Rifter (The Survival Project Duology Book 1) (21 page)

At least, she wasn’t alone this time.

She wondered how Kerry was still awake, but then fear sometimes did that to you, pumped so much adrenaline through your body that you felt like you’d taken some wide-awake drug.

She threw her coffee cup into one of the street bins and wiped the stickiness from her fingers with the tiny napkin. Everything throwaway. She shivered again. At least the hot dog she had just eaten had filled a hole, but it was much less substantial than she had imagined it would be, and she was sure it wasn’t going to sit well on her stomach.

She turned back toward the park. She wasn’t sure if it was good or bad that they hadn’t yet spotted Leo, but it meant that she couldn’t relax.

They climbed over the park railings in the least conspicuous place they could find and headed straight for the vicinity of the disruption, via the bushes around the border. They needed to get as close as possible with the minimum of obstruction, so that they could see what was going on and so that if she needed to make a dash to stop Leo travelling through the rift, she could. The fluorescent yellow tape shone through the dark. The guards were still there.

He hadn’t tried yet, because there would’ve been a lot more activity on site if he had, and they wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere near.

“If we stay behind it, they won’t be able to see us,” she said, as they edged closer.

“Yes, you told me that,” said Kerry, “It’ll distort their perspective.”

Her mouth gaped for a moment. She couldn’t remember telling him that, but she’d told him so much in dribs and drabs that she probably had and it was her memory that was failing her. Anyway, who else would’ve told him? There was only Leo. Quite a lot of people knew about disruptions, but whether they knew that fact was debatable, and none of them knew Kerry. She still wasn’t entirely sure she should’ve brought Kerry along, but she couldn’t tackle four men on her own. Leo alone would test her abilities, as had been proven in the hotel. Add on three highly-trained guards, in such an open environment, and she’d be staring certain failure in the face.

Practice was never the same as reality.

It lacked external circumstance.

She had been shocked at how competent Leo had been at restraining her. She remembered how reticent he’d been when they started their weapons and combat training. His performance earlier proved he’d lost any inhibitions. And she was sure he would use a gun if he needed to just like he’d used his strength on her. At least, she was now prepared for him. She had rid herself of any feelings for him. She knew what he could do. And she could plan her attack better.

As they got nearer, she could smell a faint waft of smoke. She realised it was coming from one of the guards. He’d lit up a cigarette, no doubt to counteract the boredom of his duties, maybe even to keep himself awake.

Mara bit her lip.

If just one spark flew off the end of that cigarette and entered the rift, everything would be lost. Had Leo really not told them how dangerous that was? He had made reference to holding back information, but it seemed churlish not to have told them that any kind of accelerant, mixed with the highly unstable energy of the rift, could cause a massive explosion.

She wanted to walk right over and stub the cigarette out. But she didn’t.

If it happened, it would solve the problem of Leo getting through.

Okay, a number of people would be dead, herself included, probably, and there would be a huge crater in the park that the authorities would have a hard time explaining away, but it would stop him returning to The Project and carrying out whatever revenge he intended. And the door at the other end would close automatically, saving them.

If she did survive, it would cut off her return forever as well.

She tried not to think about that.

Focus on the facts. What did she know?

She knew that Leo would have to draw the guards away from the disruption if he was going to shoot them, for much the same reason as the danger posed by the cigarette. He couldn’t approach from behind, because he’d be too close, so he had to approach from the other direction and pull them toward him.

His only other option was not to use a gun, but to fight with his hands. That he could only do if he picked them off one-by-one. How likely was it that the guards would let that happen?

Unlikely.

What else could he do?

Distraction? No. Only if it was something that threatened the guards. Otherwise, they’d simply report any other strange goings on and let someone else deal with it.

She was stumped.

None of the plans seemed likely.

She was missing something.

“What will you do if he comes?” whispered Kerry.

“I don’t know. Go for his legs, probably. Bring him down.”

“A rugby tackle?”

“A what?”

“Never mind.”

“The situation will determine what I do.”

“I guess.”

She looked up at the tree canopy. There wasn’t an easy connecting route from above, the trees were too far apart, the outer branches definitely too weak to support a fully-grown man’s weight. His only route was on the ground.

He would be seen.

As if she had materialised him herself, she saw a silhouette in the distance. It was Leo, no doubt, walking up to the disruption, bold as brass. He waved to the guards from a way off. He’d said something and pointed, she couldn’t make out what. He didn’t draw a gun.

“What the …?”

He was going to walk straight up to them as if nothing was wrong, and then?

Realisation hit her like a bullet … in the hopes of drawing her out. The confusion when he pointed her out to the guards would leave him an empty path to the rift. Damn him. Her being here was what he’d wanted all along. He’d probably already seen where she was hiding, or guessed.

“We have to get out of here,” she said urgently to Kerry.

“Why?”

“It’s a trap?”

“No. It’s not. There he is. Over there on the path.”

“Yes, and he wants to flush us out and get us caught.”

“And while they’re … What? We’re the solution?”

“Yes. They won’t even be looking at him. Come on.” She tugged on Kerry’s sleeve almost pulling him over. “We have to get out of here, or he’s going to go through.”

They started to run as fast as their legs would take them. Mara was faster, but probably only because Kerry wasn’t prepared. In the distance, she heard Leo shout.

“There she is. In the bushes.”

She cursed under her breath. She and Kerry climbed over the fence in unison and turned to look back, but no one was following, as far as she could tell. She didn’t hear any shots.

She’d never prayed before, and she wasn’t exactly sure who she was praying to, but the desperate voice in her head begged someone to stop him before he could execute his plan.

Twenty-six

Mara and Kerry met up back at the hostel. Kerry had taken the longer route, that meant that he’d run to the next bridge along and crossed the river there, even though she’d tried to dissuade him.

“It’s better if we split up,” he’d said, “Their indecision will be to our benefit. Go.”

She wondered if that was yet another technique he’d learned from cop shows.

They hadn’t waited to find out if such an elaborate plan was necessary, they’d just run.

He was right, of course, confuse the enemy, split their resources, and really she should have thought of it first, but it didn’t make the forty-five minutes she waited for him to arrive after she’d got back to the hostel any better. All sorts of disastrous scenarios ran through her mind, from the simple fact of him being arrested for looking suspicious, to gunshot wounds from one of the guards or Leo, interrogation by the Government department that Leo worked for, and even death.

It wasn’t a good feeling knowing that she would be the cause of anything bad that befell him. She shouldn’t have asked him to tag along with her. It wasn’t fair. Her problems were not his.

She had tried to be quiet as she waited, but she knew she’d been unsuccessful when she heard the disgruntled grunts of some of the other four people in the bedroom as she paced restlessly up and down, then sat down, then paced again. She was so engrossed in her own despair, that she couldn’t focus on anything else. Not even the sound of Kerry’s sock-padded steps as he approached her.

“Kerry,” she blurted when he loomed in the darkness. A pillow hit her in the side of her head. “Sorry,” she whispered.

In order to avoid further conflict with their roommates, Kerry signalled for her to walk back down the corridor. They tried to find somewhere private to talk. The refectory was locked, as was a small common room that housed an entertainment screen, a few chairs and a selection of old-style books. They only had one option — they stood in the draughty corridor.

“I thought they’d got you,” she said. She knew that the distress in her voice was obvious, and if Kerry was surprised by it, he didn’t give any indication.

“No,” he said, “I don’t think they even followed me, but that’s a heck of a distance. I thought I already had blisters on my blisters from all the walking I’ve done recently, but I may have discovered a new form of foot discomfort. A mega blister that covers the whole of your foot and bursts to fill your entire shoe in disgusting goo.”

Despite herself, she laughed, and then grimaced.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Don’t be. I can cope.”

But him being back, and safe, didn’t diminish the fear she felt inside. She was pretty sure Leo hadn’t managed to travel through the disruption, because she hadn’t heard any shots and there was no way that he could’ve fought three guards and won without that. He was strong, yes, but he was no muscle-bound warrior.

“They’re bound to increase the guards now,” she said.

Defeated. That’s what she felt. She’d always had room for a sliver of optimism before. Always been able to see the bright side. Even the state of her own world hadn’t got her down that badly, because she knew there was the possibility of a solution, albeit slim. It was the seed of hope that kept everyone going, knowing that they were the ones searching for a solution to their problems on another world, because that’s how it had been sold. There was no room for failure. Everyone was rooting for The Project to be successful. Everyone. And now, she’d let everyone down.

Kerry sat down on the dusty carpet tiles, patting the floor beside him.

“Sit,” he said. Reluctantly, she did as he’d asked, even though her feet still wanted to pace. “The way I see it, being a glass half full kind of a guy, is that them increasing the guards makes it more difficult for this Leo to get across, too. And seeing as he wants to hurt all your friends, that can only be a good thing.”

It was true. That was what she should be focusing on, not her own woes, her own desperate situation. She should be thinking about Gordon and Caroline, and Tian. She wasn’t sure what form Leo’s revenge was going to take, but there was every possibility that he wanted to hurt, or even kill, those who had let him down.

The thought of how shocked Gordon’s face would look when Leo appeared instead of her, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. A shocked look, replaced by an image of Gordon holding up his hands, Leo pulling out his gun, and a man she’d looked up to for years, almost saw as a father figure, clutching his chest as he fell to the floor, all bloodied from a bullet that had pierced his heart.

It was more than she could bear. If it was the last thing she did, she had to stop that from happening.

There was still a chance he could get through, however impossible it might seem.

“I’m not going home, am I?” she said, finally.

For a few seconds, she managed to stop the tears, but sometimes tears couldn’t be stopped. They spilled out over the edge of your defences, found the weak spot. And sometimes you shouldn’t even try to stop them, because if you did, the pain would never heal.

Kerry put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him. He pushed back the hair that had fallen across her face, shrouding her eyes.

“Crying’s okay, you know,” he said, “It shows that you care. And there could be worse things than getting stuck here with me, being the handsome hero, film-star type that I am.”

She snorted.

He’d done it again, got her to laugh when it was the last thing she thought she wanted to do.

“Who says I’d stay with you?” she said.

He pulled away for a second, looking aghast.

“What? The knight in shining armour doesn’t get the girl? That’s a rotten kind of fairy tale.”

“Is that what this is to you? Some kind of impossible fantasy?”

He twisted his mouth to the side, contemplating the question. “Well, no one’s actually proved to me that I’m awake yet, and you’ve got to admit, this is all a bit crazy impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible, only not yet imagined.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that somewhere before,” he said.

Mara snuggled her head into his neck. Being so close to him made her feel safe.