“They left, not long after the rain began. They wanted to head back to Fairbanks and check it out. I volunteered to stay to keep the place running. They said they would be back. They never came back.”
Emily thought about the convoy full of dead people on the road to Fairbanks and the murdered men and women she had found in Deadhorse. Could any of them have been a part of Jacob’s team? she wondered.
She glanced over at Rhiannon. Her mouth was agape as she stared hard at Jacob. “Emily?” she asked. “What does he mean?” Her voice cracked with uncertainty.
“I don’t know, sweetheart. But why don’t you come on over here beside me while we figure this out?” She patted the seat next to her. The sound of the chair scraping across the floor as Rhiannon jumped to her feet and ran to Emily’s side was grating in the suddenly painful silence filling the room. “Good girl,” she said, placing a reassuring hand on the kid’s knee as she took the chair next to Emily.
Jacob began to wheel his chair over to where the two women sat. “I really can expl—”
Emily jumped to her feet. “Stay right where you are,” she bellowed. “Do not fucking come anywhere near us.”
Jacob froze, a look of utter horror crossing his face.
Thor, who had been dozing quietly under the table, was suddenly at Emily’s side. He sat down next to her, his eyes focused on Jacob.
Jacob swallowed hard and backed up from the trio, very aware of Thor’s silent lupine gaze. “I had no choice,” he said after a pause, his voice as calm and soothing as it had been during their countless telephone conversations. “If I had told you I was here alone, would you have come?”
Emily didn’t answer.
“No, of course you wouldn’t. You would have thought I was some kind of nut job, and you wouldn’t have come here. You would have just stayed in your apartment and waited. And you would have died.”
Rhiannon began to quietly cry, fat tears trickling over her cheeks and staining the front of her jogging pants. Emily switched her arm from the child’s knee and wrapped it around her shoulder, never taking her eyes off Jacob.
“I told the team not to leave,” he continued. “I warned them that they should stay. But they had families, wives, mothers, kids. Someone had to stay. Someone had to. But I knew. I knew that they wouldn’t be coming back.” His voice had taken on a tone of sadness, maybe even mixed with frustration. “When I found you, Emily, I knew I couldn’t tell you I was here alone, so I lied. I’m sorry, but I had to try to save you.”
“And what about your wife? Sandra, wasn’t it? She was supposed to be back at Fairbanks University. Was any of that true?”
Jacob could not meet her gaze. He chose to stare at his feet and shake his head in answer.
“You risked mine and Rhiannon’s life to try to save your own skin? Is what you did?” she yelled, suddenly on her feet, her voice livid with anger. “You brought us all the way here to rescue you? You fucking piece of shit.” Emily’s words hit Jacob like hammer blows; she could see him physically reeling as each word struck home.
Good!
“You were stranded here, and you needed us to come and rescue you? All that…that sanctimonious posturing about wanting to save me, it’s just bullshit you use to convince yourself that you were doing the right thing, isn’t it? Answer me, goddamn you!”
Emily had to admit, the look of hurt on his face was good. He actually believes what he said, she thought. She shook her head at him in complete disbelief.
“Wow! Just wow.”
Rhiannon threw her arms around Emily’s waist, sinking her head deeper into her shoulder as she sobbed. Emily could feel the dampness of Rhia’s tears seeping through the material of her sweater.
Jacob took a deep breath, composing himself, then spoke. His voice was level and clear, free of any hint of anger. “Yes, you’re somewhat right. I did want you to come and rescue me, but it was an added benefit. I have enough food here to last me a year, probably a lot longer. But most of all I wanted to help you, Emily. You were the only person I knew for certain was still alive, and I wanted to save you. I didn’t make anything else up. Everything I told you about traveling north was true. You’ve seen that for yourself. I did not lie to you about any of that.”
Emily bent in and kissed the crying girl on the forehead. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” she said, not sure if she was trying to convince Rhiannon or herself. What was she supposed to believe? There was no doubt that he was not lying about the cold holding back the spread of the alien infestation, but everything else had the thin veneer of pretense to it. How was she supposed to trust him? Where was she supposed to go? Where could she go? God! She thought she had left all the pain and stress behind her when they’d stepped onto the island. Instead, she was handed a whole new package of BS.
“You had me riding a fucking bike here, Jacob,” she whispered, her voice heavy with disappointment as the anger began to seep away, replaced by a feeling of emptiness.
Jacob pushed his wheelchair closer to the two girls. “Look,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I know I screwed up by not telling you, and I am truly sorry. But you’re here now. You are safe, and I know we can make a go of this. We can figure it all out. I promise you.”
Emily had, at least until today, always considered herself a good judge of character. It was something she had honed over the course of her career as a journalist, an essential tool that had served her well. She looked up from Rhiannon and met Jacob’s eyes. There was no cruelty there. No deceit. Fear? Yes. Regret? Maybe.
“I’m sorry,” he said finally.
From somewhere else in the building a buzzing hissing sound filtered through the still air. It sounded like the static that flowed between AM radio stations. The buzzing became louder, then dropped away, then returned a little stronger as the static finally resolved into a garbled human voice.
“This is ZzzZZZzz HM ZzzzzzZZzzzz ZzzzZZZzzzz. Do yo zzZzzZZzz me?”
All three occupants of the room looked up. A look of stunned disbelief crossed over Jacob’s face, and Emily was sure her own face had the same look of astonishment.
It was a man’s voice but Emily could only make out the occasional word through the buzz of the interference.
“Who’s that?” asked Rhiannon, wiping away the tears and snot from her face with the back of her hands. As if in answer to her question, there was another burst of static, then the man’s voice boomed loud and clear down the hallway.
“This is Captain Edward Constantine of her Majesty’s Royal Navy submarine HMS Vengeance. Do you read me?”
Emily continued to stare at Jacob, unsure of whether she should trust him or just shoot him. Finally, she took a deep breath and spoke.
“Show me where your radio room is.”
EPILOGUE
From her perch, high above the world, Commander Mulligan watched as the blanket of red closed over all but the tiniest sliver of North America.
The warning she had issued to the survivors on the planet’s surface regarding the storm’s destructive potential had been greatly underestimated, she had come to realize. That storm had been only the forerunner of something much larger. Something far more awesome.
Over the past six days she had witnessed more and more storms form over the earth’s major landmasses, seething pools of blood that swirled and flowed across continents and seas. She had watched them gestate; growing from tiny spots of red before gradually expanding, reaching out with crimson feelers to find and merge with other systems, each growing in size and ferocity with every orbit the ISS made around the earth.