Janus the Arrival (The Janus Trilogy Book 1) (18 page)

Tim
was well aware he was not in Vicky’s good books. She’d been somewhat off hand
with him over the past few days. Sexually things couldn’t have been better, but
he had been getting a little fed up with her ridiculous mood swings just
lately. He never seemed to know where he stood with her from one minute to the
next, and she often seemed a bit secretive and cold, which was a bit strange.
Knowing that her task wouldn’t be easy and that she wasn’t exactly acting very
professionally lately, Vicky was completely unaware that certain areas of
Janus’ memory had become lost. This was due to the awkward transition from male
to female, and in placing Jamie back in time, she’d literally reset the whole
cycle of Dra-Na-Zee evolution. This would now make the boy the Pagosian
equivalent of the biblical character that the people of Earth referred to as
Adam. As a result, he would now become the first Chosen One, otherwise known as
J’Mi the original Elder.

Stranded
and alone in a desolate place, with the knowledge that he could never return to
Earth or see his family again, Jamie was overcome with an awful lot of anguish.
As he fell to his knees and sobbed uncontrollably, he couldn’t quite believe
how everything had changed in an instant. What frightened him most, was the
image that he’d visualised earlier. His limp body was still sitting tied to a
chair in the cellar, but then it had been perfectly disposed of by Vicky, using
her Dra-Na-Zee powers to do so. After a while, and feeling a little braver, the
boy had eventually got to his feet, walked a fair way, and then entered a
forest that he’d seen in the distance. He felt quite relieved at having moved
out from under the glare of the two large suns that loomed over the planet and
bore down against him. The forest appeared completely fresh and untouched. It
was obvious that it revelled in its early phase of life, with the trees
rustling tranquilly in the gentle breeze. Yet it was the absence of any other
living creatures anywhere, that Jamie found so bizarre. Coming to a halt at a
small brook that rose up from one of the thickets, Jamie instantly sat down on
an inviting blanket of luscious grass, then leaned back against one of the trees
for support. This gave him plenty of time to gather his thoughts and think
about his immediate future, while the sound of the water rippling over a set of
rocks nearby, sent forth a gentle rhythm. Within a short space of time the
youngster had drifted off to sleep.

In his dream, Jamie floated high above the forest before
it finally led to a large open glade from which many paths stretched out. They
looked a lot like a vast array of fingers set out on a giant hand. His spirit
then soared lower and followed the third path that wound from the right for a
short distance, until it eventually drew to an abrupt halt. He then drifted
even lower until he found himself back on the ground, standing before an
enormous cave.

   
When he finally
awoke, he was surprised that he now felt fully refreshed. He also knew exactly
what he had to do next, before rinsing himself in a stream that supplied
wonderfully fresh water. He set off on a two day excursion through the forest
before finding and entering the mouth of the cavern he’d seen in the dream.
Once inside, he noticed a faint luminous glow over in the far corner, which
naturally pulled him in like an extremely powerful magnet.
Jamie trembled as he reached out to touch the
glowing crystal that stood upright in the centre of a large stone table. Yet
the instant his hand made contact with the warm, smooth surface, a silver cask
suddenly appeared before him and caused him to step right back in astonishment.
Moving cautiously forward and reaching over to lift it up, Jamie peered inside.
The contents proved to be a real shock, as what he saw, very delicately
wrapped, was a small glass incubator that appeared to contain living embryos.
Finding a neatly folded letter taped firmly to the inside of the lid, he
quickly unfolded it with great intrigue. It read:

Jamie,

I knew that
night I visited you, that you were the original Chosen One. The first of our
race lie directly before you. Fortunately, destiny has allowed The Dra-Na-Zee a
second chance at rebuilding a new future, Therefore my hopes and those of our
people rest entirely with you. Good luck my son.

 
With a huge lump in his throat, Jamie noticed
that it was signed: From your loving father, Janus.

   
‘I can’t help
it!’ She moaned, with a certain amount of frustration in her voice. ‘I’m
growing tired of all this bloody sitting around, and it’s driving me absolutely
mad.’

   
Dana was becoming extremely impatient, as
were all the other officers involved in the case. She’d never really liked the
surveillance element of police work at the best of times, but they’d been
hanging around this place for three days and nights now. Just to add to the
misery, they still hadn’t caught a single sighting of Tim’s alleged girlfriend
yet. The FBI agent sitting right next to her, shared her sentiments entirely.
Yet he was not about to admit it as he removed his sunglasses and proceeded to
wipe them with the cleaning cloth he’d just removed from his glasses case. His
blasé attitude only served to annoy Dana all the more, and she was just about
to give him a piece of her mind, when the door to the cottage suddenly burst
open. It instantly cast a beam of light across the dimly lit pavement, which
caused Dana to whoop with sheer joy under her breath, before informing the
others.

   
‘That’s her! That’s Vicky! She exclaimed,
trying to remain as calm as possible. ‘At long last!’ She added.

Vicky
was dressed in a pair of dark tight fitting slacks with a black leather bomber
jacket. Putting on a pair of dark sunglasses as the last moment, she stood just
inside the open doorway before turning to leave. Dana had already decided that
she was up to no good, and so they shadowed her to the end of the street,
before she produced a key and quickly disappeared inside Tim’s garage. Within
minutes, the sound of an engine revving up could be heard radiating from the
small building. This was just moments before the electronically controlled door
lifted right up to reveal Vicky sitting behind the wheel of a large red transit
van. The door then gradually closed shut with a loud bang, and after a minute’s
grace, the van shot off along the tree lined avenue. It suddenly turned left at
an oncoming junction without indicating any sort of intention to do so.

   
‘She’s a mean old driver,’ said the Fed, as
Dana pressed her foot down hard on the accelerator and had to carry out
practically the same type of manoeuvre in order to keep up. After a while both
vehicles sped along the A316, only slowing down only for the occasional
roundabout, before eventually hitting the M3 motorway. Once on there, Dana kept
their car at a fairly sensible distance, even though she sensed that Vicky
already knew they were hot on her heels. In the short space of time that they’d
spent together, Dana had studied her adversary pretty well. She’d already
learnt to respect her, and she knew from experience that Vicky could be
extremely dangerous if she wanted to be. The van never indicated that it was
about to leave the motorway, and as a consequence of her actions, Vicky shot
directly out of the fast lane and moved right across the path of a blue Volvo.
This in turn, only narrowly avoided any kind of contact with the rear end of a
caravan being towed along by another car, and Vicky only just managed to
scramble onto the slip road at junction three. Dana swore out loud. She knew it
would take far too long to come off at the next exit and then return from the
other direction. Therefore, she made an instant judgment and manoeuvred
straight across to the hard shoulder. Straightening up almost immediately, she
reached over, put the hazard lights on and then reversed back towards the
junction they’d passed a few minutes before. Dana then spun the car around,
just as she’d been taught, and shot up the ramp to the roundabout at the top.
Fully ignoring the hooting from some of the drivers that she’d just pissed off,
some of who also had to swerve to avoid being hit by her, she hurriedly put her
foot down and followed the signposts to Bracknell.

Rachel’s
gaze was solely on Danny, as he cycled just ahead of her in the early morning
light. He was a wonderful kid who already had a passion for the great outdoors,
plus he preferred things such as that, far more than mixing with other children
of his age. This came as no great surprise to Rachel, especially as his mind
seemed to work at a totally different level. The Lookout was a park that had
been specifically designed for young children to start to learn all about
science, but in more of a fun way. It also combined a nature trail on which you
could ride along at your own leisure, using either your own bikes or hired
ones. These were available in different sizes and could be hired for a small
deposit from the cabin, located near to the reception. Danny was growing up
extremely fast and there was no doubt about it. He hadn’t wanted stabilisers on
the bike, when asked by the lady in charge, and after only three attempts
outside on the grass, he was soon cycling just as well as any seasoned traveller.
The warmth of early summer was already present in the air. Giant trees stood
everywhere like lofty sentries as they towered overhead, with their long,
lumbering limbs stretching out to create a mass of arches across the well worn
paths. Danny, who was full of confidence on the bike, was just ten metres ahead
of his mother as he rounded the corner, when something spun past, just inches
from his head. Staring ahead, he noticed a very strange woman dressed in black.
She was deliberately blocking the path that lay ahead of him and he instantly
drew to halt, just before she launched a second object into the air. The stone
spun low but fully on target towards him. It slammed against his chest with a
great deal of force and immediately caused Danny to topple backwards off the
bike seat. He cracked his head on the floor as he fell and he was able to see
that the woman was moving towards him at speed. The poor boy’s head was
swimming like crazy, and everything in the background was starting to become
exceedingly hazy as a dizziness descended and finally overtook him completely.
Moments later, Rachel rounded the corner, took in the scene before her
straightaway, and instinctively sensed the threat that the woman in black posed
for her son. As the woman began to stoop over him, Rachel immediately screamed
out for help, just as a group of burly cyclists suddenly appeared from the
other end of the path. Vicky seemed to hesitate for a second, but the she
turned and fled into the dense undergrowth, as soon as she realised she would
be totally outnumbered. She knew that there would be other opportunities in the
making.

   
Rachel watched as the woman disappeared
from full view, although she was completely unaware that she was heading back
towards the hidden van. Rachel ran over, extremely concerned and automatically
lifted Danny to his feet before cradling him tightly in her arms. The cyclists
approached looking quite concerned, having seen what had happened.

   
‘Is he alright?’ asked the leader, as he
pulled alongside them and stopped.

   
‘Yes, Thank you,’ Rachel answered, as she
began to dust the dirt off Danny’s jacket.

   
‘He’s just a little bit stunned, but I’ll
take him back to the reception and get him checked out just to be sure.’

Rachel
had always known that something like this would eventually be likely to happen,
ever since she’d read the tragic story about Debbie Green’s death, following
the disappearance of her son. Janus was the obvious link to it all, but right
at that moment, Rachel didn’t have the slightest idea about what to do next.
Maybe she could contact the police with her wild story and crazy allegations,
she thought, but what would that achieve? The poor woman was willing to do
pretty much anything for her son, because he was just about all she had left in
the world.
She already knew that he
possessed some very unusual powers, and she’d even realised there was something
different when he’d lain all innocently in her womb. Yet she also recalled a
feeling of being watched during her pregnancy. Rachel remembered quite vividly,
how she’d tried but failed to kill herself. There had also been the weird voice
that had entered her head as she lay half drowned beside the river, while she’d
watched helplessly as the dead policeman’s bloodied torso had floated by.

‘No matter how hard you try, you won’t
be able to take your own life, such actions will be futile and any further
attempts will only result in pain.’
She distinctly recalled that that had been
the warning she’d received at the time in question. Yet now that same strange
sensation had returned, the moment she’d set eyes on that woman dressed in
black, stooping menacingly over her son. Thankfully, Rachel was now a whole lot
stronger than she’d been back then, and there would certainly be no chance of
anybody taking her son away. Not if she could help it. What the hell was
happening here?

Eventually,
Dana was forced to give up on the chase, having scoured Bracknell town centre
to no avail. However, as luck would have it, when heading back towards the
motorway, the red transit suddenly appeared like a blessing in disguise. It
shot from a side road just ahead of them on the dual carriageway and then
slowed down a little. Following at a discreet distance, they chatted as the van
eventually retraced its original route back towards Richmond. This was where
they eventually saw Vicky emerge from the tiny garage before re-entering the
cottage. Having waited patiently for a few minutes before ringing the doorbell,
the door was promptly answered by Tim, who looked quite angry and totally
refused to let them into the house unless they produced a search warrant. They
were however, a little bit surprised, when the man swore blind that he hadn’t
seen his girlfriend for the last few days, just before slamming the door shut
right in their faces.

Two
days later, whilst busily working under a car, Tim was greeted by the rather
pleasant sight of a shapely pair of legs entering the garage. He was even more
surprised, having eased himself out into the open, when his gaze followed the
line of stockings, only to catch an exciting glimpse of bare flesh at the top.
However, it was only when he realised who they
belonged to, that his excitement turned to sudden disappointment.

   
    
‘Oh! Its you.’ he announced, before he
paused for breath and continued with what he was saying. ‘Well, what do you
want this time?’

   
Over the course of the next forty minutes, Dana
almost had him eating out of her hand as the atmosphere got decidedly better
between them. She’d turned on all her womanly charms in order to get what she
wanted, much as she’d done in the past, where she’d needed to. Dana had already
heard that Tim had a reputation as a womaniser, but she also had to be fairly
careful, as she personally found the guy rather attractive, in a rough and
ready sort of way. She even had to admit that she’d become slightly aroused
when she’d looked at his hairy chest bulging out from the front of his
dungarees. He wasn’t exactly forthcoming with any information at first, but ten
minutes into the conversation, with his eyes constantly scanning her legs, he
gradually began to relax. It may also have been something to do with the
thought that he may possibly be onto a promise a little bit later on, if he
played his cards right.

   
Tim openly
admitted about lying at their previous meeting, about not having seen Vicky. On
further questioning, it transpired that once they’d driven off, Vicky had
really lost her rag and tried to blame him for just about every crime under the
sun, for some strange reason. As a result, they’d ended up arguing for ages
before Vicky had finally grabbed a handful of meagre belongings and walked out
on their relationship. Tim also emphasised the fact that in the short time
they’d been together, she’d changed very dramatically from a person who seemed
to be in full control of her life one minute, into some sort of megalomaniac
the next. Dana decided at that point, it would probably be in her beast
interest, to cut short the interview, especially seeing as Tim’s hands had
established an urgent tendency to wander. She definitely felt him trying to
undress her with his eyes, and she seriously hoped he hadn’t seen her face
blushing just then. Declining his offer to return in the evening to discuss
matters further over a romantic candlelight dinner, she did make a mental note
of his proposition for the future, although she doubted very much that she’d
ever be likely to use it.

The
message had appeared a bit garbled at first. The young girl manning the
switchboard had apparently been rushed off her feet when the call had initially
come in. It appeared that a Desk Sergeant based at the Wokingham police station
had spoken to someone called Rachel Moore, who’d sounded quite distraught, much
as one would expect in such circumstances. Evidently, this was with regard to
an attempted child abduction. Yet although details were a little bit vague to
start with, partly due to the woman crying, and combined with the poor
reception on the line, they had at least managed to obtain an address from her.
Dana was pleased that she’d asked all stations to
contact her in such instances, as she grabbed up her map that covered the outer
London area. Finding the page she sought, which seemed pretty fresh in
comparison to many others that were well thumbed from previous occasions, she
soon located and then drew a red circle around the area in question.