by Sandy James
“She is,” Johann replied. “But if she launched a couple of missiles, she couldn’t count on any other country retaliating.”
“If our stock market falls,” Gina added, “so do the foreign markets. If she could crash them all, people would freak out.”
“I’m starting to catch on,” Zach said. “A financial panic might make other countries hate the United States more than they already do. A couple of well-placed missiles that look like we’re flexing muscles and she could force a conflict—make enemies launch nuclear weapons aimed at us.”
Gina put her hand on his shoulder. “She’s the Destructor. What better way to bring about the end of the world than to start a global thermonuclear war?”
“Armageddon,” Sarita whispered. Then she shivered. “The end of our world.”
“Yeah, but...why destroy it? What would she gain from that?” Zach asked.
“She could rebuild it,” Johann replied. “She’s an Ancient. She could make it whatever she wanted it to be. That and she’s the Destructor, so she’s just being true to her nature.”
“Well, then,” Gina said, trying to let her sister feel her strength and her faith in Zach. “That’s strike one to the bitch lion queen. No crash of the world markets.”
“Strike two,” Zach said, “will be when we take away her access to the missiles.”
“How are you coming on that front?” Johann asked.
“I’ve recreated most of the code and got a good start on the virus.”
“Virus?” Gina asked. “What virus?”
“We decided to stop trying to gain control of the other Toy. Or Toys if she’s got another inventor working on one.” He turned back to let his fingers fly over the jazzed-up laptop. “Mine’s beyond repair.”
“Then what have you two been working on?” Gina asked. “Aren’t you concerned about the Toy Sekhmet wants to use to fire off some missiles?”
Johann shook his head. “We’re going to tear down the link to any of the Toys from the inside.”
“I thought no one could use them except Zach,” Sarita said.
“I’m good, but no one’s perfect,” Zach explained. “I’m going to be sure once and for all that no one can use them ever again. There was only one Pentagon computer connected to my Toys so I could make some practice runs and fine tune as needed. It was only a temporary link, and if I can get to that computer maybe I could make this right again.”
“Zach’s brilliant,” Johann said, giving some of the rarest praise Gina had ever heard from her Sentinel. Most of the time she had to bloody his nose to get any type of pat on the back.
Her chest swelled with pride in her man.
“He’s writing a nasty virus,” Johann continued. “It’ll kill the link and destroy the Toys’ operating systems. Once he’s got it inside the host computer, the virus will initiate a self-destruct sequence in that CPU and the Toys.”
“Self-destruct? You mean a Toy can blow itself up?” Sarita asked, looking every bit as confused as Gina felt. “You mean like Mission: Impossible where the tape recorder would go up in flames after the agent heard the message?”
Zach grinned. “Nah. Nothing that cliché. If I can feed the Pentagon computer and the Toys this virus, it will warp the operating system to the point the hardware will be useless to anyone. If they try to restart the Toys or that computer, the virus wipes out anything they previously put into it and gives them the screen of death.”
“The what?” Gina asked.
“The screen of death.”
“Sounds dramatic.”
She loved to hear him laugh. “Not really. A message pops up that tells them their computer is DOA.”
Johann cuffed Zach on the shoulder. “He used a picture of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow that says, ‘Game over, mates.’ It’s all they’ll ever see on those Toys or that computer again.”
Judging from his broad smile, Zach was pleased with his achievement. “The virus is self-replicating, so they can never purge it. By the time I’m done, that equipment might as well go up in smoke because it’ll be worthless for anything except spare parts.”
Zach mouth dropped to a frown telling Gina it wasn’t that simple. “Out with it.”
He had the nerve to look surprised. “Out with what?”
“Out with whatever it is you and Johann know that I don’t.”
Artair came marching into the hall, proudly wearing the MacKay plaid and his sword. “You mean what Johann, Zach and Artair know.”
She’d never seen the man when he didn’t have his weapon at his side except when he was playing with his children. Even then, it remained within arm’s reach.
“Ye need to have more faith in the men in your life.” He slapped Gina between the shoulder blades with enough force she took a stumbling step forward.
She refused to rub the sore spot and give the cocky Sentinel any satisfaction. “Fine. What do all the men in my life know that I don’t?”
Zach got up and reached for her hand.
If he was trying to brace her for bad news, he was approaching it the wrong way. Patting her hand seemed condescending. Instead of being comforted by his touch, Gina got good and angry.
“It’ll be fine, love.”
She resisted the urge to jerk her hand away and instead squeezed his so hard he’d know how she felt. “Don’t you dare ‘love’ me, Zachary Hanson. I’m not a fucking child. You don’t have to protect me. So spit it out. What’s the catch?”
Johann answered her. “The catch is we have to upload the virus through a direct port. Through the original computer.” When she didn’t reply, he added, “In the Pentagon. You know, in D.C.”
“Really.” One long, drawn-out sarcastic word expressed her feelings as she rapidly lost her temper. They were all a bunch of nutjobs if they thought she’d let Zach step foot out of Avalon when Sekhmet was after him.
“Uh oh,” Zach said with a lopsided grin. He reached up with his free hand to brush her bangs to one side.
“Yeah, yeah. My hair’s red. So you should know that you better give up this crazy idea and form a new plan pretty damned fast.”
“I have to go to Washington, Gina.”
“The hell you do.” She snatched her hand back, set her fists against her hips and turned on Johann. “You’re not putting him anywhere near that place. We still don’t know if the DOD guy is a SOG or not.”
Zach reached for her hand again.
She reluctantly let him take it while she still glared at Johann, her eyes narrow slits.
Rubbing his thumb over her palm, Zach said, “I’m positive my contact isn’t a SOG.”
“How would you possibly know?” Sarita asked. “You didn’t know what a SOG really was before you got here.”
“Because I contacted him a few days ago.”
“You what?” Artair’s angry bellow echoed through the lodge. He knocked Gina out of the way and gave Zach a two-handed shove that sent him flying against the table.
Zach caught himself by sitting down hard on the bench, but he didn’t retaliate.
“After we took you in, after we risked so much to protect you, you sent a message from Avalon? Do ye nae understand the danger you invited into our home?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I sent the message before I understood about the magicks.” Zach stood back up as his gaze met Gina’s. “I wouldn’t have put any of you in danger if I would’ve known.”
“My children live here!” Artair roared.
“So does my daughter.” Johann scowled at Zach.
“I said I was sorry,” Zach replied. “It boils down to this—my DOD contact hasn’t been compromised. He’s not a SOG.”
“How do you know?” Gina hoped to give her Sentinels something that would soothe their ruffled feathers. She sure didn’t blame Zach because she felt as much to blame. If she would have been more honest with him about her world, he wouldn’t have made such a crucial mistake.
“He knew how to answer my message. We have a sort
of code we use to make sure no one else can eavesdrop. He answered correctly. He’s not a SOG.”
Neither Sentinel appeared the least bit appeased.
Gina tried to explain their concerns. “He might not be a SOG, Zach, but that doesn’t mean he’s not knee-deep in this cesspool. You’d be amazed how many people worship Ancients. For all we know, this guy adores Sekhmet. Why did you contact him?”
“Because I didn’t know any of you when I got here.”
“You knew me,” Gina replied.
“Yeah, I did. But I didn’t really know you. I wasn’t sure whether I could trust you or not. All I could think was if the wrong guy got his hands on the Toy, he could conceivably launch missiles. I needed to stop that, no matter the cost. I realized I’d made an enormous mistake. I never should have worked on something like that for the DOD. The general made it sound like I was unpatriotic if I didn’t—that I had to help them fight the war on terror. He swore one would always be in the president’s hands. He swore.” He took a couple of deep breaths. “Do you think I could have lived with myself if I somehow made it possible for terrorists—or SOGs—to get their hands on our nuclear weapons all because of my damn Toy?”
Artair and Johann grunted, which Gina took for remorse—at least as much remorse as the arrogant men could muster.
“Don’t you see?” Zach asked. “Now we’ve got—”
“A way in,” Gina said. He was right, but that didn’t make her like the plan any better. They had no choice. “You get that virus ready, and I’ll get you to Washington.”
“No, you won’t,” Johann scolded.
The Amazon in Gina flared to life. “The hell I won’t. You think I’m letting the man I love leave here when I’m not guarding his back? Think again.”
Zach’s smile was broad enough to create wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. “The man you love?”
She wanted to shriek in frustration. Nothing was going the way she thought it should, and to let something like that fall from her mouth without a thought... “Later.”
“Oh, you can count on that.”
It took every ounce of her self-control to keep from screaming at everyone in the room with a Y chromosome. Bunch of mutants.
“I’m going to D.C. That’s final.”
When Johann shook his head, she slammed a fist down on the table. Both laptops hopped in response. “Why not?”
“Because you’re a woman,” Johann said as if offering a perfectly reasonable explanation.
She wondered if it would be perfectly reasonable to knock some sense into his thick skull. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You’d stick out like a sore thumb.”
Gina rolled her eyes. “You think there aren’t any women at the Pentagon? How long have you been away from the real world, Johann?”
He narrowed his eyes. “You think there are any women anywhere in the upper levels of the Department of Defense like Zach’s contact? Think he’d trust a woman? That’s still a male-only crowd. And a woman like you? Hell, Gina, you’d make them all stare.”
She couldn’t stop a smile. “That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
Zach put his hand on her shoulder. “He’s right.”
“He may be right, but I’m going anyway.”
“Gina...”
“Don’t try to sweet talk me out of it. I’m going and that’s final.”
* * *
“I hate this cloak and dagger stuff,” Johann griped as Gina slid the Key over the door latch.
“Aye,” Artair added. “Give me a face-to-face fight.” He tugged at the collar of his uniform shirt like the thing was strangling him.
Gina couldn’t help but wonder how confining the pants were after centuries of wearing nothing but a kilt.
Rewarded with the lock’s soft click, she grinned back at the three men who looked so horribly masculine and very, very uncomfortable.
She’d had no trouble donning the dress blues again. “I love this cloak and dagger stuff.”
It hurt her ego that she finally had to use the Key as her reason to tag along. No matter how much Johann bitched or Artair bellowed, she wouldn’t surrender the Key, nor would it work for them if she had. If they wanted to get through any doors at the Pentagon, letting her in on the mission was their only choice.
She shoved Zach behind her. Holding her breath, she pushed the door open. A quick sweeping gaze assured her the room was empty.
“Stop doing that,” he said, brushing past her.
“Doing what?” Since he was speaking at normal volume, she stopped whispering.
“Pushing me behind you. I can take care of myself, Gina.”
“Don’t get your tightie-whities in a knot. It’s just a reflex. I’m the Amazon. I’m protecting you.”
“I can protect myself. You shouldn’t even be here.”
“Damn right,” Johann echoed.
No way around it. Her hair had to be red. Lipstick red. “Listen, you male chauvinist pigs—”
“Quit yer arguing and let’s get this done,” Artair ordered, giving Johann a shove. “Plant the virus, then we all get out.”
“You’ll take care of the cameras, Johann?” Zach nodded at the small black bubble in the ceiling.
“Oh, yeah.” Johann whipped the phone off his belt and punched a few buttons. “Amazing how twitchy some equipment is. Every camera we get near will suddenly record nothing but static.”
“I love what the goddesses can do with technology,” Zach said. “Damn, I’d love to have any one of them working at HanTel.”
Artair growled low in his throat.
Gina took that as a sign his tenuous patience had run out and he was about to go Sentinel on their asses. “Quit the small talk. Just get in, plant the virus, and get out.”
Zach strode to one of the computers and went to work on the keyboard. How he knew which one was the right one was beyond her. They all looked exactly alike.
He whipped the lanyard with his memory stick off his neck and plugged it in the computer. A tiny yellow light gave him the go ahead. “All I need is a couple of minutes, and we can get the hell out of here.”
Gina was just about to sigh in relief when the hair on the back of her neck tingled. “Shit. Something’s wrong.”
A few bright flashes of light accompanied some loud pops. For a moment, she figured Ix Chel and the other goddesses might have shown up.
No such luck.
Four figures now stood between her and Zach. Two were SOGs. She could deal with them, no sweat.
But was that really... “Helen?”
Gina would thoroughly enjoy kicking her ass. Rebecca would have a fit that she wasn’t here to take Helen down herself. Earth felt it was her responsibility to bring the rogue ex-Earth to justice. Rebecca would have to settle for feeling the satisfaction when Air brought Helen to her knees.
Then Gina had to blink against the last face.
No. No fucking way.
He was her friend. He was her ally. He couldn’t be with Helen and the SOGs.
“Richard? What the hell?”
Artair glared at Zach. “’Twould seem your DOD contact is not as trustworthy as you thought. He’s in league with traitors.”
Richard’s gaze frantically shifted between Gina and Zach.
Gina moved to block Richard’s clear shot at Zach. How could he have sunk so low? She’d known he was pissed she’d rejected him, but she would never have believed he’d stoop so low, not after he’d risked so much to escape and stop Sekhmet. “Helen? Really, Richard? You’re throwing in with Helen?”
“We serve our beloved Sekhmet,” the shorter SOG said, raising his chin as though he should be proud.
“You went back to Sekhmet?” Gina demanded. “Why? Why would you do something so fucking stupid?”
“Get out of the way, Gina.” Richard’s stare was cold as ice. “We just want Zach.”
“Helen,” Artair said, his voice low and menacing. “I sh
ould have known I’d find ye in the middle of this mess.”
“Artair.” Helen gave him a condescending nod. “We meet again.”
“I shall have to kill you this time so that I might return the favor.” He reached under his pants cuff for the knife he had strapped to his leg.
His voice was so deceptively calm that Gina might have thought he wasn’t angry. His hardened face told her otherwise. Of course, his rage was justified by the fact Helen had murdered him once already. Only Rebecca’s love and magicks had brought him back.
Helen smirked. “I see no goddess-blessed arrows strapped to your back, old man. Nor does your Earth stand at your side. You may try to kill me, but you won’t succeed in doing anything except bringing about your own death. Again.” Turning to the two SOGs, she pointed at Zach who was still furiously working on the computer as if no one else was in the huge room. “Get him so we can get out.”
The moment the first SOG took a step toward Zach, the room erupted in chaos. Artair charged Helen, while Johann and Richard started exchanging blows.
Gina went after the closest SOG, knocking him down and climbing over him to get to the second. Grabbing fistfuls of his shirt, she heaved him into the closest object, a fairly large computer desk. A loud crash echoed through the room as the man’s head shattered the screen of the monitor, and he and the equipment ended up in a heap on the floor.
She whirled back around to reach for Zach when she saw the air rippling between the first SOG’s hands like waves of heat off a hibachi grill.
Shit. They’d come loaded for bear. He was a damn thrower, and he was about to toss one of those devastating shock waves at Zach.
All she had time to do was put herself in front of the man she loved as the SOG pushed his palms out, setting the shock wave in motion.
Like some slow-motion scene in a movie, the action played itself out. The wave pulsed through the air just as the left side of her body blocked the path to Zach. The force of it slammed her hard against him, and the two collapsed on the floor as Richard shouted her name.
Her ribcage hurt like a son of a bitch. She tried to draw in a breath, but all she did was rasp and wheeze.
Broken rib and punctured lung.
