Exit 9 (32 page)

She looked over at him and smiled. This was what she’d intended to do from the beginning, he realized. This was what she’d been hiding. She wanted to both destroy the Project
and
bring its nightmare to reality.

“Olivia, don’t do it!”

She raised her right index finger, letting it hover over the edge of the keyboard.

Over the Enter key.

49

T
HE ONLY THING
Sanjay has tried that keeps Kusum from running away is to promise that if nothing happens in the next few days, he would take her back and turn himself over to the police. He knows she can tell he’s not lying, and eventually she gives in.

He drives them deep into the countryside, where neither of them has ever been before.

He assumes Ayush has died. His cousin looked nearly dead the last time he saw him, so Kusum is the only thing he has left.

As long as he can save
her
life, she can hate him forever.

__________

J
ESSICA WHITNEY SITS
numbly at her brother’s desk. She still cannot comprehend that he is dead.

Killed by an explosion
? It just doesn’t make sense.

The only reason she has come to Palmer Transport & Shipping is to find a list of his contacts and clients, so that she and a few of her cousins can start letting people know in the morning that he’s gone.

Her eyes wander over his desk, stopping momentarily on a pad of paper near his phone. On it, in typical John fashion, there are the doodles and scribbles he often made when he was on the phone. It’s a new sheet so there aren’t quite as many marks as usual. Some are impossible to read, while others—“H-K,” “WHO,” and “container”—are clearer.

What any of it means, she has no idea.

Unexpectedly, her sadness overwhelms her. She rips the sheet from the pad, and crumples it into a tight ball. When she finally gets up, she drops the paper into the trash and never thinks of it again.

__________

P
ATRICIA MENDES IS
also in mourning. In her case, it’s for a brother and an uncle. Their deaths are surprisingly similar to the man in Perth’s, and two other people in Cleveland, though she will never know this.

The police have already decided that Rodrigo must have discovered a drug lab and had let Uncle Hector know. It’s as good a story as any, and both her brother and uncle come out heroes who were trying to do the right thing.

The true story of what happened, she keeps to herself, along with the guilt she will carry until she takes her last, gasping breath.

__________

J
EANNIE SAUNDERS IS
coughing again.

Thankfully the attack only lasts for a few seconds. Her chest muscles are so sore, and her throat so raw, she is sure that soon she’ll pass out from the pain. It would be a blessing, actually. A way not to think about anything.

Corey is dead. No one has told her this, but she knows. She can see it in their eyes, even behind the protective suits they wear when they come into her room.

What happened to Blanton, she has no idea. She should ask, but she doesn’t have the strength.

What she really wants is to go home and lie on her bed.

She closes her eyes, that thought on her mind, and dreams that’s exactly where she is.

__________

I
N A VACATION
home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Tamara Costello and Bobby Lion spend their time either watching TV or walking along the nearly deserted shore. It is cold and the ocean looks angry, but the only thing on either of their minds is the phone Tamara carries in her pocket. Will it ring? And when it does, will Matt tell them it’s time? That the video they hope they never have to show anyone needs to be released?

There is no way to know the answer. All they can do now is wait.

__________

R
ICH “PAX” PAXTON
once more tries to reach Gagnon on his satellite phone. For hours his calls have gone unanswered, and he is concerned. He has tried Captain Ash, too, but received the same results.

He and his team know the research facility on Amund Ringnes Island is exactly what it claims to be and not home to Project Eden. This means either their assumption about Bluebird’s location is wrong, or it’s on the same island Ash and Chloe and Red are on.

That’s why the unanswered calls trouble him so much. If Bluebird is on Yanok, he worries that something has happened to the others. He wants to go there right now and make sure they’re all right, but even if Gagnon answers, Pax and his people won’t be going anywhere soon.

A storm is moving in, and it’s a big one.

__________

I
N A SECRET
basement known as the Bunker, below the burning hulk of a building that was once called the Lodge, a teenage girl named Josie Ash sits alone in her room, her back against the wall.

Though there are others in the Bunker with her, she has never felt so isolated. Her thoughts run to her father, off on some unknown mission, and to her brother, trapped outside the Bunker where the killers are. She is supposed to be watching over him, taking care of him. She can do neither now.

Without realizing it, she begins to rock.
Just let me wake up
, she thinks.
Let this be a nightmare.

Then she realizes that while she isn’t asleep, a nightmare is exactly what this is.

__________

B
RANDON ASH PUTS
a hand against the cut on his cheek. He got it while he ran behind Mr. Hayes. It stings but it’s not too deep.

“We’ll wash it out once we get some water,” Mr. Hayes whispers.

Brandon nods. Water or no water, he’ll be fine.

He wonders how far they’ve gone into the woods. It can’t be too far. He can still hear the thumping of the helicopter, and thinks he can hear the crackling of the fire, too. He can’t, but it doesn’t matter.

They’d seen the blaze for a few minutes while they hid near the edge of the forest. Two blazes, really, because both the Lodge and the dormitory are on fire. Brandon worries the flames will reach the Bunker where his sister and the others are. More than once, Mr. Hayes tells him it’s impossible.

He hopes Mr. Hayes is right.

__________

T
HE COMING STORM
has moved ashore on Yanok Island. Both wind and snow are fighting for dominance, though neither can claim victory.

Captain Daniel Ash knows nothing about the storm at this moment, but even if he does, he wouldn’t care. His focus is on the woman at the other side of the room.

Their eyes are locked. He knows what she is going to do. He wishes there were another way he could stop her, but there isn’t.

There is only one thing he can do. As he makes this decision, he sees in her eyes that she’s made hers, too.

Her finger is already in motion when he pulls the trigger.

Anxious to know what happens next?

Look for Book Three of the Project Eden Thrillers in the spring.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, a thank you to all of you for embracing the Project Eden books, and urging me to “write faster.” I’m trying, oh Lord, am I trying!

As with
Sick
and my Logan Harper books, I’m blessed to be working with the very talented Jeroen ten Berge on the design of my covers. He does a bang-up job, and I couldn’t be happier.

Probably the most important member of my team these days is someone I can definitely not do without. She keeps me from making a fool of myself, and constantly makes my work better. I’m talking, of course, about my fantastic copyeditor, Elyse Dinh-McCrillis. I could not do this without her.

And, as always, there’s the revolving group of folks who keep me sane: Robert Browne, Bill Cameron, Derek Rogers, Stephen Blackmoore, Ivonne Decervantes, Tasha Alexander, Nine, and my parents. (I’m sure I’ve missed a few, so apologies for that.)

Finally, life would not be complete without my kids, Ronan, Fiona, and Keira. They are simply wonderful.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brett Battles lives and writes full-time in Los Angeles. He is the author of twelve novels, including
Every Precious Thing
, the latest Logan Harper thriller;
The Pull of Gravity
; and
The Deceived
, winner of the Barry Award for Best Thriller 2009. More info available at
www.brettbattles.com

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