Stranded (A stand-alone SF thriller) (The Prometheus Project Book 3) (17 page)

It was Alyssa Cooper! And her younger sister. What could they possibly be doing here?

Whatever it was, Ryan realized he was leading the mercenary solider behind him straight toward the two girls. The man was gaining fast! Ryan knew he would be caught soon, but somehow he had to find a way to warn Alyssa and her sister to stay quiet and hidden.

Ryan made a sharp turn to the right, sprinted for another fifteen seconds, and then stopped abruptly. Far enough from the two girls that the merc couldn’t see them, but close enough for them to hear what was going on.

“Okay, I surrender,” he yelled loudly in the direction of the oncoming soldier, gasping for breath. “Don’t shoot!” he bellowed. “Please don’t kill me!”

That should do it, he thought. If that didn’t put Alyssa on alert, nothing would.

Ryan put his head down and focused on slowing his breathing and heart rate after his long sprint. The merc caught up to him seconds later, his weapon drawn. The man was short and squat, with a neck as thick as a tree, but he ran like a track star.

“Where did you come from?” barked the soldier-for-hire, barely breathing hard. “And how is it you weren’t affected by the gravity weapon?”

Ryan scratched his head. “Gravity weapon,” he said in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

The merc smiled broadly. “You’re not going to make it as an actor, kid. Look, if you cooperate you won’t get hurt. But the boss will want to know your story.” He paused. “My name is Tony. Tony DeMarco. What’s yours?”

“I’m Cole,” said Ryan, using the name of the first classmate that popped into his head. “Cole Johnson.”

Ryan surveyed the landscape behind the merc, but made sure to do so very, very carefully so the man wouldn’t follow his eyes. There! He found what he was looking to find. Alyssa and Kelsey crouching behind a wide birch tree. One whose numerous low-hanging branches were densely covered with leaves that had just turned yellow. The two girls were well back and to his left. As he had hoped, they had heard him and had—cautiously—come to investigate. When the merc marched him back to Proact they would be safe, as long as they left the woods immediately and took care to stay out of sight.

In a flash, Ryan realized that their presence nearby gave him the chance to escape. But if he involved them any further he would be putting them in danger. Even as he thought this he decided he didn’t have a choice. He
had a duty to warn security about Nathaniel and to get help for the stranded Isis expedition, something that was impossible to accomplish while a prisoner—or dead.

Ryan set his jaw in determination. His only hope was to get this Tony DeMarco to leave him in the woods alone. But how? Nothing was coming to mind.

“Okay, Cole,” said the squat soldier. “Come with me. Cooperate and everything will be all right.”

Ryan began to panic. He still hadn’t thought of anything. Was there a way to stall for time? The answer came to him immediately.

Ryan took a step and collapsed to the ground with a startled groan.

The merc looked at him in confusion. “Get up!” he ordered.

Ryan shook his head. “I must have twisted my ankle when I stopped to surrender. Putting my full weight on it made it worse. I can’t walk.”

“I’m not buying it. Get up,” said Tony DeMarco once again, waving the automatic weapon menacingly.

“Look, you can carry me. I can hop on one foot while you hold me up. Or you can shoot me,” added Ryan defiantly. “But what I
can’t
do is move quickly.”

While Ryan was stalling a plan finally formed in his mind. He looked over the soldier’s shoulder and pretended to be scanning the area, frantically searching for something. He had to make it obvious, but not
too
obvious.

The merc caught his eyes. “What are you looking for?” he barked.

Ryan gulped guiltily. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The merc pressed the nose of his rifle into Ryan’s jean-covered thigh. “I really don’t want to hurt a kid. But no more lies. You have five seconds. If I find out you lied about any detail, you will very much regret it. Five … four … three … two …”

“Alright!” shouted Ryan frantically. “Don’t shoot. I’ll tell you what you want to know.” He shook his head in disgust as though he were betraying a trust. “My dad is a Proact guard. I was with him and five other guards when the gravity wave hit. But somehow it wore off on all of us. My dad told me to stay put while they went to the store room for better weapons.” He shook his head dejectedly. “I should have listened.”

Tony DeMarco searched the direction in which Ryan had been looking but saw nothing. He doubted the kid’s story was true, but it paid to be cautious. The boss had said the gravity effect wouldn’t wear off for three hours. On the other hand, this had obviously not been true for the kid. So maybe he
was
telling the truth after all. Was it possible that, even now, one or more of these revived guards were stalking him?

“Hop over here,” whispered the merc, who was standing beside a slender hickory tree. “Quickly. Say a single word and I’ll shoot you.”

Ryan did as instructed.

“Sit down and hug the tree,” whispered Tony, continuing to look nervously in the direction of Proact.

Ryan sat with his legs on either side of the trunk and encircled it with his arms.

“Cross your wrists.”

Ryan did as he was told. The merc pulled a long, hard-plastic strip from the vest he was wearing and zipped it closed around Ryan’s wrists, effectively handcuffing him to the tree.

“Don’t go anywhere,” whispered the short, muscular soldier, reaching into another deep pocket of his vest, which contained spare clips for his weapon, a combat knife, and a small roll of silver duct tape. He pulled out the roll and taped Ryan’s mouth shut. Then, without another word, he headed off in the direction of Proact.

As soon as the man was out of sight, Alyssa and her sister made their way over to Ryan. The binoculars were hanging around Alyssa’s neck and she was still holding the small camcorder. Kelsey dropped the pie-tin and white thermos bottle she had been holding to the ground while Alyssa crouched down and ripped the tape from her bound classmate’s mouth.

“Ryan,” said Alyssa anxiously, “what’s going on? Who
was
that guy?”

“Shhhhh,” he cautioned, his voice barely audible. “Whisper.” He blew out a relieved breath. “Boy am I glad to see you,” he said excitedly, but his mood darkened
almost immediately. “Sorry to get you involved,” he added with a frown. While it was true that the stakes couldn’t be higher, if anything happened to Alyssa or her sister he would never forgive himself.

Ryan’s face was pressed against the side of the tree trunk but both sisters had placed themselves within his line of sight. “Don’t let your guard down,” he cautioned. “We’re up against soldiers who couldn’t be more dangerous. There’s a pocketknife in my right front pocket. Reach in and pull it out.
Hurry
.”

Alyssa did, but when she removed her hand she held two items. Her eyes widened as she recognized the second one. It was a lighter. “You smoke?” she said in surprise.

“No,” whispered Ryan, shaking his head. “But you never know when you’ll need a torch,” he added with a wry smile.

“What?” mouthed Alyssa as she started sawing through the tough plastic handcuffs with Ryan’s relatively dull pocketknife.

“Long story,” replied Ryan.

“Do you know my sister Kelsey?” whispered Alyssa.

Ryan nodded. Both sisters were light on their feet and athletic, but they shared few similarities after that. Kelsey had dark hair, cut shorter than Alyssa’s, and her features weren’t quite as soft. “You’re in Regan’s class, right?”

“Right,” mouthed Kelsey as Alyssa continued sawing.

“Put down the knife!”
boomed a male voice coming from deeper inside the woods. A towering mercenary, well over six feet in height, followed the voice. And so did his automatic rifle.

Alyssa dropped the knife to the ground.

“Now turn around!” he ordered the sisters. “Carefully. Make one wrong move and I’ll put a bullet in both of your heads,” he added with a scowl.

C
HAPTER
21
Sweating it Out

N
either girl could breathe. What was going on! Where did these soldiers keep coming from! The woods were crawling with them.

“Tony radioed me and told me to move in on this position,” said the towering soldier. “Seems he didn’t completely trust our boy Cole here. Tony has good instincts that way.”

The mercenary slung his automatic rifle over his shoulder and pulled a machine pistol from his vest, set for single shot. “Give me the camcorder!” he barked at Alyssa.

Alyssa was so petrified with fear she could barely move. Finally she extended her arm, which was shaking, and the mercenary snatched the camera from her hand and slid it into his vest.

He pointed his weapon at Kelsey. “Let me see your hands,” he ordered.

Kelsey removed her hands from the large front pockets of her sweatshirt. As she did so a bulky object fell out of her pocket and to the ground.

“What is that?” said the tall mercenary as he studied the object now on the ground at Kelsey’s feet. “Is that a
perfume
bottle?” he said in disbelief as Kelsey picked it up. He roared with laughter. “I’ve faced men carrying knives, guns and even rocket launchers. But I’ve never faced a dreaded perfume bottle before. Is that an automatic or single shot?” he said, and then laughed again at his own joke.

Alyssa may have been paralyzed with fear but there was nothing wrong with her mind. “Don’t wait for Phase Two,” she croaked to her sister, barely able to get the words out given her petrified tongue and shortness of breath. “We
want
the missing person to freak out.”

“What missing person?” said the merc, his thick eyebrows coming together in confusion.

Ryan had the same puzzled look on his face.

Kelsey, on the other hand, looked anything but confused. She was concentrating for all she was worth, running Alyssa’s words through her mind until she understood exactly what Alyssa was trying to communicate to her.

The soldier glared at Alyssa. “What are you talking about?” he demanded.

“Nothing,” she replied weakly. “I’m just really scared. I was babbling.”

Kelsey blew out a huge breath. It was now or never.

“Here,” she said, taking a few steps forward and extending the perfume bottle toward the massive mercenary. “You can have it.”

The merc shook his head scornfully. “I don’t want it,” he barked. “Get it away from me.”

Just as he was finishing his sentence Kelsey pumped the bulb several times as forcefully as she could. A heavy rain of mist sprayed on the merc’s face and hair.

Furious, the merc hit the bottle out of Kelsey’s hand with the butt of his pistol and then placed the barrel just over her shoulder. He squeezed the trigger and a single shot was fired, deafening the three kids. Kelsey screamed in fear and pain as a shallow groove appeared in her shoulder and began bleeding into her shirt.

“Do you think this is a game!” shouted the merc. “You think you’re going to blind me with perfume! That was just a warning shot. The next time you try something cute I’ll put a bullet right through your shoulder.”

He wiped some of the mist from his face with the back of his hand, turning up his nose in disgust. “That has to be the worst perfume I’ve ever smelled. What is it called, essence of sweat socks?”

Alyssa was stunned. Kelsey had been shot! This guy wouldn’t hesitate to kill them all. “What do you want?” she said. She tried to say it forcefully but the words almost stuck in her throat and came out in a whisper.

“I want to know where you two came from. And I want to know why Cole here wasn’t affected by the gravity weapon.”

“Leave them alone!” said Ryan. “They don’t have any idea what this is about. Let them go and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

The merc laughed. “Wow. That’s like a line from some really corny movie. But I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way in real life. Believe me, I have no doubt you’ll tell us what we want to know. But these girls have seen my face.” He smiled cruelly. “And we can always use two more hostages.”

Kelsey had tears in the corner of her eyes from the pain and terror of being shot—even if the merc had only grazed her. Alyssa’s legs felt weak and she had to fight to keep tears from her own eyes.

And then a surge of electricity raced through Alyssa as she saw two bees flying around the merc. They circled him a few times and then rushed off. Hopefully to find some friends. Or was it getting too cold and too dark for this to work? They would find out in minutes.

“You!” the soldier barked at Alyssa. “Pick up the knife and free the boy. We need to get moving.”

Alyssa did as she was told, but she did everything she could to stall. Her hands were shaking anyway, so it was easy for her to pretend to drop the knife on multiple occasions. Several minutes went by and Ryan was still bound to the tree.

Finally the soldier’s patience was at an end. “If you don’t hurry it up,” he hissed, “I’m going to
shoot
through those plastic cuffs. Might not be too good for your friend’s hands.”

“Where are you taking us?” asked Alyssa, now sawing at the hardened plastic with all of her strength.

The soldier gestured in the direction of the Proact grounds. “That way,” he said. “Now hurry up!” he snapped.

“We can’t go that way,” said Kelsey anxiously. “We were here earlier today. There’s a huge hive of killer bees in that direction. Those things could sting an elephant to death.”

The merc rolled his eyes. “What is this,” he said. “Some kind of circus act. First you attack me with perfume. And now you try to scare me with killer bees. Unbelievable. There are no killer bees in Pennsylvania.”

But even as he was saying this six bees flew around his face and head. As if on cue.

He glanced up nervously.

And eight more arrived.

He waved his free hand to shoo them away. Killer bees? That was impossible. They liked warmer climates. But even as he thought this twenty more bees arrived and began landing on his face and hair.