Knollig: A Terraneu Novel ( Book 2) (14 page)

“
Woods ye loch
some ginger ur muffin tae start yer morn?
” Mr. McPherson asked. He
indicated the selection of items on the cart.

“No thank you Mr. McPherson.” Catherine never took food or drink from an
unknown source when undercover. Even if it looked as good as those muffins, “I
have some water in my room. Thanks for the wake up, I wouldn’t want to miss the
welcome breakfast.” Catherine went to close the door and Mr. McPherson got a
pained look on his face, and Catherine was instantly alert.

Mr. McPherson moved away from the doorway, and her shocked gaze fell on
the big one from yesterday. He held a tranquilizer gun in his hand. She dropped
and twisted toward the bed. If she could just reach her hidden side arm. Then
she felt a sharp sting in her butt.

“Don’t panic Catherine. What we gave you isn’t deadly. We just needed you
out of the way. I accessed your tablet yesterday when you were searching the
grounds. I know you are not here for the second chance as the other women are.
You are some kind of military figure sent here to investigate the missing women
from six months ago. It would seem the mind wipe didn’t work as well as I had
hoped.” He had picked her up and placed her gently on the bed, making sure she
was covered and comfortable. “We just have ten hours…you will be okay! I swear
it.”

“We need to hurry to the breakfast and get the women ready. Time is
urgent now.” Kneus was talking to Mr. McPherson. “You are going through first!
I insist upon it. I will send the items on the shopping list you were given
through directly after you. That is going to take up a lot of our time. Tell my
brothers to work as fast as they can, and get the women that don’t want to stay
returned quickly. If I am not through after the females have been sent back
they are to destroy the port pad. Even if I would be stuck here, it is too dangerous
to leave it intact. “Kneus sighed, “We knew they were going to investigate, I
was just hoping there would be more time.”

Catherine was in shock. How had he found and hacked her tablet? It had
the top of the line cryptography with biometrics, nobody could just hack it.
She tried to recall what he had said after drugging her. She had heard some
strange coded conversations before, but what was he taking about? A port pad?
What was Antilles? She was still struggling to stay focused when she lost the
fight and everything went black.

~*~*~*

Catherine felt like she had a huge sweat sock in her mouth, and it tasted
nasty! She groaned and rolled sluggishly on the bed. Her mind was fuzzy, and
she couldn’t seem to make any connection to her thoughts. She knew she was in
Scotland, there was a seemingly nice old man and a really good-looking one. She
was investigating them…but why she couldn’t remember. She looked over at the
nightstand, there was a container of water that she wanted to drink. She
struggled to a sitting position, her hands were shaking with the effort to push
her black hair out of her face. It wasn’t long, was only about shoulder length
but the bangs were bothering her. Why she couldn’t focus on anything, but was
worried about her hair puzzled her. Then her head started to clear a little,
and she stumbled to the bathroom to splash water on her face.

She had been drugged, and something was going to happen today. What time
was it? She stumbled into her bedroom and saw that the time was almost three o’clock.
The large man, Kneus had said they only had ten hours. That meant she only had
an hour to try to stop whatever they were doing. Catherine rushed to send a
coded SOS to her superiors, then got dressed, looked for her side arm in its
hiding place. Kneus must have found it because it was missing. She had hidden
another one on the premises in a secure place and hurried outside to retrieve
it.

The most activity had come from the knoll, so she quickly ran in that
direction. For a vacation destination with over a hundred women, it was eerily
quiet. Catherine knew she was running out of time. She picked up her pace until
finally she heard some sort of noise up ahead, so she turned toward the sound.
She slowed and crept around trees keeping her eyes open for anything
suspicious. When she peered around a tree into a small clearing, she swallowed
her gasp of surprise and pulled back. She saw some of the females lying on the
ground. Unconscious or dead she wasn’t sure, but the large male was standing
over them. She moved slowly around the tree, and checked to make sure he wasn’t
looking her direction. Putting one foot slowly in front of the other, she made
her way to a point until she had a clear view.

There were about six women on the ground, Kneus was moving them so they
weren’t touching the strange glassy looking ground he was standing on. When he
moved away from the last female, Catherine stepped forward. Her firearm pointed
at his heart.

“Don’t move.” Her voice sounded steady, which she was happy for. With the
adrenaline rush, and drugs he had given her she was hoping not to sound like
Mickey Mouse. “Put your hands in the air.”

He turned toward her, his hands going into the air. “I am not armed
little female.” His face showed concern over the weapon she was holding.

“I had another gun in a different hiding place.” Catherine stated at his
obvious surprise over her having a weapon. “What did you do to those women?”
Catherine asked, moving ever so slowly to see if the females on the ground had
any obvious injuries.

“Very smart tactic to have additional weaponry in a secondary location,
my brother would approve.” Kneus was looking at her with something like
admiration. Then he gestured toward the women, “They are just sleeping right
now. Dosed to stay that way until the end of the allotted portal time. They
will wake up in about ten minutes.” Kneus kept his hands up.

“Where are the others? Where is Mr. McPherson?” Catherine was standing on
the ground that upon closer inspection looked like cracking ice. Bending over carefully,
one eye still on Kneus, she checked the pulse of the woman closest to her. She
felt a strong beat against her fingers, this woman was going to be fine as far
as she could tell.

“None of the females are in any danger. They are all being well cared
for. You don’t understand what is happening, and I am out of time to explain it
to you. Please step off the ring.” Kneus was looking at her, pleading in his
eyes. She was used to die-hard criminals looking at her with anger, or malice,
or glee over the acts they committed. She had never had one look at her with
eyes full of pleading and something deeper…pain and misery.

“I am not moving until you tell me what is going on!” Catherine insisted.
Backup should be here any second, if she could just keep him talking.

Kneus just shrugged, “May I please show you something? It is not
dangerous.” He made to move his hands down, that is when Catherine noticed he
had some type of remote control.

“Is that to detonate a bomb? Is what I’m standing on some sort of explosive?”
Catherine raised her gun again to point directly at him. “Don’t move!” she
demanded. “I sent out an SOS and have backup coming!”
 
As if on queue she could hear distant sounds of sirens.

“This device is my way home, not a bomb. Shoot me if you must, if I am to
be stuck on this planet I would rather be dead.” His face held such misery that
Catherine froze for one second and began to lower her weapon.

“Remember, I did ask you to step off the port pad.” Then he pushed a
button.

“Port…?” The area glowed florescent blue and she felt an awful pulling,
dropping sensation and she had the urge to scream. Her arm flew wide from the
gravity as her sidearm spiraled away with a bang. She saw lights flashing past
her at an abnormal rate. She felt a burning sensation in her chest. Had she
just shot herself? Then everything went dark.

I wish I could make this part more interesting for
you. I would love to say that I am a graduate of Julliard, top of my class.
When that field of study got boring for me I went and took advanced classes at
MIT. Then I really made my dreams come true by applying for and being accepted
into the Space Program.
 
(
Disclaimer:
None of that is true!)

In reality, I am just a hard working regular person.
I get up in the morning, put my pants on one leg at a time, and then I trudge
off to my job just like the rest of the world. Work, work, work, and then head
on home. When I get in front of my computer is when I can let my imagination
free, and escape to Terraneu.

I had a blast doing research for the song I wanted to have as Amber and
Kniam, Knollig and Mairi, and Jen and Thian’s first dance. Talk about a trip
down memory lane! My poor husband would just shake his head when I went all
head bangin’. I think his concern was that I was going to break my own neck or
something, then he would have to explain how that happened to the authorities.
After all how many middle aged women die from heavy metal music?

The songs played at the dance that I mention are
“Time after Time” by Cyndi Lauper and “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC. I even threw
one in for my husband, “Amazed” by Lonestar. I hope you can listen to your
favorite hits and imagine them dancing the night away on Terraneu.

There is a link on my webpage at
http://www.stormymcknight.com/
if you
want to send me your thoughts, or sign up to be on the mailing list for release
updates and events.

Kniam:
Terraneu Book One