Now Ben was lost again, and for an instant he truly believed that they’d never get out. Then he suddenly recognised the dark corridor as the one he’d walked along with Aumeier earlier. That meant the main entrance was just ahead!
He was right. But he hadn’t reckoned on the two guards who were making for the doorway from another direction. He saw them at the same instant they saw him. They all stopped. Ben stared at them, and they stared back. Their faces were blackened from the smoke. Their weapons within quick and easy reach.
One of the guards shook his head. He let his gun slip to the floor and raised his hands as if to say, ‘No more trouble, okay? We only work here’. His colleague did the same. Then they were gone, running outside into the darkness.
Ben emerged from the building and gasped cool air into his raw, aching lungs. They were out. They’d made it.
He was pushing through the side gate in the perimeter fence when the building blew. The rumbling blast split the night with a fireball that rolled high up into the sky and lit the forest for miles around. The explosion’s hot breath scorched Ben’s back as he turned his body round to shield Carl.
Ignoring the pain, he hurried towards the trees. The shadows of the forest seemed to leap and dance in the firelight. He could see no sign of the other children.
Then he spotted them, all except the sleeping Franck, standing in a huddled group at the foot of a huge pine.
Someone was with them.
Someone who had his arm wrapped tightly across Satoko’s throat and a pistol to her temple. The rest of the children looked even more terrified than she did.
‘Hello again,’ the man said, and Ben saw that it was Tommy, the pilot. ‘Stop right where you are. Not another step.’
‘Let her go,’ Ben said. ‘This isn’t your fight.’
‘You don’t think?’ the pilot replied.
‘Everyone else is gone,’ Ben told him. ‘Rascher, the director, is dead. It’s over.’
Tommy smiled, and the fire made his teeth red. ‘Rascher wasn’t the director,’ he said. ‘I just let him use my office now and then. I never did like to be deskbound. More of a high flyer, you might say. Truth is, I’d rather be in the air than do much else.’
‘You—?’
‘That’s right,’ Tommy said, and his smile turned into a grin. ‘I didn’t introduce myself properly. Thomas Holzmann, Senior Executive Vice President of Linden Global. I’m the big cheese around here. Free to come and go, free to stand in for Jürgen if I so choose, or whatever I want. That’s why I never met the real Simonsen — Doc Rascher was in charge of the everyday running of the place, and personnel was his department. But the Indigo Project is my baby, and it always will be.’ He took the pistol muzzle from Satoko’s head and pointed it towards Ben. ‘And I’m afraid I can’t let you take my assets away. They’re unique. Buildings we have plenty more of. Now put the boy down, please.’
Slowly, carefully, Ben crouched and laid Carl on the ground.
‘Step away from him and toss the rifle,’ Holzmann said.
Ben unslung the M4 and threw it away with a clatter.
Holzmann chuckled. ‘I don’t know who the fuck you really are, man, but you came pretty close to pulling it off. Tripped up at the very last hurdle. I almost feel sorry for you.’
‘I’m nobody,’ Ben said.
‘Suits me,’ Holzmann said. ‘I’ll have the engraver put it on your headstone.’ He raised his pistol, took deliberate aim at Ben. His finger tightened on the trigger.
Ben reached behind his hip. He pulled the Glock that Holzmann hadn’t seen tucked into his belt.
The screams of the children were swallowed by the double report of both handguns going off at once.
Ben felt a burning pain in his side. He swayed on his feet. Dropped his gun, put his hand to his shirt and looked at his bloody fingers.
Holzmann smiled.
And his eyes rolled back, his knees buckled under him and he fell dead.
Ben staggered, then righted himself as the children came running and crowded around him. He picked Carl up in his arms. The boy opened his eyes and looked up at him in drowsy recognition.
‘Now you’re going home,’ Ben said.
Author’s Note
The background of this story is not quite the bizarre figment of my imagination you may think it is. While the Indigo Project is (I hope) an entirely fictitious creation, the real-life phenomenon of remote viewing has been well documented and intensively researched for many years. The Stargate Project really did exist, and Joseph McMoneagle and Pat Price really were alleged to have carried out the apparently inexplicable acts of psychic espionage briefly described in Bring Him Back. Notable figures from this strange and fascinating world not named in the story, but not to be skipped over, include former Stargate remote viewer Lyn Buchanan and Colonel John Alexander, formerly of the Advanced Systems Concepts Office, US Army Lab Command.
Many of the people who pioneered this psychic research are still alive today, and readers interested in finding out more about them are encouraged to do a little research of their own. You can even find the CIA’s own ‘Firedocs’ remote viewing manual online. It opened my eyes — it might open some other people’s, too!
I hope you enjoyed Bring Him Back. Ben Hope will return for more adventures soon.
Scott Mariani
For more information on the sensational Ben Hope series in ebook and paperback, visit the author’s website:
www.scottmariani.com