The Weapon (The Hourglass Series Book 2) (17 page)

Boulder
looked like he didn’t buy it either. He opened his mouth to say something but
was interrupted by a noise.

The
entire group swivelled around. The woman had groaned. Her eyes opened and her
hand travelled cautiously down to her leg. She touched the bandage lightly,
pain obvious on her face. Sarah remembered that she didn’t get the painkillers
before. She dropped to her knees and ruffled around the box. She couldn’t find
that vial of morphine anymore but managed to come up with some strong-looking
tablets. She handed them to the woman who, after inspecting the box for a
moment, swallowed them dry. She closed her eyes and then looked back around the
group, this time taking in every face for a few seconds before moving on to the
next person. Was it Sarah’s imagination or did the woman seemed to take in her
face a little longer than the others? But then the woman moved on and Sarah was
none-the-surer.

“Sir,”
called out Lieutenant Wong over his shoulder, not turning away from the woman.
“Sir!” he called again. “She’s awake.”

Sarah
heard the Captain’s decisive footstep ring out. He was hurrying, and Sarah got
the distinct impression that if they weren’t there he would have ran. He
emerged from one of the doorways and strode up to the group, finally stopping
in front of the woman, towering over her in a power stance. The woman leaned
back a little, struggling to hide her fear. It wasn’t hard to read the
Captain’s face and know he wasn’t going to be her friend.

The
Captain turned to Lieutenant Wong. “Tie her up against that column. We wouldn’t
want her getting away.” He turned to the others. “The rest of you, get dinner
ready.” He shrugged off his coat. “I’m starving.”

The
Captain questioned the woman for the next hour. To Sarah’s relief he didn’t
touch her. The woman started off trying to keep silent, not letting a word
slip. Then the Captain changed his tact, and started making wild statements
about the Group and the science behind it that even Sarah knew to be bullshit,
and the woman was unable to keep her derision at bay. For some reason that
seemed to crumble whatever barrier she had built, because when he changed tact
again she seemed unable to go back to silence, and squirmed at his attempts to
get under her skin. It wasn’t, however, until he started describing what they
may do to her and her family when they got back to the Accord that she really
started to sweat.

“Captain!”
yelled Clara, at a point where she couldn’t take it anymore. The Captain swung
around to glare at her.

“What?”
he snapped.

“Um…
dinner’s ready?”

The
Captain’s eyes shifted down to the dinner they had made. They had managed to
set up a small fire near one of the broken windows and had turned their dry
beef and a few protein bars into a stew that smelt surprisingly good. Evidently
the Captain hadn’t lied before when he said he was starving, because after a
few more whispered words to the woman, which seemed to make her go even paler,
he got up and strode over to them. He accepted his bowl and ate, sitting so
that he was turned to face the woman the whole time. Half way through the meal
Sarah found herself standing up. She grabbed a spare bowl and ladled a few
spoonfuls into it before heading over to the woman. She could feel the
Captain’s gaze on her back, but he didn’t stop her. Sarah stopped before the
woman, who had her eyes closed. After a moment she opened them, and then
frowned at Sarah standing there.

“I
bought you dinner,” said Sarah, showing her the bowl in her hands a little
unnecessarily.
“Yes, I can see that,” said the woman.

Sarah
put the bowl down and made to go around the pillar to untie the woman’s hands
so that she could feed herself but a shout from the Captain pulled her up
short.

“Hey!
You leave her as she is.”

Sarah
pulled a face but returned to where the Captain could see her. She sat down in
front of the woman and took a spoonful of the stew and held it in front of the
woman’s face. The woman raised an eyebrow but opened her mouth, and Sarah fed
her.

“You
don’t look like a soldier,” remarked the woman in between spoonfuls.

“I’m
as much a prisoner as you are,” replied Sarah.

A
weird expression shifted over the woman’s face. “Is that true?”

“You
think I would stay with him voluntarily?”

The
woman looked back over at the group. “You seem to like the white-haired one and
the stocky one.”

A
guilty feeling swept over Sarah. “They’re only here because of me,” she said
wretchedly.

The
woman’s eyes flew back to Sarah’s face. “I see.”

The
woman didn’t say anything for a bit so Sarah fed her a few more mouthfuls.

“I
heard the white-haired boy call you Sarah,” said the woman finally.

“Uh,
yeah,” said Sarah, feeling like that was a weird statement. “That’s my name.”

“What’s
your last name?”

Sarah
paused. The woman’s eyes were intense.

“Why?”

“Tell
me.”

Sarah
paused but her curiosity got the better of her.

“Underhill.”

“Sarah
Underhill,” the woman whispered. She closed her eyes and then opened them
again, looking directly at Sarah. “I know your father.”

“What?”
Sarah said it a little too loudly. She reared back, nearly falling over, but
she recovered quickly. She turned back to face the others. Thankfully the Captain
had forgone his scrutiny of the woman for that moment to ladle himself a second
serving. No-one had seemed to hear her yell out.

“What
are you talking about?” hissed Sarah, this time leaning in.

The
woman smiled, a genuine, quite lovely smile. “I work with him,” she said. “He’s
one of us, Sarah. And he misses you, oh, sweetie, he misses you so much.”

“I
don’t know my father,” replied Sarah bluntly. “He left me, he-”

A
sudden crash reverberated around the room and Sarah got to her feet quickly,
glancing around. A metal can had been thrown through one of the windows. It was
letting out a stream of smoke. It was quickly followed by another can, and then
another. Most of the cans had gone through the windows closest to the fire,
twenty metres from Sarah and the woman. But even from that distance Sarah could
feel her eyes start to sting and water over. The smoke irritated her throat and
she started coughing. She couldn’t imagine how it must be for the others, so
close to the source of the gas. The others were yelling, trying to cover their
faces with their clothes and running away from the cans, but they kept on
stumbling over objects their streaming eyes couldn’t see in the smoke. A man
came crashing through the front door. He wore a mask and had a weapon raised. He
was followed in by three others. They were all completely dressed in black,
their faces hidden behind their masks. The first three converged on the others while
the fourth headed straight towards Sarah and the woman. The fourth invader
raised her weapon. She pointed it at Sarah’s chest.

“No!”
yelled the captive. “Don’t shoot her!”

The
invader wavered for a moment and then the weapon lowered. The gunman rushed
over to the woman and started cutting through her bonds. Sarah just stood there
and stared, not sure what else to do. It wasn’t until the woman was free and
the masked intruder was helping her escape out the back of the building that
Sarah finally came to her senses. She spared a glance back towards the others,
but couldn’t see a thing in the smoke, which had now risen to around six feet.
She turned back to see the woman and the intruder slip through a door. She
didn’t wait any longer, and ran after them. There was a twisting corridor on
the other end of the door, with many doorways leading off it. Sarah guessed
that they were the offices the bank managers used to see special clients. The
two people were nowhere in sight. Sarah ran forward, anxiously checking each
door as she did so. Finally she found one that seemed to open into a small kitchen.
A door on the opposite side of the room was ajar, swinging lazily on its
hinges. She burst out of the door and then stopped. She was in a wide back
alley. Time and disuse had made it grimier than usual, and a rusted though
water tank had allowed mould to spill all over one of the walls. At the far
end, near the road, a truck stood, engine running. The masked intruder was
helping the woman into the back of the truck. A man was also there, pulling the
woman from the inside of the truck. Sarah took a few steps forward and the man
looked up. Their eyes locked and Sarah stopped, her heart caught in her mouth.

She
knew him. She could hardly remember her father but as soon as she looked at the
man she knew. That was him. Aged, yes, but him all the same. It was the man
from her visions. The woman hadn’t lied. He was here.

The
truck took off, which seemed to break the spell that had hung between them.
Sarah saw her father bang on the side of the truck wall, yelling for the driver
to stop. After a moment the truck trundled to a halt. Sarah ran after the
truck, which was now three buildings over. She stopped ten metres behind it.

“Sarah,”
said the man, his eyes taking her in longingly. “My angel.”

Sarah
felt the tears spring up in her own eyes.

“Dad?”

“Oh,
honey,” he said.

“Mike,
we don’t have time,” urged another man, also sitting in the back of the truck.

“Sarah,
sweetie, get in,” urged her father. “Come with us.”

“No.”
The word blurted out of Sarah like she had no control over it. It surprised
her, but she didn’t change it to a yes.

“What?”
Her father blinked, surprised. “Honey, I-”

“You
burnt me,” said Sarah, her voice coming out ragged. “You burnt the damn symbol
of your group onto me.” She stressed the words, trying to make him see how
wrong it was.

Her
father’s face fell. “Oh, Sarah, it wasn’t like that, I swear. It was the only
way, the only way we could find each other again. When I did it we talked about
it, sweetie, you wanted me to do it. Honey, we don’t have time. We can talk
about it more, I swear we will, but right now we have to go.”

He
held out his hands again, encouraging her to take them so that he could pull
her into the truck.

Sarah
wavered on the spot, unsure what to do, who to trust. Then she saw her father’s
expression change as he spotted something behind her. She whirled around.

Coming
out of the alley, tendrils of smoke still wrapping around his clothes, and with
one of his ears bloodied and ragged, the Captain stood staring at her, but
Sarah’s eyes weren’t on him. They were on Finn, who was held in front of the
Captain, a gun to his temple.

“Don’t
even think about it, Sarah,” yelled the Captain, “or I blow his brains out.”

Sarah
swallowed and looked behind them. Where was Boulder? Where were Lieutenant Wong
and Clara?

“Sarah,
go!” yelled Finn, his voice choked by the headlock the Captain held him in. The
Captain squeezed his arm in tighter and Finn made a gurgling noise as his
windpipe closed over.

“No!”
yelled Sarah, her arms up in surrender.

“Sarah,”
came her father’s voice from behind her, urging her, “come with us. The boy will
be fine.”

“Go,”
she told him, “just go.”

“No,
I-”

“I
can’t leave them.”

“Mike,
the girl’s right,” said the other man in the back of the truck. “We don’t have
any more time.” He banged on the wall of the truck again and it started moving
forward.

“No!”
yelled her father, tugging back the man’s arm.

“She’s
made her choice,” said the man, pulling his arm back.

“No,
Sarah, come with us!” yelled her father again, leaning out of the truck, as if
he could lean over and just pluck her in, but the truck was moving now and he
was far out of reach.

“Come
find me Sarah!” he yelled back at her. “I’ll be waiting for you. I love you,
honey!”

Sarah
watched him go and then started the slow walk back to the Captain and Finn. She
didn’t know what to feel. She just felt empty.

“Good
girl,” said the Captain as she came forward. He released Finn with a shove. Finn
stumbled a few steps but straightened himself and came straight for Sarah.
Before she knew what was happening he had her wrapped in a bear hug.

“You
should have gone,” he said, kissing her on the forehead.

“Never.”

He
kissed her forehead again. “You’re an idiot,” he said tenderly.

The
Captain broke them up with a wave of his gun and corralled them back into the
building. The smoke had mostly cleared by now. Lieutenant Wong, his face and
right hand puffed out and swollen from a stinger attack, was crouched over the
body of one of the attackers. A thin trickle of blood had oozed down the man’s
forehead. His eyes were open and fixed. Even Sarah could see that he was dead.
His discarded gas mask lay a metre away. It was cracked right down the middle.
A bullet hole had shattered one of the eye panes. Sarah glanced around but she couldn’t
see any more of the intruders. The other two intruders must have gotten away.
Boulder was lying near the base of one of the pillars, his eyes red and puffy
from the gas. A thin stream of drool pooled onto the floor around his mouth.
For a second Sarah was worried that he too was dead, but then she saw his chest
rise and fall. He was just unconscious. Finn crouched down next to him. He
looked up at Sarah.

“I
think he was shocked,” he pointed to a scorched area of skin below Boulder’s
ear. “Looks like he got hit by a stunner.”

Clara
was sitting in the corner of the room, her eyes wide and her chest heaving as
she took deep breaths. She looked like she was ready to stab anyone who came
near her.

Sarah
sat down on the ground, that hollow feeling spreading though her again.

“Why?”
she demanded. “Why do you need me so bad? You know where they are now. Just
track the damn truck. I can’t help you anymore!” Her voice rose as she talked,
letting the anger build.

To
her surprise the Captain laughed. “Are you kidding me?” he asked. “It turns out
that not only were you once affiliated with the group, which I thought you
were, but you are actually the daughter of the group’s leader.” He laughed like
Christmas had come. Surprisingly chipper for a man who had just got his ass
kicked by a group of scientists.

So,
Sarah thought, her dad was the leader. Great.

“So
now what?”

“So
now I dangle you like a juicy, crunchy carrot in front of a donkey and wait
until your father comes to rescue you. Then I grab him. It’s better than having
the damn weapon. I’ll have the scientist who made it.” His eyes gleamed.

“So
that’s it?” asked Sarah, anger boiling up within her. “My life is just going to
consist of you continuously threatening me to keep my father working for you? Well
I have news for you, buddy, the guy burned an icon into my back and left me
alone for ten years. Not exactly father of the year material.”

The
Captain just smirked, unfazed. “He’s more like you than you think,” said the
Captain enigmatically. “I mean, it was child’s play using these two to control
you, and they’re only friends. Think of what it’ll be like with family.” He
smirked again.

Sarah
couldn’t stand to look at him any longer. She shifted her gaze to the two boys,
and then Clara. She stopped. Clara was no longer glancing frenetically around
the room in shock like she was when Sarah returned. She had stilled completely.
And she was focused on the Captain. It was not hard to read her expression. The
loathing she was emitting towards the Captain was palpable. Sarah glanced back
at the Captain. He hadn’t noticed Clara’s attention. Slowly, Clara got to her
feet, her gaze unwavering.

“You.”
Her voice was croaky. It barely rose above a whisper but the word seemed to
drip with venom.

The
Captain either didn’t hear her or thought she was talking to someone else
because he still didn’t look her way.

“You,”
she repeated, louder. This time her anger seemed to make the word reverberate
around the room and the Captain finally jerked his head up to look at her. He
saw her expression and for once seemed to be at a loss for words. He frowned at
her, bewildered as to why she was angry.

“You
abandoned
me in there.” She spat the words at him.

The
Captain rolled his eyes.

“Oh
please, look at you, you ended up fine.”

“There
were people, with guns. People died!” She screamed. “I’m your niece, and you
left me!”

Sarah
and Finn exchanged a glance. So she was his niece. It explained quite a bit.

“I
have done so much for you,” continued Clara, “and you haven’t even noticed me.
Do you know what I had to give up to come and bail you out of that bombed city?
Everything! I had a good life!” She was teary now, but the anger still
predominated. “But I helped because you were family. And this whole time you
treated me like staff. Not a single word of thanks. And then you
leave
me,” she repeated, “in the middle of a bloody gunfight to save your own bloody
ass.”

Her
hand tightened on the frypan she was holding and then suddenly she was in front
of him, hitting him with the frypan. The Captain was too surprised to do more
than raise his arm in self-defence. The frypan landed against his upraised arm.
Sarah heard a crack. The Captain roared with pain and held the broken arm close
to his chest. Clara hardly seemed to notice. She raised the frypan again but
the Captain was quicker.

Clara
paused, the frypan still raised as she blinked at the gun aimed between her
eyes. She raised her eyes to his.

“You
wouldn’t.”

The
Captain sneered at her.

“You
were always a disappointment to the family.”

A
single shot reverberated throughout the room.

For
a moment everything seemed frozen in time. Then the Captain collapsed to the
floor. He was dead. There was a hole through his head. For a second nobody
moved, the impossibility of it enveloping them, and then a noise from behind
them made them spin around. A strange man stepped out from behind a pillar in
shadows, a gun held casually against his side. Next to him appeared a second
man, this one familiar.

Sarah
blinked at him.

“You
came back.”