A Chosen Destiny (The Samantha Project Series #3) (12 page)

“Early is good, Colin. Let’s head down there.”
 

We went to the security station, which was a room full of monitors, computers, and all kinds of other equipment. The monitors showed nothing but an open field. It was an image of what was right above us. The underground building we were staying in was well hidden. You could walk right on top of it and not know anything was below.
 

Two men from Owens’ security team were sitting watching the monitors. Vince and some man I didn’t know sat behind them at a table. Vince was holding some type of oversized cell phone. Colin and I took a seat at the table across from him. Erik, Jack, and Dave arrived a few minutes later. Jack started to talk, but Vince motioned him to be quiet as he responded to someone on the phone.
 

Something was happening. Vince listened intently while the rest of us sat there wondering what was going on. It was only 4:50. GlobalLife wasn’t supposed to take Brittany to the new location until at least 5, if not later.

“When did they find out?” Vince had a strange look on his face. “So what does that mean for us?” He listened. “And if they don’t, it’s over.” He nodded. “Yes. Okay.” He put the phone down on the table.

“What is it? What happened?” I asked.

Vince looked confused, like he was trying to figure out for himself what had happened. “When the GlobalLife transport team arrived to take your sister to the new facility, she wasn’t there.”

“What are you talking about? Where else would she be?”

“They said she got out. She somehow managed to escape from GlobalLife.”

“How do your people know this?” Dave asked.
 

“One of our guys was able to intercept the call that came from GlobalLife security. They just reported that Brittany was gone. It doesn’t make sense. She was in a locked room. There were a couple guards right outside. I don’t even know how this is possible.”

“Maybe someone else took her.” My mind raced trying to figure out who else might want Brittany. Maybe Drew Chamberlin? But he had no reason to take her.
 

“Very few people have access to that floor,” Vince said.

“What if she really did escape?” Erik asked. “I mean, Brittany is tougher than you think. She can take care of herself. Hell, she took care of all of us, taking out those guys at the trailer. Maybe she really did get out of there on her own.”

Jack shook his head. “That’s impossible, Erik. I agree that she can take care of herself, but getting out of GlobalLife without any type of weapon? That’s just not realistic.”

I pictured the exterior of GlobalLife in my head, remembering how it looked and wondering where she would go if she did escape. And then an image popped in my head. I raced over to the monitors. “Let me see outside!”

The two security guards watching the monitors looked at me like I was crazy. “Hurry!” I yelled at them. They moved back so I could see the monitors. “These are all too dark. Are there any cameras near a street light or any kind of light?”

The one guard tapped on the digital tablet sitting in front of him. A new image came up on one of the monitors. It showed just what I wanted to see. Fog. Fog and darkness.
 

“I know where she is!” I turned to Vince. “Get your people on the phone.”
 

He, too, looked at me like I was nuts, but he picked up the phone.
 

“Sam, what is it?” Dave asked.

“That dream I had during the procedure. It wasn’t a dream. It was a premonition. Brittany was calling for me. It was dark and foggy, just like it is now.”

I listened for Brittany’s thoughts, wondering why I wasn’t hearing her like I had in the dream.
 

Vince put the phone on speaker and set it on the table. “Samantha thinks she knows where the girl is.”

I leaned down closer to the phone. “She’s near a lighthouse. There’s an open field all around it. And the field is covered in snow. Lots of snow. Like two feet of snow.”

“Sounds like most of Iceland,” the man on the other end of the phone said. “You’ve gotta give me more than that.”

I pictured the image in my head again. “The lighthouse. It’s umm—it’s white. There’s a large red stripe at the top. A really thick stripe. And the ocean is right there. It sounded like the water was hitting rocks. But I couldn’t see the ocean. I could only hear it. Like I was high above it. I think the lighthouse was on a cliff.”

“How do you know this? Were you at this place before?”

“It doesn’t matter how I know. Do you have any idea where this is?”

The man’s voice faded for a moment as he talked to someone in the car. Then we heard him again. “Okay. We did a search of the lighthouses in the area. There’s one that matches that description.”
 

“Then go! What are you waiting for? Go find her!”

“We’ll see what we can do. But I don’t know how she’d end up out there.”
 

Vince picked the phone back up, taking it off speaker. He mumbled a few more things to the guy on the phone, then hung up.
 

I could feel my heart beating through my chest. “She’s gotta be there. She has to be. It’s just like my dream.”

“Honey, if she’s not there, we’ll find her,” Dave assured me. “Just calm down.”

“I can’t calm down!” I turned to Vince. “How far away are they from the lighthouse? Did they say?”

“Not far. Maybe 10 minutes away.”

“What if GlobalLife finds her first? Call them back! Tell them to hurry!”

He ignored me. Dave put his arm around me. “Sam. We just have to wait.”

We sat there for what seemed like an eternity but was really about 15 minutes.

Erik caught my eye.
“They got her,”
he thought to me.

“What are you talking about?”
I thought back.
“Who got her?”

The phone rang before he could answer. I reached for the phone but Vince got to it first. He stood up and turned away. “Yes.” He listened. “Okay.”

I stood behind him, waiting for the news. “What is it? Put it on speaker!”
 

He motioned for me to be quiet. “At what time? All right. I’ll tell them.” He hung up the phone.

“Tell us what? What is it?”
 

He smiled. “We got her. We have your sister.”

“Yes!” Tears of joy ran down my face. I grabbed Colin and hugged him. Then I hugged Dave. I looked over at Erik, who was smiling at me. Somehow he knew about Brittany before the phone call, but how? I was too distracted to ask.

“Brittany was near that lighthouse,” Vince confirmed, “just like you described, Samantha.”

“So what now?” Jack asked him. “Are they bringing her here?”

“No. She’s headed to the airport. Mr. Owens’ plane is ready to leave. All of you need to be there shortly. Grab your things. There’s a limo waiting to take you.”

“Right now?” Dave asked. “I thought we were leaving this afternoon.”

“The plan changed. With Brittany gone, GlobalLife is on high alert. They’re searching everywhere. You need to leave right now. You’ve got 5 minutes to be at the limo.”

We hurried back to our rooms, grabbed our stuff, and got in the limo. The airport wasn’t that far away but the fog slowed us down. When we got there, the fog had cleared. It was a very small airport, similar to the one we arrived at. Private planes were lined up in a row, some with GlobalLife logos.

I whispered to Dave. “GlobalLife planes? Is Owens crazy having us leave from here?”
 

From his expression, I could tell that he, too, was disturbed by the site of them. “It’s very early. I’m sure there’s nobody in them.”
 

The limo pulled up right next to a covered walkway leading up to the plane. The walkway had black fabric on all sides, almost like a homemade tunnel meant to shield us from any cameras that might be aimed at the tarmac.
 

I boarded the plane first and saw Owens in the first row. He was on his phone, his laptop in front of him. He nodded to acknowledge us. I didn’t see Brittany until I got to the very last row. She was wrapped in a blanket, huddled against the side of the plane.

“Brittany!” I reached down and wrapped my arms around her.
 

Her face lit up. “Sam! Finally! I was starting to think you guys weren’t coming.”

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I stood back and looked at her.
 

“Sam, relax. I’m okay.” She noticed Erik behind me. “Erik!”
 

I moved out of the way so Brittany could get up. Her blanket fell to the floor and I could see that her clothes were still wet from the snow. She grabbed Erik for a hug.

“Hey, Brittany,” he said, as they hugged. “Way to kick ass back there at GlobalLife. You never fail to surprise me.”

I didn’t think he should mention GlobalLife so soon, but she laughed.

Jack and Colin gave her a hug, too. Dave was next, but he stood there, not sure what to do. Brittany and Dave had never met. He stared at her as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The two of us looked so much alike. I could feel the emotion building in him. I was sure he was remembering what I’d told him about how Brittany had grown up with a drunk mother in a broken-down trailer with very little food.
 

Brittany approached Dave, holding out her hand. “Hi, I’m Brittany. And I guess you must be—”

“Dave.” He gave her a hug instead of a handshake. “Uncle Dave if you want to call me that.” He stood back to look at her. “I wish Stephen and Ellie could have—” He stopped as he started to choke up. “Well, it’s nice to finally meet you, Brittany.”

“We’ll be leaving shortly, so everyone please get seated.” The pilot was in the front of the plane, motioning us to sit down.
 

We all sat in the back of the plane, with Brittany and me on one side of the aisle and Colin on the other side by the window. Jack, Dave, and Erik sat in front of us.
 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked Brittany.
 

“Yeah. I’m just wet from the snow.”

“I’ll get you some clothes.” I stood up, but felt the plane moving and sat down again. “Once we’re in the air I’ll get them.”

Erik poked his head up over the seat in front of us. “So how the hell did you get out of there? I mean, Sam and I barely made it—”

I shot him a look. “Erik, maybe she doesn’t want to talk about it right now.”

“I can talk about it,” Brittany said. “There’s really not much to tell. The guards messed up and I got out. And then I ran until I couldn’t run anymore.”

Jack overheard us talking and leaned back across the aisle. “What do you mean the guards messed up?”
 

“They just messed up. That’s all.” She looked out the side window, trying to avoid our stares.

I nudged her. “You don’t have to tell us, Brittany.”

She turned back. “Whatever. It doesn’t really matter. Basically, a few days ago I told this one guard that we would, you know, get together before they moved me to that new place. So last night, or I guess it was early this morning, he let me out of the room they had me in. There was only one other guard there at night. He thought he was getting lucky next, so he went along with it. And when things started, you know, heating up, I took the one guy’s gun.”
 

I felt sick thinking of the GlobalLife guards touching Brittany in any way.
 

“And I shot ’em. Both of ’em,” she said, nonchalantly. “The guy I was with? That was easy. Close range. But the other guy was way across the room. He heard the shot and started shooting at me. I shot back, but couldn’t get him. Then I pretended that I was out of bullets. He came at me and when he got close enough, I got him. It was my last bullet.”

We all sat there shocked. I was afraid to even be near guns, but Brittany had grown up with them and had no problem using one to defend herself.
 

“So they’re, um, deceased?” Jack asked cautiously.

“No. Just injured. Although I should’ve killed ’em. Sick bastards.”

Jack looked concerned. “Brittany, we should talk later. That was very traumatic. And you’ve already been through so much.”

She shrugged. “It’s survival. You do what you gotta do. That’s what my mom always said.” Brittany’s mom had been killed by GlobalLife just weeks earlier. Shot in the head and left for dead in the trailer that Brittany and she shared. Brittany claimed that her mom and she didn’t get along, but her words and actions said differently. I knew she loved her mother and would stop at nothing to get revenge for what GlobalLife had done.

“Besides, no offense to you guys here, but men are stupid,” Brittany continued. “A pretty girl takes an interest in them and they’ll do whatever she says. When I heard the guards say they were moving me to some other place, I knew that was my chance. I flirted with both of those guys all week. I told them I’d give them a little goodbye gift. And they fell for it. After I took ’em down, I ran out the door, down the stairs, and ended up outside at the back of the building.”

“They have security outside,” Jack said. “How did they not catch you?”

“I don’t know. The car that was supposed to come get me wasn’t there yet. And it was super foggy, so I kept low to the ground to hide. Plus, I overheard the guard saying that the cameras and motion sensors weren’t working right since that power outage the other day. Was that you guys?” She turned to me.

“Yeah. Erik and I had a little help getting out of there. I’ll tell you later.”

“How did you guys know I was at that lighthouse?”

“I heard you calling for help,” I said.

“No way! Do you have like extra-super hearing now, Sam?”

“No. It was a premonition. We have a lot to talk about, Brittany. But let’s get you in dry clothes first.”

I grabbed some clothes from my bag. Brittany went to the bathroom to change.

Erik turned to his dad. “Damn! That girl has guts.”

“Well, she was fighting for her life, Erik.”
 

“Yeah, Dad, but most girls—”