Instinct (2010) by Ben Kay Read Free Book Online

passed whatever their mandibles could grasp back into the voracious gnashing of their mouths.
    Faisal could feel and see no more. He was now but a corpse, moving in quick, shallow jerks as the wasps continued to pull the meat from his bones until bones were all he was.

7
    Carl Webster couldn’t remember the exact moment his military career had changed from the guns and tanks of his childhood dreams to kidnapping small boys and blackmailing their parents, but it made him feel nauseous and it never got any easier. This was the first kid since early ’99, and he’d almost forgotten how it felt, but things were different then: more gung-ho and naïve, more whatever-it-takes-for-the-cause. This time, he and Carter had prayed that Bishop would not call, but when the number appeared on his mobile his stomach flooded with sickness and Plan B was set in motion.
    Using the rear-view mirror, he looked at Laura, squashed up against the side window. She was staring at nothing, overcome by too many different thoughts to be able to concentrate on any one of them. They often reacted like this, and Major Webster could not honestly say it surprised him.
    They had followed the usual stages of the procedure: Laura had informed anyone who knew about Andrew’s disappearance that he was indeed alive and well and had come home late after visiting his dad’s grave. He had miscalculated the fare home, which had meant walking several miles, getting lost on the way and of course he was incredibly sorry and thought thathis mum had known that was what he was doing. The story had holes in it that could easily accommodate Major Webster’s Land Rover but the people who heard it were tired and relieved and wouldn’t think to ask questions until the next day. Laura also told them that she and Andrew would be taking a short break and that she would be back in touch soon. Again, not like her, but by the time her actions were questioned, she would not be available to provide any answers.
    The roads they were driving on became smaller and scrappier until they were using all the Land Rover’s torque and horsepower to negotiate a steep dirt track closely flanked by birch trees. Five minutes later, they came to a juddering stop. In the darkness, Laura could just make out a wide strip of tarmac that disappeared into the gloomy distance. There was a hut on one side of it with a corrugated iron roof, and it was here that Webster parked the car.
    Laura looked out through the other windows for some clue as to what this place was and why they might have come here, but before she had a chance to speculate, a row of lights illuminated the centre of the tarmac and she heard the unmistakable sound of an approaching airplane.
    At first she thought there must be a small airport nearby, but as the noise grew louder, finally pounding her ears with an overpowering scream, she realized it was meant for them. It touched down at the other end of the runway before taxiing in their direction.
    It came to a halt just in front of the Land Rover, thecargo ramp lowering a few feet from its front bumper. At the sound of metal on concrete Major Webster drove up the black steel incline and into the rear of the Spartan. The ramp started to rise before he had even applied the brakes, and they were manoeuvring towards the other end of the runway before he’d switched the engine off. Madison turned the plane around and within seconds they were speeding over the line of lights and back into the air.
    As they gained altitude Laura followed the lead of Webster and Carter and got out of the car. The inside of the plane was like nothing she had seen before. It was off-white, with jutting beams of metal that stretched across the ceiling. Webbing and cargo jutted and curved in and out of dark recesses, and the far end was stacked with a dozen crates, leaving only a small gap between them for access to the cockpit. Behind the boxes the seats were set out in rows, like in a passenger plane. (The