as his arm was torn off and blood sprayed the interior of the windscreen. He fell back against the door.

"Who are you?” he croaked, trying to stem the bleeding with his remaining hand.

"Janine! You fed me to the sharks remember?” She chambered another round.

His eyes widened in shock. “But you're dead!” he said.

"Join the club Blake,” she said and pulled the trigger.

Adam waited until the car that Jay was in was about five hundred yards away and the stepped into the middle of the road facing it, with his arms folded. The Headlights picked him out and he heard the car start to slide into a skid as the driver trod on the brakes. Whoever was driving it though quickly brought it back under control and it stopped a few yards away.

The front passenger door opened and a woman climbed out and walked towards him. She was smiling as she came and stood in front of him. “Hello Adam,” she said.

God, she's beautiful!
He reached out and touched the long soft hair and ran his fingers lightly over the smooth skin of her cheek. “It's been a long time Jay,” he replied and heard the tremor in his voice.

"I dreamed about you when you were trapped in the ice. You've changed, you look older now.” Her eyes met his and then they were in each other's arms hugging, laughing and crying at the same time. It was as though he'd come home at last and he sensed that she felt the same. Together they were whole.

"Adam?” Rebecca looked at him and he could see the wonder in her eyes as she took in the change in his appearance. Scott too was looking at him differently and Adam realised that he was jealous, because Scott desired Jay for himself.

"Scott!” Jay eased between them and took Scott's hands in hers and smiled up at him. “You are a kind, wonderful man and I love you. I always will and at one time just before Mary was abducted I honestly thought there could be something more between us. I fancied you, I really did. But I've changed now ... I've become, and Adam can only be the only one I could ever give myself to completely, body and soul. Be pleased for me Scott. Please, be happy for me!"

Adam saw the tears glistening in her eyes and bit back his own as Scott hugged her to him and gently kissed her forehead. Then raising his head, his eyes met Adam's and he smiled ruefully.

"Welcome to the family, Adam.” he said.

"What's that?” Rebecca pointed to the horizon in front of them, and they saw the billowing redness illuminating the distant trees.

"Fire,” Scott said, “That's a fire and it's only about five miles away...” His voice trailed off, “The Motel! The motel where Mary's hiding should be about there!"

"How do you know that?” Adams spoke sharply a sudden fear entering his mind.

"Mary has a bug hidden somewhere in her clothes and there's a tracer unit in this car that we got away in.” Jay said.

"Show me!” Adam hoped desperately that he was wrong as the hurried back to the limousine and Rebecca switched on the tracking screen.

"The green dot here is us, and look ... the other car is at the motel!” She broke off and it was Scott who asked in a shocked voice.

"What's happened to the red dot, Mary's bug? It doesn't seem to be working now?"

Adam reached over and his fingers flew over the computer keys and a several other green dots appeared on the screen all of them heading towards their car. “They're using the tracer in this car and know exactly where we are! They're only about ten or fifteen minutes away from us. We'll leave this car here and use Scott's, it's parked down here!” he said pointing down the road. “We'd better hurry because they'll have road blocks in place by now!"

"What about Mary?” Jay asked as they hurried towards the Chevrolet.

"I don't know.” Adam said quietly, “But once you and the others are safe, I'll go and find out."

"It's too dangerous!” Rebecca said, “They'll be looking for us and they'll be checking out everyone who goes near that place!"

"She's right,” Scott said, “and they'll be widening the search area, you three get the hell out of here, Mary's family now, I'll go!"

"No way am I letting you go there on your own!” Jay said, “Look, it would make sense to let me or Adam go, with our special abilities at least we'd have a chance."

"It would make more sense to see if there's anything on the news, there's a radio in Scott's car.” Adam said. They reaches Scott's car and Adam switched on the radio.

"... spokesman for the FBI has confirmed that two FBI agents have been killed in a shoot out at the Deer Lodge Motel, and that a female terrorist has also died. However an eye witness, forty-three-year-old Marvin Helsinki, gave a different version of events to our reporter, Kenneth Jerome, shortly before he was taken to the debriefing centre. What did he tell you Kenneth?"

"Well according to Marvin, who was staying in a cabin opposite that occupied by the women who had booked in as Mr. and Mrs. Green. Shortly before 11:00 p.m. tonight, he was outside having a cigarette when the FBI agent's car with no lights showing, and the engine turned off rolled to a stop a short distance away from the Green's cabin. He states that someone climbed out of the car and without any warning fired an incendiary grenade through the cabin window. The cabin more or less exploded in a ball of flame and he said there was no way anyone inside the cabin could have survived.

Then one of the women appeared from the direction of the car park and used a shotgun to kill both the agents, before taking off in her car..."

Scott looking very pale switched off the radio, “They killed Mary,” he said.

Adam started the car and headed up into the hills, he wanted to tell them how sorry he was about Mary but was loath to disturb them as they sat immersed in their own thoughts. In the rear-view mirror, he saw that both Jay and Rebecca were crying openly and tears trickled down their faces. They clung comfortingly to Scott, who sat erect white faced and silent, his huge fists clenched in rage.

"They're heading towards the Bitterfoot Forests. We have them monitored by satellite. We've got troops armed with both ceramic and the latest plastic weaponry closing in from the West, here.” Russell pointed to the map and all the grim looking military men in the command centre nodded in approval. “They can't travel East because of the mountains and the lakes block the Southern route. We'll be following the same route they took. Gentlemen, we have them trapped! Now remember, I want them alive, especially the male freak. Now, let's go and round them up!"

Russell hid the emotion he was feeling as he walked to the awaiting helicopter. Janine was alive! She was the mystery woman who'd helped the freak and the dead Slymond girl escape, killed Blake and the other agent. He'd discovered that only an hour ago. She'd emptied their account in Zurich. It had to be her, because only the two of them knew the six-figure number. Fortunately, she didn't know about his other account in the Cayman Islands, not that it mattered now. If they could get hold of that weapon it would mean riches beyond words and more power than any other man on earth. Janine was alive and gunning for him. Well, let her come, he'd be waiting for her, and this time he would kill her himself!

"They're parked up here!” The State Trooper pointed to a spot on the electronic map about a mile away. “We've got them surrounded with troops here, here and here."

Russell nodded approvingly; the freaks and the others were trapped with their backs to the lake and with the forests surrounding them. All roads leading away from the lake had been blocked, there was no way out that he could see, except across the lake, and he'd anticipated that.

"Are the nets in place?” he asked.

"Yes sir and we have six eight-man teams in inflatables, on our side of the nets. If anything bigger than a fish hits the nets, we'll know about it."

"What are they doing now?” Russell asked, it shouldn't have been this easy, he thought.

"They're sitting in the car, they tried to use the telephone but we're blocking the transmissions, as I say sir, they're trapped.” He gave a boyish grin that belied his fifty- three-years. “We're ready to launch the stun grenades and gas whenever you give the order."

Russell looked at his watch it was 4:10 a.m. “Attack at 0415 hours!” he said. “Remember, I want the dark haired man and woman alive! You can take out the other two and get rid of their bodies in the lake."

Russell was in position exactly five hundred yards from the car. He checked the thermal images sitting in the car. Yes, they were still there. He scanned the trees each side of the vehicle and grunted in satisfaction as he saw the images of troops snaking silently on their stomachs into position. He sensed a disturbance in the air and the first stun grenade landed a yard from the car and he shielded his eyes from the glare as it exploded and was followed by five more. He checked his gas mask and even as he gained his feet, there were more explosions that were quieter than the first barrage and he could see the white mist of the gas rising into the air.