The Phoenix Agency: Arctic Burn (Kindle Worlds Novella) (62 Degrees North Book 1)

by Amy Ruttan

  Her heart clenched and she leaned forward to kiss him. To let him know that she loved him too. She loved him more than anything, but she couldn’t promise him a future, when she wasn’t even sure what the next few hours were going to bring.

  “I can’t promise you that, Bryant. I can’t promise you that I won’t be destroyed in the process of all of this. If I have to sacrifice myself, you have to take the boat and get Mason to safety. Promise me that.”

  Bryant winced. “Don’t make me promise you that.”

  “Bryant Quill,” she said sternly.

  “No.”

  “Bryant!”

  He sighed. “Try, Lexie. Try to find another way.”

  She didn’t respond to that. Instead she just curled up against him, listening to his heart beating as she tried to ignore that voice inside her berating her for not reaching out sooner to the Lotus Circle. For not taking them up on their offers to help her hone her abilities.

  This situation was her fault.

  This choice she had to make was her fault and she would have to pay the price.

  “Have you ever been this far north before?” she asked, trying to make conversation so that she could ignore death’s shadow creeping up on her.

  “No. I never got to fly the bush planes up past Resolute. If there was service needed in Alert, then Mason usually went, as he’s Canadian and they trust a former United States Air Force man with dual citizenship over one without. Have you?”

  “No. Although, I’ve seen this place in my dreams. The closer we get to it, to whatever is buried out there under the permafrost, the clearer it becomes.” And even the static noise was settling into a hum.

  “Do you have any guesses on what it is?” he asked, intrigued.

  “Something that powered their ship. If improperly used it can rip a hole into the space time continuum.”

  “And that’s bad?” Bryant asked.

  “Very.”

  “And let me guess, General Knight wants to tear a hole in this continuum thing?”

  “Probably. He probably wants to unleash some kind of alien army or something. Although, I get a bad feeling about these aliens that died up in the north. A feeling that they aren’t going to be too hospitable to anyone who invades their dimension. I mean, I’ve heard the tales that the animals avoid this island. Polar bears, seals, musk ox, dog sled teams. Nothing goes there. Nothing grows there, not even moss. The island is just dead. It’s a graveyard for something sinister.”

  “Great, and we’re headed right for it.”

  “Let’s try not to think about it then.”

  Bryant chuckled, easing the tension. “Kind of hard. All I’m thinking about is the alien having tentacles and wanting to hunt us for sport.”

  Lexie laughed and rolled her eyes. “The aliens are long gone.”

  “Until Knight tears a hole into another dimension. Then who knows what will happen.”

  Silence descended between them and she just listened to the sound of the motor, the water lapping against the side, while trying to ignore the motion of the boat, but it was no good.

  Her stomach was churning.

  “Save us!”

  She got up quickly and began to pace.

  Bryant watched her, she could feel his gaze on her.

  “This noise in your head, it’s the aliens or whatever is out there?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I think so. I believe so now. I can see it all, but it’s fragmented.” She closed her eyes and saw flashes of what General Knight was after.

  “That’s it,” she muttered as she headed to the door.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m getting us out of this dark hold. Then we can face this thing head on.” Lexie pounded on the door until it opened.

  “What?” the man asked.

  “I’m going to puke. I need air.”

  “How did you get out of your bindings?” he asked, just realizing that she was standing at the door and pounding on it. He raised his gun.

  “My hands flame up when I’m agitated.” She held up her hands, bathed in flame. “And I’m agitated. Do you want this vessel to go down?”

  The man’s eyes widened and he motioned for her to follow him, but Lexie held her ground.

  “Now what?” the man asked.

  “I don’t leave without him,” she snapped.

  The man rolled his eyes and motioned for Bryant to get up, pointing his gun into the small of Bryant’s back.

  Lexie followed the narrow hallway to the stairs that led to above deck. The air was cool and crisp, it helped with her nausea, because that wasn’t a lie. She didn’t have the best sea legs. Her eyes adjusted to the light and she could see hunks of ice floating in the water, but to the north, where they were heading, the sky was grey, as if there was an incoming storm.

  A shudder ran down her spine.

  “Save us!”

  They were getting closer.

  “You can feel it can’t you?”

  Lexie turned to see General Knight standing behind her, but he wasn’t looking at her, he was looking out across the water, into the eye of the storm. She didn’t respond to him. Instead she focused on Bryant, who had been handcuffed now and was being guarded by a group of armed men.

  It sent a shiver of apprehension down her spine.

  “I know that you can sense it, Ms. Nevue. A powerful telekinetic like you can’t help but sense it.” General Knight walked behind her and she tried not to cringe in his presence. She had to stay strong; she was so used to cowering.

  She was so ashamed, but she had to put all those negative thoughts out of her mind.

  Now was not the time.

  “Why do you want this?” she asked.

  “It’s power. I crave power,” he answered, as if her question was a stupid one.

  “A power that you can’t harness.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Which is why I have you. I can control you as long as I have your friend Bryant.”

  “How do you even know it’s there? How do you even know what it’s capable of?”

  “Because, I’ve seen it,” he snapped ferociously. “I’ve seen what it’s capable of. When I was a good man, serving for the marines, I did a mission in the high Arctic. The mission went wrong and I made it to the shore of Isachsen, but on the far side. I struggled to survive. No one came looking for me or my fallen brothers-in-arms, as it was a top secret mission during the cold war. I was left for dead. I fled to a cave, to wait for death, when the aliens in their icy grave reached out to me. Gave me this power. I was eventually found and, instead of listening to me about what had happened, I was tested in labs. Pieces of me were taken to be tested. I won’t let that happen again. I may no longer be powerful enough to retrieve or operate the gift the aliens left for me, but I won’t let their gift go to waste.”

  General Knight walked away then and Lexie felt ill.

  How many times had her mother threatened to send her to a lab to be tested, because her mother deemed her power unnatural?

  Maybe it was. Except she was born with it. It wasn’t gifted to her by some frozen alien life form.

  You got this.

  As long as General Knight held Bryant captive they were in a bit of a stalemate. If she refused to retrieve the device, then he’d kill Bryant, but if she retrieved the device it could mean death and destruction for thousands more.

  She just didn’t see a way out of this alive.

  Sound distortion filled her head, causing her to wince in pain. She covered her ears, but no one else seemed to be affected by it. Not even General Knight, who was barking orders as they approached the far side of the island.

  Dammit to hell.

  The sound distortion hurt, but as the boat neared the shore, it faded to just words.

  “Save us!”

  Bryant was watching her, concerned. He’d seen her pain, but didn’t know what it was and she couldn’t tell him. She didn’t want General Knight to know that whatever was buried out there in th
e permafrost had contacted her.

  They weren’t offering a gift. They came to destroy the device.

  They were asking for deliverance.

  They were asking for help.

  Chapter Eight

  There was no way out of this.

  Bryant was beginning to understand that. Which is why he had been separated from Lexie. If she refused to comply, they were going to kill him and if she did comply then she would have to kill them both.

  And he was at peace with that.

  He didn’t want to lose her.

  He didn’t want to live if she died, because he couldn’t live without her. For five years, he’d been living in a fog. Just following the motions of day to day, but he really wasn’t living. Now that he had Lexie back, he’d follow her to the gates of Hell if that’s what it took to be with her.

  “General Knight, the prisoner is seizing!”

  Bryant’s heart skipped a beat and he stood up and saw Mason across the deck. He was lying on his side, having a seizure or possibly a stroke, given the amount they had beaten him.

  “Do something you, son of a bitch!” Bryant shouted at General Knight, who was watching Mason with disinterest.

  He fought at his bindings, but they were handcuffs and they just cut into his wrists. He used his legs and kicked at his captors, knocking a couple of the guards to the ground. There were shouts and three men pinned him to the deck.

  Lexie rushed forward, but was blocked.

  “Let her through,” General Knight said. “Let’s see if she can save him.”

  Bryant was brought to his knees and he tried to push his way forward. No one stopped him, but he was helpless bound this way. He got to his feet. “Can you do something?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Lexie said. “I did this once before. For a friend, but…I made it worse.”

  “She survived?”

  Lexie nodded. “Just, wouldn’t talk to me ever again. She didn’t appreciate being touched by evil.”

  “Do it,” Bryant urged. Mason couldn’t die.

  Lexie reached down and gently touched Mason’s temples. Her hands began to burn like an ember, but the brighter they grew, the less Mason seized.

  Her hands burst into flames the moment Mason’s eyes opened wide and he screamed in pain. Lexie jumped back, but then was pulled away while Mason cried out from being burned, but he was conscious and was no longer seizing.

  “Fascinating,” General Knight remarked. “It was like a transference of power. Take our bush pilot friend below deck. I will study him later.”

  “You won’t harm him!” Bryant shouted, feeling absolutely useless as they dragged Mason away. He hadn’t felt this useless in a long time. With his hands bound there was nothing he could do to save his friend.

  He was sad Mason had been dragged into this situation and he blamed himself.

  Mason is a member of the Phoenix Agency. You’re not a member.

  Mason had signed up for this. Bryant knew Mason was smart enough to know exactly what he would be signing up for. Still, watching his friend being dragged away, not knowing what had happened, what condition Mason was in, made him angry.

  It made him feel powerless and he just wanted to scream.

  “You won’t harm him!” Lexie stepped forward toward General Knight. “You want me to use this device for you, you want me to retrieve it from the permafrost, then you will not harm him or I will destroy you now.”

  Lexie meant business. Bryant hadn’t seen her like this before, not since the day she walked back into his life when she was standing on the Deh Cho bridge. Her eyes were luminous and there was flames shooting out of her hands, her red hair was flowing out behind her even though there was no wind. It scared him to see her like that.

  General Knight grinned maliciously. Like everything was falling into place for him. “I promise I won’t harm Mason if you do one thing for me.”

  Bryant had a feeling what General Knight was going to ask and it made his stomach twist in a knot. The very idea frightening him to his core. He shouted, “Don’t do it, Lexie!”

  Lexie took a deep breath, but ignored him. “What do you want?”

  “I want you to transfer some of your power to me, like you did with Mason,” General Knight said.

  “Don’t do it, Lexie. It’s not worth it. Don’t give him your power!” Bryant wanted to tell her that he wasn’t worth it, and Mason wouldn’t want her to either, and the thought of Lexie touching General Knight, of giving a piece of herself to him, made him sick.

  “All right,” Lexie said, defeated. “I’ll do it, but I can’t promise anything. Just don’t harm them.”

  “I swear. No harm will come to your friends if you transfer your power to me.” General Knight took a step towards her and Bryant lunged at him, but was held back by some of the armed men.

  He was useless now. In this moment he couldn’t protect her, but he wanted to.

  Lexie reached out, her hands still flaming, she hesitated. “I will burn you.”

  “You won’t and if you do, I do not care. As long as the power is transferred to me,” General Knight said.

  “I’ll try not to burn you, even though I wish you’d rot in Hell.”

  General Knight ignored her and grabbed her by the wrists, forcing her hands to touch his temple. The moment Lexie’s hands touched him, he began to scream as she burned him. One of his armed guards came forward, but he shouted, “Stay back!”

  Bryant turned away, as General Knight screamed in agony. He remembered how that felt. He remembered how Lexie’s flames had burnt him.

  She tried to pull away.

  “No! You won’t stop. You keep going,” General Knight screamed through the pain.

  The scent of singed flesh was in the air and Bryant could see blood running down the sides of General Knight’s face.

  Lexie cried out and a burst of energy erupted from her. They were blown apart and Bryant fell to the deck with the aftershock. He scrambled to his feet and could see Lexie lying on one side of the deck and General Knight on the other side, his armed guards surrounding him.

  His legs were shaky, but he walked through the turmoil toward her. She moaned as her eyes opened. They were back to normal, they were no longer glowing.

  The flames that had been engulfing her hands were out.

  “Are you okay?” Bryant asked.

  “Fine,” she moaned. “What happened?”

  “You damn near burned his head off.” Bryant chuckled, just relieved she seemed to be okay.

  “If only, eh?” she teased.

  General Knight shouted as he clambered back to his feet. There was gauze wrapped around his head. Someone had given him first aid.

  “Well, was it worth it you, son of a bitch?” Bryant taunted him. “Did you get what you wanted?” Except he knew the answer. General Knight hadn’t. If he had, he wouldn’t be so pissed off.

  General Knight closed the gap between them and punched Bryant. Hard. He could taste blood in his mouth as he dropped to his knees.

  “I will try this again,” General Knight growled. “I will have your power. If not now, definitely later.”

  Lexie barely looked at him.

  “Now,” General Knight said, calmly straightening his jacket. “Get yourselves ready. We have a bit of a hike to the glacier.”

  Bryant turned to Lexie, while General Knight was barking out orders for them to get to shore. “You do what you have to do. Don’t let him get your power and don’t let him have whatever is buried under the permafrost out there.”

  Lexie nodded.

  She understood. He knew, deep down, all along her plan was the right one.

  They weren’t going to survive this.

  ***

  Lexie didn’t have much time to recover from her ordeal. She was completely drained as she was forced off the boat and onto the island, but that wasn’t the only thing weighing her down.

  She had formed a faint telepathic connection with Bryant’s friend Maso
n. She knew what he was feeling now and she experienced it too. It was pain from where she had burnt him when they had the transference of power, but also she knew that Mason was stronger than he had ever been before.

  And Mason was becoming aware of his strengths. She wished she could help Mason, but she didn’t have time to focus on that and she couldn’t tell Bryant that Mason was okay. Mason wouldn’t be harmed, even if the GKA tried to do him harm. He could take them on, even after being beaten to near death.

  The power transference was healing Mason faster.

  She only wished she had some of that super human power in this moment, so that she could whisk Bryant out of General Knight’s clutches, but she was drained.

  General Knight had Bryant beside him, a gun pointed at him. And as they trudged across the tundra north of the old weather station of Isachsen, a tense feeling gnawed away in the pit of her stomach.

  The white noise she had heard earlier was there again, but just in the background. It wasn’t as loud or as painful as it was before, but it was there nonetheless. The white noise was becoming clearer. It was a language she had never heard before, but she understood with crystal clarity.

  “Save us!”

  It was now clear.

  The beings that had come to Earth thousands of years ago wanted help. They wanted to destroy the device, something they had failed to do. If General Knight got a hold of the device and operated it, it would actually do much more damage than he thought.

  It had the potential to destroy more than just Earth.

  She had to destroy it. Even if it meant killing her and Bryant.

  She saw that look in Bryant’s eyes before they were separated. He understood what needed to happen as well. He was willing to risk his life as well to put an end to this, because so much was at stake. General Knight had to be stopped before more people were harmed.

  They trudged across the tundra. It was dark, but not night, the sun was obscured like an eclipse. An ominous black out, like one she’d never seen before.

  There was no life on this island. Not even a polar bear. Nothing was here. It was dead and it made her think that all those old stories about this island being haunted were true. Only now she knew what haunted it.