Scott Mariani - The Doomsday Prophecy

Zoë grunted and huddled tighter into her corner. She sat and watched them darkly as they ate.

‘Never mind her,’ Ben said. ‘If she wants to starve, that’s fine. This is good.’

‘I never shot a rabbit with a 9mm before,’ Alex replied. ‘I was scared there’d be nothing left.’ She wiped her mouth, got up, walked to the entrance of the cave and took out her phone.

‘Put that away,’ Ben said. ‘If there’s any signal up here, they’ll track us from it.’

‘OK. But as soon as I get to a landline I’m making a call.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Zoë burst out. ‘She’s going to call them .’

‘No, little lady,’ Alex said sharply. ‘I’m going to have you taken into protective custody until we can get this whole thing sorted out.’

Ben shook his head. ‘No chance. She’s my responsibility. She’s not going anywhere near the CIA. I promised her family that I’d get her home safely. That’s what I aim to do.’

‘She has no papers. How the hell are you going to get her out of the US?’

‘By delivering her to the nearest British Consulate. Her parents can come and collect her.’

‘And then what?’

‘And then I’m going after the people who started all this.’

‘On your own? You think that’s the solution – killing more people?’

‘That’s not what I wanted,’ he said. ‘I wanted a life of peace. I didn’t ask to be brought back in.’

‘But now you’re here.’

‘And I mean to finish it.’

She shook her head. ‘It’s not going to work, Ben. You’re wanted for murdering two police officers. You’ll get picked up before you get anywhere near these people. You have to do this thing my way. I’m your only alibi, remember.’

‘You’re in just as much shit as I am,’ he said.

‘Try explaining to your superiors why you killed one of your fellow agents and aided a fugitive.’

Alex said nothing.

Ben turned to Zoë. She was slumped against the wall with a sulky expression, staring into space. ‘You have a lot of explaining to do,’ he said.

‘Me?’

‘Yes, you. Where are the ostraka?’

She huffed. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘I thought Greenberg said you were making progress,’ Alex said. ‘You still don’t remember anything?’

Zoë screwed up her face and sank her head in her hands. ‘I want to go home.’

Ben stared at her. ‘How do you even know you have a home, if you don’t remember anything?’

Zoë looked up and fired a filthy look at him. ‘Piss off. Leave me alone.’

‘You have no idea what I’ve had to go through to find you. People have died because of your stupid little scheme.’

‘Easy on her, Ben,’ Alex said. ‘It’s been a tough time for her too.’

Ben was quiet for a moment. ‘All right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be hard on you.’

‘You almost broke my jaw last night,’ Zoë said, rubbing it.

‘I’m sorry about that too.’ He reached out and laid a hand on her arm. Pain stabbed through his shoulder with the movement. She pulled away from him.

‘We’d better make moves,’ Alex said. ‘This could be a long day.’

They killed the fire, wrapped the remnants of the rabbit in fresh leaves and stowed them in Ben’s bag. After packing up all their kit they took turns washing in the cold stream at the bottom of the wooded slope. Then they left the cave behind them and set out across the harsh terrain. To keep moving due north would mean going over the mountain, so they skirted its base through miles of fir and spruce trees.

‘We could walk for weeks and find nothing,’ Alex panted. ‘This is one of the biggest States, with one of the smallest populations. We should have stayed on the road.’

After a few more miles Ben was beginning to think she was right. Apart from the occasional buzzard, the only sign of life they saw for hours was the big elk that stepped out of the trees as they passed, stared at them for a moment and then vanished like a ghost.

They stopped and rested a while, then kept moving. Ben’s head was spinning and his shoulder was throbbing badly. After just a few hundred yards he had to rest again.

‘You’re in a bad way,’ Alex said. ‘Listen. I can move faster on my own. I could scout ahead. Maybe I’ll come across a road or a farm. I’ll come back for you. With luck I won’t be more than a few hours.’

He knew he couldn’t argue. ‘You be careful.’

She smiled. ‘I can take care of myself. Back before you know it, OK?’ She checked her pistol, took a long drink of water from the bottle and headed off without another word.

It suddenly struck him that he hated to see her leave.

‘She’ll come back with Jones,’ Zoë said, watching Alex walk away. ‘You’re pretty naïve, letting her go off on her own.’

He ignored that. ‘She’ll be gone a while. We need to find a place to rest up.’

After a few minutes of hunting around they came across a broken spruce, its trunk bowed sideways at a right angle. Ben grabbed a branch. ‘Help me pull this down,’ he said.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Making a shelter. We can’t just sit out in the open, where we can be seen from the air.’

She frowned. ‘They’ll be looking for me, won’t they?’

He nodded. She took hold of another branch of the bent tree, and together they strained and heaved downwards. With a crackling of timber, the trunk gave. The heavy canopy sagged right down to the ground, forming a space they could crawl into without being seen. He settled himself into the leafy den, resting against his bag.

Zoë crawled in after him and arranged a blanket on the ground. She lay down and sighed loudly. ‘I’m so fucking exhausted,’ she complained. ‘My feet are killing me, and this place crawls with insects. Jesus, I’d give anything for a soak in a hot bath right now.’

Ben ignored her. After a few minutes, when she realised he wasn’t going to react to her huffing and puffing, she shut up and they sat in silence for a while. The pain in his shoulder was dulled by the codeine, but it still hurt badly. He drifted in and out, and time passed. He checked his watch. Alex had been gone more than half an hour.

‘I’m so hungry,’ Zoë groaned.

He pulled the bag out from behind him, undid the straps and reached inside for the package of leaves. He opened it and tossed it across in front of her. ‘Eat. Alex went out of her way to prepare this for you.’

‘I can’t eat dead things.’

‘Then you’re not hungry, are you?’

‘I’m starving.’

‘You look it,’ he said.

She glanced down at the rabbit in distaste, then glanced back up at him, hesitated, then picked up a piece with her fingers and took a small bite. Then a bigger one. After two more bites she was chewing away happily, except when she thought he was watching and she would pretend to be revolted. He smiled to himself at the display. When she’d finished and was covertly licking her fingers, he reached for the drinking flask and tossed it over to her. ‘I know how unpleasant that was for you,’ he said. ‘Wash it down with this.’

She twisted the cap off and sniffed. Her eyes lit up. She took a long gulp, then passed the flask back to him. He took a small sip and returned it to her. As she drank some more, he took out his cigarettes. He offered her one, and she refused. ‘Smoking kills you slowly,’ she said.

‘Good. I’m not in any hurry.’

She chuckled. ‘I haven’t had a drink for weeks,’ she said. ‘This stuff ’s going to my head a little.’

‘Finish it,’ he said, lighting up a cigarette.

She drank down the last of the Scotch, screwed the cap back on and leaned back, stretching. She gazed up at the blue sky through the leafy canopy. ‘So good to be outside,’ she breathed. ‘Feels like I was cooped up for ever.’