Andrew Morgan - Vessel

‘This place is deserted,’ he said. ‘They must have been here at some point, but they sure as shit aren’t here now.’

‘Why did they leave the car here?’

Banin shrugged. ‘Probably to throw us off the trail.’ He turned his back to the fields. ‘We should go. We don’t have a warrant to be here.’

Aleks wanted to stay, to look some more, but deep down he knew there was no point. There really was no one here. Dejected, he turned to follow Banin, who had already begun his retreat, when something caught his eye. ‘Banin, wait — what’s this?’

Banin turned to look at what Aleks was pointing at: a part of the chain-link fence was missing. The shrouding shadow of the trees either side made it hard to see, but as they approached, it was obvious it had been cut. Banin, frowning, stooped down and ran his fingers through the dirt.

‘That’s about a big enough space to fit a quad-bike,’ he said, and Aleks looked down to see a pair of faint tyre tracks. He followed them with his eyes; they headed towards a barn poking up between the cleft of two hills about a half-mile away. As he watched, the wind picked up, and the faint buzz of an engine blew in with it.

Even through the pain, Sean continued to cry out, his throat dry and his lungs burning. If he stopped, he knew he would miss that one fleeting chance to get someone’s attention, someone who would continue on their way without ever knowing he was there, tied up, alone. He was sure that his bindings were indeed loosening: his right hand moved further into the loop of rope now than it had done when he had first awoken. But he’d passed the numb phase, and now the raw agony doubled with every attempt to pull his hand through.

‘Hello…?’ he yelled with weak indignation, coughing the last syllable into the fuggy air. So expectant was he not to hear a response that he braced his throat for another yell, almost missing the sound of a small engine buzzing towards him. He held his breath, concentrating hard to hear if the noise was getting louder — it was. A jolt of excitement fired him up, and he slid his way up the post to stand upright, his joints and wrists screaming in unison. Hopefully it was a farmer coming to get something from his shed, who would then discover him and free him, but even as he thought it, he knew it wasn’t true.

The engine got louder — a bike engine perhaps — and it pulled up outside. It cut out, and footsteps headed his way. The small crack of light went dark, and the sound of a chain being unthreaded from between two metal handles clattered in his ears. Sean had wanted to be found, had been calling out to be found, but now he held his breath as he waited in terror, knowing that whoever had the key to the chain’s lock would surely be the same person that locked him up in the first place.

The door opened, flooding a blinding white sunlight in, and he turned his head away until his eyes adjusted. Cautiously, he looked back, and the doorway dimmed as the silhouette of a figure filled it, walking towards him with slow, easy strides.

‘I wondered when we’d finally meet,’ the voice said.

‘I know who you are,’ Sean said with as much ferocity as he could muster, despite his stinging throat.

‘I don’t doubt that, not for a second. In fact I’m glad you know who I am. That means you know I’m serious.’

Sean looked at the man, catching a flash of grey hair atop a tanned face, set with narrow, piercing eyes. ‘Bales…’ he whispered.

Bales, hands clasped behind his back, did not stop in front of Sean. He continued walking, wandering around Sean, circling him. ‘You’ve become quite a nuisance to me,’ he said from behind. ‘And so has Aleks.’

Sean tried to twist round to see him, but his bindings held him fast. ‘Where is he? What have you done with him?’

Bales completed his loop, coming around into Sean’s view again. He stopped in front of him, hands still behind his back, a wicked smile on his face. ‘He’s safe — don’t worry. Safe and secure.’ His eyes flashed. ‘For now. He’ll have you to thank when he’s not.’

Despite his thirst, his hunger and his exhaustion, a prickling anger riled Sean’s senses into overdrive, chasing away any hint of exhaustion. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘You should’ve listened to your friend James Aspen. Nice man. Knew his place in the world. If you’d listened to him, you wouldn’t be in this mess, so you’ve only got yourself to blame.’

‘What have you done with Aleks? Tell me!’

Bales’ smile dropped, and he approached Sean. ‘You had the chance to leave this alone, to walk away and not get hurt. I gave you that chance. I risked everything to let you keep your nose out, and you chose not to. Why not? Everyone else did.’

Sean didn’t say anything, but behind the post he was pulling at the ropes as hard as he could, his anger stronger than the agony.

‘So you’ve brought this on yourself. Aleks, too. You dragged him into this, Sean, this is your fault .’

‘It’s a trap…’ Sean whispered. ‘You’re using me to get to Aleks…’

Bales grinned. ‘You’re smart, Sean, yes you are, and that’s what got you into this mess in the first place. You know too much, and now you’re going to have to pay the price, and so is Aleks. I believe he’s on his way here now. At least you did that much right for me and got that nuisance of a man out of hiding.’

‘This is insane,’ Sean said. ‘You have no right to silence anyone. Not me, not Aleks — not Sally.’

Bales dropped his grin and his eyes narrowed. ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about,’ he said. ‘And I don’t think you’re in any position to be arguing about it, either. I get what I want whether you like it or not. You had your chance to stay out of my way and you missed it.’

‘I have every idea what you’re talking about. I know about UV One, I know about Gardner — I know everything.’

Sean’s right hand was screaming bloody murder, but it was almost free. He did everything he could to stop his eyes tearing up from the pain.

‘You don’t know anything !’ Bales yelled, stabbing his finger at Sean, spittle flying from his mouth. Sean saw a madness in Bales that, for the first time, scared him to his core. All of sudden he realised how real Bales’ threats were. He gave up on trying to pull his wrist free subtly, and yanked hard at the rope. Bales saw what he was doing, and took a step back, reaching into his jacket. Sean’s hand tore free, fresh fire burning his skin, and he threw it round in a flash to connect with Bales’ jaw. Bales staggered back, the gun he was extracting clattering to the floor. They both looked at it, then at each other, and as Bales dropped to pick it up, Sean took another swing. It landed on Bales’ ear, knocking him sideways, but before Sean had a chance to recoil, Bales was on him. Blow after blow landed on Sean’s ribs, head and arms, knocking the wind from him, turning his vision fuzzy. He did his best to block, but he couldn’t stop the impacts raining down on him. As the world span, he thought to himself how stupid he had been, how Bales was much bigger than he was, and how badly he had failed. He didn’t remember falling to the floor, but he was down, and a high-pitched ringing filled his head. Bales, who was swimming from side to side, picked up his gun and pointed it at Sean.

‘I was hoping to wait for Aleks so he could see what you’ve done, but I suppose he’ll have to miss out,’ he said.

Sally didn’t talk to Mikhail about his brush with death. She tried not to think about it herself either, but the best she could do was push it back into a corner of her mind that only spoke in whispers. While she was asleep, however, she could not control her mind, and flashes of Mikhail’s face — eyes rolled back, lips contorted in agony, blood rushing from his ears and nose — haunted her dreams. It would happen to him again, she knew it, she could feel it, and it would be worse next time. He had aged considerably since they’d first met, but that didn’t stop her enjoying the company of Mikhail as he was: a wonderful and enchanting human being.