Zak looked down at his jeans, but there was no belt. Even the blond guy dipped his head to mimic the action, but he sure didn’t possess a belt. Dressed in a uniform that resembled a race car driver jumpsuit, the parallel ended there. This material was so reflective that he could pass for invisible in this forest. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Rugged build. The guy resembled a Nordic god. There were enough similarities in traits between this stranger and Raja to suspect that they were related. Damn, he hoped that was the case, because there was no way a beautiful woman like Raja would choose a numbers-guy in a suit over Hercules over there.
Buzz.
Craig tugged the belt extra tight around Diego’s wrists, but feared that it was a temporary deterrence. He had to get this man into captivity. Now.
A flutter of Raja’s hair caught his attention as she cocked her head. “Someone is coming.”
“Several people,” Zak echoed.
“From that direction.” Gordy tipped his head to the east, raising his gilded laser.
Craig heard nothing—just the infernal drone in his head.
“Two sets of legs at least,” Zak observed, honing in on the east as well.
Too much had transpired for Craig to doubt their claim. “Alright,” he conceded. “I managed to secure the rest of Diego’s men back on the bridge, so I don’t think it’s them. That leaves either the police, or Beckett and Saldano.”
Focusing on Raja, he added, “There are too many events for you all to account for. And
you—” he targeted the Nordic God, “—I’m guessing you come from the same place as Raja and Zak.”
The blond gave a swift nod. “And you—” he countered, “—I’m guessing I should not shoot you?”
“Gordy, no!” Raja lurched to block the path before Craig, her hands splayed at her sides.
Craig reached for her hand with his free one. “Easy,” he whispered.
When her head turned and those sloe-shaped eyes peered at him over her shoulder, Craig wished the two of them were anywhere else in the world...or any world.
“Gordy is impulsive,” she defended softly. “The fact that he is here confirms that.”
“I can hear you, Raja,” Gordy called. “And I am not impulsive.”
Raja rolled her eyes at Craig. A phantom smile nearly hefted her lips.
He squeezed her fingers. “You all need to get out of here. Don’t let them find you. I will avert whoever is approaching. Raja—” Aware that Diego was standing a foot away from him, Craig couldn’t say all he wanted to, but judging from the widening of her glance, he guessed that most of his message was conveyed. “Go now.”
“Yes, Raja,” Diego mimicked with disdain. “Get your head start because I am going to sing like a canary to the feds about you freaks. Maybe they’re after me for drug trafficking, but they would be very interested in arms trafficking. Those are not semi-automatics that you’re carrying around. Especially the freak guy in the trapeze getup.”
Perplexed, Raja started to say, “But—”
Craig could hear them now—a hasty gait across trampled pine needles and dried leaves.
“There’s no time. I will find you. I promise.”
The fingers entwined with his tightened.
Screw Diego.
Craig crowded Raja, close enough to exclude everyone from their conversation. “Their inquisition will not stop. They will harass you. They will just dig up more and more questions, and they are not going to accept your answers.” He was so close that his lips whispered against her ear. “I don’t want to see you go through that. Find somewhere to hide.”
A tiny whimper slipped from her throat. “I’m not sure I like Earth,” she breathed, “but I like you.”
The buzzing stopped. A warmness filled Craig’s chest. He lifted his hand into her hair. “And I like you.”
Pounding footsteps rumbled in the ground. Raja drew back, their hands still connected.
“Zak,” she cried. “Shoot him.” She twisted her head towards Diego.
“Why?”
“When he comes around he will be disoriented.”
“And whatever he says will be discredited,” Craig filled in with fervor.
“Don’t you dare shoot me with that piece of sh—”
Wincing against the flare, Craig hauled his arm up over his eyes. There was a faint Zzzzzzzztttttt, like kinetic energy—and then an overwhelming brilliance that was swiftly consumed by the ghostly shadows of the forest. Lowering his forearm, Craig found Diego sprawled out on the ground two feet away. Raja crouched beside him and touched her finger to his bound wrists. She looked up. “He’s fine.”
“Okay,” Craig nodded. “Now run!”
Rising before him, she cupped his face in her hands. For a moment he thought she would kiss him, but she just stared into his eyes and whispered, soon.
Gordy waved everyone deep into the thicket of trees, his head aloft and keen eyes vigilant. For a second he met Craig’s gaze. “She will be okay,” he vowed.
Craig had no time to acknowledge him. Voices called out from the opposite direction.
“I hear something. This way!”
Beckett, Saldano, and a stout police officer jogged out of the grove and drew up short, their chests pumping from the strenuous trail. Mouths agape, they stared at Craig.
Craig imagined what they beheld. A lone FBI agent standing in the alcove of a forest with one of the nation’s most-wanted drug traffickers lying at his feet, and a behemoth soldier unconscious two yards away. But what they did not see was one damn thing more. The woods were silent. There was no trace of the Pattersons. They vanished as if they had never existed.
* * *
“Do you hear them?” Aimee paused, her hand on a tree trunk for support.
“They have stopped,” Raja stated. “They aren’t following us.”
Because they have reached Craig, Aimee thought. And he was more or less offering himself up as a sacrifice.
Aimee hefted off the tree to hug Raja. “Craig did an admirable thing. I feel indebted to him because in some respects he’s bailing me out.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I should have never brought you here. I did not do a good job protecting you—concealing you from the evil on this planet.”
“I’m not frail,” Raja sighed. “Maybe I’m not a warrior like you three, but I can take care of myself.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” Aimee chuckled, squeezing her shoulder. “You are the one who keeps me in line. Heck, you are the one who keeps me alive.”
“Not always,” Raja conceded with a slight grin. “Maybe just once or twice.”
“We make a good team,” Aimee declared, grabbing Zak’s hand and stringing her fingers through it. “And it appears that the whole team is back together—” she frowned at Gordy’s tall frame several steps ahead.
“Gordeelum,” she called. “I think we’re safe enough now that you have time to tell us what the hell you’re doing here. The Horus isn’t due back in this solar system for nearly five years.”
Gordy turned and walked backwards, facing them with a cheerful smirk. It still staggered Aimee to see how much his appearance had altered. If the women on Earth caught a glimpse of that grin, he’d be running from a legion much scarier than the FBI.
“We’ve made some enhancements to the terra angels—”
“Tree.” Aimee pointed out.
Gordy’s back smacked against a rigid pine. Immediately his star laser hiked in defense until he identified the obstacle. Unbothered, he turned and fell into place alongside Zak.
“Believe it or not,” Gordy continued, “Wando brainstormed a much greater nuclear source of power—a miniature version of what bolsters the Horus. To his surprise—and, I mean surprise—the engineers decided to give it a test on a beta angel.”
There was a moment of pure envy on Aimee’s part for not having been there to assist Wando on such an innovative concept. These were some of the conjectures they had chatted about w
hile working to resurrect that old elephant.
“It looks like the beta worked.” Gordy claimed.
“What?” Aimee stopped in her tracks.
“What?” Gordy volleyed, already familiar with the look on her face.
“You came here in the beta? The beta?” You couldn’t try something simple first? Like a quick jaunt to Ziratak?” Her voice pitched. “You had to test it by flying to Earth?”
Zak squeezed her hand. “Go easy on him, Aim.”
“Anything could have gone wrong,” she appealed to Zak’s golden eyes. “He could have run out of power and just—just—”
“Drifted?” Gordy offered, trying to suppress a smile.
“Yes,” she snapped. “What the hell is so funny about that?”
“Well,” he hesitated, “you just look so much like Wando right now.”
Zak snorted and put a hand up to his jaw in consideration. “Her hair is slightly darker.”
Needing an ally, Aimee cast a wild glance in Raja’s direction. Are these men for real?
Raja shrugged. “It’s hard to yell at a man who just saved your life.”
Oh well, hell, why did she go to the woman of perpetual reason for empathy?
Aimee took a deep breath. “Alright,” she cast a worried glimpse over her shoulder, “maybe there will be time to debate this later. Right now we need to find someplace to hide. We can’t rely on Diego and his men being disoriented for too long. Too many people reciting the same tale spells disaster for us, and the feds are probably already forming a net around this forest.”
“Craig will distract them.”
“I know he will, Raj. But the bottom line is that Craig assisted us. He’s probably in a lot of trouble right now.”
Aimee saw Raja’s eyebrows knit in concern.
“Don’t worry. He’s better equipped to handle them than we are.”
“I know the perfect place to hide,” Gordy flashed white teeth.
“Where?” Zak was now anxiously pondering their traveled path.
“Well, I know enough from what Aimee used to say about the Earthlings—freaking out—if extraterrestrials landed on their planet. So I hid the terra angel.”
“Hid it? Where?” Zak prompted, dubious.
“And how were you not spotted by our military?” Aimee started panicking again. Forget the FBI. Now the Army was probably creating a noose around the forest.
“Have a little faith in me, Aimee.” Gordy looked wounded. “In addition to the power capacity, the TA underwent a cloaking of sorts. It is plied with a reflective shield making it virtually invisible.”
Not impressed, Aimee crossed her arms. “Radar doesn’t care about reflective shields.”
“Radar?” Cocking his head, Gordy considered this for a moment. “Oh, yes, one of the monitors revealed radio and electromagnetic signals tapping the outer shield. But the composition absorbed those markers. Wando was worried about force fields and vector fields and such, so your radar is a rather meek detector.”
About to add more, Aimee caught Zak’s deliberate glance. Reading his message, she agreed. Now was not the time to get in an engineering debate as much as she relished the idea.
“Which way, Gordeelum?” Zak asked, his entire demeanor on guard.
“It’s just ahead, but be prepared—you will get wet.”
“Wet?”
“That seems to be a norm around here,” Raja quipped.
Light scored through the thinning trees, casting ethereal beams at their feet. Through the stockade of pine, Aimee saw the shimmering surface of the lake.
Of course. Something with Horus’ navigations system seemed to zero in on these coordinates. But as they cautiously stepped out of the tree line, there was no terra angel to be found along the shore...unless it really was invisible to the naked eye.
“Where is it, Gordy?”
“Well, it’s right where I landed.” He pointed. The muscular silver arm of his suit clashed with the sun, blinding Aimee.
Following that lead, she sighed. “At the bottom of the lake?”
“Makes sense,” Zak reasoned. “It’s where we came in at. It’s the perfect place for us to hide for now. Is there enough room in the cabin for all of us?”
Gordy nodded, hiking across a trail of rocks that dotted the bank. “This model allows for multiple pilots—part of the long-distance enhancement.”
“Well geez, it’s not a problem for you guys with your fish lungs,” Aimee argued, “but what if I can’t hold my breath that long? How far down is it?”
Zak wrapped an arm around her waist. “If you run out of air, I can feed it to you, like this—” He kissed her. The feel of his lips distracted her from her indignation. When he drew back, she stared up at him for a second, reading the assurance there. Then she stared out at the lake.
“We’re going to need to build a pier at the rate we keep coming and going.” It was a futile attempt at humor, but the notion of diving into that black water did not sit well with her.
Raja stepped up to the perimeter, glancing back over her shoulder at the woods. “What if Craig comes looking for us?”
“We have to wait this one out, Raja.” Aimee felt bad seeing the anguished look on her friend’s face.
Gordy had already immersed himself up to his chest in the lake, his arms lapping to create small waves. Damn, he was a tall guy. It was that deep already?
“Gordy, this beta ship—” she swallowed, “—if it comes down to it, do you have enough power to make it back to the Horus, or was this a one-way trip?”
Uncertainty tightened the lines around his mouth. “The power is regenerative. Perpetual.”
“You don’t look too sure of that,” Aimee hedged.
Tipping his head back underwater, Gordy stood again with his hair glistening. “It’s hot on this planet.”
“Gordy?” she urged.
“I am quoting Wando when he said words like, regenerative...perpetual,” Gordy stated. “And he had the same look on his face.” A smile intended to bolster confidence emerged. “But I know someone standing right in front of me with her hands on her hips who could probably take a look at it and determine the answer.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Zak murmured. He then added, “No matter what, we can’t stay exposed right here. The TA is the best option for refuge.”
Aware of a stir beside her, Aimee watched Raja’s lithe form launch into the lake. It was a graceful dive. Raja was always graceful. Aimee was as graceful as a cement truck in a flowerbed.
“Really?” She raised her eyebrow at the man she was bonded to. “You’re really going to make me swim to the bottom of this lake? How do we even get in the stupid thing? Won’t it flood if we open it?”
“Pressurized air shaft.” Gordy swung a long arm in a half-hearted backstroke. “A new feature to protect against inhospitable atmospheres—such as liquids.”
“All ya’alls have all the answers.” Her hand waved in dismissal as she inched down to the muddy rim just above water level.
Zak hiked down the cascade of small rocks, slipping once before he trudged into the water, turning with a beckoning hand.
“Come on, Miss Engineer. Your humble servants await you,” he grinned.
Aimee slipped her fingers into his. “You and I are having words when we get down there.” Any attempts to sound stern were undermined by her anxiety.
Zak drew her into the water, swimming backwards and letting her float against his chest as he wrapped an arm around her. “More than words.” He nuzzled her throat.
A second later his head snapped up, amber eyes squinting against the sun. “They’re coming,” he warned. “Everyone dive—now!”
With barely even a chance to draw a sufficient breath, Aimee lurched under the water. One sharp kick on the surface and her feet submerged, sheathing her in this dark lagoon, spiraling down—down—until the sun could no longer penetrate. Only the confident touch on her arm maintained her descent when instinct screamed for her t
o swim to the top.
Down. Down. Her body jerked when her hand struck resistance. Splayed fingers merged with the gritty sediment at the bottom of the lake. Aimee tried to look up to see if the surface was still visible. There was nothing to see. She couldn’t even find Zak, yet his touch was there—reassuring. Her lungs began to clench, but she sought composure. Surely, even a mere Earthling could manage longer than the thirty seconds it took to reach the bottom, right? How deep were they? They had hit the bottom quickly. Ten feet? Twenty feet? Exactly how big was the terra angel now?
Gliding across the rutted surface, her fingers tangling with weeds, Aimee battled the overpowering urge to breathe. It was a raw need that could not be negotiated with. Clamping her hand around Zak’s arm, she used that leverage to shove off and swim to the surface. A vice wrapped around her and she struggled against it. Succumbing to full panic, she batted at the limb that corralled her. When Zak’s mouth pressed against hers she sputtered in protest. His wide hand captured the back of her head, and he blew into the gap between her lips. A moment of clarity surfaced and she reached to pinch her nose as he repeated the motion. This time it hit its mark and she felt the rush of breath go through her. It was lacking—not satisfying the demanding need of her lungs, but it was still enough to enable her to kick alongside him before he paused to repeat the action.
Even with Zak’s sustaining contact, the dark crept up on her, ensnaring her in a net of hysteria. A monster rose from the sediment and grabbed her from behind, hauling her from Zak’s arms with brute strength. She clawed at Zak’s hands, feeling them slip away.
Silence.
All Aimee heard was the ragged sound of her breath. Her breath?
She was breathing! There was water above her and around her, but it was not touching her—and she was breathing. Tentatively, she reached for the shimmering liquid and her hand collided with a sheer barrier. Ambient light from a muted source cast eerie shadows everywhere.
“Are you always this difficult?” Gordy huffed. His voice boomed in the stillness.
Beyond : Series Bundle (9781311505637) Page 60
