Broken Arrow

'It was no coincidence that Robert picked you up in York, was it?'

Adele shook her head. 'Hardly. I've been studying the cult's movements, and Robert's, for longer than any of you realise. It wasn't hard to put myself in harm's way, to orchestrate a little… rendezvous.'

Her fingers were almost there, just a fraction more. Careful, Mary, said her brother, which made her even more on edge. He only called her by her real name when he was angry with her or feared for her safety. She's crazier than her old man was.

'I must say, I can see why you're attracted to him,' Adele stared at her, the tears all but dried up. 'Under different circumstances and if I didn't hate his guts, maybe… Wouldn't be exactly difficult to come between you two, not with all the problems you've both got.'

'You didn't come between anyone,' Mary said defiantly.

'Right,' replied Adele in a tone that made Mary want to punch her in the face.

'Look, we don't have much time. We're all in danger from The Tsar and-'

'Ah yes, The Tsar. An interesting twist,' Adele said, stepping forward. 'Even I had not foreseen that. I thought I would have to do this alone, but now… Maybe he might want to join forces, do you think?'

Hearing her talk like this, and now seeing her face — her true face — for the first time, Mary couldn't believe she'd been so blind. But then, how could anyone have known about Adele's real origins? She'd been so clever at hiding them. And in a post-apocalyptic world what did anyone really know about anyone?

'Especially if I give him a little inside help. It was only what I was going to do anyway, now that a good portion of your compliment are absent… or dead.' She said this last bit with such hope, Mary made a grab for her gun — pulling out the Peacekeeper, cocking it, and pointing it at Adele's head. Adele didn't seem surprised; in fact she smiled again. That same crooked smile. De Falaise's smile. Mary was hardly likely to forget it.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you,' Adele told her, then brought up her hands, turning around and showing what she was holding. A live grenade. 'The pin's already pulled, in case you were wondering. All I have to do is let go of the trigger. I go, you go with me.'

Damn it, said David in her head. What are you going to do now, sis? Mary didn't have a clue. She couldn't even tell Adele to drop her weapon, or they'd both go up.

Adele offered a solution. 'So, I suggest you let me walk out of here with these.' She shifted to one side, nodding down at a bag on the floor. Open, because Mary had disturbed her in the act, it contained a rifle, handgun, some more grenades, and what looked to be a mini-bazooka.

'You're not coming past me,' Mary said. God knows what kind of damage she'd do with those, and at a time when they might be under attack from the outside as well.

'I don't have to,' Adele barked. 'I know there are other ways in and out of here.' She grabbed the bag then walked backwards, picking her way through the Aladdin's cave of weaponry.

Mary's gun arm wavered. 'Don't.'

'You are not in any position to give me orders.'

Mary hated to admit it, but Adele was right. All she could do was watch her as she retreated. When she was a good way off, Adele smiled again.

'I would like to say it has been nice knowing you, but…' Adele let the sentence tail off, then tossed the grenade at Mary.

Instinctively, Mary took a shot, but the woman was already gone. Then her eyes dropped to the grenade bouncing into the middle of the arsenal.

'Nuts,' said Mary under her breath.

Run, Mary, run! shouted her brother, but she didn't need to be told, her legs were already in motion. She pelted out the way she had come, making it to the steps and almost all the way up them when the explosion came.

The blast rocked the cave, blowing dust, sandstone, and Mary out with it, causing a section near the exit to fall in just behind her. She felt something heavy land on her leg, pinning her to the steps, pain following.

Mary could see the light above, the open gate, but couldn't move. She reached out her hand, yet in spite of the efforts of her brother to keep her awake, Mary found herself blacking out. It sounded like another explosion went off then, but that one was distant. She let it go, able only to focus on one thing.

Her final thoughts were of Robert, Adele's words echoing in her mind.

Absent… or dead

Absent…

Or dead.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

They were all dead.

Piled up, in front of The Tsar. And he was looking down on them with such a satisfied smile on his face. Mary, Tate, Sophie, Mark. And finally Jack, thrown down there by the giant Tanek, while the two Asian women looked on, swords drawn, ready to protect their Lord with their lives if necessary.

At The Tsar's feet was the suited man, crawling, half dead; one of his hands missing and blood staining his shirt from the belly wound that Dale had given him. All around them the forest was on fire. It was being attacked by the troops they'd found on the battlefield, trees mowed aside by armoured vehicles. The sound of chopper-blades could be heard overhead.

On his knees, Robert made an effort to get up and rush forward, to take revenge for the deaths of the people he loved. But he found he couldn't move. It was like he was stuck, his limbs unable to respond to his commands. His eyes were about the only things that could, and when he dipped them, he saw a light coating of fur on his chest, on his entire body (though he couldn't reach up this time — Robert didn't even think he had hands — he knew there would be antlers on his head). His shoulder was bleeding profusely, and so was his thigh.

But there was something else. A figure behind The Tsar. A woman. He recognised her short black hair, the pretty but tight features, instantly.

It was the woman he'd saved from the cultists. Adele. Indeed, the closer he looked at the soldiers flanking them, the more he saw their number amongst the troops: the robed men with machetes here and there, blending in with The Tsar's fighters.

Robert's attention was snapped back to Adele, though, as she draped herself over The Tsar, hands on his shoulders, lips to his ear. The Russian's grin widened, but his twin bodyguards looked like they wanted to run their swords right through her.

Then she came around the front, stroking Tanek's bicep as he joined them. There was something about the way she looked now, something that rang a warning bell. It was as if the layers were being peeled away, revealing the real face of this woman beneath her actor's facade. There it was in the eyes, in the crooked smile. He'd seen those features before, he'd looked into them as he'd been locked in a deathgrip. A relation? A cousin? A sister?

No. A daughter.

If only he had known earlier.

'Vengeance,' whispered Adele in a French accent, now to the side of him. Now at his ear.

The thrup-thrup of an attack helicopter drowned her out, about to fire its payload as it had during the battle. The battle which he'd just fought and ended up-

Tanek, in front of him, was raising his crossbow — preparing to fire and then cut the antlers from Robert's crown. But those damned rotor blades, they were making such a row.

So close, so close.

Tanek raised his crossbow and fired…

…Robert's eyelids cracked open, then immediately closed again.

The noise of the rotor blades from his dream carried on. He must still be there, must still be in the