by R J Johnson
JT looked down at the tray and drew Molly in for a hug. She went stiff as JT held her tight, as he danced in joy. “To hell with the DoD, I’ll commercialize this and be bigger than every business on the Fortune 500 combined!”
He drew back and looked at Molly with pride. “You my dear have singlehandedly saved my company. So very well done.”
JT moved in for a kiss and Molly yelped in shock. He held onto her tightly and dug his hands into her hips. She struggled against his grip, but found herself unable to move.
“You don’t want me?” JT asked, sounding confused. “I give you everything you’ve ever wanted. This lab, this equipment, your freedom? And yet, with all I can offer you… you refuse?”
“I have a boyfriend you dick!” she spat out at him. “What about that is so hard to understand?”
“Scott? That little worm?” JT’s voice hissed through the tiny speakers and Alex noticed with some alarm that Scott had broken the mouse with his hand. He’d crushed it without even realizing what he was doing.
Molly drew herself up and backed away from JT as he advanced on her. “You think that little puissant could give you the kind of life you deserve like I could?” he spat at her. He pushed her back, “I’ve seen the way you look at me. How you wish I would just take you away from all this.”
“Why? Because I was nice to you once?” Molly’s eyes flashed in anger. “That doesn’t mean I want you to fuck me.”
“Friend-zoned…” JT snorted shaking his head. “You’re like all the rest. You just play nice because you want something, like my money, and then when you get what you need, you’re gone.”
“Friend-zoned?” she laughed. “Take your money? This is business you idiot! You’re going to make millions because of me and all you can think about is getting laid.”
Molly shook her head, “It’s ridiculous enough that you’d constantly hit on me in front of my boyfriend thinking that you and I could ever lead to anything. And now this?”
She turned and began walking to the door, “Don’t think just because you have more lawyers than me that you’re going to get away with that.” She nodded to the cameras. “You always liked to watch after all.”
JT’s face remained completely still, attempting to betray nothing. But then, a flick of the eyebrow and Molly knew she’d gotten the best of him. She turned and began to move out of the room, when she suddenly stopped short as a shadowy figured loomed over her in the doorway.
“Get away with what?”
They peered into the screen, hoping to get a better look at the man in the doorway. Alex pointed to the edge. “Can you focus in on him?”
Scott looked at the mangled mouse in his hands and half-heartedly tried to zoom in, but the damaged equipment wouldn’t corporate. The mouse jittered across the screen, making it impossible for Scott to control it properly.
“Unless I miss my guess, that’s Charles Halprin,” Scott said, straining to listen.
“Charlie,” JT stood and rushed over to Charles, hoping to get in between Molly and him. “We were just going over the project. She’s done it!”
“Yeah, enjoy that small victory,” Molly snorted. “I warned that gorilla you call a brother that I’d take the Hypertruck somewhere else if he kept up with the grabass. I meant it.”
“Is this true?” Charles asked, looking over at JT.
JT averted his eyes, casting them downward. He mumbled something that neither the camera’s microphones picked up nor Charles could hear.
“What did you say? Charles demanded.
“I said, she’s just being a bitch,” JT snapped. “I’ve always been nice to her, and she blows me off every single time. All I wanted was one chance to show her…”
“Shut up!” Charles snapped back at him. He turned to Molly and straightened his tie. “Ms. Madison, I apologize for my brother. He isn’t very good interacting with people sometimes.”
“So I noticed,” Molly said eying JT. “But I warned him. I’m taking my program to someone else.”
She moved to push past Charles Halprin, but he grasped her arm tightly.
“I’m afraid you can’t do that.”
She moved to wrench her arm away, but Halprin held fast. Molly looked up at him fiercely. “You’re an angel investor. You don’t own a goddamn thing yet.”
JT stepped forward, hoping to keep his brother from doing something rash, “She’s right Charlie, we can’t stop her leaving, and we won’t. She’s perfectly free to go…”
“She is?” Charles asked, sounding enraged. Scott could see it play out across his face, even on the video – he knew Molly could destroy everything if she wanted to.
“Of course…” JT replied, stepping back, looking bored. “We’ll see her in court. We can tie her up for years, decades, even. We pay a lot of lawyers a lot of money, and trust me when I say,” JT glanced over at the cameras in disdain, “we’ll end up owning you regardless of what you think you have here.”
Molly looked at JT and Charles. She shook herself back out of Charles’ grip, looking in defiance at the two brothers. Her eyes narrowed and she smiled.
“See you assholes in court.”
She moved past the pair of brothers, but before she reached the door Charles yanked her back by the hair, and wrapping his arm around her neck. She shrieked out in pain, and Scott stood, shouting out in rage, as he watched from the future.
Molly’s arms flailed out in front of her as she struggled to get away from Charles’s manic grip. She kicked out, as Charles turned, trying to contain the red headed ball of fury he was holding onto.
He threw Molly down, and her head struck the side of the counter. With a sharp crack, blood spilled everywhere and she became unnaturally still.
Alex winced as he watched the woman’s body go limp when she hit the floor. He’d seen that too many times before. He didn’t need a doctor to know she wasn’t in good shape. He leaned in closer to the video to watch the rest.
JT looked on in shock as Charles looked at his brother with a satisfied grin. He nodded to the cabinet plastered in warning labels sitting in the corner.
“Help me drag her…”
JT only looked on in shock, as Charles began dragging Molly’s limp body across the lab floor, a trail of blood left behind. Charles looked up, his face enraged. “Do you want to go to prison? Help me dammit!”
Snapping into action, JT stepped forward and picked up Molly’s legs to drag her over next to the cabinet. They reached it, and were out of view. Scott’s fingers flew across the keyboard and the screen switched to another angle.
Charles opened up the cabinet and began pushing random buttons on the cabinet and pulling out the hoses from the canisters. White fog sprayed out of the canisters as warning lights began flashing ominously across the panel in front of him. JT finished pulling Molly’s body over to the cabinet.
“What are you doing?” JT asked his brother, sweating profusely from the effort of dragging her body.
“We make it look like an accident. We blame it on this one, or her boyfriend. Whoever. It doesn’t matter. Without any evidence, the police will believe whatever story we tell them.”
“But all their work?” JT asked, flabbergasted. “It’ll be lost.”
Charles snorted, shaking his head, “Most of their stuff was stored on company servers. The rest, we can get from the boyfriend. We blame him for the accident and tell him we’re the only ones who can protect him, but only if he delivers the project.”
JT cocked his head, “What accident?”
Charles smiled, and pushed another button on the cabinet, “Hazardous chemical storage is so… hazardous…”
The warning lights were replaced with a loud siren and Charles pulled his brother out of the lab and they made their escape.
But, what they didn’t see, what they couldn’t see, was the fact that Molly was still alive. She raised a hand toward the cabinet just as the video screen went blank.
Scott roared out in rage, and punched the
screen as hard as he could. He was rewarded by a shower of sparks and he pushed his chair back, standing up. Alex moved out of his friend’s way, and was alarmed to see his friend’s arm shaking, blood dripping across the shapeshifting stone clutched in his hands.
“Scott!” Alex shouted. Screw trying to keep it down. If he didn’t control his friend he’d likely tear the building apart starting with the foundation. And healing stone or no, he wasn’t looking forward to trying to dig his way out if he got stuck.
Scott didn’t care what his friend was trying to say transformed body began tearing at the servers, sending a stack of them crashing against the wall in a burst of sparks and noise. Alex grabbed hold of one of Scott’s talons and felt it rip through his arm, nearly tearing it off. The stone hanging around his neck flashed and he felt it zip back together.
“Knock it off!” Alex yelled. He snapped his fingers and a burst of flame exploded in front of Scott’s transforming face. Scott was knocked back, dazed by the brief assault of heat, light and flames. He fell against the wall, and began to slowly transform back to his human form.
The fire sprinklers turned on, attempted to quell whatever fire that had started within the tight confines of the office. Alex rose his head through the water raining down from the ceiling and saw his friend collapsed in the middle of a crushed desk, water pouring off of his clothes.
Alex pushed his way through the wreckage and moved to console his friend. He approached Scott who was sitting very still looking up at the ceiling. He reached down and held a hand out for Scott.
His friend didn’t respond at first. He didn’t move, just sat there, letting the water pour all over him.
“Scott,” Alex said in a low voice. “They’ll be coming…”
Scott muttered something nearly under his breath that he couldn’t quite catch. Alex leaned in, hoping to get him to repeat what he said.
“What was that?”
“I said, let them come.”
Scott held out his hand to be helped up and Alex clasped it tightly, pulling his friend out of the wreckage he’d created when he’d temporarily shifted into his dragon form.
Alex looked him in the eye and pulled him in for a hug. His friend needed his help, and he’d be damned if he’d let him face this alone.
Chapter Forty-Four
Geoffrey Tate had been fielding media requests all day. He’d used his contacts all over the US to plant the story about Alex’s rapid rise as a terrorist mastermind. Tate had lucked into the fact that wherever Alex had gone lately, things had blown up. With the constant coverage on the Joshua Tree explosion and the incident at the nuclear reactor in San Diego, Alex’s picture was everywhere.
Kline’s second in command sat back, his feet propped up on his bosses’ desk. Kline had informed Tate he was off looking for another stone in Germany. He hadn’t left more details than that, but Tate had seen the coverage of the strange earthquake and collapsing building as well. The European media hadn’t caught onto the strange source of the incidents, but some in the US media were beginning to ask questions.
He watched the chaos on the screen unfold. A dozen shots of the San Ellijo nuclear plant and repeated interviews from nuclear safety experts filled the screen. Depending which channel he was watching, he hear predictions of everyone’s doom and gloom to some talking heads questioning the President’s loyalty and blaming him for leaving the nation vulnerable to the attacks.
Tate didn’t care who they blamed, so long as Alex was caught. The authorities had been close at the airport, and the MARS security personnel had been ready to go to capture Alex and his stones. Even if the Feds got their hands on the stones, Tate knew he’d been authorized to do anything to get those stones.
The phone in Kline’s office rang and he eyed it. Not many had the billionaire’s private line and those who did expected someone to pick up immediately.
Tate leaned forward and picked up the phone on the second ring.
“Kline!” the voice was rough and sounded furious. “Where the hell are you Kline?”
“This is Geoffrey Tate,” Tate managed as politely as possible. “Mr. Kline is otherwise indisposed but I’m sure I can help you with anything you require.” The twelve stones were Kline’s priority at the moment, meaning Tate had to run the business along with whatever else Kline needed.
“This is JT Halprin and I need Kline right now!” the voice roared. Clearly this was someone used to getting his way.
“Mr. Halprin of course,” Tate reached back into his memory and tried to recall what he knew of the billionaire screaming at him through the phone. The man and his brother were both clients of the MARS Security and paid them a lot of money to keep their business private. Tate squeezed his eyes shut and tried to remember which Halprin JT was.
“What can we do for you sir?” Tate said, hurriedly scrolling his phone to get more information on the man.
“My businesses are under attack!” he thundered. “I’ve had TWO incursions at my businesses today. One in Los Angeles another on my building in San Francisco.”
Tate nodded once he found JT’s entry. This was the defense contractor. Same man they’d used to get the PHASER rifles out of cold storage for the PD’s pursuit of Alex. The Fireman’s ability to knock out guns wasn’t something they expected. Fortunately they had contracted some work with Halprin and had learned about the rifles. Halprin’s company was always the go to contractor when Kline wanted weapons that were more outside the box.
That almost seemed a lifetime ago.
However, this was a relationship Kline likely needed to keep cordial. When Kline made his move to take over the world, he’d need the corporation of people like Halprin.
“What’s happening there sir? How can we help?”
“Damned if I know!” JT said, sounding exhausted. “I was in town today because one of our proto-types was stolen during the JPL incident and I needed to see the kind of damage that was done to our brand. When I was leaving, I stumbled into some kind of clone.”
“Of whom?” Tate asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. Customer service was not his strong suit.
“It was an exact duplicate of me!” Halprin roared into the phone. “I don’t know what’s happening down here. That’s what I pay you people for!”
Tate nodded, “Well sir, according to my records, you have us on retainer for a basic security package, but that only covers your executives who go overseas in high danger locations. I don’t know if you’ve spoken with your brother about how he likes the platinum package but I can assure you it is well worth the price. I’m afraid the gold level package you’re currently subscribed to is not sufficient…”
“Fuck the money!” JT growled. “There was a goddamn dragon in my fucking lobby this morning and I want to know WHY!”
Tate sat up, shocked. A dragon? The last time he’d seen something like that…
“Sir,” Tate knew he needed to phrase this perfectly lest he offend one of their best clients, “Are you certain you saw…”
“CERTAIN?” I HAVE THE GODDAMN THING ON TAPE!” JT roared. “And now my people have informed me that there’s been another incursion in my San Francisco office. I just got off a plane and am heading there now. I should be there in less than ten minutes.”
Tate waved toward the receptionist who approached him with a notepad in his hand, he covered the receiver and whispered frantically to her. “Get the helicopter spun up and have the jet ready. I’m going to San Francisco.”
The receptionist nodded as she took out a phone, texting the pilot they had on standby. “And what would you like me to tell Mr. Kline?”
Tate frowned. There was so much to take care. He needed more people he could trust, but that was not a luxury he had at the moment.
“Mr. Halprin, I’m sending a team out to your building right now,” Tate promised. He retrieved his jacket and put it on. “I’m also getting on a plane right now and should be there in a few hours.”
“Good!” JT snapped. The
phone disconnected and Tate looked up at the receptionist.
“Tell Kline I’m finishing the job he assigned me,” the receptionist looked at Tate confused. Tate rolled his eyes, “Forget it, I’ll call him from the plane myself.”
Tate strode out the office and into the elevator, pressing the button that would take him to the roof and the helicopter waiting above. He had no time to waste.
He was going to get to kill Alex McCray personally.
And he would enjoy every minute of the experience.
Chapter Forty-Five
It’d only taken Scott a few moments to disable the alarm that was sounding in their office. He’d begun setting off alarms all over the building just to confuse and dilute any security forces that might be looking for them. So far, they hadn’t been interrupted as Scott began the process of deleting any trace of his work on Auburn’s servers.
“How much longer?”
“Flashbacks to prom,” Scott muttered. Alex felt some relief. If his friend was able to joke, then maybe all was not lost. His fingers were flying across the keyboard. “It’ll be done when it’s done.”
Alex hated it when he wasn’t in control. He felt confident enough he could face whatever was out there with his stones, but the more time he spent below ground in the subbasement, the more trapped he felt.
An alarm sounded in their room and red lights began flashing. Alex looked toward the door in a panic.
“Great job…” Alex said, sounding irritated. He went to feel for his pistol and cursed, realizing he’d left it behind. But that shouldn’t matter, he had the Fire Stone. What else would he need?
Scott ignored the dig and continued to type on the keyboard. “That wasn’t me!”
“Whoever it was, I’d say we have at best thirty seconds before a bunch of people with scary looking guns burst through that door,” Alex said.
The stomping feet of a half-dozen security guards echoed through the hallway, and he could hear shouts as more security swarmed towards them.
