The Relict (Book 1): Drawing Blood (18 page)

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

Cassie broke apart her mobile phone, removed the sim card, and tossed it to the polished wood floor of the bedroom. She used the heel of her shoe to grind the computer chip into several small pieces.

“What’s happening, Cassie?”

Like any other day, Rocky had no trouble reading her emotions. It was this ability that had pushed Cassie a week ago to tell him she was leaving.

“You remember all the drills we went through, right? Well, Rocky, this time it’s not practice. What’s happening is for real.”

Her words caused him to bolt upright in his bed.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have thrown the plate…”

“No, listen to me, this has nothing to do with the dinner. Right now, I need you to focus on what we practiced. Can you do that?”

Despite her calm delivery, Rocky reacted by trying to scramble out of the bed. His frantic effort caused the I.V. needle attached to his arm to rip away. His daily regimen of medication squirted all over the surrounding sheets.

Cassie was able to stop him, but in holding him back, she was reminded of how brittle he was. The reptilian scales covering his body broke and flaked off underneath her restraint.

“C’mon, Rocky, calm down, we’ve gone over this a dozen times. There’s no reason to be frightened,” she whispered to him. “What did I tell you after each of our rehearsals…?”

“’We practice these drills so no matter what happens, we’ll end up with a happy ending.”

“That’s right. A happy ending. Everyone loves a happy ending. And if we do exactly what we drilled, then guess what’s going to happen?”

“A happy ending,” Rocky answered.

After she was sure he had calmed down, Cassie released him. She looked directly into his reptilian eyes.

“Now, what do you do first?”

Rocky took a deep breath. Take a deep breath was Step One in the escape plan they had rehearsed.

“That’s right, you take a deep breath,” said Cassie. “You’re doing great, Rocky. Now, you just keep on taking deep breaths until I come back. Okay?”

He nodded as he kept on taking deep breaths.

Cassie quickly moved to the left of the nightstand and kicked the wall. She and Rocky had rehearsed this part, so the noise of her slamming into the dry wall with her foot didn’t distract him from his breathing exercises.

It took three kicks before the hole was large enough in the wall for Cassie to begin grabbing the stockpile of weapons and ammunition that had been stashed there long ago.

From the far end of the floor’s hallway came the noise of an explosion.

Rocky let out a baleful moan as he lay in his bed.

“It’s all right, Rocky. Remember, we’re going for the happy ending,” Cassie cooed to him just a few feet away.

She locked in a clip to a TDI Kriss Super V submachine gun at the same time the sound of automatic gunfire erupted outside the door of the room.

By the time Cassie had grabbed everything she needed from the stash, and moved back to standing next Rocky, the explosions and gunfire outside the room had stopped.

Rocky began whimpering.

“Gimme your hand.”

When he hesitated, she snatched it like it was a bird flying past her and pulled him from the bed.

As she led him around a bedpost, Cassie said, “Rocky, tell me where we’re going.”

“We’re going on a three hour cruise…”

A wall in Rocky’s room was completely taken up with a cast photo of the seven castaways from the TV Series,
Gilligan's Island
.

Cassie reached out and tapped the face of “the Professor.” Her action triggered an electronically rigged part of the wall to move back an inch, then slide open. “Ginger” and “MaryAnn” disappeared, while at the same time, a secret entrance to an underground passageway revealed itself.

Outside the bedroom door, there was an explosion so powerful the floor underneath them rocked like they were standing at the epicenter of an earthquake.

Cassie guided Rocky through the secret wall entrance, but as she tried to pull away, he would not let go of her hand.

“This is just like we planned, Rocky. All you need to do is follow the lights through the tunnel until you come to a ladder.”

“But I’m scared!”

“I know you’re scared. So am I. But the happy ending is right behind you. Just follow the lights…”

Cassie tried to pull away, but he held onto her hand with such determination she knew he was in a lot of pain. The green and black scales from the digits of his paw were being turned into dust underneath the intensity of his grip.

She leaned down and kissed his hand…

“You have to go…”

He finally released her hand.

She hit the professor’s face and the secret door turned back into the seamless wall featuring the seven castaways.

The assault team’s explosive charges sent the door of the safe house suite flying across the room.

The explosion filled the suite with a dark, thick cloud of smoke, and was followed quickly by the first wave of black-hooded attackers rushing into the newly created breach.

Cassie waited until all three attackers had entered before triggering her own explosive device, which was planted on the other side of the wall dividing the bedroom and the bathroom.

The bomb blindsided the black-hooded attackers with an explosive punch of shrapnel, marble, and metal fragments.

Only a few silent moments went by before two more members of the assault team rushed into the bedroom.

Cassie unleashed a stream of bullets from her TDI submachine gun. She then rolled off the mattress to the floor. Just as she was scrambling behind the club chair in the alcove, Rocky’s canopy bed exploded from a grenade tossed by one of the attackers.

She tried to regroup for a quick response, but automatic gunfire tore apart the leather of the chair she was hiding behind. As the stuffing from the furniture floated in the air, Cassie caught sight of the second attacker moving toward her, thinking for some reason she had been hit. She could see he was a wearing a protective vest, which would explain why her first shots had not taken him down.

Waiting breathlessly as he drew in closer, Cassie suddenly rose a few inches above the back of the club chair and fired. Her headshot caused him to stop in mid-step and collapse to the floor like a puppet that had its strings cut.

Outside the room, the last member of the assault team was crouched behind the security desk Yasmine had obviously used for cover before she was killed. Her lifeless body lay right beside the masked gunman as he was using his satellite phone to communicate with whomever was in charge of the assault of the safe house.

“This is Penn Six to Overlord. We’ve met some resistance. Yes, all the other team members are down,” he whispered.

He was waiting for a response when Cassie entered his eye line just a few feet away.

Blam!

Cassie moved through the hallway outside Rocky’s suite. She wanted to make sure there was no one left alive from the assault team.

Near the elevators lie Mat’s torn up body. Cassie flashed on his wife and two boys and had to steady herself before moving back down the hall.

She cautiously re-entered Rocky’s suite. As it turned out, one of the five assailants was still moving. Not only moving, but trying to lift his weapon to fire at her.

Cassie shot him in the head.

She ejected the nearly empty clip from the TDI and made her way to the wall featuring the seven castaways.

There was no telling how far Rocky had moved through the underground passage. She admitted to herself there was even the possibility he had gotten scared and stopped halfway through the tunnel.

Cassie hit the professor’s face and the secret doorway revealed itself just as she slipped the new ammo clip into her TDI.

She wasn’t too surprised to see Rocky standing right there in the entrance to the tunnel where she’d left him. Cassie didn’t know whether she should laugh or be angry with him.

“Rocky, c’mon, we rehearsed this…”

Her words were choked off by a burst of gunfire coming from the dark shadows of the tunnel behind Rocky.