The Orphan Uprising (The Orphan Trilogy, #3) Read Free Page B

her son.
    With a squirming Francis still under his arm, the older man ran off toward the beached inflatable craft, closely followed by his wounded partner.
    “Mama!” Francis screamed.
    Isabelle tripped and fell heavily. By the time she struggled to her feet, the men were already pushing their inflatable into the water. She was powerless to resist as they fired its engine into life and sped off toward the waiting floatplane.
    “Mama!” Francis’ plaintiff cries reached his mother, but she was powerless to help.
    High in the hills above the bay, Nine had started running as soon as the men began chasing after Francis. By the time they’d bundled the boy and their inflatable into the floatplane, Nine was already down at sea level and sprinting toward the waterfront. His lungs were burning and his legs felt like lead, but he ignored that. All he could think of was Francis.
    The previous few minutes had seemed like a nightmare to Nine. There was no obvious explanation for what he’d just witnessed. Falling back on his training, his mind worked at a thousand clicks per second as he tried to figure out what was happening and who was behind it. It could only be Omega! He figured the Omega Agency must have discovered his whereabouts. But how? And why Francis? Why not me? There were so many questions and no answers.
    Nine drove himself to run faster.
    As he neared the waterfront, he felt a searing pain in his chest. Nine knew immediately what was happening. He was having the heart attack his specialist had warned he’d have if he overdid things.
    Despite his condition, he had the presence of mind to note the description of the plane that was now taxiing out into deep water in preparation for take-off: it was a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter floatplane of the type favored by the Air Command of the Canadian Forces because of its excellent search and rescue capabilities.
    The floatplane was the last thing Nine saw before everything went black.
     

 
    3
    The next few hours were like a blur to Nine. With a distraught Isabelle at his side, he was rushed to Taiohae’s medical center where the duty doctor attended to him. After a battery of tests, which included an ECG, the doctor confirmed his patient had indeed suffered a heart attack, albeit a mild one. Nine was ordered to rest up at home until the doctor considered him fit enough to fly to Papeete to consult with his heart specialist.
    Drugged to the eyeballs with medication the doctor had prescribed, Nine was in no position to argue. He felt woozy and couldn’t focus long on any one thing. Every time his thoughts turned to Francis, other thoughts and memories intruded, pushing his son’s abduction to the back of his mind.
    Isabelle took over. The Frenchwoman knew, for the moment, she had to be the strong one. For so long she’d relied on her Sebastian to make the hard decisions. Now it was her turn.
    First, she had to give a statement to one of the gendarmes charged with investigating Francis’ abduction and Luang’s murder. The gendarme seemed as bewildered by it all as Isabelle felt, which didn’t inspire her with confidence. Next, she gave an interview to a persistent reporter from the local newspaper in the hope that the resultant publicity could lead to a sighting of her missing son.
    Finally, armed with a small carton of drugs for the patient, Isabelle drove Nine to their home on the settlement’s outskirts. There, she put him to bed. He was asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
    Then she ran outside and into a nearby palm grove. Near collapse, she raised her head to the sky and screamed. It was a long, heartfelt scream – a scream of anger, frustration and fear. Fear that she may never see her son again.
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    Isabelle spent the next few hours hosting a stream of concerned friends and well-wishers who commiserated with her and offered their love and support. Many of them were mothers, like her, who could relate to the loss of a child. They kept coming and