She stood rigid, her eyes closed, head down in concentration, opening her telepathy. At first, she heard only vague thoughts. As the patrol boat moved closer and the massive shape of the container ship loomed over them in the mist, the thoughts became more distinct.
Lookouts on the bow and stern, annoyed with the fog…someone on radar, checking for unusual contacts, they’d seen the patrol boat but decided it was a routine patrol…the captain, worried about collisions, pacing on the bridge…
“I have been used. Now I will be the avenger.”
Intense determination. That had to be one of the bomb’s triggermen. She could easily zero in on him and order him to stand down. But that might take all her power and leave the others on board free of her influence.
She looked around at F-Team, checking their weapons. No, too big a risk to control one person. She had to get the team on board first. She took another deep breath and started projecting a general message to every mind she could reach.
“Nothing unusual. Just a patrol boat, regular crew on board, following in the wash. Nothing to be alarmed about.”
Alec waved a hand, signaling his team. Daz and Gabe knelt on the deck, grappling hook guns pointed straight up.
She felt Alec tense beside her. Energy flowed through him, then her, as he summoned the TK. She swallowed and heat soared through her body. If only she could lose herself in that. Tomorrow, perhaps, if there was one for them.
Daz and Gabe fired the grappling hooks. The hooks, ropes trailing behind, flew up the side of the container ship. Alec launched his TK. She felt the moment when he grabbed the hooks, helping them over the rail of the ship. He used the TK to secure the hooks to the rail, pleased at doing so easily what would once have taken him minutes, not seconds.
She reduced her mental suggestion to a simple “everything is normal” and tried not to think about how the hell she was going to climb those lines in heavy body armor.
Alec tapped her on the shoulder. She opened her eyes and saw the lines were, in fact, two sides of a large net with rungs like a ladder.
The patrol boat veered left, narrowly missing the massive hull of the container ship. She grabbed the railing for balance. Water slapped over the edge of the bow. She saw the captain’s face go white at the near collision.
“Too close,” Philip muttered.
Daz waved his hand and F-Team swarmed onto the net. Philip warily watched Lansing grab hold, though she doubted there was any way for Lansing to escape this mission now.
Alec picked her up and steadied her on the rail. She leapt and snagged the net with both hands. It swayed from the movement of everyone climbing and she held on for dear life. The rough, wet line dug into her palms. She looked up and swallowed, feeling so very small against the mammoth steel of the hull. Only Alec at her side prevented her panic.
Philip appeared at her other side and steadied her as F-Team clambered up the ladder, silent and efficient. She closed her eyes and kept concentrating on sending her mental orders to those on board the ship: “Nothing unusual. Nothing unusual.”
Sweat and sea spray mingled on her face, dripping into her eyes, making it difficult to see. The weight of the body armor pressed down on her. She groped ahead blindly, rung by rung, deciding it was better not to look down, wishing she’d lifted more weights at the gym. Alec and Philip stayed with her as she climbed in case she faltered.
She bit her lip and tried to push away her panic. She’d no idea what would happen if her broadcast to the ship’s crew included fear. Boom? Everybody dead because of her?
Alec’s mental voice was exhilarated. That made no sense to her.
“I’m terrified and you think this is fun?”
“Not fun, Beth. But intense. Hang on. We’ll be up in just a sec.”
She felt a lurch, like an elevator beginning to move. She opened her eyes. They were speeding up the side of the container ship.
They were quite literally flying.
Alec was pushing the net and everyone on it with his TK. When they reached the railing, she clutched it and swung over with immense relief. She went down on one knee to practice deep breathing, sending out her broadcast to the crew, over and over. Once this is done, she thought, I am going to practice pull-ups. Lots of them. Wearing body armor. Just in case.
Philip helped her to her feet but half his attention was on Lansing, who’d made the climb easily and had his rifle at the ready. But Lansing made no threatening moves.
It was close quarters. As Daz had warned, there was only room for two people between the rail and massive containers looming over them. She looked up. The top rows of the containers were lost in the fog, giving them the appearance of going on forever.
Daz clapped Alec on the back and smiled. She didn’t need telepathy to interpret that thanks. She wondered how many missions it would take before exhilaration replaced nerves, like with Alec. She didn’t want to find out.
F-Team formed up. As directed, Philip and Lansing took the row in front of her and Alec. She steadied herself by setting her right hand on the containers. This ship seemed as stable as dry land. No rocking or bouncing in the waves. It was too big for that.
Big was their problem. Where now?
Alec leaned over and whispered. “Time to pinpoint the guards for the bomb.”
She nodded. “Right, but I have to give up telling them they don’t see anything.”
“Do it. We can’t afford to go in the wrong direction and waste time. I’m taking care of concealment.”
She blinked her eyes and let go of her broadcast. Her head felt immediately lighter and her eyesight grew clearer. It was easy now to hear the fanatic.
“Forward.”
“Gotcha.”
They started walking. She let Alec lead her as she closed her eyes again and listened, searching for the person who’d had such clear thoughts about death earlier.
She hit a churning mess.
At least five people, all agitated and ready to die.
One determined not to be a coward, to follow his leader and his God into the promised heaven. Another terrified but too much of a coward to go against the others. A third lost in some happy dream, avoiding facing his imminent death. Another sad about what the news would do to his family but uncaring about his own fate.
The last was the leader. His thoughts roiled together, a maelstrom of euphoria and madness. “Glorious death!” Rewards in the afterlife for delivery of his people from evil—“glorious death!”—the faces of those he’d trained as suicide bombers in years past—“glorious death!”—now he’d join them, now he’d live forever, be remembered for this strike against those who tortured and bombed children and didn’t recognize the true God—“glorious death!”—satisfaction that an entire city would be vaporized for the hubris of these evil people.
What? An entire city vaporized? A dirty bomb didn’t have that much power. She zeroed in again, searching deeper into the fanatic’s mind, as she’d done to Lansing.
“Oh, shit! Alec! They don’t have a dirty bomb. It’s a nuke!”
Alec wrapped his arms around her.
“It’s-a-nuke-a-nuke-a-nuke. Holy-ancestors-protect-me, entire city destroyed, burned, all those people, buildings melted. Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ, a-nuke-a-nuke-a-nuke.”
He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Enough!”
“So many could die.”
“They won’t, because we’re going to stop it. Together.” The solider behind them tapped Alec on the shoulder, and he started walking again, pulling Beth with him. Millions dead. He couldn’t wrap his mind around that. Better not to try.
“We’re going to win, counselor. Trust me. Where are they?”
“In the bottom row of the first set of the containers. I’m not sure which one exactly.”
Damn. That row was about ten across. That meant they’d have to spread out on the forward deck and risk being seen. “Stay with me. I’m pulling in the fog around us.”
He’d had practice with air mo
lecules now, so it worked better than the tear gas in the cabin. The problem was that holding the fog took a hell of a lot of concentration. Once he started using the TK for fighting, he’d lose the fog and their cover. And once they were spotted, they would have only a few seconds before everything went boom.
Daz, at the front of the line, turned to him, questioning about Beth’s temporary stumble. Alec gave a thumbs-up. He’d have to break radio silence to tell him about the nuke and it wasn’t worth the risk of their frequency being picked up. They already knew they couldn’t afford to alert their targets. Nuke or dirty bomb, it made no difference for the op.
Fuck, Demeter could detonate that nuke now and it’d still be effective. What was stopping them? How much time did he have?
“Alec, I’m locked in on them. They want to see the city in front of them, see it right before it’s destroyed.”
She’d recovered from the momentary panic. Good. Now if only he could erase the image of millions of people melted and the seas boiling from his own mind.
“Beth, order them out of the container and away from the bomb.”
Long pause. “I tried. But I couldn’t get into his head deep enough. He’s so focused and intent that I’m skipping off. I didn’t realize that could happen. I could try harder but what if it somehow alarms him?”
“Shit. No, don’t do that.”
The sun rose higher in the sky and the fog grew harder to hold down on the deck. They halted. Daz held up a hand with two fingers, signaling them to take the turn onto the bow in stealth. He counted the pairs ahead as they turned. One, two, three, four, now.
He and Beth turned the corner.
Two shapes appeared out of the fog.
“Fuck.”
Lansing grabbed one man from behind and twisted his neck. Alec heard a sickening snap. Daz punched the other in the throat and knocked him to the deck. The man started to gurgle, metal flashed in Daz’s hand and the gurgling stopped.
Alec took a deep breath. They’d both reacted faster than he could have, especially when holding on to the fog. Lansing hadn’t been kidding about being a soldier once.
Daz pointed with his thumb and F-Team dragged the bodies to the side of the deck and tossed them over the railing. Alec kept them enveloped in fog. The splash of the bodies was barely audible. Alec took a deep breath. So fucking close, either to death or victory. Just like Lansing’s “death or glory” motto.
Beth stumbled. Drake slipped to her side. Alec grabbed her forearm. Had she been hit?
“I felt them die. The deaths got through the mental shield you taught me. I felt exactly what that man felt when his neck snapped. Hurts. Now I know why my telepathy went latent. I felt my captors die during the escape.”
“I’m sorry.” He squeezed her arm. “But we have to keep going.”
“I know.” A pause. “I’m locked in to the leader again. He’s getting impatient. Maybe he got some of my overflow from the deaths I felt. I’m sorry.”
“Not something you could anticipate. Send him soothing thoughts, if you can. Trust yourself.”
The containers were stacked ten across and six high on the deck. They all looked the same. “Which one, counselor?”
“Middle. But that’s as close as I can get.”
Drake tapped Alec on the shoulder and pointed at one of the middle containers. Paint had been scraped off of the side of that one, exposing bare metal. It’d been opened. Drake had a good eye.
Target sighted.
His show, now.
Beth slipped her hand into his. “I’m coming with you. You need me to keep them calm and you need me to amp up your fire.”
“Dammit, Beth. That’s not the plan.”
But what she said was true. He pulled Beth with him, sliding past Daz. Daz gave him a nod, ceding control of the op. Beth clutched his hand so tight that Alec’s fingers went numb. The grip loosened. She must have read his complaint. He hated that she had to do this. She’d never have come except for him.
“I did it to myself. And I trust you. Let’s go.”
F-Team surrounded them in a protective half circle. Alec crept forward to the container and stopped right next to the scraped paint Drake had spotted.
He took a deep breath, wishing he knew the layout inside. He wanted to rip the door right off the hinges, reach inside and knock them away from the bomb. But what would Demeter do?
“I’ve been working on him. He’s calmer. It should buy a few seconds.”
“Excellent, counselor.”
He could cut loose.
Alec flung out his hand and pulled back, releasing all his power. It rose out of him like an unseen hand. The metal creaked, he concentrated harder and ripped the entire front of the container off the hinges. The metal door flew over the edge of the deck and disappeared.
He rushed inside, Beth behind him, their hands still clasped.
Four men started shooting at them. He waved his hand and the bullets dropped in midair. He pushed hard and the attackers slammed into the sides of the container.
Drake fired, finishing off two of them. F-Team rushed inside. The bomb was the key. But the container was empty, save for the men firing at them. Where the hell was the bomb?
“They’ve connected this to another container. It’s through the door on the left. Hurry-hurry-hurry, he’s trying to detonate it. I’m ordering him to not move but it’s hard. He’s so focused.”
Alec flung the door to the side container open.
“I lost him, Alec!”
Alec stepped into a maelstrom, heat and light and molecules bouncing, dancing, free…
He was too late.
Chapter Twenty-Three
He’d failed.
Desperate, Alec flung his TK into the explosion. The TK zoomed past the fire and found something intact. Yes! The conventional explosives had detonated but the nuke hadn’t gone off yet.
Alec threw up a TK wall between the nuke and explosion.
So many molecules, spinning so fast. It reminded him of a dust storm that he’d created as a training exercise, except these tiny particles were more agitated, hotter, more demanding, buzzing around him like angry bees. They bashed at his TK wall and demanded more space, somewhere to spread out, building up more force and gaining strength.
The pain lashed into his head, a parallel to the battering by the explosion. He lost balance and crumpled to the floor, unable to see, everything focused onto holding the wall steady.
“Don’t fight it, give it somewhere to go, Alec.”
Beth. Her mental voice was steady and this time she calmed him. He wrapped his arms around her to protect her from the explosion. Her psychic strength roared into him. The pain loosened its hold and he could see again. He poured the additional power into his TK wall but knew it wouldn’t hold for long. Beth was right. It needed an exit.
“Hold on, Beth. It’s about to get very hot.”
He called to the explosion just as he did when he called fire.
“Come to me, come to me.”
It roared to him, a living being of heat and light. He stumbled to his feet, holding Beth. The fire enveloped them, encircled them. Yellow flames cast shadows in the container, making it a mythic hell.
“Come to me.”
He grinned as the flames wrapped around their bodies, swirling from his head to his toes, heat licking at him, power demanding release. He raised his hands over his head, urging the fire upward. It melted the metal roof, hissing, sending molten steel hurtling to the floor of the container. Nothing could stop it, nothing could stop him. He lifted Beth up, she wrapped her legs around his waist, and heat surged around him and in him.
“Come to me.”
Impact after impact as the explosion slammed upward, through container after container, seeking escape, seeking to be free, seeking the sky.
He went with it and Beth with him, hot, burning, on fire. Together.
“Free!”
Air, beautiful sky. The explosion roared into the open, expan
ding out, higher, farther, faster. He flew with it, exulting in the power, one with it, letting all the angry molecules roll around him, caressing him.
He kissed Beth. She moaned. Her mind flowed into his and he felt her arousal, felt her body shiver, waiting for him, wanting him. He pulled her closer, clothes ceased to exist, and he was inside her.
They joined inside a cocoon, safe, the power a living thing between them. His TK flowed into her, covering her skin, touching everything, her neck, her breasts and inside her. He felt everything that she was, and she felt him. They were one person.
They were a glorious fiery being.
The explosion roiled around them, blotting out the sky, and yet it had no effect on them. It was nothing, no threat. The union with Beth built, his erection feeling just like the explosion, ready to go off at any second.
He released the fire. The explosion burst outward with a huge clap of thunder, the molecules spreading out as his essence spread out within Beth. He threw back his head, lost in his orgasm, lost in her orgasm, until they melded together.
“I am fire. We are fire.”
The sky cleared. The explosion vanished. They floated in the soft, morning air.
Beth’s head rested on his shoulder. He felt the weight of his body armor again. Their clothes were back but not the helmets.
They’d made love inside the fire. Physically, mentally, hell, even molecularly. That had happened, right?
“Oh, yes.” She raised her head.
He kissed her. A warm hum spread through him. Her shivering quieted.
“Alec?”
“Yes?”
“Can we get down now?”
“Down?”
He looked below and the container ship was a speck in the ocean below them.
He was flying.
Okay, not exactly flying. His TK was pushing against the ground and holding them up. Or maybe it was pushing against the air molecules. He wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter right this second. It was just cool.
“Funny, it seemed hot to me,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest. “But can we get down now?”
“You don’t like heights, counselor?”
Phoenix Rising Page 25
