Escape (Chronicles of Hart) (15 page)

Behind them the diner twisted into a ball of fire. The explosion sent debris and fiery smoke billowing across the parking lot, knocking Ethan off his feet and into a tree. King spun around in time to see a swelling black cloud rising over the cavalcade of swat vans, blowing cars into them and toppling several of them over. He hit the dirt, covering his head from the raining debris of the diner as it fell from the heavens in bits of smoke and fire.

Detonate

Grace was awoken by a loud bang. Blinking she looked into the trees from where she had come. She could see the faint glow of a fire rising above the trees momentarily. It appeared as if a large fireball had emerged in the place where the diner had been. Bits of glowing embers fell back to the ground like fireworks. The forest was lit up like midday momentarily. As she stared further into the trees she could still see the faint glow of what was probably a raging fire back at the diner. She knew it wasn’t safe here any longer. Someone knew she was gone and it was likely her father, he had a bad habit of blowing things up or setting them on fire. Grace stared for a moment in horror. Then she rose shakily from the leaf covering and began rushing blindly away from the amber glow that glimmered through the forest. She slipped over rocks, up hills and down into creek beds. Her adrenaline kicked back in telling her to go faster, farther, as far away from the diner as she could get. She felt like she could run halfway around the world she was so suddenly filled with energy. The dim light in the forest gave her no trouble. As long as the glowing ember bursts were behind her she felt like she was going in the right direction. With every tree she stumbled into, a wash of water would fall from the treetops, refreshing, and re-energising her. She was running wildly. With the tree cover overhead, the night sky was providing her with little light. She was once again left to rely on her senses of touch smell and sound to carry her forward into the dark night towards safety. She was oblivious to the other threats that waited further in the sanctuary of the dark looming forest.

Behind her the screams and screeches of car tires on the highway sounded like mice. She breathed heavily as she put more distance between her and the horror behind. Stumbling, she fell with a sudden crash into a cold wet stream of water. Eyes glowed beside her. She looked past them to the smoulder behind her and began pulling herself forward. The tree line had broken, giving her minimal light to see her surroundings. Ahead of her lay a thick expanse of river. Looking from left to right up the shore line, she could see no other option to cross over it. She lunged forward and dove in, gasping against the chill of the water as it rushed over her freezing her muscles instantly. She fought harder, propelling herself forward away from the fire and the waiting beasts at the shoreline.  She fought her way towards the dark forest on the other side.

***

Hart had arrived at the building again and toured the facilities, twice. He was expecting more progress in the hour he had been gone. Wires still hung from the ceiling like streamers at a party. He marched through the scrabbling crowd of workers, immensely displeased with their performance. They looked as exhausted as he should feel after running about all day.  He hoped the explosion had had some time to settle down back at the diner, he was tempted to send this useless crew there to walk through the fire. He knew he couldn’t afford to expend of too many resources in one day. So he settled in to watch them work like bees building a perfect hive. Fury washed over Hart, he was not usually such an emotional man. Today however, his life work hung in the balance and incompetence was not acceptable. He crushed a Styrofoam cup of coffee in his hand. The hot coffee poured down his hand onto the concrete floor pooling in a steaming mass.

Hart brushed his hand off onto his soiled suit pants and reached for his cell. Two rings and a raspy voice answered,

“Yes
.”

“Phase three. Fail and you will all
be eradicated.” The steel in Hart’s eyes translated through the phone, he could hear the brief pause on the other end.

“Yes, sir
.”

With a click, he tucked the phone back away. Walking to the control room for a third time, he was ready to make some changes. If Grace made it out of this she was going to pay. His team looked up rapt with attention. They knew better than to keep him waiting.

***

On the other side of the river, Grace had pulled herself free of the flowing water. She had no idea if she had washed down river while swimming for her life or not. Grace was starting to feel exhausted. She fought past it restlessly as the chills set in. She began to shake violently, her teeth chattered. Brushing the damp leaves off of her legs she stood, jogging on the spot to get some warmth back in her tiny body. Fighting to keep her eyes open she looked back across the river.  She could see only a dim glow in the distance, over the peaceful top of the immense forest sprawled out before her. Waiting until the moon was high was no longer an option. She would be frozen by then. The temperature was dropping too quickly. Trying to remember which way she had come from, she put the light glow behind her. Grace turned and continued on her path further into the woods. She tried to maintain a straight line away from the now dim light of the burnt out diner, hoping not to get lost. The incline became steep as the night settled in. She slipped on the wet floor of foliage, gripping trees for support. The slippery moss gave way on her more than once, sending her back down the hill several times before she reached the summit of the steep thing.  Soon, Grace was sure she was lost. She pondered about starting a fire for warmth and just setting in for the night; then remembered she didn’t know how and that it was probably still too damp out to do much anyway. In the distance she could hear wolves howling. She stopped, trying to determine if they were on her side of the river. She was unable to tell, but stopping for the night was sounding more dangerous by the moment. Grace stooped down, feeling along the ground until she came back up with a large stick. She would feel slightly better about being in the dark spooky woods if she thought she had a weapon. Grace just hoped she didn’t run into the pack of wolves. She looked out across the forest before her.

Relief washed over her as she saw the lights of a city ahead. It looked far off in the distance, but it gave her a direction to aim for. Placing the lights directly in her path, she began to walk again. Forward, back down the hill using her new walking stick for support she stumbled a little less on the way down.

***

King jogged to Ethan at the edge of the woods. He was holding something and looking to the trees like a spaceship had landed. He looked rigid and pale. The blast had blown him over and he lay there unmoving with a wild look still plastered across his face. Behind him, black billowing smoke wrapped itself around the parking lot, choking anyone who had managed to avoid the initial blast. The puddles in the lot reflected the chaos of swirling reds and blacks as the fire raged on uncontrolled in the debris of the diner. A disarray of survivors ran wildly across the lot, looking for cars and keys, screaming and weeping in an eerie melody of grief. Several of the SWAT cars had been blown over from the impact of other cars and debris. Others were missing chunks out of their sides. The new cars pulling in were moving in slow motion avoiding pedestrians and debris. King ignored the scene behind him, focusing on the unmoving body of Ethan at the base of the woods.

“Kid, what have you got there? Are you okay?” King asked, coming up slowly trying not to spook Ethan in his comatose state. He stepped around in front of Ethan, cutting off his glassy eyed gaze into the mysterious beyond. Ethan barely started. Looking to King for a moment, his gaze returned sharply into the trees. He looked lost in his thoughts. King shook him lightly trying to retain his focus.

King was splattered with mud and debris from the burning diner. Lucky for the vans that had absorbed most of the blow, he and Ethan were left unharmed. The team had suffered few injuries. Inside the diner however, was another story. The fire department had been called. Police were already speeding into the lot sending up plumes of water as they hit the large full puddles and their brakes swerving to avoid hitting the screaming masses at the same time. The lot was quickly turning into a zoo. The exit had become blocked with debris and there was a long line of cars waiting to get out, blocking the only way in.

“Grace...” Ethan trailed off looking through King and into the trees for answers. He clutched his hands tightly together pulling on the fabric, shielding it from the smoke.

King tugged the cloth from his hand, noting the clean linen under the flickering street post that had lit above the two of them suddenly. Under the luminescent blue glow the cloth shone like a beacon. He sniffed it, glad he had held it away from his face, for the residual smell of chloroform lingered. It was apparent, even over the overwhelming burning smoke that clung to everything on the lot.

“Where did you find this?
” he asked Ethan, looking to the filthy muddy mess at their feet, and then into the forest’s edge with curiosity.

Ethan pointed at his feet to a filthy tire settled among low bushes and wrappers. The cloth hadn’t been there long. It was very likely that Grace had passed by here dropping it on her way.

“Peters!” King called over his shoulder. Turning, he ran to meet agent Peters by the car. King was exuberant, swing the cloth through the air like a puppet and spinning the most elaborate story. Ethan stood dumbfounded at the edge of the woods, looking at the tree he had fallen into earlier with curiosity. If Grace was out there in the trees would she have gone far, or was she sitting close by injured and unable to call for help? Ethan was about to climb into the trees to look for her when King finished talking to Peters. A small crowd had gathered around the two of them. They exchanged words and three of the men followed King back to Ethan.

They carried cases with them and stopping short at the tire. They began rooting through their cases, taking samples and looking for tracks. Flashlights quickly complimented the overhead luminosity, lighting up the area like a UFO landing site. Ethan stood watching them, looking himself for anything that would indicate Grace had passed through. The lights flashed into the woods, clinging low to the ground. It was then that he saw it. He began pointing dramatically in hopes that the forensics would see. A small, bare footprint etched as clear as day in a small patch of mud beyond the tree line. Barely visible by the dim lights overhead. Forensics called more men over. Ethan backed away to catch up with King. He had hope.

vulnerable

Hart sat in Grace’s new room inspecting the changes. He inspected every inch of the small space looking for faults that she may pick out as opportunities to escape. The new room was kept to a bare minimal. Linoleum rolled floors left no cracks to be picked at. It had ten foot ceilings with solid white walls. The small washing area was a step up from her space in the tower, with a showerhead and drain in the floor but no curtains. The bed was bare, with no sheets. She had now lost that privilege after proving her skills at knot tying. He couldn’t afford to let anything happen here. The door was sealed into the wall, invisible from this side. Her meals would be conveyed in through a miniscule trap door. Hart was quite pleased with how the room had turned out. Looking up he could see the specs where the cameras had been installed. There would be more in the outer rooms, giving Hart a chance to check in on his guards at any time to make sure they were working to their full potential; very little room for error. It was nearly perfect, save for the specimen that should be confined in these walls.

Waiting for the third team to bring her in was putting a strain on Hart. He was growing restless and fatigued; only his rage was keeping him going. Had she not been his own daughter, she would have been dead years ago.

The new room was state of the art. With integrated cameras that would capture her every movement, motion detectors and two way glass in all the mirrors. Essentially this room was a small square in the centre of a large room. It was to be monitored on all sides by a team of four. A second team was located at the end of the gated property. They were in charge of watching the grounds with surveillance of the guard station in case of emergency. Hart knew that once Grace was in here, she would never see the outside world again. He smugly relished in the fact that his secrets would die here with her, locked away from the world forever.