Janus the Arrival (The Janus Trilogy Book 1), page 18
Tim was well aware he was not in Vicky’s good books. She’d been somewhat off hand with him over the past few days. Sexually things couldn’t have been better, but he had been getting a little fed up with her ridiculous mood swings just lately. He never seemed to know where he stood with her from one minute to the next, and she often seemed a bit secretive and cold, which was a bit strange. Knowing that her task wouldn’t be easy and that she wasn’t exactly acting very professionally lately, Vicky was completely unaware that certain areas of Janus’ memory had become lost. This was due to the awkward transition from male to female, and in placing Jamie back in time, she’d literally reset the whole cycle of Dra-Na-Zee evolution. This would now make the boy the Pagosian equivalent of the biblical character that the people of Earth referred to as Adam. As a result, he would now become the first Chosen One, otherwise known as J’Mi the original Elder.
Stranded and alone in a desolate place, with the knowledge that he could never return to Earth or see his family again, Jamie was overcome with an awful lot of anguish. As he fell to his knees and sobbed uncontrollably, he couldn’t quite believe how everything had changed in an instant. What frightened him most, was the image that he’d visualised earlier. His limp body was still sitting tied to a chair in the cellar, but then it had been perfectly disposed of by Vicky, using her Dra-Na-Zee powers to do so. After a while, and feeling a little braver, the boy had eventually got to his feet, walked a fair way, and then entered a forest that he’d seen in the distance. He felt quite relieved at having moved out from under the glare of the two large suns that loomed over the planet and bore down against him. The forest appeared completely fresh and untouched. It was obvious that it revelled in its early phase of life, with the trees rustling tranquilly in the gentle breeze. Yet it was the absence of any other living creatures anywhere, that Jamie found so bizarre. Coming to a halt at a small brook that rose up from one of the thickets, Jamie instantly sat down on an inviting blanket of luscious grass, then leaned back against one of the trees for support. This gave him plenty of time to gather his thoughts and think about his immediate future, while the sound of the water rippling over a set of rocks nearby, sent forth a gentle rhythm. Within a short space of time the youngster had drifted off to sleep.
In his dream, Jamie floated high above the forest before it finally led to a large open glade from which many paths stretched out. They looked a lot like a vast array of fingers set out on a giant hand. His spirit then soared lower and followed the third path that wound from the right for a short distance, until it eventually drew to an abrupt halt. He then drifted even lower until he found himself back on the ground, standing before an enormous cave.
When he finally awoke, he was surprised that he now felt fully refreshed. He also knew exactly what he had to do next, before rinsing himself in a stream that supplied wonderfully fresh water. He set off on a two day excursion through the forest before finding and entering the mouth of the cavern he’d seen in the dream. Once inside, he noticed a faint luminous glow over in the far corner, which naturally pulled him in like an extremely powerful magnet. Jamie trembled as he reached out to touch the glowing crystal that stood upright in the centre of a large stone table. Yet the instant his hand made contact with the warm, smooth surface, a silver cask suddenly appeared before him and caused him to step right back in astonishment. Moving cautiously forward and reaching over to lift it up, Jamie peered inside. The contents proved to be a real shock, as what he saw, very delicately wrapped, was a small glass incubator that appeared to contain living embryos. Finding a neatly folded letter taped firmly to the inside of the lid, he quickly unfolded it with great intrigue. It read:
Jamie,
I knew that night I visited you, that you were the original Chosen One. The first of our race lie directly before you. Fortunately, destiny has allowed The Dra-Na-Zee a second chance at rebuilding a new future, Therefore my hopes and those of our people rest entirely with you. Good luck my son.
With a huge lump in his throat, Jamie noticed that it was signed: From your loving father, Janus.
CHAPTER 17 – The Lookout
‘I can’t help it!’ She moaned, with a certain amount of frustration in her voice. ‘I’m growing tired of all this bloody sitting around, and it’s driving me absolutely mad.’
Dana was becoming extremely impatient, as were all the other officers involved in the case. She’d never really liked the surveillance element of police work at the best of times, but they’d been hanging around this place for three days and nights now. Just to add to the misery, they still hadn’t caught a single sighting of Tim’s alleged girlfriend yet. The FBI agent sitting right next to her, shared her sentiments entirely. Yet he was not about to admit it as he removed his sunglasses and proceeded to wipe them with the cleaning cloth he’d just removed from his glasses case. His blasé attitude only served to annoy Dana all the more, and she was just about to give him a piece of her mind, when the door to the cottage suddenly burst open. It instantly cast a beam of light across the dimly lit pavement, which caused Dana to whoop with sheer joy under her breath, before informing the others.
‘That’s her! That’s Vicky! She exclaimed, trying to remain as calm as possible. ‘At long last!’ She added.
Vicky was dressed in a pair of dark tight fitting slacks with a black leather bomber jacket. Putting on a pair of dark sunglasses as the last moment, she stood just inside the open doorway before turning to leave. Dana had already decided that she was up to no good, and so they shadowed her to the end of the street, before she produced a key and quickly disappeared inside Tim’s garage. Within minutes, the sound of an engine revving up could be heard radiating from the small building. This was just moments before the electronically controlled door lifted right up to reveal Vicky sitting behind the wheel of a large red transit van. The door then gradually closed shut with a loud bang, and after a minute’s grace, the van shot off along the tree lined avenue. It suddenly turned left at an oncoming junction without indicating any sort of intention to do so.
‘She’s a mean old driver,’ said the Fed, as Dana pressed her foot down hard on the accelerator and had to carry out practically the same type of manoeuvre in order to keep up. After a while both vehicles sped along the A316, only slowing down only for the occasional roundabout, before eventually hitting the M3 motorway. Once on there, Dana kept their car at a fairly sensible distance, even though she sensed that Vicky already knew they were hot on her heels. In the short space of time that they’d spent together, Dana had studied her adversary pretty well. She’d already learnt to respect her, and she knew from experience that Vicky could be extremely dangerous if she wanted to be. The van never indicated that it was about to leave the motorway, and as a consequence of her actions, Vicky shot directly out of the fast lane and moved right across the path of a blue Volvo. This in turn, only narrowly avoided any kind of contact with the rear end of a caravan being towed along by another car, and Vicky only just managed to scramble onto the slip road at junction three. Dana swore out loud. She knew it would take far too long to come off at the next exit and then return from the other direction. Therefore, she made an instant judgment and manoeuvred straight across to the hard shoulder. Straightening up almost immediately, she reached over, put the hazard lights on and then reversed back towards the junction they’d passed a few minutes before. Dana then spun the car around, just as she’d been taught, and shot up the ramp to the roundabout at the top. Fully ignoring the hooting from some of the drivers that she’d just pissed off, some of who also had to swerve to avoid being hit by her, she hurriedly put her foot down and followed the signposts to Bracknell.
Rachel’s gaze was solely on Danny, as he cycled just ahead of her in the early morning light. He was a wonderful kid who already had a passion for the great outdoors, plus he preferred things such as that, far more than mixing with other children of his age. This came as no great surprise to Rachel, especially as his mind seemed to work at a totally different level. The Lookout was a park that had been specifically designed for young children to start to learn all about science, but in more of a fun way. It also combined a nature trail on which you could ride along at your own leisure, using either your own bikes or hired ones. These were available in different sizes and could be hired for a small deposit from the cabin, located near to the reception. Danny was growing up extremely fast and there was no doubt about it. He hadn’t wanted stabilisers on the bike, when asked by the lady in charge, and after only three attempts outside on the grass, he was soon cycling just as well as any seasoned traveller. The warmth of early summer was already present in the air. Giant trees stood everywhere like lofty sentries as they towered overhead, with their long, lumbering limbs stretching out to create a mass of arches across the well worn paths. Danny, who was full of confidence on the bike, was just ten metres ahead of his mother as he rounded the corner, when something spun past, just inches from his head. Staring ahead, he noticed a very strange woman dressed in black. She was deliberately blocking the path that lay ahead of him and he instantly drew to halt, just before she launched a second object into the air. The stone spun low but fully on target towards him. It slammed against his chest with a great deal of force and immediately caused Danny to topple backwards off the bike seat. He cracked his head on the floor as he fell and he was able to see that the woman was moving towards him at speed. The poor boy’s head was swimming like crazy, and everything in the background was starting to become exceedingly hazy as a dizziness descended and finally overtook him completely. Moments later, Rachel rounded the corner, took in the scene before her straightaway, and instinctively sensed the threat that the woman in black posed for her son. As the woman began to stoop over him, Rachel immediately screamed out for help, just as a group of burly cyclists suddenly appeared from the other end of the path. Vicky seemed to hesitate for a second, but the she turned and fled into the dense undergrowth, as soon as she realised she would be totally outnumbered. She knew that there would be other opportunities in the making.
Rachel watched as the woman disappeared from full view, although she was completely unaware that she was heading back towards the hidden van. Rachel ran over, extremely concerned and automatically lifted Danny to his feet before cradling him tightly in her arms. The cyclists approached looking quite concerned, having seen what had happened.
‘Is he alright?’ asked the leader, as he pulled alongside them and stopped.
‘Yes, Thank you,’ Rachel answered, as she began to dust the dirt off Danny’s jacket.
‘He’s just a little bit stunned, but I’ll take him back to the reception and get him checked out just to be sure.’
Rachel had always known that something like this would eventually be likely to happen, ever since she’d read the tragic story about Debbie Green’s death, following the disappearance of her son. Janus was the obvious link to it all, but right at that moment, Rachel didn’t have the slightest idea about what to do next. Maybe she could contact the police with her wild story and crazy allegations, she thought, but what would that achieve? The poor woman was willing to do pretty much anything for her son, because he was just about all she had left in the world. She already knew that he possessed some very unusual powers, and she’d even realised there was something different when he’d lain all innocently in her womb. Yet she also recalled a feeling of being watched during her pregnancy. Rachel remembered quite vividly, how she’d tried but failed to kill herself. There had also been the weird voice that had entered her head as she lay half drowned beside the river, while she’d watched helplessly as the dead policeman’s bloodied torso had floated by.
‘No matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to take your own life, such actions will be futile and any further attempts will only result in pain.’ She distinctly recalled that that had been the warning she’d received at the time in question. Yet now that same strange sensation had returned, the moment she’d set eyes on that woman dressed in black, stooping menacingly over her son. Thankfully, Rachel was now a whole lot stronger than she’d been back then, and there would certainly be no chance of anybody taking her son away. Not if she could help it. What the hell was happening here?
Eventually, Dana was forced to give up on the chase, having scoured Bracknell town centre to no avail. However, as luck would have it, when heading back towards the motorway, the red transit suddenly appeared like a blessing in disguise. It shot from a side road just ahead of them on the dual carriageway and then slowed down a little. Following at a discreet distance, they chatted as the van eventually retraced its original route back towards Richmond. This was where they eventually saw Vicky emerge from the tiny garage before re-entering the cottage. Having waited patiently for a few minutes before ringing the doorbell, the door was promptly answered by Tim, who looked quite angry and totally refused to let them into the house unless they produced a search warrant. They were however, a little bit surprised, when the man swore blind that he hadn’t seen his girlfriend for the last few days, just before slamming the door shut right in their faces.
Two days later, whilst busily working under a car, Tim was greeted by the rather pleasant sight of a shapely pair of legs entering the garage. He was even more surprised, having eased himself out into the open, when his gaze followed the line of stockings, only to catch an exciting glimpse of bare flesh at the top. However, it was only when he realised who they belonged to, that his excitement turned to sudden disappointment.
‘Oh! Its you.’ he announced, before he paused for breath and continued with what he was saying. ‘Well, what do you want this time?’
Over the course of the next forty minutes, Dana almost had him eating out of her hand as the atmosphere got decidedly better between them. She’d turned on all her womanly charms in order to get what she wanted, much as she’d done in the past, where she’d needed to. Dana had already heard that Tim had a reputation as a womaniser, but she also had to be fairly careful, as she personally found the guy rather attractive, in a rough and ready sort of way. She even had to admit that she’d become slightly aroused when she’d looked at his hairy chest bulging out from the front of his dungarees. He wasn’t exactly forthcoming with any information at first, but ten minutes into the conversation, with his eyes constantly scanning her legs, he gradually began to relax. It may also have been something to do with the thought that he may possibly be onto a promise a little bit later on, if he played his cards right.
Tim openly admitted about lying at their previous meeting, about not having seen Vicky. On further questioning, it transpired that once they’d driven off, Vicky had really lost her rag and tried to blame him for just about every crime under the sun, for some strange reason. As a result, they’d ended up arguing for ages before Vicky had finally grabbed a handful of meagre belongings and walked out on their relationship. Tim also emphasised the fact that in the short time they’d been together, she’d changed very dramatically from a person who seemed to be in full control of her life one minute, into some sort of megalomaniac the next. Dana decided at that point, it would probably be in her beast interest, to cut short the interview, especially seeing as Tim’s hands had established an urgent tendency to wander. She definitely felt him trying to undress her with his eyes, and she seriously hoped he hadn’t seen her face blushing just then. Declining his offer to return in the evening to discuss matters further over a romantic candlelight dinner, she did make a mental note of his proposition for the future, although she doubted very much that she’d ever be likely to use it.
The message had appeared a bit garbled at first. The young girl manning the switchboard had apparently been rushed off her feet when the call had initially come in. It appeared that a Desk Sergeant based at the Wokingham police station had spoken to someone called Rachel Moore, who’d sounded quite distraught, much as one would expect in such circumstances. Evidently, this was with regard to an attempted child abduction. Yet although details were a little bit vague to start with, partly due to the woman crying, and combined with the poor reception on the line, they had at least managed to obtain an address from her. Dana was pleased that she’d asked all stations to contact her in such instances, as she grabbed up her map that covered the outer London area. Finding the page she sought, which seemed pretty fresh in comparison to many others that were well thumbed from previous occasions, she soon located and then drew a red circle around the area in question.
Forty minutes later, having only stopped once to check the map, she pulled into a shabby looking council estate and studied the building numbers displayed on the front of each block. Why on earth do they always design numbering systems that require you to be a Mensa candidate before you can understand how they work, she wondered? The flat she sought turned out to be at the far end of the estate, but having parked in a vacant space that she hoped would be safe, Dana promptly entered the building then trudged up the stairs to the fourth floor. It appeared that the lift was out of action courtesy of the local vandals. This, she assumed was probably something that tended to occur on a regular basis, much to the annoyance of the local residents, especially when they reached the lift with heavy bags of shopping. Rachel was pleased to finally meet the detective face to face, having only ever talked to her over the phone. She immediately passed on her condolences for her father’s death and was pleased that it was well accepted without causing any sort of upset. It was never an easy thing to mention at the best of times. Danny entered the room a little while later and greeted Dana very politely for someone of his age. Her first reaction was to shake his hand, but she hesitated quite clearly, as soon as she looked into his eyes and saw Janus looking straight back at her. Rachel couldn’t help but notice her strange reaction. Taking control of the situation, she immediately asked Danny to go and play in his room while they sat and chatted. Asking about her state of health, Dana was extremely pleased that Rachel had managed to rebuild her life instead of following the same fateful path that Debbie had chosen. Rachel then went into much more detail about the attempted abduction of her son. She also noted the deep concern etched on the caring face that listened on. It was really nice to feel that the attention she was receiving was personal rather than just being another number. Dana then took over and relayed the history of the case that her father had been working on just before his demise. This was prior to explaining the reason for her current involvement, and ending with a very informative and detailed summary of events to date. As she sat and listened, Rachel initially found it very hard to take in at first. Yet, combined with what she’d already known beforehand, she did have to admit, that this far-fetched story seemed to make much more sense, especially now that so many of the missing pieces had finally been explained in a language that she completely understood.
