Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (25 page)

The creature held
up one hand and uttered one word in perfect English.
“Stop!”

Derek spun around
and ran down the hallway to the front door, his eyes darting this way and that,
sure that the other Seod was in the vicinity.

As the teenager
caught sight of the other Seod by the living room door, he grabbed hold of an
umbrella and threw it at the alien.

Derek then
slammed his body into the front door. With an ear splintering crash, the timber
smashed apart and he tumbled onto the gravel outside. As he stumbled to his
feet, he saw Molly approach and offer her hand. “Go!”

Molly didn’t
argue, but it didn’t matter. As she ran down the driveway there was a soft
whine and a hovercraft type thing emerged from the barn and glided toward her.

Molly skidded to
a stop and glanced behind her. As she saw a Seod standing next to Derek, her
shoulders sank and she dragged her feet back to her brother.

As Derek watched
the hovercraft thing glide toward them, he
marveled
at how quiet it was. Only a soft whine emerged from the square vehicle. While
the bottom matched the look of a hovercraft, since it was rubber looking, the
upper part looked more like a tank. It was white, and looked like it was made
of the same metal as the briefcase had been made out of. A turret with some
sort of cannon protruded from the top.

As it came to a
stop beside them, the side door opened and another Seod emerged. He stalked
toward the teenagers, his right hand clutching a silencer.

~*~*~

As
Logan
’s feet
touched the grass, he quickly untied the rope that had been around his waist
and, after giving a wave up to Hugo to show that everything was okay, he
hurried over to the building.

A few trees grew
here and there, but there was no garden to speak of. Curtains were pulled
closed on all the windows and not a single sound could be heard.

He strode quickly
but quietly to the back door. Deciding he didn’t have time to waste, he
clutched his gun firmly in one hand while he knocked on the door with the
other.

The seconds
passed but the door remained shut. He waited until he could wait no more. After
testing the handle to make sure it wasn’t unlocked, he raised his leg up and
kicked the door open.

With a crash of
broken timber, the door flung open.
Logan
spun to one
side, expecting a hail of bullets to follow. But none came.

Still wary, but
now suspicious, he entered the lodge. He stealthily went from one room to the
next. While it was daytime, due to the closed curtains in all the rooms, it
made it seem as though it was dusk.

However, it was
still light enough to see the blood on the floor and walls. There had clearly
been some kind of fight recently. While most of the blood was red, some of it
was blue. That could only mean one thing.

Seods had been in
the house and not that long ago.

How much did Hugo
really know of this? Was that why he had sent him down alone? Or would he be as
surprised as he was when he told him what he had found?
Logan
was unsure,
but there was only one way to find out.

As he reached the
final room and didn’t find anything of interest, he walked back down the
hallway. There wasn’t anyone the house so there wasn’t any point in staying any
longer.

However, just as
he passed the kitchen, a noise brought him to a standstill. It was a cat
meowing. Was it just his imagination or was it really a cat?

With his hand
back on his gun, he turned around and inched his way back down the hallway, his
head turning this way and that as he tried to determine where the noise had
come from.

As he reached the
next room, a study, the sound became quieter. So, he turned around and tiptoed
back to the kitchen. Halfway there he came to a stop.

One of the
floorboards didn’t have any nails on it. In fact, two of the planks didn’t. He
walked forward and knelt down. Listening closely, he realized he was right. The
sound was coming from below the planks.

There was only
one way he was going to find out who or what was hiding below the planks.
Gambling that whoever was down there was on his side, he dropped his weapon and
grabbed the first plank with both hands.

As he tossed the
plank aside a moment later, he gazed down into the face of a woman who had
long, black hair.

~*~*~

Kenneth awoke the
sound of Toby barking. He quickly sat up and patted the animal
who
was pulling tight on the lead which had been tied around
the nearby tree. “What’s wrong, Toby?”

The collie barked
again and again. As much as Kenneth tried to quiet the animal, he couldn’t. A
feeling of dread filled his heart. Something was wrong.

Wanting to know
why the dog was barking madly, he untied the lead from the pine tree and
proceeded to walk down the hill. However, he didn’t get far before the animal
yanked on the lead and the end that Kenneth had clutched onto was torn out of
his hand.

As the dog
bounded down the hill, Kenneth ran after him, desperate to know what was
happening to make the dog act so. A few moments later, he began to smell
something. It took him another second to realize it was smoke.

It was coming
from the farmhouse.
“Those fools!”
Kenneth ran through
the woods, getting closer and closer to the farmhouse. However, when he emerged
from the tree line, he came to stop.

Smoke billowed
high up into the sky while orange flames tore through the outer frame of the
farmhouse. As the wood crackled and glass splintered from the outside, Toby
continued barking and pawing at the ground.

A desperate
thought tore through his head. Were Derek and Molly inside?
Was
that why Toby was going crazy.
He yelled out. “Derek! Molly!”

There was no
answer. He ran around to one of the side windows and shouted again. “Derek!
Molly!”

There was still
no answer. He hurried forward and gazed through the study window. The room was
ablaze. The fire was everywhere.
On the curtains, on the
carpet, on the walls.
It would be madness to attempt searching and he
knew it.

Disheartened, he
slunk back to the driveway. He had told the teenagers to not head back to the
farmhouse, but what if they had disobeyed him? Surely he would have seen them
by now if they had been hiding in the bushes.

Also, who started
the fire? Was it an accident, or deliberate? Had the Seods done so? But what
would they have had to gain by doing so?

Kenneth had no
idea. He sat down on the grass beside the driveway and watched as the roof
collapsed onto the rest of the farmhouse.

~*~*~

“Can you tell me
what happened?”
Logan
asked, gazing into the face of the woman.

“I’m not sure.”
The woman cradled a blank cat in her arms as she rocked in a chair. “I heard
stuff, but I didn’t see anything. And even some of the stuff I did hear I
couldn’t understand.”

Logan
raked a hand
through his brown hair. “Can’t you tell me anything?”

“Can we get out
of here?” the woman asked. “This place gives me the creeps.”

“Sure,”
Logan
replied.
“Mrs.?”

“Dahlia.
Just Dahlia,” the woman
replied.

Logan
held out his
hand as Dahlia stood up. “Here, let me help you.” As the woman took his hand,
he glanced down and was satisfied to see that what Hugo had said was true. She
had four fingers on her left hand.

He had no idea
how she had ended up in the hole below the floorboards or why she had even been
in the house in the first place, but at least she didn’t look too
disheveled
. And anyway, he had now completed his mission.
All he needed to do was to return to Quinn with her in tow.

As they emerged
outside,
Logan
took a moment to gather his surroundings. Seeing it looked the same
as before, they walked towards the cliff face. As they got closer,
Logan
saw the rope
dangling in the breeze, just like he had left it.

However, he
couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Maybe it was because it
had been too easy. Not that he wanted it to be hard, but it had been exactly
has Hugo had said. Well, not exactly, but close enough.

Logan
suddenly was
brought to a stop by the sound a gun going off. A second later, the black cat
dropped from the woman’s arm, blood pouring out of the middle of it.
Logan
yanked the
woman to the ground and they tumbled onto the grass.

A second later,
the weapon rang out again. This time, the bullet lodged itself in the dirt a
foot away from
Logan
’s head. He whipped his head toward the sound of the weapon and was
startled to see Hugo standing on top of the cliff with a rifle in his hand.

As the farmhouse
smoldered
, Kenneth, along with Toby, walked down the
driveway and into the barn. As much as Kenneth had wanted to stay, he realized
that if
Logan
was coming back, he would have arrived by now.

With smoke still
spiraling
up into the sky, if the Seods hadn’t set fire to
the farmhouse, he was sure they would be along to see what was going on. All he
could do now was to make his way back to
Stinson
Beach
and hope
that a familiar face was there.

While he hadn’t
bothered to search the ashes of the farmhouse, Kenneth was fairly confident
that the teenagers hadn’t died in the blaze. This meant that they had been
captured by someone. Seods were the most obvious answer, but even so, why? So
far he hadn’t heard anything about Seods taking prisoners, at least none who
were not soldiers.

He regretted
telling Molly to leave Toby behind. If he had been with them, maybe things
would have been different. In any case, there was no point in thinking about it
because there was no way of knowing the outcome if that had been the case.

Opening the side
door of the van, he waited for Toby to leap in before he slammed it shut and
walked over to the driver’s side. As the engine rumbled to life, he cast his
eyes over to the instrument panel and studied the fuel gauge.

There wasn’t
enough to get to the coast, but it would have to do. He may as well drive until
it was empty and then find another method of transport. He glanced at his
watch, saw it was just past
noon
, and then drove out of the
barn.

No one was in
sight as he drove down the road. Remembering the green smoke that they had
encountered earlier, he peered around, but couldn’t see any sign of it. Glad
that he didn’t have to worry about that, he concentrated on driving.

~*~*~

As a deathly
silence reigned over the valley,
Logan
huddled behind the trunk of a pine tree.

Dahlia stood
behind a nearby tree, only a few feet away. “What are we waiting for?”

“Where do you
want to go?”
Logan
muttered.

“Anywhere but
here,” Dahlia said, “away from this madman.”

“I’m just trying
to make sense of the whole thing,”
Logan
replied.

“What’s there to
make sense of?” Dahlia exclaimed. “The man shot at us!”

Logan
frowned. “I
know. I just don’t know why.”

“Please! Just get
me out of here,” Dahlia pleaded.

Logan
gazed up into
the sky as though searching for answers. “Why would Hugo tell me to rescue you
and then shoot at me?” He turned to the woman. “Are you sure you don’t know?”

Dahlia didn’t
answer for a moment or two. She then brushed her hair out of her face and gazed
into
Logan
’s eyes. “Promise me that you won’t tell anyone else about what I’m
about to tell you.”

“Just tell me!”
Logan
ordered. “I
don’t have time to play games.”

“You have to
promise,” Dahlia stated.

“Okay, okay, I
promise,
Logan
replied. “Now tell me.”

“Well, last week,
I was out for a stroll in the woods when I came across Hugo,” Dahlia began. “I
had just had an argument with Quinn and was feeling depressed and lost and—”

“You made love to
Hugo,”
Logan
interrupted.

Dahlia sighed.
“Yes, I did. It was a spur of the moment thing. Afterwards, I told him that I
couldn’t do it again and he couldn’t speak about it to anyone else.”