Primary Valor, Jack Mars [black female authors .txt] 📗

what he was, what did that make them?

He was their past, and they knewit. He was the things they could not hide from themselves. He was what they sawwhen they looked in the mirror.

There were channels set up for himto communicate through. It was indirect, it was frustrating, but it worked. Whenhe needed help, there was help available. There had to be. Sometimes, DarwinKing was a crisis that had to be contained. He knew that about himself as well.

He called the operator and got anoutside line. He dialed a number and waited while the call traveled.

A voice picked up, a man’s voice. Hadhe been asleep?

“Hello.”

“Do you know who this is?” Darwinsaid.

“Of course I know who it is. Thephone tells me who it is. What can I do for you at this time of night?”

Darwin thought about it for severalseconds. This call could be premature. Everyone on that plane might be dead. Butthen again, they might not. There were loose ends out there, and they mightvery well need to be snipped off.

No. It was the right time to makethe call.

“I may have a problem,” he said.

CHAPTER FORTY

Time Unknown

Location Unknown

Honduras

 

 

She was alive.

Charlotte opened her eyes. It wasdark here, so dark that for a moment, there was no difference between havingher eyes open or closed. She could not see details, but certain differencesbegan to emerge.

Ahead and to her right, sparksbegan to shoot out of something. The colors were dazzling, in red and orangeand yellow and blue, and when she blinked, they left swirling imprints on herretinas.

The sparks made a sizzling sound,like bacon and eggs cooking, which mixed with a light drumming sound happeningabove her head. It was a pattering, like someone tapping their fingers on athick table. Within that sound, she heard another, the sound of water drippingsomewhere. The two sounds came together to create an image in her mind. It wasraining outside.

And that meant she was inside. Shewas inside the crashed airplane. She started, her body jolted by the memory ofit.

A white light appeared, beyondwhere the sparks were shooting. The light swept around, moving from place toplace on the floor. It was a flashlight, which meant there was a personattached to it.

“Hello?” she said.

“Charlotte?” a male voice said.

“Yes.”

She was definitely Charlotte, ifthere had ever been any question.

The white light came closer, and aman materialized behind it. He was the man from before, the tall man who hadrescued her.

“Luke?” she said.

“Yes. I’m Special Agent LukeStone. I work for the FBI Special Response Team. There isn’t going to be aquiz. I’m just reminding you so you know you’re in good hands. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Are you hurt?” he said.

She shook her head gently. “I don’tthink so. I’m not sure. My head hurts a little, I guess. But other than that, Idon’t feel any pain.”

She could barely see him behindthe light. He seemed to be sweeping her body with it. “Good,” he said. “But ifyou feel any pain, if anything sore gets worse, you have to tell me right away.Okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

He held something out to her. “Takethese.”

She took them and held them up tothe light. They were a pair of pretty green shoes, flats, almost like sneakers.Good for walking, probably. She remembered that her own feet were bare.

“Try those on,” Luke said. “You’llprobably need to undo your seat belt.”

She looked at the shoes again. Greenlike the shoes Elaine had been wearing. Elaine wore green a lot. Charlotte hadnever seen Elaine wear anything but green.

“These are Elaine’s shoes.”

“Yes.”

“Is Elaine…”

“Dead?” He nodded. “Yeah. She won’tneed the shoes anymore.”

Charlotte didn’t say anything. Herfirst instinct was: Good. That was good. But things were more complicated thanthat. Charlotte didn’t wish anybody dead, not even someone as cruel as Elaine. Theamount of people who had suddenly started dying was hard to accept.

They’re dying because of me.

“It looks like she died in thecrash,” Luke said. “She didn’t have a seatbelt on and got thrown around. They’renot kidding when they tell you to wear your seatbelt.”

“She was handcuffed,” Charlottesaid. “She couldn’t fasten a seatbelt.”

He had handcuffed her.

He nodded again. “I know. Thathappens. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Elaine played a lot of stupidgames in her life. We’re not going to worry about it right now.”

“The pilot…” Charlotte said.

She could just picture him. He hadgiven her his clothes. Well, Luke had made him, but he seemed cheerful enoughabout it. He had been flying the plane in his underwear.

“He’s gone,” Luke said. “Thecockpit is totally gone, and he was in it. The plane came apart. We’re lucky tobe alive. Try those shoes on, will you? There are people coming up the hilltoward us, and I don’t think they’re friendly. We need to get moving.”

She reached down and slid a shoeon her right foot. She yanked it all the way on. It fit okay, a little bitsnug.

“Where are we going to go?” shesaid.

“That’s a good question,” Lukesaid. “Anywhere but here.”

* * *

“I don’t see anything yet,” Edsaid.

He sat by the bay door, scanningthe ground with binoculars. The chopper had a spotlight controlled by Rachel,and it moved to and fro in the darkness. It reminded Ed of a light flashing ona dark ocean.

It was raining now. The densetrees were swaying in the winds driving the rain. Downhill, well to their east,trucks had assembled in a clearing of some kind. More were rumbling up azigzagging roadway over there. He could see their headlights breaking throughthe mists. Closer, smaller lights, probably flashlights held by men, weremaking their way up the hillside.

Troops were on the ground, and onthe move, looking for the plane.

The chopper passed over an areawhere there were no trees. The ground was suddenly barren, chopped apart, theline between the jungle and the empty area straight enough to draw with aruler.

“Clear cut below us,” Jacob said.“Make a note of that. It could be a good place for an extraction point.”

After less than a minute, theyleft the area behind and passed over dense jungle again. The chopper moveddownhill, toward where the lights were coming uphill. It banked left, sweepingthe treetops with its spotlight. Several moments went by, the light skimmingthe