Moments later, he snapped upright and grabbed his phone to call Caines back.
Caines saw that it was Jacobs calling and reluctantly answered. ‘Yes, sir?’ he said gingerly.
‘Caines, have you checked the inner base?’ He could hear Jacobs’ excited tone.
‘I’m sorry, what do you mean, sir?’
Jacobs sighed audibly in exasperation. ‘I mean have you searched inside the damn base?’ he almost screamed down the line.
‘Er… no, sir,’ Caines answered, never having considered that the fugitives might have broken back into the base.
‘Well, get checking now!’ Jacobs ordered. ‘If you can’t find them outside the fence line, they must have gone back in!’
Adams looked out of the small window next to him, watching the thick clouds obscuring the view of the Atlantic Ocean far below, and allowed himself to relax ever so slightly. The flight from Reno-Tahoe to Zurich took sixteen hours, giving him the opportunity to do nothing but relax.
A flight to Geneva would have been ideal, but the international flights went to Zurich, and they would have to arrange onward transportation from there. Once Jacobs had learnt of their escape he would doubtless have arrivals at Geneva monitored anyway, so it was probably just as well that Zurich was the destination. A fast train from there to Geneva wouldn’t take long, and the train stations would be easier to arrive at unannounced.
To avoid any undue attention, the four of them were sitting in seats well away from each other, so Adams didn’t even have anyone to talk to. The in-flight magazine didn’t keep him occupied for more than a few minutes, and he had no interest in the mediocre selection of films that were on offer. And so he was left alone with just his thoughts for company. Still, that was no bad thing, he considered. He had known no other way for many years.
As he sat there, he tried to concentrate on what they would do once in Zurich. It had been decided that Ayita and Stephenfield would deplane first, try and spot any surveillance and draw the attention of anyone who may be there waiting for them. He and Lynn would follow, if the coast was clear. They would then go separately through passport control, and each get taxis to the main city square. They would meet up and make their way on foot to the train station, using cash to purchase four tickets to Geneva.
Once in Geneva, things would get a little more problematic, Adams knew; and yet try as he might to think things through logically, his mind kept returning instead to Lynn.
Evelyn Edwards, his ex-wife and now the mother of his as yet unborn child. So beautiful, so intelligent, so resourceful, even all these years after they had first met. To some extent he couldn’t believe that she had ever fallen for him in the first place.
He still loved her, he knew that for certain. That had been a part of his problem for so many years, the fact that he was still in love with her. It had stalled the rest of his life, making him incapable of carrying on fully. And now she was pregnant, and they were going to have a child of their own. Adams just didn’t know how to feel about that. The larger part of him was almost indescribably happy — he was to have the child he had always wanted, with the woman he wanted. But there was a deep conflict too. Given all that was going on, what would happen with the baby? Would he or she ever be born, or would humanity be wiped out before that glorious day?
The weight of the responsibility came crushing down on him. It was up to him to make sure that never happened, just like it had been up to him to get to that damn truck in the desert.
But unlike then, he promised himself now that he would not fail, no matter what it took.
2
Jacobs was in the foothills just ten kilometres from the fabled CERN Large Hadron Collider when the call came through from Caines, the man’s tone now more optimistic.
‘You were right, sir,’ he said with some excitement.
‘You’ve found them?’ Jacobs asked immediately.
‘Not exactly, sir,’ Caines answered, the nervousness back in his voice. ‘What I mean to say is that they did come back on to the base but they left several hours ago.’
‘And just how in the hell did they manage that?’ Jacobs almost exploded.
‘We checked all CCTV footage of the base grounds, and although the film is a little dark and hazy, it looks as if they managed to sneak on board the six o’clock Janet flight to McCarran.’
‘You’ve got to be kidding me. So where are they now?’
‘We’re still investigating, sir. Terminal CCTV has them leaving the plane and escaping into the parking lot. Using traffic cameras, we’ve traced them to the Luxor Hotel and Casino. It looks like they made a call from a payphone next to the slot machines, and we’re following up on that. But we’re confident we can reacquire them in short order, now we’re on their trail.’
‘Good,’ Jacobs said. ‘Keep me informed.’
Adams took the bumps slowly along the desert road in his Toyota Landcruiser, taking the twists and turns at under five miles per hour, the vehicle seemingly unable to go any faster.
He could barely see, and didn’t want to crash off the road. What good would he be to anybody then?
He looked through the windscreen up at the burning sun, and looked away, his head aching, in agony.
He pulled over to the side of the road. It was no use. He’d been on the truck’s trail for three days now and was no closer to catching it. He needed a rest, just half an hour to shut his eyes. He’d been here before so many times, knew what the consequences would be if he fell asleep, and yet he was powerless to resist. He had to carry on, had to try and get there in time, at least once, at least this time. But he was so tired…
He was in the desert, on foot now and tracking the tyre marks that had gone off the road just half a kilometre from where he had been resting. The sun was lower in the sky, several hours having passed. He cursed himself, knowing what that would mean. He would find the truck like he had a thousand times in the past, open the doors, hoping that this time it would be different.
But it wouldn’t be different; there would still be the same rotting bodies lying dead in the rear of the scorching hot truck, dead because he couldn’t keep himself awake.
Still he soldiered on, trapped in the dreamland version of the event that had destroyed his life. He tracked the tyre marks for another mile over the dusty terrain, until he found the truck lying there deserted in the dying rays of the afternoon sun. He moved close, and immediately knew that there was something different this time.
What was it? He tried to think, to clear the fuzz from his head.
The smell! It wasn’t there! Were they still alive? Quickly, he rushed to the rear doors, pulling them open in excitement.
And there they were — dozens of children, dazed and starving, but still alive! They looked at him in wonder, and then there seemed to be more, and instead of dozens there were hundreds, and then thousands, until there were as many as there were grains of sand on a beach, until his vision could take in nothing else.
He heard a ticking sound, and his head turned to it. There was a small clock on the truck wall, counting down the seconds, and Adams instinctively knew that this was the amount of time the children had left until they died. He moved forward immediately but was halted by a voice to his rear.