Survival Instinct (The Adventures of Eric and Ursula Book 2) Read online

  The Adventures of Eric and Ursula

  Survival Instinct

  A.D. Winch

  ***

  This work is registered with the UK Copyright Service (UKCS):

  Registration No: 292412

  Published by A.D. Winch, 2014

  2nd edition

  eReader edition

  Text copyright A.D. Winch, 2014

  Book Cover image copyright K.J. Winch, 2014

  ***

  Amazon Edition, Licence Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Contents

  Chapter 1 - Time to Reflect

  Chapter 2 - A Danger to our Way of Life

  Chapter 3 - Summoned

  Chapter 4 - Working Day and Night

  Chapter 5 - Weapons of Mass Destruction

  Chapter 6 - Stade de France

  Chapter 7 - Turbulence

  Chapter 8 - Fleeing Paris

  Chapter 9 - Martin Meyer

  Chapter 10 - Shut Out

  Chapter 11 - Black Queen and White King vanish

  Chapter 12 - Home at Last

  Chapter 13 - A Possible Cure

  Chapter 14 - The Inter-City Phoenix

  Chapter 15 - Out of the Frying Pan

  Chapter 16 - Professor Larsen's Diary

  Chapter 17 - Father and Son

  Chapter 18 - Cologne Main Station

  Chapter 19 - Out the Window

  Chapter 20 - Night Walk

  Chapter 21 - Fleeing Amsterdam

  Chapter 22 - The Orca

  Chapter 23 - Into the Storm

  Chapter 24 - Shark

  Chapter 25 - An Act of Piracy

  Chapter 26 - Irish Shores

  Chapter 27 - Collateral Damage

  Chapter 28 - Retreat to Beach Cottage

  Chapter 29 - Captivity

  Chapter 30 - Szymany Airport, Poland

  Chapter 31 - Eyes Opened

  Chapter 32 - The Truth

  Chapter 33 - Gathering Intelligence

  Chapter 34 - A Threat to National Security

  Chapter 35 - Last Supper

  Chapter 36 - Into the Lion's Den

  Chapter 37 - Christmas Day

  Chapter 38 - Happy New Year

  Please write a review

  About the author

  Discover other books by A.D. Winch

  Connect with me online

  Preview of Book 3 - Fallback

  Acknowledgements

  Note from Author

  ***

  Chapter 1 – Time to Reflect

  “Good morning, it’s eight o’clock Greenwich Mean Time, and here is the news.

  “Interpol are widening their search for two children whom they have described as the new ‘Criminal Element.’ It has been confirmed that they cannot be prosecuted yet as they are only twelve years old. However, a source close to Interpol stated that the two are being linked to a number of crimes including stealing drugs and priceless artefacts, information fraud and attempted murder of police officers.

  “Interpol have…”

  Eric swatted at the black transistor radio with his hand and caught the long aerial. The radio rocked a little and then fell face forward onto its round dials. It crackled and hissed before falling silent.

  The world had been turned upside down. Blocks of flats from les banlieues held onto the ground like stalactites, trying to avoid falling down into the sky. The sun slowly rose downwards, and those people who had also woken early walked to work above Eric’s head.

  Eric was standing on his hands on the roof of the Benjamin’s apartment block, eight floors above the ground. His dark blue jeans had slid down his legs revealing his socks. His white T-shirt had bunched up around his neck and his blond hair, streaked with grey, swayed in the light morning breeze. The breeze was welcomed as it was already hot.

  I shouldn’t be here, thought Eric, biting his lip. I want to be rich again. I want to be back in my big houses and to live how I used to.

  He also wanted revenge on those who had taken his old life away, but there was no opportunity to do so. These thoughts were becoming more regular, and his frustration was gradually turning into anger.

  A wasp buzzed in front of him. Eric shot out a hand and caught it between his thumb and finger. His anger was increasing, and he squeezed the desperate insect. All the adults kept saying to him was that he was in danger and did not have long to live. He watched the wasp as it fought against him, struggling to escape.

  “Do you feel like you’re dying?” Eric asked the wasp.

  It shook its head while frantically wiggling.

  “Nor do I,” said Eric and he let the wasp go.

  Eric was sure he was being fed a pack of lies. The only niggling doubt was Andrea. She was saying the same as the others and, in all the years Eric had known her, she had never lied to him. Maybe she had made a mistake, or maybe Alexander had brainwashed her. Eric was sure he wasn’t going to die. He had never felt better physically.

  Eric lifted his left hand, supported all his weight on the other, and grabbed the radio. Slowly he twisted his body around until the fingers of his right hand clutched the roof. Without any sign of fear, Eric arched his legs backwards and tipped himself over the edge. His fingers strengthened their grip and in a perfect arc he dropped down silently to the balcony below.

  Mémé dropped her watering can. The water splashed over her frilly, orange dressing gown, and a look of thunder appeared upon her face.

  “Why can’t you use the fire escape? I’ve told you not to do that,” she scolded in French,

  Despite his anger, Eric knew that Mémé was not someone to be messed with. He tried to apologise, but the words refused to come so he slammed the radio down and glared instead. Three months ago, when he had arrived at the apartment, he had felt different. He had just survived an attempt on his own life and the death of his parents. He had been glad to be somewhere safe, and no mention was made of his tiny wrinkles and grey hairs. Granddad Benjamin had even told Eric, and Ursula, that they could change the world.

  Three months later, and his feelings had changed. Eric knew that it was not the Benjamin’s fault, but he couldn’t help himself. Andrea was keeping him and Ursula prisoners in this small, cheaply decorated and claustrophobic flat. How could he change the world from here?

  Fortunately, the Benjamins let them go up onto the roof but Eric viewed this as nothing more than yard break in prison.

  Andrea said it was for his, and Ursula’s, own sake. Deep down he found it hard to disbelieve Andrea. However, he could not help but resent her for it. Especially as she had denied them access to the internet, mobile phones, tablets and game consoles. Her voice still rung in his head, “They are all traceable.”

  Only Granddad Benjamin’s constant ideas of things to do, and the relatively large collection of books that he kept under his bed, stopped Eric from going stir crazy. Over the last twelve weeks, he had started to understand why animals in small cages pace up and down shaking their heads. Occasionally, he caught himself swaying his head from left to right without realising.

  While under ‘house arrest,’ he had read about military and naval vehicles, morse
code, fighter planes, the SAS, military strategy, survival tactics and the languages of Africa but none of these had grabbed his interest significantly. The only book he had found that distracted him from his situation was one about UFOs. Since discovering that he was ‘born’ in a satellite orbiting the planet and had come down to Earth in something resembling a UFO, he had become fascinated by the subject. Already he had read the book six times and memorized much of it.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” warned Mémé, pulling Eric away from his thoughts. “You are not too big to go over my knee.”

  Eric wanted to say something back but before he had a chance to reply Mémé stepped forward and gave him a big, genuine cuddle. Despite himself, Eric relaxed. For a short while, Mémé held him close and stroked his hair.

  “I can’t stay angry at you,” she whispered. “Not now,” and she let Eric go.

  Eric stepped towards the door to the living room.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going inside to read my book on UFOs,” he replied calmly

  “Again!” exclaimed Mémé. “When Jerome wakes up, I’ll be having a word with him about filling your head with all this alien nonsense.”

  “It’s not nonsense,” disagreed Eric, shaking his head. “There are so many documented cases,” and he rattled them off like an express train. “There was the Roswell crash in nineteen forty-seven, radar contacts in Washington D.C. in fifty-two, a whole school in Melbourne saw them in sixty-six, the Shag Harbour crash in Canada in sixty-seven, the seventy-six Tehran incident when two fighter planes were disabled, the chase across Brazil in nineteen eighty, in Belgium nearly fourteen thousand people witnessed a triangular UFO in eighty-nine, there is also a film of UFOs over Turkey in two thousand and eight, and that’s only some of them.”

  “It does not mean any of it is real,” stated Mémé firmly. She picked up her watering can and turned away from Eric to water her plants, “And that’s all I am going to say on the matter!”

  Eric knew when he could not win. The feeling was still new to him and difficult to accept, so he walked away into the living room.

  “Don’t forget to take off your shoes,” shouted Mémé, without turning away from her plants.

  Ursula was woken by someone in her dream saying ‘take your shoes off.’ Slowly, she opened her eyes and then closed them again. She was still really sleepy. There were dark bags under her eyes and wrinkles under them. Her hair was predominantly thick and black, but grey hairs streaked across her head and she looked older than twelve.

  Life would be better if she could just be alone for a while and get a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately, she was sharing her bed with Eric, who was a fidget. He was an even worse fidget once he was asleep which, six days out of seven, was before her. Ursula yawned and willed herself to go back to sleep, but she knew she wouldn’t. Her brain was already awake and racing; rapidly processing thoughts, remembering events and thinking about the future.

  Apart from sleep deprivation, Ursula was content to have returned home. She was happy to be back with her grandparents even if they weren’t biologically related. This sudden, unexpected thought made her grimace. They were still Granddad Benjamin and Mémé, but they had lied to her, and only after prompting from Alexander and Andrea had they told her the truth. Initially, Ursula had been fine with this but three months later she didn’t know what to feel - whether to be angry at them or relieved that they had not left her in a shopping trolley. Ultimately, she simply felt confused. All she wanted was her life back - the way it was before she had entered that stupid puzzle competition in the paper. She regretted that she had ever done it.

  If she had never completed the puzzle, she would now be free to go where she wanted, when she wanted and with whom she wanted. Instead, she was only free to go onto the apartment block roof and, most of the time, only with Eric. Andrea had warned them about security cameras and had made them promise not to stray from the apartment or the roof of their block. The Benjamins enforced this as best they could, and it was torture. Ursula wanted to run, jump, spring and climb around her area. Instead, she had to be content with the competitions and activities devised by Granddad Benjamin. He varied them daily, and Ursula knew that she had improved both physically and mentally since being back. Some activities they worked on with Granddad Benjamin, others she did on the roof with Eric, some Eric supported her with and for others she competed against him.

  It was thanks to Granddad Benjamin that the last three months had been bearable. Initially, he had arranged for Alexander to teach them both advanced martial arts but within a week they were quicker, stronger and had faster reflexes than him. After this, Granddad Benjamin became more creative. He had made them do a mix of both intellectual and physical games. He gave them chess problems from grandmasters; codes to break, science experiments to solve, lateral thinking questions, strategic problems from battles fought in the past and, with Alexander’s help, provided them with scenarios in which they had to find the best solution. After they had completed these, they would compare their answers. They started to see patterns, drew on their rapidly expanding knowledge and were soon matching or bettering the answers given. Ursula was really pleased with how well she did, especially as military tactics did not interest her very much.

  The physical activities challenged their existing abilities and always turned into contests in which Eric was desperate to win. In the gymnastic challenges, they were pretty even. This led to them both holding handstands for almost an hour and being able to achieve a triple twist back somersault. In ‘strongman’ activities, Eric was mortified that Ursula could beat him, especially when she managed to bend a large metal spanner in half. However, in reflex challenges he came out on top.

  One day, Alexander had brought an air pistol to the flat. They went up to the roof, and he shot pellets at a large target. After a couple of hours practice, Eric was able to stop the pellets hitting the targets using nothing more than a teaspoon. Granddad Benjamin then suggested that Alexander shoot the pellets at Eric instead. Eric stopped the first eleven hitting him, but he missed the twelfth. The pellet hit him right between the legs, dropping him to his knees and releasing a torrent of swear words. Ursula couldn’t help but laugh.

  They carried Eric downstairs from the roof to be greeted by a furious looking Mémé who promptly shoved a packet of frozen peas down his trousers. She told off Alexander for shooting Eric, told off Eric for bad language and told off Ursula for being unsympathetic. Ominously, she said nothing to Granddad Benjamin, who ended up sleeping in the bath that night.

  After three months, there was little fun. The contests and activities were losing their appeal, and both children were finding it hard to motivate themselves. It wasn’t the activities that Ursula had a problem with, but the tedium of always doing them at the same venue.

  Before they had arrived back in Paris, they had visited so many places and done so much that it was no surprise they were getting bored. Ursula had flown in an aeroplane, lived in Prague, sledged in Switzerland, foiled bank robbers, visited Pompeii, been involved in a car chase, tricked American secret agents and discovered that she was not who she thought she was. The latter point popped back into her thoughts. It kept coming back, and she wished she had never found out.

  Granddad Benjamin and Mémé had taken her in when she was only a baby and had raised her as if she was their own. They had never asked for anything in return and had always loved her unconditionally. Despite this, Ursula couldn’t banish the thought that Granddad Benjamin and Mémé were not her ‘real’ grandparents. She thought about the stories they had always told her about her imaginary parents and wondered what else they had made up.

  Late one night, when she couldn’t sleep, she had turned on the light and had woken Eric to tell him her concerns.

  He had told her bluntly, “Don’t be so stupid! At least they love you,” and had promptly fallen back to sleep again.

  Ursula had studied his face in the moonlight
; he had looked both angry and sad.

  Maybe he is right, she thought.

  “I am right,” said Eric entering the room, “I always am and you can stop pretending to be asleep. I know you’re awake.”

  “Go away," whispered Ursula but Eric ignored her and sat down on the end of the bed.

  Ursula tried to sleep, but it was useless now. Eric might as well have been reading aloud. Even though her eyes were closed, she knew that he was looking at page one hundred and ninety-eight of his book. He was reading about an American businessman called Kenneth Arnold who had seen UFOs near Mount Rainier in Washington in the nineteen forties.

  I can’t believe he’s reading it again, thought Ursula.

  “Stop disturbing me,” said Eric and punched Ursula through the covers.

  Ursula admitted defeat and opened her eyes.

  “What are we going to do today?” she asked expectantly.

  “Oh, I thought we could climb Mount Everest, swim the Pacific Ocean, pilot a spaceship and then the four of us could go out for a meal,” replied Eric sarcastically, “probably for a sizzling curry.”

  “So, nothing then.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Well, why did you wake me up?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “You did.”

  “Didn’t.”

  “Did.”

  “Didn’t.”

  “Did.”

  “Didn’t.”

  “Did.”

  “Didn’t.”

  “Stop!” they shouted together.

  “We have to do something,” suggested Eric putting his book down. “I’m going out of my mind and you’re hardly helping matters. I feel like a caged animal in a zoo. How did you ever grow up in this squalid, little flat? It should be in a museum. It’s like a relic from the seventies and eighties.

  Ursula gave him a scathing look and sat up in bed, revealing her orange pyjamas.

  “You weren’t rude to my Mémé this morning, were you? If you were then I’ll…”