Instinct (2010) by Ben Kay Read Free Book Online Page A

Spartan’s original layout of a basic bench along each side had left the team exhausted and burning with cramp, so Webster had arranged for the interior to be refitted for a little extra comfort.)
    To Laura’s further unease, five of the ten seats were occupied by soldiers. Looking at them in the anonymity of their camouflage, she was trying hard but failing to think of a good situation that involved seven military personnel and an airplane. There was a seat on its own near the back that had a view of the dark nothing outside, so she slid into it and resumed her position, squashed up against the window.
    None of the other soldiers acknowledged her, giving her no more than a second’s glance as they turned to greet Carter and Webster. She was surprised to see that at least two of them were female, although it was hard to distinguish in the low fluorescent light, covered as they were with half-grapefruit headphones that made them all look alike. Andrew still infused her every thought, but against tough competition: the sensory and conceptual overload she had to process made her feel like she was underwater, straining to make her way to the surface.
    An hour into the flight, Laura had no idea where they were. Even if she had paid attention since take-off, flying at night with nothing to help give her bearings meant she could be anywhere an hour’s plane ride from Norfolk. Did that mean France, or Denmark? Ireland, or the Atlantic Ocean?
    At two hours, she felt the engines winding down and the forward movement slowing. They seemed to be landing, so she looked out of the window for any clues to where they were and where they might be holding Andrew. She had imagined him in some US Airforce base in a desert somewhere, waiting for her in a cell, a plaintive expression on his smooth, soft face.
    Only the immediate area was visible, and it was little different from the runway they had taken off from. A man on the ground attached a fuel pump to the side of the plane, they waited ten minutes, the man detached the pump and they were airborne again.
    Shit . When was she going to see Andrew? MajorWebster took a glance back towards her. He caught her eye and tried an encouraging smile. The disdain in her face made him think he should try a bit harder, so he went to sit in the row in front of her.
    In order to be heard by Laura but no one else, Webster had to half-yell behind his hand. ‘I’m sorry to say this again, but you’re going to have to trust us. We’ve got one more stop before we get to our destination, and I’ll tell you now, Andrew is not there. We’d have sent you straight to Venezuela, but the need to find you coincided with one of our operations, so there was no one free to escort you to MEROS. That means you’re going to see what we do first, which will take about an hour, then it’s going to be another twelve hours back to where Andrew is. Is that OK? Is it better now you know?’ Laura nodded quickly to get him to leave her alone then went back to staring out of the window.

8
    Eight hours into the flight, Laura was aching all over. The seats were way below economy class, and she had to keep shifting around on the thin foam cushion to stop her buttocks going numb. One of the soldiers had brought her some revolting food: a weird plastic cake called a Twinkie and some tough sandwiches, curled up at the ends like rotten lino, which she was led to believe contained chicken salad but were actually filled with some kind of regurgitated beige mush. Everyone else happily guzzled Coke, a substance Laura could not stand, so she was given some mineral water that used to be cold and fizzy but now tasted like it had been siphoned from the bath of a flatulent pensioner.
    For the second time the engines slowed and she felt the lurch in her stomach as they lost altitude. Was this just another refuelling? She could tell immediately it was not; the soldiers were far more active than on any of the other descents, unpacking and