Reviews
“Thank you for the humor and the way this really kept me riveted to want to know what was coming next. This book made me laugh and cry and think about what I was reading. I really look forward to how this adventure will conclude.” –Amazon reader
Bill tried desperately not to turn
the fishtail into a full spin as the van careened from bright sunlight and dust
into winter twilight and snow. No power steering, no power brakes, no power. He
was dimly aware of the screaming and shouting around him, but he couldn’t think
about that at the moment. He was too busy focusing on trying to stop the van
without wrecking it, without rolling it, without crashing into that figure who
had just appeared from out of nowhere, stepping right in front of—
Oh,
shit!
Reflexively, he slammed both feet
down on the brake and stood on it,
adding his voice to the others, screaming and shouting.
Snow piled in front of the bumper
with a crumpling sound. It helped to slow the van’s nightmarish slide until at
last, it lurched to a halt. The loss of momentum gently, almost sheepishly,
threw everyone back into their seats, where they landed with a soft thump. They
all sat for a moment, dazed.
The figure in front of them had not
moved. The glow of a cigarette floated up and brightened, illuminating the
Oracle’s mouth and nose as she took a drag. “You’re late.”
Bill flicked on the headlights. She
stood just in front of the heaped-up snow, a small gold pocket watch in hand. “Oh,
like you knew it to the second!” he turned the door handle and gave the door a
good shove, trying to clear some of the snow out of the way.
She pointed to the bumper. “I knew
it to the inch.” Then her gaze fell on his companions. “Why do you have MJ-12
with you? Wait.”
JD already had both guns to the
back of Emily’s head, barrels cocked back. At the Oracle’s word he froze,
triggers pulled partway back.
Kate had opened the passenger door
and stood, half-in and half-out of the van, also frozen. The Oracle came around
the passenger side and peered at Emily. “Don’t shoot. We need her.”
“The fuck for?” JD growled.
“Don’t know yet. If nothing else,
she’s cannon fodder, right?”
Reluctantly, JD lowered the weapons
from Emily’s head to her back, jabbing at her shoulder blades. “All right,
sunshine. Move.”
Raising her hands, Emily did as he
said. JD followed, his guns still out, then walked carefully around her.
The Oracle had backed away. Clayton
stepped from the edge of the clearing and JD joined them. The three of them
regarded Emily with open hostility.
Bill watched from the driver’s
side, his eyes darting from the Colonel to Emily and back again.
Murphy climbed down from the van’s
rear doors and picked his way carefully through the snow to stand next to Kate,
astonished at the sudden and unexpected change in JD’s demeanor. But if Murphy
was astonished, Kate was shocked.
There was a tense silence.
Emily looked at her captors. “Okay,
I can see where this is going. Fine.” She took off her gunbelt and tossed it
forward, onto the ground. “I surrender.”
The three of them continued to eye
her. Then, in a voice Kate didn’t recognize, JD said, “Lie down and put your
hands behind your back.”
“No,” Bill cried. “Colonel, wait--”
No one responded. Emily clasped her
hands behind her back and lay facedown in a snowdrift while the Oracle cuffed
her. She wasn’t gentle about it either, her knee in Emily’s back. Emily turned
her head to the side in order to breathe, her cheek against the wet snow. The
Colonel retrieved her gunbelt.
“No!” Bill said again, more
forcefully this time.
“Yes, Bill,” the Colonel snapped. “This little missy’s MJ-12 and the
only reason I didn’t put two in the
back a her head is ‘cause the Oracle said it was a bad idea. You got a report
to give? Clayton’s right over there. I got a prisoner to handle.”
Bill turned to Clayton. “She saved me!”
“Before or after she turned you
in?” the Oracle asked.
“Well, I—” Bill stammered. “After.
But you don’t understand.”
“What don’t we understand?” Clayton
asked.
“She killed some of her own people
to get me out of there—out of Leavenworth! She’s on our side!”
“Did she?” Clayton asked. “Did you
actually see the bodies? Or did you just see people fall down?”
“I know what I saw.”
Clayton took in the bruises on his
face, yellowed but still terrible. “You’re not looking well, Bill. In fact, you
look like you’ve been worked over.”
“Well, I was-- they did. But she didn’t.”
“Of course she didn’t. She would
have been held in reserve, someone to be sympathetic with you.” Clayton glanced
down at Emily. “I’m sure she was very convincing.”
“Look, guys, I know what you’re
thinking, okay? I have training, I have experience-- I’ve been out in the field
more than a day or two! This isn’t Stockholm syndrome. She had a change of
heart. She saved me-- she saved the team.”
“You saved the team,” Clayton corrected. “Although she might have
helped.”
“She did—help,” Kate piped up.
Murphy nodded in agreement.
“No doubt,” Clayton said kindly.
“But were any of you there when she allegedly helped Bill escape from her
colleagues?”
Kate and Murphy shook their heads.
Clayton turned to Emily. “What’s your
name?”
Her teeth were chattering from the
cold. “Emily Hayes.”
“Agent Hayes, I just want to make
sure you understand the situation you’re in. We’re here because this world is
allied with the Order. You won’t find anyone here who’s ever heard of the US
Government. So don’t get any ideas about contacting your superiors. It’s simply
not possible.”
Emily nodded. “I understand.”
Clayton nodded, as well. “Let her
up.”
Alyssa yanked Emily to her feet and
Clayton said to the others, “Now, we need to get the rest of you outfitted.
We’ve got a long journey ahead of us.”
“Of course we do,” Murphy burst out. “Why wouldn’t we? It’s fucking
cold here. We were just in a goddamn desert. What is wrong with you people?”