CollisionWithParadise (29 page)

“Okay, what are your terms?” he asked.

“We leave Sanchez and Porter here with the Great Crystal while you and I take the
Chimera
back to Uruk.”

“No fucking way!
I’m
the pilot!”

“Shut up, Porter!” Bragg turned on him. “Can
you
drive the alien ship?”

Porter mumbled that he probably could but Bragg had already turned back to Genevieve, who took the cue to continue, “We drop off the Eosians in a safe location on the edge of the village, then continue on to get the missing pieces, bring them back to the
Atlantis II,
then fly it back here for the Great Crystal.”

Porter tightened his hold on Azaes. “She’s full of crap! I’m not staying behind! You need me to pilot the
Chimera
!”

“Shut up!” Bragg shouted him down. “She’s a pilot, idiot!” He turned to sneer at Genevieve. “Drop your gun. Toss it over here.”

After a momentary hesitation, Genevieve threw the gun over to Bragg. It clattered on the floor at his feet and he picked it up with a sneer. She was committed now.

“Here’s the deal, Dubois,” Bragg said. “We take our two hostages with us so they can help us unload the crystals we need.
Then
we let them go.”

God damn it! He’d called her bluff
—
he was forcing her to go through with it all! Betray Azaes completely. She nodded curtly and gazed at the floor, wondering if she’d just made the worse mistake of her life.

Bragg pushed his chin out in the direction of Azaes and his two henchmen. “Okay, let the baldie go,” he instructed Porter and Sanchez. “I said now!”

Porter and Sanchez glanced at each other then released Azaes with reluctance. At the same time Bragg pushed Shiva forward and she staggered into Azaes’s arms. Showing an effusion of emotion very unlike him, Azaes seized Shiva in a bear hug and kissed her on the cheeks several times. Genevieve looked away, feeling suddenly uncomfortable, and swallowed the large lump in her throat. Azaes obviously loved the woman. They belonged together. Genevieve heard them speaking to one another in low tones and took some comfort in the thought that they’d found each other. She hoped to God she could save them.

Feeling Bragg’s eyes on her, she turned to face him. He was leering at her, gaze roaming her naked body from top to bottom. He tossed his head suggestively toward the Eosian couple and rolled his eyes. “Isn’t that just simply disgusting.” Then he aimed his gaze full on her, eyes flickering from her breasts to her crotch. “Now
you
, on the other hand, are choice fillet. Albeit purple all over,” he ended with a lecherous smile. “What happened to you, Dubois?”

“Just trying to blend in with the scenery,” she said.

He barked a sharp laugh. “Now that’s funny, Dubois. I never really liked you and your bleeding heart alien crap. But you’re looking mighty nice to me now.” He nodded to her. “I’m glad you’re not dead after all. You’re proving an awful lot more useful than I ever thought you’d be.

“Shall we?” she urged, swallowing down the bitterness that crept into her voice.

“Yeah,” he said, then waved tersely at Sanchez and Porter, who were both looking surly. “Put the baldies in the brig. They can stay there until I release them. And get yourselves some supplies for the night.”

Both men grunted with displeasure.

“Come on! Come on!” Bragg shouted at his men. “We don’t have all day, idiots!”

Genevieve caught a last glimpse of Azaes, his eyes glaring at her in a mixture of shocked disbelief and hatred before he and Shiva were shoved out of the control room. Shiva avoided Genevieve’s gaze. She’d kept her eyes to the ground the whole time.

Sanchez and Porter returned within moments, laden with supplies, to report off the ship.

“But it’s fucking dark out there!” Porter objected, still reluctant to leave the sanctuary of the ship and sliding razor eyes at Genevieve. He pulled out his long knife from its haft on his belt and twirled it suggestively while jerking his pelvis at her and flicking his eyes down to her crotch. He sneered with loathing. “Later,” he snarled.

She knew what he had in mind for
later
and involuntarily swallowed even as she glared back in defiance. She knew his fantasy.

“Stop being such a whiner, Porter! You have guns, don’t you? Make a fire and cook up one of those bear-things. We’ll be back before you can say barbeque.”

Bragg watched on the camera as the two men disembarked, then he closed the hatch and nodded curtly to Genevieve to start up the ship. She’d found a grey flight suit with nano-sizing to fit anyone in a cupboard by the control room and had hastily slipped into it while the men had had their exchange. Sitting back at the controls, she eased the
Chimera
out of the clearing and guided the ship toward Uruk and Azaes’s place.

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was the deep of night when the
Chimera
set down beside Azaes’s orchard. Genevieve noticed that Azaes house was dark. Everyone was asleep, including his brother and sister.

Bragg wasted no time. He sprinted aft in the main corridor and retrieved Azaes, leaving Shiva in the brig for extra collateral. “Let’s go,” he said, gun pointed at Azaes. Avoiding looking at Azaes, Genevieve led the way to the pyramidal structure and stopped at the door. Bragg looked impatient. “Well?”

“It needs a complicated set of gestures and commands to open,” she said with a solemn glance at Azaes, who glared at her.

Bragg got the picture. “Okay baldie-boy. Say the magic words or I’ll march us right back to the ship and shoot your girlfriend in the face right in front of you.”

Azaes shot another fierce glance at Genevieve before turning to the door with a long sigh of resignation. His look told her what he thought, that she was ultimately responsible for all of this.

Bragg seized Azaes by the arm. “Oh, by the way. No funny stuff. If you give us away to your community police or army I shoot your whole family.”

There was no chance of Azaes doing that, Genevieve thought ruefully. Uruk had no police or army. But Bragg didn’t know that.

Azaes nodded and recited the words and gestures that opened the pyramid. Bragg pushed him inside and Genevieve followed. The flame crystal sat there, colourlessly dark in the night. Bragg grinned. “Is it only the crystal we need?”

“Yes, just the crystal,” Azaes grumbled, removing it from its stand and handing it to Bragg.

“Is he right?” Bragg turned to Genevieve, while stroking the crystal in his hand.

She nodded. Like she knew for certain. She’d only taken Azaes’s word for it. It seemed that Bragg credited her with more knowledge than she had. That might finally work for her, she thought hopefully. Because so far things weren’t going as she’d planned. She could sense Azaes’s consternation for his brother and sister sleeping inside. Genevieve prayed that they would not awaken and come out to see what was going on. She had no idea what Bragg would do. He wasn’t above shooting them.

Bragg slipped the scarlet crystal into his back pack and turned to Genevieve. “Now where?”

“The house.”

Bragg smiled and nudged Azaes toward the large house. “Remember, no funny stuff, baldie. If anyone comes looking for us, they get it and so do you and all those dear to you,” Bragg snarled, waving his gun at the
Chimera
, indicating those inside.

Azaes got them into the house and led them quietly to his bedroom. Genevieve glanced at his
kosh
, which lay open, as though the last time he’d gotten up was in a hurry.

Azaes helped disassemble the crystal rod set up and surrendered it to Bragg, who put it all carefully into his backpack. To Genevieve’s relief, no one stirred in the house and they were outside, walking toward the
Chimera
.

“Halt right there!”

Bragg raised his laser rifle toward the hatchway of the Chimera, where the shout had come from. There stood Diaprepes, who’d managed to get Shiva out of the brig, aiming one of
Chimera
’s rifles at them.

“Step aside, human!” Diaprepes commanded in a shaky voice. It was obvious to Bragg, as it was to Genevieve, that Diaprepes was terrified.

Bragg aimed and fired. Before Diaprepes had a chance to react, he jerked from the impact and fell. Shiva screamed and bent over the young Eosian’s limp body. “Diaprepes!” she cried, seizing him in her arms and stroking him like a lover.

Bragg didn’t waist time. He swung out with his rifle and struck Azaes on the head with the butt-end of the weapon. Azaes collapsed. Bragg had his gun aimed at Genevieve before she had a chance to move. “Whoa, flygirl.” Then he seized her by the arm and sprinted to where Shiva huddled over Diaprepes. He’d been wounded in the chest. Genevieve sucked in her breath and balled her fists.

Bragg shoved Genevieve into the ship. “Get it going before I decide to shoot them all!”

She caught sight of Bragg as he swung the butt of his rifle on Shiva’s head, knocking her out cold. Then he unceremoniously pushed the two naked Eosians off the ramp and scrambled after her to the bridge.

Gen slid in front of the controls and took the ship up. As it rose to over fifty meters, Bragg touched a switch and a missal shot out. Oh, God! The house.

“No!” she screamed. Little Anka was in there! The house exploded into a huge fireball. Fiery pieces flew all the way to the orchard, near where they’d left Azaes, Shiva and Diaprepes.

“There was someone in the house! You promised me you wouldn’t do anything to them!”

A malicious smile slid over his face like an oil slick. “So, I lied…a little.”

“Oh, my God!” she shrilled, staring in stiff horror as a second explosion shot liquid fire fifty meters out, scorching the orchard in an arc that trapped her friends—if it hadn’t killed them already. Another fireball flamed toward the rainforest and her cherished
vishna
tree.

Genevieve steered the ship around in a tight arc, jerking Bragg off balance.

“What the hell are you doing!” he barked at her, drilling his gun into her head.

She ignored the cold metal pushed against her head and felt her nose flare with effort. “I’m taking us back to put out that fire. It’ll spread and kill everyone and kill the forest.”

He pushed harder with the gun and glowered at her with fierce eyes. “We’re not going back!” he barked. “Jesus, do you really think I’d just let them alert their defense forces? They’d have their army out after us before we could say crystal. This little distraction will keep them busy—if they survive the fire.” He squinted down at the sight from the view port. “Hmm…it is spreading fast, isn’t it?” It was clear to Genevieve that he’d intended to do them all in with the explosion and fire.

“You bastard!” She threw herself at him, hands out like talons for his neck.

He jerked out of her way with a panicked shriek and pulled the trigger. She felt an explosion of pain in her left arm and staggered to a halt mid-stride. When she looked down she saw that her arm was only grazed, but a profusion of blood welled out and was already dripping on the floor.

“Next time I’ll aim for your head, you goddamned bitch! Now take us out of here.
Now!”

She dropped back into her pilot’s chair in anguished defeat, cradling her injured arm. God! What had she done! She’d killed them all and had just handed the most potent weapon to a man with no scruples.

“That’s better,” he said in a mockingly soothing voice, rifling in the first aid kit and throwing her a smart bandage. “I don’t really want to kill you. I’m counting on you to get us out of here.” Then he chuckled, gazing down at her with amusement as she applied the bandage to her arm and let it set to work. She grimaced as it sealed her gash and applied an antiseptic protection. Bragg tapped her shoulder with the nose of his gun and broke into an amused jeering laugh. “You’re so fucking naïve, Dubois. That’s why you were left behind. That’s why no one told you about DAWN.”

“You slimy bastard.”

He raised his hands. “Hold on, Dubois, who are you calling slime? Your own husband was in it a lot thicker than me. He helped create the DAWN protocol. Hell, he practically wrote the whole thing himself!”

It couldn’t be! The bastard was lying. How could she have misread Dan so much?

Bragg must have read her expression and barked a sharp laugh. “You didn’t know, did you? You didn’t have a clue.” He laughed hard. “He was your Goddamned husband and you never knew! Now that’s choice!”

They’d been flying over the black rainforest for several hours. Genevieve’s eyes smarted with exhaustion and her left arm throbbed with a dull ache. She half-dozed in waves, eventually sliding into a momentary daze of thoughts, garish images swirled inside her mind, of walking the jungle alone…

She steps lightly in the dark jungle toward a flickering light and feels the night air caress her naked body. Her right hand is curled around a leather haft. She glances down to see that it is a whip. As she takes in a deep breath to inhale the enticing smell of cured leather, she finds to her astonishment that her breasts have swollen to twice their normal size, dark nipples engorged and erect. Like when she was nursing Jason.