But he knew he couldn’t do that, not yet anyway. He couldn’trisk taking her on by himself. Yes, he was undoubtedly physically stronger thanher, but who knows what contingency plans she might have put in place in casethis exact scenario occurred? Someone who was as evil and cunning as to haveengineered everything she had done was hardly going to be easily overpowered.
He had no choice but to wait for Henry who would surely havea plan. Keeping up the pretence until then was going to be increasingly hardnow he knew the truth, but he would have to knuckle down and see it through.
He got through the rest of the day and evening with her bytalking excitedly about their plans for Saturday night. He went out of his wayto build up her expectations. The more she was looking forward to it, the moredisappointed she would be when it didn’t happen.
He was well aware that if Henry didn’t show on Saturday andthe date had to go ahead, he had no plan B. In that eventuality he would haveto come up with something himself. Either way, things were going to come to ahead that night.
By Friday morning most of his memories had returned. Now hecould recall his knowledge of time travel and the role it had played in allthis. Perhaps all was not lost. If he could recover the tachyometer andincapacitate Vanessa, perhaps there was some way to reverse the damage she haddone.
Trying to hide his loathing from her was taking a monumentaleffort, so he came up with a plan to keep her out of his way until thefollowing evening. He broached his idea over breakfast in a way he knew shewouldn’t be able to resist.
“Listen,” he said, “I’ve been thinking about tomorrow. Thisis a very special day for us, and I think we ought to do things properly.”
“Oh yes, Josh,” she said, besotted and as soppy as ever.
“I think we should make it like a second wedding, and then asecond honeymoon,” he said. “Tomorrow night, in the centre of the island, we’llrenew our wedding vows and then make love beneath the stars.”
Just saying those sickly words made him want to vomit. Itsounded totally insincere, but she still bought it.
“Oh, Josh, you don’t know how much I’ve longed to hear yousay those words,” she replied, dreamily.
“Like I say,” he added, “we must do this properly. As youknow, it’s bad luck for the bride to see the groom the night before thewedding, so after breakfast, I think we should spend the rest of today andtomorrow apart. Then we’ll meet at the clearing tomorrow night, at sunset. Whatdo you think?”
“That sounds so romantic!” she exclaimed. “But that’s a longtime to be apart.”
“After tomorrow night we’ll never be apart again,” saidJosh. He felt no guilt whatsoever about the lies pouring out of his mouth. Shedeserved everything she got.
“I’ll make myself beautiful for you, I promise,” she said.
“I know you will. It’s a shame we can’t have a stag or a hennight,” he added. “But since we’re the only two people left on Earth that mightbe a little tricky!”
“I don’t mind,” she said. “And I don’t mind we can’t haveany wedding guests, either. I love that it’s just the two of us in the wholewide world with none of those nasty, horrid other people to ever get in our wayever again.”
“You’re so right,” he said, resisting the urge to point outthat it was difficult to find people to invite when the bride had murdered theentire population of the planet. She was the ultimate bridezilla!
With Vanessa out of the way and his memory more or lessfully restored, he spent the rest of the day mulling over what might happen thenext day. He wasn’t sure if Henry had a plan, so he decided to make one of hisown and run it by him on his return.
Thankfully, Henry did reappear on Saturday morning, as promised,while Vanessa was out of the way having her shower.
Josh suggested his plan, to much enthusiasm from Henry.
“Yes, that’s absolutely perfect,” he said. “You lure herinto the woods, distract her with a fake wedding ceremony, and then I canappear and overpower her while her guard’s down.”
“How exactly do you plan to do that?” said Josh.
“I’ll figure that out when I get there. The most importantthing is you keep her distracted. Kiss her if you have to, anything that willenable me to sneak up undetected behind her.”
“I really don’t want to have to do that. It will be likekissing a serpent,” complained Josh.
“Take one for the team, mate,” replied Henry. “This is ourone chance to take this woman down. I very much doubt we’ll get another.”
“Right, well, you keep yourself well under cover. And wearsomething sensible, not one of your usual shirts. You stand out like alighthouse in those things.”
“Fair enough,” said Henry.
“And don’t be late,” said Josh. “I’m not sure how long I cankeep up this charade, and I really won’t be able to bring myself to actuallyhave sex with her.”
“Yeah, I can relate to that,” said Henry. “Believe me, it’snothing to write home about. Well, it wasn’t for me anyway. That’s the troublewith marriages of convenience, there’s no passion, you see.”
“Right, it’s time you weren’t here. She’ll be out of theshower soon,” said Josh. “I will see you tonight.”
“You certainly will,” he said. “And if we manage to pullthis off, then the hard work will really begin.”
“One thing at a time,” said Josh.
Even if they succeeded in their plan tonight, he knew thatundoing all the harm Vanessa had already done was going to be a huge challenge.
But that would all come later.
First, they had to take Vanessa down.
Chapter Twenty-One
July 2058
The sun was setting across the sea as Josh walked up theshort, sandy path, surrounded by tropical vegetation, that led to the clearingat the centre of the island.
Earlier that afternoon he had been up there and built a firein the centre of the clearing. As he approached, he was pleased to see that itwas still burning brightly, crackling fireflies sparkling above it across thesteadily darkening skies.
There
