by Gini Koch
“I don’t see Gladys,” Jeff said in a low voice.
“She’s likely to be with Ronaldo or the Poofs, depending.” On whether or not she was fooling Ronaldo.
Looked around. No one in this hangar was acting like an automaton. They were all watching us with varying degrees of suspicion or interest, prisoners included, which likely meant they were in control of their own minds. After all, Uncle Mort hadn’t told them to leave or do anything else, and where else would they take all these prisoners anyway?
But the person I’d choose to leave here hiding in plain sight would be the one who knew how to blend in the best and who was also the most ruthless killer.
Sending an A-C to tackle Dier would be the smart choice. Only she’d proved that she knew how to shoot and kill someone moving at hyperspeed, and I’d be damned if I was going to watch either my husband or White get shot in front of me. Besides, while the Poofs were powerful, they were still animals. Animals who loved me and protected me, and who needed my protection in return.
Of course, first I had to figure out which one she was, without letting her know I’d figured out which one she was. Which, considering how many people were in here, was harder than it sounded. Everyone had something on their heads, all the women had their hair up or back, and the prisoners were even better covered.
“Remember,” Chuckie said quietly, “we need to capture these people alive to have a hope of finding the Mastermind, let alone foiling whatever their end game is.”
“James just texted me,” Jeff said. “He thinks the base commander’s been under mind control. They were about to send missiles into the Science Center, but your uncle stopped it. The squatters are countering.”
“Tell them Chernobog’s in Cuba somewhere. Maybe they can find her signal somehow.” I wasn’t looking at Jeff. I was looking at the prisoners. Most of the prisoners were doing what the military personnel were doing—watching the weird people who were hanging around the doorway.
One wasn’t. He was pointedly looking down at his lap. And he was sitting near to a female in military garb. And they were both at the far end from the door.
“Okay, let’s get out of here. We’ll meet up with the others at the computer center.”
We stepped outside. “What are you planning?” Chuckie asked. “And trust me, we all know you’re planning something.”
“Yeah, I am. Mahin, lots of dirt around here.”
“Yes, there is.”
“Awesome. On my signal, make a dirt wall and put it around all of you.”
“What?” Jeff asked. “What in the hell—”
“Now!” I ran, and got on the other side as the wall went up. Knew I didn’t have long, but hopefully I’d be faster than Jeff or the others.
Ran back into hangar and headed right for the two people I’d spotted. Aimed for the woman and hit into her before anyone saw me.
It was Dier for sure, which was nice, because I slammed her back and down and started beating the crap out of her. She was fighting back, but I’d knocked the weapon out of her hands and was definitely stronger than she was.
I probably would have won, too, because I was angry and I’d had the element of surprise. But I’d neglected to remember a couple of key facts.
One of which was that while Mahin had to have dirt and dust around to do her thing, Darryl would pretty much always have air handy.
And, of course, no one else with a gun actually realized that the Navy Ensign I was beating up was a bad guy.
So, when I was flung high up into the air, every gun in the hangar was no longer focused on the prisoners, but was, instead, pointed directly at me. Always the way.
CHAPTER 70
“LEAVE HER ALONE!” The voice wasn’t Jeff’s or Chuckie’s—it was Mahin’s.
Dirt flew into everyone’s eyes, military and prisoners alike. Which was great in some ways and not in others.
In terms of great, it meant that no one could see to shoot at me, and they were all trained well enough that they didn’t just randomly fire at each other.
It wasn’t so great in that being somewhat blinded meant Darryl also lost concentration. At least I assumed that’s why I was no longer being held up in the air via his snazzy airbending moves and was, instead, plummeting straight for the concrete far below as if Gravity was pissed that I’d once again thought I was too good for it and truly wanted to teach me a lesson this time.
“Gotcha!” Jeff said, right before he caught me. Then he said, “Oof!” But I was incredibly happy to not have my legs shattered, so chose not to complain.
“You rock the awesome catching as always.”
“I’ve had so much practice since I met you, it’s instinctive at this point.” He hugged me tightly, hearts pounding. “We’re going to have a really big fight about the stunt you just pulled, but not right now.”
I hugged him back. “I couldn’t risk her shooting you.”
“Speaking of shooting,” Jeff said, as the military personnel began to recover and once again had their weapons at the ready. All pointed at us, of course.
“Hands up,” Dier said as she got to her feet. “Shoot them if they so much as move.” She looked happily vindictive.
“How can we put our hands up if you’re going to shoot us if we move? Just asking and all.”
Someone knocked every gun out of every hand before anyone had a time to answer the conundrum I’d posed. Nice to know Christopher was back. Nicer still that his timing was impeccable.
He’d clearly taken in the scene properly, because he’d dropped Hughes and Walker off right by Dier, and they proceeded to hit the vindictive look off her face. I was quite pleased that they’d decided the “no hitting girls” rule didn’t apply to psychopathic assassins.
Darryl was on his hands and knees and started to crawl away. “The kid near her on the ground is an airbender!” Hughes kicked Darryl in the head. Darryl went down. “Nice work!” Hey, I believed in positive reinforcement.
Some of the other prisoners made a half-hearted attempt to run away, but Christopher used the first one to really go for it as a human baseball bat, and the rest decided sitting right back down was the better part of valor. The guy who’d been used as the bat looked like he’d recover. Soon enough.
In a matter of a minute we were back in seeming control of the situation. Chuckie took the opportunity to wave his impressive C.I.A. badge around and the military personnel seemed much happier. Chuckie and my mom had the best badges—no one ever reacted in the same way to anything I tossed around.
Chuckie got Dier and Darryl into handcuffs. “What do we do to keep him from using his talents against us?” Chuckie asked Mahin.
“I have to use my hands to focus the power. But I don’t know what he does or doesn’t need to do.”
“Keep him knocked out,” Chuckie said to Hughes and Walker, who were now on Prisoner Containment Duty. “Who do you answer to?” he asked Dier.
She glared at him, but didn’t speak.
“Can you read her?” Chuckie asked Jeff.
“No, so she’s got a blocker on her somewhere or it’s on the base, because I’m not getting anyone, Kitty included. Which is how you fooled me,” he added softly.
“I’ll let you punish me for being a bad girl later. But I need you to put me down right now.”
He obliged. “I’ll hold you to that, baby.”
“Good.” I went to Dier and punched her right in the face. Was pretty sure I broke her nose. “You murdered my friend.” Punched her again. “And you weren’t supposed to, were you?” Punched her in the stomach, just to mix it up. “So talk, or I’ll just punch you until you can’t do anything but be a human target.”
“You don’t get how this all works, do you?” she asked me. “Hit me all you want. You won’t get anything out of me.”
“Yeah? Where are my Poofs?”
Dier smirked. “Saying goodbye.”
Grabbed the nearest person in uniform, whose uniform declared him Lt. Pierce. “
Where are the trash compactors, or the fiery furnaces, or whatever it is you guys use to get rid of garbage?”
“I found them already,” Christopher said, as he grabbed me and we took off. Unfortunately for Lt. Pierce, I was still holding onto him. Oh well. Maybe we’d need him.
Christopher was, of course, using the super fast Flash Level hyperspeed. Figured the nausea would be worth it if we were able to find and save the Poofs.
We reached a building that proclaimed itself to be waste management and went inside, where Christopher stopped. Pierce hit the ground on hands and knees, retching. I managed to merely gag while standing up. “Where would those diabolical fiends put my Poofs?”
“Incinerator,” Pierce gagged out.
Took a look around. There were a lot of incinerators. “Crap. You take one side, I’ll take the other.”
Christopher and I zipped through the facility. No Poofs. Tried not to panic. Ran back to Pierce. “Where else could they be?”
He shook his head and I lost it and started shaking him. “My uncle is Major General Mortimer Katt. My husband is Congressman Jeffrey Martini. And I’m the Ambassador for American Centaurion. But if my pets have been murdered on American soil I will declare war and I will start by actually letting the bad guys blow this base to kingdom come!”
Pierce managed to shove me off of him, helped by Christopher, who was literally holding me back. “I’m trying to help you, ma’am,” Pierce gasped out. “If you think someone’s trying to dispose of live animals, this wouldn’t be the most likely place.”
“They’re evil people and they want the animals to suffer before they die.”
“Ah. Then this would be the place. But if they’re not in the furnaces yet, then they might be up there.” He pointed up to a conveyor belt that had big metal baskets hanging from it.
“It so figures. Lieutenant, how do we turn this conveyor belt off?”
“I don’t know. I don’t work this job.”
“I can read,” Christopher said as he took off.
I could read too, and I didn’t see anything that said Off Button for the conveyor. I did see something sparkling up above, though. The Poof cages had been weirdly shiny. “They’re up there for sure.”
Wondered if I could run fast enough to run up the walls. Maybe. But that would just put me in the basket with the Poofs or worse, and I had just enough self-control to realize that would only make things more terrible.
Heard a squawk, then Bruno arrived, followed by Jeff and Mahin. Bruno flew up and started screaming. He was hovering over a basket that looked ready to tip. “We need to get up there!” I shouted desperately.
A dust devil formed. It wasn’t huge but it looked solid. Small, but solid. It dawned on me that Mahin needed more dirt.
Ran outside and dug into the ground with my hands, ran back and tossed the dirt into the room. The dust devil got bigger. The conveyor belt stopped, but based on where it was when the belt came to a halt, the bin Bruno was near was rocking. A lot. In that way that indicated momentum was going to ensure it rocked farther and faster, versus slowed down.
Jeff followed me outside. He had some scrap metal in his hands, which he used like a shovel. He dug; I threw the dirt into the room. We were both moving at the fastest hyperspeed we could. Wasn’t sure if it would be enough.
Bruno had something in his claws and he managed to get down to the ground with it. It was a Poof in a Poof Trap alright. Bruno looked wilted. “Stay here, Bruno. The heat’s too much for you.” Meaning it was incredibly hot, because Alpha Four was a very warm planet.
The Poof Trap was hard to open, but I’d seen Brian do it, so I did what he had and was able to rip it apart. The Poof was an unattached one. “Can you save the other Poofies?”
It mewed piteously. No, it couldn’t. The substance the Traps were made of was something the Poofs couldn’t work with or around.
Resisted the urge to curse. Especially when I looked up to see the bin tip over.
CHAPTER 71
THE POOF TRAPS poured out as I clutched the one Poof to me. I was too horrified to scream. At least out loud. I was screaming in my head, though.
But there were no horrible little answering screams from my trapped pets. The Poofs poured into the dust devil. And they didn’t pour right out again.
Mahin was sweating, and she didn’t look like she could hold the dust devil too much longer. Tried to think of what to tell her.
“Relax,” Christopher said, sounding like he did when he and I worked on my control. “You’ve got it. Channel up from your feet, they’re touching the source of your power.”
Mahin nodded. “Have to move them. But . . . it’s hard . . .”
“No, you don’t have to move anything but the dirt, and you control it. You just have to move the dirt,” he said, sounding calm and unworried. “They’ll go with the dirt. Just bring the dirt back to you, where it all belongs. You control the dirt.”
“Yes, but . . .”
“Breathe. In and out. Relax and just let it all flow. You’ve done this a million times. Right now it’s just another time, that’s all.”
Mahin took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The dirt looked more solid. It sailed away from the incinerator, swirled down and around, and settled in a pile in front of Mahin.
There were a lot of Poofs in traps, covered with dirt. Jeff and Christopher started digging them out and opening up the traps. I got up and hugged Mahin. Then I burst into tears. Felt stupid, but I couldn’t help it.
She hugged me back. “Did we get all of them?”
The Poof I was holding mewed. “Yes, all that were here.” Took a deep breath and got it together. “They have my Poof, Poofikins, and the Head Poof, Harlie.” To do something nefarious with them, I was sure. Probably starting with telling us these were the last Poofs around. Hadn’t thought it was possible for me to hate these people more than I already did, but found out it was.
“You can understand what it says?” she asked, as we separated and the unattached Poof jumped onto Mahin’s shoulder and rubbed against her neck. She giggled. “That tickles. They’re little fluff balls, aren’t they?”
The Poof purred and looked at me with a very satisfied expression. “Ah, Mahin? This one’s yours.”
“Oh, you don’t have to give me one,” she said a little regretfully. “I owed you this. At least this.”
“Not going to debate that at the present time. However, the way it works for the Poofs is if you name it, you’re attached to it, and it to you. Meet your Poof, Fluffball.”
The Poof purred even louder. “Really?” Mahin asked. “It thinks that’s its name? It thinks it’s mine?”
“That is now its name and it is now yours.”
“Yeah,” Jeff said, as he got the last Poof Trap opened. “Welcome to the family.”
Mahin looked like she was going to follow my lead and burst into tears. “I don’t know what to say.” Her voice broke. “I’ve been alone since my parents died.”
“I know.” Jeff put his arm around her shoulders. “I read you before. Look, the bird approved you, the Poofs approved you, and you’ve done nothing but help us since you found out you’d aligned with the wrong side. People make mistakes. You didn’t pull the trigger, the assassin did, and you helped us capture her, twice. Stop beating yourself up.”
I jerked. “You can feel her emotions?”
“Yeah. And yeah, I know that means that the emotional blocker was on Dier, not just randomly on the base. Have no idea what that means, however.”
“It means if we strip search that bitch we can find another blocker or enhancer that Serene and her team can take apart. The kid probably has one on him, too.”
“Tim just sent me a text,” Christopher said. “They haven’t found Al Dejahl, Kozlow, or Gladys anywhere in the building where the computer center is. Our computer team has what might be a lead on Chernobog, though.”
Considered our options, and our quarries’ options. “You know, I shot Kozlow.
I only winged him, but, faster healing or not, he’d want medical attention. Would the base infirmary be in the same building as the computer center?”
“No,” Pierce said. “It’s nearby, though.”
“Great,” Jeff said, as he took firm hold of my hand and Christopher gathered up all the empty Poof Traps into a ratty-looking duffel bag he’d scrounged up. “We’re going back to the hangar and we can determine who’s going where after that.”
“Who are you and what have you done with my husband?”
This got a laugh out of Christopher but Jeff just looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“When did being a politician start being your go-to move? You were Head of Field, and we’re in a Field situation, and they have our Poofs. You can go to the hangar, but I’m going to see if I can find Kozlow.”
Christopher slung the sack of Poof Traps on his back. “I’m with Kitty on this one, Jeff. In part because I have no desire to stop being in a Field situation until Gladys is back and the people who murdered Michael are all in prison or dead.”
“What Christopher said. To the tenth power.”
Jeff stared at us for a long moment. “Good points. You,” he pointed to Lt. Pierce. “Take us to the infirmary.”
“Ah, could we go at a normal speed?” Pierce asked. “I don’t know that I have anything left to throw up.”
“Everyone’s so picky.”
“No,” Christopher said as he finished sending a text and grabbed Pierce. “But if you’re nice about it, I might go sort of slowly.”
“But I wouldn’t count on it,” I added. “All Poofs with me, please and thank you.” My purse felt heavier. Scooped Bruno up with my free arm. “Let’s roll.”
“You sound so street when you say that,” Jeff said.
We headed for the infirmary but before we got there Mahin jerked at us and stopped running. “Look!” We all stopped, while Pierce started gagging.
Mahin pointed down one of the main, paved roads. There were three people on it, running toward the west, meaning toward the Cuban side. One of them was quite short, and one had what looked like a bandage on his upper arm.
