“My son will never be used to fight for you.”
“Oh no? What do you think caused this? His blood. Mixed with silver and wolfbane. So simple. So effective. Yet no effect on humans. Or the inoculated…” he said, smiling and holding a small shining circular ball. “In a few days, I’ll have a great deal of these things. Ready for any enemy that comes my way.”
“You…” Monster wasn’t even the word. “His family…they will fight now.”
“Ah yes…his family.” He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a phone, pressing a number, and held it to his ear quickly. “Field of gold.”
Tynan hung up and grabbed Rykard by the shirt. Both his corpse and Nicole were pulled to the window. The baby in her arms woke from his sleep and started to stir. Outside, the view of his grounds was magnificent, it was true. She faced the spacious area, roughly the size of four football fields pressed together in a square. Beyond that was the guard towers which the exit road led out between toward the vast English countryside.
The window in front of them slowly slid up, revealing the stiff breeze of winter. Tynan lifted Rykard’s body and flung him out the window. Tynan grabbed Nicole and held her bent over the rail, holding her baby tight, making her watch what was to happen. As Rykard’s body hit the field, the area exploded in a shower of dirt and fire.
“Mines. All through this field. Hundreds of them. Armed whenever I say. Let his family come. They have no access to aircraft. They will have to break down my defences. His family. Alicia. Talia. Let them come. And when they do…” He swept his hand slowly over the grounds, throwing and catching the ball for good measure. “I’ll be ready.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Follow The Leader
“Turn right…” Alex said.
“What, where?”
“Turn right!”
Michelle swerved the car to the right, heading down another long, thin road surrounded by bushland.
“Alex what the hell is going on?” Michelle waited for a reply, but Alex was staring into the distance with a stone-faced expression. “Alex?”
Michelle slammed on the breaks. To their right was a pathway to Janolan Caves. Hail was falling on to the windscreen. More and more of it. And Michelle noticed some was slamming through the glass and into the car. Piercing the glass in drops and slits. “What the...” A few drops fell straight into the car through a previous hole in the glass.
“Ok, we’ve gotta get out. Alex, can you get the baby...Alex?”
Alex had vacated her seat to start walking towards the pathway, moving stiff as a board, as if not hearing a word Michelle said. Michelle screamed after her again but gave up just for a moment as another droplet fell, this time on her thigh, causing her to yell in pain. Michelle got out of the car and helped the mother and child from the back seat. They bent over the child, and offering some protection, followed the path. Firstly, the caves were the only sure protection but secondly to get to Alex, who still refused to even acknowledge her cries. Michelle hissed and hurried as the rain grew heavier. Not every drop that fell burnt, but it all felt hot and caused their clothes to smoke. Strangely Alex did not seem affected, moving casually, if briskly, towards the entrance to one cave. Michelle, through a wincing gaze, saw Alex walk up to the chained gate and pull the chain away. It snapped with a single gesture, and she tossed it away with indifference before disappearing into the cold black opening. Michelle screamed for her, but again, it made no difference. Alex either didn’t hear or didn’t care to notice. Michelle reached the area just beyond the fence, but Alex was nowhere to be found. She sat the mother down inside the mouth of the cave and ventured after Alex, using her torch to light the way. But Alex was gone. Michelle kept looking back at the mother and baby, currently being fed, just to check on them and her distance from the entrance. It was here she walked straight into a solid rock wall she didn’t even know was there.
She swore and rubbed her forehead. Flashing her phone light over the surface she stopped as she came to a particularly strange etching. A rather precise formation within the rock. Michelle ran her fingers along a drawing, a carving really, of a letter. The letter V.
Chapter Thirty
Meet Thy Enemy
Nick taxied out, almost blind. The navigation system flickered without power, and the runway was nearly dark. The only speck of light was the small drabs he could see from the reflectors.
“Which way to Pommyland?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is this gunna work?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you really fly this thing?”
“Fuck! I don’t know.”
“Testy lil’ bastard ain’t ya…”
“Just lemme concentrate.”
Lee rolled his eyes. “Since when do you have to concentrate to fly? These things practically fly ‘emselves, aye. What’s this do?”
“DON’T!”
“Unidentified aircraft…please respond…”
The radio crackled but the message got through. Both Nick and Lee stopped and looked at each other.
“Unidentified aircraft…you do not have clearance to depart. I repeat, you do not have clearance…”
Lee snatched the receiver from its holster, clearing his throat. “A duel was fought between Alexander Shott and John Nott. Nott was shot and Shott was not. In this case it is better to be Shott than Nott. Some said that Nott was not shot. But Shott says that he shot Nott.
It may be that the shot Shott shot, shot Nott, or it may be possible that the shot Shott shot, shot Shott
