Janus the Arrival (The Janus Trilogy Book 1) (29 page)

During
the walk through to the pre-arranged meeting point, Dana had been wondering how
best to approach him. Yet after much deliberation she had decided to go for the
direct approach, especially as that involved her relying on her intuition a lot
more. It would also seem more natural and hopefully keep him calm. This also
told her that Janus wouldn’t necessarily be looking to harm her, especially
while they remained out in the open.

   
‘My dearest Dana, how good it is to see you
again!’ the man commented, before turning to greet her with a slight hint of
sarcasm in his voice. Stopping dead in her tracks she studied the dark clothed
figure who’d stepped out to block her way, and although she knew it was him,
there was definitely something different about his appearance, and she couldn’t
quite figure out what. He appeared much more handsome than he’d been in their
last encounter, and she wondered how that could even be possible, before
regaining her composure. Dana tried her best to disguise any uncertainty in her
voice as she answered, and the decided to cut straight to the chase.

   
‘What exactly is it that you’re after
Janus? The children are all dead, and you must realise your physical appearance
has changed.’ He purposely leaned forward and set about studying the pretty
woman to see how she’d react. She stood before him in her grey suit and
buttoned up lace blouse as she continued without even flinching.

   
‘You’ve got to understand that just like my
father before me, I don’t mean you any harm. However, there does come a point
in time when the killing has to stop once and for all.’

   
‘Listen Dana! I only have one more task to
complete on this damned planet, and then I promise I’ll leave you and your
people to carry on with your pathetic little lives. How does that sound?’ he
snapped, as he reached out and grabbed her tightly, before leading her towards
one of the attractions. Jerking her arm away, Dana’s protest fell on completely
deaf ears. Janus was starting to get a little annoyed by now, so he grabbed her
again with a much firmer grip this time, and then he forced her over to a ride
that only had a few people waiting to get on. Fortunately, Janus still needed
her, and having sat down, it wasn’t too long before the remaining seats became
full. The female attendant just assumed that they were having some sort of
lover’s tiff, so she just completed her checks, ensuring the guardrails were
secured, before stepping back in the booth and pushing the start button. The
carriages suddenly jerked into motion and moved quite slowly at first, that was
until a steep downhill gradient finally set them trundling off toward the
howling moans of a decaying set of ghostly pharaohs. The screams of their
fellow passengers enjoying the ride totally bypassed Dana. She just sat there
wondering what the hell Janus was up to as the carriages entered a patch of
sudden darkness. On the other hand, the answer came much sooner than expected,
as they suddenly shot around the next bend. On the way round, Dana felt the
safety bar being lifted from her lap with a sudden upward jerk, before being
physically wrenched up and out of her seat. Janus had lifted her with hardly
any effort before placing her over his shoulder and disappearing into a small
alcove hidden behind one of the Egyptian displays.

   
‘Put me down!’ Dana screamed, kicking her
legs up and down in the hope of slowing his progress, but to no avail. Janus
simply ignored her feeble efforts as he swiftly made his way through a long
series of corridors. These led to a dusty storage area that appeared to have
been long forgotten from what Dana could make out. Locating the light switch
and placing her back on the ground, Janus still held her tight, as he grabbed
the back of a chair standing next to an old filing cabinet, which had certainly
seen better days. Turning the chair to face him, he immediately forced her to
sit down and then pulled out some of the twine that had already been used on
him. It was the same twine from the jacket that had belonged to the driver of
the army vehicle he’d taken. Dana already knew from experience that struggling
would be a complete waste of time, and therefore she concentrated her efforts
on ensuring the bindings were not as tight as he’d wanted. She raised her arms
just slightly above the arms of the chair and tried not to look as if she was
up to anything untoward. It was an old trick that she’d picked up during her
police training, but she needed to hold them very rigid and keep him distracted
while he tied her up. This was despite the fact that she could already feel his
presence messing inside her head, probing around for any signs of resistance.

   
‘You’re much better at putting up barriers
than you used to be, but I’m sorry you’re wasting your time trying to fight me.
I’m afraid my powers are far stronger than they ever were before.’

   
‘Don’t flatter yourself too much or you’ll
never get your head out of the door!’ she retaliated straight away.

   
‘Oh I’ve missed your caring sense of humour
so much. What a shame I have to do so much damage to that pretty little brain
of yours, in order to get what’s needed.’ At that moment, Dana was suddenly
scared. Having known what he was capable of, she suddenly realised what he was
up to, and now knew exactly why he needed her this one last time.

   
‘Yes! I was wondering how long it would be
before you finally managed to cotton on. When I return to Pagos, I shall kill
the two male Elders; my remaining sons, who appear to be jointly blocking my
way at present. Once that’s completed, I shall forcefully take the four women
and produce an unstoppable race of killing machines that will return to this
planet and obliterate the whole of mankind once and for all.’ Dana realised the
evilness within Janus had finally pushed him to the point of insanity. This in
turn had made him become extremely unstable. She guessed that this must have
been caused during the changes he’d been through to transform him into this
so-called ultimate Dra-Na-Zee warrior. She was just about to speak, when a
sharp pain surged through her head. All of a sudden the room started to spin as
she gazed up at Janus. She noticed a coating of strange yellow specks sitting
deep in his eyes, which suddenly appeared to glow and double in size, just
before she blacked out.

When
Dana finally regained consciousness her head was thumping with a fair amount of
pain, especially just behind her eyes. She’d never really suffered from headaches
in the past, apart from on the odd occasion when she’d drunk a bit too much,
but this one was a real beauty. Still tied to the chair, she ran over what had
happened just before she’d fainted. With no sign of Janus being anywhere in the
room, she immediately took the opportunity while she could, and switched her
attention to the bindings that held her captive. At first she thought the twine
was much tighter than expected, but with a quick upward jerk of her right hand,
she felt the material give a little. Working to weaken it further, there was
soon enough slack for her to wriggle her right hand back and forth. Dana kept
this up for a while until it eventually squeezed through the tiny gap that had
appeared and came completely free. Moving straight away and freeing her other
hand as fast as she could, Dana lent over, with her head still spinning, and
tackled the last of the bindings that held her legs in place. Not knowing how
much time she had left before Janus would reappear, beads of sweat soon began
to build up on her forehead. These naturally formed into small droplets
initially, but as they grew in size, they rather frustratingly started to drip
down onto her smart black shoes. Once free from her bonds, she immediately
stood up and attempted to regain the circulation of blood back into her legs
before attempting to step forward. Trying to remain calm and think straight,
despite the pain, she’d already realised that using the main door would be a
totally stupid idea. Therefore she decided she’d be much better off going for
an alternative means of escape. Wasting precious moments, and then thinking
that the main corridor looked as if it may be her only way out after all, she
was just about to give in, when she felt a slight breeze catch the side of her
face. It blew down from somewhere above where she was currently standing.
Gazing up at the ceiling and putting her hand out to determine where it was
coming from, she instantly spotted a metal ventilation cover, which looked to
be held in place by a small rusty hook.
Trying
not to panic and remain sensible about her next move, Dana gradually manoeuvred
the heavy filing cabinet across the room. It took a lot of effort and the noise
didn’t exactly help her head. Finally, she’d managed to place it
 
almost directly under the grill before
stepping up onto the chair and then onto the metallic surface. Praying that the
whole thing wouldn’t topple over with her on top, she concentrated on the task
at hand. At first the hook wouldn’t even budge and appeared quite stubborn, but
following a few choice curses she jumped back down and had a look inside her
handbag for something she could use. Removing her small handgun and placing it
in the inside pocket of her jacket, she continued her search and located a
metal nail file that she thought she’d lost a long time ago. Armed with what
she hoped would prove to be her saviour, she quickly returned to the chair and
clambered back up and into position on top of the filing cabinet before setting
to work on the hook. Thankfully, it only required a small amount of leverage
this time, and standing clear to let the ventilation cover swing free, it was
soon dangling in mid-air just above her head. Dana reached up and placed her
fingers just inside the edge of the duct checking that it felt solid enough.
Then, with one mighty heave, she managed to find just enough energy to lift
herself up and pull herself into the opening of the long metal tube. It also
helped that she was spurred on by the fact that it was more than likely her only
chance of survival. Dana knew it was going to be extremely hard going, although
the pain in her head had finally started to subside. Knowing that it was all or
nothing, she swiftly braced herself against the side panels and moved forward
at pace. As the pipe twisted ever upwards, her progress unsurprisingly slowed a
little, but it certainly didn’t help that her feet couldn’t get a decent enough
grip. Added to that, she also had to manoeuvre her body past a few darkened
outlets that run directly overhead. Using a bit of common sense to speed
herself on, she finally had to say goodbye to her favourite pair of shoes.
Having removed them, she sadly watched them slide back down the pipe, then
heard two loud thuds as one after the other, they banged against what she
assumed must have been the surface of the filing cabinet far below.

Janus
was literally halfway along the corridor when the shoes landed. The noise
alerted him and made him run the rest of the way without even giving it a
second thought.
Entering the room and
finding it empty, he immediately tried to work out how she’d escaped, before
noticing the shoes lying on the floor. It hadn’t taken a moment to work it out,
and lashing out with his foot, he kicked aside the old cabinet and let out an
almighty roar as he stood staring up the ventilation pipe.

   
‘Get back down here right now, or I’ll
definitely be forced to kill you!’ he shouted at the top of his voice.

   
‘I seriously need to return to Pagos as
soon as possible.’

    
Having clearly heard the anger in his
voice, Dana’s heart instantly began to race. She tried to remain calm and the
fear of being followed by this deadly creature only served to spur her on
further. Just at that moment, the shaft she was in began to change direction,
which helped the climb become much easier. The steel sides of the pipe remained
cold against her skin, and taking each new twist and turn as a fresh sign of
hope, she tried desperately hard to banish any thoughts of dying in such a
place from her mind.

    
In frustration, Janus fired a warning shot
at the opening in the ceiling. This entered the darkened hole in a rush of
speed with the ventilation system sucking greedily at the moving ball of flame.
Fortunately for Dana, this followed the initial section of the route and only a
small fraction of heat entered the tunnel that she was in. The full force of
the beam impacted well away from where she was situated and Janus cursed his
luck as he realised he’d completely missed his target. Understanding that he
was left with two options of either following her or working out where she may
be heading, Janus opted for the latter. He turned and hurried off back down the
corridor, while Dana lay cursing, having snagged the leg of her tights on a
rough cut section of the pipe. Having decided to remove the annoying things,
this was easier said than done. It proved to be quite a struggle in such an
enclosed area, but refusing to give in, she eventually managed to achieve the
task and discarded them before moving on a bit faster, in the hope of making up
for lost time. At one point, in one of the much darker sections of the never
ending pipe work, Dana could see very little. Then, at one of the next turnings
ahead, and in her haste to compensate for the valuable minutes wasted, she suddenly
found herself sliding head first down a steep incline. She was gathering a fair
bit of speed along the way, but she didn’t have anything to cling on to, in
order to slow her down. Landing awkwardly, having virtually travelled the full
length of the shaft, she felt her ankle twist when she thudded against the hard
surface that greeted her at the bottom of the pipe. Dana naturally uttered a
cry of pain before managing to adopt a sitting position, having a quick look at
her injury, and then attempting to establish her bearings. The section she’d
entered, appeared to be more spacious, but looking ahead, things looked much
more confined than expected. She immediately realised that the conduit tapered
into a joint and then carried on into what then looked like a dead end.
Wondering if this was a far as she would be able to go, she quickly studied
every detail of her latest surroundings. Eventually, having to twist around a
little, she spotted another junction just slightly over on the far side of
where she sat. There was definitely no other way to go for her right now, and
having rested while inspecting the swelling in her ankle in a bit more detail,
she immediately set off on what she hoped would be the final part of her
journey. Having taking a narrow turn to the left at the next junction, Dana
dragged herself along yet another stretch of the shiny piping. She thought she
heard what sounded like a generator in the background, and so stopping to
listen for further clarification, she was convinced she’d guessed correctly.
With this serving to spur her on even more, she moved as fast as she could and
headed in the general direction of the sound that echoed ahead. Navigating a
maze of awkward twists and turns, she tried her best to ignore the pain
emanating from her ankle, then almost screamed for joy when she noticed a
slight glimmer of light shining through one of the side panels she was now
approaching. The hope of escaping drove her on even faster, and she moved along
the last section like a woman possessed. Dana had assumed that Janus would try
to follow her movements, and imagined that for every minute she delayed her
journey, he’d more than likely be working his way closer and closer in a bid to
halt her progress. With a great deal of light now bursting through the grill
that lay just ahead, Dana swiftly gathered the last of her remaining strength
and crawled level with it. Once there, she thankfully placed her hands around
the edge of the frame and looked to see how it was being held on. Completely
sapped of energy, Dana’s fingernails tore desperately at the small grill,
tearing some of the flesh from her fingers on the jagged sections during the
process.

   
‘Please don’t let me die in a horrible
place like this!’ she pleaded, before she remembered the gun she’d placed in
her jacket pocket. For some reason, Janus had left it lying in her handbag,
probably due to the fact that she’d been tied up, so wouldn’t be able to use
it. Pulling it out and using the barrel of the gun to lever the edge of the
metal away from the stone surrounding, it took quite an effort to get some
movement at first. Yet driven on by sheer desperation, the grill finally budged
a little further and then came free altogether. Dana knew the sights of the gun
would never be the same again, but at this stage of the game she felt it was a
pretty small price to pay in comparison to what could have happened. Placing
the gun carefully back inside her pocket, she eased the cover from the wall and
set it down carefully beside her, before sticking her head out of the gap and
peering down into the room below.

   
Set out before her was an enormous laundry
room in all its steamy splendour. Although it proved very awkward to turn
around in such a confined space, after a great amount of effort, she eventually
managed to position herself well enough to be able to lower her body from the
gap above and drop the remaining distance to the floor.

   
‘Ouch!’ she groaned, as her twisted ankle
took some of the weight, despite the fact that she’d tried to avoid it happening.
Not wishing to stop for too long, Dana still decided to hobble across to one of
the industrial drying machines and then lent against it for a moment, while she
quickly reached down to massage the swollen joint. She could also feel a
stiffness in her back as she bent over, but was so grateful to be free of the
cramped confines of the ventilation shaft, that she deemed that to be the least
of her worries. Feeling sure that Janus hadn’t followed her by the same route,
she knew it would only be a matter of time before he managed to track her down,
especially as he happened to have such an unfair advantage over her.
Setting about finding her way out of the laundry,
Dana knew she didn’t have too many options available to her right now. Turning
right into a dimly lit corridor, which proved to take much longer than
expected, she immediately spotted a door at the far end and headed as fast as
she could towards it. Yet, just as she reached for the handle, the door was
suddenly yanked open with such force, that Dana jumped completely out of her
skin. Without even stopping to check to see who was there, she turned and fled
back down the passage so fast, that Janus only just caught a glimpse of her
hobbling along as she disappeared from view. Once she was out of sight, and
attempting to hold back the agony of the shooting pain in her ankle, Dana
automatically drew on her past experience of survival training techniques. The
first thing she did was to try and remain calm under pressure, despite the fact
that she was actually shaking inside. Janus was certainly in no hurry.
Especially now that he knew she carried an injury.

   
As far as he was concerned, the woman would
be caught fairly soon, and then he’d use her just one last time before killing
her at a time of his own choosing.

Back
in the Elders cavern on Pagos, great plumes of steam rose from the rock
formations that glistened at the side of the pool. Danny, J’Mi and the four
striking women all sat completely naked, whilst fully immersed in the
refreshing waters as the waterfall flowed gently in the background, and
filtered down into the backdrop of the cave. Their minds remained closely
linked together, and after a while, the vision of Janus stalking the earth
woman in the Adventure World slowly began to fade away.

   
‘If he succeeds, then I feel we’re as good
as dead,’ said J’Mi, addressing them all. ‘Even with our combined strength we
cannot possibly match the extraordinary amount of power that Janus possesses,’
he continued, with a worried frown on his face.