Emily (16 page)

‘
Stay here Applejacks, I’m going to see what’s going on.’ She quickly ran through the bush at the side of the track hoping that everything was alright. Staying behind cover she saw that the Hummer was gone. She reached out with her mind to the men but couldn’t get a sense that they were near. Pushing down the panic she slowly walked into the clearing in front of the house. It was completely alight now and for a moment Emily was at a loss. The house had always been her home, her mother and father had built it themselves. Then she remembered the animals and mentally called for Rumour, who was still hiding in the bushes behind the house. Rumour’s joy at receiving Emily’s connection was strong and within seconds she had flown out of her hiding place and was thrusting her nose into Emily’s hands, her whole body trembled with happiness. The cats appeared more slowly from the bushes and the small Siamese boy, Spike, had burns to his paws because he had been the last to escape the flaming house. Emily immediately took the pain away and wrapped him around her neck, she would tend to his burns in the barn.

Then, unable to connect with any of her other animals, she realised that the goats and donkey were dead. Tears flowed down her face but this didn
’t stop Emily from taking action – Vladimir had given her instructions and she knew she was no longer safe at the farm. Moving quickly, she told the small group of animals to follow her and as they gathered at the barn, she quickly tended to the small cat’s paws, giving the rest of them instructions on what they needed to do. Pulling open Vladimir’s pack she saw a small address book, in it were the addresses of the safe houses that he had told her about. She also found a key ring with six numbered keys on it and the numbers matched the addresses.

Having visited David
’s place so many times, it was easy for Emily to teleport the whole group to his home. Using his phone she called Mark to come and collect the cats. She was brief answering his questions but told him that David was in hospital after a bad dog attack – whatever David told him would be up to him. Emily had to pause for a moment as a wave of nausea washed over her, she wanted to throw up with worry for David. She whispered a small prayer that her mother had taught her, ‘Life is short, life is long, may the Lord take us home.’

The saying started to loop through her head, so she focused on the words until the feeling of dread within her had softened.

David had an old ute that he only used on the farm and after searching through the drawers in the kitchen, Emily found the keys and hooked up David’s horse float.

‘
We’ll need to drive to a safe house, I don’t know where it is so I can’t teleport us there,’ Emily told Applejacks.

‘
I understand
,’ Applejacks replied. He didn’t like travelling in a horse float but knew it was necessary.

Saying goodbye to the cats was hard as Emily was not sure if she would ever see them again. Opening the door to the old
ute she told Rumour to jump in and as they drove out of David’s property, Emily knew that she would never come back.

It took over two hours to find the safe house and more tears flowed as she opened the large garage to find bags of horse feed. Vladimir had thought of everything. After feeding Applejacks and Rumour, Emily opened up the three packs to see what was in them. In her pack was a letter addressed to her and when she opened it she recognised Vladimir
’s handwriting.

‘
Dear Emily,

If you have opened this letter then we are lost and your life is in danger. Do not try to find us, it is too dangerous, please take the money and hide. Do not use your phone. I want you to take out the SIM card right now and destroy it. There is another phone that you can use in the pack with Vince
’s number. Ring him, he will help you to escape. Emily, you were the best thing to happen to Eric and myself. I detest myself for the danger we have put you in. Knowing you are safe will be the only comfort that Eric and I need. Be safe.

Love, Vladimir.
’

Reaching for her phone, Emily took out the SIM card and crushed it with her boot. As she
removed the small mobile from Vladimir’s pack, Emily allowed herself a small smile and thought how deluded her men were in thinking she wouldn’t come for them. She rang Vince and told him what had happened.

‘
Where are you?’ he asked. ‘Just tell me the number on the key. We need to be careful.’

‘
Number six,’ Emily replied.

Pausing for a moment to recall which property that was, Vince said
‘It will take me eight hours to get to you, I need to be careful. Then we’ll get you to safety.’

Emily knew she
’d have to be firm with Vince. She knew that Vladimir had left instructions to get her to safety but she wasn’t leaving without Vladimir and Eric.

‘
Vince, I need to be clear. I am not leaving. We need to find Vladimir and Eric.’ Emily was surprised at how firm her voice was.

‘
Emily, Vladimir told me…’

Emily interrupted.
‘I know what he wants but Vince, you either help me or I won’t be here when you arrive.’ Pausing, Emily said more softly, ‘I need your help Vince, I can’t do this alone.’

Knowing that Vladimir would be furious with him, Vince replied,
‘Alright, just wait there. I’ll see what I can find out before I join you.’ Hanging up the phone, Emily felt exhausted and lay down on the sofa, pulling a blanket over herself. Rumour sat on the floor by her head and Emily sobbed herself to sleep.

Eric was the first to wake. He was flat on his back and tied to a cold metal table. Looking to the side he could see that Vladimir was tied to another table. Softly, Eric spoke, ‘Vlad, wake up,’ and then a little louder, ‘Vlad, wake up.’ Vladimir slowly started to come round, his head was very sore.

‘
Eric, are you okay?’ he asked as he began to test the ropes that were tying him down.

‘
Never felt better,’ Eric responded. His head was pounding as well but he too began to pitch his muscles against the ropes.

‘
Enough of that!’ a voice commanded as they heard a key turn in the metal door of the cell. Roy entered first then Ivan and Sarah.

‘
Where’s the girl?’ Roy ordered.

Vladimir remained silent but Eric laughed.

‘Do you honestly think we’d tell you?’

‘
No, I don’t,’ Roy responded smiling coldly. ‘But one has to try.’ Smiling he stood over Vladimir and said, ‘I just spoke to your father. He was surprised to find you still alive but is preparing a welcome reception for your return to him.’

Vladimir felt fear rise in him at the thought of seeing his father again.
‘I thought he would be dead by now, he must be seventy years old.’

‘
Oh no, he is still fit and strong. Our gene program extends life, once you hit fifty you age more slowly. Pausing Roy added, ‘He should last a couple of hundred years and so should you both if he doesn’t kill you first, but I wouldn’t count on that if I was you. I’m not sure what his plans are for you.’

Ivan interjected.
‘Can we play some more?’ He had not had such a strong confrontation before, he liked the close match and the fighting. Vladimir was a good test for his skills.

‘
No, Varrick wants them intact.’ Roy responded firmly.

Then Sarah spoke sharply,
‘Don’t be dumb, Ivan, you almost got us killed before.’

‘
That’s because you’re too slow,’ Ivan snapped back.

‘
Damn it you two, shut up! We have plans to make,’ Roy said and, turning back to Vladimir laughed, ‘I
will
get the girl you know. It’s only a matter of time and when I do I will enjoy her flesh.’

Vladimir responded by throwing his weight against the ropes, which creaked with the strain.
He wouldn’t respond, he would remain calm. Once the trio had left Eric asked, ‘Do you think Emily will be safe?’

‘
I left her a note to contact Vince and hide. He has the means to keep her safe.’

Eric paused and then said,
‘She’ll come for us, you know that.’

‘
I told Vince that might happen. He will take measures to protect her.’ But Vladimir knew that Emily would pursue them. It would only be a matter of time.

‘
We need to get out of here, Môn vieux,’ he murmured to Eric, and both men set about testing the ropes again.

* * *

Emily woke with a start and for a moment forgot where she was. Then Rumour’s wet nose touched her face and the memory of the day before came back. She looked at her watch and saw it was 2am.

Vince should be here soon, she thought and then set about making herself some coffee. Fifteen minutes later she heard a car pull up in the driveway of the small house.

To Applejacks Emily said, ‘I think it’s Vince,’ and she peered out the window and saw his familiar shape. ‘It is Vince and we’ll come out to you,’ Emily told Applejacks.

As she opened the door to Vince, Emily indicated that they go to the garage. She knew that Vince wouldn
’t be willing to go against Vladimir’s wishes so she got straight to the point.

‘
Look Vince, I know that Vladimir told you to protect me but I’m going to go after them.’

Vince replied confidently,
‘Emily, we have a plan. Frankly, the best thing for you to do is to stay out of the way.’

‘
Stay out of the way,’ Emily choked, ‘I think I can be of some help.’

‘
Come on Emily, have you even held a gun?’ Vince was getting short. He had plans to work out and if need be, he would force Emily to stay here with a couple of his men. Knowing what he must be thinking and realising that he was not going to back down, Emily stepped back and touched Applejacks’ shoulder. Two seconds later, they were both gone.

‘
What the hell?’ Vince yelled. He could feel his body turn cold; the temperature had dropped in the garage.

‘
I think we can be of some help,’ Emily responded, having teleported herself and Applejacks behind him.

Vince spun around and opened and closed his mouth a few times before sputtering,
‘How did you do that?’

Emily smiled.
‘Actually, I’m not really sure how but we are good at it. All I need to do is see Vladimir and Eric and I can teleport them to a safe place.’

The shock had started to fade and Vince, a born survivalist, knew that Emily would come in handy; he wasn
’t sure if he had the man-power to break Vladimir and Eric out.

‘
Do you know where they are?’ Emily asked, trying to sound confident.

‘
I think Roy has taken them to his compound in the Hunter Valley. I have men there now and they have reported that security has been ramped up.’

‘
What’s the plan?’ Emily asked.

‘
I am meeting my men two kilometres away from the compound in a side road.’ Looking at his watch, he added, ‘In two hours a satellite we have tapped into will pass over the compound and we will gather Intel and then finalise our strategy.’

‘
Let’s go then,’ Emily told him adding, ‘we need to take Applejacks and Rumour as well.’ She quickly went into the house to retrieve the packs.

Vince stood for a moment before ordering his men to hook up the horse float to their four-wheel drive; his mind was racing and he thought to himself,
‘
What the hell is she?
’

Two hours later, as they were nearing the rendezvous point, Emily reached out to see if she could connect with the men. She had never tried to connect with them without knowing where they were. After a few minutes, she picked up a thread and zoomed in on it, connecting to Applejacks as well.

‘
Vladimir, Eric, can you hear me?
’ she thought as hard as she could.

Both men responded at once, reassuring her that they were unharmed.

‘
Can you tell me where you are?
’ Emily asked, her relief at finding them was intense.

‘
In a room with no windows,’ Vladimir replied. ‘The walls are made of brick and the door is solid metal.’

‘
I’m with Vince. We’re coming for you.’

‘
Emily
,’ Eric started, but Emily cut him off.

‘
It’s no use, Eric. I am coming for you. Stop wasting time trying to talk me out of it.’ She could sense the men’s fear for her.

Turning to Vince, she told him that she had connected to the men and relayed their information.

‘You can read minds as well?’ Vince sputtered.

‘
Yes, but only Vladimir and Eric’s,’ Emily replied.

‘
I see,’ and thought to himself how glad he was of that. Some of the thoughts he had about Emily weren’t too wholesome.

‘
Ask Vladimir how many men are holding him.’

After a moment Emily replied,
‘He’s not sure. They were knocked unconscious before they were taken and he’s only seen six people so far. Vladimir has told me that they plan to take them by plane to the Czech Republic. I think they have a private airfield nearby.’

‘
Tell Vladimir,’ Vince said, ‘that we’ll know more soon once we receive the satellite images.’

After relaying the message to Vladimir he decided,
‘
Emily, we should cut the connection until we need it
.’

‘
Because of the other two?’ Emily thought back.

‘
Yes, they might be able to pick up on it.’

‘
I love you both so much
,’ Emily thought before breaking the connection. She felt so lost without them and severing the connection hurt her physically. She turned her head towards the side window trying hard to fight back the tears.

Within ten minutes Vince had pulled into a side road next to a semi-trailer, the hood of the engine was open like it had broken down.

‘We need to get the horse off the float and hide it. They’ll be looking for that,’ Vince told Emily.

As soon as the float
’s door was opened, Applejacks backed down and moved off to stand under a group of trees and Emily sent Rumour to stay with him. Vince took her to the back of the truck and as the door opened up, Vince lifted Emily inside, following after her. Once the door was closed, he pulled back a big block-out curtain and Emily gasped at all the equipment in the trailer. It looked like a set from a war movie with computer monitors and a man sitting looking at them.

‘
Emily, this is Ross. He’s my communications specialist.’ As Vince introduced them, he walked over and picked up a clipboard, reading the information on it.

Ross was of Asian descent and was just a bit taller than Emily. His well-muscled frame was lean and he looked very fit. Emily liked him straight away, there was warmth to him, and he smiled at Emily as he pointed to the computer screen.
‘Two minutes till the satellite feed.’

‘
Are you ready to patch into the satellite when it comes over?’ Vince asked.

‘
Yes,’ Ross replied, ‘all the equipment across the board is green to go.’

Vince turned to Emily and told her,
‘We can only hack into it sixty seconds at a time before the security program shuts us out.’

‘
Will that be enough time?’ Emily was worried.

‘
Usually, we just need to make sure that we pick the right spot to hack in, that’s the trick.’

‘
Twenty seconds,’ Ross announce suddenly and then, ‘ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.’ The screen came alive with the images. ‘Recorder on,’ Ross added as he fine-tuned the picture.

At first Emily couldn
’t work out any of the images and then she saw red shapes that were moving.

‘
Thermal working now,’ Ross reported, he sounded focused.

‘
Zoom in here,’ Vince instructed, pointing to a section of the screen. Emily’s heart almost stopped, she could see two human shapes lying flat.

‘
That’s them!’ she cried.

‘
I count sixteen men,’ Ross reported calmly, ‘looks like the compound is heavily guarded. Okay, the feed has gone dead, we’ve been blocked,’ Ross added as the screens went blank.

Looking at his watch Vince instructed Ross,
‘Let’s run the recording again, this time slow it down.’

Emily stayed silent as Vince and Ross pored over the footage. After a few minutes Vince grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing plans.

Looking at it, Emily knew she had to tell Vince about the wolves. It would do them all no good to be surprised.

‘
You might find wolves in the compound.’

‘
What do you mean?’ Vince asked, ‘we didn’t see any in the satellite feed.’

Not knowing how much she should say, Emily carefully responded,
‘There might be four wolves. If you see a grey one and a cream one, you’re not to shoot them. If you see a white or a black one, you can shoot them.’ Emily felt bad saying that; it was confusing for her to hate Ivan and Sarah in their wolf forms – it was easier to hate them as humans.

‘
Emily, that makes no sense, why would we only shoot two of them?’ Vince thought Emily had cracked under the stress.

Pulling Vince aside Emily whispered,
‘Because the grey one will be Vladimir and the cream one Eric, the other two are there to take them.’

Vince could see that she was telling the truth. Emily was showing him a world he hadn
’t known existed and he knew that he had to push aside any doubts otherwise the mission would fail.

He said to Emily,
‘Only tell me what I need to know.’ Emily nodded, she understood that it must all seem surreal for Vince and she was impressed with how he was taking the news. Vladimir had chosen him well. Turning back to Ross, Vince thought for a moment before saying, ‘The compound is too heavily guarded. I think our best move is to wait until they’re moving them,’ and then looking at a local map he added, ‘I wonder which airfield Cartier uses?’

There were three private airfields within ten kilometres of the compound. Talking on his radio, Vince dispatched men to each one with orders to report on any activity. He hated to split up his men but he could see no choice. The smart thing for Roy to do would be to have an airstrip near the compound for a quick escape, but there was no guarantee that he did have one close and Vince just didn
’t have the man-power to go further afield in the short time he knew they had. Thirty minutes later he got a call from one of his men.