by C. C. Bolick
“How did you get in here?” I asked. “You have to see a place to teleport.”
In a fury, Angel stood. “You sneak. You’ve been in my office.”
“I’m not here to fight with you,” Van said. “I’m here to help Rena.”
She eyed him for several tense moments and he flinched. “You’re worried about something. I can feel your fear.”
“I talked with Sylvia. She insisted I not leave the base with Rena under any condition.”
“Which is why you hurried down here to grab her,” Skip said. “I don’t want to be part of your schemes. I like my job here.”
“Skip’s right,” Angel said. “Your game with Sylvia could cause problems for us all.”
“I want to find my brother,” I said. “If you’re sure Louis has him at the house in Spain, show Van a picture so he can take me there. Sylvia doesn’t have to know you helped us.”
“She’ll know,” Skip said. “That woman knows everything.”
“How can we trust you to keep Rena safe?” Angel asked. “Maybe it would be better if I went instead of—”
“No,” Van said. “I won’t leave this base unless Rena’s with me.”
Angel nodded to Skip. “Show him the picture.”
Skip sighed and logged back onto the laptop. He made several clicks, typed another code, and turned the laptop so Van and I could see the screen. “Is this enough to get you there?”
Van looked over the picture. It was the same two-story house where Travis took me. “Yes.”
Angel squeezed my arm. Her hands were like ice against my skin. “Be careful. Sylvia doesn’t trust Van for good reason. I don’t trust him either.”
“When have I given you a reason to doubt me?” he asked.
Angel raised her head and met his eyes. After a moment, Van squirmed. Was Angel using her power to control him? “If you hurt Rena, you’ll have to face me. Since you claim we’re family, I’ll be twice as willing to make you sorry. Do you understand?”
Van nodded and reached for my arm. Before anyone could say a word, we teleported out of the base and materialized in front of Louis’s house.
“This is it,” I said. “We’re standing outside just like when Travis brought me.”
“I visualized us here from the picture based on the angle it was taken. Travis looked at the same picture.”
I nodded. “How do you want to enter?”
“They already know we’re here. How we enter has little bearing on the end result.”
“Which hopefully is saving my dad and brother.” I stepped forward, but he didn’t release my arm. “Why are you sure they know we’re here?”
“A man like Louis watches all angles. Sylvia seemed to think he could be your father.”
“He’s not.”
“You’re sure Agent Mason is your father?”
“DNA doesn’t lie.” Louis Castillo was not my father as Bethany had said. Bethany…. Mama… they were supposed to be the same person. Mama had taken over Bethany’s body after the young woman spent ten years in a coma. Then she joined Louis and perpetrated the lie Louis was my dad. Good thing I’d asked Erin to run the test. At least I knew the truth.
Hopefully I’d soon know why Mama lied.
Van looked over the two-story house and tightened his grip on my arm. He teleported us to an entrance on one side of the house. Long shadows fell across the ground from huge trees waving tirelessly in the morning sunlight.
Above us, the sky shined with a bright blue, not boasting a single cloud. I peered over the expansive garden behind the house, where I’d talked with Bethany on my last visit. Van’s phone appeared in his hand and he held it near the door.
“The alarm has been neutralized.” He waved a hand over both locks, each giving way with a clicking sound. Van turned the handle and opened the door. Before I could say a word, he pulled me into a dimly lit room and closed the door. Computers lined a table along the wall to my right, towers with flashing lights. Shelves lined the wall to my left, filled with long-barreled guns meant for fighting wars.
On a table a few feet away was what looked like parts for building one of Louis’s infamous bombs. As my eyes adjusted, I noticed several tables held fully built bombs similar to those he’d insisted I defuse in the past. A few flashed with red and yellow lights next to the glow of a laptop screen.
“This isn’t good,” I said.
Van walked along the wall, reviewing the guns, and stopped at one of the tables. I cut through stacks of military gear in piles on the floor to catch up with him. I reached for one of the bombs, but Van grabbed my arm.
“Something is wrong,” he said.
“Everything is wrong when it comes to Louis.” I glanced around the ceiling and spotted cameras in each corner. “He’s watching us.”
Van held up the phone. “I’m using a portable frequency mask. He could see us with his eyes but not with this antiquated technology.”
Voices sounded and Van pulled me between two tall shelves with guns.
“We need to go upstairs,” I whispered. “I’m sure Dad and Alfie are being held there.”
Glancing around, Van shoved me to my knees and dropped down beside me. He punched the screen of his device. “I’m not an expert with technology, but the shield signatures resonating from that far table are highly advanced for humans.” He pointed between the guns.
I rubbed my knees where I’d slammed the concrete floor. “I have no idea what you just said.”
“The table next to the far wall—the one with a black and red suitcase.”
“I see it.”
“There’s a field around it that shouldn’t be here, not for another thousand years.”
The voices came closer. Three men talked for about twenty minutes in a language I didn’t understand. I took shallow breaths and Van sat as if eternally patient. Finally, the men grabbed an armful of guns and left the room.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief when a door clicked shut. “They must have been speaking Spanish.” Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard any of those words in Spanish class.
“It wasn’t Spanish.” Van ran across the room and stopped at the table.
I tripped on the strap of a laptop bag but caught myself. “What is it?” I asked when I reached the table.
Van slid his finger across the screen of his phone. A high-pitched wail cut through the air and Van looked around in a panic. “Time to leave.” He grabbed my arm and teleported us back to the base, inside Angel’s empty office.
“What are you doing?” I screamed at him.
“Saving your life. The weapons in that room weren’t stable. Radiation seeping from the cores could kill us both.”
“I could have stopped any of Louis’s bombs.”
“That’s a substantial claim. When I noticed the shields, I asked myself, ‘why would a human need this strong of a shield?’ Also, where did he procure this technology? No human built that shield.”
“What are you saying?”
“Louis has technology from Golvern. How he came to possess this technology is the question I want answered.”
“You took me there to save my dad and brother. If what you’re saying is true, they’re in more danger than I realized.”
“Yes.” Van stared at Angel’s desk as if deep in thought.
“How can you be sure the technology is from Golvern?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Because I recognize it. The language those men were speaking is my language.”
“They’re from your planet?”
“A fair assumption. I’m more worried about their plans than their origins.”
He moved away from me and I feared he would teleport at any second. “Where are you going?”
“To find out how Louis got his weapons.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because keeping Louis from blowing up this planet keeps you safe. If I were you, I’d keep our trip to myself.”
I grabbed his arm. “Help me save my d
ad and brother. Take me back there and teleport them home.”
“Saving them was not part of my orders,” Van said. “I was told to keep you alive.” He disappeared, leaving me in the empty office.
* * * * *
Two hours later, a knock sounded on the door to my room. I’d barely gotten to sleep and cursed the sound as I stomped to the door and threw it open.
Van looked over my face. “Now isn’t the time for sleep.”
“No,” I said. “It’s time to save my family. You were my only chance.”
“Don’t you have friends?” Van asked.
“Not in Atlanta. Sylvia would never approve of me going to Louis’s house.” The way he stared made me feel slightly guilty. Van did take me to Spain. He only aborted the mission when he thought I was in danger. “What about you? Where are your friends?”
“I have no friends.”
I wanted to laugh at his statement, but his words sounded brutally honest. Maybe Van didn’t have friends. “What about Tyler and the other people you work with?”
“They’re needed elsewhere.”
“Did you find out how Louis got his bombs?”
“I need resources for this investigation. Resources are scarce at the moment.”
“Why did you come here alone?” I asked.
“To keep you out of trouble until our queen arrives.”
“She’s coming here? Makes as much sense as you coming alone to help me.” I started to shut the door but Van jammed his foot in my way.
“She’s coming under the guise of a trade agreement,” he said. “Sylvia is already preparing for her arrival, along with Senator McCall. Her true purpose is to prevent a disaster.”
“Why tell me?”
“You asked why I came alone. I’m simply explaining in a way that makes sense. Like Travis, she can see the future. She believes someone inside of your agency can prevent billions of people from dying. The burden of knowing the future is having the ability to change it. She’s ordered me to find this person and stop the carnage.”
“Do you always follow your queen’s orders?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation.
I stared at Van while trying to figure out why he knocked on my door. “I’ll help with your disaster, but right now all I care about is getting my family back.”
“I was told to protect you but not get involved in the agency’s decisions.” He looked skyward. “I’m not supposed to give you any more hints, but…”
“But?”
He spoke each word as if trying to make sure I understood. “Don’t you have friends here who could help you? Maybe someone who isn’t scared of Sylvia?”
I thought of Agent Dallas. She wasn’t a friend but Sylvia had said she wanted to help me. Agent Dallas and Rachelle were at the South Pole, along with Hannah. As a rogue agent, Hannah definitely didn’t fear Sylvia. Maybe they could help me change Sylvia’s mind. “How do you feel about cold weather?”
He waved and two jackets appeared, one in each hand.
“That was quick. Do you know where we’re going?”
“No, but I’ve learned with you to be prepared.”
* * * * *
After convincing Skip to show Van a picture of the entrance to the base at the South Pole, and standing still long enough for Angel to wrap me in an outfit she claimed could protect me from sub-zero temperatures for a whopping twenty minutes, I waited in Angel’s office while struggling to breathe. I pulled the face wrap loose.
“There’s something you need to know about Rachelle’s power,” she said.
Before Angel could finish, Van grabbed my arm and teleported me to a vast landscape of ice. We stood near the same igloo-shaped structure from Skip’s picture. Cold air stung my face, which was the only part of my body not fully covered.
A square door sat at the front of the structure. The rounded top was made of shiny glass or metal. Beyond the dome, a rectangular shape of packed ice stretched several hundred feet into the distance. On top of the dome, an American flag flapped in the gentle breeze.
Van patted the laser that hung at his side. “If we get separated here, you won’t last long in this ice.”
“Is it cold on your planet?”
“Our weather is mild compared to this,” he said. “It’s never snowed, yet.”
“Why do you say yet?”
He moved toward the door and I waddled ahead in the thick fur boots. Each step was a struggle not to fall. My shoes didn’t sink into snow as I’d hoped but slid on the icy surface. This outfit had to be overkill, though my cheeks and nose already felt numb. We reached the door and Van raised a hand to knock.
I felt around the door’s frame, my thick gloves not finding any type of doorbell. I nodded and he pounded the door. The sky was clear like it had been in Spain but way too cold for me. I preferred the warm weather of Florida.
The door opened and Rachelle looked over us, her face taut with surprise. “Rena?”
I stepped forward and she pulled me inside.
“You don’t want to be out there for long,” she said, not releasing me.
Van followed and closed the door behind us.
“How did you end up with Van?” Rachelle asked.
I shook the ice from my boots. “You know him?”
She rolled her eyes. “Unfortunately.”
Bright lights illuminated a room with a table and chairs, similar to one of the waiting rooms at the base. The walls held pictures with warm colors like sunshine, including a painting of a beach with white sand and seagulls overhead. The floor was made of a rubber material instead of carpet.
Rachelle led us down a hall with a bathroom that reminded me of the tiny space we used in the camper. Several rooms stood to either side of the hall. Through the open doors I noticed bunk beds. At the end of the hall was a kitchen with a short counter and a sink no bigger than the one in the bathroom.
“What do you think?” Rachelle asked.
“It’s like living in a camper.”
She shrugged. “We haven’t been here long enough to get used to the lack of space.”
The woman at the stove turned around. I took a deep breath of the sausage she cooked; did I smell biscuits in the oven?
“Are you hungry?” she asked. It had to be Rachelle’s mom; their faces looked alike, along with their beautiful, wide smiles.
“I already had breakfast,” I lied. The truth was, I hadn’t thought about food since the day before. My stomach rumbled with the aromas. “We don’t have much time.”
“All we have down here is time,” Rachelle’s mom said.
“The time zone is different here,” Rachelle said. “We have whatever meal we feel like whenever we feel like cooking.”
Agent Dallas walked into the kitchen from the opposite end and drew her gun, pointing it at Van. This was the agent who I’d thought tried everything in her power to separate me and Travis. I thought she’d wanted to get me in trouble, but Sylvia suggested she only wanted to help.
“You don’t want to do that,” Van said.
“Why are you here?” she demanded.
“Because Rena asked me to bring her here,” he said.
“You answer to her?” she shot back.
“No,” he said. “For now, I must keep her safe.”
Agent Dallas’s words filled with sarcasm. “You’re as blind as Travis. All he wanted to do was save Rena and he’s stayed in trouble ever since.”
Van chuckled with real amusement. He eased back until he leaned against the doorway. “I assure you, I’m nothing like Travis. If you point that gun at Rena, I’ll kill you before you can pull the trigger. Travis would consider before killing you.”
She lowered the gun. “What is it with men and wanting to keep her safe? Rena is quite capable of saving herself. When are you going to figure that out?”
Wow—it was the nicest thing Agent Dallas had said about me. “Do you really think I’m strong enough?”
Agent Dallas gave me a look
of certainty. “You’re one of the most bad-ass chicks I know. If only you’d grow some confidence, we’d all be in trouble.”
“I thought I heard voices.” Hannah stepped into the room behind Agent Dallas. Travis and Sylvia had both warned me not to trust Hannah, even suggesting she was a bad influence because she didn’t agree with the agency’s politics. She’d betrayed the agency and lost her agent status before I arrived. What she hadn’t lost was her gift to ‘borrow’ powers. Since Sylvia had no way to erase Hannah’s memory, her only choice was to keep Hannah locked away.
“Seems we’re at capacity.” Hannah gave Van a hard stare. “I don’t trust you.”
Funny to hear Hannah not trusting someone when Sylvia claimed she couldn’t trust Hannah. “He brought me here,” I said.
“Why?” Hannah asked.
I told them how I ran from the base and how Sylvia refused to let me help Dad and Alfie, everything but my trip to Louis’s house.
Agent Dallas put her gun away. “You’re here for our help?”
“Sylvia doesn’t want me involved.”
“She’s protecting you,” Agent Dallas said.
“I don’t want her protection,” I said. “I want my dad and brother back. Sylvia doesn’t want to help me but I thought maybe you could change her mind.”
“What about Travis?” Hannah asked. “Why didn’t he bring you here?”
“You don’t know?”
Rachelle’s mom loaded sausages onto a plate and pulled a pan of biscuits from the oven. “Perhaps we should sit while we talk.”
“There isn’t time. We’ve got to…” I turned and noticed Van no longer stood near the door. I ran into the hall, but it was empty. “Did you see where he went?” I checked the other rooms. Only one was occupied, by a sleeping man who had to be Rachelle’s dad.
“Find him?” Hannah asked when I returned to the kitchen.
I shook my head. “Did anyone see him leave?”
Laughing, Hannah reached for a biscuit. She grimaced in pain as she moved toward the hall, dragging the leg with her bad knee. “He probably promised to help you. Don’t ever trust that man.”
“No, he never promised to help me. He’s never promised me anything.”
