Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3) (7 page)

Chapter 8

We hailed a large black passenger cab on the street outside Evonatura. Melissa slipped into the alley to open a portal to the hostel. My heartbeat pounded in my ears as the others rambled. Should we hide nearby? When would Ilya be well enough for more disguises? Could the police connect anything at that office to any of us? What would happen to Rose and Sage when the hostel staff discovered them? The cab pulled over and everyone shut up. Melissa reappeared loaded up with our luggage. Cole and the driver transferred the bags into the cab.

“Euston Station, please.” Melissa shut the cab’s front passenger door.

The air in the cab filled with tension as the vehicle wove through traffic.

“How much of a lead do we figure Ivan’s got?” Cole sat across from me in the back of the cab, his warm complexion undisturbed.

“Based on the fact that they didn’t have much more than paper files and computers to clear out here in London, he could have taken off for Chatham not long after we arrived in London,” said Josh.

“We shouldn’t have wasted time at that club. We should have been scouting Evonatura from the moment we arrived.” I balled my fists and drove them into my thighs, cursing my weakness.

“Can we finish this conversation later?” Ilya flicked his eyes to the cab driver and gave me a wide-eyed ‘shut-up-and-don’t-incriminate-us’ frown.

The cab pulled over at the train station and my tension melted into relief.

“That’ll be ten pounds fifty please, Miss.”

Melissa paid as we filed out of the cab. She led us to a ticket window where she again paid our way. She doled out six tickets keeping the seventh. “We need platform eighteen. The next train leaves in ten minutes, so we should keep moving.”

“That’s great timing.” Ilya seemed back to his old self, a small mercy in our mess.

“Yes, we timed our disastrous encounter with our deadly former friends just perfectly,” said Jonah sarcastically.

“We’ve been lucky so far, but that won’t last.” Cole shouldered his way through the crowd. His wide frame easily carved a path for the rest of us.

“I heard Ivan and Tatiana talking about population tests. We should expect a few small incidents before they launch Terra Nova on a widespread scale.” Melissa stopped under a sign for Platform 18. “This is our train. Everyone on board.”

“Too bad you’ve never been to Chester,” said Ilya as he passed Melissa.

“You should make us a list of places you’ve been so we know where we can hop to via portal,” said Josh.

“Yeah, just think of the travel possibilities!” said Faith.

“Once Terra Nova is neutralized, we’ll have to chase down the rest of
The Compendium
projects anyway and who knows where that will take us,” I said.

We made our way through the train car to a pair of empty tables on either side of the car. Two pairs of facing booths were more than enough seating for us. We each stuffed our bags into the net-enclosed overhead shelf and wedged into a booth.

“I’ll help you get around to Compendium sites as much as I can. The more time passes since I left Ivan and Tatiana, the more I realize I’d been working for the devil.” Melissa sat down next to Josh and re-applied her lip balm. Josh sat a bit taller.

The train’s electronic bell chimed and we began to move.

Leaning across the table toward Melissa and Josh, Cole whispered, “Do you know anything about how contagious Terra Nova is?”

“I think I saw test results in Compendium docs that compared contagion rates for rabbits and rats. All were between five to ten minutes of exposure to the same air. They haven’t tested extensively on humans yet, at least I don’t think they have.” Melissa knitted her fingers together resting her hands on the table.

“So it is airborne. We were pretty close to a coyote that contracted and died within minutes of being stung.” Cole rubbed the back of his neck as he fixated on a point outside the window.

“If even one of us had become a carrier after that exposure, we would know by now. But we have to assume that the bee sting is only how they’ll introduce the virus to a population quickly. It wouldn’t be an effective way to infect masses if that was the only method of contracting the virus.” Jonah spoke as hushed as the rest of us, but still skimmed our surroundings to ensure we hadn’t alarmed anyone.

I locked my arm in Jonah’s for comfort as I felt a chill shiver through my body. Across from us, Ilya and Faith were cuddled as well. I felt a moment of longing for the European couples’ trip Ilya had promised me.

Envy roiled in my gut for every other blissfully ignorant group of friends backpacking around Europe. I perused the city as the train plowed through it. I pictured streets full of people dying from Terra Nova and I shuddered again.

We had four hours to kill before we would arrive in Chester. I didn’t want to spend the whole trip wringing my hands and speculating on just how bloody the end of the world might be. I stood up and fished my tarot cards from my backpack.

I sat back down and began to shuffle. I tried to picture what might wait for us in Chester and the face of Ivan’s pet snake popped into my mind. Had the snake been named for the town? If so, why? Was the site important?

The train dissolved around me I stood in a glowing golden field outside a small village of cone-shaped thatched huts. I saw a peaceful scene, free of the complications of modern urban life. At the center of town was a simple brick well. At the far end of the settlement stood a small pavilion made with rows of tall white pillars. It suggested a temple of some sort. A woman in a white robe emerged from one of the homes and approached the well. As I watched her walk with a large vase on her head, a flash of red caught the corner of my eye.

A ball of flame rocketed toward the field on the other side of the village. It left a trail of smoke behind that stretched up into the stratosphere. The red ball hit hard and the ground vibrated under my feet. Smoke rose from the patch of wheat around the impact point. A soldier ran past me, past the well, driving toward the crash site.

A rumbling sound came out of the field. An armored thing burst out of the wheat and in one swoop of his metal-plated arm, knocked the soldier to his knees.

The woman had dropped her vase. Several other villagers ran out of their homes only to stand frozen in shock as the armored person came to a stop in the middle of their town.

The thing rubbernecked around for a few moments. Its helmet was a smooth metal dome with a dark black slit where eyes should be. The figure reached to either side of its neck with both its three-fingered metal hands and somehow released the helmet from the rest of the armor.

The thing lifted its helmet and revealed a reptilian cobra-like head with bright red eyes full of hatred. The cobra man’s skin was black with a metallic sheen. Individual scales glittered in the sunlight.

The cobra man bore into me with hateful eyes and made something like a smile with its mouth. He moved one step to his side just as a young boy appeared out of nowhere and plunged a huge sword at the cobra man’s chest. The long thick blade bent like butter leaving not so much as a scratch on the armor. The cobra man knocked the boy aside, sending him flying with one swipe.

The village flickered and jumped forward in time. The huts had all been burned and only their blackened foundations remained. A line of chained people shuffled past me, wearing nothing but loincloths. Each person hung his or her head, struggling to find the energy for another step.

The small temple at the end of the village was gone. In its place a shining white monument had been erected. The top of the monument was a platform where the cobra man sat on a marble throne, surveying his work. Two hooded figures stood on either side of the cobra king, who still wore his armor as he sat on a throne.

I watched the scene spellbound, as one of the purple figures threw back her cloak. A beautiful woman chanted something that sounded like Latin. The cobra king moved to rise, but something held him. He tried to turn, but an unseen force held him rigid.

The woman in purple chanted louder and the cobra man gripped his head with both metal-plated hands. He hissed. She chanted louder still, yelling as she continued.

The cobra king hissed and hissed as the woman in purple pulled a small dagger from her robes. She stepped behind him, reached around his neck, and cut the cobra’s throat. Black blood oozed up over his armor and his body lay motionless. Chained villagers looked up and cheered.

I focused on the dead cobra king and willed my viewpoint up to the top of his monument. I surged forward and rested above the cobra king’s face. Recognition flickered behind my eyes. This was the creature I had seen sitting at Ivan’s dining room table back in his cold Victoria condo. Those were the red eyes that haunted me at the Capital City Motel. This was what lived inside Ivan. Somehow. Instinctively I took a step back and the field fell away. I slid through time back onto the train to Chester.

“What did you see?” Jonah stared at me with a furrowed brow.

“Honey, you’re shaking.” Faith reached out across the table and put her hand on my arm.

I took a deep breath.

“She saw a snake beast, something that crashed to earth and annihilated a village. She saw the thing come out of a ball of fire and take over and then get killed by some ancient priestess. Holy shit, sis, what the hell?” said Ilya.

“At least someone else can see what I saw,” I said to Ilya, calming down. “Actually, I think there’s more to it. Weeks ago, I dreamed of Ivan and my mother on their honeymoon. They went from Roman ruins to an old church from the Middle Ages. There was a moment where Ivan acted like something possessed him. I think the town I just saw in that vision was the original life of those ruins. I won’t know for sure until we get there, Chester could be on top of that ancient village. After we go to Chatham Park, we should find these ruins. That creature got into our father somehow. Maybe we can get it back out again.”

“This just took a turn into the Twilight Zone.” Cole blew out a long breath.

“Let’s worry about Terra Nova. Then we’ll think about doing an exorcism on Ivan.” Melissa unclipped her hair twist and rested her head against the back of the booth.

The British countryside flowed past the train window for hours as I cuddled into Jonah’s shoulder. With every stop, passengers came and went. Our group sat under a thick blanket of tension as we wondered how our next—and maybe last—day would end.

A recorded voice announced that the train’s next stop would be Chester. My stomach lurched before the train’s brakes hit.

“You guys wait at the station while I rent a car. Melissa, if your card is valid, come with me in case they reject mine.” Josh watched Melissa expectantly.

We found benches outside the station. I scanned the street in both directions, searching for some sign of the ruins or the church.

“Do you think I have time to look around?” I said to Jonah.

Concern wrinkled his nose. He knew what I wanted to find.

“I think the source of Ivan’s madness will be moot if we don’t stop this virus in its tracks.”

I paced while gripping my backpack straps firmly.

Josh pulled up alongside the curb in a mint green Volvo van.

“Is this what you call inconspicuous?” Ilya slid the van’s side door open.

“We have a seven seat minimum. It was this or rent two cars. Are you footing the bill?” said Melissa curtly.

“Nobody’s sniffin’ a gift fish here.” Faith used her most appreciative tone.

“Good. Everybody in?” Josh turned around from the driver’s seat, observing us with authority as though we were children. “Buckle up, kids.”

Josh hit the gas and I lurched forward. “This driving on the wrong side of the road is going to take some getting used to.”

“Are you sure you want drive then? I’ll give it a try.” Cole sounded eager to take the wheel.

“I’ve actually driven in the UK. Why don’t you let me drive?” Melissa reached toward the wheel.

“No, I’m fine! I can drive the stupid van!” The impatience in Josh’s voice made my stomach churn. He drove too fast for someone so unsure.

“If you change your mind, please do so before you crash into a telephone pole” Melissa crossed her legs, shifting in the seat.

“Just keep the directions coming and I’ll be all right.” Josh risked a quick glance at Melissa.

“Look for an exit to the M56. From there, it’s a straight shot to Hartford Lane. According to the map, we’ll go right past the entrance to the Chatham Park estate.” Faith had adopted Nellie’s tablet before we left Utah, and the device mercifully still worked in the UK.

More quaint countryside rolled by as we drove. Picturesque hedges and Old World stone walls traded places until we came to a huge grove of trees and a two-story stone arch.

“This must be the place.” Josh turned off the lane and onto the gravel drive that led to the arch.

A cool breeze drifted through the van as we entered the shade of the trees.

“Aaaaiiie!” squealed Melissa, suddenly flailing for all her worth.

“What? What? Oh shit!” yelled Josh.

I heard a buzzing and I knew what terrified them. Josh hit the brakes and clapped his hands together with a BANG.

“Was it—” I started, but couldn’t finish.

“Did you kill it?” said Jonah frantically.