by Hahn, Joni
Dar cursed under his breath.
“So, now we have another freaking machine to worry about?” Aidan cried.
“Sounds like it,” Mitchell mumbled on a sigh.
The faint rumble of thunder sounded in the distance. Jocelyn shared a glance with Dar.
Oh no…
Dar spoke into the armband. “Sounds like they’re bringing the war to us.”
“I’ll be right there.” Tristan and Aidan said in unison.
Mitchell said, “Tristan. Aidan. Stop by the lab first and grab one of Robinson’s Kevlar suits.”
Dar ushered Jocelyn out of the machine. Wind whipped at her hair as rain fell from the darkening sky in sporadic drops.
They ran for the jeep Mitchell kept running.
Opening the back door, he got her inside. “Mitchell, get her in the compound and arm her.”
“I’ve called a lockdown for the compound. I’ll put them all in the safe room, just off my office.”
“Okay.” Dar leaned in and kissed her. “Get inside that safe room with the girls and do not come out until one of us comes for you. Understand?”
“Yes.” She kissed him again. “Be careful, Dar. Please.”
“Don’t worry, baby. They’re on our turf now.”
Chapter 13
Winds tossed the time machine on the sand like a buoy at sea. Rain and sand pelted Dar’s face like pin pricks as he, Tristan and Aidan waited just inside the open door. Deafening thunder roared and boomed in the dark sky, lightning flashing with powerful violence.
With Tristan and Aidan beside him, and his Walther PPK loaded and ready, Dar waited for their visitors with anticipation.
About fifty yards away, a bolt of lightning zapped the ground over and over in the same spot, spinning a wormhole in the sand. A flash of dazzling light blinded them before the storm went deathly silent.
A large, bell-shaped craft sat in the distance. It appeared nearly twice the size of the one they occupied, but identical in shape and design.
“Let’s go greet our guests, shall we?” Dar wanted to get this show on the road.
With a nod, Tristan scanned the pad of his forefinger over his armband to cloak. “I’m ready.”
Dar lead the way out of the machine.
“Let’s make this quick.” Aidan’s gloves glowed brighter the closer they got to the craft. “I had plans for Cass this morning and they did not include this shit.”
“Roger that,” Tristan said, “I’m done with Chalmers, VonFussenhoffer and whoever the hell else is involved. They’ve interfered in my life for the last time.”
No shit. Dar would live easier once he knew they were out of Jocelyn’s life permanently.
The door of the craft opened and the steps lowered. Two men wearing Nazi uniforms appeared, carrying Heckler & Koch MP5K submachine guns. Spotting Dar and Aidan, they raised them to their shoulders.
Hell. Those guns weren’t available during World War II. Obviously, Chalmers had taken nineteen eighties weapon design to the past. However, the advanced technology wasn’t enough to give them a clear advantage. They still needed twenty-first century technology to win.
Dar waved with a friendly smile. “Howdy.” Asshole.
One of the men jabbed his gun at them. “Zurückschieben.”
Their armbands gave an audio translation. Move back.
Dar said, “No, I think I’ll stay where I’m at, thanks.” Asshole.
A man with salt and pepper hair hurried down the steps, a man in a German officer’s uniform behind him. Neither carried a visible gun. Nice.
“Chalmers.” Aidan gave him a friendly smile as he held his glowing, gloved fists in front of him. “So, nice of you to visit.”
Chalmers’ steps slowed as he reached the desert floor. Turning back, he spoke in German to the man behind him as he pointed at Aidan’s gloves.
The officer said, “You are the electricity man that visited Professor Chalmers. How wonderful to meet your acquaintance. I am Colonel Otto VonFussenhoffer.”
“We know who you are.” Dar crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you want?”
VonFussenhoffer’s feigned friendliness disappeared. Baring his teeth, he glared at Dar with palpable evil.
“I want my gold, my weapons, and Miss Davis.”
Dar gave a brief shake of his head. “Nope. Can’t have them.”
VonFussenhoffer’s fists clenched in front of him. “I will have them or-“
“Or what?” Dar cocked a brow. “You’ll bring back more un-scary sailors to fight with us?”
Nostrils flaring, he huffed out a breath. “You have no idea of the power we have...”
“I guarantee you…” Dar pointed at him. “…we have more.”
Aidan shot lightning bolts at the German soldier on the right. Raising him off the ground, Aidan held him suspended in the current as the man shook violently. Electricity arced and flashed around him like bottle rockets on the Fourth. Chalmers and VonFussenhoffer backed up the steps, their eyes wide with fright. The submachine gun dropped to the sand, the soldier following.
Dar snatched up the gun.
The other man’s gun flew out of his hands. His face whipped to the side as blood spewed from an open cut under his eye. His head fell back against his shoulders, before he flew against the side of the machine and slid to the ground unconscious.
Damn, Jacobs was good.
Dar pointed the gun at VonFussenhoffer and Chalmers, who stared, mouths agape, at the general vicinity where Tristan stood.
“Told you.” Dar shrugged with nonchalance.
Chalmers said, “What have you done with Angela and my daughter?”
Now, he got around to asking about them?
“They’re safe.”
The veins in his neck bulged above his shirt collar. “You have no right to keep my family.”
“And, you had no right to kill my father.” Aidan growled through gritted teeth.
Chalmers’ surprised gaze shot to Aidan. “Jim Monroe wasn’t supposed to die. We intended to keep him as a contact. That was an unfortunate accident.”
Dar didn’t buy that for a second. “Just like Buckner trying to kill Jocelyn was an accident?”
His eyes bugged out. “Kill Jocelyn? I would never order something like that.” The shock on his face appeared genuine.
VonFussenhoffer pulled a small gun from his jacket and held it to Chalmers back.
Oh hell. They could not have a gun go off around this machine. The last thing they needed was a nuclear meltdown.
“I ordered it,” VonFussenhoffer said. “She knows too much and is of no use to us.”
Chalmers whipped around and backhanded VonFussenhoffer across the face. He fell into the stairs, the gun landing at Chalmers’ feet. Nathan picked it up and pointed it at the officer. “She’s my daughter, you bastard.”
“She does not fit in with the superior race. The blonde, she fits and is necessary for our success.”
“You’ll never get the blonde.” Dar couldn’t believe he just uttered those words.
“Then you all will pay…” Snatching the gun from Nathan’s hands, VonFussenhoffer shot him flush against the chest. Jolting, Chalmers dropped face first on top of him. Shoving off the body, the officer rushed up the machine steps.
Dar raced up after him. He faced the German, machine gun in hand. “You’re done, whack job. Give it up.”
VonFussenhoffer eyed the machine gun before gazing into Dar’s eyes. “Did you know this machine is nuclear powered?”
Don’t even go there, asshole.
Dar reinforced the grip on the machine gun. “Drop the gun and we’ll all live to see you executed.”
“Never.” With a loud cry, VonFussenhoffer fired several rounds at the instrument panel and the floor beneath. “We will all die now.”
Shit. He had to get the machine out of there before it blew.
Pulling back with all he had, Dar punched VonFussenhoffer in the face, knocking him out cold. He ran to the door.
/>
“He shot holes in the cooling rods. We’re going to have a freaking Chernobyl if I don’t get this thing out of here.”
Tristan appeared in an instant. “Take it to the ocean.”
Aidan said, “The environmentalists would be all over our ass.”
“I’ve got a better idea.” He looked at both of them. “Get up to the compound and alert the others. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“What are we going to do?” Aidan said.
“I’m taking it to the past. You’re getting the hell out of here.”
Aidan ran up the steps and past him.
Tristan followed. “Like hell we are. We’re coming with you.”
A minute later, frigid cold seared the interior walls of the time machine. Even through the heavy suit, Dar felt the cold settle into his bones in seconds. Frost clouded his vision with each breath he took.
He shivered violently. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Scrambling out of their seats, Dar lead them out of the machine and onto the Arctic ice shelf. He slipped on the slick ice but caught his balance.
Aidan jumped out of the craft and skidded across the icy surface. “You’re nuking Santa Claus, Naylor?”
“I hate to break it to you, Monroe, but Santa Claus doesn’t exist.”
That’s why he’d chosen the Arctic Circle to dump the machine. No one in their right mind would live up here. At least in nineteen forty-four, they had no environmentalists to deal with.
Dar could already feel the machine’s heat filtering in the frosty air. They had to get out of there.
“We’re in nineteen forty-four.” Turning to Tristan, he said, “Jacobs, you need to teleport us to Princeton, New Jersey.”
“How the hell are we going to do that without making two trips?” Aidan stood hands on hips.
Dar held up his armbands. “I’ll amplify Jacob’s warp field.”
With a blossoming grin, Tristan nodded. “Hell yeah.”
Aidan gave a nod of understanding. “I get it. We know where the radio tower is in Princeton. We’ll need it to teleport back.”
Dar pointed at his temple. “I knew my sister didn’t hook up with you for the sex.”
Tristan barked out a laugh.
Aidan pounded a fist in his other hand. “Remind me to kick your ass when we get back.”
Dar said, “Once we get to Princeton, Monroe, you can amplify my frequency and get us home.”
Respect shown in Aidan’s eyes. “Roger that.”
Pulling on their helmets, the three of them made a tight circle, facing out. Coordinating his settings with Tristan’s frequency, Dar activated his system. They locked forearms.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Dar said, “before we become walking zombies.”
Tristan scanned his thumb over his armband. Green plasma swirled in the frigid air, hiding the ice from their view.
Chapter 14
“Do not tell me you just freakin’ teleported onto this roof…”
Dar whipped around to find his sister’s ex, Riordan St. James, on the D.I.R.E. compound roof, his back against the elevator wall. Barefoot, he wore grey sweat pants and a navy blue D.I.R.E. Agency t-shirt. He carried a Beretta 9mm and had an oven mitt duct taped to his thigh with several knives of varying sizes inside it.
Dar frowned at him. “Okay, I won’t tell you, St. James.”
With a disbelieving gaze, Riordan eyed him up and down, before giving Tristan and Aidan the same treatment.
“What the hell are you doing out here like that?” Dar said.
Riordan’s gaze snapped to laser sharp. “Your freakin’ father has taken over the compound. Over half of the agents here are working for him, and the ones that aren’t, are dead.”
Shock blindsided Dar with brutal force, his blood pumping wildly through his body. Aidan’s gloves glowed brighter than he’d ever seen them, his blood visibly moving through the veins.
Jacobs barked at St. James. “What else do you know?”
St. James gave him an excuse-me? glare before answering. “He has that scientist guy, um…”
“Robinson…” Aidan said.
Riordan snapped his fingers. “Yeah, he has Robinson and some women holed up in Mitchell Jacobs’ office.”
Dar cursed in his head. His father had brought the O.K. Corral to them.
“Where’s Mitchell?” Dar pulled out a knife from St. James mitt.
“Hey.” St. James glared at him. “He’s inside with the women. And get this, Naylor. Jaydan Rose did a fly over. I counted fifteen guys that dropped in full-on camo.” He looked at Aidan and Tristan. “Looks like D.I.R.E. is going down.”
Dar turned to Aidan and Tristan. “If we teleport in the office-“
Aidan shook his head. “There’s no if about it, Naylor. We are teleporting in that office.”
“He’ll be waiting for us.” Dar assured them. “Most likely he’ll play us against each other. Try to force us to make choices.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I know him.”
If he so much as touched Jocelyn, Dar would tear him limb from limb.
“We need to take that option out of his hands, then,” Tristan said.
He turned to St. James. “Are you with us? Or Robert Naylor?” He pointed his gun at St. James forehead. “Choose wisely.”
St. James held up his hands. “What the hell? If I was on Naylor’s side, do you think I’d be out here telling you all of this?”
“Yes.” Tristan said. “If you were trying to set us up, or gain our confidence.”
St. James pressed his forehead flush against the barrel. “Then hell, go ahead and shoot ‘cause I can’t win.”
Tristan lowered the gun to his side. “How are you with a gun?”
St. James glanced at Dar then back at Tristan. “I used to be bad ass, but I’ve spent the last three years otherwise engaged. I may be a little rusty.”
Green plasma billowed around Tristan. “Better kick off the rust, St. James. We’re giving you a shot at Naylor.”
#####
Jocelyn winced at the pain throbbing in her legs. She knelt between Rachel and Angela on the polished concrete floor of Mitchell’s office, hands cuffed behind their backs. Cassandra knelt on the other side of Angela, her hands bound with duct tape.
Although the wall was at their backs, Robert Naylor wouldn’t allow them to sit. They were forced to stare at Mitchell sitting slumped over in a chair, nearly unconscious, his face unrecognizable amid the open cuts, welts and broken bones.
Mitchell had smiled at Angela throughout Naylor’s merciless, severe beating with a Billy club. How Angela had kept a dry eye, Jocelyn would never know. She’d just kept telling Mitchell how much she loved him and how happy he made her – until Kate put a stop to it by taping shut Angela’s mouth.
“Mitchell,” Kate said, as Robert circled his chair, Billy club in hand. “For the last time, where is Jim’s money?”
When Mitchell made no move to answer, Robert raised the club to hit him.
“Stop. Just… stop.”
Clint Robinson shouted from the corner before he mumbled curse words under his breath. He sat in a guest chair, his hands and feet tied with wire cables.
“You want to know where the money went? You’re looking at it.”
Naylor lowered the club to his side. “What are you talking about, Robinson?”
“Jim Monroe was the founder of The D.I.R.E. Agency.”
Rachel gasped as Kate’s gaze narrowed on Robinson’s face.
Mitchell’s pained groan came from deep in his chest. “No...”
“This compound,” Robinson said, “my hire, the agent enhancements, were all his idea. He asked Mitchell to head up the agency so he could keep a low profile and live a simple life in Creekmore.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Jocelyn saw a tear fall from Rachel’s hung head. It hit the floor with a splash.
“So there’s no money?” Kate’s frantic gaze shot to Robert then back to Robins
on.
“No. It was all invested in this compound and the satellite offices around the world.”
Mitchell groaned again, the sound muffled against his swollen lips. “No…”
Robinson lowered his voice. “I’m sorry, Mitchell, but it was bound to come out sooner or later.”
Jocelyn could see the wheels turning in Kate’s head. She’d counted on that money. She’d expected it. Anger pulsated off her in beats.
“The gold.” She turned to Jocelyn. “Where is it?”
Jocelyn lifted her chin. She wouldn’t let this evil woman intimidate her.
“I brought it here the first time we tried to buy the weapons technology from Jim. I haven’t… touched it since.”
She turned to Rachel, her voice laced with feigned affection. “My loving daughter. Where’s the gold?”
Rachel continued to hang her head, eyes on the floor.
“Did you hear what he said, Rachel?” Kate shouted. “Jim brought in millions of dollars yet, I had to work? He died and I’m left with the bills when he wouldn’t give me one dime of the money he made from designing weapons?” Her tone hardened. “I deserve that gold, Rachel. Where is it?”
No response.
“Look at me.” Kate shoved back Rachel’s head.
She let it fall forward. “I’d rather die.”
Kate looked down on her with great disdain. “This is all your fault, you know. If you would’ve just married Cody like I wanted you to do, I would’ve had the money I wanted and none of this would’ve transpired. If anyone’s to blame, it’s you, Rachel.”
An idea hit Jocelyn. If she could convince Kate and Robert to buy into it, she could give them all a chance at freedom.
“Enough.” Jocelyn spat the word to get their attention.
“I’ll tell you where the gold is located. Just leave her alone.”
Kate shared a confident grin with Robert.
“Jocelyn, no…” Cassandra’s voice held a warning tone.
Shaking her head, Angela wailed behind the tape.
Rachel looked at Jocelyn with flat, aqua eyes. “You have no right-“
“It’s in the time machine.” Jocelyn took a deep breath and broke eye contact. She turned to Kate. “But you’ll need me to get you inside.”
