Night Eyes
Twilight
By:
Dallas Releford
Published by
Dallas Releford at Smashwords.com
Night Eyes 2 - Twilight
Copyright (C) 2012 Dallas Releford
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This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, places, events, organizations, areas, or locations are intended to provide a feeling of authenticity and are used in a fictitious manner. All other characters, dialogue and incidents are drawn from the author’s imagination and shouldn’t be accepted as real.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without explicit permission from the author or publisher except in brief quotations used in an article or in a similar way.
Smashwords Edition, License notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. The ebook may not be re-sold or given to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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Dedication
I would like to thank my wife Sharon for her understanding while I was writing this book. She passed away on August 18, 2010 shortly before I finished writing the Night Eyes series. She is dearly missed.
I would also like to thank my agent and typist, Harriet Smith and Martin Smith, my advisor and typist. Their hard work and dedication has made this book much better than it would have been without them.
Both books in the Night Eyes series are entirely devoted to my loving wife, Sharon L Releford.
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Night Eyes
Twilight
Chapter 1
Clinging to the sheer rock surface of El Capitan, hanging from a nylon rope no larger than her small finger, Tracy Norton found it difficult to look up above her where her target was located. She hated heights. Climbing for over two hours, attempting to catch up to the man dressed in a blue polo shirt and black shorts above her, she felt the pain in her muscles that told her she’d been on the mountain a little too long. He was a professional climber—not to mention being a deadly assassin—while she was an amateur climber, and an expert assassin. Nonetheless, she knew she was quite capable of eliminating any assassin, no matter if they were a better climber than she was.
The other climber was only twelve feet above her. He was poised to her right like a giant spider trying to locate a crack where he could drive another spike. She felt an urgent need to move closer to him before he moved any higher, and away from her. He must not reach the peak alive. Even as she clung to the bare cliff with nothing except space below her, Tracy knew the score. Reaching high above her head she let her hand move along the smooth surface until she found what she needed, a small hole where a previous climber had anchored a rope. Her right foot rested on a small ledge about two inches wide while her left foot touched nothing except thin air. Her emergency rope was tethered to a spike ten feet below. If she fell, there would be a painful injury as the rope pulled her harness tightly against her flesh. The fall would probably result in at least a few broken bones, or perhaps a broken back. Still the risk was worth it, if she could kill the assassin before he completed his mission.
Driving a spike above her head, she watched him carefully. If he became suspicious of her intentions he might swing over and knock her off her perch. She knew she should move her emergency line up above her head except there wasn’t time now. She would have to take a chance that she wouldn’t need the line. The emergency line that was tethered to the hook below her would have to suffice. It would be the only thing that would stop her certain plummet to death on the rocks below.
Anchoring her main line with a hook to the pin she’d just driven she found another foothold and pulled herself up. Driving two more spikes she pulled herself up almost even with him. His name was Josh Kendall and he was handsome. As Tracy pulled her body up close to him she noticed his long blond hair—tied in a ponytail—and his sparkling blue eyes. A warm breeze touched her face and tossed her long dark hair into her eyes. Ignoring the wind she brushed her hair aside. He seemed surprised to see her.
“Hi. I was just on my way to the top and thought I’d stop and chat for a moment.” She held onto the main line with both hands. They were face-to-face. She could have kissed him except that wasn’t what was on her mind. The thought of kissing a killer made little worms squirm in her stomach. The thought of being so close to death made her realize how dangerous her life could be sometimes.
He grinned. His purple helmet glistened in the noon sun. “Charming.” He reached up and snapped a hook into the pin above him. “What’s a pretty lady like you doing up here on the side of a mountain?”
“Looking for something valuable.” She reached up and popped a hook into a pin he had driven to the left of the first one. He watched her actions with great interest. “They say you have it.” He seemed a little impervious to her intentions. Confusion reigned in his eyes for a brief moment before he seemed to realize that something was amiss.
“First you steal my pin and then you accuse me of having something that belongs to you. What is it you are seeking?”
Tracy braced herself for a confrontation. “I’m only borrowing your old pin. I want the DVD you have in your backpack. I know you have it and that you intend to give it to another climber when you reach the top. You see, that DVD is very important to me. I just can’t let you give it to somebody else, now can I?”
The climber sneered at her. “Come and get it.”
Tracy moved so fast her actions were a smooth blur, like a rattler striking out at an intruder. Pulling a long knife with an eight-inch blade from a sheath hanging from her belt she slashed his emergency line and then drove the blade deep into his kidney just below his ribs. Writhing in terrible pain he jerked away from her as blood gushed from the wound. Using his left leg, he kicked at her causing her to loosen her grip on the knife.
“Bitch!” His voice was weak and he breathed hard. Anger swept through him giving him renewed strength. Jerking the knife from his side he slashed at her as she leaped away avoiding the sharp blade. As she watched helpless, he reached over and slashed her main line. She felt horror sweep down her spine when she realized that her emergency line was tied to a pin ten feet below her. She’d be lucky if it held at all. Ironically, she wished she’d lost a few extra pounds before taking on mountain climbing. Tracy wasn’t sure that if she did weigh twenty pounds less that it would really make any difference.
With her main line severed she only had one way to go, down. A million images flashed through her mind like pictures in a movie. She had planned to kill Josh Kendall, grab the disk from his backpack and then scamper down the mountain like a squirrel with a prized nut except things went wrong. Now they were worse than she had expected. Tracy found herself tumbling backwards, falling at an amazing rate of speed toward the valley below where her sister, Ashley Norton and Jake McBride, Ashley’s boyfriend, were watching the operation through powerful binoculars.
She felt heavy pressure on her chest and she couldn’t breathe as she watched the top of the mountain, the man and a blue sky rush away from her. She braced herself waiting for the emergency line to reach the first pin. All of a sudden her body stopped falling with an abrupt jerk and Tracy thought she might have broken her back. Dangling from what amounted to an eye screw hammered into a crack in stone she attempted to breathe as darkness beckoned her into its arms.
Hanging from the rope tied to a safety belt around her slim waist, she was on her back staring up at the sky and the man now twenty feet above her. Before she could begin breathing normally again, the man pulled an automatic weapon and fired a burst at her. Bullets whined around her and splattered chips of stone from the mountain into her face. Only her fiberglass helmet prevented serious injury to her head. As she watched, the assassin dropped the weapon. It tumbled down bouncing off small outcroppings on the mountain before finally missing her by inches. Tracy glanced up at Kendall wondering why he’d dropped the gun. Then she knew. His arms hung limp. He was dead and she was trapped several hundred yards from the ground in Yosemite National Park. Her violent thrust of the blade into his kidney had finally done its job. She might have been happy that she had been successful in killing him except she was now in a dire predicament wondering if the line would hold long enough for her to figure something out. Just as she became a little hopeful that she might be able to drive another pin into the hard rock surface and attach another line, she felt the pin giving away to her weight. She was going down, whether she wanted to or not.
* * *
Far below, Ashley Norton watched her sister through binoculars. Jake McBride stood nearby hurriedly looking through several backpacks and carrying cases on the ground. Finally locating the one he needed, he grabbed it and unzipped it. Taking out a long four-inch diameter tube he attached a handle and a tank of compressed gas to one end of it and shoved a bullet shaped projectile into the other end.
“Hurry, Jake. I think the bullets missed her although I don’t know how. She’s still hanging there.”
“I’m ready, Ashley. Maybe she can get another main line strung. If she can get to him she can recover the disk and use his line to get down.”
“I don’t know if she will think of that or not, Jake. She isn’t answering her cell phone. We’ll just have to be ready and hope Tracy figures it all out.”
Jake picked up his binoculars from a picnic table and focused them on Tracy. “She only has one line and if it breaks, she’s in trouble. I may have to go up there, Ashley.” Jake shuddered at the thought of climbing that mountain. Heights scared him.
Ashley lowered her glasses and stared at Jake. “Have you ever climbed a mountain, Jake?”
“No. This is Tracy’s first time. She made it that far. I can do it too. She just needs a little help.”
Shrugging her shoulders Ashley brushed her long blonde hair out of her eyes and stared at her sister through optical lenses of powerful binoculars.
* * *
Despite her weight on the pin, it held and Tracy breathed a little easier. Tracy felt colder than she had ever felt before as cool wind blew across her perspiring body. Was she in shock? Summoning all the strength she had she reached up and grabbed the line and pulled herself up until her nose was almost touching it. She was hanging in space. Her toes were about two inches from the wall with nothing she could stand on. She had a plan. She would climb up to the body above her, recover the disk and use his ropes to descend. It sounded like an easy thing to do except his ropes were six feet to her right and the wind was tossing them in every direction except toward her. She had one fifty-foot coil of rope left. It was tied to the underside of her backpack. If she could get to her line, she could use the pins she’d already driven to get up to him except it was going to be difficult reaching the line hanging from her backpack. Hearing something snap, feeling the thin line that meant life or death to her jerk, she looked up at it and blood froze in her veins. One of the bullets had struck it. The line was cut in half and there was no way she could reach it before it finally broke. There was little hope in her heart that the line would hold her weight long enough for her to attach another emergency line to the cliff.
The inevitable happened and Tracy was plunging toward the ground before she realized that she was really falling this time. She had been right; her emergency line hadn’t been able to sustain her weight. Her stupid mistake, or perhaps, her inattention to details was going to cost her something she held dear, her life. Of course she hadn’t considered the unpredictable element in the equation, the bullet that had partially severed her line.
Managing to flip her body over so she could free fall she hoped to slow her descent a little, not that it meant much now. Down below, she could see two small figures that looked like ants. Jake and Ashley knew she was coming by now. Tracy hoped they remembered their parts well. Her life depended on them.
Tracy spread her arms and legs as her clothes fluttered violently in the wind as if she thought she might turn into a giant bird and fly off into the autumn blue sky. Was she descending too fast for what she had in mind? Using momentum she managed to roll away from the cliff. She had been dangerously close to the sheer face of the rock wall. Facing the ground that was rushing up at her, she reached up to her chest and pulled a ripcord.
A glider-parachute erupted from her backpack and she felt her body jerk as the chute unfurled. The chute resembled a hang glider and by pulling the right cords Tracy was able to control her direction. Jake had been right, although the chute wasn’t able to slow her descent as much as she wished. She was coming down too fast, and the thought of crashing into a tree or maybe land in a lake terrified her. Tracy always hated flying. It was time for the alternative plan.
She could see Jake and Ashley clearly now. Jake was aiming a large weapon at her. “Jesus, get this right the first time, Jake. There will only be one chance.” Jake fired and something flew from the barrel of the weapon leaving a smoke trail behind it. As it neared her she felt like the red dot on a bulls eye. The projectile opened up like a banana being peeled and as it slowed it became a silver ball about the size of a basketball. “Come to mother,” she whispered hoping that even the wind would not hear her silly remark.
The silver orb was close, except it was not close enough so Tracy pulled the left cord trying to aim her plummeting—fast moving—body toward the target. This was the situation they had hoped would never happen and now they had to deal with it. Wasn’t it always that way, most of the time? If she could have glided from higher up on the mountain the parachute would have worked better except now the trees were coming toward her fast and the only chance she had was a silver globe hanging in space like a small moon.
Putting all thoughts aside Tracy focused on the ball. Her descent was so fast she had the ball in her hands before she realized she’d actually grabbed it. Practice made perfect.
Hugging the ball with both arms, clutching it to her breasts, she issued a verbal command. “Slow descent.” Immediately, she was drifting slowly toward where Jake and Ashley were waiting for her on the ground. The tops of tall evergreen trees wavered in the wind and she missed long limbs by mere inches as she descended. When her feet touched ground, she let go of the sphere and collapsed.
While Jake gathered the silken chute in his arms Ashley ran to help Tracy. “That was a close call, sis.” Ashley put her arms around her younger sister and hugged her. Tears stung her eyes. Her heart was pounding. “Are you okay?”
Tracy frowned. “Except for my pride, I’m fine.” Brushing leaves and dirt from her clothes she glanced up at the cliff that was world famous as El Capitan. “The disk is still up there on that cliff. Except for my pride, I’m fine.” She reached out and grabbed Ashley’s arm. “We have to get that DVD. Who knows what SPIDER is planning, Ashley? We have to find out.”
Jake put the folded parachute in a large green plastic bag after unhooking the lines from Tracy’s climbing harness. “We better find out exactly what and who SPIDER is. All we now know is that they are a super secret organization linked to your rogue father, Senator Frank Norton. They seem to be very powerful and we have information that they have infiltrated the government. That means we can’t even trust our own government.”
“I can only thank God we have OCTOPUS working with us now. Without them, our resources would be extremely limited.” Ashley helped Tracy to her feet and brushed leaves out of her hair. “They keep us supplied with money, information and the latest technological gadgets. We’ll ask them for intelligence on the government problem. There isn’t much we can do about that right now except try to bring SPIDER down and put them out of business. We can only hope that SPIDER is the only organization that Frank Norton established before we killed him.”
Tracy removed her harness and tossed it on a picnic table. “That anti-gravity device sure saved my ass.”
Jake laughed. He was used to her tough demeanor. “Things were looking a little worrisome there for a while. What now?” He knew she meant what she said. If Tracy said she would kill you, your death was imminent.
Tracy sighed. “Good thing there aren’t too many people in the park today. That rumor we started about the mad bear kept most of the visitors away. Well . . . Jake as soon as I drink something cold and soothing, I’m going back up there. That operative was going to give that disk to another climber. I’m sure the other SPIDER operative is up there and when he sees what is going on he’ll be going down to recover that disk. We have to hurry. This park is probably crawling with SPIDER operatives.
Jake nodded his head toward the forest and a collection of rocks. Some of them were twenty feet high. “We have a few surprises hidden in there, remember? I’ll go up this time. We’ll try out that new flying platform with the laser engine the developers at OCTOPUS was bragging about.”
Ashley moved closer to Jake and put her arm around his waist. “Jake, there is no way I’m letting you ride that flying platform up the side of that mountain. I’ll go this time and―”
Before Ashley could finish speaking Tracy grabbed her arm and pointed toward the woods at the end of the glade. Seven armed men, dressed in black were running toward them firing their weapons as they ran. Jake groaned pitifully and fell to the ground.
* * *
Chapter 2
High above the Pacific Ocean, a rotary wing aircraft with a white streamlined body, trimmed in blue cruised at six hundred miles an hour. Six pulsed laser engines silently turned the rotors without leaving vapor trails. Powerful laser beams focused on parabola mirrors created the energy that turned the rotors. The batteries that powered the lasers allowed the craft to carry twelve passengers halfway around the world before the batteries needed recharging. And yet, only a few people even knew of the existence of the aircraft.
The aircraft was host to two men in the forward passenger compartment and a crew of four in the control room. Today, two small stealth jets armed with advanced laser weapons and high tech detection gear flew high overhead protecting the Doran S-211 from attack. Of course, advanced fighters were never far from their leader in the S-211. They were not too distant from the destination where he would be landing shortly.
Eric Brunner, tall with graying hair and blue eyes sat near the front of the craft facing another man named Wilber Riley. A smile slowly developed on Eric’s face as he stared at his laptop.
“What do you find so amusing, Mr. President?” Wilber Riley removed his black-rimmed glasses and laid them on the seat near him. Brushing his black hair back where it had fell out of place he watched Brunner’s face looking for a clue that would tell him what the President had seen that was so amusing. Riley’s hair too was showing signs of gray and his brown eyes weren’t quite as sharp as they used to be.
Brunner stared at a color, full-faced view of a young woman— displayed on his laptop screen—with long blonde hair and the prettiest blue eyes he’d ever seen. “Ashley Norton, the first genetically engineered woman on this planet. She has talent even she isn’t aware of. Now, if she doesn’t put iron in your pants, her sister, Tracy Norton will.” He clicked a mouse button and Tracy’s face appeared. Her black, silky hair fell to her shoulders and her brown eyes stared right at him. “Of course, Tracy is the more aggressive one. I love aggressive women. Damn, I bet she’s good in bed.”
Riley stared at him not quite sure about what to say. “She’s the second daughter Frank Norton created and she’s the most dangerous one. You have to remember that both of these women have special powers that were genetically engineered into them before birth. That makes them extremely dangerous. Why, those two women destroyed Norton’s lab and his underground complex. That was quite a feat. His complex is now buried under sixty feet of river water near Billings, Montana. Both women are endowed with telepathic and telekinetic powers along with a lot more talent we may not even know about. If they ever find out who we are, we may have a problem on our hands.”
“You worry too much, my friend. I have plans for them and their friend Jake McBride.” Brunner clicked another mouse button and a face appeared on the computer screen. “You really think poor old Jake can handle both of those biologically advanced women?” Jake’s sullen face glared at him from the computer screen. For a few seconds Brunner thought a cold chill was forming between his shoulder blades. Then, he was sure of it. There was something ominous about Jake McBride. Did he have special powers too?
“They destroyed an entire complex. It was lucky for us that Norton had the foresight to build many complexes including Dumas Island.” Brunner closed the lid on his laptop and resting his hands on it stared at Riley. “Have you heard anything else about the Yosemite Park operation?”
Riley stared out the window at the ocean passing by them below. It was almost a blur. As Chief of Intelligence and Security Operations, it was his job to gather information and to keep his boss informed. “The last I heard was that our operative was to meet their man at the top of El Capitan and give him the DVD. Their man was to be picked up by helicopter and taken to a safe place. That disk is the most dangerous item on the planet, Mr. Brunner. That’s why we had to transfer it in complete isolation, on top of a mountain where nobody was likely to interfere with us.”
Brunner nodded his head in complete agreement. “Keep on it. As soon as we are sure that the disk is safe I want our troublesome trio brought here. Maybe Senator Norton couldn’t handle them, but I’m quite certain that I can.”
The pilot’s voice came over the intercom announcing that they were approaching Dumas Island. As the pilot swung the enormous bird to the northeast so he could line up with the airfield they both got a good look at their pride and joy. On the horizon the island looked like a long cookie sheet turned upside down floating on the ocean’s surface. Brunner leaned forward and gazed at Norton’s creation. No matter how many times he looked at it, the ten-mile square manmade island mesmerized him. “There it is, Riley, the largest, most elaborate manmade island in the world. The most extraordinary thing about it is that it is entirely self sufficient. We pump our own oil from the ocean floor and we have our own oil refinery.”
Riley smiled and his eyes glistened. “The most amazing thing about Dumas Island to me is that nobody knows it is here, except us. From the sky all you see is a blue ocean. Even satellites haven’t picked it up. You’re the President of Dumas Island and from here we will conquer the world.”
Brunner leaned back in his seat and relaxed. “First, we have to build another island way out there beyond the moon. As soon as we capture Ashley and her pals we’ll begin that operation.” Brunner fastened his seat belt as the aircraft began its approach to Dumas Island. “As soon as we land call our operative and find out about that DVD.”
* * *
As bullets flew through the air like mad hornets, Ashley dived behind a nearby tree and pulled a small pistol from her purse. Jake was on the ground holding his shoulder. Tracy was attempting to pull Jake to safety. Jake thought everything was happening in slow motion. Nonetheless, he wasn’t sure of anything except he had been wounded and the pain was intolerable.
The PS-42 Legend Laser pistol had been developed by the best engineers OCTOPUS could locate. Its blue beam had a diameter less than the width of a lead pencil, yet it could cut a hole through a four-inch armor plate in mere seconds. Its power supply consisted of hundreds of tiny capacitors, transformers and miniature switches. Powered by a special Lithium battery it could be charged from an electrical outlet or sunlight. Ashley carried a spare battery in her pocket.
Ashley knew she had to slow the intruders down and kill as many as she could while Tracy tended to Jakes wound. Already, she could see at least twelve heavily armed men using trees and boulders for cover as they concentrated a steady barrage of bullets at them. On her stomach, she crawled up to an enormous tree trunk and fired at the enemy. She could fire quick bursts by pressing the trigger and quickly releasing it or she could fire an intense beam for one minute by holding the trigger down. The pistol had an automatic circuit breaker that prevented the beam from remaining active for more than one minute. Otherwise, the constant heat from the beam would burn out the circuits in a few seconds.
She squeezed the trigger six times and hit two of the men. Smoking holes appeared in their chests and they collapsed where they were standing. Undaunted by the success of the deadly weapon, three of the men charged. Pressing the trigger down Ashley used it like a laser sword. Moving the beam across their path, she let it slash their bodies in half before releasing the trigger. The men let out mournful screams before death claimed them. The other men retreated into the forest to lick their wounds. She knew they would be back.
Engaging the safety, she rolled away from the tree and down a slight embankment where their supplies were stacked near the picnic table. Recovering a large black bag Ashley ran toward Jake and Tracy.
Kneeling next to Jake and Tracy she opened the bag as she spoke. Out of the corner of her eye she kept close watch on the trees. “Just thought you guys would appreciate some weapons and a first aid kit.”
Tracy was busy cutting Jake’s shirt open near his left shoulder. He was perspiring heavily and his face was white, almost as pale as snow. Laying the scissors aside she looked at Ashley. “I can fix him just like I reattached his hand when that creature bit it off. The bullet passed through his shoulder so it’s just a matter of forcing his body to repair itself. It’ll take about thirty minutes. We should be able to hold these bad boys off that long, shouldn’t we?”
The situation—Jake wounded and Tracy trying to help him—reminded Ashley of the time a few years ago when the three of them found a secret lab and a town her father Senator Frank Norton had built. Norton had created thousands of genetically engineered creatures that would be part of his new world where Norton would rule over a government similar to Nazi Socialism. Norton had held Jake hostage hoping to force Tracy and Ashley into surrendering. Norton had genetically created both of his daughters, Tracy and Ashley and endowed them both with superhuman powers. Learning that he was creating a super race with world conquest in mind they rebelled and destroyed his lab. Norton had ordered a creature to bite Jake’s hand off. Seeing Jake suffering so much forced Ashley to admit to herself that she really did love Jake McBride. Seeing him suffering now, she knelt near him and held his hand. “Jake, are you okay?”
Jake opened his watery eyes and looked at her. He didn’t know if he liked her more as a blond or as a brunette as she once had been. “You got to do something about that hair, love.” He smiled as she leaned forward and kissed him. “Other than that, I’m just fine.”
Ashley pulled a handful of hair away from her shoulder and looked at it. “What’s wrong with my hair, Jake? It helps to change my appearance.”
“That’s the . . . ugh . . . problem.” Tracy was using hydrogen peroxide to clean his wound. The area around the wound was red and tender resembling a fresh pork chop from the grocery cooler. “I guess I’m just a brunette lover. I’ll always love you though, no matter what color of hair you have.”
Ashley let her hand drop to his and patted it. “I’ll always love you too. Tracy will take care of you. I’m going to try and draw those goons away from here so she can perform her magic.”
Jake had a sudden look of alarm on his face when he looked at her. “You be careful, Ashley. Those soldiers out there are real and well trained. Do you still remember how to ride those Laser Cycles? We got one down there amongst the boulders in our weapons cache. It’s armed with two short-burst laser cannons. If you remember how to maneuver it between those trees like I showed you, it should be your best chance of getting them to follow you. They’re trying to stop us from getting up on that mountain so some of them will stay here and watch Tracy and me. We’ll take care of them and you just watch out for yourself.” Clutching her soft hand, he added with a grin on his face. “You bring your cute little butt back to me in one piece, you hear?”
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Jake. I’ll be back soon.” Leaning forward, she kissed Tracy on her cheek. “Take care of him and yourself too, sis.”
Tracy smiled and pulled two black laser pistols from the bag. “I have these. As soon as Jake is better, we’ll come after you. Be sure that your cell phone is on.”
Ashley smiled and crouching ran across the meadow to the boulders.
“She makes a nice exit, doesn’t she? Reminds me of Zorro always riding into the moonlight at the end of the show.”
Jake nodded his head and forced a grin trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder. “She makes everything nice, just like you, Tracy.”
“Are you ready, Jake?” The wound was still bleeding. Tracy pressed a folded bandage soaked in hydrogen peroxide against it. Before he could answer, she focused her mind on his and on the wound. A shot rang out and a head appeared from behind a tree. Tracy picked up the PS-42 and fired. The head exploded and the headless body took a few steps out from behind the tree before falling to the ground. Another bullet kicked up dust and rocks near her foot. She fired again and missed.
* * *
Ashley Norton heard the gunshots and the answering fire from Tracy’s laser pistol. Hurrying toward the boulders where they had stashed equipment the night before, she kept a watchful eye out for anyone who might have sneaked around in front of her. With a little luck, the enemy operatives hadn’t seen her sneak away from Tracy and Jake. OCTOPUS was determined to defeat SPIDER, the organization Senator Frank Norton had founded. OCTOPUS had given Ashley, Tracy and Jake a lot of technical support. The support had allowed Ashley, Jake and Tracy to defeat OCTOPUS in several encounters. What she was experiencing now was just another encounter that she had to win. Each defeat brought them closer to destroying SPIDER. OCTOPUS was a clandestine organization that was so secret only a few people in the Pentagon knew about it.
Then finally, Ashley stood between an accumulation of boulders that were over twelve feet high. In an area less than sixty feet square were several marvels of modern technology including the laser lift Jake had talked about. They had brought everything in by helicopter last night knowing they would be fighting a war against an enemy that only existed when there was a battle to be fought. As they had learned several times, SPIDER could appear from out of nowhere, wage a devastating battle and then disappear. This time Ashley was going to make sure that their attackers didn’t disappear anywhere except into the cold, hard ground.
Ashley located a crate that she thought might contain what she was looking for. Removing four steel bands with a band cutter, she stood back as the sides fell away revealing a sleek machine that vaguely resembled a motorcycle without wheels. Jake had hung a sign on the handlebars that read: ALL GASSED UP AND READY TO GO.
Ashley knew it was a joke. The laser cycle used a power cell to deliver the wattage necessary to fire up and run two laser engines on the rear of the craft and the single motor on the bottom of it. She went to it and touched the bright chrome handlebars and the soft red leather seats admiring the craftsmanship. Ashley still didn’t know exactly how the laser engines worked even though Jake had explained it to her in fine detail and with loving patience. She remembered something about intense laser beams being focused on a mirror that provided thrust to propel the engine forward except she was sure there was more to it than that. She didn’t know how an automobile engine worked either. However, that knowledge wasn’t required for her to be able to drive a car. She was sure she could fly this thing. She had done it before. However, this was the first time she’d operated it under battle conditions. This was also the first time she’d operated it alone without Jake telling her what to do.
Putting her hand on the handlebar, Ashley climbed aboard feeling an urgency to get down to business. Time was wasting and Jake and Tracy were in dire danger. The long black barrels of the two laser cannons looked ominous and deadly. It took her several minutes to recall where all the controls were located and what each one did. Push the handlebar forward and feed juice to the engines. That would move her forward. A lever on the right handlebar controlled engine power and speed. Turning the handlebars to the right or left would move her in that direction. Without wheels, braking was possible only by reversing the rear engines and using the booster engine on the bottom of the craft to raise and lower it.
Now that she understood the controls she turned her attention to the guns. She could aim them with a control on the left handlebar. Once she’d found her target she could move her thumb to a red button that locked the weapon on the target. Ashley fired the laser weapons to make sure they worked and then released the button.
Confident that she was as ready as she would ever be, she started the engines and relaxed only after the crackling sounds vanished when the engines warmed. Jake had mentioned that static electricity had something to do with the noise in the powerful engines. Ashley didn’t care. She had the mission and her friends to worry about. She heard more gunfire. Tracy was still firing her laser gun. She had to hurry.
Ashley fed more energy to the engines and tensed when the craft lifted from the ground. Barely dodging tree limbs she turned the craft around and headed toward the sounds of battle.
The scene that greeted her chilled her blood and caused her mind to race searching for an explanation for what she saw. Tracy was still holding the compress on Jake’s shoulder while trying to fight off over twenty armed men dressed in dark clothing. She held the compress in one hand while firing her powerful laser pistol with her free hand. Reinforcements had arrived and the tide of battle changed. The enemy was now stronger than it had been when Ashley retreated to devise a new strategy. Ashley pulled the laser cycle up over a small hill and looked down from her perch about fifty feet behind the advancing enemy as they charged forward convinced that their only enemy was a wounded man and a woman.
Ashley turned the handlebars toward them and selected her first target. The laser weapon locked onto the man. She moved her thumb to the red button and pressed. The man was instantly vaporized. A white puff of smoke was the only evidence he’d ever been there. Ashley turned the guns around and did a multiple search that allowed her to select more than one target. She selected four. The laser locked onto the first target. Instantly, he was vaporized and the guns moved on to the next victim. In quick succession, the other targets were terminated. Abruptly, the attackers realized they were under fire from another direction and began to return her fire. Bullets bounced off the armored plate that protected her from an attack from the front. The vehicle didn’t carry much armament. Ashley appreciated what little protection she had. The bulletproof windshield provided her some comfort as she selected more targets and moved in for the kill.
After she’d dispatched four more men to a quick death and all was left of them was a watery, gray vapor that drifted away with the wind, Ashley was alarmed when she heard the whooshing sound of rotor blades. The sound was coming from the south beyond the trees. Ignoring bullets as they whistled by her she watched as two black helicopters flew above the treetops toward El Capitan. They were after the disk and she must not allow them to get it.
Turning the cycle toward the invaders on the ground, Ashley selected six targets and relaxed when they turned to vapor. She had to finish this fiasco quickly. “Damn.” She cursed. It was just a whisper and she hoped God didn’t hear her although she thought he might be busy somewhere else. As if by magic, five more armed men appeared. One of them had a SAM launcher on his shoulder. Ashley knew that the surface-to-air missile would bring her down and it would all be over. Suddenly, she was confronted with saving Jake and Tracy, taking out the SAM and stopping those helicopters before they reached the peak of El Capitan. Steeling herself, she said a silent prayer and locked the guns on her enemy with the SAM. Holding in the accelerator she breathed deeply as trees raced by her. Then the terrorist fired the SAM and she knew it was all over.
* * *
Chapter 3
The man with gray hair and bandages covering most of his face stared up at the ceiling as two orderlies dressed in green scrubs wheeled him down a long hallway on a hospital gurney.
“Does his bandages come off today?”
The other man who had a full head of dark hair and deep brown eyes stopped his low whistling long enough to answer. “I believe so. They said to take him to the OR . . . to room 112. Can you believe he’s been here almost eight months already? My, how time flies when you don’t give a damn about a place like this.”
“I don’t know about that,” the first man said. “When you’re working it feels like you’re a mole on a turtle’s ass time moves so slow. I guess we’re just bored. When I’m home and off duty, time flies. It really does.”
The man on the gurney groaned as if their arrogant, idle conversation offended him. The two orderlies ignored him. After all, he was supposed to be unable to hear or to speak. He was just another in a long line of patients who would come and go. They’d still be here for a long time. “Don’t worry about him, Mike. He’ll be fine. I’m stopping for a couple of beers after work. Want to join me?”
Sure. I don’t have much else to do.” When they arrived at the OR they pushed the gurney inside and lifted the man onto an operating table that had been previously prepared for him. He groaned a couple times before they got him where he was supposed to be. The one called Mike moved the man’s IV bottle to another holder and left the room. The nurses would take care of everything else that needed to be done.
Outside the OR they stood watching a couple of pretty nurses at the counter. “Charlie what would you do with either of them?”
Mike looked at Charlie with a sheepish grin on his face. “Make love until I couldn’t get it up anymore. I’d be the happiest man in West Virginia. What would you do?”
“Same thing, probably.” Charlie sighed knowing such a thing was highly unlikely. The nurses in the hospital didn’t go for low-paid orderlies very often. They were more interested in doctors. The nurses disappeared from behind the counter and went into the office.
“Charlie, what do you know about that man in there?” Mike pointed his thumb at the OR. “How did he get all those injuries, anyway?”
“As you already know, mum is the word around here. The hospital has a lid of secrecy placed on him. I figure he’s a rich foreign diplomat or a wealthy spy. All I have been able to find out is that one of the nurses told me he was in some kind of accident that was almost fatal. Most of his body had third degree burns and they have been rebuilding him. Whatever that means?”
Mike shook his head in disbelief. “Amazing what they can do these days. Sounds a little too much like Frankenstein for me. Well, I have other work to do. I’ll meet you about six. The first round is on you.” Before Charlie could protest, Mike was walking down the hallway following a shapely nurse’s aide.
* * *
Tracy was still attempting to heal Jake’s wound when she heard the helicopters. His shoulder had stopped bleeding and she was sure that she had managed to speed up the healing process. All she needed was a little while longer to make Jake well again. Ashley was trying to buy them more time. From the sound of the helicopters, her luck had run out. Holding her hand on Jake’s shoulder Tracy watched as Ashley fought almost a dozen armed men, all by herself. Was this her timid sister doing this? Then Tracy realized that Ashley was fighting for her and for Jake. It also became apparent that more men were appearing from the trees almost as fast as Ashley could dispense them to another world. The situation might be hopeless except Tracy wasn’t ready to give up yet. She wasn’t sure she would ever give up.
Ashley’s love for her sister and for Jake McBride was driving her to do things she was normally incapable of doing and Tracy understood that fact quite well. Then Tracy groaned feeling despair invade her body when she observed a man with a missile launcher fire the weapon at her sister. The missile sped through the air leaving a trail of smoke behind it as it hunted its target.
The missile was a heat seeking projectile and the laser cycle had plenty of heat to seek. Tracy focused her attention on a stone near the armed men. In seconds her mind controlled the atoms in such a way to cause the stone to turn red. Then it burst into flame.
Ashley saw the missile coming toward her with deadly intent. She had little time to react. Almost by instinct—perhaps her reaction was the result of Tracy’s mental warning—she gave the cycle full power and pulled back on the handle bars sending the cycle straight up in the air just as the missile passed under her. Aware that the missile would turn and head for her again, she did a nosedive for the hot stone just as the SAM locked onto her. With the SAM close on her tail she passed so close to the burning rock she could feel its fiery heat. Ashley pulled up just in time as the missile struck the hot rock and exploded. The sound vibrated her eardrums. From five hundred feet above the forest floor below Ashley could see the explosion had uprooted several trees and the enemy was gone as if they had been whisked away by a strong updraft.
She dropped lower and found Tracy and Jake. Hovering nearby she relaxed when she saw they had not been harmed. “You guys okay?”
“Just a little while longer and Jake will be new again. He’s lost a lot of blood and he’s a little weak. Nothing I can do about that. Otherwise, he’s fine. How about you, Ashley?”
Ashley smiled. “I’m fine too. I’m going after those helicopters. Maybe I can stall them or something, keep them from getting the DVD.”
Tracy felt helpless knowing that she couldn’t leave Jake to help Ashley, at least not for a little while. She also realized that if SPIDER got the disk many people would suffer, and most would die. “Ashley, don’t put yourself in any more danger than necessary. As soon as I can, I’ll be there to help you.”
Ashley held her fist in front of Tracy with her thumb sticking up indicating that she complied. “Don’t worry sis. They got me mad now. I’ll see you.”
Before Tracy could protest Ashley gave the lower engines more power. The laser cycle rose up from the ground and then Ashley was gone. Ashley hovered behind the treetops for a few moments until she saw the two sleek, black helicopters moving up the face of the cliff. They were far away and she had to strain her eyes in order to make out their silhouettes against the shadowy surface. Clouds were racing across the sky obscuring the sun. Sometimes, the shadows of clouds made it difficult for her to see the aircraft. Then her eyes focused on the dark silhouette and she had her target. There was nothing between them and her, except open space.
Using the accelerator she gunned the engines and headed toward the helicopters. She had to distract them and draw them away from El Capitan. There were several people in the valley below El Capitan, mostly campers and hikers except she didn’t want them to see an aerial battle between two helicopters and a small craft they had never seen before. The news media might become curious about a beautiful woman and a strange machine. OCTOPUS deplored publicity.
Ashley ascended almost vertically trying hard not to look down at the ground falling away from her. Above, the helicopters hovered near the body hanging from a line on the side of the cliff. Ashley already knew what they were thinking. The only way to reach the man and the disk was by climbing down to him. The helicopter blades would smash against the cliff if they attempted to reach him from the air. They were dangerously close to the cliff face now and a sudden gust of wind could push them right into the cliff wall.
Pulling the nose up—or pulling the handlebars back toward her—she climbed higher while pointing her guns at one of the craft. She felt as if she were an ant attacking an elephant. Firing a short burst of laser beams at the craft she pulled away and leveled off as the beams struck the helicopter in the aft section close to the tail. Ashley pulled her little laser cycle up level with the two helicopters. Facing them, she waved at the pilots in the cockpit of the craft that hadn’t been hit. Ashley noticed that the craft she had hit didn’t seem like it had suffered much damage. She would have to remedy that situation. Ashley kept waving hoping to antagonize them enough so they would chase her. If she could divert their attention away from the cliff, and the DVD, she might be able to destroy them and recover the disk. She wondered if they were armed. Observing the craft closer, she knew they were armed. That thought horrified her.
Each aircraft carried a machine gun mounted under the nose. It was controlled from the cockpit and it had a swivel mount that allowed it to be fired in any direction except straight up. She would have to be careful. These guys probably knew what they were doing. Killing a woman on a flying motorcycle wouldn’t matter to them at all. It would be like swatting a fly with a flyswatter.
Ashley contemplated her chances of actually putting the helicopters out of business and knew they were slim. Not so long ago Ashley Norton had been a nursing home administrator in West Virginia. Her father, Frank Norton had almost died in an assassination attempt when his enemies attacked him in Montana while he was on a camping trip. Norton was a serious candidate for the office of President of the United States. He wanted to create a super race and rule the world, his way. Wounded, he had sought sanctuary in her nursing home while he healed. He brought a load of trouble with him. Ashley and Tracy managed to temporarily put an end to his scheme, except SPIDER, the super secret organization Norton had founded continued where he left off. Now even though her father was dead, she was facing the organization he had created. She had to win this battle. Norton, even in death, must lose.
Smiling at the confused pilots she gave them the finger, turned the laser cycle around and flew away from them. When she heard gunfire and hot lead zoomed near her, she knew she had made them angry enough to chase her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that they were coming after her, fast and furious. With both helicopters opening up on her at the same time she knew it was time to make a move, only she had to do it quickly.
With the laser cycle running at full power, Ashley swerved to the right and headed out over the forest. She needed plenty of room to maneuver. The helicopters were close on her tail. They were much larger than her cycle and that gave her a certain advantage over them. Ashley could go places they could not, like straight down amongst the trees. Pushing forward on the handlebars, she dropped down into the shelter of tall evergreen trees, pines and cedars with spreading limbs. The choppers chased her from above keeping constant watch on where she was going. Navigating between huge tree trunks, dodging enormous boulders Ashley led them away from the main section of the park. Glancing up through the limbs she saw beautiful blue skies and the dark silhouettes of one of the craft. Without hesitation, she made an abrupt left turn hoping the craft would not see her. When she looked up again, he was still up there following her like a blood hound.
Ashley was puzzled. From the air they should have a difficult time seeing her, except both choppers had stuck to her like glue. Even from where she was hovering between two very large trees, she could hardly see them through thick limbs above her. If they knew where she was then it meant they had heat detection equipment, or radar. If that cold hard fact were true then Ashley knew she was in a lot of trouble and the thought made her feel helpless. In her haste to lead the wolves away from Jake and Tracy she hadn’t predicted that she would become trapped below a canopy of monster trees. As long as she stayed below the tree limbs and clung close to the forest floor she would be relatively safe. The only problem was she could not stay there forever. Ashley had to find a way to destroy the helicopters before they killed her.
Using all the cunning she had, Ashley sped between trees as fast as she dared until she saw a small meadow ahead. Gunning the engines, she shot up through the opening in the tree limbs above her. When she looked down she saw the choppers above the trees. Any second now and they would come after her when they discovered she wasn’t down there anymore. Ashley’s small laser cycle was easy to maneuver while the helicopters were larger and required more room to turn. Their size gave her a slight advantage over them. It was the second time in a few moments she had recognized that fact.
There was no time to plan a strategy so Ashley made a wide turn and dropped down toward them before they had time to react. Aiming her laser guns at the first helicopter, she focused on the twirling blades. She wanted to let out a loud cheer when the laser beams cut the blades to pieces like a machete cutting sugar cane. Without wings, the helpless chopper plummeted into the forest and exploded. One down and one to go, she whispered.
In her effort to destroy the first helicopter she had allowed herself to get dangerously close to the remaining bird. As the pilot made a wide turn so he could follow her Ashley saw one chance and took it. She brought her cycle down and then up until she was flying under the helicopter. She’d seen that maneuver in several old war movies. It always worked for World War II pilots.
Ashley flew under the black bird as the pilot made a complete circle looking for her or trying to get her out in the open where he could shoot her down. As he made several sharp turns obviously attempting to elude her she clung to him like glue. Ashley had him where she wanted him. She supposed that he was still wondering where she was or maybe he already knew. They had radar. She was almost sure of that now. Ashley knew that the moment she dropped away from underneath the helicopter their radar would be able to see her clearly again so she wouldn’t have much time to take action. Perhaps being under the helicopter was a blind spot on their radar screen. She hoped so anyway. It was something like being too close to a television station.
Dropping away from the chopper, she guided the laser cycle around in an arc before aiming it toward the helicopter above her. This time she aimed the laser gun at the forward section where the pilot and co-pilot were located. As she fired, the pilot realized where she was and put the chopper in a long dive toward the treetops. Her laser beams glanced off the armor plate on the bottom of the craft. The armor was too thick for her small laser guns. She would have to go for the rotors again. Ashley would be exposed to their missiles if she allowed them to get behind her. She intended to get them while they were below and in front of her. If she didn’t succeed, they would swing around to face her and it would all be over. Her small laser cycle could not withstand an assault from missiles and machine gun fire.