>>><<<
Brad was just short of biting his nails when the nav system blipped. Ordal Laverock’s compound appeared on the horizon.
Thoughts of Jeuley flooded his mind. He didn’t dare look out the window for fear of losing his sanity. Brad was already sweating bullets, worried to death that something would go wrong before he got to her, but Danny kept the ride smooth. He barely spoke at all, in fact. Hopefully that was a good thing. Brad certainly wasn’t going to inquire otherwise.
“I can see it. What does the nav screen say?” Danny glanced toward Brad.
“That we’ll be there in a minute or two.” Thank goodness. Brad was hesitant to look out the window. “What does it look like?”
Danny grimaced. “Like I can’t land on it.”
“What?” Brad panicked. “Please tell me you’re just fucking with me.”
“Then I’d be a liar.” Danny paused for a deafening moment. “It’s hard enough keeping control of this bucket of bolts, but there’s another helicopter on the island and I don’t think I have enough room to put this one down.”
“No, no, no.” Brad dove into the nav system, trying to find any kind of instruction manual or size requirements–anything that could help him figure out how he could rescue Jeuley. He had to get into that compound no matter what.
But if Danny couldn’t land the chopper…
Brad’s thought trailed into oblivion as he read the screen. “You’re not gonna believe this, but we’re riding in an amphibious copter.”
Drawings of water and the copter’s capabilities relating to offshore operations flashed from screen to screen. He brought up the instructions, images and simulations on a central screen so Danny could see them and hopefully make heads or tails of them.
Laughter poured fourth from Danny. But was it happy or crazy laughter?
“I’m a dumbass! All this time I was wondering what this whole section of controls was for…and you tell me we’re amphibious?! Damn…”
“Is that good or bad?”
“We can land on water. Or swim in it if you’d like. I think we’ll put down right here.” Danny flicked a few switches and the heliflyer began to descend.
Brad finally got the nerve to peek out the window. “Ummm…Danny? Can you get any closer?”
“I guess so. Why?”
“Did you forget that I can’t swim? And there’s no door on the building. It’s just a big box. How am I supposed to get in?”
“You’ll figure it out.” Danny slid a lever. “I’m deploying a boat, too. Just don’t fall out of it, okay?”
“But…” Brad gritted his teeth as he fumbled with a latch. “How do I open this door?” He twisted and turned, but it didn’t open. Was it a slider? How in the world was he going to get to Jeuley if he couldn’t even figure out how to get out of the freaking heliflyer?
“That’s the food storage, Brad. Try the handle next to that one, buddy.”
“Shit. Thanks, man.” With a sharp clack, the door popped open. An inflated boat bobbed in the current, waiting for him. It had a small boxcase on it, offering a little bit of comfort but the swaying water made Brad’s stomach queasy. He was a man of parts. He had to figure out how to put those parts together and come up with a plan to get Jeuley.
But he better do it quick, before he lost one of those parts–his lunch.
“Can you come with me?” Brad asked.
But Danny was looking pretty frustrated. “I’d like to, but I can’t quite land this bucket of bolts this close to the building the way I want to. Looks like I gotta hover.”
“Is that bad?”
“Shut up and go get her!”
Brad jumped into the raft-like boat, unhooked the keeper from the copter and used the oar to shove off toward the compound.
He opened the boxcase to see what it had to offer. A couple lengths of rope, a flare blaster, a big gnarly metal hook–oh wait, that was an anchor–and a small, handheld computer with a funky gun-like handle. Okay, Mike, whatever.
Brad rowed toward the big glass box protruding from the water. The raft undulated over each wave and Brad fought to keep from retching. Dammit. He’d made it this far. Another seventy feet or so of rowing wasn’t going to stop him. This was not the time to freak out and go back.
Between strokes, Brad powered up the strange tablet. Apparently, it was a multi-purpose tool that could do anything from producing a meal to turning into some kind of gun-like weapon all with a tap of the screen or a drop down of a menu. Hopefully, there’d be something of use once Brad got to the building. Too bad the handle couldn’t magically turn into an outboard motor for the raft.
The gun icon looked interesting, though. But would he really need a weapon in order to save Jeuley? Brad stuffed the handheld in his pocket. He didn’t want to imagine what his first time firing a gun might be like. Or what would happen if he missed.
As though right on cue, gunshots broke the air.
Brad ducked, practically hyperventilating, then realized that there was nowhere for him to hide anyway. Frantically, he scanned the horizon for either the source or destination of the blasts.
More shots rang out. But this time, Brad saw the whole story. Danny, gun in hand, was hanging out of the heliflyer aiming toward the compound. In reflection off the chopper, Brad saw a short little man on top of the compound, holding Jeuley’s arm, dragging her toward the helicopter. She was gagged and her wrists were taped together. Brad bit his tongue so as not to holler out. He didn’t want the little man to hurt her.
Danny let more shots fly and one of the helicopter blades fell, nearly hitting Jeuley. She dodged, dragging the runt–he must be Ordal Laverock–with her.
Brad paddled furiously, his focus set on reaching the building. Faster, dammit, faster!
After what felt like an eternity, he pulled up alongside it. Using the duct tape, Brad strapped the raft to a rock at the base of the building before tying the rope to the anchor and hurling the hook upward, hoping it’d catch on something.
Woohoo! He snagged it on the first try and grabbed onto the rope, ready to climb. But what did he know about getting up it? Each step was a struggle. It seemed like, in one single day, he had to figure out all the phys ed stuff that he’d successfully avoided in school.
Brad banged against the building and spun around on the rope. His palms blistered, knuckles white. The rope wouldn’t hold still. Or was it because he couldn’t steady himself, his shoulders smacked into the glass–Ouch! –then bounced away, his hip bearing the next crash.
Jeuley’s muffled screams spurred him on as he neared the top. She was clearly scuffling with the bastard. Then, a door slammed and all was quiet.
Go, go, go, go, go. Ouch! Dammit. Keep going.
Brad slipped and stumbled up the side of the compound. As he got to the top, his knot gave way, forcing him to leap and grab the edge. He dodged the anchor as it whizzed past his head.
Too close. Way too close. But keep going! Jeuley needs you!
He pulled upward and swung his foot onto the building. With a swift yank, he rolled up to safety. Just like someone in an action vid.
Surveying the rooftop, Brad ran past the busted helicopter then glanced toward Danny to see if everything was okay. Uh-oh what was he doing? Danny waved frantically–but did he mean “get inside” or “help me”?
Duh, you have a cell phone. Try using it.
Without a greeting or even ringing for that matter, Danny started in. “What are you calling me for? Go get her. Hang up your goddamn phone and get your ass inside.” Danny’s words didn’t quite compute in Brad’s adrenaline-overrun brain.
“How?”
How the hell was he supposed to get inside the building? He ran past Ordal’s damaged copter again, but still didn’t see a door.
“No, no, no, you dumbass.” Danny sighed. “Trap door. Stop now and look down.”
Brad looked down. Holy shit, Danny was right.
“Brad… Open it and climb down. You’re on your own until I can figure out how to get this thing on full auto-pilot. I’ll be in when I can. Now, hang up.” Danny terminated the call before Brad could even come up with a “thank you, please hurry.”
His hands shook as he pocketed the phone and wiggled his fingers under the edge of the trapdoor. Using what was left of his strength, he got it open.
Just before heading down, he stopped himself. What if he was literally heading right into a trap? Well, he did have a gun. Kinda. At least maybe. He pulled the strange handheld tablet from his pocket.
After touching the gun icon, he scrolled through the commands and set it to–ummm–stun. The screen reconfigured, turning into a touchpad trigger. He assumed pressing the button would send some kind of zap. He was about to test it when a command tip flashed on screen.
>>In a tight spot?
<<Trying to look into a potentially dangerous hole?
>>Try mirror-vision.
<<Touch here to activate.
Leave it to Mike to come up with something so useful and yet stupid at the same time.
It took a conscious effort to get his finger to stop shaking enough, but he touched the spot and the unit split its screen between stun trigger and camera view. Gingerly, he lowered the unit to get a closer look below.
Nobody there.
Brad flung himself down the ladder and surveyed the room. Something crushed under his foot. There were little white pills or breath mints or something sprinkled all over the floor, but no other signs of a struggle. It was some kind of vaguely garlic-scented main office with a huge console in the middle. And a big overstuffed seat. Brad noticed shoelaces caught in the chair’s rollers and shook his head at the surrealism of it all.
Jeuley hollered. He ran in the direction of her voice, down a set of stairs, around a corner and into what looked to be a creepy warehouse of bizarre and somewhat grotesque experiments. Shelves of mutated body parts in jars. Some of the parts with weird devices attached to them. A pile of oddly altered shoes littered one corner near a rack, a stack of computer monitors with various mechanical limbs stood next to a gelatinous cube which looked suspiciously like Blue Root jelly.
Over the sound of his breathing, Brad listened for more sounds, anything that could lead him to Jeuley. Nothing. He wandered through the freaky warehouse wondering what lurked in its corners.
The silence was broken by a loud thump and Jeuley’s scream. But where the hell was she?
