out. For one thing, I’m exhausted. Trekking miles up the foothills of Mount Fuji and fighting off a pack of prehistoric humans can really take it out of you.
But I’m also a little light-headed with anticipation, a welcome change from dread. Because in less than twelve hours, I’ll be seeing Eli and Chloe.
I got the call on my sat phone just as we were boarding in Tokyo. It came from a 202 number—a Washington, DC, area code—that I didn’t recognize: the personal cellphone of President Hardinson’s chief of staff.
“Mr. Oz, I wanted to tell you myself as soon as I heard. We found your family.”
I nearly broke down and wept right there on the tarmac.
Diplomatic security agents, working with local French police, had tracked Chloe and Eli to an abandoned warehouse about forty miles outside of Paris, where they were hostages of the bizarre animal cult. My wife and son were rescued amid a shootout and put on the next plane out of there. Knowing that they’re finally safe—it’s indescribable. They’ll be arriving at the Idaho National Laboratory just a few hours after we do.
Our video conference with the lab ends, but the debate over next steps rages on. Freitas and Tanaka are really starting to get into it. As for myself, I stifle a yawn. It’s pitch-black over the Pacific and my eyelids are getting heavy.
“You’ll all have to carry on without me,” I tell them. “I’m gonna head down below for a little shut-eye.”
I walk to the rear of our plane, toward the hatch that leads to the lower level, stuffed with our gear and equipment. I pass our captured Japanese feral human, Reiji. Tanaka had picked that name for him, explaining with a chuckle that it means “a well-mannered baby.” The man is strapped to a gurney under a hard plastic shell like a newborn in an incubator, thrashing against his restraints like crazy. Watching him, I can appreciate the irony.
I’m about to head downstairs when I notice something about Reiji from this close up.
His brow is dripping with sweat. His cheeks are splotchy red. And he’s shredding the thin mattress with his sharp-tipped fingers.
The sweat, the complexion, the nails—it’s a more extreme version of everything I just saw Tanaka doing.
No…my God…does that mean…?
“Aaaaargh!”
Chapter 28
A vicious roar comes not from Reiji but from behind me. I spin around to the front of the cabin just in time to see Tanaka leap up from his seat and lunge at Freitas. Before Freitas can react, Tanaka’s got his hands around his neck, nails digging deep into the flesh.
The other scientists, caught completely by surprise, scramble to yank the madman off, but he easily knocks them away with one hand, the other clutching Freitas’s windpipe, blood gushing like a sprinkler. His sudden strength is incredible.
“Dr. Freitas!” I yell, dashing back up the aisle to help.
Tanaka turns around and sees me charging. He drops Freitas’s limp body and rushes into the open cockpit—where our two pilots are just as stunned and even more helpless.
Tanaka grabs one of them from behind. In an instant he places her in a brutal chokehold and violently snaps her neck.
I’m just stepping over Freitas’s writhing body, racing toward Tanaka, as he attacks the second pilot. While they tussle, Tanaka intentionally presses down the yoke with his knee—and the plane tilts into a steep nosedive.
I’m hurled forward and tumble around wildly. Everyone does—along with an avalanche of loose papers and cellphones and laptops, each of the latter two now a deadly projectile.
Somehow I manage to get onto my hands and knees. Hanging on with all my might, I painstakingly crawl the rest of the way toward the cockpit, where Tanaka and the pilot are still fighting—and of course the feral human is winning.
Dizzy from the rapid altitude drop and throbbing with pain, I spot a fire extinguisher hanging by the cockpit door. A weapon .
I stagger to my feet, grab the heavy metal canister,
But I’m also a little light-headed with anticipation, a welcome change from dread. Because in less than twelve hours, I’ll be seeing Eli and Chloe.
I got the call on my sat phone just as we were boarding in Tokyo. It came from a 202 number—a Washington, DC, area code—that I didn’t recognize: the personal cellphone of President Hardinson’s chief of staff.
“Mr. Oz, I wanted to tell you myself as soon as I heard. We found your family.”
I nearly broke down and wept right there on the tarmac.
Diplomatic security agents, working with local French police, had tracked Chloe and Eli to an abandoned warehouse about forty miles outside of Paris, where they were hostages of the bizarre animal cult. My wife and son were rescued amid a shootout and put on the next plane out of there. Knowing that they’re finally safe—it’s indescribable. They’ll be arriving at the Idaho National Laboratory just a few hours after we do.
Our video conference with the lab ends, but the debate over next steps rages on. Freitas and Tanaka are really starting to get into it. As for myself, I stifle a yawn. It’s pitch-black over the Pacific and my eyelids are getting heavy.
“You’ll all have to carry on without me,” I tell them. “I’m gonna head down below for a little shut-eye.”
I walk to the rear of our plane, toward the hatch that leads to the lower level, stuffed with our gear and equipment. I pass our captured Japanese feral human, Reiji. Tanaka had picked that name for him, explaining with a chuckle that it means “a well-mannered baby.” The man is strapped to a gurney under a hard plastic shell like a newborn in an incubator, thrashing against his restraints like crazy. Watching him, I can appreciate the irony.
I’m about to head downstairs when I notice something about Reiji from this close up.
His brow is dripping with sweat. His cheeks are splotchy red. And he’s shredding the thin mattress with his sharp-tipped fingers.
The sweat, the complexion, the nails—it’s a more extreme version of everything I just saw Tanaka doing.
No…my God…does that mean…?
“Aaaaargh!”
Chapter 28
A vicious roar comes not from Reiji but from behind me. I spin around to the front of the cabin just in time to see Tanaka leap up from his seat and lunge at Freitas. Before Freitas can react, Tanaka’s got his hands around his neck, nails digging deep into the flesh.
The other scientists, caught completely by surprise, scramble to yank the madman off, but he easily knocks them away with one hand, the other clutching Freitas’s windpipe, blood gushing like a sprinkler. His sudden strength is incredible.
“Dr. Freitas!” I yell, dashing back up the aisle to help.
Tanaka turns around and sees me charging. He drops Freitas’s limp body and rushes into the open cockpit—where our two pilots are just as stunned and even more helpless.
Tanaka grabs one of them from behind. In an instant he places her in a brutal chokehold and violently snaps her neck.
I’m just stepping over Freitas’s writhing body, racing toward Tanaka, as he attacks the second pilot. While they tussle, Tanaka intentionally presses down the yoke with his knee—and the plane tilts into a steep nosedive.
I’m hurled forward and tumble around wildly. Everyone does—along with an avalanche of loose papers and cellphones and laptops, each of the latter two now a deadly projectile.
Somehow I manage to get onto my hands and knees. Hanging on with all my might, I painstakingly crawl the rest of the way toward the cockpit, where Tanaka and the pilot are still fighting—and of course the feral human is winning.
Dizzy from the rapid altitude drop and throbbing with pain, I spot a fire extinguisher hanging by the cockpit door. A weapon .
I stagger to my feet, grab the heavy metal canister,
Similar Books
