by Lark Brennan
“Fat chance,” she muttered.
Tolian ignored her and smiled at Bodie. “Welcome home, Joaquim. Together we will destroy the Durand and make the world bow to us.”
Before Tolian’s champagne reached his lips, Bodie’s glass shattered to the floor, shards and champagne raining in all directions.
“Fuck you,” Bodie growled and stepped toward their host. “The only reason I’m here is to keep you from murdering innocent people, you son of a bitch.”
Rage engulfed the Sentier’s face and Bodie flew backwards into the air, overturning an armchair when he landed twenty feet away.
Before Lex could rush to his side, Tolian trapped her arm in a steel grip and stopped her. “I’m no longer amused by either of you. If you need a demonstration of my power, so it shall be.”
Bracing on the chair, Bodie pushed himself to his feet. “Let her go and I’ll give you whatever you want.”
Tolian pulled Lex closer, his fingers biting into her bicep. “You’ll both give me whatever I want starting with your Durand communications devices.”
“They’re locked and can’t be unlocked for at least an hour.” The S.O.B.’s grip was strong and cruel. She braced herself to bear it. “If we try to bypass the timer, the hardware self-destructs.”
Fingernails digging into her flesh, he lifted her to her toes. “Our genius can override the lock-out, can’t you, Joaquim?”
“No, but we can discuss our trade while we wait. I’m willing to give you the sensor and in return, you dismantle the laser.”
“Dismantle the laser? No one agreed to dismantle anything. Why should I? I can take the sensor away from you any time I want.”
“But you can’t make it work.”
Tolian relaxed his grip enough to allow Lex to regain her balance. “Oxley can. He did build your laser.”
“My laser,” Oxley protested.
Tolian ignored him, but Lex sensed a wavering of confidence in the ordinaire. Perhaps she could use the rivalry with Bodie to their advantage. A little fear and anger could go a long way.
“What if Bodie agrees to work for you?” she asked, ignoring Bodie’s startled reaction. “Durand Tech gave him access to the latest technology and greatest minds in the world. What are you offering besides this second rate lab assistant?” She nodded toward Oxley.
“I won’t…” Oxley sputtered but Tolian cut him off.
“Shut up. You’ll do whatever I tell you.” The Sentier squeezed her arm harder forcing her to stifle a cry of pain. “I’ll do whatever I want. To all of you. Killing you, Joaquim, would be a waste of talent. Sometimes, however, it’s necessary to make one’s point. And I will relish seeing Mark Durand’s face when he learns his precious sister is carrying my child.”
Her gut clenched with revulsion as her eyes found Bodie’s. The murderous fury there gave her hope and worried her. He was no match for Tolian’s power. Their only chance was to outsmart the Sentier—and good luck with that. She shook her head almost imperceptibly to ask him not to do anything rash.
Lifting her glass, she downed the last of the wine. “Now that we've had our champagne, show us your command station. I assume you can control the laser from here?”
“Oxley, raise the controls so Ms. Durand can admire your work.”
On a side of the room a large screen rose from an island counter, transforming into a high-tech workstation complete with built-in keyboard and keypad controls. Adrien had a similar set-up in his office in Paris. The irony wasn’t lost on her. “Impressive.”
He released her arm and allowed her to move closer to mission control where Oxley sulkily stood guard. The scientist keyed a code into the keypad and a map of the Caribbean appeared on the screen.
“And what does this do?” she asked, aware that Bodie had moved closer and behind Tolian. Although Bodie had height and weight advantage, she doubted the Sentier would rely on his own physical abilities in a man-to-man fight. And Bodie would end up dead.
“From here we can watch the world,” Tolian said. “Unlike commercial resources, this shows details in real time.”
“You tap into government satellites?” Bodie asked.
Oxley wrinkled his nose and scowled at his rival. “We are the government, Jack, all the governments.”
Lex glanced over her shoulder where Tolian fixed the pale man with a deadly stare. “Your Dissemblers killed Bodie, didn’t they?”
“They were overzealous and punished for disobeying my orders. Had he been captured as planned, we wouldn’t all be here now. The war would be over, I would control the governments of every country in the world and all the Durand would be in hell.”
“Didn’t know I was that useful,” Bodie said. He moved toward the console. “How do you collect the energy?”
“Ah, that was a problem in the early stages but a little majik solved it,” Tolian explained. “A simple spell, really. Something your mother was quite good at. Or don’t you remember her spells?”
Bodie flinched.
“Okay,” Lex said. “I understand directing delphic, but storing it and intensifying it into a powerful stream. How does that work?”
Tolian smiled. “I won’t bore that lovely head of yours with all the technical details when we can simply show you.”
“No!”
But Tolian was already instructing Oxley to prepare the system to accept the delphic energy for transmission.
“You see,” Tolian explained, “We haven’t quite perfected a storage function that enables us to collect the energy and store it until it’s needed. Once the delphic is in the device, it has to be projected within fifteen minutes, sooner if possible.”
“We’re locked on the Disney Fantasy cruise ship,” Oxley said. He zoomed the screen in on a huge, brightly lit ship off the coast of St. Martin.
“Don’t do this,” Bodie said. “I’ll come with you and give you the sensor technology.”
“You’ll do that anyway,” Tolian assured him. “Your attachment to Ms. Durand will guarantee that. Oxley, prepare the intake.”
Lex watched Oxley execute a few keystrokes and click on a pulldown menu on the screen. She memorized the procedure and noted Bodie doing the same. With any luck they’d get the chance to abort the sequence before the laser fired.
“Now this is the fun part,” Tolian said. “Think of it as loading the device.” He stood back from them and breathed in deeply.
She’d watched Adrien channel the Durand Source’s energy on many occasions and had even learned from him to do it herself. Tolian, however, was thousands of miles from his Brazilian Source and had only the ambient delphic to work with. Like Bodie had on the hill. She wondered if now was the time to tell Bodie to counter Tolian’s collection. No, Tolian might hurt him and the Sentier was too powerful to stop with physical strength alone.
Within a couple seconds, she could sense a change in the atmosphere. She glanced at Bodie.
There wasn’t any indication of where Tolian was sending the energy but a battery icon on the screen of the monitor began filling.
“Good trick,” Bodie said.
“Not a trick, a skill, Joaquim. Once Oxley designed the holding battery, finishing the laser was easy. You gave him all the data yourself.”
“Can I pull the trigger?” Oxley asked eagerly, then turned to Bodie. “Watch and weep, asshole. This is what a real scientist can do if he doesn’t let sentiment get in his way.”
“Or morals,” Lex added.
Tolian turned to her and nodded. “I think we’ll let the lady do the honors.”
“No. You want to kill people, you do it yourself.”
“Oxley. You may proceed then.”
With a grin, the pale man moved the cursor over a small shape in the corner of the screen and clicked. A tiny digital clock appeared showing fifteen minutes. He clicked on that and the countdown began.
Her heartbeat kicked into high. Fifteen minutes to get control of the device and abort the sequence. Her mind raced. Bodie turned and
their eyes locked. They both knew their options were down to one—to take the Sentier out and prevent the attack.
Tolian chuckled. “In case you’re planning to try to stop the firing, you should know that once the countdown starts it can’t be stopped or canceled. The laser will hit the ship and all of those precious little ordinaires will be propelled into another dimension. You might as well relax and enjoy the show.”
Bodie nodded and simultaneously they launched themselves at Tolian. Before they even touched him they were propelled backward into a wall. She hit hard, her head bouncing off the plaster, and the breath was knocked from her lungs. She gasped for air and a crash at the front of the villa shook the entire structure. Stunned, she reached for Bodie and was relieved when her hand closed around his arm. Then she saw the rage on Tolian’s face and knew they were about to die.
A split second later, a blast came through the front door leaving a gaping hole.
“Hello, Tolian,” Mark said.
Lex gasped.
Her brother stepped through the opening where a mahogany door had been. For a long moment, no one moved. Then Bodie pulled her back against his body.
She looked from Mark to Tolian, chilled by the raw hatred charging the air. Both men were tall and powerfully built but physical strength was irrelevant in their world. The only thing that mattered was psychic power and in that arena she hoped they were evenly matched.
Tolian broke the silence. “Two First Order Durand in one night. I’m honored.”
Mark ambled toward his adversary showing neither caution nor hesitance. “This is between you and me. Let Lex and Bodie go.”
Tolian glanced down at them and shrugged. “They’ll be easy enough to find when I finish you off.”
Lex’s heart pounded. The Brazilian Sentier and the Protector General squared off. If Tolian won, they were all dead.
“Far away from home, aren’t you?” Mark said.
Tolian shrugged. “Unlike the Durand Sentier, I’m not imprisoned by my Source. No one dares challenge me for power and I don’t care if the fools fight among themselves.”
Mark shrugged. “And yet without your Source, your power is weakened. Are you sure you’re up to facing me?”
Hatred flashed in Tolian’s eyes. “I can still kill you, Durand.” His arm lashed out and a violent bolt of majik flew at Mark.
Lex gasped but Mark flicked his hand and deflected the assault shattering the crystal chandelier over the dining table.
Tolian blinked and stared at him.
“I’ve picked up a few tricks myself since we last met,” Mark said.
Tolian bared his teeth. “Not enough to stand up to me.”
A blast of malevolence sent a coffee table flying at Mark and he sidestepped its path before it exploded into a grand piano, sending ivory and wood shrapnel in every direction.
“Fuck,” Bodie choked out.
Lex could only stare at her brother in astonishment. His calm was more disconcerting than Tolian’s rage.
“You could at least put up a fight,” Tolian sneered.
Mark smiled, a silver shadow shimmering around his head and body. “I thought I’d let you warm up first. Just to be sporting.”
“I’m going to enjoy killing you, Durand.” Tolian raised his arms over his head and the villa began to vibrate.
Lex grabbed Bodie’s arm and hopped to her feet. “Come on. Let’s make Oxley show us how to abort the attack.”
Bodie hauled Oxley to his feet and pushed him toward the hallway. Glass crashed behind them and they began to run, dragging Oxley with them.
“You’re going to take us to the laser controls,” Lex said. “Or Bodie’s going to shoot you.”
Bodie yanked the pistol from the holster at his back. “With pleasure.”
Oxley didn’t argue. “He was telling the truth. The firing sequence can’t be stopped.”
“We’ll see about that.” Bodie poked him in the back with the barrel of the Beretta. “Now haul ass. Time is wasting.”
When they got to the lab, Bodie sat down at the console in front of the same image as the monitor upstairs. The countdown showed eleven minutes to go. “How do I get into the commands?”
Oxley shook his head. “You can’t. When the sequence is set, the system locks until after the laser fires. He had me program it that way.”
“There’s got to be a way to hack the timer.” Bodie worked the keyboard and mouse hard for nearly a minute then slammed his palms on the surface of the desk. “Fuck.”
“You’re wasting your time,” Oxley said.
The countdown clock read 9:46.
Bodie leapt to his feet and ran for the stairs. “The beam comes out of the projector in the sugar mill on the hill. If I can manually re-aim it…”
She took off after him. At the top of the stairs there was an exit into the compound. When he pushed the door open an alarm blared and floodlights lit up the area like midday. A shot rang out and the bullet whizzed past her head hitting the wall at her shoulder and sending pellets of stucco everywhere. “What the hell?”
Bodie yanked her around the corner of the villa. “You okay?”
“Yeah, but more Dissemblers have arrived.” She pulled out her pistol. “Find the way out. I’ll cover you.”
He shoved a pouch of ammo in her pocket. “Be careful, babe."
“Go!”
She reached in her pocket for her ComDev to scan the compound for life forces before she remembered it was inside. She took a half dozen wild shots in the direction the fire had come from, giving Bodie the chance to duck behind the warehouse.
The alarm went quiet leaving an eerie silence except for the ringing in her ears. Pressing herself against the wall, she peeked out into the open space. A man shouted in Portuguese and the floodlights went dark. They wouldn’t be able to see her but she also couldn’t see them.
Assuming Bodie had found the way out, she’d be of more use at the foot of the hill than waiting here to run out of bullets. Pushing off the wall, she sprinted in the direction he had gone, weaving back and forth to evade the new round of shots. Pushing her legs to their limit, she tucked in behind the warehouse and searched the exterior wall for a door. There wasn’t one.
On the other side of the compound the gunfire continued. She listened. Automatic weapons of a higher caliber than had been aimed at her had joined the exchange. Had Mark brought Protectors with him? An explosion in the villa shook the ground. She couldn’t think about Mark and Tolian now, only about helping Bodie stop the laser.
Darting across the open lawn, she crouched behind a hedge of bougainvillea and saw the doorway not fifty feet away. And under cover.
Then she heard it—a low deep growl. Out of the shadows next to the door the largest wolf she’d ever seen stalked toward her, teeth bared. His coat gleamed like silver in the moonlight and his yellow eyes seemed lit from within.
Lex rose to stand tall and stared him down. “Nothing personal, buddy, but I don’t have time for this.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Bodie burst through the metal door and out into the night. He took a couple of precious seconds to let his eyes adjust to the moonlight and to orient himself to his location. The passage had dumped him outside the walls of the compound at the base of the hill where the sugar mill stood. The hill was tall, rugged, and steeper than it had looked from the point where they’d left the Range Rover, steeper and rockier.
Twenty yards below he spotted a rough path winding up the hillside and took off for it at top speed. How much time was left? He scrambled up the trail, pushing his legs harder as they loosened up. A rock bit into the ball of his foot through his boat shoes and he swore but didn’t slow. Normally the ambient delphic fed him and boosted him when he ran, but here it was thinner than usual.
A gully bisected the trail and he leapt it, sliding in the sand as he landed. Even in the daytime, the path would be treacherous. Now with only the moonlight to light the way, a misstep would land him at the base of
the hill and all those families… he willed his legs to move faster.
He recalled the schematics he’d seen of the device on Oxley’s computer. There had been a light laser beam as well as the delphic function. Made sense when he thought about it. The delphic had cohesion issues and the light would act as a binder to focus the delphic over distances. That meant he’d see the laser when it fired. The problem was how to disperse the delphic without breaching the fragile membrane between realities and sending himself into darkness.
“Shit.” Halfway up the hill and time was running out. His lungs began to burn and he ignored them. His legs ate up the distance but not fast enough. Every second could be the last.
His right foot came down hard and the ground gave under him. He threw himself at the hillside and grabbed onto a scrubby bush as his footing tumbled away. Thorns pierced his palm but he held tight until he regained purchase on what remained of the path. His heart pounded and he gasped to fill his lungs.
Then he looked up and his heart stopped. A red light pulsed on and off in the sugar mill. Time was up.
“No.” A beam of light flickered then strengthened. He sensed the delphic intensifying.
“Push it off course,” Lex shouted from below.
He focused his mind and willed the energy to move toward the sky. Nothing happened. His heart pounded and his breath ripped in and out of his lungs. He had to stop the disaster, save all those people. In his heart he knew there was only one way.
Concentrating with every cell of his body, he inhaled deeply and pulled the delphic to him. The beam wavered and he drew harder. For an instant the delphic shifted from its path before intensifying in a blazing ray of light.
Fill me, he directed the delphic, imagining the energy forming a vortex from the laser to his body. Light exploded in the night and the energy obeyed with a force that threw him backward. Falling or flying? It seemed an eternity before his shoulder hit the earth. His momentum bounced and rolled him—to his back, his hip, his knee—down the rocky hillside. He covered his face with his arms and felt the skin on his forearm rip on a thorny bush just before his skull hit the ground.
