by Minton, Toby
By the numbers, she reminded herself, forcing her hand away from her pistol. Do the job.
Coop reached them, and it took all three of them to get Cole to the transport. Ace looked back from the base of the ramp to see Nikki still standing where she'd left her, still staring at Savior from a distance that had to put her inside his shield.
She watched as Savior's eyes widened when the black claw locked around his neck from behind.
But it wasn't a creature that stepped through the Gateway and forced Savior to the ground. It was a friend.
"By the numbers," Ace breathed.
Gideon
Gideon stood close to the back side of the humming Gateway, staring through at the empty red-tinted Wasteland. Tiny dark splotches marred the otherwise smooth surface of the crater—all that remained of the creatures Savior had destroyed some distance behind him and over two hundred million years in the future.
He heard Nikki's voice as she stepped through to the present side, but he couldn't see her, not unless he walked around the edge of the Gateway. The hole they'd torn in space-time was a perfect rift. Stepping through from either direction would take a traveler to the earth of the future, and what existed on one side could not exist on the other simultaneously. Simple concepts, but critical.
He saw the shield appear around him as Savior stepped through the other side into the present, the shield protecting both Savior and his prize from harm. Gideon was close enough to the surface of the rift, however, close enough to the Gateway itself, that he was inside as well.
He stepped through into the future, the heat stealing his breath and the stinging dust pelting against his skin. Ignoring the assault, he walked around the edge of the rift.
On the present side, Savior's attention was focused on Nikki. He didn't see Gideon step through the Gateway behind him. He believed himself invulnerable until Gideon's taloned hand locked around his neck.
No more, Gideon thought as he tightened his grip, forcing Savior to his knees.
Savior's initial shock didn't last long, but it was long enough.
Gideon grabbed Nikki's arm as the first pulse erupted out of Savior's back. The force should have ripped Gideon apart, and the Gateway with it, the irony of which was not lost on him. It did neither. The power passing through him seared every nerve in Gideon's body, tearing a scream from his throat, but he held and channeled the power from the pulse into Nikki.
No more.
No more would he manipulate others. No more would he force them onto paths his visions put before him.
Another pulse tried to form, more powerful than the last, but Gideon held. He channeled, and Nikki screamed with him this time. The power flooding into her was only making her stronger but not in the way she was used to. This power enflamed and empowered in equal measure.
No more.
No more would he put the children in the line of fire. No more would he lead others to do what he should have done from the start. Savior was his creation—his responsibility. No more would he force others to bear his burden.
This ends now.
The next pulse was weaker, even though only seconds had passed. Savior was losing consciousness. With his power shunted away, he was only human, after all.
Gideon forced his eyes open as the burning lessened. He wouldn't hide from what he was doing. He would watch his friend die. He owed the man he used to love that much.
Out of the corner of his eye, Gideon saw a dark streak from beside the transport. He didn't realize his mistake, the one variable he'd failed to consider, until it was too late. He did, however, have time to feel the pain of the impact before his world went black.
Nikki
Nikki sucked in a shuddering breath when the flow stopped, when Gideon's hand was jerked from her arm.
On his knees beside her, Savior did the same.
A dozen paces away, Gideon lay motionless, broken and bleeding. His normal arm was bent behind him at an angle that confused Nikki's eye and turned her stomach.
Another twenty paces across the deck, Impact was on his hands and knees as well, staring at what he'd done. The horror on his face as he looked at Gideon was matched only by the pain and rage when he looked at Savior.
"Thank you—" Savior said as he pushed himself to his feet, one hand to his throat. "Son."
The scream that tore from Impact ripped at Nikki's heart. He staggered to his feet, his eyes falling back to Gideon. The shaking of his head, the tears that wouldn't fall—Nikki wanted to go to him, to tell him it wasn't his fault, but it wouldn't do any good. With another shout, he turned and ran. By the time Nikki got to her feet, all she could see of him was a dust trail stretching across the Wasteland.
"Savior," Ace called.
Nikki turned to see her step off the transport's ramp toward them, her eyes hard. Behind her, Mos and Coop rushed out toward Gideon.
"Let her go," Ace said.
Ace had her rifle in both hands but it was pointed at the ground. Savior's shield was back in place—Nikki could feel it surrounding her. Ace knew she couldn't hurt him, but she wasn't backing down.
"She can leave at any time," Savior said, his hand to his neck where Gideon's claws had cut the skin. His color was returning to normal, his eyes cool, like he hadn't just been throttled to within a breath of death. "I will not stop her."
Ace didn't look convinced, but she looked to Nikki. "Come on, kiddo."
Go, Nikki, Michael said. Time is running out.
"No. Not yet," Nikki answered them both.
Ace started to speak, but Savior cut her off. "You're out of time, Sergeant Major," he said, looking toward the horizon behind Nikki. "I suggest you take your wounded and leave while you can. My partners still consider you a threat. They will not give you the same chance."
Ace was torn, but with a last look at Nikki, she moved to help Mos and Coop carry Gideon onboard.
Nikki looked back at Savior, and he read what was behind her eyes with a single blink.
"They will be hunted, yes," he said, his calm demeanor fully restored. To him the blood on his neck and uniform no longer existed.
"They are fugitives now. If you board that transport, you will be hunted as well. If you go with them, I will not be able to protect you from their fate."
"Do I look like I need protecting?" she said, but her heart wasn't in it. A cold dread was building inside her, but she couldn't tell whether it was the thought of losing her new family that was causing it, or the thought of losing her power again. Her gaze shifted to the transport as the ramp started to close.
What are you doing, Nikki? Michael asked. You're not considering staying with him. I know you're not. That's not you.
"No, Nikki," Savior replied, stepping close enough to touch her. "You do not—not at my side. What you do need is an opportunity."
He was as composed as ever—strong, powerful, beautiful.
"This is your chance to climb out of the chaos that has mired your life until now," Savior said, his eyes almost tender in his pleading, not that Nikki could let herself believe it, not completely. Part of her was screaming that the humming Gateway behind him was all he cared about, what he'd wanted all along. But that part could be coming from Michael. If Savior was being sincere…
"You deserve to be more than a pawn in the game Marcus has created, the delusion he refuses to surrender. You deserve peace, Nikki, not the agony you've been forced to endure."
Nikki laughed, an honest laugh that came out of nowhere. "Now I know you're messing with me. I'm a zoner. Life's not all puppies and parties for us. It's pockets of happy inside showers of agony, and those showers don't stop. Not for people like me."
Savior's eyes disagreed. They said all that could change.
"You deserve more," he argued. "You are destined for so much more."
That was a mistake.
Despite her doubts about him, he'd played his hand well so far. He'd been dangerously persuasive, more so than Nikki wanted to admit to herself. Bringing up
her destiny though—that conjured up thoughts that led only to pain, and it reminded her of the one question she'd been ignoring since she'd laid eyes on Savior in Canada, the question that had kept her from leaving—the question that meant everything.
The rumble from the transport's engines changed pitch as it lifted off, but Nikki ignored it and held her ground.
Nikki, what are you doing? They're leaving without you, Michael pleaded.
"Would you have rewarded the Hunter?" she asked, ignoring Michael and the departing transport. They were leaving without her—they had to, like Michael said—but at the moment, she didn't care. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered except this.
"If I hadn't ripped it apart," she said. "SETI VII—the Hunter, whatever you want to call it. Did it deserve a reward, or was it being insubordinate?"
Savior let his surprise show, probably because she was asking a question at a time like this, what with her ride now roaring away across the Wasteland, warships bearing down on her, and a life-changing decision in her hands, a decision that should have been easy.
Her heart was pounding but only partly from the genesis-fueled adrenaline raging inside her. It was pounding out the question she still hadn't spit out, the one that had been in the back of her mind since that day.
"Did you order the Hunter to kill Michael?" she breathed.
Michael stopped pleading. He was still there—so strong it felt like he was right beside her—but he stopped pushing. He stopped everything. She could feel his silence as heavy as hers, like he was holding his breath with her.
Savior was better at controlling his expression than anybody Nikki had ever seen—better than stone-face Gideon even—but Nikki had always been good at reading people. She had a knack for it. Maybe it was in her genes.
Savior hesitated. It was a nanosecond pause, really, a hitch maybe nobody else would have noticed. But it was enough.
Nikki slammed her foot into his chest before he could blink, kicking out with everything she had.
His shield retracted in a flash, protecting him from the worst of the impact, but it didn't save him. He flew back through the Gateway like a rag doll, skipping and tumbling over the red-tinted desert on the other side.
"Nikki," Sam's voice called from behind her.
She spun to see him fishtailing to a stop on the skimmer a few paces away. That's why they'd left in the transport. They'd known he was coming. They hadn't given up on her.
She looked over Sam's head at the dark, massive ships roaring closer and the dust trails underneath from ground vehicles racing before them.
She looked back through the Gateway, at Savior stopping his slide with a pulse of raw power. Heavy red-black dust whipped and swirled as the air warped around the swelling power lifting him off the ground. Through the maelstrom, he met Nikki's gaze, his face a sculpture of imperious fury.
She looked back at Sam, who nodded and stretched out a hand. "We have to go now," he said in a calm voice.
Good old Sam. The world was about to crash down on them, and he was keeping his cool.
Not like Nikki.
She expected to hear an echo of Sam's words from her better half. Michael was the rational one after all, the voice of reason and caution. The one who—
You have time. Do it.
The one who had her back when it counted. Always.
Nikki leapt, but not to Sam and not at Savior. She arced through the air with a shout and brought both fists hammering down on the generator powering the Gateway.
The generator crumpled and died with a blast of sparks and heat, and both sources of Nikki's power—the humming Gateway and Savior racing toward it from the other side—winked out.
She dug both hands into the twisted metal and ripped the generator free from its cables with a heave. Then she hurled it at the Gateway with a shout, toppling the now silent arch and sending it skidding and rattling across the dance floor.
Only then did she run to Sam.
Sam gunned the skimmer as soon as Nikki hit the seat behind him, stealing Nikki's breath.
She didn't look back as the skimmer raced out of the corral and across the Wasteland. Not at the forces chasing them. Not at the toppled Gateway. Not at the life she'd just kicked away. Not at the power she'd just given up.
She just wrapped her arms around Sam, closed her eyes, and held on.
* * *
I never thought of myself as a selfish person, until today.
Today I had to make a choice. I had to choose between the people I've come to care about and the man I thought I hated, the one who might end the world.
Sounds easy enough, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.
To say I was tempted wouldn't even begin to cover it. But it wasn't Savior's pretty face that tempted me, or the posh life I could have lived at his side. What tempted me was the promise of feeling my power flowing through me again whenever I wanted it. It was the chance to be whole again.
I made the right call in the end, but not because I'm a good person, and not because I'm any kind of hero. Now more than ever, I'm convinced I'm neither.
I made the right call today because the one thing I want most is the one thing Savior can't give me. I made the right call because he took my brother from me, and I wanted to make him pay.
This fight's not over, not by a long shot. All hell's breaking loose, and luck hates me way too much for Savior to be gone for good. He'll come back through that Gateway, and when he does, there won't be any more offers—no third chance for me. His gloves are off now.
But so are mine.
When he comes back, I'm going to be the one standing in his way, but not just because it will piss him off, and not because our jacked up world needs saving. I'm going to be there because when I fight him, I get to be powerful again.
Pretty selfish reason to do the right thing, I know.
I can live with that.
-Nikki Flux, March 23
From a partially burned journal
found in the Wasteland
Acknowledgements
This book wouldn't have been possible without the help of some of this world's finest.
Thanks to Holly and Nicki Burwinkle for always checking on my progress, in the nicest of ways, and to Kathy Hawes for much more aggressive reminders, in the funniest of ways. I'd rather work myself silly than disappoint people such as you.
Thanks to Katie Lewis, the finest copyeditor these pages could hope for. See what I did there? You make the world I'm trying to share so much clearer. My readers would be lost without you.
A sharp salute and proud thanks to Michael Minton and Tom Burwinkle for your invaluable expertise in all things martial and aeronautic. You keep my soldiers on their feet and my ships in the air.
Thanks to all my eager and honest beta readers: Kathy Hawes, Ashleigh Macleod, Nicki McLachlan, Holly Mehakovic, and Jennifer Plaza. I loved the praise, the suggestions, and the requests almost as much as I dreaded them. You made this a stronger book and me a better writer, and for that I can't thank you enough.
A late but no less earnest thanks to Dr. Philip Humber. When you started reading my work, I was terrified. Your wit, insight, and unshakable sense of humor could strike fear into the heart any writer. I know you'd read better books, and could have written better, yet you gave nothing but praise and encouragement. I question myself each time I consider a dream sequence now. The world thanks you for that.
Thanks to my mother, Julia Minton. You've been my biggest fan since I could talk, or at least that's how you always made me feel. I wouldn't be here without you, literally.
And, as always, thanks to Christine Burwinkle, my incredible wife. I know a creative dream is alien to your brilliantly practical mind, but you support me anyway, which shows how much you love me in a way words simply can't capture. Thank you for showing the world every day that when a woman embraces her strength, her determination, and her intelligence, she doesn't sacrifice her beauty, her tenderness, or her sensuality—she enhances them
.
Books by Toby Minton
The Gateway Series
Children of Genesis
Children of Evolution
Children of Destiny (coming soon)
Toby’s haunts
Website:
tobyminton.com
Facebook:
facebook.com/TobyMintonAuthor
Twitter:
@MintonToby
Goodreads:
goodreads.com/author/show/7191758.Toby_Minton
About the author
Before he started writing novels, Toby worked as a technical writer for the [REDACTED] government and in the private sector for [CONFIDENTIAL]. He edited romance and paranormal romance novels in the freelance sector, and designed board and card games in the close friends sector.
Toby currently lives in Australia with his wife and their two happy food babies, but it’s only a matter of time until he gets them all deported. Truly. When that happens, they’ll flee to a land where home Internet plans don’t have limited data and the spiders aren’t big enough to carry off children.
If you try hard enough, you can find Toby on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Xbox Live, and the PlayStation Network, but don’t believe a word you read about him. You can’t trust anything you find online, especially in e-books.
