by Lark Brennan
Right. How was that going to work?
A spear of fire rammed through his head and his cry filled the bunker.
Never question me, his brain-mate roared.
“Please. I won’t,” he sobbed. Had he not been sitting, he would have collapsed on the floor. And then the pain dissolved as quickly as it started. He took a deep breath. “I may need some guidance.”
Proceed. You’ll have all the power you need.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dawn glowed through the open curtains. Lex pulled the pillow over her head and rolled over. She tried to drift back to sleep to resume the luscious dream. Bodie’s scent, earth and his distinctive musk, saturated the pillow and sheets and made her want him again. She reached for him but he was gone. Her eyes sprang open and she jerked into full consciousness. She was in Bodie’s room, in his bed, and all alone.
A sharp buzzing went off somewhere then stopped. The heavy thumping of bare feet on wood and some colorful profanities triggered her memory. The sensor had picked up something.
She spotted her shorts and tank on the floor, grabbed them and dressed on her way to the door.
Bodie sat in front of the laptop in gym shorts squinting at the screen. “Come see this.”
She crossed to the table and stood behind him. The hybrid map showed the same area they’d looked at the night before. Now a sharp purple line bisected the screen from a point northeast of Anguilla to the reef southeast of Anegada. At the north end of the line was a blood red spot of orphic.
“Is the purple line the laser’s path?” she asked.
“Yeah. The sensor records intense delphic energy in purple since that color can’t exist in orphic. The beam only flashed for a few seconds but the scanner picked it up as we’d hoped.” His fingertip went to the line’s origin in what looked like open water and he zoomed in on a tiny island. “Know this place?”
“It looks like Sombrero. Nobody lives there. It’s just a rock with an unmanned lighthouse, lizards, and a lot of boobie and noddy guano.”
His head came around. “What?”
“Seabird shit.”
He chuckled. “So how about we go take a look?”
“There’s no beach, just steep cliffs that drop fifteen, twenty feet to rocks and rough water. We’d need a helicopter to land and I don’t have one of those handy.”
“We could fly over and see what’s down there.”
“If we saw something, we couldn’t land.” Her ComDev would tell them if there were any humans on the island, but if they waited until Victor arrived, he’d be able to do a telepathic scan and find out who was down there and what they were up to. “My cousin Victor should be here later today. Maybe we should wait for him?”
“Why?”
Tricky question to answer without revealing Victor’s abilities. “Another set of eyes.”
He rolled his eyes. “Try again.”
“He also has a helicopter license.”
“We’re wasting time. While you’re flying, I’ll go online and try to find out what the target was.”
“Fine. Get dressed. We can drop Earl off with the Ariel crew on our way out.”
Thirty minutes later, they’d showered, dressed, and were ready to head for Silverbelle. Lex’s ComDev played David’s ringtone. She answered it. “What’s up?”
“I just got a call from the Aurora,” David replied. “Mike and Dante were on a night dive last night with the Argos crew on a reef south of Anegada and now the boat’s disappeared. No communication, nothing, just vanished.”
A heavy dread dropped in her stomach and she had to sit down. “Vanished? Do you know when the last communication with the dive boat was?”
Bodie’s head came up and his eyes widened. She had his full attention.
“Midnight or so. Our guys had had a few beers and called in to say they were spending the night. When the Aurora sent a Zodiac for them this morning, the Argos was gone—no radio or cell response.”
“Merde. What about a search party?”
“We called the Marine Police and the Aurora is searching the area. They could use you and Silverbelle.”
“Absolutely,” she said, although she doubted there was anything to find. “We’ll be at the dock in fifteen minutes.”
“You’re not taking him.” Not a question.
“If you mean Bodie, yes, I am taking him.” Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Bodie’s half-smile. “We’ll stay clear of the authorities.” With that the smile faded.
“Lex, the truth, are you all right or are you in some kind of trouble?” David’s voice was full of concern. “Do you need help? Just say yes if you do.”
“No.” At least not the kind of trouble David meant. The danger the delphic laser and the Dissemblers posed fell in a category way beyond David’s definition of trouble. “Bodie has Durand Tech equipment that could help in the search. We’ll stay in touch with you and the authorities until we find the Argos.”
The likelihood the dive boat would reappear the way the dolphins had was only a little bit more positive than it disappearing like Poseidon and the whales. She couldn’t worry yet about how being sucked into the red orphic spot might affect the minds of the people on board.
“I’m expecting my cousin Victor sometime today. I’ll text him to hold tight with the Ariel if I’m not back.”
“We’re not going anywhere. Chuy’s still out there and the team wants to observe the rest of the pod for a few days. ”
“Good idea. I’ll be in touch.” She tapped END and set her cell back on the counter. Behind her Bodie was already packing up his electronics. Taking a deep breath, she turned around.
“A dive boat disappeared off the south side of Anegada with two of our crew aboard,” she said. “The marine police and the Aurora are out looking for it.”
“Exactly where the laser hit. A direct assault this time,” he said grimly. “As long as they stuck to whales and dolphins, they flew below the radar. Picking a good-sized boat full of humans as a target means they think they’re undetectable.”
“Or unstoppable. So what do we do?”
“We check out the origin to see if the laser equipment is still there and keep the sensor scanning for a blip that would indicate the boat popping back into this plane. Even if the boat reappears, the divers who went over may be dead, alive and crazy, or even just gone.”
A knot in her chest tightened. “Who would do something like this and why?”
He zipped his canvas bag. “Sick fuckers.”
She shuddered.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her softly. “It’s going to be all right. We know where the laser originated and we’re going to stop them.”
“I can’t help but feel this is personal,” she said. “I think someone’s targeting the Foundation using our electronics to aim that laser. First the trackers on Poseidon and the dolphins, now perhaps the crews’ cells. The Ariel or Aurora could be next.”
He hoisted the strap of his bag onto his shoulder. “Then we have to find them before they strike again.”
• • •
Lex eased off the control wheel and flipped to electrical power. The engine noise died and Silverbelle leveled off.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Bodie asked. “Get caught with me and you’ll be in big trouble.”
“I’m a very highly trained soldier, remember? Besides, I like you in one piece.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Lex.”
“Look, if this is about last night, I know the difference between mind-blowing sex and a relationship. As hot as you are, Bodie, when the current crisis is over, I understand we’ll go our separate ways. Neither of us has to explain or look back.”
He peered at her over his sunglasses. “Hot, huh?”
Warmth crept up her cheeks. “Like you don’t know it. Jesus, my point is…”
“Got it—mind-blowing sex, no strings attached. Anything else?”
“That’s it.” She turned b
ack to the view out the windshield. “Picking up any color anomalies?”
“Nothing in the ocean between Anguilla and Anegada. Without a baseline map, it’s hard to tell about the islands. There are always yellow shadows here and there, even an orange spot now and then. We need to concentrate on what we know—that someone on Sombrero has a Delphic laser and has no moral issue with using it on humans.”
“Should we let Adrien know about the missing divers?” she asked.
The muscle in his jaw tightened. “He’s your boss, not mine. What if he tells you not to go to Sombrero?”
“He wouldn’t do that.” Still, she couldn’t chance him telling her to wait for Victor. “Okay, we don’t call him yet, but if we find the laser he needs to know.”
Although Bodie nodded, she got the feeling he wasn’t totally on board.
Ten minutes later, a flat white rock with a lighthouse appeared on the surface of the Caribbean.
“There it is,” Lex said. “Doesn’t look like much, does it?”
Binoculars pressed to his eyes, he scanned the island as the seaplane approached it. “How low can you get?”
She was already taking the plane lower. “A hundred feet or so. I’ll circle around so you can check it out.” Not that there was anywhere for someone to hide aside from the lighthouse. The structures from the nineteenth-century mining operations had been long since washed away by hurricanes.
The glare of the sun reflected off the white phosphorous surface, making the island seem to glow. Even with her high-tech sunglass lenses, it was nearly impossible to pick out any details.
“Not exactly a garden spot, is it?” Bodie said. “The lighthouse looks abandoned. No doors or windows, just stone and concrete with a metal roof.”
She banked the plane to come around for another pass.
“Look. Down to the left,” he exclaimed. “There’s a square white panel of some kind almost flush with the surface. Six-by-six at least. What do you want to bet it’s a hatch?”
“A hatch to what?”
“A bunker of some kind. We need to land and check it out.”
“How’s that supposed to work? If I land in all this chop, we’ll smash up as soon as we get close to the rock cliffs. And how do you expect to climb the faces without any equipment?”
“You land and keep the seaplane off the rocks while I swim to shore. There’s got to be some erosion or a rough section somewhere. Fly the perimeter and let’s see what we’ve got.”
“We’ve got coral, rock, and heavy currents,” she observed. “You’ll be ripped up and carried away before you have to worry about climbing any wall.”
“How did they do it? Helicopter?”
“Too noisy and high profile if they wanted to keep this place secret. Boats make more sense except for the tricky landing issue. Maybe they had a temporary dock of some kind and took it with them.”
Using her ComDev he scanned the island for human life forces. “It’s deserted.”
“Damn. We’re too late.”
“Yes, but they were here as recently as this morning. I need to see what they left behind.”
And she didn’t want to wait in the plane while he went exploring. Unfortunately, without a secure mooring or a safe place to anchor, she couldn’t risk leaving Silverbelle.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this. Just because you saw some square board in the guano, doesn’t mean there’s anything under it. We could be risking the plane and your life for nothing. Victor will be here later today. Between his helicopter license and formidable powers of persuasion he can convince the authorities to let him borrow one of the police copters and bring us back before nightfall.”
“Are the authorities going to look the other way when I hop in and buckle up? Don’t think so.” He tucked the sensor into the bag behind her seat and picked up the binoculars again. “These people used my theories to develop their weapon. Nobody else will see what I can. I need to be the one who goes in.”
How many times had she gone into an unknown dangerous situation? Dozens. And yet this time felt different. Sure, Bodie was more than capable of taking care of himself, but she wanted to be there in case he needed her.
As they circled the island, she studied the edge where it dropped into the sea. “I’m not cool with this.”
“Take that cannon of yours, will you? I’ve got waterproof bags in the back.”
“Who would I shoot, an aggressive booby? Better it stays with you in case we have visitors. There are probably surveillance cameras watching us.”
This situation just kept getting better.
“Whoa,” he said. “Can you come around again? I think I see something in the water where that flat rock stands up on the edge.”
She spotted the landmark and brought the plane around and down for a close look. Sure enough, the sunlight glinted off a metal object in the deep blue water.
“There,” he said. “There’s something under the surface next to the cliff face. It could be a dock.”
“Or a boat. Wrecks still happen out here. I’ll take us down and you check it out.” Now that they’d found something, a surge of adrenaline pumped through her. She landed the seaplane on the choppy surface and glided to within twenty meters of the rock cliff. From the water, the face looked to be about fifteen vertical feet of crumbling limestone and coral—not as long a drop as other parts of the island but steep and treacherous enough to discourage casual visitors.
Bodie pulled his shirt over his head and folded it. “I’ll take whatever waterproof pouches you have, a crow bar, rope, life preserver, and the small Berretta.”
“In the back. Help yourself. I’ll keep Silverbelle off the rocks.”
He got out and climbed back in the rear door to pack up what he needed. She handed him his ComDev, shirt, and a towel which he dropped into one of the bags before securing all the items in a mesh dive bag.
His eyes locked on hers and she saw a tenderness there that kicked her in the chest.
He pulled on a dive mask and was gone.
• • •
As soon as Bodie hit the water, the current tossed him toward open sea. He kicked as hard as he could and shifted the nylon strap of the dive bag so he could use his arms more effectively. Nevertheless, he didn’t seem to be making much headway. The life preserver restricted the movement of his left arm until he pushed it over his shoulder to hang off his back. Come on, man, you’re a good swimmer. Focus and use your full body strength.
Arm over arm, kicking hard, he finally caught his rhythm. Then it was less than a minute until he looked down on what he’d spied from above—a modern structure not five feet under the surface. When he stood up on it, he was only chest deep in water. So far, so good.
Ducking below the surface, he checked out the platform. The island side appeared to have a collapsible section of pipe and wood stacked accordion style. Steps? There must be some control mechanism. He stood and examined the wall of stone. It didn’t make sense to have the controls underwater where they’d quickly corrode.
Searching the wall, he looked for any oddity in the rocky surface. Someplace reachable from a boat would be most likely. A couple feet above the waterline he saw it—a coral block that looked a little too even. The sharp edges bit into his fingers as he gently tugged on it then, when it didn’t budge, yanked harder. The block released with a pop and hello, baby, he was looking at three simple switches. And, what do you know, someone had left the key in the center one.
“Abracadabra,” he muttered and turned the key. A motor hummed softly in the wall but the dock didn’t move until he threw the two toggle switches. Slowly the platform rose out of the water and steps unfolded upward until they were almost even with the surface of the island.
Hoisting his bag back on his shoulder, he donned his shades, tied the life preserver to the frame of the stairs, and began climbing. The morning sun blazed down on his head and shoulders, drying the salt water on his skin. At the top of the stairs he paused to pull on
his shirt and survey the stark landscape before him. With so much white, the island appeared to be lit from within, and the metallic odor of baked bird shit assaulted his nose. Even with sunglasses, the glare softened details and made it difficult to bring them into focus. Great place to hide out. Lex was certain there was no one on the island. He hoped she was right. Otherwise his ass was in deep trouble.
Using the lighthouse and the dock to get his bearings, he searched for the raised square he’d spotted from above. It had been halfway between the lighthouse and the shoreline south of where they’d landed. Pulling his baseball cap lower on his forehead, he paced out what felt like half the distance to the island’s only structure and turned right.
There it was. Ten yards away a painted square rose from a plane of pale guano. His ComDev buzzed and he answered.
“Nice trick with the dock,” Lex said. “Find anything else?”
“Not sure.”
“What are you waiting for?”
“I’m talking to you.”
“Put me on speaker and tuck the ComDev into your shirt pocket. I’m dying to know what you found.”
“Yes, ma’am.” As he strode forward, he described what he saw. His new psychic shield gave him a sense of safety he didn’t understand. “This is a weird place. I can feel espectros nearby but they’re concentrated on the other side of the island.”
“There was a slave uprising there in the 1800s. Just stay with the program.”
The program now lay at his feet. He bent to tug on one side. “It’s a metal lid.” One edge was hinged. He lifted the opposite side and the hatch opened easily, revealing industrial metal stairs that descended into darkness. A rush of cool air hit him from the hole.
“Bingo!” he said. “There’s an underground bunker. I’m going down.”
“Be careful. It could be booby-trapped.”
No shit. “Roger that.” He pulled a flashlight from the dive bag and the pistol from its waterproof pouch. He tested the first step before giving it his full weight. It didn’t move. When his foot hit the third step, the lights went on below.
