CHAPTER NINE
They ran down the streets of Prague, Jeanell’s heart pounding in her chest, the smell of cigarettes wafting through the air. “What happened? What did Brad do?”
“Stole the whole crowd,” Ric said, “Fish in a net meant for us.”
“And Brad was looking for us?”
“Who would recognize you better? He’s probably not the only one of your former team working against us.”
“And why are we running?”
“As long as we’re running, they can’t hole us. You have to be more or less in the same place for a reasonable amount of time.”
“How reasonable? How much time?”
“As far as we’re concerned,” Ric said, “a few seconds here and there.”
“A few seconds? And what do we do in the meantime?”
“We keep running.”
They ran down one of the old, winding cobblestone streets toward the big Prague Castle. They ducked around a corner and saw a pair of black-uniformed soldiers from the chancellor’s private police service, the CPP. And they were quick to point at Jeanell and Ric, sticking out in their once-common white suits.
Ric grabbed her hand. “Run!”
Jeanell’s feet slid under her as her legs pumped hard, throwing her forward with all the speed and assurance she could muster. She didn’t dare look back, certain it would slow them down, a lethal and final mistake.
They turned a corner and kept running, hitting a throng of pedestrians, many more than anywhere back in Colorado. Jeanell’s hand slipped out of Ric’s as the thick crowd separated them. They reached out, unable to reunite. But both knew they had to keep rushing forward, even if it meant that the crowd pushed them further and further apart with every step.
Their pursuers called behind them, bringing more troops down on them from other directions. Jeanell could foresee them being besieged and captured. Ric had been right; there was no escaping them anywhere on Earth, no escape for them nor for anybody else. The chancellor and the powers of the entire office would have to be assaulted to preserve humanity, that much was clear. Whether Jeanell or Ric would survive long enough to attempt such a thing was another matter entirely.
Jeanell couldn’t resist the temptation to look back, the chancellor’s forces closing in on her from behind. Their eyes locked, and she knew that they knew, there was no question and no doubt. They were chasing her, and now they knew they had to catch her.
Alive.
Ric reached out of the crowd and grabbed Jeanell’s arms, pulling her out of the throng and into an alley. She released a frightened scream but stifled it quickly, relieved to see her only friend reunited with her at last. Ric pulled out his smartphone, swiped the screen, and took Jeanell’s hand in his own.
“Hold on,” was all he had time to say. In a flash, they were gone.
***
Traveling though the artificial black hole was a blinding experience, no time to calculate the event. It was traveling in a flash, in an instant, the two of them suddenly arriving where they intended to be. And where they intended to be was back at Graham’s apartment in Boulder, Colorado. But both Jeanell and Ric knew that they wouldn’t be able to linger.
They were being hunted, from every angle, and there was no longer such a thing as safe harbor.
The apartment was quiet, Ric leaning forward to lead them out of the bedroom, where they’d landed. The corpses Jeanell had dreamt of were vanished reminders of her foresight. Ric whispered Graham’s name, but received no answer. He lead her down the hall and into the living room, calling his father’s name again.
A bloody gurgle answered him.
Ric let go of Jeanell’s hand and fell to his father’s side, Graham laying on the couch. His guts were a bowl of blood and gore, his face pale, drained of life. Ric fell to his side, taking his hand and pressing it to his face.
“They came for you,” Graham croaked out, his own blood glistening on his lips. “I… I told them you were in the woods, that should keep them… keep them busy for a while.” He coughed, more blood jumping from his mouth, landing on his quivering chin. “You have to stop him, m’boy, you and Jeanell… you’re the only ones who can.”
“Of course, I will, Dad. We’ll send that bastard straight to hell!”
“And the girl,” he coughed out, “you and she have to get away from here. After…”
“If we survive, of course.”
“No, you will survive, and then you have to make it out, both of you… together…” More coughing, blood collecting on his chin as his body twitched its last. “I love you, my son, more than anything…”
Tears streamed down Ric’s cheeks, his masculine face bending with the frown of a tortured child. “I love you too, Pop, so much…”
“I was always… so proud…”
Jeanell gasped, struggling to withhold her sobs, lest they inspire poor Ric to greater suffering. The young man cradled his dying father, the two looking at each other for what each knew would be the last time. Jeanell knew that there was nothing she could do, nothing either of them could do, except say goodbye forever.
Graham reached up, his quivering hand finding his son’s cheek. Those trembling fingers caressed his beloved son’s face, and then they came to stillness, falling back to his lifeless side.
Ric pressed his forehead against his father’s lifeless face, fingers raising up to slide those eyes shut forever. “G’bye, Pop,” Ric managed to say, tears streaming down his face and sobs bubbling up from his cramping throat.
Jeanell stood there, uncertain what to say or what to do. But she soon lost the luxury of thinking about it.
The chancellor’s men burst into the room from hiding in the closets. One held a smartphone and was about to swipe the screen, carrying them all back to the chancellor himself. Ric was fast to grab the phone and smash it against the wall before doing the same thing with the officer himself.
Ric grabbed the knife from out of one goon’s sheath and swiped at the nearest adversary.
But they weren’t alone.
Jeanell threw herself into the action. She’d never raised a hand in combat before, but it seemed all too easy, too natural. It was like a lifetime of pent-up frustration and fear just came pouring out of her, with an impassioned growl and clenched fists. She was surprised at how much strength she had, legs throwing kicks into those uniformed goons with amazing grace and power. The chancellor’s officers seemed as surprised as she was, but Jeanell wasn’t about to show it.
One of them grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides while another approached from the front, a greedy smile on his lips. He pulled out his own smartphone, about to swipe her into inescapable confinement. But a swift arc of her leg sent her foot colliding with his hands, sending the phone flying.
A second kick contacted with his forehead, a frontal assault that sent him reeling back. But he wasn’t alone, and Jeanell was still locked in the grip of the man behind her. She threw her head back, hitting the man in the face. He snapped back with a wet, crunchy thud. Jeanell knew she’d done some damage, at least enough to free her from his grip.
Jeanell turned and planed a kick into his gut, the man cramping forward before she could slam her elbow onto the back of his skull, putting the man on the floor at long last.
Ric took a hard strike from one of the jackbooted thugs, leather gloves smashing into his beautiful face. But Ric could take it, and give it back just as well. With gritted, bloodied teeth, he curled up his fist and smashed it into his adversary’s face. Two more punches made the man’s legs buckle and Ric dropped him where he fell.
Ric grabbed Jeanell and they were off again, running out of the apartment and into the hallway, glancing around to make sure the coast was clear. Jeanell cried out, “Why don’t we just hole it somewhere?”
“They ruined my smartphone. Until we get another, we’re on our own!”
They scurried down the flight of stairs, Jeanell’s feet sliding from under her. Her lungs strained to keep pace with her pounding heart, cold sweat collecting on the back of her neck. She looked up and then down, memories of her recent death charge up a similar staircase bursting in her imagination.
Flight after flight passed by around them, each one bringing them closer to freedom. But Jeanell couldn’t help but think that, at the bottom of the staircase, armed guards would be there to capture them, zapping them straight into the arms of that villainous enemy. Or there may be simply a few quick gunshots, bam, bam, bam! and that would be that.
Jeanell knew she couldn’t hope for such an easy outcome.
They spilled out of the staircase to a merciful ambivalence. The pedestrians walked one way or the other, completely disinterested as Ric and Jeanell ran full bore down the street. They weaved in and out of the bored passersby, turning sharp corners and ignoring the complaints and fist-waving of those perturbed pedestrians behind them.
They ran down the street, another humming drone passing by and instantly stopping to change course and follow them. They ducked into an alley, but the drone followed behind them. There was no place to hide, no building inlet and no trash bins, nothing. Jeanell understood why the walls of every building were clear—so there’d be nowhere to hide.
Ric jumped up and grabbed the drone. With a massive growl, he threw the drone into the wall of the building. The clear polyurethane wall cracked and the drone spun off with a drunken whir. Jeanell grabbed the crippled drone and raised it high above her head. A massive release of power smashed the drone onto the ground. The flying disk popped and bounced, but it couldn’t regain a flight pattern and fell destroyed to the ground. The crack in the clear wall healed itself, as if by some miracle of technology. But there was no time to marvel at it, no time to do anything but run.
Ric said, “Nice job,” before grabbing her hand again. “Let’s go!”
“Where?”
“Out of town, as quick as we can!”