CHAPTER 1

Southern Venezuela

Near the Brazilian Border

The thrum of the helicopter rotors filled the cabin with the modern audio equivalent of cavalry going to war. Inside, a faint red light illuminated the other nine painted faces of Tactical Teams 1 and 2 while Greer ran through his mental checklist one last time. Outside, darkness covered everything. Only a faint distinction could be seen between the clouded sky and the mottled shades of the jungle below.

«Greer.»

The Team Leader turned his attention to his counterpart on TAC 2.

«You guys didn’t insert this far out last time,» Ellis observed.

Greer remembered the last visit to Armaros’ compound when he and his Team had rescued Adair. «Yeah, that was back when the enemy didn’t know we existed. We put all our cards on the table with that operation. It’ll be a bit more complicated this time around.»

«Well, thanks for the hike. I hope you boys are ready for sweat and poisonous critters,» Ellis replied.

Greer smiled. «Bring it!» Then he pounded his chest twice with his fist.

All the other soldiers in the cabin immediately mimicked the action in response.

«Two minutes to insertion,» sounded the notification in their earpieces.

At once, the two Teams stood and moved into position near the open doors on either side of the cabin. The chopper banked around some steep terrain to the south, and Greer could see the beacon lights of the other two choppers in formation behind them.

Second Security Officer Darren Jensen grabbed ahold of the rope and waited for the signal.

«Go, go, go!» ordered a voice over the COMM.

Jensen stepped out of the aircraft and slid down the rope without a moment’s hesitation.

First Security Officer John Martinez went next, followed by COMM Operator Mark Zylski and Assistant Team Leader Eric Thompson, each disappearing into the darkness below.

Greer put both hands on the rope and stepped out of the cabin, descending rapidly after his Team into a dense canopy of leaves. Three seconds passed before the vegetation enveloped him, muffling the sound of the choppers. The buzzing of his gloves against the rope became the dominant sound, ending abruptly as soon as his boots hit the marshy ground. He brought his weapon to a low ready position and took off to the east, rejoining his Team as they moved toward the insertion rally point.

Overhead, the muffled sound of three choppers circled around to the north and quickly faded into the distance, the rotary-winged aircraft having inserted their cargo of six TAC Teams.

Minutes later, TAC 1 arrived at a rocky outcropping at the base of a mesa. Thick trees overhead provided plenty of cover, while the solid ground underfoot offered a dry place to take inventory.

«Weapons check,» Greer whispered.

TAC 1 inspected their rifles for damage and verified proper functionality before nodding to indicate their readiness.

«Injuries?»

He got a thumbs-up from everyone.

The other Teams began arriving at the rally point and performing their verification routines with the same outcome. The insertion had been successful.

«Zylski, call it in,» Greer ordered.

Zylski nodded. «One to Command. TAC One to Command. All Teams are on the ground. Beginning INFIL.»

When Zylski was finished, Greer peered through the shadows at the other soldiers. «Alright boys. We’ve got a twelve-mile hike. Let’s move out.»

The Monastery of the Kaliel

Off the Coast of Suppard

Kael stood in the dining hall of the Monastery that had been his home for most of his childhood. Though his eyes noted many changesan overturned table, spider webs in the corners of the ceiling, thick dust covering all the surfaceshis imagination only saw what used to be.

Flickering torchlight

Polished wooden beams

Faces of friends around the table, laughing as they reached for food

The smell of roasted meat as the kitchen doors opened

Slowly, the memory faded and he was left with only the damp cold that lingered from the autumn rains. To his right, a passage stood open in the wall next to the fireplace. In all the time he had spent in this room he had never known it was there, hidden in plain sight. The shadows in the passage began to move, and seconds later an Orudan soldier appeared.

«Captain,» the soldier said between panting breaths. «It goes all the way down to a cavern at the base of the cliff.»

Kael nodded.

«There’s something elsea room, about halfway down. It looks like it was broken into. There’s lots of rubble in front of a metal door that was pushed in.»

«What’s in the room?» Kael asked softly.

«It’s empty, Captain. Except for a gigantic, stone box. I’m not sure what it is, but it looks old. Lots of carvings and jewels.»

Kael frowned. «A sarcophagus for something not quite dead,» he mumbled to himself.

«I beg your pardon?»

«Nothing,» Kael answered as he inhaled deeply and tried to redirect his attention to the task at hand.

A moment of awkward silence passed as the soldier looked expectantly to Kael. Finally, he spoke. «Do you want us to burn it down, Captain?»

Kael looked up at the ceiling and considered the soldier’s question. The forest encampment where the Kaliel had held Saba captive had been put to flame. After that, he and Saba had managed to find the secret prison where Kael and many other boys had been held like caged animals. It was set deep into a mountain near the coastal city of Suppard. They left behind a contingent of soldiers who immediately set to work caving in the tunnels and cells where so many dark memories had been born. Though the process of reclaiming these facilities for the Orudan Empire was essential for the reestablishment of its security and a necessary step for bringing closure to that part of Saba’s and Kael’s lives, Kael had expected it to bring more of a sense of relief, but it hadn’t. The memories remained. The damage had been done.

«No,» he answered. «The buildings are still in good repair. The Empire needs an outpost in this area, and it would just take unnecessary time and effort to build something like this. Go ahead and start moving your men and supplies in here, Lieutenant. The barracks are down that wing, and the stables are across the lawn over there.»

«Captain,» came a voice from behind Kael.

He turned to see several more soldiers approaching with Saba following closely on their heels.

«We’ve just finished searching the property. It’s abandoned, like you said it would be. I set up a security watch. What would you like us to do next?»

Kael turned back to the lieutenant. «I’ll leave this matter to you. Do as you wish.»

«Yes, Captain.»

Kael began moving toward the front door. «Saba. Will you walk with me, please?»

«Certainly,» his mentor replied.

Kael headed outside, following the path that led through the main gate in the stone wall that ran around the Monastery’s perimeter. Overhead, the skies were clouded, but the ever-present winds were unusually calm.

«You’ve healed up nicely,» Saba observed.

Kael looked down and clenched his fist, observing the skin of his forearm expand and contract. It had been more than half a year since they had dragged his charred and bleeding body out of the Temple. The blackened flesh was gone. The scabs had fallen off. Even the bright pink skin that had replaced it all looked a normal color, as if nothing had ever happened.

«Thanks,» Kael replied, running his other hand across the back of his head through short hair, the one remnant of his months of recovery. Not quite the same as before, he thought. «It’s alarming to think back on everything that transpired. My father’s death. Lemus. My time here. The Syvaku invasion. The war with the Korgan. All of it because of one person

one being,» he corrected himself.

Saba walked beside Kael but his eyes were locked on the distant horizon. «And Rameel didn’t even have full access to this world when he caused most of those things. That is their way. These beings will use any resource at their disposal to expand their realms of influence. I shudder to think of what the other worlds are like.»

«You mean, because their influence has been more direct in those places?» Kael asked without taking his eyes off of the ground in front of him.

«Presumably. Rameel was trapped for many thousands of years, and only recently did he acquire Magnus as a tool for his own devices. And look at the result. The others, I assume, have had free rein to do as they please with the worlds they claimed for themselves.»

Having moved southeast from the Monastery, they crested a short hill and Kael stopped walking. The familiar sight before him demanded his complete attention. The route that they had been following, once bare soil from Kael’s repeated passage, was now overgrown with tall grasses. The ground descended gently toward rocky terrain, ending abruptly at a cliff. Beyond that, the Northern Ocean stretched as far as the eye could see. Kael took a deep breath of the salty air before moving down to the edge of the cliff.

«So why didn’t you go after them?» he asked.

Saba smiled. «Sounds easy enough

for you. There was once a time when I thought the prophecy was about me. I actually believed I was The Awakenedthat I was supposed to correct everything that was taking place. I did everything in my power and accomplished much, but for every action I took, another problem resulted. It spiraled out of control and I reached the end of myself. That’s when I knew the prophecy wasn’t for me. I had done everything I knew how to do and stretched myself far beyond what I ever thought possible. But it was useless. I couldn’t defeat them all. So I made my stand. I picked one world to defendthis one. And I couldn’t even do that well enough. That’s why I cast Rameel into the portal and took his key so he couldn’t complete the journey.»

Kael was suddenly conscious of his hand resting on the hilt of the crystalline sword hanging from his belt, now a permanent part of his attire.

Saba continued. «I trapped him, thinking that would be sufficient, but I suppose I was wrong. He was just too strong for me.»

But not for you, were the next words that Kael expected to hear. But they never came. Saba kept silent this time. His old mentor had been trying to convince him that he was the fulfillment of the prophecy ever since they had begun these discussions in Orud after the final battle with the Kaliel. The more often Saba had mentioned it, the more uncomfortable it made Kael.

He stood now at the edge of the cliffs, at the place where he had spent hours meditating as a child. It looked exactly the sameall the cracks and crevices, all the outcroppings and protrusions he had memorized over the years were still there. The stone had defiantly withstood years of violent storms coming off the ocean and still looked just like the picture in his mind. Kael scuffed his foot and watched a few pebbles tumble off the edge, falling into the vast openness between him and the waves hundreds of feet below. He shook his head slowly at the thought of his younger self. I can’t believe you actually jumped!

The distant roar of crashing waves was interrupted by a slight breeze that suddenly picked up and caused the surrounding grasses to rustle. Kael listened for a moment, remembering the peace he had sought so fervently in this place, which had always seemed just out of reach. They were all gone nowenemies that had once been friends. The weight that had perched upon his shoulders since childhood had gone, and in its absence was

What? Kael wondered. Peace? It certainly doesn’t feel like it.

The pain and betrayal had been with him for so long that he didn’t know who he was without them. They seemed to define him. He had become accustomed to resisting, to fighting. Now, without a hard surface to push against, he felt as though he was drifting through a void, directionless.

«You said there are three worlds,» he blurted out, trying to abruptly change the course of his thoughts, «and they used to be parts of the same world before the»

«Fracturing,» Saba interjected. «But not just parts of a whole.» He suddenly bent down and plucked a blade of grass from a stubborn clump growing out of a crack in the rock. Then he tore it into three sections and held out his palm. «These pieces are all similar in that they share an origin. This one is pointed at the tip, while this other one is pale near the root. These are pieces of a whole. The fracturing of the Temporal realm was something different. It was a multiplying of sorts. There was once only one world. When the Myndarym were finished, the result was three worlds, each fully intact. Three separate instances from the same origin.»

«Which one is the original?» Kael asked.

«None of them

and all of them.»

Kael lifted his head. «That’s not a very useful answer.»

«I know,» Saba admitted. «It’s very complicated, and impossible to explain it accurately. All I can say is that the world, as it once was, ceased to exist. In its place were three identical instances of the same world, though certainly weaker in some ways than the original.»

«How were they weaker?»

«Again, it’s difficult to define, but

Colors seemed dull; sounds

less vibrant. And it was shortly after that when the lifespan of your kind was cut short. Instead of eight hundred years, humans were fortunate to live to eighty.»

Kael nodded. «This multiplying. It happened to everything? Rocks? Trees?»

«Yes.»

«Humans?» Kael pressed further.

«Yes.»

Kael wondered what it would be like to have your body and your consciousness multiplied. Would there still be a connection between them? Would you be aware of your existence in multiple places at the same time, or would you even be aware that it had happened?

«And not just the things next to you,» Saba added, pointing at the ground.

Kael’s gaze went down and then slowly drifted toward the sky. «You mean the sun?»

«And the moon. The stars. The Temporal realm is everything, not just this planet. It encompasses all the planets everywhere and the vast amount of emptiness between them.»

Saba had previously explained what the stars really were and why they appeared to move as they did. As with all of these discussions, that one had also occurred out of earshot of anyone else. Saba’s explanations didn’t exactly match up with the official view of the Empire, and its citizens took such things quite seriously.

«But you said there was supposed to be more. Ten worlds.»

«Yes, one for each of them,» Saba answered. «I think they realized rather quickly that as long as they were forced to share one world, they wouldn’t ever truly become the gods they desired to be. But something went wrong during the fracturing, and they didn’t realize it until each one tried to take possession of his or her own world. That’s when they found there weren’t enough worlds to go around.»

Kael nodded again but kept silent. Though he and Saba had been discussing these things for months now, there was still so much to learn. The problem was that each discussion, no matter how brief, always left Kael with more questions than answers. Saba’s knowledge about the world and its history was immense and dizzying, and each conversation required hours of silence afterwards to digest what had been said. Kael had already reached his limit for the day. He could tell by the way that he’d already failed to pursue some of the obvious questions that had come to mind in the last few minutes. He didn’t have the stamina for the conversations that would have resulted.

«In the morning, I will set sail for the Temple,» he said, changing the topic.

An indecipherable emotion caused a subtle, but rapid change in Saba’s expression.

Does he know I’ve reached my limit? Displaying any sign of weakness or limitation in front of someone would have normally bothered Kael, but Saba was his closest friend and the only one who really understood him well.

Saba’s confusing expression slowly turned into a smile.

Now Kael understood the reason. «I know what you’re thinking.

one step closer to going through that portal.»

Saba held out his hands. «I learned a long time ago to stop trying to control the way events turn out. That’s not my role in this war. But whether you deny it or not, I saw what you did to Rameel. You’re the only human who has ever killed one of us. Though you still think of yourself as weak and vulnerable, I know the things you’ve done and the way people talk about them when you’re not around.»

Kael shook his head and brought his fingers up to his face to massage away the fatigue behind his eyes.

«You are The Awak»

«I just need to see the Temple one last time,» Kael interrupted.

Saba stopped talking. The muscles of his jaw flexed.

Kael felt his heart begin to thump loudly inside his chest. The thought of having to explain himself was irritating. Hadn’t he already finished his work? Weren’t all his enemies destroyed? Why was Saba trying to saddle him with more responsibility? Kael wasn’t even sure if he believed the prophecy. He finally took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. «Look. They carried me out of there, and my eyes barely worked at the time. I just want to get a good look at the place, so I can be finished with that part of my life. I’m sorry if you were hoping for more than that.»

Saba exhaled and nodded slowly. After a moment’s pause, his voice was gentler. «You’re right. I shouldn’t be pressing for more than that. Whatever is supposed to happen will happen.»

Kael shrugged.

«Well, let’s go inside and see if we can find something to make a fire,» Saba offered. «It’ll be time for dinner soon, and it would be nice to have something hot to eat.»

«Sounds good. It’s getting cold, and I can feel a storm coming,» Kael said as he started moving up the hill, away from the cliffs.

«Indeed,» Saba said under his breath.

Kael heard the comment but left it without a reply.

CHAPTER 2

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

Tim Matthews had just set down his notepad on the polished, mahogany conference table when the door opened. The woman who entered the room had long dark hair, high cheekbones and full lips, but Matthews’ fascination went far deeper than the physical. As a graduate of Cornell, he was intellectually intrigued by the MIT alumna who had been transferred to this office to replace him as Senior Analyst. With Matthews’ recent promotion to Head of Intelligence, that made him her boss. Any hope that his interest would be reciprocated was both inappropriate and impossible. The forbidden element of the situation only added to the tension he felt.

«Thanks for coming early, Ms. Bosque,» he said, trying to sound perfectly professional.

«Please, call me Andrea,» she replied with a smooth, almost liquid voice. «And thank you for the opportunity to get some background information before we get started. I read the report, but it’s always good to hear the information directly from the one who wrote it.»

Matthews nodded and checked his watch. «The others should be here in about ten or fifteen minutes, so I’ll try to make this quick.»

Andrea smiled. «OK.»

«Please, have a seat,» Matthews replied while sitting himself down at a keyboard halfway along the length of the massive conference table. He grabbed the mouse and the screen on the wall at the end of the room came to life. On it was a profile layout of their target. Black and white photographs occupied the upper left of the screen, taken from long range using telephoto lenses. Adjacent to these were digital frames of satellite footage. A column on the right displayed biographical data. Most of the fieldsdate of birth, country of origin, political affiliationssimply listed unknown, except the field at the top.

«Armaros,» Matthews began. «Eighteen months ago, we didn’t know he existed, let alone his name. All we had were a few recurring clues in various commercial and military markets. Advanced weapons development. Global manufacturing consortiums. Private engineering companies. A bunch of signs pointing to a common source. We didn’t know who was behind it, but it was obvious that someone was involved in a convergence of some pretty dangerous technologies and resources. The clues eventually led us to a few facilities in this region, mostly remote locations that were black holes of information. They had no financial records. No business licenses. Nothing. It was like they had no purpose. And yet, surveillance showed increasing amounts of pedestrian and vehicle traffic.»

As Matthews spoke, he clicked on several of the red dots on the interactive map, showing Armaros’ various facilities scattered throughout South America.

«Eventually we began to identify signs of weaponry and training that suggested some level of military operations. This led us to cross-reference our data with military and law enforcement databases, but nothing turned up. Not even the drug cartels knew about these guys. They were ghosts, and potentially very dangerous.»

Andrea turned from the screen. «When you say we, you mean you discovered all this. You put this operation together, right?»

Matthews pursed his lips, not quite sure how to shrug off the uncomfortable yet accurate observation.

«That’s where the promotion came from?» she pushed.

«Well, it was a lot of things that happened to work out. Anyway, a year and a half ago we were simply monitoring these facilities. When the oceans started rising, it created chaos everywhere and our attention was diverted, but we eventually realized the source.»

Andrea nodded. «They were causing it.»

«Right. And the SAT feed from their facility in northern Brazil showed a very interesting series of events. I’m going to warn youthis is where it gets weird. First, an unidentified creature broke through the atrium roof and flew off. Unidentified because this thing measured about ten feet in length with a thirty-foot wingspan.»

Matthews enlarged a photo of the creature’s silhouette so Andrea could get a good look at it. «You can see it looks almost like a bat, but doesn’t match anything in this world. Maybe a prehistoric world, but not ours.»

Andrea’s eyebrows came together, creating an adorable wrinkle just above her nose.

«Then a huge column of water shot up through the building and flooded the whole area in a matter of seconds. Whatever this mysterious organization was doing, it definitely had the potential to inflict harm on a grand scale, intentionally or not.»

«Is that when Command got involved?» Andrea asked.

«Yeah. As you can imagine, this investigation suddenly shot to the top of their priority list. But there are a couple more critical details. After the water calmed down, SAT footage showed a dive crew doing some underwater salvage and demo operations. Right in the middle of it, a strange mannot wearing any dive gearjust popped up and started treading water. The soldiers quickly took him into custody. We inferred he was a liability for them, which meant he could be an asset for us. My former boss called in one of our Tactical Teams, and we stole him from Armaros’ men.»

Andrea leaned forward. «This is that

Adair?»

«Right.»

«Yes, I read the report from the linguistics team while I was at Division. They said he was from another world?»

Matthews smiled. «That was their assessment after interviewing him extensively. They also concluded that the facility in Brazil housed some sort of teleportation device. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let me back up. We tracked the flying creature as it moved northwestwhich was a challenge in itself, because it moved about as fast a jet. But we had its heading, and once we tiled together some images from other satellites, the creature led us right to Armaros. Specifically, to a mansion in the mountains north of San José, in Costa Rica.»

Andrea turned and looked at the screen. «That’s where most of these images were taken.»

«Right. So, over the course of a week, this creature stayed hidden at Armaros’ mansion while a blasting crew showed up at the facility in Brazil and began clearing out debris and some sections of low mountains that were keeping the whole valley underwater. As soon as they were done, the creature flew back to Brazil in the middle of the night. We had to use Thermal to track him, but we traced his signature the whole way. It disappeared shortly after he landed.»

«Wow. This is very strange,» Andrea replied.

Matthews smiled. «I warned you.»

«So what is the purpose of the tactical operation?» she asked. «Why is Command so interested in securing this facility, other than its potential to flood the whole world, of course?»

«Yes, I touched on that earlier,» Matthews replied. «About six months ago, Command Intelligence picked up an encrypted SAT transmission coming in to Costa Rica from Scandinavia. Someone was trying to get Armaros’ attention.»

Matthews clicked a link at the bottom of the screen and a text document was enlarged. «Here’s the transcript after decryption.»

<01:32:44 a.m.>

<origin: scrambled>

<intercepted: Stockholm>

<destination: San José>

<begin transmission>

Unknown: «You heard the proclamation?»

Armaros: «Do you think it’s real?» <voice stress analysis indicates presence of fear, compared to subsequent statement and other records>

Unknown: «Rameel is dead, so we need to assume the worst.»

Armaros: «I’ll make sure he doesn’t become a problem.»

Unknown: «You’d better. The majority of our objectives rest squarely on my shoulders. It’s time you do your part.»

<end transmission>

<01:33:01 a.m.>

Andrea wrinkled her eyebrows again. «Well, this other person was certainly using more sophisticated COMM protocol. It looks like it was intercepted in Stockholm, but we couldn’t determine a point of origin.»

Matthews nodded. «It could have come from anywhere in the region. What else do you see?»

Andrea turned from the screen for just a moment and looked at Matthews with a just a hint of a smile at one corner of her mouth. This was a test, and she looked pleased to participate. «Well, I said person because I can’t tell from the transcript if they’re male or female. But I assume you know which from the recording?»

«Male,» Matthews answered.

«Alright. The whole conversation between these two men revolves around this proclamation. We can rule out the strictest sense of the word because both men have varying degrees of doubt about its validity, and the last statement implies some other standing order from a higher authority which they do not question. So, I would assume the proclamation is not an official declaration, but simply a less formal statement made about something or someone significant, probably not from their higher authority. And I say significant because the voice stress analysis indicates that at least Armaros is afraid of the implications of the proclamation.»

Matthews leaned back in his chair, completely impressed with the assessment that was apparently just getting started.

«A third individual is named,» she continued. «This Rameel is obviously dead, and his death was closely related to the proclamation, perhaps caused by it, which would explain their fear. It’s not likely that he was one of their subordinates, as the death of someone less powerful wouldn’t necessarily induce fear. Certainly not for individuals with resources as extensive as Armaros’. If we assume this Rameel was at least a colleague of Armaros and this other unknown man, then we have the first outlines of a larger organizationthree powerful individuals who consider themselves under the authority of someone else. I suppose their objectives could also be self-imposed and they could be operating without leadership, but we should consider both possibilities.»

Matthews was smiling now and not bothering to hide it.

«This unknown man feels that he’s shouldering the majority of the responsibility for meeting their objectives, which implies something larger or different than what Armaros is doing, but in some way intertwined. It sounds as though Armaros’ job is to protect the other, which brings us to the most important part of their short discussion. Armaros says he won’t become a problem. He surely does not refer to Rameel, who is dead and not likely a problem for anyone. I would conclude that there is someone, a man, whom they are afraid of. This man killed Rameel and is coming after them, and that is the cause for their fear. And if that is the case, the proclamation is likely a warning about this man.»

Matthews eyebrows shot up. «Wow. Were you in COMM Intelligence at Division?»

Andrea smiled. «Yes.»

«Well, it shows. You just picked apart this message in seconds and came to the same conclusions as our whole team did over the course of weeks. You even hit on some things we hadn’t considered yet. Well done.»

«Thank you,» she said, sitting back in her chair.

Matthews turned back to the screen. «So, the last critical piece of this sequence is Armaros’ actions after this communication. Prior to it, he had supplies, equipment, and construction crews being airlifted in from Boa Vista to repair the damage from the flooding. As they completed their work, others started on installation of radar and surface-to-air missile systems. The fencing and razor wire was replaced, and we observed a substantial number of armed soldiers. The facility appeared to be secured from an outside attack, far more so than before we moved in and took Adair. But right after this communication, hundreds and hundreds of troops began moving in, and they weren’t patrolling the perimeter. They were set to guard the main building that houses the portal. Then an explosives team flew in and rigged the whole compound in concentric rings.»

Andrea leaned forward again. «They’re not trying to protect themselves from the outside. They’re protecting themselves from whoever is coming through that portal from another worldthe man who’s coming after Armaros. They’re going to kill him.»

«Right,» Matthews replied. «And if the soldiers there don’t get the job done, they’re willing to blow themselves up to ensure that he’s dead.»

«To ensure that he doesn’t become a problem,» Andrea quoted.

A soft tapping at the door interrupted the conversation, and Matthews quickly checked his watch.

The door opened, and in walked George Barrett, deputy director of the Central and South Americas office and Matthews’ boss. He left the door ajar and moved toward the head of the table. «We ready to get started?»

«Just waiting for the rest of the team,» Matthews replied. «I have a channel open to Division, but Helmsley hasn’t checked in yet.»

George took his seat. «Jim’s always right on time; never early, never late.»

The rest of the team filtered in over the following minutes and took their seats around the conference table. Matthews checked his watch again before activating the audiovisual channel.

Null, Western Operations Division (WOD)

McLean, Virginia, United States

Jim Helmsley, director of Western Operations, had just finished signing his name at the bottom of a document when he glanced up and noticed that the second hand of the clock hanging on the wall was only a few ticks from the italicized twelve. Moving with almost as much precision as the atomic power behind the old-fashioned clock face, he touched an icon on his screen and both monitors lit up. The one on the left showed a view of the main conference room at his Bogotá office. The other displayed a terrain model of Armaros’ compound from an aerial perspective, along with other reference data arranged in the standard format.

«Good morning everyone,» he said.

The replies from the team blended together into a general murmur.

«I see a couple new faces; it’s good to have some additional help over there.» Sitting beside the deputy director were his heads of Intelligence and Field Operations. Along the walls were key support staff from both groups, excluding the Tactical Team Leaders who were in the field at the moment.

«Why don’t we get started? I called this meeting to get an update on the status of our operation in Brazil. I have a briefing with Command and the other directors this afternoon, and I want to assure them that we have this under control. They’re breathing down my neck on this one, and there’s nothing they’d like better than to come in and help us do our jobs. And we all know what that means, so, let’s hear some good news. How is the tactical portion proceeding?

On the screen, Greg Suncio, head of Field Operations, leaned forward. «Sir. We’ve successfully inserted six Teams by fast-rope, north-northwest of the compound across the Venezuelan border. It’s the green area outlined on your screen. The choppers’ approach was low and blocked from radar by the mesa to the south. So far, Intelligence hasn’t reported any indications that the enemy knows we’re in their backyard. Our Teams checked in yesterday evening after they reached the IRP. They’re in the INFIL stage now, with another ten miles until they’re in position. They’re traveling with maximum cautiononly at night and with a minimum of equipment. We’ll airdrop the rest of their weapons after they’ve established their positions and started observing.»

«Excellent. How long until they’re in position?»

«Another two days. But they’ll need six before they’re ready to execute.»

Helmsley nodded. «How will we know when the Asset is coming through?»

Matthews quickly brought up a complex and multicolored, three-dimensional graph. «This is a full EMR analysis of the compound during the flooding eighteen months ago. It revealed a massive buildup of magnetic energy immediately preceding the event. Its shape was cylindrical and extended vertically from the main building, which turned out to be the same path that the water followed when it came through. We know what to look for now, and we have full SAT coverage of the area, so we’re prepared.»

«Very good,» Helmsley replied. «And what happens if this Asset comes through before we’re ready to receive him?»

«Sir,» George jumped in. «Suncio, Matthews, and I have worked up a detailed objectives hierarchy with triple contingencies, but all of it rests upon us being in contact with the enemy first. Our greatest risk is if the Asset comes through before Suncio’s men are in position. They’re moving as fast as they can, but we can’t offer any protection to the Asset until then.»

«We could send in an air strike, sir,» Suncio interjected, «but that would take out Asset as well as Armaros’ men. We don’t really have a better option than to move quickly, secure the facility, and give the Asset the best reception possible.»

«Fair enough,» Helmsley replied. «Speaking of a good reception, we started transporting Adair earlier this morning. We had to use ground transport to maintain a low security profile in the States, but they’ll catch a flight in Mexico City. He and his Transporters have three days to reach the airport and one more to get to Bogotá. They’re checking in periodically, which is about as much monitoring as we can get away with over here. Once they leave Mexican airspace, they’re your responsibility. When Adair arrives, make sure he’s briefed and prepared for a meeting with someone from his own world. It’s critical that this Asset feels at home, that he knows we’re the good guys and we’re here to protect him.»

«We’ll be tracking them from the time they leave Mexico,» George assured him.

«Good. Any other items on your end?» Helmsley asked.

«Yes, sir. The orders from Command implied that we’re to hold this facility indefinitely?»

«Yes,» Helmsley admitted. «It did imply that, and I’ll be discussing it with them this afternoon. As far as I’m concerned, we’re not in the business of occupying territory. We don’t have the resources for it. We just need to hold the facility long enough to receive the Asset. TAC Teams from other Divisions are on standby. They’ll move in to help secure the facility as soon as we give them the signal, but it’s a temporary solution. So, until you hear differently from me, consider that more of a wish than an order.»

«Thank you, sir,» George replied. «What happens if he never comes through?»

«Command is confident that his arrival is imminent. Anything else?» Helmsley asked.

The team on the other end was silent.

«OK. Thanks, everyone.» Helmsley touched the screen and both monitors went dark.

Meridian, Mississippi, United States

Adair leaned against the armrest with his chin in his hand, watching the road reflectors leave brilliant traces of light against the nighttime backdrop as they raced across his vision. The consistent hum of the tires on the road lowered in pitch and Adair straightened up as he realized they were exiting the Interstate.

«Where are we?» he asked from the backseat.

The driver, Ryan Collins, glanced up to the rearview mirror. «Just one of our checkpoints.»

Adair turned his attention back to the window as they turned onto city streets and made their way to the northeast side of town, finally pulling into the driveway of a high-fenced property scattered with industrial buildings.

Ryan eased the car to a stop in front of an abandoned guard station and reached through his open window to swipe his key card across a sensor. The red and white striped barrier lifted and he pulled through the gate, taking a right turn down a paved alley between two long buildings with dozens of garage doors on either side. When he stopped at the last bay on the left, his brother, Sean, jumped out and unlocked the padlock securing the door. He punched a few numbers on the ten-key pad next to the lock and the door automatically rolled up toward the ceiling. Then he waved the car forward.

As soon as the vehicle came to a stop, Adair got out and stretched his legs. After nearly thirteen hours on the road, he was exhausted despite the fact that he had done little else but stare out the window and eat fast food. The inside of the garage was more spacious than Adair had expected. Even though they had entered the last bay, there were no walls between it and the two adjacent bays. It was one large space, with three garage doors, and looked like an automotive repair shop. The center bay had a lift that was currently in the down position with a white truck parked on it. The rear wall, behind the two vehicles, had workbenches with all manner of mechanical and pneumatic tools neatly arranged. The far left bay looked like it had been converted to a living space. It had a few rugs, a couch, chairs, and a fridge in the corner.

«Go ahead and grab a drink,» Sean offered.

«Thanks,» Adair replied, walking with stiff legs over to the living area. They had plenty of bottled water in the fridge, but Adair closed the door without taking anything. He wasn’t really thirsty, just bored. «Where’s the bathroom?»

«It’s that door on the right,» Sean called out.

Adair stepped in and turned on the sink, grabbing some cold water and splashing it on his face. As it dripped from his chin, he stared at himself in the mirror. He didn’t look like a citizen of Bastul anymore, let alone a Colonel. It had been a year and a half since he had left his world and come to this one, and now he looked and sounded just like one of the people here. He was better groomed than before, for one thing. If the people of the Orudan Empire enjoyed their baths, it was nothing compared to these people. They were obsessed with washing themselves. Their style of dress was very different than the Orudan as well, but he’d recently concluded it was far more practical. Some of their food he’d found difficult to stomach at first, but he’d eventually gotten used to it. All in all, his new surroundings had stopped being a source of confusion for him, and that had really begun to bother him over the last few months.

Even though he’d seen plenty of warfare in his time and had endured some brutal physical punishmentboth in training and in normal lifethe waiting had become far more difficult. Hours would crawl by with nothing to do except sit in silence and think of how rash he had been to go searching for Bahari’s attackers. When the regret wore off, his imagination would take over, painting pictures of what might have happened to Maeryn. He would envision the Council coming down from Leoran to sort out the details of his disappearance. Did they investigate, or just pronounce me a deserter? he would wonder. The endless hours had been filled with questions. Did they replace me? Is Maeryn still at the mansion? What must Kael think? Did Saba get my note?

Adair splashed more water on his face and wiped it away with a paper towel. He was doing it again. Thinking. Questioning. Regretting. There was no use. He was here now, separated from his family. The only way to change that fact was to work with this mysterious organization and help them in any way he could, and that’s where he’d been concentrating his efforts latelytelling them everything they wanted to know, and many things they didn’t ask for. And then he waited

and waited. Adair smiled at himself in the mirror. Finally, something was happening. The organization was ready to make a move, and he was eager for the outcome. «Hold on, Maeryn,» he whispered.

When Adair came out of the bathroom, Ryan had the truck up on the lift and was inspecting the underside of it. He was stripped down to a sleeveless undershirt, with arms blackened by grease. Sean was unloading the trunk of the car. He’d also abandoned the collared shirt that was meant to make him look non-threatening to passersby. Unlike his brother, both of Sean’s bare arms were sleeved in multicolored tattoos. The display of artwork ended with a few choice phrases running across his collar bone and up his neck, the old English lettering looking menacing in straight black ink. Sean had an arsenal of semiautomatic pistols, fully-automatic rifles, hand grenades, and an assortment of other tools that Adair had never seen before, all neatly arranged on a green wool blanket on the ground, and he was still pulling one weapon after another out of the trunk.

«I didn’t realize you had all that in there.»

Sean raised his shaved head and gave Adair a smirk. «That’s kind of the point.»

Adair smiled back. «So, why are we switching vehicles?»

Ryan’s answer was muffled, as his face and hands were tucked into a tight crevice underneath the front of the truck. «Lower security profile. A silver Camry is one of the most common cars on the road from Virginia to here.»

A loud clank sounded, and Ryan pulled his hand out and shook it before shoving it back up toward the engine.

«And a white F150 will get us all the way to Texas without arousing any suspicion.»

«I see,» Adair replied. «Don’t get noticed in the first place?»

«That’s the idea,» Ryan grunted. Another loud clank sounded, and he pulled both arms out and set his tool on a nearby rolling tool chest.

«If we do get noticed, it won’t matter much what the vehicle looks like.» Adair pointed out. «What happens then?»

«Oh, don’t worry,» Sean assured him. «That baby’s got plenty of non-standard options. Body armor. Bulletproof glass and tires. Beefed-up suspension and anti-sway bars. The whole nine yards. Plus, I have a little something special for anyone who gets too close.»

Adair looked down at the arsenal. «Yes, I see that.»

«Adair, you might want to grab some sleep,» Ryan said, nodding toward the couch as he wiped his hands on a shop towel. «Sean and I have another hour or two of prep before we call it a night.»

Adair nodded, knowing when to take a hint. Feeling reassured that he was in the capable hands of professionals, he headed back toward the living area.

CHAPTER 3

Northern Brazil

Near the Venezuelan Border

Greer lay in a prone position, halfway up the hillside west of Armaros’ compound. He was roughly three hundred meters higher in elevation than the valley floor where flooding had damaged most of the trees. The only intact portions of the forest were on the peaks surrounding this valleyobvious places for them to set up their positions, which is exactly why they didn’t use those places. Instead, all the Teams had opted for lower positions among less dense vegetation, where the terrain had been ravaged by mudslides and erosion. At first glance, one might think this area offered less concealment, and that’s exactly what they were counting on.

The sun was just beginning to rise, and the fog on the east side of the valley was starting to burn off.

Greer lowered his observation scope. «I’ve got the center of the helipad at eight hundred thirteen meters out. Elevation, sixty-five sixty-one.»

A few feet away on his right, Thompson sat behind a downed tree. His face and Combat Uniform were smeared with mud and his outline was obscured by small branches and leaves sticking out in seemingly random places. The Assistant Team Leader wrote down the distance and elevation info as part of a systematic practice of documenting every last detail of their objective. For this portion of the mission, the Teams had broken up into two-man groups so that they had fifteen unique perspectives on the target. The data gathered during this exercise would supplement the base of knowledge they already had from satellite observation. It was an activity that might have been ignored by lesser soldiers, but Greer and the others knew all too well that the subtleties learned from adhering to this discipline could mean the difference between making or missing a shot. And when you were one of thirty soldiers about to engage two thousand, success was in the details.

«Ready for attributes data,» Thompson whispered.

«Okay. From the outside in, we’ve got thirty meters of open ground. No vegetation. No depressions or protrusions. Perimeter fencing is chain-link. The ground inside the fence has been recently disturbed in a straight line to the communications building. No cameras. Suspect the fence is electrified. Razor wire at the top.»

«Got it,» Thompson confirmed.

Greer slowly pulled the scope away from his eye. «This is going to be a tough nut to crack.»

Thompson smirked.

«What?»

«You and your analogies.»

Now it was Greer’s turn to smirk. «Metaphor,» he corrected. «There’s a subtle difference.»

«OK, professor. What else do you see?»

Greer brought the scope up to his eyes again. «Patrol walking the inside of the perimeter. Ten guards with AKs at low ready. They’re bored, though. Mostly looking at the ground in front of them.»

«They won’t be bored in a few days,» Thompson observed.

«Yeah, just dead,» Greer whispered.

Thompson quietly tapped a clenched fist to his chest.

Slidell, Louisiana, United States

«It’s everywhere!»

Adair twitched and his eyes popped open. The sun was just coming up, so they must have only been on the road for a couple hours. It was amazing how much the body seemed to need sleep when it wasn’t doing anything.

«Animals kill people. People kill people. Disease. Poverty. It’s all over the place!» Sean continued.

«OK, then how do you explain what we’re doing?» Ryan countered.

«Some people are sheep and some people are wolves. We’re the sheepdogs.»

«Exactly. We put our lives on the line. So, how does that contribute to our evolutionary survival? If anything, it jeopardizes it. We’re not even around then to pass on our genes.»

«Not on the larger scale,» Sean objected. «Every time we put down a bad guy, we remove one more predator from the gene pool»

«But it’s inside every single one of us,» Ryan interrupted.

Adair sat up and yawned, and the car got instantly quiet. In the pale morning light, he could see that they were traveling west on a two-lane road, separated from oncoming traffic by a wide, grass-covered median that gently sloped down at its center. On either side of the interstate, dense trees obscured the horizon, woven together with strands of moss like an enormous, haphazard loom.

«Sorry if we woke you up,» Ryan offered.

«It’s alright,» Adair replied. «I’ve taken too much sleep anyway.»

Sean coughed under his breath. «He sounds like Yoda.»

Ryan turned his head suddenly and fixed his brother with an icy stare.

Adair didn’t understand the reference, but judging by Ryan’s body language, it was apparently a rude comment on his grammar.

Sean turned around from the passenger seat and looked around his headrest. «So, Adair. What do you think? Is life mostly bad or mostly good?»

Ryan turned his eyes off the road for a moment. «I didn’t say mostly good.»

«Don’t mind him,» Sean instructed. «He’s just mad cause mom and dad’s perspective doesn’t take into account what the world is really like.»

Ryan kept silent this time but slowly shook his head.

Despite the humorous scene of feuding brothers, Adair considered the question carefully, especially in light of his own current circumstances. «My people have many gods they worship, and each has their own rules and uses. But I’ve never paid much attention to them beyond their cultural significance. I haven’t seen them change anything, for better or worse.»

«Right,» Sean replied with a smile.

«If I had to make a judgment, I’d say that the world is mostly bad. When people do good things, it is usually despite themselves and the natural environment, not because of it.»

«See,» Sean said, turning to his brother.

«But that just proves my point,» Ryan objected.

«Yet,» Adair continued, «somehow, people persist. It’s as if a spirit of goodness lodges itself inside people from time to time, refusing to go the way of the rest of the world.»

Sean’s eyes narrowed.

«I’d like to think that, with all the temples and statues erected in the Orudan Empire, my people still missed one god. Perhaps the most important one.»

Now Sean’s eyes went wide.

Adair was surprised by the reaction. He didn’t take Sean for someone who would be easily offended. A second later, he realized that Sean was looking past him.

«We got a cop coming up fast!» Sean announced, quickly turning around in his seat.

Adair spun around and looked out the back window to see a white car with flashing blue lights.

«Where did he come from?» Ryan asked, looking down at the speedometer.

«Don’t you have it on cruise control?»

«Yeah. Four over the limit.»

«Barney Fifes!» Sean spat. «Don’t have anything better to do than fill their quotas.» His hand slowly moved down between his seat and the center console.

«Easy

« Ryan cautioned. «This guy’s just doing his job. Let’s not attract any more attention than we already have.» Ryan disengaged the cruise control and the truck began to lose speed as he steered it toward the shoulder. As the vehicle came to a stop, he looked up in the rearview mirror. «Just like we practiced.»

Adair nodded.

Thirty seconds later, a tall figure in a blue uniform and wide-brimmed hat approached the driver’s side window.

Ryan rolled it down.

«Mornin’,» said the state trooper, squinting at the sunrise and inspecting the inside of the cab from his limited viewpoint. «License and registration.»

Ryan handed him the documents. «What’s the problem, officer?»

The man’s face was deadpan. «You boys sit tight,» he said, tapping the door a couple times before walking back to his cruiser.

Adair watched the officer get back into his car. The flashing lights were drawing the attention of other folks on the road. The officer now had his head down and appeared to be writing something.

«For his own good, he better not poke around too much,» Sean said under his breath.

«Relax. It’s just a speeding ticket,» his brother said quietly.

A moment later, the trooper came back to the driver’s side window and handed back Ryan’s license and registration. «I got you at sixty-one in a fifty-five. Where you boys goin’ in such a hurry?»

«There’s an auto show in Lafayette,» Ryan replied quickly. «Didn’t realize we were speeding. Sorry.»

The officer tore a small piece of paper from his notepad and handed it to Ryan. «Slow it down.»

«Yes, sir,» Ryan replied.

They waited patiently for the officer to make his way back to his cruiser and leave, but he remained parked on the shoulder, apparently needing to fill out additional paperwork.

Ryan slowly pulled back onto the interstate and accelerated to fifty-four miles per hour and reset the cruise control.

Adair exhaled the breath he’d been holding.

The Northern Ocean

A swaying lantern cast orange light across the confined space. Shadows fled before it in a miniature cyclical war between darkness and light. The lurch of the ocean swells was also represented by the rhythmic creaking of the ship’s timbers. Such things sometimes made land-going folk sick, but Kael had spent plenty of time aboard a ship and had grown accustomed to its peaceful, relentless persistence.

A short distance away, Saba rested comfortably in a hammock suspended off the wet floor of the crew’s quarters. He took a sip from a wineskin and handed it back to Kael.

Kael set it down and repositioned himself. «The portal that connects the worldswhere did it come from?»

Saba launched into another of his mystical explanations. «There was once a garden. Long ago, when the worlds were one. And in the midst of the garden were two trees. Though intertwined with each other, they were nevertheless separate. One was fair and brightits leaves shining as the sun with all manner of colors. The other was dark as the night, but no less beautiful. Intoxicating to behold. And the two held each other in an endless embrace. A balance of potential outcomes. The first of your kind were warned that though they may eat of any of the trees in the garden, these two were special. The fruit of the fairest tree would satisfy as no other, and would give life eternal. But the dark tree would bring the oppositean insatiable hunger, and eventually death.»

Kael thought back to his early days in Bastul, before Saba became his mentor. Somewhere in those days of instruction by the schoolmasters he recalled a similar story of a primitive man and woman. «They ate from the dark tree,» he remembered.

Saba nodded. «Thus our realms became two instead of one. And as sickness and death entered in, my kind were tasked with reshaping your realm so that it would survive on its own, separated as it was from the Eternal.»

Kael looked up to the ceiling and watched water drip from between the boards above, pressing itself in from the persistent rain above deck.

«As the two realms drifted further apart, the fairer tree faded from this realm. Though it still existed, it and the Eternal realm ceased to be accessible from here. All that remained was this realm and the twisted trunk of the dark tree.»

Kael turned onto his side to look straight at Saba.

«Somewhere along the way, as the Myndarym made war against humankind and each other alike, they devised a plan. One that would give them their own kingdoms. You see, this dark tree was like a representation of the Temporal realma perfect, concentrated representation. Anything that happened to the tree would also happen to the realm itself. Now, this may seem quite a fragile existence, but it is not that simple. In the end, it proved quite difficult for them to achieve what they desired. Together with the Marotru, they each brought whatever power they had retained or learned anew.»

«Marotru? Those are the demons?» Kael clarified.

«Yes, the Unfaithful. Together they attempted to divide the Temporal realm. What resulted was a stump and three broken pieces of the dark tree.»

Now Kael sat up. In his mind he pictured the dais at the Temple, surrounded by a moat. «A tree stump?»

Saba turned his eyes from the ceiling and looked at Kael. «Yes.»

«So now there are three worlds, and the stump is what connects them,» Kael reasoned.

Saba pulled himself up to a sitting position and dangled his feet off the edge of the hammock. «You asked me a few days ago which of the Temporal worlds was the original. Well, you might say that the stump is the only piece of the original world that is left. It is the anchor which holds all three together.»

«Then each world has its own stump? A portal to the other worlds?»

«Precisely,» Saba replied with a smile.

There it is again, Kael thought. He really enjoys when I take an interest in his stories. He thinks it will convince me of who I’m supposed to be.

«Immediately after the Fracturing, all matter could move freely between the worlds. Air. Water. People. It didn’t take the Myndarym very long before they realized that in order to control their kingdoms, they had to control this portal. That’s when Ezekiyel, the most gifted of Shapers, crafted the ten keys from the fallen pieces of the tree.»

Kael slid off his hammock and reached for the scabbard hanging from a nearby post. Slowly, he unsheathed the dark, crystalline sword that had hacked its way through the enemies of the Orudan Empire and had slain Rameel and his offspring. «Are you telling me

?»

«Yes,» Saba answered before the question was even spoken.

«This was made from the dark tree?»

Saba simply smiled. «The tree was the concentrated essence of everything in this realm. That’s why no blade can ever break it. Neither metal, nor stone, nor can any living thing of this realm ever alter its form.»

Kael lifted the blade and marveled again at its weightlessness. «Makes for a great weapon.»

«Indeed,» Saba answered.

Kael put the sword back in its sheath and sat down again. He felt like Saba had suckered him into the story, but now he was genuinely excited by the discussion. He had to know more. «What’s it like? When you step onto the dais, what happens to you?»

Armaros’ Estate

San José, Costa Rica

A soft knock sounded at the open door.

Armaros looked up and removed the cigar from his mouth, leaving behind a trail of swirling white smoke. «Yes?»

«Sir, we’ve picked up something that you should see,» said his assistant, gesturing to the wall of black glass on the other side of the room.

«Display,» Armaros spoke.

The tiled screens instantly brightened, showing images of someone’s driver’s license and a text document of some sort.

«Louisiana State Police just stopped a man on our watch list.»

Armaros rose from his desk and walked a few steps closer to the screens to get a better look at the picture.

«The name is fake, of course,» the assistant continued. «But we processed the photo through FRA and came up with a couple matches in the Armed Forces database.» Armaros’ assistant tapped something on the flat panel in his hand, and the wall display updated with photos and service records for two men.

«Ryan Collins,» Armaros read aloud, always preferring to have a name for his enemies.

«Born twenty-six years ago in Boston, Massachusetts. His Father, Daniel Collins, owned and operated an auto repair shop where Ryan spent most of his youth. After winning several statewide championships in racing Street Stocks and Sport Trucks, Ryan joined the US Army. He served six years in a Special Forces Operational Detachment doing high-profile convoy defense. His brother, Sean Collins, is younger by two years. Amateur gunsmith in high school. Had some problems with the law as a youth; joined the Army the day he turned eighteen. Also spent time in the Special Forces. Expert marksman straight out of boot camp. His team was embedded with a platoon in Afghanistan as heavy weapons support.»

Armaros stood before the screens with his hands behind his back.

«Two years ago, both father and mother, Helen, were involved in a head-on collision while returning from the grocery store late one evening. Helen was killed instantly and Daniel ended up in an emergency room in a coma. For Sean, this resulted in a recurrence of his drug abuse and physical violence. After a psychological evaluation rendered him unsuitable for service, Sean was honorably discharged. As medical bills piled up and their father’s treatment dragged on, Ryan finally received an honorable discharge to care for his father and settle the estate matters. That’s when they showed up on our watch list as specialized skills entering the civilian world. Daniel Collins died shortly afterward, and the brothers liquidated the business and paid off their father’s debts.»

«The report says there were three people in the vehicle when they were stopped,» Armaros observed.

«Yes, sir. We believe they’re transporting someone.»

«Bring up a US map,» Armaros ordered. He was hoping it was the man who’d slipped through his grip only eighteen months ago, but he needed to be sure.

A second later, the wall of glass depicted the United States and surrounding areas.

Armaros located Virginia, then traced a straight line with his eyes from there to Louisiana. If there were an arrow between the two locations, it would point directly to Mexico.

«Alert Miguel to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity.»

«Yes, sir,» the assistant replied.

«And check all the passenger lists for flights out of Mexico. Start with flights directly to Brazil and widen the search from there. See if you get a match to any aliases of these two men.»

«Yes, sir. Should we have them picked up by law enforcement?»

Armaros thought for a moment. «No. Let’s keep our distance for now until we confirm where they’re headed. But I do want to know for sure whom they’re transporting. See if we can get a photo from a traffic camera.»

«Yes, sir,» the assistant replied before leaving the room.

Armaros walked a few steps closer to the screens until the images appeared pixelated. He looked into the eyes of the young men, kids really, who were playing with fire. He took a long, meditative draw from his cigar and let the smoke linger in his mouth. «What are you up to?» he asked quietly.

CHAPTER 4

San Antonio, Texas, United States

Sean reached back and handed the bag to Adair. «Burger, fries, and a coke,» he confirmed.

«Sorry if the dining experience is substandard,» Ryan said as he pulled out of the drive-through and headed toward the stoplight. «Speed is our number one priority right now.»

«This will do just fine,» Adair answered.

Sean laughed. «I wonder. Does it count if we get him safely to his destination, but he dies of a heart attack?»

«Three o’clock!» Ryan suddenly announced.

Adair quickly looked to the dashboard, but the clock read 2:08 p.m.

As the light turned green, Ryan pulled through the intersection, and Sean’s head pivoted to the right.

Adair followed his line of sight and noticed a police cruiser on the right hand side, stopped at the red light. The officer inside was watching their truck a little too closely for casual observation. As they put more distance between themselves and the intersection, Adair continued watching as the officer lifted a radio to his mouth and spoke into it.

«That’s not good,» Sean said in a monotone voice.

«What did he do?» Ryan asked.

«He watched us the whole time, then got on his radio.»

«Okay, okay,» Ryan said with a self-soothing tone. As they passed another intersection, he glanced left to see if they were being paralleled. «Nothing on the left,» he said.

«We’re clear on the right,» Sean replied.

Two more intersections brought the same responses, before the tension in Ryan’s voice returned. «There’s the lead vehicle,» he announced, looking straight ahead.

Adair leaned to the side and looked out the windshield. Another police car was a block ahead of them and heading in the same direction.

«We’ve got to get off these main roads,» Sean said.

«Yeah, I know. Where’s the map?»

Sean dug in his pocket and pulled out a handheld device.

«Find us a rendezvous point. Somewhere rural. We need to ditch this truck.»

Sean dragged his thumb across the screen in rapid swipes and added his fingers to the effort as he found what he was looking for. «Here we go. North on thirty-five. There’s a river that flows out from this lake.»

«Mark it,» Ryan said.

Sean tapped the screen. «Alright. I’ll grab a cab to Austin. Which vehicle do you want?»

Ryan checked the rearview mirror before glancing left and right. «The Toyota.»

«Okay.»

«Hang on,» Ryan said, taking a quick left turn at the next light. He passed two blocks, took another left, and headed back the opposite direction. Moving quicker now, he ducked down a few alleys and cut across some corner parking lots until he was heading roughly north through the city. The police were gone now. He slowed the truck in an alley and Sean jumped out, stuffed a pistol in his back waistband, covered it with his shirt, and shut the door. The car never stopped, and Sean kept walking as if nothing had happened.

«Be careful,» Ryan told his little brother through the passenger window before speeding off.

Five hours later, Adair and Ryan waited on a bluff above a sharp bend in the Guadalupe River. The dirt road that had led to this point had taken them through some lightly populated areas, but they hadn’t seen a house or car in the last ten miles or so. And now that the sun had gone down, it was eerily quiet except for the buzzing of insects and the occasional howl of a coyote in the distance.

«Do you see anything?» Adair asked.

«Nothing yet,» Ryan replied, the night vision binoculars still pressed against his face. «Wait,» he said, pausing for a moment. «I’ve got a pair of headlights.»

From the front seat, Adair lowered his head and peeked through the mesh of the concealment tarp they’d thrown over their vehicle. Far in the distance, two white lights bounced up and down and occasionally disappeared as they moved behind brush or obstructions. A few minutes later, the headlights came into a clearer view around a bend about a half-mile away.

«That’s him. Let’s go,» Ryan said, jumping out of the truck.

Adair quickly opened the door.

«Grab the tarp and stuff it inside the cab,» Ryan said, lifting his side of the green mesh blanket and throwing it back over the hood.

Adair followed the instructions, gathering the awkward bundle and shoving it into the cab.

Sean skidded to a stop in a cloud of dust and got out, leaving the off-road vehicle running.

«Were you followed?» Ryan asked.

«Nothing the whole way,» he replied, running to the back of the F150 and grabbing an armful of weapons before moving them to the trunk of their new vehicle. «I had to stay off the main roads. That’s why it took so long.»

Adair helped transfer the last of the weapons while Ryan started the truck, released the parking brake, and got it moving before jumping out the driver’s door. The truck went off the dirt road and down an embankment before it rolled off a rocky ledge and into deep water.

«Get in,» Sean said.

Adair climbed into the back seat of yet another vehicle while Ryan returned and jumped in the driver’s seat. «Let’s get out of here.»

Off the Coast of Ampur

The rain had finally relented during the early morning hours and now the clouds were being pushed inland by an easterly wind coming off the ocean. Kael stood at the prow of the Orudan ship and watched its high keel cut through the waves like a blade. They were moving south along the coast of the Southern Territory, retracing the voyage that Kael had undertaken as a young manat the time accompanied by nine friends. This time, there was only one.

Saba stood a few feet to the left, leaning over the railing to watch the distant shoreline as it gradually slid by.

«How did you first hear about the prophecy?» Kael asked, breaking the silence.

Saba turned. He had a distant look in his eyes. «It came to me in just the manner in which it was planned.» He paused for a moment before continuing. «Originally, it was given to a man named Enoch. He was the first of your kind who truly listened for the voice of the Holy One, and he was told many things as a reward for his obedience. When the prophecy of The Awakened was given to him, he was instructed not to proclaim it. Though it was a judgment against the Myndarym, he was told to pass it along only to his family. From generation to generation, it was to be kept within his household until the appointed day when it would be revealed to those who needed to hear it. And that is exactly how it transpired. Many generations later, a scribe by the name of Ebnisha began to record all of the oral traditions of his people. Myths. Legends. Wise sayings. Among the words he committed to parchment were the visions and prophecies of his ancestor. And it was there, buried in the layers of scrolls, where I read the words that condemned us.»

«Us?» Kael replied. «But you fought against them. You’re not one of them.»

«Perhaps,» Saba answered, his eyes now staring down at the water. «I would like to think that one day I could be forgiven for what I’ve done, but that is just blind hopehope in spite of what I’ve seen. From the very beginning, the Holy One has favored your kind. None of us fully understood His plans for all of you. And that, I believe, was the realization that gave birth to a seed of jealousy. Once it took root in the mind of the enemy, it grew to consume everything.»

«How do you know the prophecy was for the Myndarym and not someone else?»

«Ebnisha’s writings recorded that Enoch specifically received the prophecy in the context of a message about the Wandering Stars. And we were the only ones to have wandered from our home. The Marotru didn’t wander so much as they rebelled and attacked. Plus, it was prefaced by these words: You will see your destruction from afar and will know it is coming. Because of your unfaithfulness, this judgment must come to pass.’ As soon as I read that, I knew it was intended for us.»

Kael looked out across the waters to the south. Somewhere out there, and getting closer every moment, the Temple loomed. He couldn’t see it with his eyes, but he could feel that it was near.

«He wasn’t just a scribe, was he?»

Saba’s eyebrows lifted quickly then dropped again. «No. Ebnisha was a dear friend. Loyal beyond any other. He had a certain affinity for words. For meaning. For language. It was he who took the influence of the Myndarym and made it useful for your kind. The idea of symbols representing soundshe adopted this and put it to use for his own people, working out the first written human language.»

«It sounds like you were there to see it happen,» Kael observed.

«Indeed. Those moments were some of my favorites.»

Kael stared at his friend for a moment, realizing that behind those bright eyes were a thousand lifetimes of memories and experiences, perhaps more. At once he felt both closer to and more distant from his friend.

«You know, when I killed Rameel, it was a trick. It wasn’t as if I met him strength to strength. If I had done that, I would have lost.»

Saba turned from the water and looked Kael straight in the eye. «I don’t believe the method of it matters much in the end. It happened. That, in itself, is significant. But it’s more than that. I will raise up one from among those you despise,’» he quoted. «Everything that the Myndarym did proved that they despised humans and treated them as tools. You are part of that heritage. I will awaken his eyes to the mysteries which I have hidden from men since the foundations of the world.’ You have admitted as much already. I have seen the things you can do, and I know for certain that no other human can do them. His feet will I make to tread upon the paths of destruction, and his hands to make war.’»

Kael looked down at the uplifted palms of his own hands. From his father’s disappearance, all the way to the confrontation with Rameel and everything betweenthose poetic words described his life exactly.

«He will uproot the seeds of corruption which you have sown throughout the earth. And then you will know that I am the Lord and my justice is everlasting.’»

Kael took a deep breath. It was always that last part that made him uncomfortable. It was a responsibility of the heaviest kind imaginable. Another burden laid oppressively over his shoulders. A task for which he knew he was inadequate.

Kael managed a halfhearted smile before turning to look at the water once more.

Northern Brazil

«Did you call it in?» Greer asked Zylski.

The COMM Operator had just come back to the objective rally point and could barely be seen through the nighttime darkness, even though he was only a few feet away. «Yeah. That should be the last of it. They’re adding it to the graphic overlay, and they’ll send it back as soon as it’s ready.»

«Good.»

«One. This is Three, over,» came a voice across the microspeakers in their ears.

«This is One,» Greer spoke softly into his shoulder-mounted microphone. «Go ahead.»

«It’s Christmas time. Santa brought enough presents for everyone.»

Greer looked up and attempted to gaze out across the nearby field, but a dense fog had rolled in hours ago and had blanketed the entire area, severely limiting sight and sound to only a few feet. He hadn’t even seen the parachutes come down, carrying six crates of weapons and equipment too heavy to pack in from their insertion point.

«Copy that. Ditch the wrapping paper and bring them in. I’m ready to get my hands on some new toys.»

«Copy,» came the reply.

Greer turned back to Zylski. «Confirm the drop with Command, and let them know we’ll have everything in place by tomorrow evening. Then we’re just waiting on the weather.»

«Sir,» Zylski replied.

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

The massive screen on the far wall of the Command Center was alive with activity. The Objective Data Composition being displayed looked less like a computer model and more like a living creature. It twitched and morphed as it was updated by the millisecond with the latest reports from the Teams in the field. From a baseline of topographical satellite data, a three-dimensional digital model of their objective had been constructed, with an assignment of basic colors to distinguish between land, vegetation, and man-made structures. The data was then modified for accuracy by on-the-ground observations from Greer and the rest of the soldiers. Fences. Doors. Windows. Antennas. Radar and SAM systems. Progressive layers of finer and finer detail were added to the model. Distances and elevations from each of the fifteen observation positions were compared to one another, checked against the satellite data, and averaged to spread out any possible error to the point that it wouldn’t affect the mission. Weather patterns, air temperature and humidity, thermal masses, wind currents, and pockets of atmospheric density were layered into the composite to provide real-time information that would be critical for the Teams’ shooting accuracy and ability to navigate the terrain in low visibility. When the model was complete, it would be transmitted to Greer and the others, showing up as a holographic, heads-up display on their night vision devices. This information would be an invaluable tool to supplement their natural instincts about the location and tactics of their enemies when the Execution phase of the operation began.

«It’s coming together beautifully,» Andrea observed as she walked up to the workstation Matthews was using.

«Yeah, it’s looking good. It should be ready within the next two hours.»

«The equipment drop was successful. They will be ready to move tomorrow night

as long as the weather cooperates?» she added with a furrowed brow.

Matthews pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. «There’s a storm coming in, which should be helpful. Greer has been using jamming equipment to create interference in the radar systems every time they get rain or fog.»

«Hmm,» she mumbled. «Radar shouldn’t be affected by the weather.»

Matthews smirked. «Not unless the moisture is affecting the hard lines connecting the sensors to the control center inside the compound.»

«Oh,» Andrea suddenly realized.

«A few of Armaros’ men have been busy hiking up to the surrounding peaks and checking the condition of the buried cables and each connection. So far they haven’t found anything, and it’s driving them crazy as well as keeping them distracted.»

«I suppose that sort of thing happens with newly installed systems,» Andrea replied with a smile that revealed perfectly white teeth. «So, Greer is setting a precedent?»

«Right,» Matthews confirmed. «As soon as we get a good storm, which happens all the time in that area, they’ll have all the cover they need.» Matthews glanced back to the large screen and typed something on the keyboard in front of him.

«There is one other thing from their latest report.»

«Yeah?» Matthews said without looking up.

«There has been a change in the perimeter guards’ behavior. They don’t look as bored as they used to.»

Matthews stopped typing and looked up. «Does Greer think the Teams have been spotted?»

«No,» Andrea clarified. «It just seems like they’re more alert than usual. Nothing specific.»

Matthews took off his glasses and looked at the floor for a moment. «Pass that along to COMM Surveillance. See if they can match it up to any chatter and find a cause.»

«Okay,» Andrea replied, leaving quickly to relay the information.

CHAPTER 5

Armaros’ Estate

San José, Costa Rica

«We found it,» the assistant announced softly, stepping into Armaros’ office.

Armaros looked up from his breakfast of gallo pinto and waved a dismissive hand at the young man, indicating that he could put the information up on the screen. These developments were occurring on such a regular basis now that he had deactivated the voice command.

«They’re scheduled to depart from Monterrey, Mexico tomorrow afternoon, flying to Medellín, Colombia. The third name on the reservation matched an Oregon driver’s license issued just eighteen months ago.»

Armaros wiped his mouth on a napkin then sat back in his chair.

«Robert Mondello,» read the assistant. «They’re trying to pass him off as a recent Italian immigrant.»

Armaros remained still and let the information of the past few days percolate through his mind, leaving behind a residual strategy of what his enemies were doing and what he should do in retaliation. The image of chess pieces came to his mind.

«Warn Commander Miguel that an attack from the outside is imminent. Also, inform him that we’re sending a team of my personal guards to assist. Three should be sufficient.»

Something subtle quickly passed behind the assistant’s eyes, a fleeting emotion that took only a second for him to gain control of. The young human was certainly disciplined and highly intelligent, but Armaros knew the emotion all too well and had studied it for thousands of years, perfecting the multitude of ways in which it may be exploited. The emotion was fear, and the human had good reason to feel it.

Turning his attention once again to the man who had slipped through his grasp so many months ago, his thoughts came to rest upon the mysterious organization moving him around like a pawn, telegraphing their plans with each careless act.

The brothers were not likely of any significant intelligence value. In fact, they may not even understand whom they are working for and may wish to keep it that way for their own sakes. The third man, however, was from another world, and the enemy had treated him as a high-value asset from the beginning. Even now they were moving him across the Unites States in the least conspicuous manner with two highly trained individuals perfectly suited for the task. What should be expected from an organization willing to commit this level of resources to his protection?

Coming from another world, another language, another culture, one would expect a great deal of explanation to have taken place. There had never been any signs to indicate that this man did not wish to work with these people, and so Armaros had to conclude that they had done everything in their power to make him feel comfortable and secure. They had shared themselves with him. And that meant something significant. This man could be a veritable treasure trove of intelligence data on an organization that had only been identified a short time ago and had already proven to be a considerable threat.

«Have the authorities bring them into custody,» he told the assistant. Even as the word authorities left his tongue, he noted the irony. The highest levels of human governance and enforcement were mere tools in his own arsenal, but the humans were welcome to think of the hierarchy as they wished and even to assign parts of it such amusing titles. «If the brothers complicate matters beyond what can easily be handled, kill them. But bring me the third man unharmed. I have plans for him.»

«Yes, sir,» the assistant replied, quickly retreating from the room.

Armaros leaned forward and removed a cigar from the humidor on his desk. As his fingers ran through the routine of cutting and lighting that had long ago become a habit, his mind continued to linger on the shadowy agency that had chosen to reveal itself.

«It won’t be long now,» he spoke into the silent expanse of his lavish office. His enemy had lifted its head right into the middle of his crosshairs, and it would soon be time to pull the trigger.

Eagle Pass, Texas, United States

Sean lowered the binoculars and handed them reluctantly to his brother. «Something’s definitely wrong. They have about twice the number of guards as usual.»

They were parked in an industrial lot southeast of the border crossing into Mexico. Beyond the golf course, just over half a mile away, could be seen a raised bridge over the Rio Grande which led straight into Piedras Negras.

«Yeah, they’re definitely prepared for someone,» Ryan agreed.

«What does that mean?» Adair asked. «Are we in danger?»

Sean turned around in his seat. «We’ve been in danger the whole time, but this looks especially bad.»

Ryan stopped scanning the horizon and set the binoculars on the center console. «We’re compromised. They know we’re coming, and there’s no way to get through.»

«Alright,» Sean said matter-of-factly. «So we find the nearest safe house and lay low until they can extract us?»

«Yeah, that’s about all we can do,» Ryan admitted.

«We’re not going to make it?» Adair asked, leaning toward the front seat.

Sean shook his head slowly and whistled before turning back to face Adair. «Boy! They’re all over you. You must be pretty important.»

Adair shrugged.

Ryan turned around. «You must have had some help getting to Virginia in the first place. Where are those guys now?»

«Busy,» Adair answered quickly, doing his best to hide any signs of disappointment. He knew Greer, Thompson, and the others were in Brazil, but he wasn’t sure of the details. What was painfully obvious was the feeling of vulnerability without them by his side.

Ryan didn’t reply as he started the truck and reversed out of the parking spot, making his way back to the main road before heading north out of the city.

Sean pulled out the GPS device and set it on his leg. After a moment of silence, he started massaging his forehead.

«What’s wrong? How far away is it?»

«Really far,» Sean answered. «Would you prefer Fort Worth, or Albuquerque?»

«Are you serious?»

«Yep.»

«Well,» Ryan breathed. «Fort Worth is closer, but that’s back the way we came. And I have a bad feeling about it.»

«Me too.»

«Albuquerque it is, then,» Ryan agreed.

Sean pulled out a cell phone and plugged something into the bottom of it that was about equal in size to the phone itself. Then he manually dialed a number. Someone on the other end picked up and said something, but Adair couldn’t make it out.

«Tango-six-six-one,» he said into the phone. After a pause, he spoke a long string of numbers that Adair knew to be coordinates. He waited again before speaking. «Secondary crossing point was also compromised. Moving to a safe location for extraction.»

«We’ve got company!» Ryan suddenly announced.

They were a few miles outside of the city and had just passed a residential area, but now they were moving along a rural stretch of road with nobody in sight. A few hundred yards ahead, four police cruisers were parked at an angle and blocking the road. Their lights were flashing and the officers were standing behind their vehicles with pistols drawn.

Ryan slowed the truck and eased it onto the shoulder before turning around and heading south again.

Adair spun around and looked out the back window to see two of the police officers run around their cars to get in the driver’s seats.

«We have roadblocks,» Sean said into the phone. «They’re closing in on our position. Requesting immediate assistance. I repeat. We are requesting immediate assistance.»

On the horizon, more flashing lights rose into view from a dip in the road. Their bright blue and red pulses were distorted into wavy lines from the heat coming off the pavement.

Ryan stomped on the accelerator, and Adair was thrown back into his seat.

«How can you not have anyone in the area?» Sean yelled into the phone.

«Just hang up,» Ryan said through clenched teeth. «We’re in no-man’s land out here. They can’t help us.»

Ahead, the flashing lights were getting closer with every second.

Suddenly, Ryan whipped the wheel to the left, and the back end of the truck started to slide.

Adair reflexively grabbed the armrest.

«Hang on,» Ryan grunted as he somehow managed to control the sliding vehicle onto a narrow, two-lane road that cut back to the east. As soon as the back end came into line with the front, Ryan stomped on the accelerator again. They’d taken the turn at nearly full speed.

Sean stuffed the cell phone in his pocket and turned around, climbing over the center console and into the backseat. «Move,» he ordered.

Adair slid obediently to the right.

Sean pressed a button and the backrest dropped forward. Reaching into the open space, he grabbed ahold of a handle and pulled a large rolling tray from the trunk. It moved on two tracks within the backside of the seat. When it clicked into a locking position, he grabbed a Kevlar vest and tossed it to Adair.

«Put that on.»

He tossed another one into the front seat then put a third on himself.

Adair was still trying to figure out how to fasten his vest when he was thrown forward slightly. The constant backward force of acceleration was suddenly gone.

«We’ve got another roadblock,» Ryan announced. «Sean, sit down. Both of you buckle up.»

Adair already had his seatbelt in hand.

«I can take them out,» Sean offered.

«No. Not here. They have us from ahead and behind, and they haven’t fired a shot yet.»

«Okay,» Sean replied. He quickly put an automatic rifle on the floor, pushed the tray back into position, and lifted the backrest. Then he buckled his seatbelt and grabbed hold of the armrest for balance.

The truck continued to coast along the road, gradually losing speed as they approached the roadblock. This one was smaller than the last, consisting of only two police cruisers parked facing each other at a forward angle. The rural area normally had wide shoulders on either side of the road, but these officers had decided to make their stand on a bridge over a shallow river, making good use of a natural choke point.

«We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it,» Ryan muttered, repeating the phrase he so often heard during convoy security in the Special Forces, borrowed and bastardized from a popular kids’ song.

Sean leaned forward.

«Oh, no. We’ve got to go through it,» they said in unison.

Ryan brought the truck to a stop, three car-lengths from the barricade.

Adair saw him look in the rearview mirror as one of the police officers came out from the cars in front and began to approach their truck.

«As soon as I punch it, you guys hit the deck,» Ryan said quietly and calmly.

Ryan watched the police officer approach as he counted in his head.

One.

He gently pushed in the clutch.

Two.

He moved the gear shift into first.

Three.

The flashing lights in the rearview mirror were approaching quickly.

Four.

The officer stepped aside to approach the driver’s side window.

Five!

Ryan stomped on the accelerator and dropped the clutch. The truck jolted into motion, and he was thrown back into his seat. The squeal of tires on asphalt drowned out all other noises. Ryan veered slightly left, and the officer jumped out of the way, bringing his firearm up into position.

When the truck impacted the sedan on the left, it had reached roughly twenty miles an hourfast enough to get the job done, but slow enough that it wouldn’t cause unnecessary mechanical damage that could turn into a liability later on. Slamming the full length of his truck’s frame into the strongest and lightest part of the police cruiserits rear axleall of the truck’s weight was transferred to the car, and it spun easily out of the way, pivoting on its heavy front end like a door on hinges.

The sound and vibration of metal scraping on metal replaced the squealing tires as the truck bludgeoned its way through the barricade, followed by a rhythmic popping sound as the officers tried to shoot out the truck’s tires.

Suddenly, the truck was free and gaining speed again.

Sean and Adair’s heads popped up in the rearview mirror.

«Alright. Where are we headed?» Sean asked.

The weight of the truck shifted slightly as Ryan put it in fifth gear. «Dirt roads, where we have the advantage.»

Now a half-mile from the roadblock, they were fast approaching a run-down commercial building of corrugated steel with collector silos on the top.

«Sean,» Ryan started.

«I got it,» Sean said quickly, turning to watch out the back window as they passed the building doing eighty-five.

Ryan glanced quickly in the rearview and caught a glimpse of white and blue behind the building.

«Yeah. We got a motorcycle and another cruiser in pursuit,» Sean said.

Ryan let off the accelerator and steered around a left turn before the road opened up again, running parallel to some rusted train tracks on the right side.

As expected, the motorcycle’s acceleration was much faster than the cruiser, and it quickly came up to the left rear of the truck.

The road bent slightly right and Ryan followed it with his peripheral vision without taking his eyes off the side view mirror.

The officer unholstered his pistol and took aim at the left rear tire.

Ryan tapped the breaks and quickly jerked the wheel a few inches to the right before steering left again.

The back end of the truck slid out and hit the front wheel of the motorcycle, which instantly came down on its side. The officer spun off his bike and hit the pavement on his back, sliding onto the dirt shoulder for fifty feet before coming safely to a stop.

Ryan tapped the accelerator again, and the truck’s rear end came back into line.

The cruiser came into view behind them and was approaching quickly now that they were on a straightaway.

Ryan let off the accelerator.

«What are you doing? Go!» Sean yelled.

«I’m drawing him in. You’ll see.»

The white sedan was obviously not holding back. Fifty yards became forty and then thirty.

Up ahead, Ryan spotted what he was looking fora dirt road taking off to the east at a ninety-degree angle. Looking back in the rearview, he judged the distance to be just about right.

Twenty yards. Ten yards.

Ryan kept just left of the middle of the road.

The officer predictably moved to the right, setting himself up to use the law-enforcement standard Precision Immobilization Technique to take out Ryan’s back end.

Ryan smiled as he moved his right heel over to the brake and prepared to jerk the steering wheel to the right. Most drivers were trained to reduce their speed before entering a turnto ensure that they had the maximum amount of traction to divide between lateral and forward movement, which would keep the car on the road and moving in the right direction. But Ryan was about to force the officer to react quickly, without the preparation needed for the upcoming turn. He’d also drawn the officer in close, so he was more focused on his suspect’s vehicle than the road, which tends to mess with one’s depth perception and sense of balance. Both of these things would ensure this turn would end badly for the cop.

The truck’s front end began to slide on the gravel-covered pavement, and Ryan pressed his heel into the brake to shift the truck’s weight forward and gain some traction there. Then the back end started to slide, and he pressed his toe on the accelerator to shift the weight backward again. With perfect precision, his truck slid around the corner and onto the dirt road.

In the rearview mirror, Ryan saw the flashing lights of the sedan whip to the side as the driver lost control. The rear end of the cruiser slid out to the left, and when he hit the transition to dirt road, his car was moving sideways. That’s when his tires hit the train tracks. The car flipped into a roll and tumbled for a hundred feet before hitting a phone pole and coming to an abrupt stop in a cloud of dust.

Ryan finished sliding through the turn and brought the truck parallel with the dirt road, all without sacrificing any speed.

«That’s what I’m talking about!» Sean yelled, looking out the back window at the last of their pursuers.

Armaros’ Compound

Northern Brazil

Greer and the other members of TAC 1 were scattered among the piles of downed timber along the valley floor. The fog was so thick that he could hardly see Thompson only a few feet away, and all sounds were obliterated by the heavy rainfall that was soaking them to the bone. Somewhere high above them, hidden in the jungle hills, their radar-jamming equipment had been operating at full power for the last forty-five minutes.

«Command to One.»

«This is One. Go ahead,» Greer whispered.

«Seven is airborne. Touching down in thirty seconds.»

«Copy that,» Greer replied, smiling to himself. He lifted his gaze to the sky, but his eyes saw only a dull gray. Moving his NVD into position, the heads-up display showed five thermal masses, roughly shaped like men, descending through the air. Their parachutes didn’t show up on the digital overlay before him, but he knew they were there, slowing their fall so they could land silently on the roof of the control center.

«Touch down. Seven is on the roof,» said a voice in his ear.

«Copy that. TAC One moving into position,» Greer replied. He rose to a crouch, pausing until he could see the other four man-shaped shadows ready to move. As one unit, they crept through a tangle of standing vegetation until they reached the clearing before the perimeter fence.

«TAC Two is in position,» Ellis, the other Team Leader, announced.

Greer breathed steadily, knowing that all the bases were covered.

«Shock is down. Shock is down,» the first voice announced.

Greer smiled, knowing that the seventh Team who’d just parachuted into the compound had taken out the power supply for the electrified fence before moving into the control center. «Copy that. TAC One is moving,» he replied.

«TAC Two is moving,» Ellis echoed.

Ten shadows materialized from the trees and slid across the open expanse of ground before the chain-link fence. Martinez produced a pair of wire cutters and went to work on the fence. The members of both Teams had their weapons up, covering their respective sectors of the surrounding territory.

Through his NVD, Greer watched as a guard came strolling along the inside of the fence. When he got within a hundred feet, his multicolored outline crumpled to the ground. Someone from TAC 2 had taken him out, and Greer hadn’t even heard the usual cough of suppressed gunfire. The guard never saw it coming.

Martinez finished cutting and pulled a small section of the fencing outward. One by one, each Team member ducked inside the fence and took up a security position. Greer and Ellis came in last and when both Teams were in position, the Leaders notified Command.

«TAC One is inside and heading for the Portal Building,» Greer said.

«TAC Two is inside and covering the main entrance,» Ellis said.

CHAPTER 6

Outside Fort Stockton, Texas, United States

It had taken nearly six hours to reach Interstate 10, traveling almost exclusively along the maze of dirt roads that cut across vast fields of farmland and rain-eroded desert. Now that they were on pavement again they were making better time, but were certainly more visible.

Sean was back in the front passenger seat, using his binoculars to keep an eye on whatever might be lurking just over the horizon.

«I apologize for getting you involved in all this,» Adair offered.

«It’s not your fault,» Ryan replied. «We got ourselves into this. It’s what we do.»

«How much do you know about the organization?» Adair asked.

«Enough. They give us people or cargo and tell us where to go. The pay isn’t that great, but they make sure we have everything we need,» he said, patting the dashboard as if the truck were a pack animal. «Plus, it’s a good cause.»

«Whoa, whoa, whoa,» Sean breathed. «You’ve got to be kidding me!»

«What is it?»

The binoculars were pressed tightly against his face. «Just get off the road. Here, take this exit.»

Ryan quickly pulled off the interstate and slowed down as he descended the slight decline toward a rest stop. «What did you see?»

«Police. State Troopers. Sheriffs. Everything. The whole interstate is closed.»

Ryan turned around with wrinkled eyebrows. «Who are you?»

Adair shrugged his shoulders. «I don’t know what they want with me!»

The creases running across Ryan’s forehead remained fixed in place as he turned to his brother. «I’m going to take this frontage road back about a half-mile. There was a dirt road heading north. Find me a way out of here.»

«Okay,» Sean replied, fishing in his pocket.

Ryan turned around and headed east until he pulled off onto a dirt road and headed north into some low, desolate hills. He grabbed the binoculars from Sean and tossed them back to Adair.

«This is good,» Sean said with eyes fixed on the GPS screen. «There are lots of roads all over this area. We should be able to make our way up to Twenty. Then you can take your pick of pavement or dirt.»

«I think we’ll stick with dirt roads the whole way, if we can. Adair? How’s it look?»

Adair was looking out the side window, trying to hold the binoculars steady as the truck bounced along the uneven terrain. Even through the distorted image, he could see vehicles pulling away from the roadblock with their lights flashing. «They saw us,» he said apologetically.

Sean looked at his brother for a moment without saying anything.

«Okay. Do it,» Ryan agreed to the silent request. «But don’t kill anyone. Just take out the vehicles.»

Sean unbuckled his seatbelt and started crawling over the center console just as they reached an intersection of several more connecting trails.

«Look out!» Ryan yelled as he skidded to the left.

A white Sheriff’s Blazer was parked behind some brush and immediately pulled out in pursuit.

«Hang on,» Ryan said, a second before the truck hit a ditch. It skidded until he brought it under control and turned it onto a path that was little more than tire tracks leading through the fields.

Sean was thrown to the floorboards by the impact, but never even made a sound. He just gritted his teeth, pulled himself into the back seat, and started removing weapons from the trunk. After choosing an assault rifle, he reached over and pulled two retractable tension belts from both sides of the ceiling and clipped each one to his vest. Then he pressed the button to open the sunroof. «Try not to get me killed,» he warned his brother before standing up to bring his upper body out of the roof of the truck.

Suddenly, a rapid succession of deep, metallic popping noises filled the cab of the truck. Sean’s clothing vibrated in resonance.

Adair covered his ears and watched through the back window as the hood of the white Blazer went up in a cloud of smoke.

There were three more vehicles behind the slowing Blazer that had joined the pursuit from another side road. They each swung wide around the disabled vehicle and got back on the path.

Ryan continued his rapid escape. The truck’s engine roared, the noise intermixed with the sound of dirt hitting the undercarriage each time they skidded around a turn.

Sean waited for the next vehicle to get closer and started firing again.

Adair looked back.

A silver Ford Ranger skidded off the road and flipped into a barrel roll. It’s front tires were blown.

The other two Blazers hit their brakes and maneuvered around the Ranger, maintaining their pursuit with more distance.

Sean slowly lowered himself back into the cab, his tension belts taking up the slack as he moved. He set down his assault rifle and picked up another, longer weapon that Adair hadn’t seen before. Jamming a magazine into it, he carefully pointed it through the sunroof and stood up, trying to maintain his balance as the truck continued to bounce along the road.

«Hard left,» Ryan yelled.

Adair grabbed the armrest.

Sean put a hand out on the roof to steady himself.

The truck slid around the corner, jolting violently as the suspension tried to take the abuse of the trail that was only meant for vehicles traveling ten miles-per-hour at the most.

As soon as the truck made the turn and steadied out, Sean grabbed the rifle with two hands and leaned forward.

Boom!

Adair flinched as the shockwave punched through his chest and knocked the air from his lungs.

«Whew!» Ryan howled. «Gotta love the fifty-cal!»

The Blazers entered the turn just as Sean fired another shot, taking out the front tire of the lead vehicle. The driver lost control, and the Blazer skidded wide and missed the turn.

A loud smack outside Adair’s door made him jump again. «What was that?»

«SEAN! Two o’clock,» Ryan called out.

Sean spun around to face forward.

Adair turned and looked out the side window to see another silver Ranger parked on a ridge a hundred yards in front of them on the right hand side. The Sheriff had his rifle laid out on the hood of his truck. A faint puff of white suddenly appeared in front of the muzzle.

Sean’s body flinched.

A moment later, Adair saw blood dripping down the right side of Sean’s vest and onto his pants.

«You want some?» Sean yelled, firing off a shot.

The round punched through the driver’s door and the Sheriff quickly ducked behind his vehicle.

Sean fired a second shot at the gas tank, and the Ranger exploded into a ball of flame.

«Hold on!» Ryan yelled.

Suddenly, the whole truck felt weightless for a few seconds. Adair’s stomach began to lurch as his seatbelt fought to keep him secured to the seat. Then a massive impact slammed the whole vehicle into the ground. In the same instant, Adair heard a loud thump against the roof.

Ryan fought to keep the bouncing truck from skidding out of control.

Adair held tight to the armrest, pulled himself back up to a sitting position, then watched as Sean’s limp body slid back into the cab. The tension belts kept him from falling too quickly, adding a slow-motion emphasis to the situation.

«RYAN!» Adair yelled. «Sean’s hurt!»

Ryan glanced back quickly a few times in between last-second corrections to his course.

«He’s unconscious,» Adair observed, trying to lift Sean’s heavy frame up from the awkward position it had landed in.

Ryan reached back with one hand, groping for his brother’s neck. When he found it, he pressed his fingers hard into Sean’s skin. A few seconds passed as he tried to navigate the terrain with only one hand on the wheel.

«He has a pulse,» he said, pulling his hand away. «That last bump just knocked him out» Ryan suddenly noticed the blood covering his hand. He hit the brakes, and the truck slid to a stop in a cloud of dirt and debris. «Oh my God. No, no, no!» he repeated as he set the parking brake. The moment the truck was parked, he jumped out and came to the back, ripping the rear door open as if it weighed nothing at all. Leaning in, he pulled Sean’s upper body toward himself. «It’s okay. It’s okay,» he said in a soothing voice that Adair had heard several times now.

The sudden silence in the truck, following the chaos of the last few minutes, was deafening.

The wind blew.

The sun beat down.

Dust swirled through the air and coated the dashboard.

Ryan hunched over Sean’s body.

In the distance, an engine roared.

Ryan exhaled loudly. «They got him in the shoulder, but it’s not as bad as I thought.»

Adair stared at Sean’s limp form. His Kevlar vest covered all the vital organs, but his bloodied shoulder was proof that some things couldn’t be prevented.

The roar of the engine in the distance was getting closer.

«What do we do?» Adair asked the young man before him. Even with all his battle experience, Adair was way out of his league in this world. He was completely at Ryan’s mercy.

With glassy, red eyes, Ryan gently laid his brother down on the seat. Then he reached back into the trunk compartment through the back seat access.

Another growl from the approaching engine, louder this time, made its way to Adair’s ears just as he caught sight of the Blazer. It was about seventy-five yards out and coming fast.

Ryan pulled what looked like a long black tube from the trunk and turned to face the Blazer, settling himself down on one knee beside the open door. Grabbing the handles, he hoisted the weapon onto his shoulder and aimed the slender, bulbous end at the pursuing vehicle.

Adair had never seen this type of weapon before, but it looked like it would be loud and extremely dangerous. He quickly put his hands over his ears and shrank back into the cab, away from Ryan. With one eye barely above the back seat, he watched out the rear window.

The Blazer kept coming, bouncing and sliding across the rough terrain, now only fifty yards away.

All of a sudden, a massive orange flash of light erupted from the back end of Ryan’s weapon, and a puff of white smoke materialized in front. The rocks and dirt on the ground around him seemed to jump upward in fright at the same moment Adair felt the concussion in his gut.

It happened too fast for Adair to see the projectile, but his eyes managed to catch the briefest glimpse of it leaving a trail through the white smoke as it shot toward the approaching vehicle. A second later, a ball of flame exploded beneath the Blazer, jolting it upward in a plume of thick, swirling blackness. The airborne vehicle tilted and came down on the driver’s side, flipping over as the front end dug itself into the dirt.

Ryan stood up and tossed the black tube into the trunk, shut the door, and got back in the driver’s seat.

The truck spun out in the dirt for a second before it gained traction. In silence, Ryan headed toward a rain washout area and turned north, following it uphill and behind the ridge that had been looming over them for the last few miles.

Adair wanted to say something to ease Ryan’s anxiety, but there were no words that would change their situation. If Ryan was anything like the soldiers that Adair had grown up withlike the one he was himselfhe knew that their situation was far worse than it appeared on the surface. The authorities had been simply trying to take them into custody. But the Sheriff’s bullet had been a signal. A harbinger. The nature of this confrontation had just changed. The only one of value to the enemy was Adair, which meant the brothers now had targets painted on their backs.

Ryan skidded to a stop beside a low rock formation where rainwater had eroded narrow fissures into a six-foot-tall embankment of sandstone. Thick hedges of brush had grown up around its base, creating natural concealment.

«Unhook him and give me a hand,» Ryan said, as he put the truck in park and got out.

Adair, who’d been holding Sean’s unconscious form in his lap, unclipped the carabiners, and the two tension belts retracted toward the ceiling.

Ryan opened the door and grabbed hold of his brother’s vest, heaving him out of the truck head first.

Adair followed quickly and lifted Sean’s legs, carrying the wounded soldier a few yards away behind the brush and laying him gently inside the fissure where the sandstone was crumbling away.

«Grab a couple water bottles out of the front seat,» Ryan said, as he headed toward the trunk. The soothing tone was now gone from his voice.

Adair walked back to the passenger door and took some water out of the small cooler on the floorboard. When he got back to where Sean was lying, Ryan was kneeling down. There was a pistol, an assault rifle, and a few Snickers bars near Sean’s legs.

Adair stood over the two and handed the water to Ryan who set the bottles down next to the other supplies.

«Wait for me in the truck,» he said to Adair without looking up.

Adair paused for a moment, wishing that he could do something to change the situation that these men had been dragged into. So many times he’d watched young soldiers in this very predicament and had usually been the commanding officer about to lead them to their deaths. These moments were never pleasant. Without a reply, Adair turned around and climbed back into the rear seat of the truck. In the silence, he exhaled, but it did little to relax the feeling of tension that had taken up residence in his chest. He looked down and noticed that his pant legs were covered in Sean’s blood.

Outside, Ryan’s kneeling body shook with emotion. Grief? Anger? Both? Who knew what feelings were coursing through his veins at this moment? Almost anything would have been appropriate. Adair could see that Ryan’s eyes were closed and his lips were moving. A moment later, the young warrior reached up to his throat and ripped the chain from around his neck. Whatever token had been hanging from it, he pressed into the curled fist of his little brother.

Adair looked away, suddenly feeling as if he were intruding on a very private moment.

The door opened a moment later and Ryan jumped into the driver’s seat. «Let’s get out of here.»

Ryan made his way back to the path of tire tracks and took it west until it connected with a larger dirt road going north. He picked up speed on the smoother terrain and began making significant progress.

Adair rested his chin on his fist and stared out the window at the desolate landscape that seemed endless. To the east, tall mesas rose from the desert floor. In the foreground, clumps of sage and tumbleweed sped by in a flash.

«Adair,» Ryan broke the silence.

«Yes?»

Ryan reached back and handed him the GPS and a key. «If we get separated

and you feel like you can get away without getting hurt, I want you to make your way to the place highlighted on the screen. It’s a safe house in Albuquerque. A little farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere. Hitchhike. Steal someone’s car. Do whatever you have to do. Just get there. Here’s a phone number,» he said, handing back a torn piece of paper. «Call it as soon as you get there and someone will come and pick you up.»

Adair accepted the paper. «And what if it’s not safe?»

«Then let them come to you and don’t fight it out. They want you alive for some»

All of a sudden, something hit the truck, and the engine died instantly.

Ryan stomped a few times on the accelerator to no effect. Then, he ducked down and looked out the passenger window to the east. «Sniper just put one through the engine block!»

«Where are they shooting from?» Adair asked, turning to look out the window as the truck rolled to a lazy stop.

«Probably that ridgeline. Over five hundred yards on a moving target with armor-piercing rounds. We’re not dealing with the local Sheriffs anymore,» Ryan observed with casual reservation.

Suddenly, Adair felt more than heard a deep thrumming sound. The first time he’d heard that sound was in the jungles of Brazil, and it had left him with such a sense of dread that he would never forget it, or the sight of the armored locust that produced it. Glancing wildly around in every direction, he noted a black helicopter rising from behind some low terrain to the west. It climbed higher into the air and came straight at them.

«Get down!» Ryan yelled, just as the shadow of the flying machine passed over the top of them.

Adair dropped down to the floorboards.

Ryan reached over and grabbed an assault rifle from the passenger seat, got out his door, and slowly circled around toward the back of the truck, keeping the vehicle between himself and the hovering chopper to the east.

All Adair could see from the floor of the truck was Ryan’s head through the rear window and blue sky through all the others.

Unexpectedly, Ryan glanced to the west, and then disappeared from sight.

A loud series of rapid booms sounded from close by, and Adair assumed Ryan was firing at something.

Several bursts of gunfire occurred with only a slight pause between each.

Adair flinched as a circular indentation appeared in the middle of the window, turning the glass white and wrinkled at its perimeter. Blood and other, more substantial matter splashed across the glass and started to run down the outside of the window.

Adair’s jaw dropped in shock.

The gunfire had stopped.

All was silent except the beating of his own heart, pounding in his ears. With arms shaking from fear, Adair slowly pushed himself up to look out the windows.

To the east, the chopper had landed and five men in black uniforms were on the ground and fanning out. They were covered head to toe in combat armor. Their automatic weapons were up and pointing in Adair’s direction.

To the west, through the blood-splattered window, Adair could barely make out five more men in desert camouflage with weapons held ready. Other than the color of their uniforms, they looked exactly like the previous group.

Adair felt the hard steel of a pistol biting into his kneecap as he knelt on the floorboards. His warrior spirit screamed at him to pick up the weapon and start shooting, but another voice inside him, the husband and father, called out louder and with more authority. It commanded him to do exactly as he had been told. Stay in the vehicle. Let them come to you. Don’t try to fight this one out! With his heart beating madly in his chest, Adair slowly raised both hands and remained perfectly still.

Seconds later, the rear door opened. «Get out!» the man yelled. Behind the sand-colored camouflage helmet, the muzzles of numerous deadly weapons hovered, ready to put a bullet through his head without a second’s hesitation.

Adair kept his hands up and waddled on his knees toward the door.

Suddenly a gloved hand snaked out, grabbed the collar of his vest, and wrenched him out of the vehicle in one powerful movement.

Adair hit the ground face-first and was instantly choked by the cloud of dust that shot up his nostrils.

Someone drove a knee into his back and knocked the wind out of him. His arms were nearly ripped from their sockets as his hands were pulled behind him, and his wrists bound together with some rigid material that bit into his flesh.

He coughed before opening his eyes to see Ryan’s dead body lying in a pool of blood that was quickly leaching into the sand. On his back, his lifeless eyes were looking up to the sky. His face, already pale, was covered in dirta sharp contrast to the bright red entry wound in the middle of his forehead.

It wasn’t the first dead man that Adair had set eyes on. In fact, he’d seen plenty of death in his early years as a foot soldier, more than anyone should. Perhaps it was the young man’s age, or Adair’s feeling of vulnerability in this foreign world, but he already knew that Ryan’s death would affect him deeply. Perhaps not for days, but he knew grief was coming for him eventually. This soldier had died valiantly to protect him, and he silently vowed to make it right if the opportunity ever presented itself.

A dark hood slipped over Adair’s head, and then his arms were violently twisted until he was back on his feet.

«Move,» one of the men barked as something sharp jabbed into Adair’s back.

He had little choice but to obey. His weak steps were nearly useless as he was dragged across the dirt toward the thrumming sound of the helicopter. In the darkness of the suffocating hood, Adair closed his eyes. A face began to take shape in his mind. Maeryn, her features already starting to fade, stared out from a sea of nothingness. Her eyes were red with tears, as if she wanted to say something, but her mouth was still.

Wait for me, Adair pleaded.

CHAPTER 7

The Temple of the Kaliel

Off the Western Coast of Bastul

«It looks different,» Kael said, glancing up to the ceiling of the main cargo area inside the east face of the Temple mountain. The Orudan soldiers had placed burning torches everywhere, casting more light across the cavernous area than Kael ever remembered seeing during its occupation by the Kaliel.

«Hmm,» Saba mumbled, staring down at a piece of parchment in his hand.

Kael smiled. His old friend was always fascinated by things that bored other people. At the moment, the silver-haired man was perusing the activity logs and shipping manifests that had been stored somewhere deep within the bowels of the mountain under their feet. One of the first tasks of the Orudan soldiers had been to bring up every item from the Temple into the cargo bay for inspection. Every scrap of parchment. Every weapon. Every piece of furniture. Each item would be inspected for its condition and evaluated for its utility. Anything useful would be confiscated, and the rest would be burned.

Saba reached down and began leafing rapidly through the pile of papers, counting dates under his breath.

Kael turned away and looked out across the cavern. Pile upon pile, and row upon row, of items stretched all the way to the mouth of the cave, where the afternoon sunlight glittered along the gentle ripples of the ocean inside the perimeter wall.

«Look at this,» Saba said.

Kael turned around quickly, noting the sense of urgency in his mentor’s voice.

Saba handed him a parchment. «Look at the date.»

Kael glanced to the upper right corner and did a quick calculation in his head. «It’s about twenty-two years ago,» he said, not understanding the reason for Saba’s excitement.

«And what does it say down below?»

Kael looked down at the rest of the writing. It appeared to be an activity report for one of the naval patrols. «

encountered small Orudan vessel

« Kael read it aloud. «

crew killed and the captain retained for questioning.»

Kael looked up and found Saba staring hard at him.

«What boat and crew went missing from Bastul’s navy twenty-two years ago?»

Kael’s mouth dropped. «My father’s

«

Saba nodded slowly. Then his hand came up with another piece of parchment. «I found this a few hours ago. It didn’t make sense until now.»

Kael’s heart was beating loudly as he reached out and took the water-damaged page. «

prisoner killed three guards.

disguised himself in guard’s uniform.» Kael could hardly believe what he was looking at. «Could this be true?» he asked Saba.

«The Kaliel were quite disciplined, almost as much as the Empire itself. It looks as though they kept records of everything. I don’t think there’s any deception here. It is exactly what it looks like.»

Kael looked back to the page. «

wounded while climbing through the ventilation shaft into the central chamber.» As he read the words of the report, the scenes occurred in his mind as vividly as the plays he used to watch with Matsuri while living at the Fortress City. He could see his father scurrying through the ventilation shaft like a rodent, leaving behind a trail of blood. He could see the Kaliel soldiers chasing him down the spiral staircase, deep into the heart of the mountain where the shadows waited to swallow him alive. He could almost feel the heat from their torches as they chased him across the sand floor of the Temple itself. His heart began to beat with fear and anticipation as the dark masses of soldiers organized themselves into ranks, trapping him on the surface of the altar that they had all been forbidden to touch. «

a blue light was glowing everywhere around the prisoner. And then he was gone,» Kael said, reading the last words of the report, before looking up.

Saba had tears in his eyes.

Kael’s heart suddenly broke, and when the words came out, his voice faltered. «What does this mean?»

The hand that had been covering Saba’s mouth slowly came away, its fingers curling until only his pointer finger remained upright. «I need to think this through.»

«Does this mean that my father wasn’t killed here? He’s in the next world?»

«Hold on,» Saba said quietly. «I need to think this through.» He walked a few steps away before turning around, pacing as his mind went to work on something beyond the obvious.

Kael waited, trying to work through on his own the implications of what he’d just read.

«How old were you when Adair disappeared? Nine?»

«Ten,» Kael answered.

«Hmm,» Saba mumbled, growing silent again.

Ten years old when my father was taken out of my life, Kael realized, not for the first time.

«And when we both felt Rameel’s presence?» Saba continued.

Kael thought about it, remembering the awful feeling during his graduation at this very Temple. But the first time he felt it with Saba had been after the confrontation with Magnus, when he’d healed himself to the point of being able to talk again. «We were on our way to meet with the High Council»

«with your mother,» Saba interrupted. «Yes that’s right. That would have been perhaps two years ago?»

«That sounds about right,» Kael replied, now very confused. «What does this have to do with anything?»

«Well,» Saba said, holding up a finger. «One cannot pass into the next world without a key. When I took Rameel’s key from him, it was immediately after he’d used it to activate the portal. I stole it the very instant he left this world, which trapped him inside.»

«He couldn’t complete the passage,» Kael reasoned.

«That’s right. And then there was a great earthquake, and all the mountains in this whole area, including the Temple, fell into the ocean. At the time, I believed it to be a permanent end to the portal. In recent years, before I reconnected with you and your mother, I studied every notation of history I could find. From the oral traditions of Nijambu to the written records in Orud. The growth of Rameel’s power baffled me and gnawed at my mind like some wild beast. Then I found it in the myths of the aboriginal people of this region. Fantastical stories of the ocean gods cowering before the gods of the land. A colossal battle of forces that had ever been in the favor of the sea had finally reversed its course. It was their interpretation for the declining ocean levels.»

«You mean the portal was still active?»

«Yes,» Saba replied. «The portal remained able to receive matter into itself, but lacked the ability to send it on to its final destination.»

«My father didn’t have a key,» Kael pointed out. «Are you saying he drowned in there?»

«No, no,» Saba corrected. «That’s not it, at all. Air. Lungs. These mean nothing in the In-Between. I only mean that your father was the last in a long line of matter that was trapped inside.»

«But Rameel was somehow released by his followers,» Kael observed.

«That’s correctby my scepter,» Saba replied, referring to the dark crystalline object that was now kept in tight wrappings aboard their ship, hidden from the eyes of men.

«But he came here,» Kael countered. «You said there was a natural

flow inside the portal. Wouldn’t Rameel have ended up in the next world?»

«He must have,» Saba reasoned. «When the Kaliel used my scepter to activate the portal, he would have completed his journey, along with all the other matter insidein the same order it entered. First Rameel, then the waters of the ocean, then your father.»

«What do you think happened in the next world? Could my father have survived?»

«Flooding,» Saba answered. «Massive flooding. And yes, it’s possible that Adair survived. But there’s something else.»

«Wait a moment,» Kael said, now looking at the ground while he struggled to comprehend the torrent of information. «You told me days ago that time didn’t work the same way inside the tree.»

Saba smiled as if he had just been about to explain the very conclusion that Kael had already reached. «The In-Between functions differently than the Temporal realm, or even the Eternal realm. It is a place wholly separate from either, where time is even less relevant than in my own realm. You were ten, but your father was thirty-six years old when this occurred. You’re now

?»

«Thirty-two,» Kael answered slowly.

«If Adair survived the passage. If he’s still alive, he’s thirty-eight now,» Saba concluded, whispering these last words as if they were a secret.

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

«

the Pecos County Sheriff’s Department reported that the pursuit finally came to an end at 2:37 p.m. here in the badlands north of Interstate Ten, just a few miles east of Fort Stockton. In a joint effort between state and local authorities, the three heavily-armed suspects were redirected by an extensive network of roadblocks scattered throughout the nearly three hundred miles of rural territory between their first sighting and where the final bloody confrontation occurred.»

The news footage showed two columns of black smoke rising into the sky from the arid landscape and then cut to a man in a suit jacket, wearing a bolo tie and a collared western shirt.

«You know, I think it’s a testament to the hard work and coordination of all our law enforcement agencies who’ve given their blood, sweat, and tears to combat these criminals trying to bring drugs into our country.»

The footage cut back to the female reporter standing to the side of the Interstate with the sound of traffic in the background.

«That statement, from Texas Governor Randy Sheridan, was a sobering reminder of the two sheriffs killed in today’s confrontationtwo more heroes who’ve given their lives to protect the citizens of this great state; two more casualties in this costly war on drugs. I’m Melissa Ryger for KABB Fox, San Antonio.»

Matthews hit the escape key and stopped the news report running on his screen.

«They said all three were killed,» Andrea observed.

«That was just a cover story. We got a very brief report by cell phone from one the Transporters. His partner was killed by the SWAT team that took Adair into custody.»

«The report didn’t mention that,» Andrea noted.

Matthews shook his head. «It was probably Armaros’ men, and they’re long gone by now.»

«We’re going to get the Transporter out of there, right?»

Matthews took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose. «We have folks in the area ready to extract him as soon as all the commotion dies down. Then we’ll get his full debrief.»

«And what about Adair?»

«I don’t know,» Matthews replied, slowly putting his glasses back on.

«I read that he and Greer were pretty close. They spent weeks together when they were moving him from Brazil to Virginia.»

Matthews nodded. It was all happening so fast, and at such a bad time. «We’re not going to tell Greer right now. He needs to stay focused on his objective. When it’s over, we’ll break the bad news to him. And I’m sure Command will get involved on this one. It’s a substantial security leak.»

CHAPTER 8

Armaros’ Compound

Northern Brazil

«TAC One approaching the portal building,» Greer announced over the COMM.

«Copy that, One. Cameras are looped,» TAC 7 replied.

Through the fog, a large, two-story structure began to take shape. Unlike the purely functional control center with its assortment of antenna, satellite, and radar dishes, the portal building had windows and other minor decorative touches that made it the perfect entry point.

Having circled around to stay clear of the main entrance, they now approached the western wall of the building. Greer, Thompson, and Zylski took up cover positions, while Martinez removed a grappling-hook launcher from Jensen’s pack. He held the butt of the tool against his shoulder and aimed the muzzle upward. A quick and quiet puff of air launched a pointed cylinder two stories into the air, where it arced over the edge of the concrete building and out of sight. In its wake, two thin cables played out from a spool inside the tool’s detachable stock. Martinez pulled gently on the cables and took up the slack. Somewhere on the roof above, beyond their line of sight, the cylinder reacted to the gentle pressure by expanding into a three-bladed hook designed to catch on anything substantial enough to support the weight of a fully loaded soldier. The grappling hook caught, and Martinez gave it a sharp tug to ensure that its contact was secure. Then he detached the spool and pressed a button. Three stabilizer stakes swung outward and locked into position. Placing the spool on the ground, he stood on the footpad, forcing the stakes into the wet soil. Jensen quickly knelt on the ground and pulled the slack from the cables before setting a locking pin and engaging the electric motor.

«Ready,» he whispered.

Martinez clipped a loop of webbing to the cable and slipped it over his boot. With one hand on the cable and another on his weapon, he rose from the ground like a magician. The motor of the scaling apparatus silently propelled him toward the roof, where he pulled himself over the edge and turned around to give the thumbs-up.

It took less than two minutes for all the members of Greer’s Team to scale the building and assemble at their next checkpointa ventilation unit. Now it was Zylski’s turn to cut the locks off the cage surrounding the massive HVAC system and go to work on the aluminum sheeting that would allow them entry into the building.

«TAC One is inside,» came Greer’s voice across the COMM.

«Copy that, One. TAC Two, standby for perimeter breach,» came the voice from inside the control center.

«Standing by,» Ellis replied. Any second now, the enemy soldiers inside the main facility would be alerted to a breach in the perimeter fencing just a few meters behind where his Team had taken up their positions. He lay still in the thick grass, feeling the wet soil move beneath his body with each steady breath. The rain had let up to a drizzle, but the fog was still as thick as ever, insulating them from the night sky. As with the rest of his Team, he slowly glanced from side to side, peering through the darkness with his NVD, looking for any signs of life.

«TAC Two. Enemy command just called in to verify the breach. You should have company in a few seconds.»

«Copy that,» Ellis replied.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he began to pick up faint thermal signatures exiting the portal building. Appearing at first as a blotch of primary colors, the heat mass moved quickly along the paved entrance, braking into three groups as it reached the landscaped median in the center of a courtyard area between the portal building and the control center. Gradually, individual outlines became distinguishable until three groups of seven men could be seen fanning out and moving in the direction of TAC 2.

Ellis and his soldiers waited patiently, knowing that the enemy couldn’t see them and wouldn’t until they chose to reveal themselves.

The group on the far right side reached the fence and began moving along the inside of it, looking for the breach. The other two groups were spread out in a line, spanning the terrain between the fence and the building entrance. Slowly, the enemy formation advanced. A voice cut through the foga soldier near the fence had found the opening and knelt down to inspect it.

Ellis’ eyes saw only wet grass below and fog above his position, but the heads-up display on his NVD cut through the nighttime obstructions and portrayed a digital image of what lay beyond. The crosshairs of his weapon were centered on the glowing silhouette of the man at the fence. «Take em,» he whispered, then pulled the trigger.

With coordinated movements, each member of his Team targeted the enemy on the rightmost side of his respective sector and moved to the left as soon as the target was eliminated. Having removed their suppresors, TAC 2’s weapons created a chorus of gunfire that shattered the nighttime silence.

The confused and frightened soldiers dropped like a row of dominoes and when only a few were left, Ellis gave the order to begin a covered retreat to the hangar near the helipad.

The enemies regrouped, called for reinforcements, and began pursuit with panicked gunfire.

The diversion was workingArmaros’ men were drawn away from the portal building and Greer’s soldiers inside.

The crackling sound of automatic gunfire echoed through the compound, and by the time it reached Greer’s ears, having bounced along the inside of dozens of meters of ventilation ductwork, it was little more than a faint whisper.

Greer smiled.

«TAC Two is on the move,» he heard Ellis’ voice on the COMM.

«Copy that, Two,» replied the voice inside the control center. «Standby for perimeter breach at the helipad.» A moment later, the voice returned. «They’ve taken the bait and dispatched reinforcements. Be advised that another fifty soldiers are exiting the portal building and moving toward your left flank. Repeat, five-zero soldiers.»

«Copy that, Seven,» Ellis’ voice replied.

«TAC One, standby for rappel,» the control center advised.

All members of Greer’s Team were clicked into their harnesses and waiting. «TAC One is in position and standing by,» Greer replied.

Ellis fired off a few rounds, intentionally missing his target. «Go!» one of his Team members called. Without questioning the signal, he turned and ran a few meters toward the hangar and then spun around and took aim. «Go!» he called out, firing as the next Team member retreated in the same covered fashion. When they reached the hangar, TAC 2 moved around to a door on the hangar’s west side. After blowing through the hinges and locks, Ellis kicked in the door and immediately headed for the staircase on the south side of the interior.

Climbing to the offices on the second floor, TAC 2 spread out with their two Security members covering the interior staircase while the three other members accessed the roof and began firing on the enemy from above.

Ellis took a momentary break from firing to call in help.

«TAC Three, Four, Five, and Six. Begin eliminating select targets.»

«Copy that,» came the reply.

A moment later, Ellis started seeing enemy soldiers go down, one after another. From high in the surrounding hills, his fellow snipers were raining down death from hundreds of meters away, completely concealed by the fog and early morning darkness. They were targeting only certain enemies to mimic the effect of having two Teams inside the hangar. The objective was to slowly reveal that the enemy had a serious threat inside their fences, and to make them believe that the threat was pinned down inside the hangar.

«TAC Two. Enemy command just called in to verify the perimeter breaches. The hornet’s nest has been stirred.»

«Copy that, Seven,» Ellis replied, firing off another shot.

The sound of alarms filled every square inch inside the portal building and seemed amplified by the aluminum walls of the ventilation shaft. Greer and his Team held their ears as they watched from their hidden positions. Hundreds of enemy soldiers ran up the metal stairs that were fastened to the inside of the massive central shaft. The multitude of stomping boots produced a metallic cacophony.

Their ranks seemed endless in number as Greer thought about the likelihood that he was only seeing the ones who weren’t using the high-speed elevators to reach the surface. Long moments passed before the stampede ended and the deafening sound faded away, leaving behind only the shrieking noise of the alarms. Now that the passage was clear, they had a seventy-five meter rappel straight down to the cavernous room where their objective waited.

Greer looked to his Team members and nodded. One by one, each soldier pulled a gas mask down over his face. In their ears, a clearer sound cut through the ambient noise. «TAC Three, Four, Five, and Six. Hold your fire,» Ellis instructed.

That order meant TAC 2 was now taking heavy fire from the soldiers who were assembling in masses around the hangar, and returning fire would only give away what was really happening.

«All Teams. All Teams. This is Command. Be advised that a high-pressure system is developing rapidly to the west and is pushing out the fog. You will lose concealment over the next ten minutes.»

Greer was disappointed, but not surprised. He’d learned within his first day in this region that sunrise tended to change the weather patterns dramatically.

«TAC One, this is Seven.»

«Go ahead, Seven,» Greer replied.

«Be advised. A tally of the thermals on the field indicates there is still a skeleton crew inside the portal building. Repeat. Not all enemies were evacuated.»

«Copy that,» Greer replied. The plan was working. The majority of Armaros’ men had been drawn out and the rest would have to be surgically removed. «TAC One beginning rappel.»

With these words, Greer looked to Thompson and Zylski and nodded. The men, who each held a matte-black segmented tube, armed their devices and tossed them into the central shaft. Underneath the piercing alarms, a series of ten muffled pops sounded. Each segment of the tear gas grenades detonated at different depths, spreading a noxious cloud evenly down the passage below them.

With gas masks in place, the Team launched themselves from the ceiling and abseiled down the walls of the shaft, each member running facedown with his weapon covering the opposite side of the passage.

Through the fog of tear gas, Greer sighted a guard next to a door on the first level who was covering his eyes with his arm while trying to maintain a grip on his weapon. Greer squeezed the trigger and his assault rifle jolted, dropping the target to the metal flooring.

Zylski took the guard on the next level down, and Jensen took level three. Twenty floors passed by in a matter of seconds before the Team slowed to a hover over a series of overlapping crescent-shaped steel panels, each reinforced with structural beams riveted in place. It looked like the mechanical iris of some colossal robot from a science-fiction movie.

«TAC One to Seven,» Greer called.

«This is Seven. Go ahead.»

«We have blast doors restricting access into the portal chamber.»

«Copy that, One. There weren’t any doors on the layout.»

Greer hung in place for a moment and scanned the bottom of the shaft. «TAC One is moving into the north passage of level twenty.»

«Copy that, One.»

Greer waved a hand toward the ordinary-sized door on the other side of the metal railing a few meters away. Martinez and Jensen dropped onto the blast doors with a hollow thud, unclipped their harnesses, and started moving to flank the door. The rest of the Team followed and assembled themselves into a rapid assault position on the platform outside the door.

With one hand on the doorknob and the other holding his weapon ready, Jensen tried the knob and it turned. He nodded to the rest of the Team, then pushed the latch past the doorframe and let go. Martinez, waiting on the right side of the doorframe, kicked the door and followed it as it rapidly swung inward. He moved left, away from the hinges, and entered the inside corner of the narrow passage, taking up a control position while pivoting right with his rifle to clear his side of the passage. Jensen followed, moving to the right corner and clearing his side of the passage, his actions mirroring Martinez’s.

Greer, Thompson, and Zylski moved into the passage behind the others and each covered their sectors as the whole Team moved down the long hallway in formation. The halls were vacant, and the only sounds beside the blaring alarms were their boots on the tile floor and the beating of their hearts in their own ears.

Step after step, hallway after hallway, nothing happened. Moving quickly toward their objective, the Team passed by numerous doorways, leaving them behind without clearing the rooms. Their first priority was to reach the portal and take up a dominant position, while the other Teams eliminated the soldiers outside and worked their way in. It was the fastest way to secure a strategic location, but TAC 1s job was also the most perilous. At any moment someone could exit one of those doors and the Team could quickly find themselves trapped in a crossfire.

Following the building layout on his HUD, Greer took the Team on a winding route through the dimly lit halls until they reached a door leading to a stairwell.

«TAC One is at the west stairwell,» he announced as they pushed through the door and into the concrete vertical passage. Jensen and Martinez covered them from above while the other three moved to the descending stairs. Zylski and Thompson now took up the point positions as the Team dropped down several more levels without engagement.

At the bottom, another door opened into a wider hallway that ran straight back in the direction they had come. Zylski and Thompson methodically entered the passage and cleared the inside corners, taking up cover positions while the rest of the Team exited the stairwell.

Greer inspected the long, wide hallway and he didn’t like what he sawa series of three intersections, with passages extending to the right and left of the one in which they stood. If he were going to ambush someone, this would be the place. At the far end of the wide hallway was a set of double doors, the entrance into the portal chamber.

«Concussion grenades?» he whispered.

«Loaded,» replied Jensen and Martinez in unison.

«Take point and clear the first side passages so we can establish some cover,» he told them.

Each one nodded then crept around their Team members to take up the lead positions along the left and right walls. Moving as one, the Team approached the first intersection. Jensen and Martinez held up their fists and the Team dropped to their knees, waiting for their signal.

A dark object suddenly peered out from behind a corner far down the hallway, then pulled back. Its shape stood out stark against the white walls behind it. It was someone’s head and right shoulder.

«Move!» Greer yelled, just as the outline reappeared, this time with a rifle.

Jensen and Martinez burst into motion, moving around their corners and across the lateral passages. A handful of deep thumping noises filled the air as they launched several concussion grenades down the side passages and quickly took up cover positions. Thompson and Zylski were already moving around the corners when the explosions began detonating, shaking the walls. Greer squeezed off a few rounds down the main hallway before following Zylski around the left corner.

Dark-green shadows moved at the end of each passage. Some were on the ground. Others were stumbling about.

TAC 1 followed the debilitating force of the concussion grenades by firing short bursts of 5.56mm NATO rounds into the enemies. The hall erupted with the sound of automatic gunfire. Greer saw Zylski’s right leg jolt with a burst of fabric and blood as he took a hit. Greer lunged across the passage, firing as he went, and took cover from the soldiers now shooting down the main hallway. They had momentarily been in a three-way crossfire, but the enemies on both sides had been dealt with and TAC 1 had established their cover. Greer was now on point as the other members moved along the far walls of their respective passages, coming back to the intersection.

The crackle of AK-47 fire sounded as multiple rounds pounded the opposite sides of the intersection. Hundreds of holes appeared in the walls, denting the thin metal inward, which was a good sign. At least they didn’t have to worry about ricochet.

Greer looked back to Zylski. «You okay?»

«Never better,» Zylski replied, not even bothering to look down at the wound on his leg.

«Your wife’s gonna kill me,» Greer observed.

All the other Team members smiled knowingly.

More gunfire screamed through the air and pummeled the walls around them, reinforcing the obvious conclusion that they were now pinned down.

«Let’s get a pressure bandage on that.»

Zylski nodded.

«Seven, this is One,» Greer called over the noise.

«Go ahead, One.»

«We’re pinned down in the north hallway approaching the objective, just outside the stairwell. We’re taking heavy fire.»

«Copy that, One. Enemy command is now aware of your presence and has been called off the hangar. You’ve got enemies headed back to your location.»

Greer clenched his teeth but forced himself to stay calm and think through the situation. His Team couldn’t move, and the mission would fail if they were suddenly attacked from behind in addition to what lay before them. They needed to reach the portal chamber and find some cover if they were going to survive this fight. The confrontation outside was only a distraction, and even that would dissipate in a few minutes along with the lifting fog.

«Seven, lock the outside doors. We’ve got all the fun we can handle right now.»

«That will compromise our location,» the voice from inside the control center pointed out.

«Understood,» Greer replied. «TAC Three, Four, Five, and Six. You boys will need to cover the buildings and make sure no one gets in either one.»

«Copy that,» the Team Leaders replied.

CHAPTER 9

The Temple of the Kaliel

Off the Western Coast of Bastul

Kael gripped the hilt of his crystalline sword as he paced back and forth across the sand, feeling its deadly and reassuring weight as an extension of his own body. At the center of the cavern, a brilliant column of daylight poured through the hole in the ceiling to the dais below, but the light failed to pierce the shadows that clung to the perimeter of the cavern like living beings. It was no wonder the Kaliel had been required to keep torches burning day and night. What Ukiru had explained as a religious observance had likely begun as a practical matter.

Saba stood before the dark waters of the moat, watching the dais with his back to Kael, patiently waiting for the next question.

«What are they trying to achieve?» Kael finally asked.

«I don’t know their ultimate plans. I only know their beginnings, and even that knowledge is thousands of years old.»

«What were they trying to achieve back then?» Kael clarified, suddenly feeling impatient. Over the last months, he’d listened to Saba’s explanations with a detached curiositysympathetic, yet unwilling to engage beyond a conceptual level. Now that there was a possibility his father had gone through the portal, he couldn’t get information fast enough. He was formulating a plan now, and every detail mattered.

Saba turned. «To be the gods of their own worlds. Before the Fracturing, they had only kingdoms within the same world. And just as gods would do, they sought to remake their realms of influence into their own creations. Some decided to continue the work they began during the Reshaping. Others realized the inherent conflict that would arise from it, and sought instead to establish physical dominance over their kingdoms first.»

Kael considered these words and quickly recognized the latter as Rameel’s strategy. «What can I expect on the other end, in the next world?»

Saba’s face turned grim. «You can expect that the Myndarym and their followers will control the portal, just like Rameel did in this world. And I am certain that they heard the proclamation as well.»

«So they know I’m coming,» Kael concluded.

«Yes. They may have doubted the prophecy before, but Rameel’s death is sure to have changed their minds. They will be prepared to kill you the moment you step into their world.»

Kael stopped walking and tightened his grip on the sword.

«Don’t underestimate them,» Saba cautioned.

The change in Kael’s body language must have been obvious.

«This world has progressed through the ages with little of their influence. The next world has had no such limitations. You should expect their civilization to be far more advancedtheir weapons far more deadly. Whatever advantage your abilities offered you in this world may not be sufficient for the next.»

«I see,» Kael replied, looking now to the massive statues carved into the walls of the cavern’s perimeter. The torches cast flickering orange light across their ancient features, giving them just the divine aura they had sought to cultivate among the world of men. Each one was unique, and he studied them for a moment, his eyes eventually settling on one whose features were undefined, like an unfinished project. «Remind me again who I’m going to encounter.»

Saba followed his gaze and pointed at one of the statues. «Kokabiel.»

«Why doesn’t he have a face?»

«Kokabiel was in the process of Shaping himself when we were cut off from the Eternal realm. He alone retained the power of altering his shape afterwards, but he no longer has a base form and must exert effort even to look as indistinct as this statue.»

«And the second?»

«Armaros,» Saba replied. «Like me, he chose a human form, but he sought to use that form to disguise himself and control your civilization from the inside. I expect that he is, even now, passing himself off as a human to accomplish his work.»

«The third also has a human form, then?»

«Yes. Satarel. These three believed that they could more easily gain control of humankind through subtle actions. They reasoned that humans are not as likely to rise up in revolt against such an approach.»

Kael remembered Rameel’s ghastly appearance and the reaction it provoked among the soldiers during the battle in Orud. The men were certainly terrified, but they struck back despite their fear. Rameel’s otherworldly appearance was enough proof of the fact that he didn’t belong in the world of men. Still meditating on this, Kael turned and walked past Saba up the footbridge, and stopped before the dais.

His old mentor was staring at him with an odd look in his eye.

Kael knew immediately what it meant. «You think I’m selfish. I wouldn’t go before to save all of humanity, but I’ll go now just to save my father?»

Saba slowly shook his head. «In the end, it won’t matter why. You know what I believe about you. If you weren’t convinced before, then something had to happen to convince you now. That is the way of such things.»

Kael studied the eyes of his friend and saw only sincerity. «The truth is, I don’t know if I believe the prophecy. And even if I did, I don’t think it applies to me. I can’t bear the weight of all those implications. But I am capable of rescuing my father, and that’s what I’m going to do.»

Saba’s lips curled into the faintest of smiles, but his eyes were heavy with grief. The conflicting emotions were written on his face as plain as could be. He was grieving the departure of a friend, yet celebrating the next step of the fulfillment of the prophecyhumanity’s hero entering the next world.

Kael mentally shook off the expectations hanging over him and turned his attention to the dais waiting to swallow him up. Its surface was polished like marble and seemed to emit silver light. Just beneath the surface, as if encased in ice, was a strange pattern of concentric circles, rings of a tree that seemed to have been frozen and then shattered. The sunlight reflected from each ring and fracture, sending blinding rays in a million directions. The resemblance to his sword was now obvious.

«They’ll wonder where you went, and they’ll be hurt that you didn’t say goodbye. What should I tell them?» Saba asked, his concern suddenly shifting to Kael’s family and friends back in Orud who were expecting them both to return at any moment.

Kael met Saba’s eyes. «Tell them the story that you told me. Then they’ll understand.»

Saba’s head dropped as if the weight of consequences were pulling it down.

He initiated this, but he knows there’s no other way. «Who’s to say this is goodbye?» Kael offered.

Saba smiled at the optimism but looked as though he didn’t believe the words.

«I’ll see you again,» Kael stated. Then he stepped onto the dais and confidently walked to its center. Almost immediately, he began to feel an immense weight upon his body, like it was being pushed from all sides.

He looked up at Saba who stood at the edge of the moat, tears running down his cheeks. The image of his childhood mentor began to distort sideways, like Kael was watching through the heat of a campfire. Slowly, his view of Saba and the cavern began to spiral inward. A blue light suddenly flashed in his eyes, sending a jolt of pain through his head.

Armaros’ Compound

Northern Brazil

The members of TAC 5 were scattered across the hillside directly south of Armaros’ compound. Team Leader Sergio Peńa was positioned four hundred meters out and two hundred meters above the valley floor, giving him a line of sight to all the land south of each building and most of the east and west areas. Now that the fog was lifting and the morning sun was breaking into the shaded valley, he moved his NVD out of the way and began acquiring targets through the scope of his rifle with his naked eye.

At the front entrance to the portal building, soldiers were massing as they reached the locked doors.

He positioned his reticle above another target, compensating for the effect of gravity, and gently squeezed the trigger at the bottom of his breathing pattern, when his body would be the most still.

Less than a second later, the enemy soldier tumbled backward into his colleagues, thrown by the high velocity of the round that slammed into his chest.

As Peńa acquired his next target, he noted other enemies dropping one after another as his Team members fired their weapons.

«All Teams. All Teams,» Peńa heard in his ear. «This is Seven. We’ve lost control of the whole system. It’s being overridden.»

Suddenly, all the enemy soldiers scattered away from the hangar.

Peńa lifted his head and looked at his nearest Team member, lying under a fallen tree trunk thirty feet away.

«What’s going on?» the soldier asked.

A second later, Peńa’s attention was drawn to the peak of the mountain above and behind his position. Jutting out from its rocky clearing like the talon of a hawk, one of the surface-to-air missile defense systems was rotating toward the battlefield. Strategically positioned on five of the highest peaks surrounding the valley, the SAMs had been commandeered by TAC 7 inside the control center as a preventive measure early in the operation. Peńa looked back to the hangar, now deserted by the enemy, and realized that Armaros’ defense forces had somehow regained control.

«TAC Two! TAC Two! Evacuate the hangar, now!» he yelled over the COMM. «I repeat. Evacuate the hangar! The SAMs are being deployed»

A deafening hiss erupted from the system, drowning out all other sounds as the missile shot overhead, leaving behind only a rumbling growl that shook the earth. The hangar blew apart in a massive explosion, sending shrapnel in every direction.

TAC 2 was gone before Peńa could even get the words out of his mouth. Fighting back the anger that was starting to boil inside of him, his years of training steered his mind toward productive thinking. There would be time later for mourning.

«TAC Three, Four, and Six. Have one member switch to anti-material rounds and take out the communications hubs on those SAMs,» he ordered. «Start with the system behind your location and work clockwise from there.»

Even as he spoke, Peńa’s hands were going through the motions that had become automatic over thousands of repeated exercises. He released the five-round magazine from his rifle, ejected the cartridge that was chambered, and rammed in a magazine of armor-piercing, explosive rounds. Jumping to his feet, he ran up the steep incline, angling to the right in order to get a clear shot. Through fifty feet of mud and dense foliage, he found his position and stopped. With nothing to lean against and no clear shot if he lowered himself to the ground, he took aim from a standing position as his heart pounded in his chest.

«One down,» he heard in his ear as TAC 3 took out the system on the northeast side of the compound.

Using the mil dots of his reticle to account for the upward angle and distance, Peńa aimed at the bulb that housed all of the communications hardware on the top of the missile system. With each breath moving the muzzle just enough to ruin the shot, he waited for the natural break in the miniscule disturbance and then squeezed the trigger.

The communications bulb exploded into a shower of sparks.

«Two down,» he said into his COMM.

«All Teams. All Teams. This is Seven,» came a voice immediately after. «They’re using an override control system from somewhere inside the portal building, but they’re still transmitting through the antenna farm on the roof. We’re gonna light it up!»

«Copy that, Seven,» Peńa replied. «TAC One. What’s your status?»

Greer could hear the stress in Peńa’s voice. Without needing an explanation, he knew the other Teams were holding down the situation outside, but things were starting to spiral out of control.

«This is One. We’re taking heavy fire, but we’re moving toward the objective.»

«Copy that,» came the reply.

From his standing position in the left passage, Greer looked down at Jensen kneeling below him, who nodded in return.

Across the hall, Martinez confirmed his readiness as well.

With the faces of his soldiers’ wives and children and memories of holiday parties lingering in his imagination, Greer clenched his teeth. «Go,» he ordered, jamming his rifle around the corner and firing blindly in full-auto to provide cover fire.

Jensen and Martinez leaned out from their corners and each took aim at the side passages of the next intersection. A quick succession of thumps sounded as they sent multiple concussion grenades diagonally across the hall, ricocheting off the walls of the next enemy position.

The sequential detonations produced a rolling thunder that shook the hallways.

TAC 1 immediately jumped into action, moving down the sides of the hallway and firing at anything still moving. Seconds later, they had control of the next intersection and were taking cover as Armaros’ remaining men fired from the end of the hallway.

«This is One. We’ve taken the second intersection.»

CHAPTER 10

The In-Between

Kael’s vision failed almost immediately. The pressure on his body was tremendous and reminded him of the feeling of being crushed by Rameel. His breath was forced from his body and bile began to rise in his throat. His bones felt on the verge of shattering. By instinct, Kael retreated into himself, feeling for a fragment of solace in a maelstrom of chaos. Withdrawing into pure consciousness, he lost all sense of himself as an object of substance. Only his mind remained, suddenly reeling from the fear of losing his sword.

At once, he perceived the sensations of rapid movement and weightless stillnessthe dizzying contradiction of vertigo. As one might throw their arms out to steady themselves before a fall, Kael thrust his sense away from himself.

Peaceful silence suddenly blanketed everything.

There was only darkness as far as his mind’s eye could see.

Kael was lost in nothingness. There were no colors. No objects. No sounds or smells. Nothing that could be used as a reference point.

He tried to push his sense further from himself, if such a thing as a self existed here. In the void of this place, for all he knew, he might be retracting his sense.

Then something became perceptible. What it was, he couldn’t determine, but it was something, and that was reassuring. A something, or a number of somethings, at the fringes of his sense. Were they impossibly small, or unfathomably large? He couldn’t tell, but he pushed toward them.

They were growing.

He was getting closer.

Finally, a point of reference!

Did my father see this? Did he feel these things? Was he aware of how long he was In-Between? Did he meet Rameel? Kael realized that Adair didn’t have the protection his sense providedthe comforting and empowering force that he’d come to rely on over the years. His father had likely blacked out early on and may have remained in that condition the entire time.

Suddenly, Kael was aware of his body again and wondered if he should allow his consciousness to come out of his place of retreat. He now sensed a very definite movement in a specific direction and remembered what Saba had told him about there being a flow, of sorts, inside this place. Cautiously, he retracted his sense and allowed his body to take overto see, and hear, and feel.

It was beautiful.

He was surrounded by a current of illumination that swam in undulating ripples, like long ribbons of rainbows moving as a school of fish. He was caught in a river of light, pulled inexorably toward a swirling cauldron.

The perception of beauty was gradually drowned by the feeling of helplessness as Kael engaged his other sense and tried to pull back, throwing his mental arms wide in a desperate attempt to control his entry into the next world. He reached out further and further, grasping for anything on which to cling and slow his progress. A moment before he reached the imploding vortex of light, he was aware of two other concentrations of colors, separated by vast distances but connected by the same rivers of light. Scattered across the backdrop of darkness were uncountable multitudes of smaller lights, varying in color and brightness. Were they the beings of light that Saba had described? Or were they worlds in themselves? Kael only had the time to recognize the questions in his mind before the immense feeling of pressure returned, and he felt himself slipping into the vortex.

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

«Lose the thermal overlay,» Suncio said, calmly but firmly. The rising sun was gradually lessening the distinction between the body heat of his Teams on the ground, the air temperature, and the reflected heat from the terrain.

One of Matthews’ analysts clicked a button, and the massive screen on the wall of the Command Room switched to a live satellite feed.

«Charges are in place. Detonating in three, two, one,» came the voice of TAC 7’s Leader over the COMM.

An orange and red fireball appeared on the screen, momentarily blocking sight of the control center. Though it looked like the building should have been destroyed, the demolitions experts on TAC 7 had arranged their charges to blow laterally and upward, taking out the equipment on the roof without harming the building’s infrastructure. Black smoke now drifted from the roof and smeared across the east side of the compound.

«TAC Seven. Do you copy?» Suncio asked into the receiver of his headset.

«Seven here. We’re good. Everyone’s accounted for.»

«Copy that. TAC Six. How you doin’?»

«Six here. Last SAM is disabled.»

«Copy that,» Suncio replied. «TAC Three, Four, Five, and Six. Fire at will on enemy combatants at the northwest corner of the control center. Drive em out of the area. TAC Seven. EXFIL in sixty seconds.»

«Copy that,» the Team Leaders replied.

«Sir!» one of the analysts yelled from across the Command Room.

Matthews lifted his head over the bank of computer screens in front of him. «Yeah?»

«We’ve got a magnetic field building up,» the analyst observed.

«Put it up on the screen,» Suncio ordered.

A second later the overview of the battlefield went dark, leaving only subtle shades of gray designating the elevation differences of the terrain and a growing swirl of blue and purple materializing over the portal building. It looked like a miniature glowing version of a hurricane seen from space.

«TAC One. TAC One!» Suncio hailed.

Armaros’ Compound

Northern Brazil

«Be advised. The portal is active. I repeat. The portal is active,» Greer heard in his ear. Despite the fact that one of the enemies down the hallway had a tripod-mounted fifty-caliber machine gun drilling holes into the walls around his Team, Greer had been one thought away from giving the order to move.

«Copy that,» he replied.

The firing abruptly stopped, and the sound of retreating boots across the tile floor came faintly to his ears. Greer quickly peeked around the corner just in time to see the last of Armaros’ soldiers disappear through the double doors at the end of the hallway.

«All Teams!» Greer announced over the COMM. «Switch to mission objective Bravo! Repeat. Mission objective Bravo.» The plan to secure the facility was suddenly obsolete, and their mission was now to secure the Asset coming through the portal.

«Move out!» he told his Team. TAC 1 slid around the corners of the second intersection and ran down the hall, their weapons up and trained on their sectors. As they reached the third intersection of crossing hallways, the other four members panned to the right and left while Greer kept his weapon on the doors ahead, noticing the heavy machine gun abandoned on the floor from the corner of his eye.

«Left clear,» Thompson yelled out.

«Right clear,» Zylski echoed.

As his Team approached the steel doors, Greer pulled down one lens of his HUD to get a preview of the layout in the room beyond. «We’ve got cover on both sides of the door, about twenty feet in. Get your flashbangs ready. We’re going in hot. No time to lose.»

«Copy that,» Jensen and Martinez replied.

Without even slowing their forward motion, Thompson and Zylski both hit the doors with a full-weight kick while Jensen and Martinez threw their stun grenades through the opening. Two ear-splitting detonations rocked the room with simultaneous blinding flashes, momentarily incapacitating anyone on the other side of the doors.

Greer’s Team moved in immediately, their eyes still operating at full capacity.

Thompson and Martinez were the first to start shooting as they lunged toward the left side. Greer followed the others to the right, firing on two man-shaped outlines against the far wall as he moved for cover. Twenty feet later, his Team had reached their positions behind the cover of steel panels and was systematically eliminating targets around the cavernous room. The interior of the chamber was hundreds of feet across, circular in shape, with a lattice of exposed steel beams running vertically and horizontally around the perimeter. There may have been other lesser walls or divisions in the room prior to the flooding, but any signs of those were gone now.

At the center of the massive space was a low, circular platform of polished stone. The air above it seemed to be producing its own faint, blue light.

A deep, percussive pounding sent Greer and his Team ducking behind cover as a hailstorm of fifty-caliber rounds pummeled the ground and entrance doors, followed immediately by the high-pitched whistle of ricocheting lead.

As soon as the spray of gunfire paused, Greer came up with his rifle and sent a three-round burst in the shooter’s direction.

The pounding returned as the enemy’s muzzle flashed from a few feet to the left of where he’d been before.

Greer dropped below the panel just before dozens of sharp, metallic pings sounded around him.

Come on, Greer thought. Just look at the blue light!

As if his mental message had been transmitted, the enemy gunfire stopped, and in its place was a growing hum that was not just an artifact of sound-induced trauma to the ears. Greer knew it was something else entirely. Their Asset was arriving.

«Go!» he yelled to his Team.

Simultaneously, all five members burst from behind their cover and came out to the perimeter of the room, their sights trained on the enemy soldiers moving in the shadows of the intense light coalescing at the center of the room.

The In-Between

Kael could feel the rush of energy flowing past him as he resisted the flow that was sucking him forward. The waves of light moved over his limbs and shot out in front of him before bursting into a million shards as if they were hitting against something solid. Each tiny explosion defined a plane of existence against which the light would cease or reflect. Slowly, Kael began to perceive a sense of distance and space around his consciousness, beyond the confines of the shell that he knew to be his body. This space was something larger. It was flat beneath him but spherical in shape above him, like the cavern inside the Temple that he had left only seconds ago.

Or hours ago? he wondered.

As the space began to take shape, he noticed something just inside the limits of the space. There were objects, and they were moving.

No. Running, he realized. People!

The exploding light gradually faded, giving way to more subtle hues just as the deafening silence was interrupted. Tiny sounds, almost imperceptible, were rising out of the nothingness, bouncing off of the shapes and drifting through the spaces that were now becoming more substantial.

Kael suddenly became aware of perfectly straight paths of light extending from the perimeter of the space through where his consciousness resided. He could sense neither beginning nor end to the paths as they lingered before his mind’s eye, intersecting his position and extending to the limits of the space around him. None were coming from above, only from the sides, like a child’s drawing of a starshafts of light reaching out to touch the walls around him.

Walls! I’m in a room!

In that instant, Kael caught sight of another shaft of light just as it came into being. It originated along the perimeter of the room and passed through where his body was taking shape. He began to feel the weight of gravity on his body, and the sight of his environment solidified before his eyes, still wavy with distortion. A new place appeared to him just as the Temple had disappeared, as if the events of his passage were reoccurring in reverse order.

kill you the moment you step into their world!

Saba’s words of caution came to Kael’s mind, and immediately he understood the dizzying display of light before him. He was under attack. Projectiles were being launched at him from the edges of the room, but they moved with blinding speed, quicker than any arrow or bolt from a crossbow.

their weapons far more deadly, he remembered Saba saying.

Just as he had done in the arena of the Monastery when he was a child, Kael followed his instincts toward a weaknessa small gap in the enemy ranks. Even before his body had fully entered this new world, he felt his consciousness move leftward to the wall. He felt the crystalline sword that was still somehow clenched in his right hand. He felt his legs in motion, propelling his body across the stone dais beneath him. The weightless sensation of the In-Between faded rapidly as his body took shape. Vertigo dissipated. A steady sense of direction and speed collided within him as he closed the distance to the nearest enemy.

As the sluggishness of elapsed time wore off, Kael moved with exponential speed until he found himself approaching a man who was hiding behind a beam and pointing something in his direction. A loud, rapid crackling noise filled the air as tiny projectiles flew by Kael’s form, splitting the air in their wake. Kael brought the crystal sword into a forehand attack and cut through the man’s weapon and chest in one stroke, cleaving his enemy in two with a brilliant flash of white light.

In that instant, Kael arrived.

He was in a new world, and all of the residual effects of the In-Between had vanished. He was running now, flying across a metallic floor around the perimeter of a circular room hundreds of feet in diameter. Shadows concealed his movement as he reached out with his sense, feeling the panic of the enemy soldiers who aimed their weapons in all directions and loosed their tiny bolts.

Kael cut down one after another, aiming now for body parts and not their weapons so that he wouldn’t reveal his location by the flashes of light produced as his sword cut through metal. The only sign of his passage was the occasional brief yelp and the lack of a firing weapon where he’d just been.

Suddenly, Kael felt a rhythmic burst of projectiles swing in his direction as if someone had seen him. They came too fast for him to dodge. One of the deadly bolts tore through his arm as he dove behind a pillar. He hit the floor and slid against the wall. His numb fingers lost their grip on his sword, and he heard a sharp clang as it spun away from him and toward the center of the room.

The wall above his head rattled with the enemy weaponry. The darkness and deafening cacophony of the weapons rendered his eyes and ears useless. Kael kept his head down, reaching out with his sense to inspect his surroundings.

Twenty more men were hiding behind pillars on the right side of the room. Five men were on the far side, moving quickly in two groups as they came around the perimeter. The weapons continued splitting the air, filling the room with confusion.

Kael searched with his sense, trying to determine the path that would lead him out of this room of death. Suddenly, he felt something he hadn’t noticed before. Focusing through the searing pain in his arm, he noticed the trajectory of the bolts flying through the air. The two small groups coming around each side, threatening to flank him, were firing at the other twenty men.

Allies? he wondered.

The twenty men fired back, but with less precision. They fell quickly as the small projectiles tore through their bodies.

There are two groups fighting each other. Which group is trying to kill me?

He could either wait until the quicker, more accurate soldiers finished off the others, and hope that they weren’t enemies, or he could start moving again. Rising to a crouch, Kael felt for the next of the larger group of soldiers thirty feet away. He burst into a run and moved as fast as his legs would carry him. Rounding the bend, he came within sight of the soldier, who immediately spun in his direction and lifted his weapon. Just as Kael felt the man’s finger tighten around the trigger of the weapon, he dodged left.

A stream of projectiles sprayed from the tube of the weapon, cutting across the passage Kael had just vacated, tracking his movement. But when the stream of bolts spilled out into the center of the room, Kael wasn’t there. He’d feigned the movement and dodged right back into the passage, now only an arm’s reach from the man.

As the man’s weapon began to swing back in his direction, Kael blocked its path with his left forearm and brought his right elbow across in the same movement, breaking the man’s jaw with one crushing blow.

The soldier’s body whipped to the side, forced to follow the inertia of his head as it threw him to the ground.

Kael was still in motion, running for the next soldier when he saw the man’s head snap backward, a plume of blood erupting from the back of his skull. Kael flinched at the unexpected sight, coming to a stop as he realized that the larger group of soldiers was already dead.

«Orud? Are you from Orud?» a strange voice called out.

Kael ducked behind a pillar as he struggled to make sense of what his ears were telling him.

«We’re here to protect you,» the monotone voice rang out against the suddenly quiet room.

Kael peeked out from behind the pillar as two men came slowly around the bend in front of him. They moved cautiously in a high, crouching position with their weapons pointed ahead. Kael turned to look over his shoulder. Three more men were coming from the other direction. They moved in the same manner and were dressed like the other two.

«Orud?» he called out, knowing he couldn’t escape them even if he tried.

Seconds later, five men surrounded him. Four had their backs to him with their weapons pointed outward, scanning the room, while one faced him. In the darkness of the room, the man’s features were difficult to make out. His skin looked to be a pattern of green and black stripes against a dirty background. His eyes looked black. He wore a helmet, which was the only item of armor that Kael recognized. All the other objects hanging from his clothing or attached to his helmet were oddly shaped and their functions a mystery.

The man, if that was what he was, spoke in a foreign language toward an object on his shoulder. A moment later, the same black, rectangular object began making noise.

«Are you from Orud?» it spoke in Kael’s language. Its cadence was steady, and the voice had no inflections whatsoever.

«Yes,» he immediately replied. «How do you know my language?»

Again the man spoke, and a different voice emanated from his shoulder with only a moment’s delay. «No time to explain right now. We’re here to protect you, and we need to get you out of here.»

Kael looked at the man’s eyes, which seemed human behind the patterned skin and foreign armor. Was this a trick?

«Will you come with us?» the man asked.

«Yes,» Kael replied cautiously. «But I need to get my sword first.»

CHAPTER 11

Armaros’ Compound

Northern Brazil

«All Teams. All Teams. This is One. We’ve secured the Asset and we’re heading back to the west stairwell,» Greer announced.

«Copy that,» Peńa replied. «TAC Seven went north with enemies in pursuit. You still have a crowd outside your building. Let us know when you’re ready, and we’ll make a path.»

«Copy that. We’ll be on the roof in two,» Greer replied, just as they reached the door to the stairwell.

Jensen and Martinez entered first, covering the steps above them. Greer moved the Asset inside while Zylski and Thompson backed into the confined space with their guns pointed down the hallway they’d just come through. Martinez gave them the ready signal and the group began to climb rapidly up the concrete stairs.

They were three levels down from the passage that led to the vertical shaft. Midway up the second level, Greer heard a click from the door they were approaching.

Martinez, with his weapon already covering that sector, sent a few rounds through the sliver of space between the jam and the door as soon as it opened.

Whoever was behind it fell backward and the door shut again.

TAC 1 sped up the remaining stairs and headed for the next floor as Zylski and Thompson covered from the rear.

Suddenly, the door burst open and Armaros’ men began pouring onto the second level landing.

Thompson and Zylski opened fire immediately, and the enemy soldiers fell to the landing or tumbled down the stairs. Bodies began piling up by the door, and the flood of soldiers stopped, but a commotion below indicated that more of Armaros’ men were coming into the stairwell.

TAC 1 reached the first level door and went through without stopping. Before Thompson and Zylski exited the stairwell, they tossed a few concussion grenades and pulled the door shut.

Several muffled explosions caused a hiss of air to escape between the door and its frame, but TAC 1 was already halfway down the hallway by that time. Moving through the steel door, they found themselves in the bottom of the massive cylindrical shaft that had been their rappel location. Their ropes were still in place, evenly spaced around the perimeter of the room.

Greer pulled the Asset to the nearest rope while Thompson removed a harness from his pack and tossed it over. «Put this on. Then we’ll go up the ropes,» he said into the translator device that had been built for this very purpose. It produced a series of digitized sounds in a foreign language, like an automated customer-service line with slightly less personality.

The Asset nodded and seemed to understand.

Greer helped him put on the webbing and tightened the straps while instructing him to hold on to the rope.

Thompson and Zylski were also clipping themselves into the ropes while Jensen and Martinez were setting C4 charges at the door.

Greer clipped the Asset to the rope from the front of his harness and then snapped himself in by the carabiner on his back. The Asset would be riding face up with two Team members, while Greer and the others would be riding face down to cover their retreat.

«Ready,» Jensen and Martinez called out, as they were the last two to clip in.

«Let’s move,» Greer said, pushing a button on his chest harness that activated the silent, electric motors sixty meters above them. Immediately, the Team rose from the steel floor.

As they moved up the walls of the chamber, each member covered his sector, paying particular attention to the door on each level that could allow entry of enemy soldiers into the area. A ball of flame suddenly erupted from below and shot sideways across the shaft, blowing the door in front of it like a surfboard on a wave. Greer moved his rifle to cover the bottom of the shaft and waited.

It took a few seconds before anyone dared to move through the charred opening that used to be a door frame, but shadows slowly started emerging, cautious of what the next surprise might be.

Greer saw movement and opened fire, as did Thompson and Zylski. The shadows now swarming at the bottom of the shaft, moved rapidly to avoid the lead raining down upon them. Returning fire came only from the doorway, but glanced harmlessly off the walls of the shaft, dozens of feet below the Team.

Through his rifle scope, Peńa saw TAC 1 emerge onto the roof just as Greer’s voice came through the speaker in his ear.

«TAC One is on the roof with the Asset.»

«Copy that, One. We see you,» Peńa replied. «All Teams, converge fire on the south wall of the portal building. Let’s clear a path.»

Armaros’ army had dwindled down from two thousand to several hundred over the course of the morning. Even though the Tactical Teams had already achieved a great victory, their mission wouldn’t be complete until the Asset had been safely delivered to their base of operations in Colombia. With hundreds of enemies still taking cover inside the compound, TAC 1 was still in harm’s way. Fortunately, most of the enemies were on the north side of the portal building, having been pinned down as they tried to pursue TAC 7 out of the compound, but some were still gathered on the south side of the building where TAC 1 was headed.

TAC 3 and 4 had a few members at closer range and began using their grenade launchers in a crossfire pattern, with rounds coming in from the east and west. Explosions rocked the courtyard area, shredding the trees and landscaping. Armaros’ men ran from behind the concrete benches and low walls that defined the once beautiful entrance.

Peńa moved his reticle in front of a soldier, matching the man’s speed. He squeezed the trigger, and his rifle jerked. The muzzle brake dampened the recoil just enough for Peńa to see the man hundreds of meters away lurch to the side and stumble to the ground. Although he sacrificed some accuracy with the brake, being able to acquire targets quicker was a trade he was willing to make.

As the smoke from the grenade blasts rose into the air, Peńa’s peripheral vision was drawn upward where he noted three black dots low on the eastern horizon. He quickly grabbed his binoculars.

Helicopters!

«TAC One. TAC One. We have three enemy choppers coming in from the east. You need to get off that roof, now!»

«Copy that,» Greer replied as the first two Team members came over the south wall, sliding down a thin cable.

«All Teams,» Peńa announced. «Hold grenade fire. TAC One is on the ground.»

Peńa went back to shooting as Greer and the Asset hit the ground. A few seconds later, the last two members of TAC 1 touched down. Then the whole group started running for the perimeter fence.

The black dots on the horizon weren’t dots anymore. They were large, dark silhouettes of choppers coming in fast. Peńa looked through his binoculars once more and could see two gunships out in front and a transport hanging back in the rear position.

«All Teams. We have two gunships inbound. I need one shooter from each Team to switch to explosive rounds. Let’s take em out!»

Before the words had even left his mouth, Peńa had his rifle loaded and ready. He rose to a sitting position and propped his rifle on his knee. The gunships were two miles out now; all the Teams were well within the effective range of their rockets and the maximum range of their auto-cannons. The fact that the gunships weren’t already firing meant that they didn’t have anyone on the ground calling in their targets. But as soon as Peńa and the others started firing, they would all become vulnerable.

Through his scope he saw the lead gunship coming straight on. From his position, he could only target the gunner in the front cockpit. TAC 3 would have to target the pilot in the rear seat.

Peńa put the crosshairs on the glass enclosure surrounding the pilot and raised it to account for bullet drop.

Suddenly, yellow fire burst from the auto-cannon mounted beneath the gunship’s cockpit.

The ground beside the portal building erupted into fountains of mud and grass as each 30mm explosive round chewed up a swath across the compound, heading for TAC 1 at the southern fence.

Peńa took aim, let out his breath, and gently eased the trigger backward. Through his scope he saw a small, white impact on the cockpit glass a split second before the armor-piercing round exploded, killing the gunner.

The chopper’s auto-cannon abruptly ceased firing.

A second later, the rear cockpit glass blew out to the right side as TAC 3’s shooter took out the pilot.

The chopper suddenly rolled to the south and pitched downward, heading for the jungle floor.

The gunship in the second position immediately peeled off to the north, having tracked the trajectory of the second shot. There was no time to give warning, and it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.

Peńa took aim, leading the chopper’s gunner, and sent a round.

A small explosion detonated just below the pilot’s cockpit, failing to pierce the substantial armor plating.

The tubes mounted beneath the stub-wings of the chopper flashed as numerous bolts of light shot forward. The hillside north of the compound was instantly covered in balls of orange flame as the 70mm rockets killed everything in the vicinity, spewing dirt and trees into the air.

«TAC Three is gone! TAC Three is gone!» Peńa shouted into his shoulder-mounted receiver. «Give that chopper everything we have!»

The first chopper finally hit the ground with a horrendous crash, but everyone’s attention was fixed on the second one that was still a threat.

Two RPGs streaked over the compound from the east hillside as TAC 4 let loose. The quick trails of white smoke rose over the portal building and exploded on the underside of the chopper, which pivoted suddenly to the left.

Peńa took aim again and sent a round into the gunner’s cockpit with a satisfying explosion.

Someone on TAC 6, positioned high on the peak to the west, took out the tail rotor, and the chopper starting spinning wildly. It dropped from the sky and exploded on the ground just north of the helipad.

By the time the noise in the valley subsided, TAC 1 was in the safety of the trees beyond the south fence.

Peńa’s eyes rose from Greer’s position to see the third transport helicopter hovering beyond the east side of the compound. He lifted his binoculars and watched it for a moment.

«It’s just out of range,» one of Peńa’s soldiers yelled from nearby.

«And he’ll stay that way if he knows what’s good for him,» Peńa replied.

«TAC One to Base,» Greer’s voice sounded over the COMM.

«Go ahead, One.»

«The Asset is secure. Beginning EXFIL to EXTRACT point Alpha.»

«Copy that, One.»

«All Teams,» Greer announced. «Let’s get out of here!»

«Copy that,» Peńa replied. He and his Team grabbed their essentials and immediately began moving west across the hillside.

The Royal Palace, Orud

Maeryn sat in what was supposed to be a comfortable chair in the High Council chambers. The sun had already set, and her head was aching from the day’s exertion of thinking through the effects of freeing The Empire’s slavesthe one thing that Magnus had done right, even if it was for a less than honorable end. Her thoughts were no longer tracking with the general discussion occurring among the other leaders. She had given up trying to steer the discussion nearly a quarter-hour ago and was now lost in her own thoughts.

«And how many were there?»

«Six hundred thousand, but we don’t know exactly how many may be left.»

«Would you have us go to warto seek out the very thing that we have seen far too much of in recent times?» one of the guild leaders pushed back.

Maeryn’s attention perked up suddenly, hearing something that pertained to her.

Dacien turned in his chair. «Do you know that we are indeed safe? If you have some information for the Council, please share it.»

The room went silent.

«I do not seek war. Neither do I run from it,» Dacien clarified.

«Then what are you suggesting?» another guild leader asked.

Dacien met eyes with Maeryn for just a moment and then turned to address the question. «We send out scouts. The Korgan territory is uncharted. We know almost nothing about the lands beyond the Wall. We suspected that there were hundreds of thousands before they attacked. Now, the only thing we know is that six hundred thousand of their men are dead, with their ashes seeping into Orud’s soil. But what about their women and children? What about the men who didn’t answer the call to war? We know nothing except that our own fears and superstitions have kept us away from the lands to the north.»

«So you would kill women and children?»

Dacien’s jaw clenched. «No, but I would have us privy to what type of existence they lead and what their capabilities are, or could be, in the near future. And after what they did to us, I would have us claim the northern lands as our own. We have the population to tame it and turn it into useable soil. We don’t have to go to war. They can pay us in territory for their unwarranted attack.»

«This discussion is going in the wrong direction,» another Council member spoke up. «We don’t have the population for such an effort because the slaves shouldn’t have been freed in the first place. We need to talk about reestablishing the old order that allowed this Empire to rise to greatness before it was sidetracked for personal gain.»

Maeryn sat up. «I beg your pardon, but the old ways are dead, and you’d better familiarize yourself with that fact! If you try to reverse Magnus’ decree, the lofty Empire in your imagination will be crushed by the real one falling down around your ears.»

The man’s mouth opened wide in a moment of silence before he responded. «Are you threatening me? She’s threatening me,» he said, turning to the other Council members.

Maeryn fixed the man with an icy stare. «I don’t have to threaten you, Manius. My words would prove true in less than a day and without any involvement on my part. If this Empire

If any Empire frees its slaves just long enough to enlist their help defending the capital against the largest attack in its history, only to replace their chains when the threat has passed, that Empire will see a revolt such as none before it. Mark my words.»

«Then let the slaves have the Korgan land,» another replied. «If they’re so eager to start a new life, let them have it and all its troubles.»

«No,» Dacien objected. «They must have Orud’s military go before them.»

«Why are we still bickering about war?» Maeryn shouted, louder than she intended.

The Council again went silent.

«This is not the topic of greatest importance. Yes, send your scouts,» she said, directing the comment at Dacien. «By all means. More information is better than less. And a delegation should be sent to the Syvaku as well. They would do well to stay off our soil, or we will invade their lands as they have done with ours. But these things are not critical at this moment. We have incredible social upheaval to deal with. Your guilds, good sirs, are barely able to continue from either lack of skilled laborers, or from having to pay for that which you received freely at another’s expense.»

Several men frowned at this statement.

«We have multitudes of people that have struck out on their own, willing to starve rather than work for their former masters.»

«But you have been a champion for this change,» someone argued.

«Yes. And I am unwilling to leave it at nothing beyond a mere decision. I will see this through to the end. Like it or not, our Empire has been changed forever

and changed for the better, in my opinion. Now we are faced with how best to manage that changeto smooth the transition. We have bigger concerns than invading forces. If we don’t act quickly, there won’t be an Empire to defend.»

«Hear, hear,» someone shouted.

«All of this discussion is premature anyway,» Maeryn added. «We came here not to make these decisions, but to determine the new structure of the Empire’s leadership. Then, and only then, can we move forward with any sense of purpose. Then we can make decisions.»

«Let’s put it to a vote,» someone offered.

«I agree,» Dacien interjected. «There has been talk of rule by Council alone, but there are too many competing interests. Let tradition stand and let the Council vote in its next Emperor. The citizens have had enough change as it is.»

«Yes!» some shouted.

«But she will have two votes,» someone argued.

Maeryn squinted through the candlelight to see who had spoken against her. It was the Blacksmiths’ Guild’s leader. «I will remind you that I speak for those who have placed their trust in me, and not for my own benefit. Or is that concept so foreign to your self-important thinking that you are unable to recognize it?» she hissed. Though her temper was flaring, she understood the concern. She was now the elected representative for the two largest populations in the Empirethe former slaves and the disbanded Resistance soldiers and their sympathizers. In addition to her own checkered past of subverting the Empire, she was now the figurehead for the two least trusted groups of people. As such, she would get two votes to cast for whomever she chose.

«Might I also remind you that one of the groups I represent has more of a claim to this Empire than your own constituent? Other than Orud’s military,» she said, smiling at the six men sitting to her left, «the slaves are the longest standing population out of any represented here today. They gave their sweat and blood to set the foundations of the very Empire to which you now claim allegiance.»

Dacien and the other Generals nodded to acknowledge these last words.

«I will cast each of my votes out of respect for the wishes of the citizens under me, and they may not necessarily be for the same person.»

«Then let us vote,» someone else said, apparently satisfied.

«Yes. Vote,» several more said in unison.

CHAPTER 12

Armaros’ Compound

Northern Brazil

Miguel Fuentes, commander of Armaros’ ground forces in the region, waited impatiently while one of his men fumbled with a rat’s nest of electrical wires and circuit boards hanging out of a hole in the wall inside the front entrance of the portal building.

Sparks jumped out of the tangled mess, and the soldier quickly put his fingers to his mouth, attempting to soothe the pain.

Miguel could hear the deep thrumming of helicopter rotors outside. «Hurry!» he yelled.

A second later, a loud clank sounded as the steel rods that ran through the door jamb pulled back into their home positions. Four other soldiers pulled at the massive glass door riddled with bullet indentations and it slowly pivoted on its hinges.

Miguel strode forward and pushed himself through the widening gap, blinking at the harsh morning light as he left the shaded entrance. As his eyes adjusted, he surveyed the compound. There was smoke everywhere. The tree sitting atop a circular mound in the center of the walkway was on fire. The low, concrete landscaping walls had fist-sized holes straight through them and were beginning to crumble. Potholes the size of a man’s body covered the grassy fields in front of him. As his soldiers exited the building to meet up with their comrades on the field, Miguel noticed a great column of black smoke rising into the sky from somewhere on the other side of the control center. His defense of Armaros’ compound had been an utter failure, and now it was time to face his doom. There was no use trying to come up with an excuse. Armaros wouldn’t care. He didn’t operate that way. Miguel had known the man’s reputation long before he had started working for him.

Miguel let his eyes linger for a moment, taking in the gravity of the situation and the depth of his inadequacy. Finally, he allowed himself to turn and face southeast, where a transport chopper was just now touching down on the harrowed soil inside of the fence. The dark-green helicopter came to rest on its landing gear with unhurried confidence.

Three men exited the rotary-winged aircraft and stood on the field for a moment, taking note of the damage before walking toward Miguel with their heads lowered. For most men, the discipline of ducking while near a helicopter was nothing more than a formalityan unnecessary safety practice that was just a good habit. But these men were all well over six-feet tall, and in their case it was necessary. Each was dressed in jungle camouflage fatigues and fully loaded down with weapons, armor, and travel gear. The average person would never guess that each man carried nearly a hundred pounds in addition to his muscle-bound frame. They came across the uneven, sodden terrain without so much as one misplaced step. They moved lightly on their feet, but with a steady precision.

Miguel unconsciously swallowed the lump in his throat.

«Commander Fuentes?» one of man asked as they neared.

«Yes?»

The three soldiers stopped just a few steps in front of Miguel. Their leader looked down with dead eyes from a face covered in stripes of green and brown paint.

«You failed.»

Miguel kept silent. It wasn’t a question. It was an accurate statement that couldn’t be argued.

«How many were there?»

Miguel wanted to look away from the dark eyes that felt as though they were stabbing into his soul. They weren’t just dark. Miguel was used to seeing brown irises when he looked in the mirror or spoke to his other soldiers. These eyes were dark in a different way, as if the man had no spirit. Or maybe he is a dark spirit and not a man, he thought. Deus me proteja!

«We were taking fire from four general locations in the surrounding hills. There were three more groups inside the perimeter, and we used the SAMs to blow up one of them,» he answered, pointing in the direction of the hangar.

The leader of the group looked up and glanced around the battlefield once more, then met eyes with his fellow soldiers for a moment.

Miguel was grateful for the momentary relief and looked down at the mud clinging to the soles of his boots, wondering how this would all turn out. When he lifted his eyes again, the soldier was staring at him. Miguel cursed himself for his stupidity.

«This is my operation now,» the man said with unnerving calmness.

«Yes, sir.»

«Gather your men.» The soldier’s words were spoken without emotion, like a computer. «You have many sleepless nights ahead of you and much more work to do.»

«Right away, sir,» Miguel replied, then obediently spun on his heels and went to round up his soldiers. As his boots sunk into the wet soil with each trembling step, he already knew the outcome of this situation. Armaros’ guards hadn’t mentioned what the punishment would be, only that there was still work to do. Miguel would likely receive a bullet to the back of the skull when this was over, regardless of whether or not they were able to kill the man who came through that portal.

But, Miguel consoled himself, there are worse things than a bullet!

Northern Brazil

After dressing Kael’s arm wound, the soldiers had moved him further west into a forest denser than any he’d seen in all the years that he’d spent on Captain Gryllus’ trade ship. Jungle, he remembered Saba saying once, describing the vegetation near Nijambu. Massive tree trunks sprouted from the ground, like living versions of the pale stone columns upholding the roof of Orud’s Royal Palace. Their branches and leaves stuck out high overhead, entwining with each other to form a canopy that blocked most of the sunlight. Even in the mottled shade, the air was hot and suffocating, clinging to Kael’s skin in droplets.

Less than thirty minutes after they’d set out, two more five-man groups had joined them. Judging by the angle of the sun, Kael was able to determine their heading as they all climbed in elevation and rounded the southern slope of a mountain before turning north. Sometime in the afternoon their numbers grew to twenty-six as two more Teams of soldiers appeared out of the shadows.

As they stalked through the jungle, Kael inspected the men around him. Their dappled clothing made them nearly disappear into the surrounding foliage. To complement their near invisibility, they were silentno one talked. Their only communication was through hand-signals which Kael watched very carefully to learn. Each time the order was given to stop, get down, start moving, or split up to take different routes, Kael was memorizing their signals. Similar to the defensive armies of Orud, it seemed that each of these soldiers had a physical area of responsibility. Their eyes scanned overlapping sectors of the dense trees and brush, looking for threats. Their hands stayed on their weapons at all times, which remained pointed at a downward angle until someone gave an alert signal. When this happened, the whole group would stop and take aim, remaining still and silent until the potential threat had passed. Usually, these interruptions to their trek would be followed by catching a glimpse of an animal scurrying into the protection of the jungle. Other times, they would simply wait until the leader felt it was safe enough to resume moving.

They were cautious, alert, and capable. They were soldiers. And though they appeared terribly foreign to Kael, he didn’t feel nearly as out of place as he should have. He’d spent most of his life among fighting men. The only thing that was different in this moment was his environment. Saba had done his best to prepare Kael for what to expect when he arrived. Those conversations had helped tremendously, but no amount of preparation was adequate for what Kael witnessed when he’d come out onto the roof of that building.

The strange weapons he expected. The foreign language was a given. The odd style of clothing was no surprise. But the flying machines had been terrifying. Who could have known that such things existed? Gigantic armored locusts breathing fire that could consume an entire hillside. Even now he felt the residual fear lingering in his heart. Truly, this was a different world, and Kael was certain now of what Saba had told him. This world bore the signs of intervention, or interference, by higher beings.

Kael looked up to the sky where small patches of blue, visible between the leaves, were beginning to darken with the setting sun. Somewhere out there were three Myndarym posing as humansKokabiel, Armaros, and Satarel. And one of them likely had his father, if Adair was even still alive. He realized now what his father must have felt. Alone. Afraid. Confused. Though Kael had come here by choice, the Kaliel report indicated that Adair’s passage had been an accidenta desperate attempt to escape. Nevertheless, with hours of hearing only the incessant buzzing of insects and the rhythmic sound of boots on dead vegetation, it was easy to imagine himself in his father’s place.

As the day drew on, the sounds of the jungle slowly merged into a single hypnotic blur, as if melted down in the furnace of this foreign place. Without the threat of death to occupy his immediate attention, Kael allowed his thoughts to drift, settling quickly upon his mother and sister. He thought about his friend, Dacien, and smiled as he imagined the things that were happening in their lives at this very moment. Dacien was probably meeting with the High Council to reestablish their confidence in the standing law that kept a military presence among their members. Aelia would give birth any day now, if she hadn’t already. Their young family was just beginning. Maeryn had already secured a position on the Council through the backing of the former slaves. He could picture her trying to smooth over the lines of tension between the Resistance and the Empire, using her sharp intellect and good humor to simultaneously disarm her opposition and steer her supporters. The help of the Resistance during the battle at Orud would go a long way in patching up the political relationship. And if the Orudan soldiers and citizens had any misgivings, they would be dwarfed by the tide of larger concerns brought to the table by the most recent, and largest, segment of the populationthe freed slaves. The Empire was changing rapidly, and all of Kael’s family and friends were right in the middle of it.

Most of them, anyway, he thought.

As the afternoon approached, Kael realized that the soldiers weren’t planning on stopping. They were obviously moving with a goal in mind, and he had no wish to slow them down. He’d traveled through many nights in his past, and now, with hundreds of enemy soldiers behind him, sleep was hardly a consideration. He had been prepared to fight and run from the moment he set foot in this world. The surprise, however, was the presence of two forces. He’d walked straight into the middle of a war and hadn’t foreseen the possibility that someone might already be working against the enemy. With the Myndarym wearing human forms, he’d expected a lack of conflict, a subtle but omnipresent manipulation of human civilization.

But it made sense, now that he was herenow that he was seeing the land around him ravaged by flooding from the oceans of his own world. All of the lower elevations and ravines bore young plant growth, if any. Huge crevices had been carved out of the land by the rapid passage of water. Entire hillsides were still bare from eroding soil. The last opening of the portal would likely have ruined any hopes of secrecy on the part of the Myndarym. They couldn’t hide any longer.

The shadows continued to lengthen until the jungle finally surrendered to total darkness. Kael watched the soldiers move something down from their helmets in front of their eyesobjects that he suspected would allow them to see in the dark.

This world was indeed more advanced than the previous one.

Still, Kael didn’t need any such tools. He had his own. As he stepped quietly over a fallen tree, he expanded his sense and let it explore the terrain around them. The clouds had gathered overhead and rain was starting to fall.

It was going to be a long night.

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

«How’s it going?» Matthews asked, leaning on the workstation next to Andrea.

«Good. The Teams moved across the border during the night. Now they’re just a couple miles from the extraction point. They’re making good time.»

«What about Armaros’ men?»

«Still nothing,» Andrea replied. She typed in a command, evidently preferring to work in code rather than the Graphical User Interface. The thermal map came up on her screen, still showing no data for Armaros’ compound and several miles around it. «I checked with Command, and there isn’t anything wrong with the SAT feed. It’s like they all just disappeared.»

«Or it’s being jammed,» Matthews replied.

Andrea turned and looked at him, that tiny wrinkle appearing above her nose again. «How is that possible?»

«I don’t know what kind of technology they’re using, but look,» he said, pointing at her screen. We’re not even picking up radiant heat from the unforested areas. Normally, we’d have at least a little data, but we don’t have anything. It’s like a black hole right over the compound.»

«Well, we’re blind without it,» she added. «Even with the sun up, I can’t get a visual location on them either. The helicopter is still there in the southeast field, but the men are gone.»

«Have you looked along the escape route?» Matthews asked.

«Yes.»

«What about a direct heading from the compound to the extraction point?»

«We’re doing that now,» she replied. «I have the group checking all the rivers and fields that don’t have overhead cover from trees. So far, nothing has turned up.»

«Alright. Notify the Teams that we’re unable to track pursuing forces.»

Andrea smiled. «I spoke with Zylski a few minutes ago; they’ve been alerted. I also confirmed that their transports are in a holding pattern and waiting for their signal.»

«Ah,» Matthews breathed, with a smile of his own. «Well, keep up the good work.»

CHAPTER 13

Southern Venezuela

Near the Brazilian border

The Extraction Rally Point was roughly a mile and a half from where they’d be picked up. At an elevation of six thousand, one hundred feet, vegetation on top of the mesa was sparse. The landing zone was relatively flat other than a few points of rock to the west that jutted up another three hundred feet. The rocky plateau looked like an alien landscape with nodules of smooth stone sticking up beside pools of rainwater sitting in basins deep enough to hide a full-grown man. The unique terrain had been carved out of the mountain by ages of extreme weather. But down at the ERP, Greer’s men still had the cover of trees and long shadows from the fading sun to conceal them.

As TAC 1 secured the perimeter, the other Teams began to enter the area and take care of last-minute preparations for extraction. Zylski had already called in their location. Now it was just a matter of keeping watch until they received word that the choppers were inbound.

After doing a quick headcount, Greer looked over to the Asset who was standing beside a tree. Even though he had twenty-five heavily armed soldiers guarding him, the man was still alert with eyes constantly scanning the surrounding area. His expression reminded Greer of another man he’d befriended not too long ago. Adair had worn the same look when they’d first met. It was a calm determination. This man was taking in everything around him, studying it, accepting it before he’d even worked through the confusion of it.

In sci-fi movies, one of Greer’s favorite distractions, people usually went into shock after crossing into another world. They were depicted as struggling to make the transition. So far, that hadn’t been what Greer observed in real life. It was strange to think that it was actually happening. He was, in this very moment, guarding yet another man from the next world. Greer smiled inwardly at the thought that things he’d read about since he was a kid were actually happening around him, but his face never betrayed the amusement. He simply kept his eyes on the Asset.

He didn’t know the man’s name just yet, but there would be time for that later. Though the spooks back at Command probably had a whole speculative file on this man, Greer had only been told what he needed to knowthat this Asset either knew some information, or possessed some object or ability that made him a significant threat to Armaros and his men. Greer suspected it was the latterboth an object and an ability. Though it had been dark in that room, his NVD had shown what this man had done. In just a few seconds he dropped four armed men with a sword and then took out another, barehanded, after taking a shot to the arm. It was a small miracle that the Asset didn’t have some lead in him.

As Greer watched, the Asset untied the field dressing and began to unwrap his arm. When the bloodied gauze had been removed, the man looked down and flexed his arm, inspecting the area that used to have a wound. All that remained now were some areas of dried blood.

Greer lowered his weapon and turned to his Assistant Team Leader who was also the medic that had tended to the man’s wounds. «Thompson,» he whispered.

The bearded man, whose fair skin was mottled by camo paint, turned.

«You seein’ this?» Greer asked, nodding in the Asset’s direction.

Thompson looked across the clearing then started walking toward the Asset.

Greer followed, and when he got there, Thompson was running his fingers over the skin on the man’s upper arm. «It’s completely healed. He was missing a two-inch chunk of his arm yesterday, and now it’s completely healed.»

The Asset just looked at both of them with a blank expression.

«Ask him how he did that,» Thompson said, more excited than Greer had ever seen him.

Greer powered up the translator device. «How did you heal so quickly?» He waited until the monotone voice communicated his words in another language.

The Asset thought for a moment and then shrugged.

Greer was just about to press the issue when the Asset suddenly straightened his stance. He glanced up at the sky for a moment and his eyes narrowed.

«All Teams. All Teams. This is EXTRACT One. We are inbound,» said the pilot’s voice over the COMM.

«Copy that. All Teams moving to extraction point,» Greer replied.

Before he’d even given the order, the soldiers were assembled and ready to move.

«Alright boys. This’ll be just short of a full sprint. We’ve got no concealment from here to the extraction point. If we need it, we have some low cover with all the pools and rock formations. TAC Five and Six have point. When you get there, cover the north and northeast. TAC One and Four are in the middle. We’ll be on the first chopper with the Asset. TAC Seven will take the rear and cover the east when we get there. Is everyone clear?»

«Sir?» one of the men said. «What about the west and south?»

«Cliffs on both sides. They’d need climbing equipment to get us from that angle. The choppers will be approaching from the southwest, and they’ve been alerted to watch for enemies. Anything else?»

«No, sir,» the Teams replied.

Greer looked back at the Asset who was waiting at attention. «We’re going to move quickly now. Stay close to me,» he said.

The Asset nodded.

«Alright. Let’s move,» Greer ordered.

The four Tactical Teams broke out of their concealed position and moved at a pace that was something less than a full run. Each member covered his sector, choosing his steps as carefully as one could while moving rapidly over uneven, rocky terrain.

It took roughly eight minutes to reach the extraction point, where the Teams spread out just as instructed. TAC 1 and 4 formed a protective barricade around the Asset while the others controlled the perimeter. As soon as the sound of the inbound choppers touched his ears, Greer remembered how the Asset had perked up before the radio transmission. He couldn’t have heard the choppers, even if his ears were really sensitive. Greer wondered what he had been responding to.

The deep pulsing sound grew abruptly louder as the first chopper came over the ridge to the west. As it swung to the north and dropped, the second chopper came into sight as well.

«Perimeter check!» Greer yelled into the COMM, now fighting to be heard over the aircraft.

«Clear,» the Teams called in.

The third chopper was over the ridge and the first one was touching down.

Greer tapped the Asset’s arm and got ready to move him to the bird.

Suddenly, the man’s body went rigid, and his head swiveled left and right as he searched the eastern horizon.

«Let’s go,» Greer yelled, grabbing the man’s arm.

The man spun around and shook his head, then pointed east.

For a second Greer considered knocking him out cold. It happened all the time to rescue divers. Drowning victims’ protesting and flailing could endanger everyone, and they sometimes had to be incapacitated before being brought to safety.

«TAC Seven. Perimeter check,» he yelled instead.

«Negative. I got nothing,» the Leader replied.

Greer looked back to the landing site where the first chopper was now on the ground and waiting. The crew was waving him forward. Greer turned back and grabbed the Asset’s shoulder with his free hand. «Move!» he yelled, pulling hard on the man to let him know he was serious. It was his last warning before the Asset would get knuckles to his jaw.

Suddenly, Greer felt something plow into his chest, knocking him backward. For a split second, he thought the Asset had punched him.

«Contact!» TAC 7 called out.

The sound of gunfire erupted as Greer felt the pain spread from his chest to his limbs. Now he realized he’d taken a round to the chest where his armor had done its job. Even as his lungs struggled through the shock of having their contents emptied, Greer lunged forward and took the Asset to the ground, covering him with his own body.

«Taking fire from the east!» TAC 7 called out.

From the trees in the distance, a shrieking hiss cut through the noise of AK-47s. Fire sprouted from the open doors of the rear chopper, still hovering over the western ridge of the landing site. The brilliant flash was followed by a trail of smoke as it dropped from view.

From the ground, Greer could see enemy soldiers coming from the trees where their rally point had been. Hundreds of them were taking cover behind the nodules of stone that stuck up everywhere on the mesa.

«Get out of here!» Greer yelled at the two remaining choppers, waving an arm in their direction.

The second chopper pulled back, while the first lifted off the ground. As soon as it was twenty feet in the air, the gunner let loose with an auto fifty-caliber, blanketing the trees with hundreds of rounds.

«Regroup north!» Greer yelled into the COMM. He got to his feet and pulled the Asset up to a crouching position. Keeping himself as a shield between the enemy and the man he was protecting, Greer started moving, pushing the Asset along with him.

TAC 1 and 4 held the perimeter and worked their way north, following the mesa away from the attacking soldiers.

The Asset abruptly came to a stop and Greer nearly tripped over the man.

«What are you doing?» he yelled, his blood now boiling at the thought of having to protect a man who was becoming an obstacle.

The Asset shook his head and pointed north.

«Yes, we’re going north!»

One of TAC 4’s members standing near the Asset dropped his empty rifle and pulled out his pistol, continuing to fire without missing a beat.

Greer gritted his teeth. They were all getting low on ammo now.

The Asset shook his head and pointed again.

A bullet ricocheted off a rock nearby and whistled through the air near Greer’s face.

He grabbed the Asset and shoved him forward, resuming their movement north.

A second later, multiple rounds chewed up the rock all around them, and Greer pulled the Asset to the ground and covered him.

One of the men on TAC 4 was down with multiple hits to his extremities. Luckily, his armor had taken the brunt of the attack. Greer quickly rose to a kneeling position and took aim at the nearest enemy.

Crack!

One went down.

Crack!

Another dropped.

Greer moved methodically.

Acquire a target.

Squeeze the trigger.

Acquire the next target.

His training had conditioned him to keep his peripheral vision on the larger battlefield while focusing his immediate attention on the nearest threat. All his men were doing the same, dropping bad guys with every shot. But for each one they put down, another popped up in his place.

From the corner of his eye, Greer saw movement in the trees further north. As he pivoted, bringing his M4 around, he heard pistol fire over his shoulder.

From the moment Kael had stepped onto the dais, he knew that adaptability would be the difference between life and death for him. Despite the questions screamed by a consciousness trying to make sense of its environment, Kael had suppressed all instincts to understand why things were as they were. There would be time for that later. What he’d focused on since arriving in this world was simply recognizing what was, noticing everything that could be noticed. He’d sensed the enemy soldiers approaching before his protectors were able to see it. As soon as the projectiles started flying, he’d narrowed his focus from understanding the formation and movement of his protectors to how their weapons worked. He felt their rigid but unstrained muscles as they aimed. He felt the internal workings of their metallic devicesthe way the hammer collided with the projectile, igniting a tiny explosion that forced the projectile down the length of the tube that steered its deadly mass in the direction of the enemy. In his mind’s eye he experienced the force of each tiny explosion as it threw the weapon backward, simultaneously casting death at its target and fighting its owner, introducing a fraction of time between each attack where the weapon was uncontrollable. He watched how the soldiers used this rapid series of attacks to force the enemy backward, or to keep them from advancing. All of this he captured, forcing himself to learn it, even while he struggled to understand how it came to be or what caused it.

Then he saw a soldier near him fall.

The man’s weapon hit the rock underfoot and bounced to a stop.

He sensed five enemies coming uphill from the east, advancing through the trees. They were farther north than the main group and had the advantage of surprise.

It seemed the most natural thinga simple reaction. Kael reached down and picked up the weapon. The textured pattern on the handle made it easy to grip. Most of its weight was forward of the gripa counterbalance to the backward motion that would occur when he pulled the trigger. With his index finger over the trigger and his left hand curled around the knuckles of his right fist, he swiveled to the left and pointed the weapon with a posture and balance that mimicked the experts near him.

The first enemy appeared through the trees, advancing quickly.

Kael pulled his sense inward from the battlefield and momentarily focused it on the space between himself and the enemy. At once, he felt the path that the projectile would take and the pull of gravity that would begin to work on it the moment it left his weapon.

Three men were visible now, lined up in a row.

Kael pointed at the first and pulled the trigger. The weapon kicked hard, but by the time his arms tensed to counteract the motion, the projectile had already shot across the mesa and hit the enemy soldier, dropping him to his knees. In one fluid motion, Kael allowed the weapon to come back to its resting place in his hands while he turned to face the next enemy, before pulling the trigger again.

Crack, crack, crack!

Three shots with only a moment’s pause between each.

Kael’s protector, the man they called Greer, quickly targeted the remaining two men and fired a projectile into the chest of each one before turning around.

Kael locked eyes with Greer and shook his head, gesturing angrily to the north. The battlefield was too chaotic and noisy to bother with translated messages. He hoped the man understood that they couldn’t go north. There wasn’t time to explain that three men were waiting for them just beyond the limit of sight. Their strategic positions offered them protection and the ability to surround Kael and his protectors if they moved in that direction, and there was something very different about them. They stood out from the other enemies in a way that Kael didn’t yet understand.

Kael pointed south, trying to show the man the path they needed to take.

Greer looked past Kael and inspected the plateau to the north, appearing to understand and consider Kael’s motions.

Kael suddenly felt another man approaching through the trees. Without hesitation, he lifted the weapon and pulled the trigger, having instinctively focused on the man’s face. The weapon kicked and the projectile caught the enemy between the eyes, whipping his head backward before his body hit the ground.

When Kael’s eyes returned to Greer, the leader’s doubts seemed to have disappeared.

Greer nodded at the Asset and kept his rifle pointed into the trees. «North is no good. We’re walking into an ambush,» he told the Teams. «Move south. Move south!»

Without question, the Teams reversed their direction.

To the west, both remaining choppers were keeping their distance, firing from their door-mounted fifty-caliber machine guns while they watched for RPG fire.

Armaros’ men were pulling back into the trees to escape the hail of automatic gunfire. They seemed less aggressive now that the extraction had been abandoned.

«TAC One. This is EXTRACT One. What do you want us to do?» the pilot asked.

Greer and the others were moving quickly now as enemy fire had let up. Ahead, the southern cliffs were fast approaching.

«Hold the tree line until we can get off this thing,» he replied. «All Teams are moving to EXTRACT point Bravo.»

«Roger that,» the pilot replied.

Seconds later, they reached the edge amid sporadic cover fire from the choppers, and Greer peered over the cliff. The lowest point of the jungle canopy was over five thousand feet below. «Are you crazy?» he asked.

The Asset shook his head and then jumped down to a ledge, turning west along the rim as if nothing was wrong.

The terrain they were about to navigate was extremely steep and they weren’t prepared for it. With one look, Greer concluded that the only ones who should descend it without the use of climbing ropes were mountain goats.

You’d better know where you’re going, Greer silently told the Asset before following.

CHAPTER 14

Location Unknown

The sound of boots on a hard surface drifted to Adair’s ears. If he had been in his right mind, he might have felt either fear or hope, but his senses were already overwhelmed with a dozen other feelings. His body was shivering uncontrollably, naked against the concrete floor and walls. The pockmarked and abrasive surfaces seemed to leech the warmth from his body with an insatiable appetite. His enlarged tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth, adhered with a paste that was all that remained of his dehydrated saliva. Hunger twisted his stomach and intestines into knots of excruciating pain.

The approaching footsteps might be bringing the small cup of rancid water and the tiny bowl of revolting gruel that he’d come to expect every so often in this forsaken place. Or they might just as well be bringing another dose of physical abuse. In complete darkness, without even a glimpse of the sky, Adair had no way of estimating the passage of time and no way of determining how long it had been since his last mealif such excrement could even be called a meal. He had no way of anticipating what was coming to him.

His eyes detected flashes of light.

Are they real, or imagined?

The bluish white shafts cut through the darkness, moving with a random, frantic energy. The footsteps stopped outside his cell. The shafts of light stabbed inward and blinded his eyes, focusing themselves into piercing circles held in the raised fists of three men.

«Get up!» someone yelled.

The sounds that now assaulted his ears were not just an overpowering contrast to the silence that he’d become accustomed to. Someone was trying to communicate with him. Slowly, too slowly, the message was interpreted by his brain. As he pushed against the floor with arms weakened by starvation, trying to will his body upward against the pull of gravity, he felt something crash into his ribs.

The force of the blow knocked him against the wall, and the pain momentarily blocked out all other sensations that competed for his attention. When it subsided, his ears detected more sound.

«Get up!»

His arms felt pain as something clamped onto them and used them to haul his body upward. The blinding light returned, flooding his eyes with whiteness that turned blue around the edges. When the light dissipated into yellow stars that blinked randomly across his vision, he became aware that he was being dragged. The tops of his toes scraped across the rough floor. From somewhere far away, the sound of dripping water echoed.

«

so tiny,» someone whispered. «Hey. Hey, you. Mother!» a male voice called, louder with each incoherent phrase. «YOU’RE NOT MY MOTHER!» he screamed.

Adair cringed at the thought that someone else was in this place. How long has he been here? Is that what I sound like? Light! Where is it coming from?

The dank hallway gradually lightened until Adair could make out the arched, cobblestone ceiling and walls. The floor was solid stone, but uneven, with pools of standing water. It looked like this place had been carved from a mountain, reminding him of the mysterious fortress in the ocean off the coast of Bastul. Was this the same place? Had it all been a dream? A nightmare? He remembered attacking the guards, taking a sword and trying to escape.

The guards dragged his limp body to the left and stopped in front of a rusted door. A loud clank sounded just before a screech of metal on metal as the door swung inward. The room inside was lit with a single bulb hanging down through the middle of the ceiling from an exposed electrical wire. There was a dirty metal chair in the middle of the room. The floors and walls were the same as the passage outside. The only real difference was the putrid smell that immediately filled Adair’s nose with death.

Adair retched, but only stomach acid came out.

The guards didn’t notice, or didn’t care. They dragged him across the wet floor and hefted him onto the chair, facing away from the door.

Adair’s arms were secured behind him with a zipping noise followed by the pinching sensation of his skin being cut.

No, he realized. This isn’t the same place. There will be no escaping here!

Then there was stillness and silence for a moment.

Click, clack. Click, clack.

More footsteps. Hard soles?

More light entered the room from behind. A shadow loomed against the wall to Adair’s left. It moved, leaning across and spilling onto the wall in front as the footsteps neared. A figure came into view. He wasn’t like the guards who wore green uniforms and soft-soled boots. This man was dressed in a suit and tieboth black. His polished shoes gleamed like glass. His face was smooth and his hair cropped short. The thing that captured Adair’s attention, however, was the plate the man was holding in front of him.

Cheeses. Fruit. A handful of nuts.

The man gently set the plate on Adair’s lap and then knelt, placing a tall glass of clean water on the floor of the quiet room. When the man spoke, it was a pleasant sound. No shouting. Just calm and soothing words.

«Who are you?» he asked, still kneeling so that he was looking slightly upward into Adair’s eyes.

Adair realized instantly what was happening. The time in isolation. The lack of water and food. The lack of clothing. The beatings. They wanted information and they were using a systematic way to get it. Adair decided to play along to get some momentary relief.

«Haaaa

« he managed, making the only sound his parched mouth could produce.

The man picked up the water and stood, tilting the glass over Adair’s face.

Adair opened his mouth as a small stream dribbled on his tongue. He lapped it up, feeling it begin to lubricate his mouth.

«Who are you?»

«Ad

Adair,» he breathed.

The man poured more water, and Adair drank whatever didn’t run down the sides of his face.

«Last name?»

«Lohrrr

Lorus.»

«Good,» the man replied, pouring more water. «Where are you from?»

Adair coughed as some of the water slipped into his lungs. When he could breathe normally again, he answered. «Bastul.»

«Hmm,» the man replied, reaching for an almond off the plate on Adair’s lap. «You’re a soldier. What is your rank?»

So far, things were going in the right direction. This man was establishing a base of trust. In contrast to the violent jailers, he was supposed to be seen as a savior. They hurt him, while this man would soothe his pain. They starved him, while this man would feed him. Though Adair never tortured anyone, the practice was common enough throughout the Empire that he knew the tactics. This man would ask simple, innocent questions and reward Adair for answering. This provided a framework upon which he would build later. For now, Adair was giving him truthful but useless answersanswers that would result in clean water and much-needed sustenance.

«Colonel Adair Lorus. Governor of Bastul. Soldier of the Orudan Empire.»

The man tossed the almond into Adair’s mouth, careful to keep his fingers out of biting reach.

Adair chewed greedily and swallowed as soon as possible, wanting the food in his stomach before anyone could remove it from his mouth.

«Do you have a family?»

«Yes. A wife and a son.»

The man poured more water. «What are their names?»

«Maeryn and Kael.»

The well-dressed interrogator lifted a wedge of orange and tossed it into Adair’s mouth.

The flavor was sharp and sweet, then tart. It was better than anything Adair had ever tasted.

«Who were the men you were with? The ones driving with you?»

Adair thought quickly about this question, which was much closer to what the man really wanted to know. The fact that they had located his Transporters and captured Adair was evidence that they already knew this information. Adair decided to continue pushing this as far as he could.

«Ryan and Sean,» he answered.

The man poured a little more water and then set the glass down, picking up a slice of apple. «Last name?»

«Collins,» Adair answered.

«Good,» the man said, placing the apple on Adair’s tongue without jerking his fingers away.

As Adair chewed, he considered the change in trust. Normally, an interrogator would only put himself in harm’s way to demonstrate the progress in the relationship.

«Whom are you working with?»

«Nobody,» Adair answered.

The man’s young face wrinkled in disappointment. «What is the name of the organization that was manipulating you?»

Adair instantly recognized the attempt to undermine his confidence in his protectors. It was likely standard procedure and very effective on someone struggling to hang on to anything meaningful in life. «They never mentioned a name,» Adair answered, deliberately failing to counter the man’s lying words.

«Hmm,» he replied, picking up another almond. «Where are they located?»

«Vir

Virginia,» Adair said, feigning the effort of pronouncing a strange name.

«What city?»

«Virginia,» he repeated, knowing that they had many locations and the enemy was likely already aware of the state where his Transporters had picked him up.

The man tossed the almond into Adair’s mouth. «Virginia is a state, not a city.»

«I don’t know,» Adair replied. «I’m not from here. I thought Virginia was the city.»

The man smiled now. It appeared quickly and gave Adair the impression that it could disappear just as quickly. «Don’t you know what country you’re in?»

«You ess,» Adair replied, sounding as though it was something he had heard but didn’t understand.

The man picked up a slice of cheese and tore off a corner. «Tell me the name of someone else at the organization.»

Adair looked at the cheese and knew that it would provide the highest quality sustenance of anything on the plate. His hunger pangs might actually subside for an hour if he could just get it into his mouth. In his mind, Adair remembered seeing the nametag of someone at one of the eating establishments where Ryan had stopped during their travel. «Carol

Dempsey,» he answered, appending another name he’d seen on a billboard advertisement.

The man’s smile disappeared, and his shoulders slumped. He looked down at the moldy floor for a second before checking his shiny, silver watch. When he looked up, it was with a forced sense of compassion. He exhaled a disappointed breath and leaned forward to look into Adair’s eyes. «Do you know why I’m here? I’m here to make a trade. The men behind you want to hurt you, and they’re good at causing pain. They own you. What they do to you is not under my control. They only agreed to let me in here because I told them that you have something I need. Information. I can offer you protection if you answer my questions. But when you lie to me, there’s nothing I can do for you. I can’t protect you unless you help me.»

Adair kept silent, waiting for another question. Obviously this man knew enough to identify a fake name immediately, which meant he was only looking for confirmation of people he already suspected. He knew the state where one of their facilities was located, but not the city. Adair remembered hearing a conversation when he was in Virginia which indicated that the unnamed organization had revealed itself when they took the risk of rescuing him upon his arrival into this world. Though his loyalty ultimately rested with his family, Adair couldn’t bring himself to give up any information that would harm the people he’d come to know as friends. But to stay alive, he couldn’t dodge the questions any longer. If he faked ignorance, they would dispose of him as quickly as they did Ryan Collins. If he put up too great a fight during interrogation, they might see him as a waste of time. He had to let them know that he was valuable, without giving anything away. He had to make them think it was possible to get the information they needed. He had to survive.

«Give me a name,» the man said calmly.

Adair closed his eyes, fighting back tears. «I’m not a traitor. I can’t do that to my friends,» he replied with a shaky voice, crafting just the right answer to appear valuable, but with vulnerable loyalty.

The man stood up and backed away, taking the plate of food with him.

Soft-soled boots rushed forward, and Adair could almost feel the blow coming before it impacted the side of his head.

Southern Venezuela

Near the Brazilian Border

It had taken the entire night to descend the mile-high cliff. Kael had kept his sense alternating between a wide view to choose their path and a narrow focus to choose each step. Though he could feel Greer’s apprehension during the entire descent, he knew it wasn’t caused by fear of the terrain. Greer was uncomfortable with letting an unknown man lead him and his Team.

To their credit, these soldiers followed Greer without question. Several had injuries. Some required help just to walk. The remainder nursed the emotional wounds of losing fellow soldiers on this mission. Each one pushed through these obstacles and faced the challenges without wavering.

Every minute Kael spent with these men taught him more and left him with a deeper respect for their skill, training, and resolve. Kael felt that the least he could do was to lead the men down the life-threatening terrain with as much care as possible.

As the angle of decline lessened, the jungle had grown thicker. Despite this, the men moved quickly through the trees, and by the time the sun came up over the eastern horizon, Greer took over leading the Teams. He positioned the men in a formation that provided more cover to the east, where the enemy soldiers were most likely to be. The descent from the mesa was longer but gentler on that side. He also positioned several men to the northeast of the main group where they’d have a better chance of spotting the approaching enemy through the oppressive density of the jungle.

An hour after sunrise, with temperatures already soaring into the hundreds, they’d reached a river and begun following it westward. Time passed slowly as they trudged through insect-infested swampland and trees so thick that the men had to squeeze through, all the while keeping the river in view on their left as a reference point. With no signs of pursuit, they eventually came upon an area where the river broke up into several tributaries and the flow of water slowed.

In the lead position, Greer held up his fist.

When the men halted, Greer spoke quietly over the COMM. «This is One. All Teams approaching secondary EXFIL origin.»

«Copy that, One. This is Eight. We’re in place and ready to go.»

«Any visitors?» Greer asked.

«Just the bugs,» came the reply.

Greer smiled before exhaling through his nose for the hundredth time, forcing out the gnats that were relentlessly trying to enter his body through every available orifice. He gave the signal to start moving again.

The Teams were forced to enter the muddy water and wade through the waist-deep flow to approach the location that had been outlined in their pre-mission contingency list. As they rounded a bend, Greer’s idea of meeting at a small village evaporated. It was really only a handful of grass huts near the water. One native was standing in the water near seven long canoes fitted with outboard motors of questionable repair. The boats were tied to large, bamboo-like trunks rising out of the water.

Greer identified the TAC 8’s Leader coming across from the other side of the slow-moving river of brownish-red water. He assumed the other members were nearby and hidden, covering the territory to the east.

«Glad you made it. I heard it got pretty bad up on the mesa.»

«Yeah,» Greer replied. «We lost three more.»

The man’s face remained unflinching like it was carved from stone, but Greer knew the look that passed behind his eyes. It was a deep, cold abyss of resolve that promised it would one day exact revenge. «Let’s get you out of here.»

Two more natives seemed to appear from nowhere to help load up the boats. Greer took note, always quick to appreciate such skills in their natural setting, expertise that he and his men had developed over thousands of hours of training. With most of the boats filled, TAC 8 finally left their cover positions and climbed aboard.

One of the natives spoke a rapid, but indecipherable string of syllables.

«He says not to use the motors until we reach the Rio Negro,» TAC 8’s Leader interpreted.

Greer looked back at the short, dark-haired man whose skin almost perfectly matched the water he was standing in. He nodded in reply and looked back to TAC 8’s Leader. «I wasn’t planning on it»

Greer used a wooden pole to back the boat away from the cluster of roots and tangled tree limbs that served as a shoreline in this hidden village. As the primitive canoes entered the faster-moving water at the center of the river, the small fleet began to take shape as an orderly formation. «All Teams. Eyes open. Weapons ready,» he whispered into the COMM. «We’ve got about forty miles til we hit open water. Plenty of opportunity to be ambushed.»

CHAPTER 15

Location Unknown

Adair was stretched out on his back, his arms and legs spread wide and chained to a metal table. Through the swelling around his eyes, he could barely make out the stone ceiling and the single, dim light bulb. The revolting stench that he’d noticed upon first entering the room was now impossible to detect through his broken nose. At the moment, he was keenly aware that the men around him were preparing the next torture session. It had started with beatings to the abdomen and face, and then escalated to a metal bar across the bottom of his feet. With each method, Adair’s resolve hardened. They weren’t going to get anything from him. But somewhere along the way, Adair began losing his sense of reality and his consciousness. He began blacking out during some sessions and feared that he might have said something during those times of delirium. As his captors modified their methods of physical pain, Adair found areas of weakness he had never known. A punch to the face or a blow to his ribs was nothing. He’d become nearly immune to that treatment before he’d left childhood. But these evil men had found things that weren’t nearly as destructive as breaking bones but far more effective at producing pain.

«Give me a name,» came the soothing voice from somewhere to Adair’s left.

Adair kept silent and pictured Maeryn’s face.

She looked happyat peaceas she sat near the flowers in their garden.

Someone grabbed hold of Adair’s left hand. There was a small prick of something sharp against the skin at the end of his finger.

Adair ignored the sensation, trying to deny the question of why he could still feel something so small. He focused on Maeryn’s faceher perfect face.

Her lips parted slightly in a smile.

Something dug beneath his fingernail, jabbing into the tender flesh.

Adair’s concentration was interrupted, his mind sensing the impending attack. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to visualize something stronger.

Maeryn’s naked form was standing by the open window to the balcony.

«Give me a name.»

The thin, almost transparent drapes were swaying in the breeze, barely covering her outline in the moonlight.

Clank!

The sound of a hammer hitting the bladed instrument occurred simultaneously with the excruciating pain. It shot up his hand and dug into his neck, making the muscles there spasm uncontrollably.

«GIVE ME A NAME!»

The pain shot through his head with a pressure that felt like it would burst out his face. Slowly, too slowly, it drained away. Adair realized that he was whimpering, with tears spilling out between swollen lids.

Clank!

Adair flinched just before his vocal chords began making a sound without his direction.

«Give me a name,» the soothing voice repeated.

The sound from his mouth intensified until it filled the small room, a scream that slowly took shape into a word. «MAAAAAERYN!»

The last ounce of his strength was gone. He felt darkness creeping around the edges of his consciousness. His body had simply reacted with one last vocal exertion, and now he lacked even the ability to control his movements. His head slumped to the side, and tears leaked from his face. Through his blurry and fading vision, he saw the man in the suit pull a cell phone out of his pocket and lift it to his ear. After a moment, he pulled it away and looked at the screen, tapping it with his thumb.

«What’s wrong with th?» Suddenly, he looked up and his face went blank. «Wait. Stop!» he shouted.

The tall, green-clad figure dropped Adair’s hand and backed away from the table. The pale light reflected off something in the figure’s hand, an instantaneous flash of silver and liquid red.

The man in the suit looked at his phone again, then walked slowly toward the table.

Adair heard himself whimpering again and felt his body trembling as if it were freezing. But it wasn’t cold. The only temperature he could feel was a feverish heat inside his head.

The man in the suit bent down and looked into Adair’s eyes. Slowly, his gaze drifted to Adair’s neck, then down to examine his body.

Adair waited. The darkness was clearing from his consciousness. His mind once more agreeing to come out of its hiding place. But the sudden end to the pain only left him confused.

«Hmm,» the soothing voice sounded.

Adair felt a gentle touch at his ribs.

«What have we got here?» the voice asked.

The confusion began to recede. Understanding rose to the surface like a net full of fish in Bastul’s bay, brought from the depths, its contents and true color becoming more identifiable with each pull of the rope.

Adair remembered his time with Matthews and the resulting incision that had gradually turned to a scar over time.

«Give me that knife,» the man in the suit ordered.

There was a shuffling of feet before the room was silent again.

Northern Brazil

The nasal sound of the struggling outboard motors made it impossible to listen for threats, so Greer kept his eyes moving, scanning the banks of the Rio Negro. Their small fleet had come almost ninety miles downriver, and the sights had changed dramatically. The water, which at first had been a fast and narrow flow of brown, was now a deep green color and a mile from shore to shore in most places. There had been no sightings of other people since they’d left the village, and the only indication of nearby civilization had been crossing beneath a dilapidated wooden bridge that connected two dirt roads before they had reached the deeper water.

They were moving southeast now, having circled around and back into Brazil in their efforts to escape. In this country, they would receive no close air support. The skies here were controlled by Armaros, which made it low on the list of choices for an extraction but also less likely to be anticipated.

Up ahead, the river was widening. They were passing two small islands on their right side and heading for a larger one that sat in the middle of the flow and diverted the water around either side of its three-mile width. Veering down the right tributary, Greer let off the throttle as his Team members adjusted their positions and readied themselves.

«This is One. All Teams approaching EXTRACT point Bravo.»

«Roger that, One. Moving to your six now.»

Greer watched over the starboard side as they passed the smaller island and noted a SOC-R boat moving into the main flow. With their own primitive, wooden boats struggling through the Amazonian river, the heavily armed vessel designed for river insertion and extraction slid easily into position behind them, acting as a barrier to any pursuers.

TAC 7 and 8 dropped back and ditched their canoes, climbing aboard the larger vessel. Three and a half miles later, two more boats came alongside them from a tributary that branched off to the south. Greer’s Team and two others in the middle of the fleet quickly climbed over the gunwales and boarded the armored watercraft.

The Asset moved with agility and confidence as he transferred from the wooden canoe to the more stable platform of the SOC-R. Greer could tell with a glance that the man had earned his sea legs at some point in his past. The more he witnessed, the greater was his curiosity about the man.

Several more miles brought them near a small island at the southern shore. A fourth boat entered the river ahead of them and slowed to pick up TAC 6 holding the forward position. As soon as all the Teams were aboard, the twin diesel engines of each boat throttled up to full, and large wakes appeared as the new formation sped off.

Five miles downriver, the water flowed around a handful of small islands. Beyond the islands the river would double in width and continue picking up additional water from thousands of other smaller sources on its journey toward the Mid-Atlantic. It was a natural chokepoint.

«Eyes open. Weapons ready,» Greer warned.

The islands slid by on either side of the formation. Their dense foliage concealed everything but their muddy shores. Greer, manning one of the mounted weapons systems, watched carefully for anything out of the ordinary.

From behind him, he heard the Asset yell something in a foreign language at the same time as he heard a rustling and some footsteps across the deck. He might have turned to see what the commotion was if he hadn’t, in that very instant, noticed everyone in the lead boat pitch backward as their heads exploded.

Something crashed into Greer from behind and dragged him to the deck. As he struggled to the ground, he heard a hollow impact sound that he knew all too well. He immediately swiveled his head.

Zylski, who was manning the mini-gun behind Greer, looked stunned. He reached both hands to his chest, fingers probing the small hole in his uniform. He dropped to his knees and his face went slack.

It took Greer only a fraction of a second to realize that Zylski’s armor hadn’t stopped the bullet. He watched his friend slump to the deck, a process that seemed to move in drawn-out slow motion. As Zylski’s face pressed against the non-skid decking, he rolled forward, exposing his back and the shredded, fist-sized hole of the exit wound.

«Contact! Twelve o’clock!» Thompson roared into the COMM. He swung the barrel of his automatic grenade launcher over the front bow and targeted the island sitting directly in front of their boat just as the metallic pings of AK-47 rounds started slamming into their port side. Thompson dropped to the deck, taking cover.

«Ambush! We need cover fire to port and starboard. Light em up!» Greer yelled, his eyes locked on the Asset who had somehow known the attack was coming.

A wall of noise erupted around them, an awesome and terrible wave of sound like multiple chainsaws, as Jensen and Martinez employed the side-mounted mini-guns. The formation swerved around what had once been their lead boat as it slowly drifted to a stop. The other two boats joined the attack, letting loose with everything they had. The small islands sitting a few thousand feet on either side of the river bloomed into clouds of flying debris. Pumping out six thousand rounds of 7.62mm lead per minute, the mini-guns blanketed the shorelines with waves of destruction. Mud flew everywhere. Water sprayed upward like geysers. Trees and vegetation were chopped down. The few enemy soldiers that could be seen through the haze of gunfire burst into clouds of red before they could even be identified.

The reaction was swift and terrifying.

Greer turned and locked eyes with Thompson.

Thompson nodded, already understanding what Greer wanted. «We need cover fire on that island to our twelve!»

Below the buzz of the mini-guns, a deeper booming noise began pounding the air as the fifty-caliber machine guns sent high-velocity rounds toward the island a mile away where the first shots had come fromthe shots that had killed everyone aboard the lead boat as well as Zylski.

Greer and Thompson simultaneously jumped to their feet and grabbed the handles of their automatic grenade launchers. As the barrels came around, both cannons began launching their 40mm explosives toward the island that sat just inside their maximum range. The rapid, metallic clanking sounds of the launchers were echoed by deeper explosions on the island seconds later, as small clouds of white smoke rose from the trees.

The boats, moving at top speed again, left the gauntlet between the two flanking islands behind. Greer and Thompson kept pounding away with grenades, and as soon as the boats were within range, the mini-guns and fifty-caliber machine guns were also brought to bear. They passed to the south of the mile-long stretch of earth and jungle sitting in the middle of the river and did their best to leave it shredded, perforated, and burned to a crisp.

When they were finally out of range, the Teams stopped firing. The wind was blowing past their faces as the boats sped to the east. Deep wakes angled outward, sending waves crashing against the shores of the Rio Negro.

Greer let go of the grenade launcher and stepped over the Asset who was still crouching on the deck. He stumbled on the carpet of brass casings littering the deck and awkwardly knelt at Zylski’s body. Turning the soldier over on his back, he checked his pulse and verified that his friend was indeed gone. When he found no life coursing through the man’s carotid artery, he looked back to the Asset. At once, he was seized by conflicting emotions. The blond man now rising to his feet, dressed in a dirty, white toga, had saved his life for the second time only moments ago. But this same man had also cost him dearly.

TAC 2 had been destroyed by a surface-to-air missile.

TAC 3 was wiped out by a barrage of rockets from a gunship.

Three members of TAC 7 had been ambushed on top of the mesa.

TAC 6 had just been executed by long-range sniper fire.

Now Zylski

?

Greer felt the choking sadness rising up his throat, constricting his vocal chords. He felt tears coming slowly to his eyes, eyes that hadn’t shed tears in a long time. He knew his voice would crack when he spoke, but he didn’t much care what he sounded like.

«You’d better be worth this,» he struggled, hearing in his own voice the same pain that he’d only observed in weaker people until this moment.

Even though his translator device was turned off, the man standing a few feet away seemed to understand his words perfectly.

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

Matthews was staring intently at the lines of alphanumeric data running across his screen. He didn’t realize anyone was near him until Andrea quietly cleared her throat. «Oh!» he exclaimed, with a flinch.

«I’m sorry to interrupt,» Andrea said with a furrowed brow.

Matthews felt embarrassed and wondered if it showed.

«I just got off the phone with Greer,» she continued. «They should be here in the next twenty minutes.»

«How was their flight?»

«Uneventful.»

«Good,» Matthews replied. «Those guys deserve a break. I hope they were able to get some sleep on the way over.»

«Why? Are they going straight into a debrief?»

«Yeah. Suncio wants to meet with the Teams right away. They’ll be in Conference B, so have one of our support folks stock the room with food and drinks.»

Andrea nodded. «What about the Asset?»

«Let’s put him in Conference A. Stafford’s team is already set up in there. As soon as Suncio is done with his men, the Team Leaders will move over and join them. Helmsley will be calling in for a teleconference. He wants to hear everything this guy has to say.»

«So much for a warm welcome,» Andrea observed.

«Yeah. That went out the window when we started losing men.»

Andrea looked down at the table and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. «What are you working on?»

Matthews looked back to his screen. «Well, I think I got a hit on a passive transmitter I installed on Adair.»

Andrea’s eyebrows lifted slightly. «Installed?»

Matthews shrugged. «Implanted,» he corrected. He was used to working with computers, not people.

«What do you mean by passive?»

Matthews smiled. He wanted to come across as humble but couldn’t help the excitement at the prospect of explaining his invention to someone who expressed interest. «Well, it’s a standard location transmitter, but I had the hardware guys replace the battery with an electro-chemical capacitor, powered by the body’s electrolytes.

«You mean sweat?»

«Yeah,» Matthews replied with a grin. «It goes just under the skin.»

«What makes it passive?»

«It’s not always transmitting. I’ve got a friend in the design group at Command’s Science and Technology Division.»

Andrea smirked. «STD?»

«Yeah. The things they make stick with you,’» he said, reciting the running joke that no one bothered to share with anyone above the grade of deputy director. «Anyway, he reprogrammed the logic in the ASIC to respond to the electromagnetic fields emitted by certain communications devices.»

«So it only transmits when it’s near a cell phone?» she asked, picking up on the idea quicker than Matthews would have expected.

«Right. But it doesn’t send out a big blast of power, like most. It transmits for just a few seconds and wirelessly sends a small data container to the nearest electronic device. The container is like a capsule with lots of space waiting to be filled.»

«By what?»

Matthews was smiling now. «By coordinates and time stamps.»

«From the cell phone?» Andrea asked.

«Yep. Since the data is pulled from the phone itself, the transmitter hardly requires any power at all. And since it isn’t constantly sending a signal, it’s really difficult to pick it up with a scan.»

«The data packet,» Andrea began, trying to work through the logic. «How do we receive it?»

«Well, we have lots of data nets out there. I just had to upload a pretty basic configuration file and then wait. The data packet stays dormant in the communication device until its next transmission to a cell tower or satellite, when it rides along undetected. When the transmission passes through a net, the packet is stripped away and downloaded to our servers here.»

Andrea leaned forward and looked at Matthews’ screen. «Is that what you’re looking at?»

«No. This is just a script I’m writing to concatenate the data strings so I can interpret them.»

«Will you know where Adair is after you’re done?»

Matthews leaned back in his chair. «Probably not, but I’ll have the first location point where his transmitter embedded some data. Depending on how far it is from where he was taken, it might give us a vector.»

CHAPTER 16

Bogotá, Colombia

Saba had been right about this world. Everywhere Kael looked, he saw something utterly foreign and advanced. It reminded him of his time aboard Captain Gryllus’ ship and some of the primitive cultures they’d encountered during their years together. Dirty, half-naked people had crawled out of their homes, which were little more than lean-to shelters of grass and sticks, to come see the big ship and the strange men who brought them treasures for trade.

Most of them had been eager to learn new things and were fascinated even by Kael’s clothing, but some villages were filled with fear and hatred, as if someone in their past had given them a reason to expect pain from new and strange things. Kael remembered their spears. Instead of the variety of metal blades fitted to the end of a stout, oak pole as was the standard Orudan weapon, theirs had been the hard shoots of a tall grass stalk, split on one end into a multi-pronged tip for impaling fisheffective but woefully crude by comparison.

As Kael looked around at this new world, Orud’s stone pillars and cobblestone streetsthe pinnacle of technology in his worldsuddenly felt as primitive as those lean-to shelters. After gliding down the river at speeds faster than any boat Kael had seen, they arrived at a massive city filled with wonders of all kinds. Buildings that stretched into the sky. Ships that were so large, they appeared at first to be moving versions of Orud’s extensive docks. He and the others went ashore and climbed into horseless carriages that sped away over roads smoother than the graveled paths of the Royal Palace. The fastest horse in the Emperor’s stables couldn’t match the swiftness with which they traveled. And then, the flying boats appeared. He hadn’t known what else to call them. Some were like those that came to pick them up from the top of the mesalocusts with wings that spun over their heads. But Greer had led them to one that had wings like a bird sticking out of either side, unmoving. Everyone had settled into comfortable seats, and the bird sped across the land before lifting into the sky.

Kael had been too amazed to sleep, as most of the others had done. Instead, he stared out of a window, through the transparent material that allowed him to glimpse the land below. He looked down on cities and rivers and buildings as if they were the tiny constructions of an ant colony.

Now they were moving in another horseless carriage through another city, approaching the rear of a stone building set into the trees against the foothills of heavily forested mountains. They passed rows of metal fences with men standing on either side of the road. They wore dark objects over their eyes to block the sunlight, and they weren’t dressed in the colors of the jungle, like Greer and his men, but in more formal clothing of black and brown tones. Kael saw no weapons, but he knew the men were guards. And judging by what he’d witnessed from Greer’s men in the jungle, he had no doubt that the guards were capable of preventing entry by those not authorized.

The paved road descended into the earth and turned underneath the building into a cool, dark cavern with lanterns set into the ceiling. More guards appeared from the shadows and opened their doors, escorting them across the cavern through a small metal portcullis and into a smooth-walled room with no windows. Tiny lanterns were arranged in rows next to the door with a foreign character scribed into each one. The guard touched one of the lanterns and two doors slid into place, trapping Kael in the room with Greer and his Team, while the others waited outside. Kael stumbled and quickly regained balance as his body detected movement. He immediately sent out his sense and learned the room was actually rising through a shaft into the building above, like the wooden elevator at the Temple of the Kaliel.

When the doors slid open, he was looking at an environment very different than the underground chamber he’d just left. Greer and Thompson walked out in front, and Kael followed them into an atrium with a glass ceiling more than a hundred feet above. The interior space was quite large, with polished stone and metal surfaces everywhere. Against the wall to Kael’s right, water trickled down from above and slid over rough-hewn stone until it cascaded into a basin ringed by a low, stone wall. It was too orderly to be natural, and all the more impressive when Kael realized that someone had constructed it.

Their footsteps echoed across the massive space until they reached two large, wooden doors that opened inwardly without any assistance. Greer led them down several hallways before stopping at a large intersection with chairs and tables. Plants were growing from earthen pots in each corner.

A man approached Greer and exchanged a few words with him before looking Kael up and down.

Kael would have thought the man to be a guard until he noticed the posture of Greer’s men in proximity to the man. Seeing their exhaustion suddenly disappear, Kael realized he was their superior.

The man pointed to a door and spoke quickly at Greer, then waved for Kael to follow him in the opposite direction.

Kael locked eyes with Greer and the Team Leader nodded that it was okay to do as the man said.

Greer’s superior waved again, then opened a nearby door and gestured for Kael to go inside.

Aaron Stafford and his team had just finished setting up their sound equipment when the conference room door opened. Greg Suncio, Head of Field Operations, walked in, followed by another man whose appearance might have shocked most people. He was roughly six feet tall, with short, blond hair and blue eyes. He had a muscular build, but also looked like he could run for milesmore like a triathlete than a football player. His jaw was covered in a couple weeks’ worth of stubble, and his body was splattered, head-to-toe, with mud. The oddest parts of the man’s appearance were his dirty linen toga and leather sandals that laced all the way up his lower legs. He also had what looked like a samurai sword at his waist. The man looked like a Roman gladiator, minus the armor, but Stafford wasn’t surprised. He’d seen another man not too long ago with a similar appearance, and had come to know that man as a friend. This man and Adair were clearly from the same world, which was the whole reason Stafford was here.

«No time for a shower?» he asked Suncio.

«Come on. You know we have bigger things to worry about.»

«Can we at least get some damp towels for the guy?»

Suncio gestured toward the table. «Call up front and ask. I’ve got to debrief my men.»

«Okay,» Stafford replied, glancing at the clock on the wall. «Helmsley will be calling in twenty minutes.»

«We’ll be here,» Suncio assured him before leaving the room.

Stafford turned quickly to one of his men who was pulling another laptop out of its case. «Jack. Can you go find some towels for our guest?»

As the technician left the room, Stafford pulled a chair out from the table and gestured for the guest to sit.

The man slowly looked around the room before lowering himself onto the chair.

Stafford turned on a translator device and set it down on the table in front of the man, then set another in front of himself. «You are from the Orudan Empire?» he asked.

The man listened to the device speaking in his own language and then nodded in response.

«Are the gods smiling upon you this morning?» he asked, remembering the greeting he’d learned from Adair.

«No,» the man replied. His words sounded casual, but there was an intensity in his eyes. «They’re trying to kill me.»

Hmm. Not the answer I was expecting. Maybe a different approach? «Would you like some tea?»

Slowly, the man nodded.

Stafford looked at another of his technicians who quickly picked up a mug from the food table along the wall and began pouring what had been Adair’s favorite brew.

«My name is Aaron Stafford. What is yours?»

«Kael,» the guest replied.

Adair had a young son named Kael. Maybe it’s a common name in their world, Stafford thought.

«Here you go,» the technician said, setting the mug of steaming liquid in front of Kael.

Kael left it on the table and kept his eyes locked on Stafford’s.

«I apologize for the lack of a proper wel»

«How do you know my language?» Kael interrupted.

Stafford paused for a moment. He was trying to make his guest feel safe and comfortable, but Kael didn’t seem interested in such things. Stafford remembered that Adair had been a high-ranking officer among a military force in his world, as well as the Governor of a city. He clearly had more refined social skills than Kael did. Maybe that meant something. Maybe it didn’t.

«This is what I do. My job

my profession, is to facilitate communication between people of different cultures. Not too long ago, a man from your world came here. I learned his language.»

Stafford thought there might have been a flicker of something in the man’s eyes at these words, but he could have been mistaken.

«Are you injured?»

«No.»

«Are you hungry? Can I get you something to»

«How long ago was this?» Kael interrupted again.

«What? The language?»

«How long ago did this other man come here?» Kael clarified.

Stafford glanced at the clock on the wall, knowing that Helmsley wouldn’t approve of where this discussion was headed. He was just supposed to make the man feel at home, maybe give him something to eat. Let him know that he was being protected from the enemy. Anything beyond that, Helmsley wanted to be involved with, but Kael was steering the conversation. He clearly wanted to get down to business, and Stafford could appreciate that, especially after what Kael had been through.

«I can see that you want some answers. I will tell you anything you want to know, but my superiors want to be involved in everything we discuss. They will be joining us in just»

The conference room door opened and Stafford’s technician came in holding a glass tray, usually reserved for doughnuts, piled with blue, cloth towels that the cleaning crew used for polishing windows and tables. Each one had been soaked in water, wrung out, and arranged on the tray like a towel service at a resort. Jack shrugged. «It was either this or paper towels.»

Stafford smiled and accepted the tray, setting it down in front of Kael. «You can use these to wash up with, if you like.»

Kael picked up a towel and began wiping the dried mud off his hands.

«As I was saying, my superiors will be here in just a few minutes. After that, you can ask us whatever you want, and they will have questions for you as well.»

Kael nodded, then set down a dirty towel and grabbed the mug of tea.

«In the meantime,» Stafford continued, «is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable? We have plenty of food and drinks on that table there.»

«No, thank you. I’ll wait for the others.»

Stafford stood up. «If you’ll please excuse me, my team and I have a few other things to set up before we get started.»

Kael reached for another wet towel and began wiping the dirt and grime from his face. If it was anything like his hands, he must look terrible to these impeccably groomed men. After washing himself as best he could, he took another sip of the tea which was too weak for his liking. It was already starting to cool and that only made the lack of flavor more pronounced. Oh well, he thought. I didn’t come here to drink tea.

As Stafford and the other men continued putting translation objects in various places around the room, Kael sat back in the chair and thought about what he’d already learned. So far, he knew there were two groups of people. One was trying to kill him. The other was trying to protect him, and had already sacrificed many soldiers to do so. Given the fact that they didn’t even know who Kael was, he had to conclude that it had something to do with the proclamation. Rameel had announced that the Awakened was coming. This undoubtedly caused a reaction from the Myndarym who would be afraid of such a statement, which would explain the soldiers trying to kill him. But this begged several other questions. Who were these people protecting him? How did they get involved? Was his father working with them?

Adair had certainly survived the passage into this world and must have had enough contact with these people to teach them the Orudan language. That meant his father was cooperating with themunless they got the information out of him in some other way. But to learn a language required in-depth understanding and patiencetwo things that were not achieved by torture or manipulation. So, if his father was cooperating with them, where was he now? Was he somewhere in this building?

The door opened again and people began walking in and taking their seats around the table and the sides of the room. Greer came in without his Team but was accompanied by his superior and the other Team Leaders. Some folks took food from the table in the corner, or poured themselves tea or another hot, black drink from pitchers. Greer and the other soldiers simply took their seats.

Stafford glanced at the object on the wall again, before speaking over the activity in the room. «Take your seats everyone. We’re about to start.»

Kael looked more closely at the circular object on the wall. It had arms extending from the center, pointing at characters scribed around the perimeter. It looked vaguely like a sundial, but it was hung vertically, and there were no windows to let in sunlight. Kael concluded that it must be a timekeeping device of some sort and turned his attention to Stafford.

Behind him, an opaque window in the wall seemed to flicker, then illuminate. The scene that became visible beyond the window was a place that couldn’t be behind the wall. The angles of the room were wrong, and the man’s face staring at them all was far too large. A window to another place? he guessed. Once again, Kael forced himself to set aside his questions of why and how, and instead concentrate on what was.

The man in the window began speaking, and the small, square object on the table in front of Kael began to interpret the words in the language of the Empire. «Good afternoon, everyone.»

Murmurs of reply filled the room.

«Aaron, are we set up and ready? Can he understand me?»

Stafford turned his head, and Kael nodded to him that he could understand the man.

«Yes, sir,» Stafford replied. «His device is picking up all the audio and translating it. The other devices will interpret his words as well.»

The man in the window turned to Kael. «Welcome to our world. My name is Jim Helmsley. I would normally give you my title, but I suppose that wouldn’t mean much at this point.»

Several people in the room laughed quietly while others just smiled. Kael sensed that their reaction was mostly genuine, though there was a hint of obligation in it. This man was apparently their superior but well liked. «My name is Kael Lorus,» he replied.

The room became instantly quiet.

Helmsley turned to look at Stafford who seemed surprised for some reason. They both looked back to Kael. «Are you any relation to Adair Lorus?» Helmsley asked.

So, they all know him! Why isn’t he here? «Yes. Where is he?»

«Adair said he had a son named Kael, but he’s only eleven or twelve years old,» Stafford interjected. Something in his voice sounded as if he were apologizing to Helmsley.

That was the second time Kael had asked a question about his father without receiving an answer. He looked around the silent room. Male and female faces of various cultures were staring at him in shock. It was instantly clear that Kael had some bargaining leverage, beyond the obvious fact that they had saved him from the enemy. He knew things that they didn’t. He thought about how Saba would handle this situation and decided to give these people something for their trouble. Give a little, take a little, Saba had said, when speaking of negotiations.

«I was ten years old when my father entered the portal. But he arrived here only, what

?»

«eighteen months ago,» another man to Kael’s left blurted out. This one was wearing transparent objects in front of his eyes that made them look larger than they really were. He immediately looked down and began tapping his fingers on a rectangular object in his lap.

«One cannot complete the passage through the portal without a key,» Kael continued, dropping his hand to the hilt of the sword hanging from his waist.

The man tapped his fingers more rapidly and nodded at the same time, as if he was just learning the answer to a question that had plagued him for a long time.

«But that means» Stafford began before the other man interrupted.

«that there is a place between our worlds where time doesn’t apply,» he finished.

Kael looked at the man who was still tapping his fingers against the object in his lap. «It is called the In-Between.»

The man stopped moving his fingers and looked up with a smile.

«How do you know these things?» Helmsley asked from the window in the wall.

Kael turned. «Who are all of you? And how do you know my father?»

The room was quiet again. In the window, Helmsley put his hands together in front of his mouth.

It looked to Kael like the man was uncomfortable with the questions.

«As to who we are, my explanation would be meaningless to you. You know nothing of the countries in our world or the conflicts between them, nor do you understand our technologies. In time, you will learn these things, and your ability to comprehend our place in this world will grow. But for now, I can tell you this. Our organization began as a part of another which placed its members inside of other nations to gather information. These people would learn to live as citizens of these other nations and try to blend in.»

«Are you familiar with spies?» Stafford interjected. «In the Orudan Empire?»

«Yes,» Kael answered, remembering his childhood friends and how Magnus had used them for Rameel’s purposes. «I know the concept, but Orud didn’t use them.»

«As time went on,» Helmsley continued, «some members began to learn things that made them into enemies of their own countriessecrets that couldn’t be ignored. Things that had to be investigated. That was really the birth of our organization.»

«I see. And why are you protecting me?»

Helmsley lowered his hands. «The people trying to kill you might be the source of some of those secrets.»

Kael looked at Stafford and the other man who was no longer tapping his fingers. «And where is my father?»

Helmsley breathed heavily before answering. «The truth is, we don’t know. We stole him from the enemy shortly after he arrived, but we exposed ourselves in the process. Since that time, our covert war against the enemy has become increasingly overt. We were actually in the process of transporting him there so that you would have someone from your own world to greet you when you arrived.»

«But the enemy killed him?» Kael asked.

«No. They didn’t kill him. They took him, we believe, to learn more about us.»

Kael closed his eyes for a moment, realizing what that meant. «Torture,» he said as his eyes opened.

«Yes, that is very likely,» Helmsley replied, as if he was used to dealing with difficult subjects and making life or death judgments on a regular basis.

Okay. Think, Kael told himself. Father probably knows all sorts of information about this organization that they would want to keep hidden. He has value to them. How can I use this?

«We’re very sorry about» Stafford began.

«What are you doing to find him?» Kael asked.

Helmsley looked to the man with glass objects on his face and nodded.

«Kael, my name is Tim Matthews. I’m the head of

uh

Well, I’m in charge of gathering information and using it to make decisions. We know where your father was captured, and now we also have a few locations that we know he passed through since then. It is only a matter of time before we find him. I can assure you that we are doing everything in our power.»

«Yes. Power,» Kael replied. «What sort of power do you have? Can you rescue him if you find him?»

«We rescued you,» Greer said flatly.

Kael recognized the rebuke and immediately took it to heart. Coming from a soldier and a man who seemed to be the quiet type, his words carried weight with Kael. «Yes, you did. I’m sorry if I offended you.»

Greer just nodded.

Kael turned now to Helmsley. «And why did you? What makes me so valuable that you would sacrifice the lives of your men to bring me here?»

Greer’s superior whispered something into his ear just before Helmsley answered Kael’s question.

«Well, we were hoping you could answer that for us. From our perspective, we simply observed our enemy bolstering his ranks around the portal and setting enough explosives around his compound to cave in the surrounding mountains. He was obviously afraid of whatever was coming through that portal.»

«This enemy. Which one is he?» Kael asked. «What’s his name?»

«Hang on. What do you mean, which one?» Matthews asked. «How many more are there?»

Kael turned to look at Helmsley whose body language seemed much more rigid than it had before.

Helmsley held up his hand. «Look. Let me cut to the chase, since you seem to be the kind of person who enjoys conflict. We both want things. You want Adair back, and we have the ability to find him and rescue him. You’d probably like to understand this world a bit better than you do nowour weapons, our transportation, how I can see you and talk to you from halfway around the world. And I’d love to sit down in a room with you and pick your brainabout the portal, about our enemies. I have whole teams of technical personnel who’d love to get their hands on that sword of yours and figure out how it works. And we’d really like to know what it is that you know, or what you’re capable of doing, that makes you such a threat to our enemies. So, why don’t we shoot straight with each other? Let’s work together on this, and we’ll both benefit.»

That was the statement Kael had been driving toward. «Very well, Mr. Helmsley.»

«Jim,» he countered.

«Jim, then. You find my father and help me rescue him, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. I’ll even let you take a look at this,» he said, patting the hilt of the crystalline sword.

Now, Helmsley smiled. «Sounds like a good trade. You’re a lot like your father.»

The words immediately cut through Kael’s heart. Surprisingly, he had to fight back tears and choke down the emotion that threatened to overwhelm him. Most of his life, his struggle had been against the numbness that seemed to paralyze the feelings that came naturally to other people. There was evidently a deep need within Kael that he was only just starting to recognize. I only had a few years with him, and most of that time he was busy with his responsibilities. If these people can somehow help me find him

«Hold on,» Greer’s superior said, interrupting Kael’s sudden detour into his own thoughts. «You said, help me rescue him?»

«That’s right,» Kael answered.

He turned to the window in the wall. «Jim, if that means what I think it means, I can’t take on that kind of liabilityhaving him in the field.»

«I wouldn’t worry about that,» Greer interjected. «We didn’t finish our debrief in time for this meeting. We have some things we need to discuss.»

Kael looked squarely at Greer’s superior. «Let me be clear about something. You have no idea what I’m capable of. I can, and I will, rescue my father. You can either help or try to stand in my way. And may the gods help you if you do!»

«Hold on. Hold on,» Helmsley said. «Suncio, shut up for a second. Kael, no one here is trying to stand in your way. We want to help you, remember? Both of us can benefit, right?»

Kael nodded.

«Okay. We fully understand your position. And I’m sure you can appreciate where Suncio is coming from. His men are highly trained, and anyone else in the field could just screw things up.»

Greer was whispering into his superior’s ear while Kael waited for Helmsley to reach his point.

«Here’s what I propose. Suncio, you oversee Kael’s training. Let’s have him do a condensed version of your tactical program. He’ll just be sitting around, waiting for the INTEL to come through anyway.»

Greer was nodding now, and although Suncio wasn’t openly arguing, he didn’t look happy.

«Weapons theory and use. Field strategy and movements,» Helmsley continued. «Prioritize it with the most critical things first.»

«Come on, Jim. It takes years! You know that. It’s a comprehensive system. Every module builds on something else. I can’t just pick and choose»

«Just make it work,» Helmsley ordered without raising his voice.

Suncio stopped talking and pursed his lips. «Yes, sir.»

«If you need more resources, just let me know.»

«No, sir. We’ve got it covered.»

«Good. Now Kael, let me reiteratewe’re here to help you. Ultimately, our goals are the same. So, do me a favor. As these men are training you, keep that in mind. If you have any military experience, you know how important the chain of command is. You won’t learn anything if you question orders. So, just do what they say and save your questions for me. We need to use this time wisely. Any day now we’re going to find out where Adair is, and the best thing you can do is be prepared for it.»

Kael nodded.

«Alright. Does anyone have any questions?»

The room was silent now.

«Good. Suncio, I’ll need a daily update on Kael’s progress. Tim, let me know the minute something turns up on Adair.

«Yes, sir.»

«Thanks everyone. Good day,» Helmsley said. Then the window went dark.

The Royal Palace, Orud

The estate was particularly peaceful at dusk. The soft grass was cool and inviting, a perfect contrast to the gravel path on which Maeryn stood. The fading sunlight shone through the trees in slanted orange columns that divided the grounds into alternating rows of light and shadow. Birds chirped merrily in the branches nearby, unaffected by the drastic changes occurring in the world of men.

And women, Maeryn corrected herself.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, feeling something akin to the relief she’d experienced when first arriving at Magnus’ mansion. Walking through the vineyards there had marked an end to her previous struggles. She missed those days of fewer responsibilities. They were a brief interlude of peace between the turmoil that had occurred before and after it. She even missed Magnus, though she would never admit it to anyone. He might have been the worst enemy in the Empire’s history, and he might have even used Maeryn to some extent, but they had shared moments together that she had desperately needed at the time. His love for her was real; she was sure of it. It was just a shame that it had been clouded by so many other ambitions and distractions. She let herself dwell on the matter for a moment as she listened to the sound of running water from somewhere nearby.

Eventually, her recent past faded away, and even sweeter memories took their place. Memories more ancient. Innocent. Pure. Adair’s smile. The sound of his laughter. Maeryn had been such a different person then. Weaker. More dependent. More capable of trust. She’d possessed only the tiniest core of fighting strength in her nature, one that had never been tested. She had been vulnerable in those days, yet completely safe in Adair’s arms.

Maeryn’s eyes suddenly felt wet and she wiped at them with the back of her hands. Time, she thought, keeps marching onward like a legion of Orud’s soldiers. There was nothing to be done about it except to recognize the moments you were in and to cherish the ones that had already passed. A new moment was spreading out before her nowone that was greater in magnitude. One that she couldn’t have predicted from the balcony of her bedroom in Bastul.

Adair would be proud.

Maeryn smiled, resuming her walk across the gravel toward a particular guest cottage situated among numerous others at the north end of the Palace grounds. When she came to the front door, she paused for a moment before knocking.

The door opened to reveal Dacien’s smiling face. «Welcome. Please come in,» he said quickly.

Maeryn smiled in return, immediately relieved that Dacien appeared willing to put aside the political tension that had been building between them in the High Council chambers. She much preferred to leave those arguments in the Palace where they belonged. Tonight she was simply a mother, a mother-in-law, and now a grandmother as well.

«Dinner is almost ready,» Dacien said, leading her through the foyer and into the visiting room.

«Thank you for inviting me. I’ve been looking forward to this all week.»

The visiting room was spacious and well lit, with comfortable seating all around. Aelia was reclining on a couch on the far side of the room, a small bundle in her arms. She looked up and smiled when Maeryn came into the room. Her skin was paler than normal, and she had more lines under her eyes. She looked tired but happy.

«Thank you for coming,» she whispered.

Maeryn walked across the room and stopped in front of them, looking down into the cloth-wrapped bundle. «How is she doing?»

Aelia looked down and gently eased the cloths away from Suline’s face. «She’s doing well. She sleeps for hours at a stretch already.»

Suline’s face was perfectly tranquil, like an angel’s, held in the gentle embrace of sleep.

«And how about mother?» Maeryn asked quietly.

Aelia tilted her head to the side. «I sleep a few hours at a time also, but I’ll manage. Luckily, I have Tabia to help,» she said, nodding her head in the direction of the kitchen.

«That’s good.» Maeryn’s eyes drifted back and forth between mother and child, and she couldn’t help but remember Aelia’s first weeks of life. The moments of silent adoration as she watched Aelia’s tummy rise and fall in a steady rhythm. The whole world might have disappeared in those moments, for nothing else seemed to matter. Aelia had saved her. In a dark time when she struggled to find even the strength to go on living, Aelia had been her one bright ray of hope.

With eyes still closed, Suline’s lip started to quiver and then curled upward into a half-smile. It was an expression usually reserved for adults and seemed to give Maeryn a peek into the child’s future for just that instant. She and Aelia immediately laughed.

«What happened? What did I miss?» Dacien asked, quickly walking over.

«Dinner is served,» Tabia announced from the doorway of the kitchen. «Here, miss. Let me take her.»

«Please,» Maeryn protested, «may I put her down?»

Aelia nodded, then gently lifted Suline’s warm body into Maeryn’s arms.

She felt so light and fragile. Maeryn took her time walking toward the bassinet. She stared at the baby’s perfect little face for a moment then gently lowered her into the wooden basket. When Maeryn looked up, she realized that Dacien and Aelia were waiting for her.

«Sorry,» she offered, joining them as they headed down the hall toward the dining room.

Tabia had prepared nothing short of a feast. Roasted duck and a variety of vegetables adorned the center of the table, presented in such a way as to impress even the most sophisticated of Orud’s social elite. As Maeryn took notice of the display of talent, now paid for out of Orud’s treasury, she suddenly realized that she was part of Orud’ social elite, though perhaps not the most sophisticated.

«This looks amazing, Tabia. How long did it take you to prepare?»

«Thank you, miss. Not long. Only a few hours.»

The girl was probably only fifteen or sixteen years old but likely had ten years of experience cooking and taking care of children already.

«Well, I’m impressed. Will you be joining us?»

The girl looked quickly to Dacien with wide eyes.

«We couldn’t possibly eat all this ourselves,» Maeryn continued.

Dacien nodded.

Tabia’s face slowly transformed from one of rigid panic to acceptance, then joy. «Thank you, miss

Uh

Majesty. Or

«

Dacien laughed.

«That’s okay. Miss will do just fine,» Maeryn clarified, putting the girl at ease.

As they took their seats, Dacien leaned forward and picked up a goblet of wine. «That reminds me. I want to say two things before we get startedto clear the air.»

Aelia frowned and slowly shook her head.

«It’s alright. Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on your new

appointment.»

«Thank you,» Maeryn said, lifting the goblet in front of her.

«The first Empress in Orud’s history,» Dacien reflected. «Quite an achievement. This is a new era for our Empire, and I look forward to seeing what changes are in store for us.»

Maeryn and Aelia both took sips of their wine, following Dacien’s example. Tabia waited, obviously still uncomfortable with being included.

«Well,» Maeryn replied. «It is more of a responsibility than an achievement, but thank you all the same.»

Dacien nodded. «Secondly, I want to assure you that though we have had our disagreements, I respect you as well as the position you will assume. You are to be crowned Empress of the Orudan Empire, of which I am a humble servant. I will offer you my council, as is my duty. And if we disagree, let it not be perceived as a lack of loyalty. I will serve you with honor.»

Maeryn smiled. «I must admit it is a relief to hear those words. Thank you. Let me assure you that I respect and require your council. Though yours is only one of many perspectives I must consider, please know that if we are to disagree, it will not be because your advice falls on deaf ears.»

Dacien acknowledged the words with a nod of respect. Aelia and Tabia were both smiling now.

Maeryn clasped her hands in front of her. «Oh, yes. I meant to ask if you were available to meet with me tomorrow or the day after.»

«Of course. On what matter?»

«Your favorite topic. I thought we could discuss Orud’s military concerns in depth, without the distraction of others. I’ve already been meeting with some of the other leaders to get a firmer grasp on the issues that we will all be facing in the near future, but there is something else we must discusssomething that requires your input before I present it to the Council.»

«I’m intrigued,» Dacien replied.

«Good. Then I’ll leave it at that until we can meet. Enough politics. Tonight, I am simply a proud

and hungry grandmother.»

Tabia stood up and grabbed the platter of meat and a serving utensil.

«Let’s eat,» Aelia announced, looking relieved.

CHAPTER 17

Armaros’ Estate

San José, Costa Rica

Armaros finished his last lap across the Olympic-sized swimming pool, built to regulation specsincluding the depth, number of lanes, and water-temperature control. The act of exercise itself was needless for him to maintain the godlike physique that had inspired even the Greek interpretations of his kind. There were other forces at work inside him sustaining the youth and function of his flesh. No, it wasn’t necessary, but it was beneficial. It was the simple things that seemed to have the greatest impacta good cigar, a woman’s body, the sensation of water passing over his skin as he moved with a grace and speed that would have embarrassed even the most skilled athletes. Such things brought perspective to his life, a counterbalance to eons of striving.

As he climbed out of the water and let it shed from his skin, a soft hiss of pneumatic pressure announced the opening of a glass door against the stone wall. Armaros’ assistant came into the private chamber holding what appeared to be an oversized phone. It was actually smaller than most, but the quantity and type of additional components that had been added to it made it bulky and impractical for uses other than the most secure communications.

Armaros dried his hands on the towel in the assistant’s other hand, then lifted the phone.

The assistant quickly spun on his heels and left the pool area, another hiss signaling his exit.

«Yes?» Armaros said, holding the device to his ear.

«We received your report an hour ago, and already I’ve had six meetings. My people are in a frenzy over this.»

«For good reason,» Armaros replied. «The names and places we’ve managed to get out of him imply many things, not the least of which is the size of their organization. And this is only from his perspective. He’s been confined to the Americas during his time in this world. Who knows what they are doing elsewhere.»

«What is the patient’s condition?»

«Patient?» Armaros laughed. «He’s a hostage. This is a war now, or don’t you understand that?»

«I understand perfectly,» the voice countered. «When were you going to tell me about Brazil?»

Armaros held his tongue for a moment, feeling his fingers involuntarily tighten around the phone.

«You didn’t think that was critical enough to be included in your report?»

«It’s being taken care of,» he replied.

«Hardly!» the other voice spat. «You let The Awakened slip through your fingers. You assured me that he would be dead as soon as he arrived.»

«That was before,» Armaros replied. «Before we knew what the enemy was capable of. Who could have?»

«YOU SHOULD HAVE!» The phone’s speaker began to crackle with the sudden rise in volume. When the voice spoke again, it was quiet and clear. «We need to get our arms around this situation immediately.»

«The flow of information from the patient is drying up,» Armaros said, putting his anger aside and concentrating on solving the problem.

«That’s why you’re going to move him to one of my facilities. I can get what we need from him.»

«No. We’re not going to do that! They’re looking for him as we speak. That transmitter we found will draw them in. We just have to be patient. He’s in a secure location, and when they come for him, it will be end of them and this war.»

The voice on the other end let out a breath. «It would only be the end of their operations in your part of the world. Then we would have lost the opportunity to understand what we’re up against.»

Armaros wanted to argue, but the logic was sound.

«What’s your hesitation?» the voice asked.

«His current location is defensible. Yours are not.»

«You know we have ways around that,» the voice assured. «Buildings matter very little.»

Armaros smiled as a plan began to take shape in his mind. The part of his mind that had been staging military operations for as long as such things existed opposed the idea of moving the hostage from an impenetrable location. But another, perhaps more effective part, saw a path to victory by allowing it to happen.

«Very well. Which location?»

The voice on the other end paused for a moment. «I’ll get back to you with the details.»

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

Rain clouds hung over the north end of the city, but the air was clear to the west where the late afternoon sun shone directly into the massive room through windows that stretched from floor to ceiling. Kael sat at one of many tables in the open area that appeared to be an eating establishment for everyone in the building. The tables and chairs were constructed of an unknown material, as was the smooth floor that seemed to be one endless tile with no seams. The whole room was made for efficient cleaning, like the kitchen of Orud’s Palace.

Efficient, he thought. Everything here was strange, but efficient. After the meeting, he’d been shown to a bathroom where he had expected to find a pool of water, but instead was shown a small enclosure called a shower. There, he had been able to wash himself in a cascade of water falling from overhead. They’d also given him clothes that were similar in style to what he wore at the monastery growing uppants, shoes, and a tunic that they referred to as a shirt.

«Here you go,» Stafford said, setting down a plate of food and a mug of tea. «Salmon, baked potato and vegetables.»

«Thank you,» Kael replied into his translator.

«It was the closest thing on the menu to your food,» he said, settling into the chair across from Kael.

Kael looked at the food, deciding which to try first.

Stafford picked up a fork and began digging into his plate of long, thin strands of something that looked like worms. «I’m not sure if you heard me earlier, but I’m very sorry about your father.»

«Thank you.»

Stafford smiled and took a bite of his food that had been swirled onto the end of his fork. When he finished chewing, he spoke again. «You know, I spent quite a bit of time with him. He told me all about your world, or at least parts of it. He spoke of the Empire and the tension with its neighborsthe Syvaku and the Korgan.»

Kael let a bite of the fish linger on his tongue before swallowing it. There were many other flavors in the food beside the fish itself. It was good, but complex, almost like they were trying to make it taste like something else. He quickly took a sip of tea and tried the vegetables.

«Yes. Things have changed quite a bit since he left. Both of those peoples tried unsuccessfully to invade the Empire under the direction of a single enemy. Hundreds of the Syvaku warriors were killed. Their culture remains strong among their own lands, though, and likely will for some time. The Korgan, however, will never be the same. They lost hundreds of thousands. And after the Empire freed its slaves, the Council was considering allowing them to move into Korgan land and settle it. What is left of their people, mostly women and children, have fled further north into the wastelands.»

«Wow,» Stafford replied. «To think that all this is happening somewhere elsewhole worlds full of people are carrying on with their lives. And no one knows it’s there.»

Kael nodded and ate another bite of the potato, which he found delicious.

«I can’t even imagine what you’re going through right now,» Stafford added. «I mean

if I went through that portal into your world, how would I make sense of everything?»

Kael smiled. «You would do just fine.»

Stafford turned around to look at the setting sun for a moment before returning to his food. «When we’re done, we’ll need to get started.»

Kael nodded.

«Suncio wants to get you speaking our language as soon as possible. You’ve probably already seen that these translators are no good in the field when you’re dodging bullets.»

Kael looked up from his food. «Is that what the projectiles are called?»

Stafford smiled. «Yeah. We’ll start with English, which is the language I’m speaking now. We’ll go over our alphabet and phonemes, and by then one of my techs will have some material for you to read. We used the characters your father wrote to reprint some of our manuals in your language. You probably won’t have time to get to reading tonight, but we’ll get you as far along as we can.»

«How long do we have?»

«For language? Well, Suncio wants to start tactical in a week, but we’ll keep working with you until you get it. There’s really no timeline. It could take years to become fluent, but we’ll just get as far as we can before our guys find Adair.»

Kael took a sip of tea and set down his mug. «I’m ready.»

Stafford was about to take a bite but quickly set down his fork. «Okay. Let’s get started.»

It must have been sometime around midnight when Kael turned the last page of the fifth manual that Stafford had left with him. He’d intended to sleep when they showed him to his room after the first round of instruction, but there were just too many things that needed to be done. Kael was tired, but he needed to adapt to this world far more than he needed sleep. As he read, he let his sense pick up the waves of sound that stirred the air with each pronunciation, committing them instantly to memory. Years ago, he used to think that he simply had a good sense of direction. He could go anywhere once and memorize it without another thought. Only later did he realize that his sense was behind it, imprinting upon his mind in a moment what took others weeks to learn.

He set the book down on the table next to the other massive volumes and reached for the ear devices that Stafford had showed him how to use. Put these over your ears and press this button, he remembered as he mimicked his teacher’s movements.

Almost immediately, Stafford’s voice came through the devices into Kael’s ears. He lay back on the bed and rested his head on the pillow as his sense swirled around about him, harvesting meaning from the pulsing waves in his ears and delivering it to the prison of his mind.

«Advanced auditory retention exercises for the English language. Volume one. Aaron Stafford,» the voice said.

Morning came too quickly for Kael after getting only a few hours of sleep. His body was starting to fatigue, but the hot shower helped. After dressing himself and getting food from the cafeteria, he met Stafford in the classroom down the hall. He hadn’t yet asked about their timekeeping devices, so he wasn’t sure how late he might be.

«Good morning,» he said as he came in and shut the door behind him.

The technicians looked up from their chairs, their eyes almost immediately settling on the sword at his waist.

Stafford had a smile on his face. «Good morning,» he replied, grabbing a translator and approaching.

«I don’t need that,» Kael said.

Stafford stopped and looked at his team with a smirk. «You learned the English language in one night?» he asked with sarcasm.

«Yes, I think so,» Kael replied. «I didn’t sleep much, but I worked through all the books and the

audio?»

Stafford’s mouth was open in amazement. «Yeah, audio.»

«I overheard someone in the hallway say they needed some coffee to wake up. Is that the black drink?»

«Yeah,» Stafford replied, now fully smiling. «Jack, can you grab Kael some coffee? Maybe some cream and sugar, just in case?»

The technician rose from his chair without taking his eyes off Kael and walked slowly out of the room.

«So, you understand what I’m saying right now?» Stafford asked.

«Yes.»

«And you’re telling me you read through all of the books and listened to all of the audio files?»

«Yes.»

«That was about a year’s worth of material. I just gave it to you so you’d have it around in the evenings

to help reinforce what we’re doing in the classroom.»

«Well,» Kael said. «Are there any other languages I need to know?»

«Uh

yeah.» Stafford said, looking quickly around the room. «Where are the other?»

«in the library,» one of his other technicians answered. «I only pulled the English stuff cause I thought

«

«Okay. Okay. Kael, have a seat. Jack should be back any minute with some coffee. Just give us some time to pull together our materials, and we’ll get moving.»

«Okay,» Kael imitated, taking a seat.

«I’ve never seen anything like it,» Stafford explained.

Helmsley was on the screen, calling in from Western Operations Division in the States. Matthews was sitting on the right side of the conference table pecking the keys of his laptop, with George in the seat next to him. Suncio was on the left, arms crossed.

«I mean, I’ve worked with lots of people in my time. It just doesn’t happen.»

«So, he knows English is what you’re saying?» Suncio asked, getting to the point.

«No. He learned English the first night. Fluently! Then we jumped into Spanish and Portuguese, and he had those by this morning.»

«That means we start tactical early,» Suncio concluded.

Stafford squinted at Suncio and wondered how the man was capable of coordinating military operations when he could miss this simple point. Maybe the lack of an excitement gene is what makes him good at his job, he thought.

«Unbelievable,» Helmsley declared.

«I think we’re finding out why the enemy wants this guy dead,» Matthews observed. «I’m really curious to see how he takes to field training.»

«Well, there’s no fast way around what we do,» Suncio replied. «He’d better keep his head in the game unless he wants to get hurt.»

Stafford shook his head but kept his mouth shut. There’s no fast way around three languages either; that’s the point!

«Alright. Maybe you’re just a good teacher, Aaron,» Helmsley offered.

«It’s more than that, sir. But thank you.»

«Well, Suncio? Can you take him five days early?» Helmsley asked.

«Yes, sir. We’re good to go.»

«Okay then. Let’s move ahead,» the director replied. «And keep me informed on his progress.»

CHAPTER 18

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

Matthews set down his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose. The report for Command was nearly finished, but he’d lost motivation hours ago and had been struggling with the conclusion section. Multiple cups of coffee had supplemented his interest for a while, but now he was sweating more than a field operative and his whole body felt jittery, like each muscle wanted to move in a different direction. When he’d taken the position as Head of Intelligence at the South and Central Americas office, he didn’t realize how much of his time would be consumed with converting data into layman’s terms. Things that were obvious and self-explanatory to him had to be summarized and spoon-fed up the chain of command to folks making a lot more money than he was.

Then again, he thought, that’s why they need me. Most analysts couldn’t communicate effectively to nontechnical personnel and vice versa.

The phone next to Matthews’ monitor beeped twice. He tapped the intercom button immediately, grateful for any distraction.

«Are you seeing this?» Andrea’s voice came through.

Matthews grabbed his glasses and looked up through the window of his office into the Command Room. Between the slots in the vertical blinds, he could see a data compilation on the central screen. «I’ll be right there,» he said and hung up. It took only seconds to reach the workstations where his team was set up and he could see at a glance what was happening.

«The nets picked up a rash of transmissions. I’ve had the whole team working to compile them since yesterday afternoon. I just ran the script you gave me and»

«Wow,» Matthews replied, seeing a scattering of red dots overlaid against a terrain map of the United States. Each dot represented the location of a cell phone tower where a data container had been picked up. «Have you compiled the timestamps?»

«And geo coordinates,» Andrea replied, nodding. She quickly tapped a few keys and the other data forms were overlaid as a single green line on the screen, plotted as a vector starting with the location of Adair’s capture. The first segment left Fort Stockton, Texas and stretched roughly northwest through Pecos, then Carlsbad, Artesia, and Roswell, New Mexico. Based on the timestamps, he was being moved by helicopter, which corroborated the debriefing from the surviving member of his Transport team. The next segment was almost a straight line to Nevada.

«The last group of transmissions were from these two towers. One in the mountains west of Alamo Landing Field and another just west of Yucca Airstrip, north of Mercury.»

Matthews folded his arms and looked at the column of text data on the right side of the screen, noting the smaller segments of time between each stamp of the second leg. «Do we have an air speed?»

«They were in a plane, so they must have transferred him in Roswell.»

Matthews paused for a moment, letting his eyes run over the map. «What’s between those last two cell towers?»

«Lincoln, Nevada.»

Matthews felt his eyebrows rise involuntarily as the realization hit him. «You’ve got to be kidding me.»

Andrea shrugged. «I wish I was. Command has a whole bank of servers dedicated to Area 51, but they haven’t been able to tie it to anything real. All the UFO stuff just clouds the water.»

As any effective counter-intelligence effort should. Matthews, still staring at the screen, slowly shook his head. «This just keeps getting weirder and weirder.»

Andrea smiled. «What do you want us to do?»

Matthews couldn’t help the exhalation that escaped his lips. «Well, I guess we have to follow the data. Let’s start pulling SAT feeds from over the base during his expected arrival time and interlacing the imagery. See if you can get a visual confirmation that he’s actually there.»

«Okay,» she replied, and walked back to her station.

Matthews lingered for a moment, watching the frenzy of activity from his team and support staff. Across the room, Suncio’s support staff were also working fast and concentrating on their tasks. There had been an exponential increase in data intercepts and the resulting workload since Adair had come into this world. Prior to that day, Matthews used to think that the organization could handle anything, but now he was feeling the strain on their infrastructure. There was so much to do now that he felt like a triage doctor, treating one fatal injury after the next while healthier patients were dying of preventable causes in the background, neglected by priority.

when the perceived resources at your disposal are insufficient to accomplish the perceived task, he thought, remembering the definition of psychological stress he’d memorized once from a self-help website while trying to find a way of dealing with his workplace responsibilities. Just report the data, Tim, he told himself. Let them make the decisions.

Null, Underground Training Facility

Bogotá, Columbia

Kael’s sense filled the space between the barrel of his rifle and the target one hundred meters away. Three fist-sized discs, painted white, stood out in contrast against the gray walls and floor. Row upon row of fluorescent light fixtures lined the ceiling, protected by a layer of bulletproof glass. In the lanes to either side, Kael could hear the muffled, random popping sounds of practice shots from Suncio’s Teams.

In a standing, unsupported position, Kael held the weapon as he’d been instructedfirmly, but without straining. With his dominant eye looking through the sights, he positioned the crosshairs on the bottom of the vertically aligned targets. But his aiming was only for appearances. The firearms instructor standing behind him had already scolded him several times throughout the day for failing to follow instructions exactly as they had been delivered. In truth, Kael didn’t need the sights. He had another, more accurate way of achieving the desired result. It made him feel like a child again, having to cover up his abilities to keep from offending an authority figure. But, he’d learned that training proceeded smoother this way, so he played along and did what he was told as far as they knew.

With the rifle set to a three-round burst, Kael took a breath and let it out steadily. Then he squeezed the trigger. The riffle jolted in his hands, sending a volley of lead downrange.

Ping, ping, ping!

All three targets flipped to the right, pivoting on the arm that attached them to a vertical shaft.

Kael could feel his instructor approach, though the man’s footsteps were blocked by the bulky ear protection they were required to wear.

«All right, hotshot,» the man yelled, his muffled voice sounding as if he’d been offended. He pressed a button on the partition that separated theirs from the next lane. «Switch to single-shot and see if you can hit these!»

Kael looked downrange. The hundred-meter targets retracted into the floor and there was movement at the far end of the indoor range. With his sense, Kael could feel three more targets rising into position at five hundred meters. Lifting his rifle from a low ready position, he realized that the targets weren’t even visible through the unmagnified, holographic sight.

Okay. If he wants me to do it my way, I will!

Kael squeezed the trigger three more times, with only a second’s pause between each shot. Though his eyes couldn’t detect it, he could feel the three targets pivot from the impact force.

«That’s enough for today!» yelled another voice.

Kael released the magazine, ejected the live round from the chamber, and moved the selector switch to the safety position before setting the weapon on the table with the muzzle facing downrange. When he turned around, Suncio and Greer were standing with the instructor and another man Kael had never seen before. Suncio waved him over.

Kael stepped away from the table and followed the men, while the instructor went over to retrieve the weapon.

When the small group had exited the range through a pair of soundproof doors, Kael pulled off his earmuffs and slid them down to his neck.

«Hi Kael,» the stranger said, extending the hand that wasn’t holding a clipboard. His eyes dropped to the sword at Kael’s waist for just an instant, then came back up again, almost imperceptible. «You can call me John. I’ll be observing your training. Don’t do anything differently around me. Just pretend I don’t exist.» He was of medium height with a thin build. His hands were free of callouses and each fingernail was perfectly shaped, a small crescent of white adorning each long finger.

Kael reached out and shook his hand, feeling the fragility of an appendage that had never experienced hard physical labor. He also noted the creative way the man had implied a name without actually saying it was his.

«I’ll be asking you questions throughout the day. Please just answer truthfully, and don’t read anything into it. No one here is going to be offended by your answers. Tell me, how do you feel about your first day of firearms training?»

Kael remembered the morning classroom session when his instructor had given a high-level overview of concepts. He’d received a brief history lesson before diving into general information about weapon selection and ammunition, cleaning and maintenance, handling, and marksmanship basics. After lunch, they had come here to the range to train on a variety of pistols and rifles.

Kael shrugged. «Good.»

John smiled, but it didn’t look genuine. More like habit than emotion. «Are we moving too slowly for you?»

«Yes.»

Suncio looked offended.

«I see,» John said, looking down to write something on his clipboard. «And what kind of information do you feel would benefit you more?»

Kael looked at Greer whose face was unreadable, then back to John. «The information is good. I just don’t need to spend as much time on each subject or activity.»

«I see,» John replied.

«Look. It’s a condensed course,» Suncio jumped in. «I pulled out about ninety percent of what you really should be learning. If you think we’re moving you along too slowly, I can fix that.»

«There’s no need to get defensive,» John said.

«I’m not defensive. It’s a fact. He’s only working with a fraction of the info,» Suncio argued. «Tell you what, Kael. Since Stafford seems to think you’re an academic genius, how about I have all the standard course material delivered to your room? You can read it on your own scheduleas quickly as you want.»

Kael smirked. «If you think that would help»

John mumbled something under his breath and scribbled on his clipboard before looking up. «Mr. Suncio, what type of information did you exclude from his training?»

«Oh, just all the things that my people have to spend years learning, memorizing, and testing for. Picture someone training for an Olympic sport while getting their Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. all in one shot. That’s our standard program. My guys go through hell just to reach a level of minimum proficiency before they’re allowed in the field, not to mention what a few years of real experience does for them. But not our special test subject here,» he said, nodding to Kael.

Kael kept a straight face and let John make whatever observations he wanted. For Kael’s part, he’d expected this. He’d dealt with it his whole lifefrom the kids at the monastery to the crew of Gryllus’ ship. He did his best with every task set before him, and he usually excelled. People always started out jealous and resentful. It used to bother Kael when he was young and cared more about what people thought of him, but that care had faded over the years as Kael started to accept what he was. Saba had his explanation for the cause of it, but Kael didn’t think of it as something special. He was just being himself.

«I submit that Kael begins Team exercises tomorrow morning,» John stated.

«Fine with me,» Kael agreed.

Suncio looked to Greer who just nodded. «Alright, Kael. How about thissomewhere in the truckload of books I’m going to have delivered to your room will be three manuals that cover battlefield strategy, small team configurations, COMM protocol, and tactics. You find those books and read em. I’ll give a short quiz in the morning, and if you pass, I’ll let you go out for field training.»

«Mr. Suncio, that’s absurd,» John protested.

«Is it? I’d rather not have our guest here get a bullet in the head just because he had no business playing with the big boys. For safety reasons, I have to insist. Plus, I’m told it’s well within his capacity for learning.» Suncio turned to Kael. «I’ll make sure they wrap the three books with pink ribbons so you can find them quickly.»

Kael allowed himself a grin before he turned to Greer. «I’ll see you on the field tomorrow.»

Deputy Director George Barrett leaned back in his ergonomic, Herman Miller chairhis one extravagance in an office that was otherwise too sparse and cheap for someone of his position. But inexpensive living was a side effect of covert work and couldn’t be helped. On one of his computer monitors was an open, secure audiovisual line to his boss, Jim Helmsley.

«Matthews’ team is working some leads on a possible location for Adair.»

«Anything conclusive?»

«Not yet. A few passive locator transmissions. I’ll let you know if we get confirmation,» George answered.

«What about Kael? How’s he doing?»

«He seems to be adjusting well. He keeps asking about his dad, though. Every day, right after training.»

Helmsley nodded. «And how is that going?»

George couldn’t help but smile. «He’s taking to firearms just like he did to his language studies.»

Helmsley picked up on the deputy director’s amusement. «How’s Suncio taking it?»

«Not too well, actually. This guy is outperforming everyone who’s ever gone through the course. And I’m not talkin’ just the top of the class. This guy’s literally off the charts.»

«Well, I’d cut Suncio some slack,» Helmsley suggested. «He has a right to be upset. The new kid on the block is never liked until people learn to trust him.»

«I suppose so,» George replied. «That reminds me. We’re starting him on field training exercises tomorrow as long as he passes an oral exam.»

«How long until he’s fully ready?»

«Two years if Suncio has anything to say about it, but at the pace Kael is moving, I’d say a week. Of course, he still doesn’t know basic things about our world. He walks around in a state of perpetual amazement.»

Helmsley smiled. «That’s to be expected. Maybe Suncio ought to work some TV sitcoms into Kael’s schedule.»

«Yeah. I’ll be sure to mention that to him, just as soon as I find my Kevlar vest.»

Helmsley had a smirk on his face as he glanced somewhere off-screen, probably at a clock. «Thanks for the update. Let’s touch base tomorrow.»

«Yes, sir,» George replied, then closed the line.

Greer rapped his knuckles on the steel door.

It opened slowly, revealing Kael’s concerned face. Behind him, piles of books could be seen on his bed, desk, and every other horizontal surfacethe promised delivery from Suncio.

«Come on,» Greer said. «You need to join us.»

«Uh

where?» Kael mumbled.

«Just put your books down and come with me.»

Kael’s eyebrows came together before he shut the door. A few seconds later it opened again and he came out of his room. The sword and scabbard that always hung from his waist looked particularly awkward now against his modern clothing.

Greer couldn’t help but smile. «You won’t need that tonight. It’ll be safe in your room.»

Kael put his hand on the hilt of the weapon and didn’t break eye contact. «No, thank you.»

An uncomfortable moment of silence passed before Greer shrugged then started making his way down the hallway without another word. It took a few minutes to wind through the halls and make their way to the west side of the building and into the deserted cafeteria, which was dimly lit by the fire exit signs and safety lighting. As soon as Greer entered the room, he saw Thompson picking up two chairs and heading toward the kitchen. «How many more do we need?» Greer asked.

«This is it,» Thompson replied, handing one of his burdens to his commanding officer.

Greer accepted the chair and carried it into the kitchen, then through the freezer area where thick windows revealed meat piled on shelves or hanging from the ceiling. Beyond that, they passed through another room with boxes and crates stacked nearly to the ceiling before exiting a door that opened to an outdoor patio area. The sky was dark, but the city lights to the west provided an amazing backdrop for their small gathering.

«Well, look who decided to show up.» Jensen called out.

Kael suddenly looked uncomfortable.

«I had a few things I had to take care of,» Greer explained.

«Shoot, TL. You didn’t have to get all dolled-up for us.»

Martinez whistled and Thompson just laughed as he set down his chair.

Greer looked down at his civilian clothes. «What, too fancy for you rednecks? I might have a few pairs of jeans in my room that don’t have holes in them

if you want to borrow something.»

«Heads up,» Martinez said, tossing a cold beer in Kael’s direction.

The quiet stranger snatched it out of the air with quick reflexes and inspected the frosty bottle with a confused look.

Greer reached out and took the bottle from his hand, fishing a bottle-opener out of his pocket. «Do they have beer where you’re from?»

Kael just nodded.

«I’ll bet they don’t have bottles,» Martinez said under his breath.

Greer popped the cap and handed it back to Kael. «Make yourself comfortable.»

The blond-haired foreigner eyed a nearby chair and headed over to it.

«Hey, Rolando,» Greer called. «How we lookin’?»

The head chef of the kitchen had become an honorary part of their Team, at least for social occasions. Although he’d studied the culinary arts and knew how to command his kitchen staff as well as Greer commanded his soldiers, he enjoyed a lowly barbecue as much as the next man.

«I’ll give em another minute or so,» he said, standing next to the smoking grill. He didn’t have a beer in his hand yet. He wouldn’t fully relax until the food was ready. «How does the new guy like his meat?»

Greer turned. «Kael. You eat meat?»

Kael nodded, having taken his first sip of beer.

«How do you like it? Medium?»

Kael inspected the label on his bottle and then looked up again. «What do you mean?»

«Pink, or no pink?» Rolando called out.

Kael smiled. «Whatever you recommend.»

Greer raised his eyebrows and turned back to Rolando. «Smart man!»

As promised, Rolando had the steaks off the grill and in front of his friends in minutes. When he finally sat down in front of his own plate with beer in hand, Greer raised his bottle. «First things first.»

The other members of TAC 1 raised their bottles as well.

«To Zylski. A damn fine soldier who would have taken a bullet for any one of us. He was a bit of a nerd and too smart for his own good, but we loved him for it. He was an excellent shot and did his part to rid the world of bad guys. He was an asset to the Team and our organization, and the world is a worse place without him.»

Two seconds of silence passed before the members of TAC 1 suddenly pounded clenched fists against their chests.

«Dig in,» Greer said, setting down his beer to grab a fork and knife.

As the cutting commenced, Greer turned to watch Kael who was sitting on his left. The man stuffed a chunk of meat into his mouth and his eyes lit up. «Good, huh?»

Kael nodded, appearing to savor it. When he was done, he looked up at Rolando. «Is this cow?»

The chef cracked a toothy smile. «Beef,» he corrected, nodding.

«How did you get it to taste like this?» Kael asked, clearly impressed.

«Years of practice, bro’

and lots of taste-testing,» he added, leaning back to pat his belly, which was quite a bit larger than any of the fit soldiers around the table.

Kael smiled. «This meat would make an Emperor proud,» he said.

Jensen and Martinez looked up suddenly from their plates, but Thompson just smiled at the foreign phrase and kept his face down.

«So, Kael. What’s it like where you’re from?» Greer asked.

Kael looked up and scanned the horizon. «Different than this place.»

«You’re a soldier, aren’t you?»

Kael took a bite and kept silent until he was done chewing. «Yes, since I was ten.»

«Whoa,» Jensen said. «They get started early.»

Kael just smirked.

«I want to thank you for saving my life

twice,» Greer continued. «If you hadn’t pulled me out of the way, I wouldn’t be sitting here now.»

Kael paused and met Greer’s eyes. «You were doing the same for me.»

Greer was about to reply when Martinez interrupted. «Why are you so important to the enemy?»

Kael grabbed his beer and leaned back in his chair. «I can’t tell you that.»

«Can’t or won’t?» Martinez pushed.

«Easy, Martinez,» Greer cautioned. Then he turned back to Kael. «Look. We’d just like to know who we’re dying to protect.»

«I wish I could tell you, but

«

After an awkwardly long pause, Greer finished the statement. «But it’s your only leverage over Helmsley. I get it.»

Kael took a sip and remained quiet.

«Well, Kael. What can you tell us? We’re about to go into the field together tomorrow and we don’t know anything about you.»

Thompson lifted his head. «Except that you’re a good shot and you heal really fast.»

Kael leaned forward and set down his beer. After a long pause, he answered. «I was born in the port city of Bastul. My father was the Governor and a Colonel in the Orudan army.»

Greer sat back in his chair and settled himself in for what sounded like it would be a long story.

CHAPTER 19

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

The intercom on Matthews’ phone beeped.

«Yes?»

«We have something for you,» Andrea replied.

Seconds later, Matthews was standing in the Command Room looking at a satellite image of the classified military base.

«We weren’t able to get visual confirmation of the transfer in New Mexico, but based on the timestamps, we know they were moving Adair by jet,» Andrea began. «Factoring in our error tolerance, we have an arrival window of twenty-two minutes. During that time, three flights arrived at the base. One was a Bell 204 chopper that landed at the helipad here, on the south end of Groom Lake,» she said, drawing a circle around the area using a laser pointer. «We tracked it just to be sure, but only the pilot exited the craft. Nothing unusual there.»

«Good,» Matthews replied, pleased that Andrea was thorough in her work.

«The second was a Cessna Citation Mustang. It landed on this airstrip here, where it was met by a driver in a Humvee. Two passengers exited and were driven approximately twenty miles away to this cluster of buildings here, west of this salt flat. They weren’t too concerned with secrecy, and as you might suspect, nothing turned up there either.

«Right,» Matthews answered.

«Now to the interesting one. A Phenom 300 light business jetincidentally manufactured by Embraer in Brazillanded on runway D3R out in the flats here.»

«Hmm,» Matthews mumbled, crossing his arms.

«It taxied to this hangar here on the south side of the lake. There was no activity for half an hour until a vehicle arrived and entered the hangar. The vehicle came from this building here, which we suspect is an aircraft-maintenance facility. We backtracked all of the movements of their vehicles, and it appears they service all the hangars in this area. There are possibly six crews and the only time their vehicles leave the area is to go to these barracks here.»

Matthews nodded, liking what he was hearing.

«About seven minutes after the maintenance vehicle arrives at the hangar, it leaves the area and heads north along this road, then turns west here, stopping at this large structure.»

«That’s unusual by itself,» Matthews observed.

Andrea nodded and continued. «Then it pulls up to the loading dock on the north side of the building.»

Matthews looked at the enhanced photo, captured as a still image from the satellite footage. «Those vehicles parked on the eastern side away from the building. See how they’re all at an angle? That’s their typical parking lot,» he said, indicating what was actually just a dirt field.

«Unless you’re transporting something, or someone who isn’t moving under his own volition,» she added.

«Exactly. What else?»

«That’s about it. Five minutes later, the vehicle heads back to the maintenance building and everything goes back to normal.»

Matthews couldn’t help but smile. Normal. This is anything but normal. «Good work, Ms. Bosque.»

«Andrea,» she corrected.

«Sorry. Andrea,» Matthews quickly replied. It had been an unconscious slip of the tongue, but a revealing one. Matthews realized in that moment that he was intimidated by his new Senior Analystnot just by her intellect, but her beauty. He liked her on many levels, and the sudden attempt to bring formality to their interaction just made it embarrassingly obvious.

«So, here comes the tedious part,» he pressed on, hoping to move out of the uncomfortable territory. «We need to log every movement of both personnel and vehicles in and out of that building. Have Gretchen analyze the times of movement and see if any patterns show up so we can start separating regular personnel from visitors and any other variations.»

«Okay,» Andrea replied. «I’ve already skimmed over the footage to present time and there haven’t been any major changes in the number of vehicles, or unusual bursts of activity.»

«That’s good to know. We have about a week’s worth of footage to review and process. Pull in other resources as you need and I’ll report to George that we have a probable location.»

«Yes, sir,» Andrea replied stiffly. She suddenly looked self-conscious as she turned and walked back to her work station.

Matthews immediately wondered if her sudden formality was also to cover up something. Or, was she put off by me dumping a bunch more work on her plate?

Null, Outdoor Training Facility

Southern Bogotá, Colombia

Rain clouds hung thick over the mountainous terrain. The first drops of moisture were just beginning to fall, offering a welcome break from the afternoon heat and concealment from the three Teams advancing on their location from the north.

«I got em,» Jensen said over the COMM. «They’re moving upriver and coming fast.»

«Copy that. I’ve got another Team coming over the ridge to the north,» Martinez relayed from his vantage point at the top of the hill.

The two men were on point about a hundred meters ahead of the rest of the group, surveying their routes from a higher elevation. The remainder of TAC 1 was holding back in a cluster of trees on the southwestern side of the mountain. They had been traversing the steep terrain when Kael sensed the movement of the opposing forces.

Greer turned to Kael. «I don’t know how they found us, but you were right.»

Kael looked down to the locator device attached to the chest of his uniform. «They didn’t.»

Greer looked down at his own device. «These are just so TEC can monitor everyone’s movements.»

«Exactly,» Kael replied.

«No. You don’t get it. They’re outside the exercise. They don’t interfere; they just monitor,» he clarified.

Kael squinted and looked to the misty hills south of their position. «Then how do you explain the fact that we have three more Teams following us?»

«What? There’s only us and three others in this exercise.»

Kael turned and pointed. «The fourth is in the crook between those two peaks, there. The fifth is coming downriver, there. And the sixth is just east of that clearing.»

Greer frowned before leaning toward his shoulder-mounted receiver. «Jensen. Martinez. I need confirmation on three more possible Teams closing in on our position from the south.»

«Copy that. Distances?»

«The first is one klick due south, just east of the clearing. The second is about twelve hundred meters upriver, on the

« he paused.

«west side,» Kael instructed.

«On the west side. The third is two and a half klicks south-southwest, between those two peaks.»

«Standby,» Jensen replied. A moment later: «I got one Team by the river.»

«I’ve got one Team moving east away from the clearing,» Martinez chimed in. «Looks like they’re trying to surround us.»

«What about the furthest Team?» Greer asked.

«Nothing yet,» they both replied.

«Well?» Kael asked Greer. «Looks like your superior is cheating.»

«They did that to me once just after Basic,» said Chris Durand, the newest member of TAC 1 and Zylski’s replacement. «They rigged a no-win scenario so they could see how we would deal with failure.»

Thompson looked down at his locator. «Even if we take these off, we don’t have a good way of getting rid of them without making it obvious.»

«Where’s Suncio?» Kael asked.

Greer squinted. «Why?»

«I have an idea.»

Thompson came a step closer to the group.

Greer turned slowly and pointed west. «He’s observing from the TEC post at the top of that ridge.»

Kael followed his outstretched arm and could just barely make out part of a roofline over the foliage. «Okay. Do you have some rope?»

Greer cocked his head to one side. «Yeah. Why?»

«What are you doing?» Thompson asked, sounding irritated.

Kael looked at both the senior members of the Team. «How well do you guys deal with failure?»

Both men smirked, but Thompson answered. «We don’t fail.»

«Good. Neither do I.»

Greg Suncio stood at the window of the Tactical Exercise Command post with binoculars raised, scanning for signs of movement. «I don’t see them.»

«They’re moving quickly in single file toward the river, sir,» said the technician monitoring all the Teams’ movements on his screen.

Suncio stepped away from the window and looked at the computer monitor. Six red dots were snaking through the terrain and had just arrived at the river. One by one, they each entered the water and began moving north.

Rushing back to the window, Suncio lifted his binoculars, but there was a slight rise in the jungle canopy obscuring his view of the river where Greer’s Team should be. He grabbed his radio. «All Teams. All Teams. This is Command. Red Team is in the water and moving quickly downriver. Be advised that they may go under to avoid detection.»

«Copy that. Blue Beta moving west to the river for intercept,» came a voice in reply.

«Interesting,» mumbled John from somewhere at the back of the room.

Suncio shifted his gaze downriver and tried to ignore the strange man who was probably scribbling on his clipboard. There were rapids everywhere and foliage overhung the banks on both sides. He couldn’t see anything, but that was to be expected. «Where are they now?»

«Sir. Two of them have stopped on the western bank. The others are still moving downriver,» the technician replied.

«How long til they reach Blue Beta?»

«Ninety seconds, sir.»

«Blue Beta. This is Command. The targets have split into two and four. The first of four will be at your location in ninety seconds.»

«Copy that,» came the reply.

«Blue Alpha. Begin moving east toward the bank to intercept the group of two.»

«Copy that,» came another reply.

A sudden intake of air from John made Suncio flinch, but before he could turn to see what was the matter, he felt a pulling sensation at his right hip, then the feeling of cold steel pressed against his temple.

«Put down the binoculars, and step back from the window,» a calm voice ordered.

For a moment, Suncio’s mind struggled to comprehend the situation. We’re in the middle of an exercise! The enemy doesn’t even know about this facility. How could they have found?

Realization suddenly dawned.

«Kael?» he asked, turning slightly.

The barrel of his own gun jabbed harder into his temple. «Get on your radio, and order the Teams to the south to converge on the river and then move north up the west bank,» the calm voice continued.

«Kael. What do you think you’re doing? That’s a real sidearm. It’s loaded.»

«I know what it is,» Kael replied. «Now pick up your radio.»

«Kael. This is just»

Something hard slammed into the back of Suncio’s knees and his legs were suddenly not underneath him. He felt his body drop toward the wooden plank floor. When he landed on his tailbone, Kael’s arm was already around his neck and crushing his windpipe. He still couldn’t turn his head and now could only see his own legs and feet sticking out in front of himself.

«Give the order,» Kael’s voice hissed in his ear.

Suncio was angry now. Instead of reaching for his radio, he reached around to the back of his neck, groping for Kael’s hand where there would be fingers to break to release himself. If he thinks he’s going in the field after

Bang!

His weapon discharged inches from his head, and Suncio watched the floor next to his right foot splinter with the impact of a 9mm round. His body immediately went still.

«GIVE THE ORDER!» Kael shouted.

Suncio could only hear out of his left ear now, but he immediately reached for his radio. «Blue Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot,» he wheezed. Kael’s arm loosened slightly so he could talk. «Converge on the river and move north up the west bank.»

«Copy that,» came the replies.

«I’ll take that,» Kael said, quickly snatching the radio from Suncio’s hand. «Now get up.»

Slowly, Suncio pushed himself off the floor and turned around. John was standing in the corner, his usual pale face now a few shades whiter. Thompson was standing in the doorway with his rifle aimed at the young technician who sat in front of the monitor with his hands in the air. Thompson’s gun only had blanks for the exercise, but the technician didn’t know that.

Kael stood a few paces away with Suncio’s 9mm. The gun was still aimed at his head.

«Stand down, Kael. Someone could get hurt,» Suncio said, trying to diffuse the situation.

«Take a seat,» Kael said, motioning to a chair in the corner.

Reluctantly, Suncio moved to the chair and sat down.

Kael tucked away the weapon and began tying him to the chair with a rope.

«Thompson. What are you doing? This is just an exercise,» he assured the soldier. «Do you know how much trouble you’re in after this?»

«Sorry, sir,» Thompson replied. «Failure’s not an option, right?»

Suncio gritted his teeth upon hearing his often said words spoken back to him.

When the last knot had been tied, Kael backed away and spoke into his own receiver. «Greer, this is Lorus. The path is clear. We’ll meet you at the objective.»

«Copy that. Moving out,» Greer replied.

Kael held up the pistol. «You’ll get this back when we successfully complete the mission.»

«What’s the point?» Suncio spat. «You’re never going in the field with my men. And your training is over!»

«We’ll see how Helmsley feels about that,» Kael replied, and then turned to look at the technician who was still holding his hands in the air. «Don’t touch that radio.»

«Yes, sir,» the kid replied.

Kael and Thompson slowly backed out the doorway and into the hall. A moment later, the Tactical Exercise Command post fell silent.

Suncio looked over at the behavioral psychologist standing in the corner. «See what I mean, John? Unstable. Now get over here and untie me.»

«Interesting,» John replied with a faraway look in his eyes. Instead of jumping at Suncio’s order, he looked down and began writing on his clipboard.

CHAPTER 20

Location Unknown

A bright light flashed in Adair’s eye. He flinched, but his eyelids wouldn’t close. The light shifted position and paused for a moment before Adair felt a release of pressure on his brow. He blinked, and this time his lids closed. Beyond the multicolored blotches now swimming across his vision, he recognized two fingers reaching for his other eye. They spread open his eyelids just as the blinding flashlight returned.

White walls and ceiling.

Figures moving.

White robes levitating over a pale green floor.

A masked face leaned in, coming into focus.

Suddenly, a pinprick.

A shining needle protruding from his arm.

A syringe filling with crimson.

A moan came suddenly to his ears and Adair recoiled, waking himself with his own vocalization of fear. He was lying on his back. The bed beneath him was comfortable, and his body felt as though it weighed twice its normal weight. The walls and ceiling above him were stark white, just as in his dream, but the lighting wasn’t as harsh. He looked down to the end of the bed and noticed his own legs and feet, his tanned skin showing dark against the white robe and bed linens. His mouth felt parched, but the nagging hunger that had gripped himfor who knows how longwas gone.

Adair raised his hand and felt resistance, now seeing the clear tube embedded into the skin on the top of his hand, taped into place. His eyes lazily followed the path of the tube down and away from the bed until it rose to a clear bag of fluid hanging beside his bed on a chromed metal stand.

The effort to move his eyes enflamed the ache in his head that had been dull until this moment. He quickly shut his eyes and reached for his forehead as a matter of habit. That’s when he realized that he had something soft wrapped around his head. Probing gently against the tender skin, he slid his fingertips beneath the layers of bandages. His head had been shaved.

His fingers slid over a tiny ridge of firm skin, about a quarter inch longan incision that had been stitched closed. First one, then another.

Adair quickly began unwrapping the bandages from his head, feeling his heart quicken with panic.

What have they done to me?

The cloth unwound to reveal dozens of incisions all across his scalp. Adair struggled to a seated position and threw the stained bandages on the pale green floor. His vision swam with dizziness at the exertion, but he didn’t care. With every passing second his muddled thinking was beginning to clear. Now he noticed the array of wires and tubes attached to various parts of his body. The screens of electronic equipment around his bedmonitoring his heart rate, blood pressure, and other vitalswere silently flashing with his increased activity.

Adair raised both hands to his temples where the pain was most intense. Suddenly, his fingers withdrew, having unexpectedly touched something metal. Slower, with a more tentative inspection, he confirmed that something had been embedded in his skin. Two objects clung to the sides of his head, with prongs that extended in all directions, like grotesque, mechanical flowers. Each one was the size of a fingertip. In the center, a circular void waited like an open mouth. To be filled with what?

A soft beeping emanated from one of the machines beside his bed just as the door burst open.

A sharp intake of breath came from the nurse’s mouth as she then muttered something in a language that Adair hadn’t heard before. The woman came quickly to Adair’s side, stepping over the bloodied bandages now lying on the floor. She gently pushed against Adair’s shoulder, whispering soft, unintelligible words of comfort. Her skin was pale and her hair blonde, like Maeryn’s.

Adair allowed himself to be lowered back to his pillow, disarmed by the woman’s gentleness. He looked up into her green eyes. «Where am I?»

«Shhh,» she replied, laying one hand on his chest while reaching toward the IV with the other.

Adair felt a tear escape his eye and roll down the side of his face, though he couldn’t feel the emotion that had produced it. «What are you doing to me? Why am I here? I don’t understand what’s happening,» he pleaded. But as the sound of his voice reached his ears, he realized that his words were jumbled, not quite matching up with the thoughts in his head. He suddenly couldn’t turn his questions into words. The room began to spin, and Adair suddenly felt exhausted. The irresistible urge to close his eyes and rest was the last thing he felt before a thought crossed his mind.

«No more medication. I don’t want to sleep

«

But his words were nothing but gibberish.

Null, Western Operations Division (WOD)

McLean, Virginia, United States

«I can’t trust him around my men!» Suncio argued.

«You don’t seriously think he’s going to hurt them, do you?» George asked.

Suncio pinched the bridge of his nose and paused for a moment. «To do what we do,» he continued with a quiet intensity, «I have to be able to trust my men. All of them. And they have to trust me. In the field, there’s no room for questions or explanations

or sedition. He put a gun to my head, for God’s sake!»

Helmsley, observing the meeting in Bogotá from the comfort of his office, turned his attention to the center of his screen where his deputy director sat at the end of the conference table. «George, what do you think?»

George raised his eyebrows and tilted his head. «I’ve got to agree with Suncio on this. I mean, what would we do if one of our own soldiers did something like this? We’d have him scrubbing toilets in Timbuktu for the rest of his career, if not sitting in prison.»

Helmsley’s eyes slid to the behavioral psychologist that Command had sent over to evaluate Kael’s training. «John, what’s your take on this?»

The man looked briefly at Suncio and George before answering. «I understand your concerns. I really do, Mr. Suncio. You and your Teams are the best at what you do, and we need you to be just that. But that’s not the goal here. If we just needed another soldier who follows orders, I could give you a dozen names right nowgood men that my department has cleared for training. But our goals for Kael are different.»

John turned his attention back to the screen. «From the beginning, we knew that whoever would come through that portal would possess value far beyond the obvious. Greer has told me some very strange things and I believe we have not even begun to understand Kael’s potential. I’ll grant you that his actions, on the surface, appear to be cause for concern, but I see it differently. We put him and TAC One into a no-win scenario to observe their dynamics of failure. Mr. Suncio and I wanted to study the effects of an outsider on the Team’s reaction. We’ve already seen how the others would respond. But Kael took an entirely different path than anyone else I’ve studied. Some men fall apart, and we weed them out of our programs. Others push through the inevitable conclusion and maintain their mission priorities and strategy until the end, which is what we normally look for in this case. Kael, on the other hand, elevated his attention to the factors controlling the situation. While everyone else has been content to play along with the game, Kael questioned the game itself.»

«This is no game!» Suncio growled.

John turned his clinical expression to the head of Field Operations. «I disagree. It is a game intended to simulate real-world situations. Every other soldier, passing or failing, accepted the terms of the exercise, but Kael chose to go after the puppetmaster pulling the strings. I find that very interesting.»

George leaned forward. «Hold on. All I’m hearing is that Kael is an independent thinker with an inclination toward rebellion. I don’t find that very comforting at all, considering the level of trust required during a firefight.»

«On the contrary,» John argued. «The type of person you’re describing falls into an entirely different category. Kael didn’t abandon the group and strike out on his own. He saw an opportunity, and he led the Team toward it. He has shown an ability to follow when it is appropriate and a refusal to follow when there’s a more effective way.»

«So what happens when my men are in the field and it’s not a game? What happens when lives are on the line and there isn’t a puppetmaster pulling strings?» Suncio interjected, with a hint of bitterness in his voice.

John smiledan expression that looked awkward on his face. «It could be argued that there is always a puppet master. We all take orders from someone. But I see what you mean. If the exercise had been real, and you hadn’t been present for Kael to coerce, how would he have reacted? Would TAC One still have survived? I don’t have an answer for that. But I suspect the outcome would have been something unpredictable and effective.»

«You sound excited,» Helmsley observed.

«Yes, sir. Not since the beginning of my career have I been so intrigued by a patient.»

Helmsley nodded. «That sounds a lot like Stafford’s conclusion.»

Suncio and George sat back in their chairs.

Helmsley turned his attention to the Head of Intelligence, who had thus far been silent. «Matthews. What’s the status on Adair’s operation?»

The former analyst looked up from his laptop. «It’s going well, sir. We’ve isolated his location to a particular building and we’re logging the movements of every person and machine on the base. We have a good understanding of their reaction times and capabilities. Suncio and I have started laying out the assumptions and framework of the assault plan.»

«That reminds me,» George interjected. «I know we’ve discussed this before, sir, but there’s a ton of firepower on that base. Matthews and Suncio are building up the plan and contingencies, but I can see the bottom line right now. We’re not talking about sending in a few Teams. This will be a major operation requiring resources from other offices. Is Adair worth all this? He’s probably already given them everything he knows.»

Helmsley looked down at his desktop for a moment. It was a fair question. He had come to respect Adair during their time together, and that respect had even begun to grow into admiration. But when he considered the cost-versus-benefit of Adair’s rescue, he had to admit it didn’t make sense. «No. He’s not. Normally, we would have been forced to cut our losses and move on, but Kael’s cooperation and trust is our first priority. That comes straight from Command. We need to know what he knows, and since we’re not in the business of torturing people, we need to play by his rules. He wants his father back, and we’re going to help him.»

«What if he doesn’t deliver on his promise?» George pressed. «What if all this is for nothing?»

«Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. This man is the single biggest discovery in the history of our organization. You saw it yourself. We sat him down in that conference room and in just a few short minutes, he said more than all the INTEL we’ve managed to gather for ourselves. The spooks at Command have been working round the clock with the info he’s already given us. It’s like Christmas morning for them.»

«What if he’s just making it up to get what he wants?»

Helmsley smiled. George was just doing his jobasking the tough questions. «He’s not. I’ll forward you some of the reports. Trust me. They’ve analyzed his statements backwards and forwards. His words confirm many suspicions and open up worlds more. He’s a goldmine. Do me a favor. Just work with the guy as best you can. Prepare him to live in our world.»

«Yes, sir,» they all responded.

«Thanks, everyone,» Helmsley added. «Let’s get back to work.

Location Unknown

A high-pitched alarm grew in volume until Adair jolted awake, throwing his arm in front of his face to protect himself. His body was damp with sweat and the lights in his room were dimmed. There was nothing but silence.

I was dreaming.

The wires and tubes were gone. The electronic equipment was nowhere to be seen. Adair looked down at his hand and there was only a purple dot on his skin where the IV used to be. He quickly reached up to his head, searching for some sign of how long he’d been asleep. There was a fine layer of stubble.

A few days, at least.

The noise returned, but it wasn’t an alarm. Someone was screaming, and the sound was coming from outside his door. Adair swung his legs over the side of the bed and rested his bare feet on the smooth tile. The floor was warm, despite its cheerless appearance. He put some weight on his legs and they held up without struggle. Apparently, he’d regained his strength during his time here. He also noticed a few extra pounds on his starving frame. Whoever these doctors and nurses were, they seemed to be attempting to undo what the enemy soldiers had done to him.

Another scream turned his attention to the door. Adair pushed himself away from the bed and moved cautiously across the room, surprised by the sturdiness of his own movements. A small rectangular window was situated high on the door to his room. Adair rose up on tiptoes and peered through the double-paned window, reinforced with steel mesh.

On the other side of the metal door was a dimly lit hallway running from side to side. Two other doors were visible on the other side of the hall. There was some movement at the left extremity of his vision, and Adair pulled himself closer to the window to get a better view.

Legs were sprawled out on the floor. Green nurse scrubs stuck out from beneath a white lab coat, with comfortable white shoes sliding back and forth, trying to get traction on the floor after falling. Another scream sounded and the nurse’s clothes disappeared.

Adair pressed his ear up to the door and could make out a soft groaning.

«NOOOO!» a ragged voice called out.

Suddenly, two male nurses stumbled into view. Between their rigid and hunched forms, they struggled to control a tiny, flailing body. Long black hair whipped in all directions by its thrashing head. Pale, gaunt limbs seemed to overpower the towering men, striking out in all directions as the nurses slipped and fumbled down the hallway. The two full-grown men were barely able to move the little girl.

The fatherly instinct inside Adair took over, and he immediately grabbed for the door handle, desperately rattling the silver globe that prevented him from exiting his room and smashing the men’s faces with his clenched fists. It was locked.

The girl instantly stopped her flailing and looked up in Adair’s direction. Between strands of lank hair matted against her brow, beads of sweat stood on the surface of a deformed young face. One dilated pupil constricted, finding its focus. Where the other eye should have been, the oversized skin of her face hung limp.

Adair swallowed hard as the bright yellow iris pointed in his direction. The girl, once looking through him, was now looking at him.

The nurses only seemed to notice the sudden change in her behavior and seized the opportunity to drag her further down the hallway and out of sight.

Adair remained leaning against the door for a while, feeling the cold metal against his skin. The hallway was empty now, but that face and piercing, yellow eye stayed with him.

Who was that?

After a long period of silence, Adair wandered back to his bed.

«I saw you. I saw you.»

Adair opened his eyes. He’d fallen asleep again. He rolled over and looked around the room, wondering if the words were from his dream or the hallway again.

«You’re the father,» a girl’s voice said.

Adair sat up. «Where are you?» He saw only an empty room.

«You’re his father. They told me about you.»

Adair looked up and saw the ventilation grate in the ceiling. The voice was coming through the heating and air-conditioning duct. He rose from his bed and moved over to the bare wall beneath the grate. «Who are you?»

«Eight fourteen. Eight fourteen.» The voice sounded drawn out, and echoed like it was coming from far away.

«You’re like a sunrise.» The voice was fainter this time, like she had turned away and was talking with someone else.

«Hello?» Adair called. «Who are you?»

«Eight fourteen,» she replied.

«What does that mean? I don’t know what that means.»

The girl didn’t reply.

«Hello? Whose father? Are you there?» he called out again.

She laughed. «The Awakened.»

«What does that mean?» Adair pleaded. He felt desperate for conversation, but she wasn’t making any sense.

Another moment of silence.

Adair thought of another question. «Did those men hurt you?

«They’re dark and hard. Like bones. You were a sunrise.»

Adair rubbed his forehead, realizing that the girl was crazy. Is that why she’s in here? Is that why I’m in here? He slid down the wall and sat on the floor, tucking his legs underneath his white gown. He pictured the tiny girl thrashing about as the men tried to control her. He thought about the girl’s yellow eye and the way she’d changed from a wild animal into a calm person as she saw him in the hallway.

Sunrise.

Suddenly, he remembered something from his time in Bastul, the way a nurse had once spoken to a man in her carea soldier with a head injury. The man had gone crazy, but she found a way to converse with him anyway, by repeating his phrases.

«You saw me in the hallway?» he tried.

«I saw you,» she replied.

«I was like a sunrise?»

«Yes,» she answered. «Bright everywhere.»

It wasn’t like a real conversation, but Adair had no other options. «I’m a father?»

There was no reply this time.

«Well, I am a father. And a husband. But I don’t know if I’ll ever see my family again. Do you have a family?»

«Nooooo,» she replied, her voice fading to a whisper. «They told me.»

«They told you?» Adair repeated.

«They’re telling me.»

Adair looked up at the ceiling. «Is someone there with you now?»

«Angels,» she replied.

«They’re telling you something?»

«

father,» her faint voice said.

«Father of whom?» Adair asked. After a moment’s silence, he spoke again. «Hello?»

«I’m

I can’t

«

Adair dropped his head into his hands. What had they done to this poor girl? Was this what he would sound like after being here for too long?

«K

Kay

Can’t.» The girl’s voice was distant now.

She must be standing far away from her grate.

«

have to go now,» she whispered.

«Okay. Let’s talk again soon,» he replied. In the silence that followed, Adair could hear breathing, like the girl’s face was pressed up to the grate.

«Have to go. Kael’s coming for you.»

Adair’s body jolted like he’d been struck with an arrow. «What? Hello? How do you know Kael?» Adair jumped to his feet. «Hello?»

«Get down from there!» came the sound of a male voice from the other end of the ventilation.

Adair looked up, wishing he could see what was happening.

«Awakened is coming! Awakened is coming,» her shrill voice pronounced.

«Stop that! Get down! Here, grab her arm,» a male voice yelled.

Adair backed away from the ventilation grate, wondering if he’d heard her correctly. He was positive she said Kael. Is it a coincidence? How can she possibly know about Kael? Was it some name she randomly blurted out? Did it have any meaning to her?

Adair inhaled deeply, then let out his breath in a quick, exhausted sigh. This place was going to drive him mad. What was he even doing here?

The girl’s soft cry came through the air duct now, accompanied by the voices of the nurses. They had succeeded in subduing her, probably with an injection.

Adair went back to his bed and slowly lay back on his pillow. With one hand he gently stroked the metal objects at his temples. He couldn’t help but wonder what terrible things they were planning for him.

CHAPTER 21

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

Kael found himself in the same conference room as when he had first arrived, surrounded by many of the same people. Only, this time, he knew most of their names and understood their job functions as well as their language. In addition to various support personnel, the department heads and deputy director were present. Helmsley was also teleconferenced into the meeting from his office in another country.

«I hear you’ve completed your language studies and passed our field training course with flying colors, managing to impress most of my people in the process,» Helmsley observed. «You wanna tell me how you did that?»

Kael kept a straight face. «Sure. Just as soon as you help me retrieve my father.»

Helmsley nodded. «Your instructors tell me you’ve asked about Adair every day. I promised I’d let you know when we found something conclusive. Our Intelligence folks have identified Adair’s location, but I’m afraid it’s not all good news. He’s being held in a classified, American military base with defense capabilities that far exceed our resources.»

«This is the part where you tell me you can’t help me. Is that right?» Kael asked.

Helmsley’s normally calm demeanor seemed to quiver. He was trying not to lose his temper.

«If that’s the case,» Kael continued, «I’ll get him on my own.»

Suncio tried to suppress a cough. Or a laugh.

Kael kept his eyes on Helmsley.

The director of Western Operations spoke carefully. «Do you remember what you saw when Greer and his Team dragged you out of Armaros’ compound?»

Kael nodded.

«It must have been shocking to someone from your world.»

Kael nodded again. «I understand it now, after my training.»

«Yes, I would hope so,» Helmsley replied. «That was the largest military strike this Division has ever executed. Now multiply that by a hundred and you’ll start to understand the scope of what would be required to rescue Adair.»

Would be, Kael noted. «I see,» he said after moment’s pause.

«Command is backpedaling now. In order to execute a plan of this magnitude, we’d have to set things in motion. Finances would have to be moved around. Resources reallocated. Personnel transferred from other divisions. We would essentially be exposing our entire organization to the enemy. To be honest, Command is reconsidering your value to us.»

«Alright. If you get me inside the country, I’ll do it myself.»

«I’m not saying it’s impossible,» Helmsley corrected. «If you’d just tell us what you knowwhy the enemy wants you deadwe might be able to find another way. You’d be surprised by how much our people can do with information.»

«What’s your incentive then? If I tell you what I know, there’s no reason for you to move ahead with the operation,» Kael argued.

Helmsley breathed deeply and brought both hands up to the surface of his desk. «Give me something. If you want me to go back to Command and advise them to move ahead with the operation, you’ve got to give me something to prove that you’re worth all this.»

Kael looked to Greer, whose face was a mask of indifference. Somewhere inside were deep emotions, but they weren’t showing on the surface. Suncio looked angry. George looked worried. Matthews had stopped typing on his laptop and was watching with rapt attention.

«We’re trading the identity of our entire organization

for what?» Helmsley pushed.

The obvious bargaining tool in this situation wasn’t something Kael felt comfortable letting out of his sight. His crystalline sword had helped him defeat numerous enemies and had been by his side ever since the battle at Orud.

«It appears we all have our crutches» he remembered. Soren’s words challenged him once again.

«The difference is that I don’t need this to kill you,» he had replied.

Was that even true anymore? Was Kael just a normal person with an extraordinary weapon? Had the sword become a crutch that he was too weak to do without? Kael’s hand tightened around the hilt as he realized how much influence his past had over himeven people who were dead.

No, he decided. It’s not a question of whether this has become a crutch, or even if it’s useful in this world. The question is whether or not it’s more important to me than my father. If this is all that stands in the way of his rescue, why wouldn’t I give it up?

«Alright,» Kael said finally. «If they commit the resources I’ll hand this over.» He untied his belt and placed the sword and scabbard on the table.

Helmsley’s eyes narrowed.

«When the operation is underway, I’ll give this to you

temporarily. And when we rescue my father, I’ll tell you what it is, how it works, and who you’re fighting. Are those acceptable terms?»

Helmsley crossed his arms. «I think they might go for that. You can work with the Intelligence and Field Ops teams on planning while I talk to Command. I’ll let you know what they say.»

Kael nodded, then pulled the sword from the table and refastened it to his waist.

Location Unknown

Adair paced across the floor of his room, quietly reciting the lineage of Orudan Emperors. He was desperate to keep his mind active and fixed on something real. His bare feet made a slapping sound on the hard surface, while his hands massaged the itching skin around the plugs at the sides of his head.

A muffled beep followed by a click interrupted his thoughts.

He paused, glancing over to the door where the sound had come from. He expected someone to walk in, but nothing happened. After a few seconds, he walked over and tried the door handle. It turned freely. Adair pushed cautiously on the cold metal.

The door swung open.

Peering down the hallway to the right, he was greeted by silence and emptiness. He turned to the left and felt his heart jump at the sight of the little girl standing at the end of the passage. Her long, black hair was a stark contrast to her white hospital gown and covered most of her face. Beneath her gown, three legs supported her tiny frame, causing her to lean. Above her head, the fluorescent light flickered. One arm hung limp against her side, her fingers curled around a small, rectangular object. The other arm, thin and pale, was bent at the elbow with an upturned hand.

It looked to Adair as if she was silently begging. Her hand suddenly closed and opened. She was motioning for him to come nearer.

Adair glanced down the hallway in the other direction, wondering how the girl had gotten out of her room. Only now did he see the light from an open doorway spilling into the passage. The entrance to her room, five doors down, stood ajar. He turned back just in time to see the girl’s shuffling body reach the end of the hallway and disappear to the left. The lights above her flickered as she neared, then recovered when she had passed.

Should I follow?

He might be punished if he was caught, but the doctors and nurses were keeping him alive for some reason, so they could only go so far in trying to correct such behavior. Besides, anything was better than dying of boredom in a quiet room.

Adair stepped into the hallway, glanced left and right, then ran in pursuit of the strange girl. When he reached the end of the hall, he turned left into another. This passage had no doors but several windows on its right side. Through the windows was a large room furnished with tables, chairs, beds, and lab equipmentthe room from Adair’s nightmare!

The girl had now turned right into another hallway, just past the windows. When Adair reached the intersection, he saw the girl standing before a pair of louvered doors. She raised her hand and swiped the rectangular object over the pad by the door handle. A soft beep was followed by the click of the door unlocking. She entered without waiting and Adair ran to catch up.

The utility room was packed with pipes of various colors running in all directions. Large, chrome cylinders stood lined up in rows, with tubes and regulators sprouting from their tops. It was a sizeable room choked with utilities, with only a narrow walking path down its center. Somewhere in the back, a motor kicked on and ran for a few seconds before ending abruptly with a hiss of compressed air.

The girl stood with her awkward posture in the center of the path, halfway across the room, facing Adair. «Come in, and shut the door,» she said.

They were the first intelligible words he’d heard from her. He did as he was told, shocked by her sudden lucidity. When the door latched shut, he turned around.

She was standing only a few inches away.

Adair couldn’t help but flinch.

«We don’t have much time,» she enunciated from the functioning side of her mouth.

«Okay,» Adair replied. She looked to be about five or six years old, and now that he was standing in front of her, her yellow eye seemed the least unnerving part of her appearance.

«My name is Tarsaeel. I live in a realm not entirely separate from yours. The body of this little girl you see is not my own, but she agreed to let me borrow it for a time. I’ve been trying to communicate to you through her, but mediation is very difficult for someone in her situation.»

«Are you one of the angels she spoke of?» Adair asked.

«I am. Many of the Orudan religions recognize the existence of another realm, yes?»

Adair nodded, surprised to hear this girlthis angelspeak of Orud.

«We have names for the two realms, but for the sake of discussion, I’ll call them the Temporal and the Eternal.»

«Okay,» Adair replied.

«The fact that you are here means you’re probably already aware that the Temporal realm was fractured into three worlds. You’ve lived in two of them.»

Adair hadn’t realized this, but nodded anyway.

«Good. What you need to know right now is that a group of beings took control of the Temporal realms long ago and are steering human civilization toward their own ends. The people holding you hostage now are working for one of those beings.»

Adair tilted his head.

«They want to get information from you so they can destroy their competition, and torture didn’t work.»

«You know what they did to me?» Adair asked.

«Yes. We saw the whole thing. You’re a critical piece of this puzzle, and we’ve been tracking you for a long time.»

«Why am I critical?»

«We’ll get to that in a moment. First, you need to know that tomorrow morning you’re scheduled for a horrible procedure. They’ve prepared you for it, and now you’re ready. You will be put under a general anesthetic where your sensory perceptionsyour memorywill be translated into another form where it can be analyzed. Everything you tried to keep hidden will be exposed to them; not just your conscious thoughts, but your memories and feelings too. They will be able to experience them as well and will be able to draw their own conclusions. Everywhere you’ve been. Everything you’ve seen. Everyone you’ve ever spoken with. They will have it all.»

«How is that possible?» Adair asked, revolted by the very idea.

«Oh, it’s possible. The Myndarym controlling this civilization have already perfected technologies that won’t be revealed to humans for many generations to come. Anyway, I’m getting off topic. Without intervention, this procedure will destroy your body’s ability to host a rational consciousness.»

«So, I’ll be dead when they’re done?»

«Yes

essentially. That’s why I’m here. To provide you with an escape.»

«How?»

«In order for them to access your memories, they will need to create a division between your consciousness and your physical self. Essentially, they will be dividing your soul and your body. It is at this very point where we will step in and take over

if you are willing.»

«Do I have a choice?» Adair asked.

«Yes. And you must make it now. A conscious awareness of what’s about to happen is critical to our success. You must resolve in your mind to accept our intrusion, or it cannot happen.»

«And the alternative is death?»

«That’s right. I know this is all very strange and hard to accept, but I’m afraid we don’t have any time to inform you gradually. You’ll be dead by tomorrow, and we can’t let that happen.»

«Why? Why am I important to you?»

«Because you’re the father of The Awakened, and your death would interfere with his destiny.»

«Kael? Are you talking about Kael?»

«Yes.»

«Why do you keep calling him The Awakened? The girl said that too.»

The angel in the little girl’s body smiled. «Because

he will end all this. It has been spoken and so it will come to pass.»

«I don’t understand,» Adair pleaded.

«You will. Just make up your mind to come with us tomorrow.»

«And what will happen? How do I do that?»

«They will take you to the operating room. They will hook you up to an IV, and you will fall asleep. About the same time as you begin to dream, your soul will be in a state of vulnerability. You won’t be able to control your thoughts at that point, which is why it is so critical that you decide now. We’ll appear to you in your dreams, and if your will is inclined toward us, we can lead you to where they cannot harm you. We’ll deliver your soul into your spiritual body.»

«Is that in the Eternal realm? What about my physical body?»

«Only your spirit and soul can exist there. You will have to forfeit your body. The only way to reunite the two is if your body is kept alive, but they will discard it after they’re done with you. I’m afraid this is the best I can do. There is no other way.»

Adair exhaled and massaged his forehead, trying to come to terms with what was being presented to him. Do I even believe this? Can I do it? How can I leave my body behind? It’s a part of me. It is me. What about Maeryn? She won’t recognize

«Please. You must decide now. Do you understand what I’ve told you?»

«Uh

Sort of

«

«Do you agree to do this?»

«Um

«

«You must agree or it won’t work,» the angel replied, a sense of urgency now present in the girl’s voice.

«What’s the girl’s name?» Adair asked suddenly.

«What?»

«What’s the girl’s name?» he repeated.

«That’s irrelevant to this mission and a waste of time.»

«I need to understand what’s going on. Please. This whole thing doesn’t make any sense.»

The girl suddenly leaned to the side and looked past Adair. She exhaled in frustration. «The girl doesn’t have a name. Her number is eight hundred and fourteen. She doesn’t have parents either. She was grownbuilt. She is the eight hundred and fourteenth iteration of a series of experiments to manufacture biological beings whose bodies reside in the Temporal realm, but whose consciousnesses reside in the Eternal. She and most of the other eight hundreds were mistakes. Her consciousness was split between the realms, which is why she didn’t make a good mediator between us and you. Very difficult to communicate with. But she has provided us with a link to you, however incomplete. Her body is hundreds of years old, and they are keeping her and her companions alive to study so they don’t make the same mistakes again.»

«Why was she born? Or built?» Adair asked.

The girl frowned. «We don’t have time for this. The nurses already know she’s escaped. I’ve got to get you back to your room.»

«Please.»

«Eight fourteen has already forfeited her bodily existence for this, and I’m not going to waste her sacrifice.»

«What are you talking about?»

The girl pushed Adair toward the door with surprising strength. «I’ll have to explain on the way,» she said, sidestepping around him to open the door. She waited, appearing to count in her head, then ran down the hallway, ducking beneath the windows.

Adair barely managed to keep up.

When they reached the next passage, she stopped. «After what I did to the guard to steal his badge,» she whispered, «they won’t keep her body alive. She knew this was the only way. The poor thing’s been in a state of tortured existence for so long. She forfeited her body and yielded her soul. We took it, just like we’ll take yours. She’s in a better place now. No more suffering.»

Adair was breathing heavily from the running and the fear of being caught. That’s what we always say when someone dies, he thought.

The girl was counting in her head again. When she spoke, it was clear that she was preoccupied with other matters. «There’s no such thing as death. We were all created for an eternal existence; it’s just a matter of where we spend the time. Let’s go,» she said, suddenly grabbing Adair’s arm.

CHAPTER 22

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

«Once we’re at the ORP, the missile strikes will begin taking out these systems here and here,» Greer said, pointing at the digital map of the classified base where Adair was being held.

Kael, Matthews, Suncio, and rest of TAC 1 were standing around a massive illuminated table that Kael determined was essentially a computer screen lying flat. They were going over the part of the assault plan that involved their specific areas of responsibility. Unfortunately, unlike the attack on Armaros’ compound, their activities were only a small fraction of what needed to be accomplished. Their mission objectives were somewhere near the middle of a task hierarchy that was hundreds, possibly thousands of items long.

«At that point, we’re going in blind. IR only shows a dozen or more regular staff members on the first floor. Their movements indicate a cubicle-type setup, but that’s as deep as we can look. The building roof must be shielded, because we can’t get a layout. We’re assuming Adair’s being held underground. No idea how many levels there are,» Greer said, looking to Matthews for confirmation.

Matthews nodded. «Sorry guys. That’s all we can get. We’re speculating that he’s probably not near the top levels where standard personnel would have contact»

The door to the tactical room suddenly burst open and Andrea Bosque came through. «We’ve got something hot,» she blurted out.

«What is it?» Matthews asked.

«Here, let me show you,» she replied, walking quickly to the table. She touched an icon at the corner of the screen, and a virtual keyboard appeared before her fingertips. She began typing rapidly, and the terrain map of the military base changed to a recorded satellite feed. «We’ve been monitoring all personnel and vehicle traffic in and out of the building. We lose visibility at night, but there haven’t been any discrepancies between vehicles parked at sundown versus those still there at sunrise. Just to fill in the information gaps, Jackson’s been going back over the old footage with HI-RES enhancement, looking for anything else that we can compare from day to day. He found a track that must have been created during the night, a couple hundred yards from the building.»

«When was this?» Matthews jumped in.

«Eight days ago.»

«What about M-SPEC?»

«Yeah. It took about four hours just to process the data, but we picked up something in the UV spectrum,» Andrea answered. The screen suddenly went black and Kael could barely see a pale blue outline where the building was picking up faint highlights from the moon. A vehicle pulled up to the loading docks of the building, then drove away a few minutes later.

«Did you?»

«Humvee M1114,» Andrea answered before Matthews could even complete the question. «We analyzed its handling on dry pavement before it hit the dirt road and estimate its weight at the time of arrival to be two thousand, four hundred and twenty kilos. When it left

two thousand, four hundred ninety-three

and its center of mass was shifted slightly toward the backseat.»

Suncio turned to Greer. «How much do think Adair weighed?»

Greer looked down for a moment. «Maybe a buck-ninety?»

Matthews flipped open his laptop. «Hang on a second. I have his profile here.» He clicked through his directories and found the file in seconds. «Okay, yeah. Adair’s last known weight was a hundred and eighty-seven pounds. So that’s, what?»

«Almost eighty-five kilos,» Andrea calculated in her head.

Suncio’s hand was on his chin. «So, Adair lost some weight in captivity? And you think they moved him?»

«It’s well within the realm of plausibility,» Andrea answered.

«Where did the Humvee go?» Matthews asked.

«Straight to this airstrip,» Andrea answered, scrolling the imagery to show the largest and best-maintained strip on the base.

«That’s a commercial airliner,» Matthews observed.

«Cut to the chase, Ms. Bosque. Where did they move him?» Suncio barked.

Andrea started typing again and the UV imagery disappeared, replaced by a standard satellite image of a multi-storied, T-shaped building near water in an urban area that appeared to have grown up carefully between clusters of trees. «A molecular medical complex in Helsinki.»

Greer whistled. «That’s a long flight.»

«Why a medical complex?» Suncio asked with scrunched eyebrows. «That doesn’t make sense.»

Matthews was typing furiously on his laptop again. «Hmm. It’s not a military-controlled facility,» he thought out loud. «I wonder if this has anything to do with the other voice on the transmission we intercepted.»

«That’s not all,» Andrea said. «About twenty minutes ago, we picked up another passive locator transmission from a cell tower in Nevada.»

Matthews looked up suddenly. «We haven’t received anything since Adair’s arrival.»

«Right,» Andrea answered. «Then all the sudden we get something.»

Kael, who had been listening to the rapid-fire conversation loaded with unfamiliar terms, was still able to see through the diversion. «They’re baiting us,» he announced.

All eyes turned to him.

«They want us to think my father is still in Nevada.»

Suncio nodded. «Yep. Which means they know we’re watching.»

«That only complicates things further,» Matthews observed. «If they know we’re watching, Helsinki could be the diversion.»

«And if our chances in Nevada were bad before,» Suncio continued the thought, «it’s hopeless if they know were coming. Our plans depend on the element of surprise.»

«But what if he really is in Helsinki?» Andrea asked.

«Still complicated,» Suncio answered quickly. «Just in a different way. It’s a civilian area. People going to and from work. Urban Ops are exponentially harder

especially if you want our organization to remain covert. We can’t just blow stuff up. Hell, I’ll bet the building itself is full of private companies, right Matthews?»

Matthews still had his head down, looking at his screen. «Yeah, a whole bunch of themchemists, biologists. You name it.»

Suncio nodded and turned to address the whole group. «Well, we had one big problem before. Now we have two. I’ll go talk to George and see what he wants to do. If we do end up going to Finland, we’ll be coordinating with Central Division. Matthews?»

«I’m on it,» Matthews replied quickly. «Andrea. Keep a skeleton crew on Nevada and divert all our other resources to Helsinki.»

«Yes, sir,» she replied and promptly left the room.

Kael looked down at the screen. These places were too far away to search out with his sense, but he had a strong feeling about Helsinki. His father was there. Somehow, he just knew it.

Location Unknown

Adair was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, when he heard a soft hiss. He glanced over to the air-conditioning vent, wondering if the girl was still alive and trying to contact him. An odd aroma reached his nostrils just before he felt his body go limp.

What’s happening? he wanted to say, but his lips wouldn’t move.

The room swayed with a nauseating lurching motion. The door opened, and six men wearing gas masks entered.

Adair might have rushed at them and taken his chances if he had control over his body. But he didn’t. He could see and hear, but his body wouldn’t obey. It took him a moment to realize that his condition was precisely intended to prevent him from doing anything dangerous.

That makes sense, he concluded, much slower than usual.

The nurses surrounded him and fastened his limbs to the rails on either side of the bed. It wasn’t necessary. Adair couldn’t even resist with his words, let alone his movements. They wheeled him through his door and into the hallway where he watched a steady procession of bright fluorescent lights pass above him, like a slow strobe.

Light.

Ceiling panel. Ceiling panel.

Light.

Ceiling panel. Ceiling panel.

The pattern repeated over and over, lulling Adair into a trance. When it passed, he was in a larger room. The nurses’ gasmasks had been replaced by white hair caps and dust masks. Other men in dark clothing stood around the perimeter of the room with arms crossed. They wheeled him to the side of the room and parked him next to a glass enclosure that dominated his peripheral vision. Its horizontal, man-sized bulk loomed over him, an ominous sign of his pending sentence of judgment. The nurses had removed his robe and were attaching wires with adhesive patches to his entire body. A cold, tickling sensation crawled over his skin as they gathered the wires into a bundle by his feet and draped them over the end of the bed.

A nurse grabbed his chin and turned his face to the side. Adair caught a glimpse of a shiny prong attached to a cable just as one of the nurses moved it to the limit of his peripheral vision. There was a rustling, then an intense feeling of pressure, followed by a sickening, metallic click. When the procedure was repeated on the other side of his head, a mild electrical jolt radiated across his scalp, down his body, to the tips of each appendage and back again. Adair’s nervous system alternated between warm pleasure and cold pain like a pulsing siren.

Hands reached out from all directions and lifted him.

Adair couldn’t figure out why the hands and arms weren’t attached to anything.

Pressure beneath him.

I’m cold.

A metal table.

Sliding into a glass chamber.

I’m hot.

Wires plugged into machines.

I’m hungry.

Door closing.

Sound disappeared.

I’m going to be sick!

Mist and fog.

Everything is gray.

Maeryn! Where are you?

I’m so sorry! Wait for me!

Null, South and Central Americas Office

Bogotá, Colombia

«Alright everyone, let’s get started,» Helmsley said from one of the screens on the wall of the conference room. After introducing the team in Bogotá, he handed off the meeting to the director of the Central Operations Division, headquartered in the United Kingdom.

Matthews turned his attention to the leftmost screen on the wall.

The woman was in her late fifties. Her auburn hair, pulled back in a professional but severe style, indicated control and discipline. Like Helmsley, she was impeccably dressed and exuded authority. «Thank you, Jim. I’m Rhiannon Marshall, director of Central Operations. I’ve assigned this task to my Stockholm team, who are calling in from their office. Alan Chisholm is our deputy director for Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. With him is Ian Petran, head of Intelligence, and Ciarán Hayes, head of Field Operations. As soon as we received your INTEL, they went to work on finding confirmation. Ian, I’ll let you present your findings.»

«Thank you, Ms. Marshall,» he replied from the other screen. Ian had dark hair and eyes, and was considerably shorter than the other two men in the room with him. «Over the last twenty-four hours, we’ve assembled a comprehensive list of all the companies in the complex, as well as their employees. We have their work and vacation schedules as well as their travel itineraries.» Ian’s English was clear, but bore the unmistakable hint of eastern Europe. «Twenty-one employees are currently on vacation or traveling for business, which leaves four hundred and nineteen others. Satellite data from the past few weeks shows an accumulation of nine other individuals in the building.»

«What do mean by accumulation?» George asked.

«Employees coming to work, but not leaving,» Ian clarified. «At first a group of three, then the remaining six a few hours later. The rest come and go at regular intervals.»

«Are you running facial recognition?»

«We will, of course. We are trying to find an angle that will allow it. Then we’ll enhance the images.»

«One of the individuals looked unsteady on his feet,» Chisolm offered. «Perhaps not moving under his own volition.»

George turned and looked at Matthews, who silently nodded.

Ian continued. «We’ve also discovered that one of the companies, BioSynthe Global, was the leading investor in the construction of the complex. They occupy six of the offices on level three. We also uncovered an obscure reference in an email communication between two of their senior scientists, referring to a treatment area in the bottom level that wasn’t included on the building plans. Because of all this, we believe we have found confirmation of Adair’s whereabouts.»

«That’s good news,» George replied.

Helmsley jumped in. «Ms. Marshall has kindly agreed to back this operation with our direct oversight. We’ve already booked separate flights for Matthews, Suncio, Kael, and the members of TAC One. You’ll arrive in Sweden within hours of each other and meet up at the Stockholm office, where you’ll be briefed in full. I’m also sending someone from my office to join you. Sean Collins.»

«The Transporter?» George asked. «Jim, we can’t afford the risk of someone looking for revenge.»

Helmsley nodded and answered quickly, as if he’d already given the idea some thought. «It’s more than that. He’s a good kid and he feels responsible for losing Adair. He wants to make things right, and my psych department has cleared him for duty. He’ll join tactical in Stockholm.»

«So it’s an assault?» Suncio chimed in.

Ciarán Hayes, Suncio’s European counterpart, leaned forward. «I’ve seen the first frames of enhanced imagery from the arrival of our extra staff members. All nine of these men were dressed like medical staff, but only three of them were the real thingI can assure you of that. Five of them were much taller and broader. They were alert and making careful observations of their surroundings as they entered the building.»

Suncio nodded. «Adair, three doctors, and five soldiers.»

«Torture didn’t work,» Matthews speculated. «They’re probably trying some medically-enhanced methods while keeping him guarded.» The second the words left his mouth, he realized how insensitive he sounded, and that Kael was sitting only a few chairs away. He turned slowly and noted the fierce warrior’s attention was still fixed on the screens. If he had been offended, it didn’t show. Matthews exhaled quietly.

«I’ll be mobilizing a few teams in the US to feign some ground surveillance in Nevada,» Helmsley said. «It’ll serve as a diversion and won’t risk exposing any more of our offices to Armaros and company like the full-scale attack would have. George, I’ll need your resources on the diversion.»

«Yes, sir,» he replied.

«Alright everyone,» Helmsley continued, «that’s all we have time for now. You folks in Bogotá have flights to catch. Rhiannon, thanks for your support on this. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.»

«Thank you, Jim,» she replied. Her screen went blank.

«We’ll see you all in a few hours,» Chisholm said, also ending his session.

In the resulting silence, Matthews turned to Kael who seemed lost in thought. He leaned closer on the arm of his chair. «Sorry about that.»

Kael looked up. «Don’t be; you were right.»

Matthews smiled, feeling only somewhat relieved.

«At least we’re making some progress,» Kael added, rising from his seat. He walked over to George who looked up quickly, with a hint of fear. «This is for Helmsley

as promised,» he said, slowly laying his sword on the conference table.

Though Matthews wasn’t the best at reading people, he could tell the action was painful for Kael.

George looked cautiously at the object that Kael had earlier referred to as a key. «Jim wants us to run some initial tests before we send it over to Command

if that’s alright.»

Kael nodded. «I want it back as soon as you’re done.»

«Of course. Good luck over there,» George added.

Kael acknowledged the comment with a halfhearted smile, then turned and left the room.

Matthews let out the breath he’d been holding.

CHAPTER 23

The Royal Palace, Orud

The waters of the fountain spilled down the arm of the stone goddess, arcing into the basin from each of her five fingers, symbolizing the gift of creation from Orud’s Mother of Life. The soothing gurgle offered privacy of conversation and a welcome break from the familiar chambers of the High Council. Maeryn always began to feel restless if she spent too much time indoors. Already, she could feel the healing benefits of the flowered courtyard and the sunlight streaming in from the open air above.

Dacien arrived shortly after Maeryn, smiling awkwardly before squinting up at the sun. «I don’t know if I should feel relieved or worried that you’ve chosen an informal place to meet.» He came near to the edge of the fountain and sat on the stone ledge, facing Maeryn.

«There’s no need to worry; I’d just rather be outside when I can.»

Dacien nodded. «I know you didn’t call me here to discuss the election, but I have to know something. Did you vote for yourself?»

«Actually,» Maeryn replied with raised eyebrows. «What I wanted to discuss is related. For the interests of the Resistance, there was no one else whatsoever. The Generals are still reluctant to support them, as you know, and the Guilds have no reason to. That made my decision obvious. As for the former slaves, they have some support from the Farming Guild, but the motivations are mostly utilitarian. As I promised at Council, I voted based on who would best represent the interests of both groups.»

Dacien smiled. «I apologize if my question seems accusatory. I only ask out of curiosity. I expected you to vote for yourself and would have been disappointed if you had done otherwise.»

«Oh,» Maeryn replied.

«I wanted to know if you’d lose your nerve when it came to an actual vote.»

Maeryn felt her lips part into a smile. «That’s not something I’m likely to lose anytime soon.»

Dacien shrugged. «So, you wanted to discuss the Korgan lands?»

«Not exactly. There’s something I want to present to the Council, but I’d like your input first.»

Dacien’s forehead creased into a look of concern. «Input, or support?»

«Input,» Maeryn assured. «I’ve been thinking quite a lot lately about the purpose of the Council and how the new structure of the Empire should be represented there. The Council was established to ensure that the interests of the citizens were reflected in their leaders. Many years ago, the citizens could easily be organized into categories that represented their primary needsthose of their trades. But when the Empire encountered its first enemy, a new group of citizens was formed by necessity; the Territories were assigned and the Generals were added to the Council. It seems to me that we are at the beginning of another such transition. The obstacles that the Empire has faced in recent months have thrust us into a new age, and have shown us the insufficiency of the system.»

Dacien nodded but remained quiet.

«The former slaves have a multitude of skills, most of which are already represented by the Guilds. There may be a small portion of slaves who will join the Guilds to strengthen their trades and improve their chances for success at a self-sustaining life, but most will not. In large part, their primary interest is one of labor negotiation. Regardless of their individual skills, their concern will quickly become establishing equitable labor agreements as a foundation for future success. Going forward, I believe the area of greatest weakness for the Empire is its economy, and the former slaves are in the best position to address the situation.»

«Are you proposing a Labor Guild?»

«I am.»

Dacien brought his hand to his chin and looked down at the gravel walkway.

Before he had a chance to object, Maeryn continued. «The purpose of the Resistance is primarily military in nature, but the Council already has military representation. As I think of how to best assimilate them, I find myself focusing on the unique skills they have to offer. To your concern about the Korgan, we know far too little about our nearest enemy, and the Syvaku are even more of a mystery. This, I believe, is where the Resistance can help. They excel at assessing an enemy’s capability, documenting it, and disseminating the information through a tapestry of private communication lines. The infrastructure for this is already in place. Furthermore»

«Are you suggesting employing spies?» he interrupted.

«Let me explain it another way,» Maeryn offered. «Wouldn’t it have been useful to know of the Syvaku and Korgan invasions before they occurred? Who else has the expertise to live among a local population and build support for its cause? Who else is able to create a division between social and political interests of a neighboring country? As the Empire grows, it will inevitably encounter other centers of authority, and it will become critical to assess how they may be brought into the Empire and whether or not their interests are compatible with ours. If not, war will be the result, and it would save many lives to have Orud citizens already operating among them, diffusing the situation before it begins. Of course, our highest aspiration should be to create allies instead of enemies. The Resistance can do this, and they would start by addressing the very concerns you’ve already voiced at Council.»

Dacien smiled and kept silent for a while, staring at the ground. When he finally looked up, he appeared to be amused. «You asked for my input. Now that you’ve made your case, are you ready to hear it?»

Maeryn took a deep breath and nodded.

«Your passion for these changes is appropriate, but you seem far too concerned about my acceptance of it. When have you ever sought support for an idea if you believed it to be right?»

Maeryn kept silent, sensing more words coming.

«The plan is brilliant,» Dacien continued. «It addresses almost all of the concerns that the Council will have, and it does so in way that expands the Empire’s strength with a long-term vision. I agree with your assessment of the Empire’s needs, now and in the future. There is only one objection that might come up, and I suspect it has something to do with the real reason you called me here.»

Maeryn knew of Dacien’s ability to see straight into the heart of a matter, but she wanted to hear him say it anyway. «What objection do you see?»

«This plan essentially adds another Guild to each side of the Council, maintaining the balance of military and non-military interests, but the bond between the former slaves and the Resistance is strong. Some will be concerned that the spies will side with the Labor Guild on social issues and create an imbalance of power.»

«I’ll refer to them as the Intelligence Guild at Council,» Maeryn clarified.

«Nevertheless.»

Maeryn nodded to confirm Dacien’s suspicion. «The Southern Territory is quite large and sparsely populated. It is one of the reasons why it was vulnerable to the Syvaku invasion. And many of the Labor Guild members will not be fond of having to move north into Korgan territory to make a life for themselves. I will propose to the Council that we establish a Western Territory comprised of all the lands north of Leoran.»

Now Dacien smiled as he realized where this was going. «This new Western Territory will need a General, and the Council will gain another military member to maintain balance.»

«Yes,» Maeryn replied.

«And I assume the capital of the Western Territory will be closer to Orud than Leoran?»

Now Maeryn smiled. «Is it too obvious?»

«No one can fault a woman for wanting to keep her daughter and granddaughter as close as possible. If it weren’t a sound plan otherwise, you’d have something to worry about. But it’s perfect.»

«So

?»

«I think the Council will go for it,» Dacien added.

«But what about you and Aelia?»

Dacien’s eyebrows came together. «Are you sure you haven’t already discussed this with her?»

«No. Of course not.» Dacien’s expression immediately softened, and Maeryn could tell he was just teasing.

«We’ve been talking about when we should return to Leoran. We’ve been away for so long, and the Southern Territory has much rebuilding to accomplish. To be honest with you, neither of us feels completely at ease about taking Suline so far away from you. We think a little distance would be healthy, but not quite so much.»

«Do you need to talk to Aelia about it?»

«No,» Dacien replied confidently. «We’ve been trying to figure out a solution. I was even considering stepping down as General. Aelia will love the idea.»

«Excellent,» Maeryn replied. A great burden of worry had been suddenly lifted from her, and she knew the transformation was just as obvious in her outward appearance.

Helsinki, Finland

Adair’s legs were moving, but nothing was happening. His muscles strained to propel his body forward, but it felt as though the whole world had been tipped upward, forcing him into a perpetual backward lean. There was no traction between his bare feet and the slick tile of the hallway. Overhead, the fluorescent lights glared, mocking him with their intensity.

Adair gritted his teeth and hunched over, leaning to get his momentum started. An unseen power resisted the movement. A wet, sucking noise accompanied an electric tingle at the sides of his head. Adair’s hands instinctively flew upward. The metal plugs and thick cables were still protruding from his head. He curled his fingers around the cold metal and pulled.

A sickening pop echoed through the hallway and Adair rolled into a somersault across the hard floor. When he came to his feet, he slipped on the red puddle issuing from his temples. Blood was everywhere, pooling on the pale green tile and splattered against the stark white walls. There was so much of it. Adair knew he would bleed out like this, but was helpless to do anything about it.

The cables that had held him in place snaked through the pool of crimson and across the floor, like mating serpents, retracting into the darkness that engulfed the end of the hallway hundreds of yards in the distance. Adair watched the grotesque spectacle for longer than he intended, his fear unconsciously focused on the darkness that now seemed to be flowing toward him through the hallway.

When he came to his senses, Adair back-stepped, hearing his wet feet slap against the tile. He spun, feeling the warm, wet rush of liquid down both sides of his face. At the opposite end, impossibly far away, the hall disappeared into a brilliant whiteness. He leaned forward and ran.

This time, his body obeyed. His sluggish stillness began to drop away, like vines clinging to his body and breaking one by one. At first slowly, then with increasing frequency. The lights passed by. One door after another sped past him. His legs burned and his feet ached. He wondered how long he could keep this up before he lost too much blood.

The darkness had reached him now. It was nipping at his legs, crawling around the corners of his vision. He ran with everything that was in him. The darkness pursued him like a hunter, constricting around his body, threatening to crush the air from his lungs and the life from his body. The hallway around him grew dim and then was lost to the darkness. Adair was nowhere. His feet continued pounding across an unseen, cold surface. Ahead, all he could see was a tiny white speck that was quickly fading.

Adair reached out his hand and yelled with the last breath in his lungs. The sound of his voice was swallowed by the darkness, echoing briefly before pulling away from him, as if it had originated from somewhere far away.

The speck of light, now almost gone, burst into a star, with beams radiating from a center. But they weren’t beams, Adair realized.

They were fingers.

Fingers that converged at a handa hand that was reaching out.

The luminescent hand that clamped down on Adair’s was massive. It enclosed his own as well as his forearm, instantly reminding him of the first time he’d held Kael’s hand as an infant. The tiny pink flesh, balled into a fist, had rested peacefully in his giant paw. But he was the infant now.

He looked up from the radiant grip and its muscled forearm to see massive, golden eyes staring fiercely back at him. Finger-length chestnut hair was swept back from a chiseled face with a sharp, prominent nose.

Whoomp!

Adair flinched as something colossal rushed down upon him, pounding his face suddenly with a wave of air. When it rose again, Adair saw mottled tan and red hues scattered across otherwise white feathers. It was a wing. And it was attached to the creature holding his hand.

«Come, Adair!» it commanded in a strong but musical voice.

As Adair rose to his feet, he tore his gaze away from those piercing eyes and looked around. The faint outlines of the hospital room were there, but the walls, floor, and ceiling seemed transparent and lacked much of their distinct shape or texture. Three dim figures surrounded a table, their gray forms dissipating into the surrounding air like wisps of smoke. At the center of their attention was another gray shape lying flat.

Adair suddenly realized that it was his body. Then yesterday’s conversation with the girl came flooding back to him. He turned and looked up at the creature still holding his hand and couldn’t help but cower in fear. Its shimmering form stood taller than the ceiling that vaguely showed about its neck and shoulders. Its smooth and flawless skin was naked and glowing like a sword being beaten into shape by a blacksmith. Its primary wings, now resting majestically behind its shoulders, were large enough to fill the entire room. Smaller, secondary wings were draped behind its legs, almost touching the floor.

Adair realized he was pulling futilely against its grip.

«Don’t be afraid,» it spoke, instantly soothing his anxiety with a liquid complexity of sounds. «We’ve already met, remember?»

Adair opened his feeble lips. «T

Tarsaeel?»

«Yes,» it replied with a smile.

«Did I make it? Am I here?»

«Yes,» it answered again.

«What about the girl?»

«We had to take her last night.»

«And her body?» Adair pressed.

Tarsaeel’s eyebrows furrowed, a human expression that nevertheless looked at home on the face of this magnificent creature.

«Oh,» Adair replied, turning away in shame.

«It wasn’t your fault. Your grief is great because you think of her as a young girl, but she was much older than you. She chose a noble way to release her hold on the Temporal world.»

Adair didn’t want to look back into those golden eyes, so he let his gaze drift around the room. His surroundings were a chaotic jumble of objects, half present and half departed. Everything was blurry, as if he was squinting. Walls merged into floors, which blended awkwardly with dirt and grass, roots, and veins of underground mineral deposits. It appeared as though many things occupied this space, but none so solidly as to claim the territory outright.

«Where are we?»

«The Borderlands of the Eternal realm. You are seeing the traces of all three Temporal worlds that remain here.»

Adair’s gaze settled upon his physical body lying inside the glass chamber that now only vaguely resembled a table.

«What are they doing to me?»

The angel smiled. «Nothing. You are here with me.»

Adair kept his eyes fixed on the gray forms continually dissolving into the surrounding space and simultaneously regenerating. «What are they doing to my body then?»

«They are mapping the chemical imprints in your brain and converting them to digital information. They are stealing your memories.»

«But how can that be if I’m here with you? Or is this not real?»

«It is real,» the angel assured. «The memories left in your physical body are only imprintsthe mold that used to contain the real thing, if you will.»

Adair panned across the room and suddenly noticed an imposing, black figure standing against the wall. Its body was like a shadow, a blotch of negative space that continuously curled inward upon itself, seeming to writhe in agony. Like the angel at his side, this creature’s dark and nebulous outline was vaguely human, yet different. Its head was elongated like a wolf, and its limbs and digits were longer than normal. Nevertheless, it stood against the wall with its arms crossed in human fashion, red eyes glinting as it scanned the room.

Adair inhaled sharply and tried to get behind Tarsaeel, but the angel’s powerful grip prevented him from moving. «Don’t worry. He can’t see you. His consciousness and physical body are in one of the Temporal realms.»

«Oh,» Adair breathed, instantly stopping his futile attempt. «What is it?»

Tarsaeel kept looking ahead at the shadow against the wall. «He’s a soldierone of Armaros’ guards.»

«Why does he look so different?»

Tarsaeel looked down, his hawk-like features now beautiful to Adair by comparison. «He’s not exactly human.»

Adair swallowed hard. «What do we do now?»

«I will take you somewhere safe,» Tarsaeel replied.

Adair nodded, indicating he was ready.

Tarsaeel pulled Adair close and gathered him in one gigantic arm. He slowly unfurled his wings, massive and powerful things that stretched beyond the faint boundaries of the room. With their gentle downward movement, Adair felt himself propelled upward. Transparent ceilings became floors. Stratified soil and rock became a forest of tree branches. Adair and Tarsaeel ascended through the layers and intersections of the physical worlds and when they exited the building/forest/cave through its roof, Adair looked out upon a sprawling, desolate landscape. The faint traces of the Temporal worlds were harder to see at this height, and the features of the Eternal realm became dominant.

«I didn’t expect it to be so

« he paused.

«Ugly?» Tarsaeel finished the thought. «This is Marotru territory. All they know how to do is steal, kill, and destroy!»

All of a sudden, two streaks of white shot upward from the terrain below and came straight for them.

Adair braced himself.

The fiery objects slowed at the last moment until two more angels came to a hover around Tarsaeel, their brilliance leaving paths of light in their wake that slowly faded from view. Their massive wings moved with effortless grace as they held formation.

«We need to go,» one of them said.

Tarsaeel turned to the north and Adair followed his gaze. On the horizon, a dark storm was moving in fast. Billowing clouds of putrid green and black were swirling out of the skies, spilling onto the land like roiling smoke. As Adair watched, he began to see that the clouds weren’t clouds at all, but an endless sea of individual shadows, uncountable, shifting through the skies in a massive formation. It was only when the occasional shadow left the larger group that Adair realized what he was looking at.

Demons!

He looked up to Tarsaeel’s face and saw that the angel was now looking out toward the southwest where another, smaller storm was gathering and approaching fast. This one spun on its end like a vortex, brilliant blue at the center and fading to greens and purples around the trailing edges. Unlike the formation of demons, this one was a single object. The longer Adair watched it, the more it looked like the iris of someone’s eye.

«What is that?» Adair asked.

Tarsaeel’s face spread into a smile. «The Awakened is coming.»

«That’s Kael?»

«Yes,» Tarsaeel answered. «He knows where you are, and he’s coming to rescue you.»

«But

How did he get here? He’s just a boy, and

« Adair quickly looked down at the faint outlines of the building, now hundreds of feet below him. «I’m not there. He won’t find me.»

«Do not fear, little one,» Tarsaeel replied. «These things have been ordained, and so they will come to pass. You have much to learn.»

Tarsaeel’s wings, which had been gently rising and falling the entire time, now angled backward.

Adair felt his stomach lurch into his throat as the angel pulled him close and plummeted toward the bleak landscape. Wind rushed past his ears, and Adair began to tremble, seeing the land coming quickly toward them.

Tarsaeel’s body tensed just as his wings expanded. Their trajectory flattened out.

Adair gripped the angel’s arm with all his might, clinging to his rescuer as the other two angels followed in perfect formation, rising and falling with the passing terrain. It was the second time Adair had found himself in another world, escaping at the hands of fierce warriors. He was instantly reminded of Greer and his Team of soldiers. Wherever Kael was, he hoped his son was in their expert care.

CHAPTER 24

Stockholm, Sweden

After arriving at a variety of airports throughout Stockholm, members of the Bogotá team made their way by taxi to a prearranged assembly pointa fika café in the downtown areawhere they were picked up by security and brought to the organization’s local office. They met Alan Chisholm and the rest of his team in person, and were quickly brought up to speed on the latest INTEL from Ian Petran’s group and the assault plan organized by Ciarán Hayes’ group. In addition to TAC 1, Hayes’ Alpha and Bravo teams, temporarily designated as TAC 2 and TAC 3 for this mission, would provide the extra firepower needed to infiltrate the building and rescue Adair. Sean Collins was already present by the time they arrived, and Kael took note of the young man who had nearly given his life trying to keep Adair safe and had lost his brother in the process. When this operation was over, he would find the soldier and thank him personally.

Well after the sun had dropped behind the western horizon, the multinational group boarded choppers for a two-hour flight to a hidden outpost on a skerry fifty miles southwest of Helsinki in the Gulf of Finland. Three rigid-hull, inflatable boats and their crews were already prepped and waiting for them when they arrived. The transfer to the boats was swift, and within minutes all three Teams were on the move.

It was now sometime after midnight, and Helsinki’s lights illuminated the horizon in all directions, but the ocean was as dark as ink. Aside from the white foam of their wakes, Kael could see little evidence of their presence. The matte-black hull of the eleven-meter-long RHIB sliced through another wave, kicking up a frigid spray that drenched his already numb face. The rest of his body was a comfortable temperature, clothed in the same black CUs, helmet, and body armor as the other members of Greer’s Team, but it was his rapid heart rate that was keeping him warm now. He could feel his body readying itself for the coming conflict. Blood coursed through his veins with a powerful, rhythmic surging that reminded Kael of the oarsmen who rowed Orud’s ships into battle.

The aggression welling up inside him had already caused a tense moment with Greer. They’d reviewed the assault plan aboard the choppers, and just as he’d done during his training, Kael was supposed to take up a rear Security position in TAC 1. He thought his performance during training would have proven that it was more efficient if he led the Team, but Greer wouldn’t vacate his position so easily. For the sake of maintaining Team cohesion, Kael dropped the issue, knowing that another opportunity would present itself.

Kael felt his weight suddenly shift forward as the crew reduced the boat’s speed and engaged the silent propulsion system. The blue beacon light that had been steadily flashing atop the communications assembly went dark, and Kael couldn’t even see his companions any longer. The crew, assisted by NVDs, steered the vessel beneath a bridge supporting a multi-lane highway then veered to starboard before they encountered another smaller bridge and a handful of uninhabited islands. Beyond these the waterway opened up, and the small fleet entered a wide cove a moment later. Residential structures with private docks were scattered across the western shore. To the east, numerous tall buildings dominated the horizon behind a barren shoreline.

«Prepare to go ashore,» the pilot announced.

Seconds later, the deep hull plowed into the sand and the boat came to an abrupt halt, lurching to starboard.

«Let’s go,» Greer said.

Kael followed the other members overboard and landed with a splash in knee-deep water. They all waded ashore and gathered behind a steep embankment that blocked their line of sight to the east and the city beyond. TAC 2 and 3 came ashore in the same manner and joined TAC 1 at the rally point. The whole insertion took less than a minute before the boats were heading back out to sea.

«Everyone good to go?» Greer asked as soon as they had completed their weapons check.

Fierce and steady eyes gazed outward through faces painted black. Each one nodded his readiness.

«Okay. Let’s move out,» Greer ordered.

The sandy shoreline led northwest where the embankment ended at a line of trees and a two-lane road exiting an expensive neighborhood. One at a time, the group moved across the pavement and into the dense forest on the other side of the street. Another hundred and twenty meters brought them to the rear of a brick-walled power plant with an exhaust stack that towered above the landscape. As planned, TAC 2 and 3 split off and circled around the north side of the building, heading east into the city to position themselves for an aboveground assault.

TAC 1 headed west into the trees. Fifteen meters away from the power plant was a small, concrete sewer entrance set into the terrain that sloped away from the building. It was surrounded by a high chain-link fence. Jensen cut the lock on the gate and immediately went to work on the bulkier padlock and iron grate that prevented unauthorized entrance into the tunnels that snaked throughout the nearby urban areas of the city. When Jensen swung open the rusted grate, Greer led the way forward into the darkness.

Kael followed them into the concrete tunnel, sending out his sense as the smell of stagnant water hung thick in the air.

«Headlamps,» Greer whispered.

NVDs would have been useless in the environment of total darkness where they were heading. Instead, they were relying on more standard, commercially available technology. LED lights immediately flooded the tunnel around them but couldn’t pierce the darkness for more than thirty meters.

The Team continued to press forward, and the smell worsened. A hundred meters later they spilled out into a wide, tall chamber that appeared to be an intersection. Large drainage tunnels led to the left and right, while smaller ones lined the wall in front of them.

Greer stepped down into the waist-deep water that covered the bottom of the chamber and waded through the layer of floating brown scum. He came up dripping on the other side and began moving toward the opposite wall and a meter-wide circular opening. A slow trickle of water issued from the hole and slid down the concrete, leaving stains of green and rust that suggested a metallic component to the liquid waste.

«This is the one,» the Team Leader whispered, showing no hesitation whatsoever.

Lieutenant Daud, head of the special security team assigned to the prisoner, stood along the wall of the medical lab with his arms crossed, watching with only the minimum amount of attention required as three doctors hovered around the glass chamber. The men in white lab coats were monitoring the subject inside the chamber, collecting the data, and downloading it to three briefcase computers networked to each other by high-capacity cables. The nature of their work was complicated and didn’t concern the lieutenant, but whatever it was they were doing, the doctors were working quickly and efficiently. This was something Daud could respect. He, too, was an expert in his field, and though it didn’t appear so, he was also working quickly and efficiently.

Superimposed over his view of the medical lab was a window in the upper right corner of his vision. Inside the window he was viewing multi-spectral video footage of three RHIBs coming ashore. The compilation of visible, IR, and UV wavelengths showed seventeen people quickly exiting the watercraft, while three-man crews turned the boats and piloted them back out to sea. With just a thought, the guard advanced the footage and watched the three teams move north through the trees. Two teams split off and headed east through the city, while the third entered the sewer systems to the west of the power plant. The footage was already several minutes old.

Daud ended the transmission.

[Should I engage?] asked his lookout situated atop the exhaust tower of the power plant over two hundred and fifty meters away. The video footage had come from his eyes.

Without moving his lips, the lieutenant replied to the digitally-enabled, telepathic message. [Not yet. Notify me when they’ve taken up their positions. Standby.]

Daud quickly summoned a list of preset languages and selected Norsk from the list. «Do you have what you need?» he asked the doctors audibly in their native tongue.

One of them jumped at the sound, apparently startled. «Almost.»

«Finish up. We’re leaving.»

«But we haven’t started analyzing»

«You’ll do that offsite,» Daud interrupted. «This location is compromised. We’re leaving in two minutes,» he ordered without emotion, noting the current time displayed at the bottom of his vision.

The doctor gave a curt nod, then began speaking in rapid sentences to his colleagues.

A soft, ping sounded in the lieutenant’s ear, signifying an incoming audio request.

[The six-man team is providing cover. Four have rooftop positions and two are at ground level.]

[What is the five-man team doing?] the lieutenant asked.

[They’re still together and crossing the quad to the south of the building. I’m detecting C4,] the scout replied.

Daud summoned an over-map of the complex which appeared instantly before him. It took only a second to surmise that the intruders were planning to blow through the main entrance on the east side of the building. He reopened the visual channel to his scout atop the exhaust stack and peered through his subordinate’s eyes. The body heat of the intruding snipers could be seen clearly against the nighttime urban surroundings. He had a line of sight on four of the six enemy soldiers.

[Standby to engage,] he told his lookout.

The lieutenant ordered another of his scouts inside the parking garage adjacent to the medical building to adjust his position. He then appropriated the scout’s vision and watched as his subordinate ran toward the garage’s exit, keeping to the shadows created by the bright lights in the courtyard between buildings. The main entrance of the medical building came into view across an expanse of perfectly trimmed lawn, sculpted shrubs, and precisely positioned trees that created a geometric pattern pleasing to individuals who cared for such things. To the south, five man-shaped thermal signatures were moving in formation. They had just rounded the corner of the building and were proceeding along its eastern wall.

[Ready the vehicles. Standby to engage the assault team,] he ordered.

«Okay. We’re done,» one of the doctors announced, closing his metallic briefcase computer. After securing it to his wrist with a handcuff, he turned to look at the glass chamber. The man inside was still hooked up to the life support systems, the digital displays pulsing with multicolored graphs and charts. The disconnected data cables hung from the chamber and lay in a tangle on the floor. «Should we dispose of?»

«Just leave him,» Daud replied. «We have what we need.»

The other two doctors secured their handcuffs and looked up with a nod.

«Let’s go,» Daud said.

On a metal maintenance walkway atop the exhaust stack, Daud’s scout lay perfectly still. Above him, a constant plume of water vapor rose into the air and quickly dissipated into the night sky, obscuring his thermal output from any spying satellites. From his prone position, he looked east. At a hundred and fifty meters out, a massive fourteen-story apartment complex offered an unrestricted view of the southern end of the medical campus. And yet, the soldier’s own uncomfortable position was higher still. Through the advanced imaging systems in his hybrid biomechanical eyes, he watched the enemy sniper’s motionless form positioned on the northwest corner of the apartment’s rooftop.

The scout’s finger rested easily against the trigger of his railgun, waiting for the imminent command from his superior.

[Engage the snipers,] the telepathic message instructed.

The scout gently squeezed the trigger. A sudden burst of electrical current ran down a series of rails along the barrel, jumped across the bore using the projectile as a conductor, and sped down the opposite rails in the other direction, closing the circuit. The resulting magnetic field grew exponentially, forcing the projectile from the weapon with greater muzzle velocity and less recoil than any of the primitive chemical propellants favored by lesser soldiers throughout the world. In less time than it took to blink an eye, the weapon had fired, and its projectile had already reached its target.

In the distance, the body of the enemy shooter jolted sideways and slumped to the rooftop. There had been no sound beyond a light cough, and no muzzle-flash to give away his position. As far as anyone on the ground knew, nothing had happened.

The scout inspected the list of enemy positions displayed in front of him. The leader of the enemy snipers would be spared until the last moment in case his fellow soldiers tried to contact him. He had a covered position anyway, and therefore appeared at the bottom of the list. The scout selected the next available target and looked at the campus over-map in his mind. A blinking dot appeared in the upper left corner. He pivoted his rifle forty-one degrees counterclockwise and increased the magnification of his eyes, then adjusted the focus until the target’s glowing outline was crisp against the concrete backdrop.

One block east of the medical building’s parking garage sat a four-story office building. Its western corner was just over four hundred meters awaywell within his range. His internal GPS system and environmental sensors told him everything he needed to know about the proper trajectory. A purely human counterpart would have to observe, record, and calculate the factors for a successful shot, but this soldier wasn’t purely human. With synthetically enhanced instincts, he simply took aim and fired.

The two primary targets covering the main entrance to the medical building had been reduced in just six seconds. There were two more at lower elevations that weren’t in his line of sight, so he chose the next possibility from the list and pivoted another five degrees. Only two more targets to go before he would climb down and engage the others from ground level.

Daud’s second scout remained hidden in the shadows of the parking garage to the west of the medical building, watching the main entrance across the courtyard. From the left, he saw the ground assault team slide into view. With disciplined yet predictable movements, they rounded an elevator shaft protrusion and moved toward the front door with each member covering his sector. When they were in position, they began setting their C4 charges at various points along the metal frames that held the glass doors in place.

The scout brought his weapon to a low ready position and adjusted its energy profile for maximum damage at short range. Then he waited for his lieutenant’s signal.

In a cramped and dank drainage tunnel beneath the medical building, Greer crouched, waiting for Jensen to give the ready signal. In the high-contrast light from his headlamp, he watched his Security Officer check the last charge and give a thumbs-up. Greer glanced behind him and noted the eager faces of the rest of his Team members. Kael’s eyes seemed particularly intense. They were all ready to go.

«TAC One in position,» Greer announced.

«TAC Two in position,» replied the Leader of the ground assault Team at the front door.

«TAC Three in position,» came the echo of readiness from the Leader of the sniper Team providing cover outside.

«Command. Any thermals to report?» Greer asked as a last-minute precaution.

«Negative, One. The complex is deserted except for you guys,» Matthews replied.

«Copy that. All Teams. Prepare to breach in

« Greer looked up.

Jensen held up a hand with all five fingers displayed. Then he dropped his fingers one by one.

«Five. Four. Three,» Greer said, vocalizing the countdown while he turned away and plugged his ears.

Sean Collins was hidden in a stand of trees across the street from the north side of the complex. Behind him and on either side were three-story apartment buildings, presumably housing the students that studied nearby or interned for the convergence of advanced medical companies in the area. His ground-level position was something of a backup to the rest of the operation. He could only see the street in front of the building and the walking path between the parking garage and the main entrance. It was a dead spot, visually speaking, for the snipers on TAC 3, but Sean wasn’t bothered by his minor role. He was humbled that Helmsley had allowed him to get involved at all.

The ache of Ryan’s death was like a giant hole running right through the middle of him. In times past he would have flooded that void with alcohol and anything else he could get his hands on, but the silver crucifix that Ryan had left in his bloodied grip that day had haunted him like nothing else he’d ever felt. It seemed to burn into his skin as if he were a vampire, spiritually allergic to what it represented. He knew Ryan was watching over him now, waiting to see how he would deal with the pain. It would have been a betrayal of his brother’s memory to run away and drown the emotions that would eventually surface from the abyss of his numbness.

No, he had told himself. This time you’re going to feel it. You’re going to deal with it!

In preparation for the mourning process, as the psych team called it, they encouraged him to find something he could dosomething positive and physical. Thus, Sean found himself surrounded by dense shrubbery in the middle of the night, halfway around the world, watching TAC 2 approach the entrance to the building.

With his finger safely off the trigger of his rifle, Sean watched the Swedes through his scope as they placed their C4 charges. A sudden scuffle followed by a loud thump drew his attention to the right. Sean held his breath and looked, expecting to see a cat, or maybe a resident stumbling out of the building. There was nothing. It was silent again. His eyes scanned the area, then slowly rose to the roof two buildings over. The sniper from TAC 3 wasn’t in position, and there was a dark bulk of something lying on the sidewalk against the east side of the building.

What? Sean wondered as his hand went instinctively to the button that opened his audio channel to the Teams’ COMM.

At the same moment, Greer’s voice announced that TAC 1 was in position. More chatter flooded the COMM, then Greer’s voice came back on. «Copy that. All Teams. Prepare to breach in

Five. Four. Three.»

Suddenly, a rapid series of explosions detonated at the main entrance, sending shockwaves of pressure through Sean’s chest. Between flashes of yellow and brilliant orange, he caught the momentary sight of whole bodies and separate limbs flying through the air. For an instant, he thought the C4 might have been set off early, but the explosions were too small and numerous. They didn’t look right. Something else was happening.

As the wall of sound engulfed him, Sean brought his scope up to his eye.

Charred and smoking bodies were now strewn across the ground. Only one soldier from TAC 2 remained upright, leaning against the wall. Small explosions of glass and concrete erupted around him as hundreds of incendiary rounds pummeled the area then riddled his body as they found their target.

They’re under attack!

«TAC Two! Come in TAC Two!»

No response!

«TAC Three! What’s happening?»

No response!

«TAC Three. Do you have eyes on the entrance? Where are they shooting from?»

TAC 3’s Team Leader, Nikolaus Almstedt, was covering the south side of the building when he heard the first explosion, but he couldn’t see anything from his position on the upper roof over the entrance of the office building southwest of the complex. It wasn’t until he saw a dull, flickering glow from inside the parking garage that he understood TAC 2 was under attack.

Without understanding what he was witnessing, he switched to three-round-bursts and took aim, guiding his crosshairs over the purple light. Someone was hailing TAC 2 and 3 over the COMM. Nikolaus momentarily ignored it and depressed the trigger several times. His rifle shuddered, sending dozens of rounds into the shadows of the low concrete structure.

The flickering light went out.

«They’re taking fire from the parking garage,» he yelled over the COMM, sending another burst into the shadows. The enemy had stopped firing. Nikolaus had either hit his target or forced him backward into the garage. During the momentary pause, he realized that no one else had responded to the hail. «TAC Two?» he called. «Is anyone left out there?»

Nikolaus waited for a response, but there was only silence.

«TAC Three. Status?»

There was a long pause, then a reply. «Sean here. I’m still in position. Rurik is down, I think. We have a counter-sniper out there somewhere.»

Nikolaus instinctively glanced around, scanning rooftops and windows. There were too many places to hide. Where would I hide?

Silence.

Think! Think! Nikolaus yelled at his mental self. A full three seconds passed before he realized the significance of his and Sean’s survival. Sean was on the ground on the other side of the medical building, protected from the south and west. Nikolaus turned slowly and looked up at the towering office building behind him, shielding him from

The power plant!

«Sean. Maintain your position. The shooter is probably on top of that exhaust stack to the west of me.»

«Copy that,» Sean replied.

Suddenly, there was movement in the courtyard. People were running from the main building. The shadows inside the parking garage were stirring.

Nikolaus dropped his head and peered through his scope.

Three men in lab coats were running across the grass carrying shiny cases in their hands. A larger man in dark clothing was leading them. Two black Suburbans exited the garage at almost full speed and skidded to a stop in the roundabout at the center of the courtyard. The side doors of the lead vehicle flew open.

Nikolaus began pivoting his rifle on its bipod, matching the movement of his targeting reticle to the speed of the lead soldier. All of a sudden, a high-pitched whistle of a ricocheting bullet sped past Nikolaus’ ear and he flinched.

To the south, a silhouette darted beneath a streetlight and disappeared into the shadows sixty meters away. The enemy sniper was apparently no longer in his perch.

Nikolaus quickly rolled to his left and slid off the edge, landing painfully on the lower roof ten feet down. Clenching his teeth against the pain, he struggled to a seated position and brought his rifle up to rest on his knee. He was now protected from gunfire to the south and west, but he had less than thirty seconds before the sniper could be within range of throwing a grenade onto the roof, and there was no way for him to prevent it.

Tires squealed in the courtyard.

Nikolaus lowered his eye to the scope. The Suburbans were circling counterclockwise through the roundabout. Nikolaus placed his reticle above the driver’s side of the windshield and fired off a burst at the lead vehicle.

Nothing happened. The trucks kept circling, heading toward the street that angled northeast.

Nikolaus switched to full-auto and aimed for the tires. His rifle shook in his hands, booming in rapid succession as it unloaded its payload on the retreating vehicles.

The trucks disappeared behind the east side of the parking garage without slowing.

Nikolaus’ magazine was spent.

«Sean, they’re coming toward you,» he warned.

Across the street from Sean’s position was a median of trees and shrubbery restricting his line of sight to the east side of the parking garage. He’d already shifted his location to find a break between the tangle of branches when he heard Nikolaus’ message.

«Got em,» he replied.

As soon as the vehicles slid into view from behind the structure, Sean put his crosshairs on the already pitted windshield of the lead vehicle and fired. As it passed from view, he targeted the rear vehicle and fired on the driver. Again, nothing happened.

The trucks kept coming, turning left onto another street that angled northwest toward the main thoroughfare that ran east to west in front of Sean. The vehicles were clearly armoredfar beyond anything Sean had seen before. He dropped his rifle and grabbed his grenade launcher, quickly changing up his strategy. He got to his feet and ran to his right, paralleling the vehicles as he moved through the trees. Within seconds he found an opening in the vegetation that gave him clear access to the road. He stopped and leaned against the trunk of a large tree for stability before bringing his weapon up to target the pocket of space underneath the lead vehicle.

The first truck came out from behind the foliage of the median.

Sean’s weapon was tracking.

One of the windows was rolled down. The streetlights reflected off a dark gun barrel. The muzzle in the window flickered with dull purple.

As Sean pulled his trigger, the tree above his head erupted into a cloud of splinters. He flinched as his own weapon barked, sending an explosive round over the hood of the lead vehicle, where it exploded against the side of the concrete parking structure.

All around him now, Sean could hear the swish and whistle of bullets tearing through the vegetation. Someone in the rear vehicle was firing at him as well. He dropped to the ground and took cover behind the tree trunk. Plumes of dirt and grass jumped into the air accompanied by the low thudding of slugs burrowing into the earth. Through the cloud of bullets and debris, he saw the trucks turn west onto the main thoroughfare. The assault lessened but didn’t stop as the lead vehicle stopped shooting.

Sean rose to his knees and targeted the rear vehicle, already fifty meters away. With bullets still cutting through the air around him, he fired.

The 40mm high-explosive round detonated on the blacktop, just in front of the vehicle’s rear tire. The force of the explosion momentarily lifted the right side of the vehicle off the pavement and spun it into a fishtail. Its left-side tires squealed as the driver struggled to keep the truck on the road. When all four wheels met the pavement again, the right rear tire was blown. Sparks flew from the rim as the Suburban skidded, then recovered before passing behind the next apartment building.

Sean launched himself from the trees and ran in pursuit. The grassy knoll gave way to pavement as his boots pounded hard against the ground. Across the street to his right was a row of cars parked in front of their owners’ apartments. Sean scanned quickly. Most were inexpensive French mini-cars and the liketypical of struggling medical students. But there was one that quickly grabbed his attentiona German sports car with some decent horsepower.

Sean smiled. Rich kid!

«They’re moving west now,» Nikolaus heard over the COMM. The enemy sniper hadn’t engaged him further, so he’d made his way across the lower roof to the north side of the building to find a way safely down to the parking lot below. From his slightly elevated position he could see over treetops and other lowlying obstacles. Movement to his left caught his eye.

A hundred meters away, someone was running along the four-lane street that angled northwest. As the man moved through alternating patches of shadow and artificial light, Nikolaus could see the outline of a rifle in his hands.

The sniper!

Nikolaus lowered himself off the side of the roof and hung from his hands, then dropped onto the closed lid of a dumpster. It was a short hop from there, and he started running as soon as his feet touched solid ground. Up ahead, he saw the Suburbans from between buildings as they sped by from right to left.

«The shooter is heading northwest,» he said into his COMM in grunts between strides. «He’s going to rendezvous with his friends at the next intersection.»

«Copy that,» Sean replied. «I’m acquiring a vehicle now. What’s your position?»

Nikolaus dodged between cars in a parking lot. He was now on the west side of the medical building. «I’m moving due north from my last position. Meet me at the alley between the medical building and the offices.»

«Copy that,» Sean replied.

In the seconds that followed, Nikolaus could only hear his own footsteps pounding hard against the pavement. Lights were on in the windows of the surrounding buildings and the silhouettes of people could be seen shifting from side to side, trying to glimpse what was happening from the safety of their apartments. Though the silence of the night had already been shattered by explosions and gunfire, there were no other noises yet. When he reached the main east-west thoroughfare, Nikolaus entered a stand of trees on the corner. He came to a stop against the trunk of a tree and brought his rifle up into both hands. As he expected, the vehicles were stopped at the next major intersection.

The lead truck had its rear passenger door open.

Nikolaus discarded his spent magazine and rammed in another one, pulled back on the charging handle, and moved the selector back to a three-round burst. Lifting the gun, he brought his crosshairs to the empty space to the left of the vehicle’s open door. He tried to calm his shaking hands. He inhaled deeply, then let it out and held his breath.

A shadow darted from behind the building, heading for the open door.

Nikolaus moved his reticle to match its speed, then squeezed the trigger.

The shadow was thrown backward, stumbling for a moment before grabbing the door for support.

Nikolaus took aim and fired again.

The soldier had already moved behind the cover of the open door and the second burst of rounds smashed against the inside of the window.

In unison, the soldier behind the door and another inside the vehicle leaned out and took aim.

Nikolaus dodged to the left and rolled along the ground. Where his head had been, the tree was instantly shredded into splinters. A creaking sound immediately followed as the top half of the tree began to lean and then topple over into the street. Nikolaus heard the squeal of tires and by the time he got to his feet, the trucks were gone.

Two quick beeps of a car’s horn drew his attention to the right. He turned just in time to see a silver sports car cross over from the right lane and skid to a halt in front of the curb. The window was down.

«Get in!» Sean yelled, moving himself into the passenger seat.

CHAPTER 25

Beneath the Medical Building

Helsinki, Finland

The C4 detonated, sending a wave of power that passed through Kael’s body like the fury of Rameel. When he uncovered his ears and opened his eyes, there was a gaping hole in the ceiling of the cramped tunnel. Jensen stood and grabbed the rim of the newly created opening, pulling himself up. A moment later his hand came back down, offering assistance. Greer grabbed hold and disappeared through the opening, followed by Martinez.

When Kael was pulled up, he found himself in a spacious room filled with large, cylindrical barrels standing on end. They were lined up in neat rows, evenly spaced with room to walk around each. Their shining metal exteriors reflected the blue light of the computer screens atop each one. Kael didn’t know what they were for, but they seemed appropriate to the type of work that the Intelligence group had described during their briefing.

TAC 1 assembled into formation and moved quickly across the room, heading for the door.

«TAC Two! Come in TAC Two!» yelled a voice over the COMM.

Something had gone wrong with the Teams outside.

«TAC Three! What’s happening?» the voice repeated. «TAC Three. Do you have eyes on the entrance? Where are they shooting from?»

Greer’s hand immediately went up and waved the Team forward, indicating that they all needed to keep moving and focused on their objective. The other Teams may have walked into an ambush, but stopping wouldn’t help anyone. TAC 1 exited the room and found themselves at the end of a hallway that extended only to the right. They moved quickly and found another door that opened into a utility room. Greer, Thompson, and Jensen pushed inside, while the rest covered the hallway.

«Clear,» Thompson called out seconds later. His call was immediately echoed by the other members.

Kael stood outside the door with his weapon up, covering his sector. His sense was already snaking through the halls, probing rooms and ventilation shafts, outpacing the Team’s inspection of the facility.

Greer came out of the room and led TAC 1 further down the hallway, clearing one room after another, quickly and systematically, but the process was slow by comparison. A bathroom, more utility rooms, storage areas, and labs passed by without incident while they listened over the COMM to the battle raging on the streets above them.

«Clear. Clear. Clear,» Kael heard over and over again. His growing restlessness could no longer be contained. «This is a waste of time!»

«Hey TL. His spider sense is tingling,» Martinez said to Greer.

Greer locked eyes with Kael. «Alright. Where are we going, then?»

Kael nodded toward the end of the hallway. «He’s in a lab around the corner.»

Greer nodded, then moved down the hall, skipping several doors while maintaining his point position. The Team, still in formation, rounded a corner and came upon a wall of windows looking into another lab. «The chamber in the corner,» Greer announced, heading immediately for the door.

Kael followed with his rifle at low ready, ignoring the un-cleared rooms.

Greer kicked open the double doors to the lab and pivoted right. Thompson followed, pivoting left.

Kael maintained his position at the back of the formation.

Three seconds passed before all members proclaimed the room clear of danger. «Jensen. Martinez. Cover our perimeter,» Greer ordered. Instantly, the soldiers took up positions on opposite sides of the room with their eyes scanning out the windows.

Kael’s weapon was up and trained on the double doors they’d just come through, but his eyes were fixed on Greer, waiting impatiently for the senior officer to let go of the reins.

«That’s Adair,» Greer called out as he peered into a glass chamber on the other side of the room. «Command, this is One. We have a visual on the objective. Bring in the EXTRACT chopper.»

«Copy that, One. ETA is two minutes.»

«Kael, I’ve got the doors. Trade places with me,» he said finally.

Kael raised his weapon to the ceiling and pivoted, passing Greer to join Thompson who was already at the chamber.

Thompson said something as he knelt down to study the arrangement of tubes and wires coming out of the menacing enclosure.

But Kael hardly heard anything. Sound disappeared. Time seemed to slow. Kael’s breath fogged up the glass as he pressed his face against the chamber. Inside, he saw the outline of a man. Naturally tan skin contrasted with the white sheet laid across his pelvis. Thin wires stuck out in every direction, making him look like a miniature forest. Kael stumbled along the length of the chamber, moving from the man’s feet to his head. Between the jungle of wires were bruises and welts on the man’s skin. Stitches marked deeper wounds that had been dressed. Kael gritted his teeth as he noticed that the man’s fingers were bandaged. His imagination immediately filled in the unknowns, populating the spaces with unspeakable horrors.

He kept moving toward the man’s head. A mask covered his nose and mouth. The tube that extended from it made him look like some grotesque monster from the myths of Orud, an undersea creature that few men had ever seen.

Kael swallowed hard as he pressed closer, trying to look past the recently shaved head covered with healing incisions. He tilted his head and squinted, trying to find recognition of what lay behind the purple and green bruising on the man’s face and the cables protruding from the sides of his head.

In that moment, with his head turned on its side to match the angle of the wretched man inside the chamber, Kael was a child again. He could see the sun glinting from behind his father’s healthy face in the courtyard of their home in Bastul.

«

I was hoping that you might know where I could find Saba?» Adair was asking. He had that amused smirk on his face.

«He’s gone until tomorrow,» Kael heard himself reply.

«Well, please continue,» he said with a wave of his hand. As he walked toward the mansion, his gait was agile and steady.

The man inside the chamber was a damaged shell of that memory. He was much thinner. His skin was paler than before. The mane of dark hair was gone. The stubble on his face was less distinguished than the smooth skin Kael remembered seeing.

But it was him.

Kael felt a warm, wet sensation slide down his face. It took a moment before he realized that he was crying. The last time he’d cried had been in that prison with the other children, when they were starved and treated like animals. It was in that place where he’d unwillingly hidden that part of himselfthe part that trusted others to protect him. He had been on his own from that moment forward. Always afraid. Always striving to be what was required of him. Always running. Fighting.

Kael pounded on the glass. «Father! Father!» he yelled.

The man inside was deathly still.

«Father,» Kael whimpered. His voice broke from the grief that had lodged itself in his throat. He was as helpless as a boy.

«He’s alive,» Thompson said.

The sound startled Kael. He turned quickly. «What?»

Thompson’s eyes were glossy. «They were monitoring his vitals. See. All these machines are still active. He’s breathing.»

Kael looked back to his father, motionless behind the glass. «Why doesn’t he wake up? Let’s get him out of there,» he replied, moving toward the hinges at the foot of the chamber.

«Whoa,» Thompson breathed. «Hold on. We don’t know anything about the atmosphere inside there.» He placed a steadying hand on Kael’s fingers which were already on the handle. «It looks like they have him in a medically-induced coma. We can’t just wake him up.»

Kael released his grip on the door handle.

A voice came over the COMM. «This is Nikolaus. TAC Two and Three are down. Sean and I are in pursuit of two black Suburbans moving northwest along Paciuksenkatu, away from the objective. Three medical personnel are in the lead vehicle. They each have a security briefcase handcuffed to their wrists. There are two soldiers and a driver in the vehicle as well. The rear vehicle has a driver and another soldier. It has a blown tire that’s slowing their retreat. We’re requesting backup.»

«TAC Three, this is Command,» Matthews’ voice replied. «We have multiple units en route closing on your location. Maintain COMM. We’re trying to get SAT coverage. Do not engage. Repeat, do not engage until you have backup.»

«Copy that,» Nikolaus replied.

«Thompson,» Greer said. His calm voice was a contrast to the frantic words heard over the COMM. «What’s your assessment?»

The Assistant Team Leader glanced quickly at Adair before answering. «He’s in a coma. We can’t do anything for him here.»

At these words, Kael looked back to the chamber. He wanted to argue, to plead that Thompson do something to help his father, but he didn’t know what to say or if his words would make any difference.

«There’s also something else going on here. Look at these cables,» Thompson said, kneeling down to the tangle on the floor.

Greer walked over while Kael knelt down to see what Thompson meant.

«You remember when they installed that new server room in Bogotá a few months ago?»

«Yeah?» Greer replied.

«The fiber optic they installed was huge, right?»

«Yeah.»

Thompson curled his fingers around two cables that ran from the floor underneath the steel frame of the table and followed them up to the underside, beneath where Adair’s head was resting.

Greer’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

«What does that mean?» Kael asked, confused.

Thompson locked eyes with Kael. «It means they were recording a ton of information.»

«From my father? What kind of information?»

Thompson’s eyes dropped to the floor where his hand had settled on the other ends of the cables. Two plugs stuck out like twisted glass daggers. «I wish I knew. But it looks like they made off with it.»

«The briefcases?» Greer asked.

Thompson squinted. «Maybe. They’d have to be portable supercomputers, which don’t exist yet as far as I know. But this is really advanced stuff,» he said, lifting the plugs in front of his face to emphasize his point.

«Alright,» Greer replied, opening the COMM. «Command, this is One.»

«This is Command. Go ahead, One,» Matthews replied.

«The Objective is secured. You’ll need a MED team and a TECH team standing by.»

«Copy that.»

«We also need this building secured.»

«The cavalry is on its way

thirty seconds out.»

Greer turned to Thompson. «You staying?»

«Yeah,» he replied.

Kael looked up at Greer. «Where are you going?»

«Adair’s secure. By the time we reach the lobby, this building will be crawling with security. We need to retrieve those briefcases.»

Kael nodded.

«Are you coming with us?» Greer asked.

The room suddenly went silent.

Kael looked into Greer’s fierce, brown eyes. In that moment, he realized what was being asked of him. He could see pain in those dark irisespain resulting from everything Greer had sacrificed to this point, not only for Kael’s safety, but for Adair’s as well. He knew that this soldier had protected his father and grown close to him in the process. He wasn’t abandoning Adair. There was nothing left for him to do here. The only remaining task worth doing was to find out what those briefcases held. What had the enemy done to his father? What had they stolen? Was the key to his consciousness locked away in those cases?

Thompson reached over and put a hand on Kael’s shoulder. «I’ve got this.»

Kael didn’t have the words to speak. He simply clenched his fist and pounded it twice against his chest.

Greer smiled. «Let’s go.»

CHAPTER 26

Helsinki, Finland

The floors of the medical building passed by in a blur of polished glass and metal surfaces. Beautiful woodwork and exotic, tropical vegetation placed in strategic locations softened the otherwise modern and sterile aesthetic. At a run, but with guns ready, the remaining members of TAC 1 ascended to the lobby through multiple deserted floors, with nothing but silence and dim, off-shift lighting to greet them. The scene changed dramatically as they reached the ground level and moved east through the lobby.

Fresh air poured in through the gaping hole where the main entrance used to be. The walls were charred and still smoking. Shards of safety glass littered the marble flooring amid craters and chunks of loose concrete. As promised, an armed security force had arrived and was already cordoning off the area. White sheets had been laid over the bodies of the members of TAC 2.

«TAC One approaching the entrance,» Greer announced over the COMM to keep from being fired on.

Several of the security members still brought their weapons to low ready in response.

«We’re glad somebody made it,» yelled the captain as they approached.

Greer headed straight for the man. «Thompson is with Adair. There’s a room at the northwest corner, six floors down. You’ll need several men; there’s a load of medical equipment that will have to come with him.»

«Got it,» the captain replied.

«Toss the BioSynthe offices and do a quick search of the lower levels for anything our Intelligence group would be interested in. Then disappear.»

«Yes, sir.»

«Can you spare a vehicle?»

«Uh, yes,» the captain said, fishing the keys from his pocket. «It’s the gray SUV on the grass by the walking path.»

«Thanks,» Greer replied and grabbed the keys.

After following the Suburbans through a series of seemingly random turns, Sean and Nikolaus found themselves heading north on E12 out of Helsinki. Despite the blown tire, the rear vehicle was still keeping pace with the other, moving at sixty miles per hour and sending an occasional shower of sparks across the road each time it made a slight adjustment to its direction.

«I wonder what modifications they have,» Sean mumbled from the passenger seat, marveling at the stability of the damaged vehicle.

«They’re heading for the airport,» Nikolaus told Command over the COMM.

«Do not engage yet. We have security forces at the E-eighteen interchange waiting to force them east toward a roadblock,» Matthews replied.

«Copy,» Nikolaus replied.

A minute later they crested a slight hill to see a line of blue lights flashing in the distance. As they neared, Sean could see a handful of vehicles parked at all angles, blocking the north passage while the off-ramp remained clear. Sensing an impending battle, he grabbed his grenade launcher from the floorboard and chambered a round.

The Suburbans kept their course and their speed.

«What if they don’t turn?» Sean asked.

Nikolaus took his eyes off the road just long enough to cast a worried look toward Sean.

Suddenly, the trucks veered east and took the off-ramp that merged onto E18 going northeast.

Nikolaus maintained his speed and followed at a safe distance. They passed several cross streets and turn-offs before the expressway cut through a forest that lined both sides of the road. Less than a mile later, the trees opened and the expressway ran straight beneath an overpass in the distance.

«Prepare to engage,» Matthews announced.

Nikolaus let off the accelerator and coasted, putting distance between his car and the enemy.

Sean could see what looked like a traffic jam surrounding the overpass. Two-dozen vehicles were spread out across E18, on the overpass above it and the on and off-ramps to either side. There weren’t any flashing lights this time. As they left the confines of the trees, Sean also noticed more vehicles moving onto the expressway behind them from side roads to the north and south. It was a foolproof ambush.

«Keep your distance,» he cautioned Nikolaus.

Flashes of orange suddenly began blinking in the darkness, illuminating the vehicles of the roadblock as the security forces started firing.

The Suburbans instantly veered south, running through the grassy median before launching into the air as they hit the inclined off-ramp. Sparks were flying from the dark vehicles now as they began taking direct automatic gunfire against their armored panels and windows.

«Follow em, follow em!» Sean yelled, louder than he meant to.

«Yeah, I got it!» Nikolaus snapped in return, wrenching the wheel to steer the car toward the off-ramp.

The Suburbans kept moving southeast and skipped over the off-ramp, running through another median before hitting pavement again at a frontage road. The two enemy vehicles then skidded to a stop where the frontage road intersected the overpass road. The rear windows on the driver’s side of both vehicles lowered.

«What are they doing?» Sean asked, leaning closer to his window.

An aura of purple suddenly emanated from the window openings, like the charged atmosphere of a neon tube, accompanied by a low hum.

Along the overpass, a series of explosions erupted in a wave that started at the nearest vehicle and worked its way north. Cars and trucks were tossed on their sides and bodies were thrown into the air. The overpass lit up like an air-based napalm attack from the Vietnam War. Huge clouds of black smoke blanketed the area and curled into the air.

«What are they?» Nikolaus began to say.

«Hurry! Get up to them while they’re distracted,» Sean yelled.

«Are you crazy?»

«Their windows are open,» Sean grunted as he hefted his grenade launcher and pressed the button to lower the passenger window. The pervasive hum of foreign weaponry immediately flooded the car, followed by the pulsing impact of rapid explosions.

Nikolaus accelerated and they bounced across the median and onto the frontage road. «Go, go, go!» Sean yelled. They were closing the distance but it felt excruciatingly slow.

The enemy’s weapons were still firing and the wall of flames moved across the overpass and started down the on-ramp on the north side. The Suburbans weren’t taking fire anymore. Every one of the security members was running for cover.

«Veer left. I can’t get the angle.»

«I’ll go off the road!» Nikolaus yelled.

They were thirty meters out now, and Sean decided to risk a shot before the Suburbans pulled away. Leaning out of the passenger window, he peered through the optics, targeting the open window of the rear vehicle. He quickly estimated the grenade drop over the distance to the target and pulled the trigger.

Whump!

A second later, an explosion detonated against the rear quarter panel and blew out the glass of the back windshield and both rear windows. Sean’s aim had been slightly low and to the right.

The lead vehicle peeled out, then fishtailed as it headed south on the overpass road and disappeared into the forest. The rear vehicle remained parked at the intersection. A purple aura was still hanging around the middle left window. The wall of flames and explosions that had marched down the on-ramp had now jumped across E18 and started up the off-ramp as well. Another, fainter pulse suddenly flickered from where the back windshield had been.

A volley of non-explosive rounds walked up the hood of the car and punched through the windshield, sending jagged fissures across the surface like strands of a spider web.

Sean glanced quickly at Nikolaus, who was unscathed and wearing an angry stare.

The car accelerated.

Sean turned back to the Suburban, leaned further out of the window, and took aim. He fired the remaining three rounds as fast as he could pull the trigger.

The first round went through the rear driver’s side window and exploded inside the cab, blowing out the rest of the windows. The second round went low and exploded beneath the truck, lifting it on two wheels, while the third detonated against the underside and blew the gas tank. The vehicle rolled forward across the street, propelled by an expanding sphere of flames.

Nikolaus let off the accelerator as he approached the intersection, veering right at the smoking wreckage.

«Catch up to the other vehicle,» Sean said, pulling himself back into the cab. «Whoever’s left of the security team can clean this up.»

Nikolaus continued his turn and accelerated away from the overpass.

Sean ejected the spent magazine and loaded another. When he looked up, Nikolaus had a smile on his face. «Are you okay? Were you hit?»

«No. I’m fine,» Nikolaus said, shifting into fifth as the trees raced by. «But I don’t usually take orders from strangers.»

«Oh. Sorry,» Sean said, realizing that somewhere along the way he had assumed his default mode of taking charge.

«That’s alright. Good shooting.»

Sean nodded then felt a smile creeping across his face.

«Turn left on forty-five,» Matthews said over the COMM.

Greer skidded through the deserted intersection and turned north. Luckily, at this hour there weren’t many cars on the road or he would have been causing accidents by the second. «Where are they now?»

«About a mile out, heading straight toward you.»

«They give up on the airport?»

Kael, listening to the conversation, could almost hear the smile in Matthews’ voice.

«Yeah. Someone tipped off the cops about an unidentified chopper on one of their old helipads to the south. Airport police are moving in now to intercept it.»

«I thought law enforcement was on Armaros’ payroll,» Greer replied.

«Not in this country.»

Greer smiled. «Nice work, Matthews.»

«Thanks, but it’s starting to spiral out of control. Between the airport and the medical building we’ve got police units moving in from every direction. Distress calls are coming in from the residences all over the place. We’re inside the dispatch computers and trying to direct traffic, but we can’t do much more without them knowing.»

«That’s okay,» Greer replied. «The rail yard is out of the way. We just need a pocket of space to get this thing buttoned up. Where’s the security force?»

«They’ve got Adair airborne, and the rest just pulled out. The cops are still a few minutes away, so we should be able to get them through without being seen.»

«Good. Standby.»

They were getting close now. Unfortunately, the north and south lanes of 45 were separated by a wide median of trees. The engine was getting loud as the vehicle was approaching eighty miles per hour. Apartment buildings and businesses flew by on the right, while the left side of the road was a blur of trees and streetlights.

«TAC Three, where are you now?»

Sean’s voice came over the COMM. «Still in pursuit. We’re passing Pak

Pakilantie. Something like that.»

The trees ended and the terrain opened up to reveal a large freeway interchange built over a main artery of multiple train tracks. Greer let off the accelerator.

Kael pushed his sense outward and could feel a procession of vehicles in the distance, coming in their direction on the other side of the road.

As they passed over the tracks, the ground rose up again on either side of the overpass. Greer turned sharply to the left and drove between a narrow gap in the concrete dividers. The SUV jolted violently as they went over a curb, then it shuddered as they crossed the decorative features inlaid into the concrete of the median. Another bump shook the vehicle as it left the median and landed on the smooth pavement of the southbound lanes. Greer made a quick correction and swerved around an oncoming car, which promptly laid on its horn.

Greer ignored the justified honking and sped up toward where the off-ramp peeled away to the southwest. «There he is. I have a visual.»

A hundred and fifty meters away, a large, dark vehicle was speeding down the expressway. In the distance, a silver sport’s car and a caravan of gray vehicleswhat was left of the roadblock and ambush forceswere following from a safe distance.

«Copy that,» Sean replied over the COMM. «I can see you now.»

«Alright boys. Find some cover, but let em know we’ve got firepower. Get ready,» Greer warned. He spun the wheel to the left and skidded in the middle of the road, blocking both oncoming lanes.

Before the vehicle even came to a stop, the doors were open and TAC 1 was out and moving to their positions. Kael jumped out and hit the pavement at a run, heading east to take cover behind a waist-high concrete barrier. Durand and Martinez also took the east side of the road at intervals of fifteen meters, while Greer and Jensen took the west side.

Kael squatted against the cold barrier and propped his arm and upper body against the barricade. Sean had informed them over the COMM of the futility of using bullets, so everyone had their grenade launchers ready.

«Here they come,» Greer announced. «Make sure you don’t hit em.»

In no particular order, each member fired one round . A random pattern of explosions detonated across the expressway, looking like the result of trigger-happy, panicked soldiers.

The black Suburban came barreling down the expressway and took the off-ramp without the slightest hesitation.

The silver sports car passed by a few seconds later, followed by the rest of the pursuers.

TAC 1 remained in position just long enough to make sure that the enemy vehicle wouldn’t change course. Then Greer gave the order to get back in the SUV. Kael vaulted over the barricade and ran for the passenger door. Greer had the engine started by the time Kael shut the door. The tires squealed and the vehicle took off amid a cloud of white smoke.

«That went well,» Martinez said with a smirk.

They swerved around two more honking cars before going off the road and fishtailing a hundred and eighty degrees to take the southbound off-ramp. Once on smooth pavement, Greer stomped on the accelerator and held it to the floor. The truck vibrated from the struggle as it tried desperately to bring its own weight and that of five grown men up to speed. The engine roared in protest, but grudgingly obeyed.

The off-ramp spilled out onto a westbound road that bordered the rail yard.

«Take the turn. Take the turn,» they heard over the COMM. It was Sean’s voice, yelling at the enemy. «Yes!» he exclaimed. «The Suburban is now headed south on Veturitie.»

«Copy that, TAC Three,» Matthews replied. «Security teams are in place. Maintain distance and pursuit.»

«Copy that,» Sean replied.

From his rooftop vantage, Captain Rutger Norling watched through a spotter’s scope as the black Suburban came into view through the forest on the north side of the rail yard. It was already traveling at one hundred kilometers per hour when it crossed the inclined bridge over the tracks, and its speed was still increasing. He grabbed his radio and depressed the button. «Here they come. Shooters ready?»

«Ready,» his snipers replied.

In addition to the three expert marksmen positioned on the rooftops of buildings flanking the road as it cut through the center of the yard, Norling had another fifty-two men on the ground, holding a wide perimeter so the enemy couldn’t escape the area. He’d already lost a third of his force at the roadblock shootout, but their deaths wouldn’t be in vain. The enemy was apparently heavily armed. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. His men were now carrying maximum firepower and most were out of the enemy’s range. The ones who weren’t had a specific purpose.

The enemy vehicle continued its rapid course southward, driving the last six hundred meters of its journey to a wide alley of sorts where a handful of train tracks and two roads paralleled each other between a gauntlet of two-story buildings.

Norling watched the vehicle through his scope and estimated its time to the kill zone in front of him. When the time was right, he pressed the button on the radio. «Take out the engine in three, two, one. FIRE!»

Three simultaneous reports echoed across the yard. Large puncture wounds appeared on the hood and front panels of the vehicle as armor-piercing rounds tore through the engine block from numerous angles. The only indication of their success was that the truck immediately began losing speed.

«Thermal?» Norling asked.

The spotter on the west rooftop replied first. «One small mass in the driver’s seat. One large mass in the back.» The other two spotters concurred from their unique angles of view.

Norling waited until the truck came to a stop in front of his position. «Take out the driver in three, two

«

Sitting in the second row of seats with a doctor by his side, Lieutenant Daud was hardly surprised when the windshield and both side windows exploded. He had just enough time to close his eyes and turn his head before he felt bits of glass and something wet slam into his face. When he opened his eyes, he saw what was left of the driver’s head and torso slumped over the center console.

The enemy had apparently learned something from the last encounter and was now using armor-piercing rounds.

The doctors immediately loosed a variety of noises that ranged from hyperventilating exhalations to curses of fear, to calling on non-existent deities.

Daud and his scout remained calm. The petrified doctors were high-value assets to the enemy and there would be no more shooting as long as they stayed together. That knowledge gave him the time he needed to prepare his next move. In his mind, Daud could see the entirety of the battlefield with full control to choose the perspective, or variety of perspectives, that gave him the greatest understanding of what was happening at the moment. His internal sensors were coordinating in real-time with their atmospheric counterparts to deliver petabytes of useful information to his brain. The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, including bands not perceptible to the human experience, was at his disposal. Radio transmissions bounced from enemy soldier to enemy soldier, their messages indecipherable but giving away their positions nonetheless. Sound waves expanded and collided, leaving outlines of solid forms as well as their points of originsonar for this terrestrial predatory creature. Infrared and UV wavelengths made his enemies glow like multicolored light bulbs at Christmas time.

Each and every enemy was visible, and therefore vulnerable. There were three sniper/spotter teams on the surrounding rooftops, as well as a command team on a three-story building due east. Another fifty-two soldiers were holding a perimeter of three hundred meters, blocking their escape to the south, east, and west. A convoy of a dozen vehicles was now entering the rail yard from the north and spreading out to seal off that direction of escape.

Very well, he thought coldly. Have it your way.

With just a fraction of mental effort, he summoned a defensive routine that ran in the background of his thoughts, cataloging every enemy’s position in degrees relative to himself, including their distance and elevation. Air temperature, humidity, and wind currents between him and each target were integrated into a model and fed into his routine, which was already spitting out a prioritized list based on his own location, the speed at which he could move his arm, and his rate of fire.

As all this was running in his mind, he reached under his seat and removed a weapon. Though it somewhat resembled a short and bulky assault rifle, that observation couldn’t have been further from the truth. As his hand slid by the oddly shaped stock of the weapon, the rigid material secured itself to his bare forearm by some unknown but powerful force that could be turned off by a simple thought command. Sensors in his hand communicated with sensors in the weapon’s pistol grip, instantly transferring its altitude and azimuth to his defense routine, as well as its current lack of ammunition. Daud slipped on an ammo pack and connected its belt feed to the weapon. In less than a second, he could feel the weapon recognize the presence of ammo, determine a total quantity of rounds, and begin charging itself with the electromagnetic energy required to launch the cartridge-free projectiles and energize their mass for maximum kinetic damage.

Armed and ready, he glanced to the back of the vehicle and locked eyes with his scout who had already employed a similar weapon at the ineffective roadblock. The same defense routine was also nearing completion in the scout’s mind. Daud summoned the soldier’s health diagnostics and could sense three copper-jacketed lead slugs embedded in his chest and abdomen. Their mushroomed shapes had already been contained and the damaged tissue was being rebuilt by his rapid immune system. The soldier was at full capability and ready to go.

The doctors’ fear-stricken vocalizations had died down to a minimum now.

Daud turned to the one sitting closest and met his eyes. Then his gaze lowered to the shiny security briefcase handcuffed to the doctor’s wrist. The enemy was trying to retrieve the information inside those computers and would need the doctors to make any sense of it. The information was irreplaceable. The doctors weren’t. Instead of a person sitting next to him, Daud saw only a liability.

With a deliberate and unhurried movement, Daud reached out and grabbed the doctor’s wrist.

«Hey,» the doctor said, trying to pull his arm away.

The rail yard was silent. No one was moving. Norling watched the vehicle through his scope, but could only see the bloodied front seat through its shattered windows. The rest of the vehicle’s interior was cloaked in shadow. «What are they waiting for?» he said aloud.

Suddenly, screams reverberated through the yard.

Everyone on the security command team immediately perked up.

«It’s coming from the truck,» one of Norling’s men said.

The convoy of gray vehicles behind them slowed and fanned out as soon as they entered the rail yard, following their orders to secure the perimeter. Nikolaus continued driving south over a bridge that spanned a handful of train tracks which seemed to multiply as soon as they came out into the yard, branching off in all directions. It was a massive operation that seemed to have been abandoned years ago.

«Right there,» Sean pointed. «Pull off and go toward that building.»

Nikolaus just nodded and veered east, following another road that paralleled the last. As they approached a parking lot, Nikolaus slowed the car until their line of sight to the enemy vehicle was blocked by a group of six abandoned train cars. He inched forward just enough to see the black Suburban and then put it in park.

«What are they waiting for?» Sean asked.

«I don’t know. Let’s get set up,» Nikolaus said. «Underneath those rail cars looks like a good spot.»

Sean moved his grenade launcher to his left hand and held it against his chest while he pushed open his door with his right hand.

Nikolaus turned around from the driver’s seat and reached back for his rifle and ammo.

Norling saw movement through his scope. The doors on the far side of the Suburban flew open. Two dark-clad figures burst from the cover of the vehicle into a full run, heading for the building to the west. Their arms were raised and holding something as if they were taunting their enemies. The doctors were not with them.

«The doctors are in the vehicle! Repeat. The doctors are in the vehicle! Open fire on the»

Before Norling could get the words out of his mouth, he saw a plume of red burst from the back of the sniper to his left. Then the spotter next to him went down. The next man in line simply fell backward. That’s when Norling felt something punch through his chest like multiple, quick jabs that knocked the wind out of him. He dropped his radio and felt his legs buckle. As he crashed to the roof, the last thought that traveled from synapse to synapse inside his brain carried only a single observation. There had been no incoming bullet impacts to signal that they were being fired upon, just an impossibly fast series of deadly-accurate shotsa dozen for each soldier.

Greer’s foot still held the accelerator to the floor, forcing the vehicle to its maximum speed as it left the bridge over the railroad tracks and flew down the incline toward Norling’s kill zone.

In the back seat, Kael now gripped his rifle and leaned forward, ready to exit the vehicle as soon as possible. With eyes closed, his sense was already hundreds of meters ahead of him, feeling out the lay of the battlefield and the positions of ally and enemy alike. The black vehicle sat unmoving at the center of a gauntlet of soldiers. Something was happening there that Kael had never felt before. There was a convergence of power, or

what? Kael wondered. It felt like many rivers were flowing together and into the enemy vehiclerivers of something that he couldn’t identify. Then, just as soon as he detected it, it was gone.

«Something’s happening,» he said.

«What?» Greer asked without taking his eyes off the road.

Kael still probed with his sense, now focused on the enemy vehicle. Another sensation, more substantial than the last, was building up inside itan energy of some kind.

«I don’t know. They’re

preparing for something.»

«To attack?» Jensen asked, turning around in his seat.

Now Kael could feel terror emanating from the black vehicle, a visceral fear of pain and death.

«Oh, no!»

«Kael!» Greer shouted. «What’s going on?»

The pain increased three-fold, then ended abruptly. «The doctors

«

«Are they still alive?» Greer asked.

«I don’t

I don’t think so,» Kael managed to say as he concentrated on the vehicle now only three hundred meters away and rapidly decreasing.

The doors of the vehicle flew open and Kael sensed the soldiers’ movement as they ran west. All of the pent-up energy suddenly exploded from them.

«GET OUT OF THE WAY!» Kael yelled.

The truck lurched forward as Greer suddenly let off the accelerator and glanced back to Kael, confusion on his face.

«Turn! Turn!» Kael instructed, waving his hand at a nearby train car.

Greer quickly looked forward and jerked the wheel to the right. The SUV skidded off the pavement and sent up a cloud of dirt as they slid sideways behind a rusted train car.

Daud slowed to a walk as he approached the building. His arms were still moving, targeting and eliminating one enemy after another. The glowing shapes on his battlefield over-map were blinking out in rapid succession as the bodies lost temperature after death and cooled below 95 degrees Fahrenheit. His weapons, one in each hand, kept launching energized projectiles at a rate of one hundred rounds per second.

The briefcase computer in his backpack wasn’t heavy enough to slow him down in the least.

His scout behind him carried one case in his pack and another in his left hand, which only left one hand for a weapon. But between them, their three guns were more than sufficient to address this pathetic excuse for an ambush.

Daud stopped firing to the south, having eliminated all the enemies in that direction. With his left hand, he targeted a door whose locking mechanism and hinges prevented them from entering the building now only a few paces away. A handful of rounds sliced through the metal door and frame, shredding it in the blink of an eye. The door, without anything to hold it in place, was thrown inside the building from the force of the attack. Daud lowered his left arm just as his right weapon stopped firing, having eliminated all the open targets to the north.

The rail yard was silent again.

He stood still. His right arm hovered in place where a rail car a few hundred meters away was blocking his line of sight to some of the last remaining thermal signatures. Five men had been approaching in a vehicle and had turned behind cover at the last possible moment.

He turned only his head and met the gaze of his scout whose weapon was also still extended to the northeast. Another two enemies were glowing behind a rail car only a hundred and fifty meters away.

«Should I go after them?» the scout vocalized.

Daud surveyed the battlefield. Out of nearly a hundred enemies, only seven were left, and only because those had found sufficient cover.

«No,» he replied. «They won’t come out; they’re scared. Hold this doorway. Wait three minutes, then move to the rendezvous point.»

«Yes, sir,» the scout replied.

Kael leaned against a rail car, gripping his machine gun with two hands. The rest of TAC 1 was lined up against the car beside him, now seeing the wisdom of relying on his intuition. Even if they didn’t understand it, it was safer for them. With eyes closed, Kael scanned the battlefield and surveyed the damage. Bodies littered the ground and rooftops. Vehicles were destroyed. There were only two men alive, and Kael could tell that one was injured. They were closer to the enemy, but still had cover.

The leader of the enemy soldiers walked through the doorway and Kael sensed his movement picking up to a running pace as he headed south through the building. The other soldier stepped toward the doorway, then turned around when he reached the threshold. His weapon hand was still raised while the other held a metal briefcase with a dangling handcuff still fastened into a circle. It was wet with blood.

Like he’d experienced so many times before in battle, Kael could feel the path that he should takethe solution to a dangerous dilemma becoming clear.

Sean was lying on the ground behind a rusted rail car, breathing heavily after dragging all of Nikolaus’ one hundred and ninety-five pounds across the dirt. He was almost sure he had broken ribs from the rounds that had slammed into the grenade launcher in front of his chest. The weapon was rendered useless even before Sean had been thrown back against the car, but at least it had saved his life.

Nikolaus, on the other hand, hadn’t fared as well. Of the two-dozen rounds that punched through the hood and windshield of the car, he’d only taken one through the shoulder, but it had done a lot of damage. Even as Sean pulled Nikolaus, still clinging to his rifle, over the console and out of the car, he could tell that the man wouldn’t ever use his left arm again. His shoulder looked like someone had planted a stick of dynamite inside it. There was nothing but bone fragments where the clavicle and humerus were supposed to meet. Sean had seen enough injuries in his young life to know that Nikolaus would deal with pain for the rest of his life.

As he struggled to catch his breath, Sean’s hand went to his own shoulder, feeling the still tender wound that marked the day his brother had died. He wondered what kind of enemy they were up against. He’d witnessed their unbelievable firepower on the freeway overpass, and now thisalmost a hundred soldiers were dead in roughly a minute. No one should be able to shoot like that. He and Nikolaus didn’t stand a chance. Were those things on the move? Was one of them approaching their covered position now? How many seconds of life did he and Nikolaus have before they were flanked?

«Sean, is that you?»

Sean flinched, scanning the area around himself, looking for an apparition before realizing someone was hailing him over the COMM.

«Who is this?» he asked, quickly wondering if he’d even used his own COMM to call for survivors. He couldn’t remember. It had all happened so fast.

«It’s Kael. Do you have a weapon?»

«No. It was damaged in the

« Sean’s eyes settled on Nikolaus’ right hand. «Wait. Hold on. Yeah, Nikolaus has a rifle.»

«Do you have ammo?» Kael asked.

Sean rolled over and boosted himself onto his elbows. Nikolaus was breathing steadily, but looked like he was in shock. «Nikolaus,» he said.

There was no response.

«Nikolaus, do you have ammo?»

Nikolaus nodded slowly. «ss

splosive

« he whispered.

«Let me have it, okay?»

Nikolaus loosened his grip and Sean took the .338 caliber rifle from the soldier. He released the magazine and held it up to the artificial light coming from a nearby streetlamp. The magazine was full, but the chamber was empty. «Uh

Yeah, I’ve got ammo.»

«Okay. Load your weapon and get ready.»

«Wait. Are you the only one left? Where are you?»

«No,» Kael replied. «I’m with the rest of TAC One. We’re north of you, behind a railcar at the end of the building.»

«Alright,» Sean said, inserting the magazine and chambering the first round. «What’s the plan?»

«One of the enemy soldiers is at a doorway leading into the building west of their vehicle. Don’t look right now! He has his weapon trained on your location. Just trust me. You’ll have a line of sight if you lean out from behind cover.»

Sean turned over on his stomach and eased himself over Nikolaus before crawling to the corner of the rail car. «Okay,» he replied, staying back from the corner.

«Can you make an accurate shot at that distance?» Kael asked.

Sean looked up at the protective barrier of the thick steel as he pictured the shot in his mind. Before the attack, he’d gotten a good look at the enemy vehicle and the surrounding area. «Definitely. Just tell me where you want it.»

«Alright. I’m going to count down from five. On three, I’m going to step out and draw his fire. On the count of one, I want you to lean out and take your shot. It’ll have to be his head. I’m not sure how well protected he is around the chest.»

«Okay. Hang on,» Sean said. He lifted Nikolaus’ rifle to his chin and looked out through the scope at some buildings to the east. He inspected the scope’s reticle and did some quick math in his head, preparing himself for the shot. Then he slowly got to his feet, adjusted his grip and took a few deep breaths before inching closer to the edge of the rail car. «Alright. I’m ready.»

Kael could feel Sean’s position and the confidence emanating from him.

Beside him, TAC 1 had their weapons at low ready and their eyes glued to Kael. He leaned away from the cold wall of metal and turned to face south. Then he nodded to the men who’d put their lives on the line for him and his fathersoldiers who’d taught him their ways and made him part of their team, however brief that time had been. Kael was grateful to have them at his side.

«Okay. Here we go. Five. Four. Three.»

Kael stepped out from behind cover and brought his weapon up.

The soldier in the distance instantly pivoted, bringing his arm around.

With the butt of the weapon wedged against his shoulder, Kael ignored the scope and raised the muzzle of the gun, trusting his sense to feel out the path to the target.

«Two

«

As soon as it felt right, Kael squeezed the trigger. A three-round burst left his gun, throwing his arms backward. The jolt of recoil was his signal to take cover again.

No sooner had he ducked behind the rail car than he heard a whistle, then a series of sharp, metallic pings as a volley of bullets cut through the air where his body had been and glanced off the steel of the rail car.

Two! Sean counted in his head.

He took a half step to the left and planted his support hand against the corner of the rail car. The stable wedge of his hand also cradled the forend of the stock, giving him a steady pivot point. He quickly put the crosshairs a predetermined distance above the enemy’s head.

At the bottom of his vision, he saw the enemy’s left arm jolt backward and the briefcase went tumbling to the ground.

One!

He pulled the trigger. Nikolaus’ rifle boomed, sending an explosive round across the rail yard at nearly a thousand meters per second.

The soldier’s head exploded with spouts of flame that shot sideways, casting his body like a rag doll through the doorway.

Sean stood up straight and looked through his scope again. The soldier was down, but there was a green glow emanating from the doorway.

Kael felt the explosion only a second after he’d ducked behind the car. He knew instantly that Sean’s aim had been accurate. «Go!» he yelled, stepping out from behind cover and bursting into a full run.

TAC 1 was right behind him, their weapons up and scanning. Jensen and Martinez veered left toward the Suburban. Kael, Greer, and Durand headed straight along the building. They crossed the yard in seconds, coming to a stop in front of the doorway where two melted boots stuck out of the shadows, marking the end of two rows of ash.

«Ugh,» Durand breathed as he came near. «What happened?»

Kael looked away from the remains to where the briefcase had landed. The soldier’s severed hand was still fastened to the handle with curled fingers. Its other end was shredded where Kael’s three rounds had separated it from the arm.

Sean came running over, his breath labored as he slowed to a stop. «I don’t know what happened. As soon as he hit the ground, I saw a glow.»

«What do you mean?» Greer asked, his eyes still panning over the piles of ash and melted body armor.

«Just what I said. He was glowing.»

«Doctors are dead,» Martinez said as he and Jensen came over to join the rest.

Kael looked back to the dead soldier where another briefcase, slightly charred, lay in the middle of the ashes. Then he knelt down at the one still intact at his feet. «Look at this,» he said.

Greer turned now, his squinting expression indicating the thoughts running through his head. He looked back and forth a few times before replying. «Looks like a self-destruct mechanism.»

Martinez leaned over the body and whistled. «Think it was triggered by his heart rate?»

Greer nodded. «Something like that. His hand was already separated from his body when it happened, so it didn’t disintegrate.»

«Why would a soldier need a self-destruct mechanism?» Durand said, asking the most obvious question.

Everyone was silent for a moment.

«There’s something different about these soldiers,» Kael said finally. «I don’t know what it is, but they’re not like us.»

Greer nodded silently.

Durand turned around to Sean. «Nice shootin’, Tex.»

Sean smiled. «Thanks. I’m from Boston.»

Greer looked up. «Alright boys. One down, one to go. Kael, can you

remove the hand? Martinez. Grab the other briefcase.»

«What do you want me to do?» Sean wheezed.

«You’ve done plenty,» Greer assured him. «Take these briefcases and get back to Nikolaus. I’m calling in an extraction for you two.»

For a moment, Sean looked like he would argue. Then his hand went up to his neck as if he was feeling something under his clothing. «Yes, sir,» he replied.

CHAPTER 27

Helsinki, Finland

«Command, where is he?» Greer asked.

«TAC One, we lost thermal. We’re being jammed somehow,» Matthews replied.

Kael stood up with the briefcase and handed it to Sean, then locked eyes with Greer. «He just exited the southwest corner of the building.»

Greer’s face tightened into a half-smile. «Alright, Kael. This is your show. What do you want us to do?»

«We need to split up. I’ll head west through the building. Greer and Durand, you guys head north around the end of the building. Jensen and Martinez, around the south. I’ll explain on the way.»

The soldiers nodded and ran off in separate directions without questioning Kael’s orders.

Kael stepped over the charred body of the enemy and through the doorway, running into the shadows at full speed. His sense went before him, guiding him along the quickest route to the other side of the rectangular structure. The building, just like its twin next door, was just over four hundred meters long. Both were massive obstacles for TAC 1, providing the enemy plenty of time and cover to escape. Beyond the buildings was another five hundred meters of open rail yard without cover before the nearest commercial structure and its parking lot. Kael ran as fast as he could to reach his position before their opportunity would expire.

«Okay,» he breathed. «He’s moving west now across open territory. If he gets to the offices on the other side of the yard, he’ll have access to cars and then we’ve lost him. There’s another building just west of us. Make your way to the far corners, but stay behind cover.»

Kael kicked through a doorway and found himself in an alley between buildings. Without pausing, he turned right and ran a few steps until he found the busted window that allowed him into the next building.

«When you reach your positions, hold there. We have to move as one.»

Short partitions filled the center of the first floor, blocking Kael’s path. The nearest way through was a hundred meters in either direction. He stepped onto an old desk and climbed to the top of the unstable partition walls and carefully walked across their common support, then jumped off the other side before kicking through another door. This led him into a smaller room with concrete walls. A large oval table lay tipped over in the middle. The remains of chairs were scattered around the perimeter of the room, and looked as though they had been scavenged for their more useful parts. The wall to the west was only concrete from the floor up to chest-height. The rest of the space was filled with the metal frames of broken out windows, allowing a clear view of the rail yard to the west. In the distance, a dark figure was running away and had already crossed half of the distance to the nearest office building.

«Greer and Durand, in place,» said Greer’s panting voice.

«Martinez and Jensen, in place,» Martinez breathed.

Kael was just about to speak when he felt the enemy soldier slow down then stop altogether.

«What’s the plan?» Greer asked.

«He knows we’re here,» Kael said.

«How could he know that?» Jensen asked.

«What’s the plan!» Greer said, louder this time.

The enemy soldier turned around and raised his arms in their direction.

«Okay,» Kael said. «He’s not running anymore. He stopped about halfway across the yard. We can’t kill him or we’ll lose another briefcase. We each need to target one of his arms or legs and wound him. Arms are the highest priority so he can’t shoot back. Legs are next priority so he can’t escape. After we wound him, we’ll move in and take the briefcase.»

«Good,» Greer replied quickly. «We’ll take his right side. I’ll go high right for his arm. Durand goes low right for his leg. Jensen, you take high left. Martinez, you go low left. Kael, go for his arms. We’ll need to double up there. Everybody ready?»

«Copy,» the Team replied in unison.

In the distance, the low and steady thrum of an approaching chopper signaled their impending extraction.

«Okay boys. We go on three. Two. One.»

Daud stopped running. Five of the remaining enemies were pursuing him and had taken up flanking positions. The probability of reaching a vehicle before being fired upon had suddenly dwindled below an acceptable limit. His highest likelihood for success was now to engage his pursuers. He turned and brought both weapons up and targeted the two ends of the long building several hundred meters away. There were two thermal signatures hovering just behind each corner of the concrete structure and another moving through the center of the building directly east of him. Rapidly pulsing sound waves to the southwest signaled an approaching helicopter that was still too far away to be a threat, but could always be included in his target list at any time.

He fired up the defensive routine in his mind and changed several of the key inputs. With only five targets, he had plenty of resources to assign to a greater level of precision than his last engagementweapons make and models; caliber of ammunition and muzzle velocities; the temperature of each weapon’s barrel and its angle to the target. In less than a second, whole databases of ballistics data were compiled into his routine and fed through a statistical probability model that could be adjusted in real-time as he witnessed the shifting positions of his enemies. They were nothing more than variables in an equation.

By the time his enemies began their simultaneous attack, Daud had already calculated the trajectory of each shot and sent a volley of intercepting fire to knock their feeble projectiles from the air. With an inward swipe of each arm, he blanketed the rail yard with defensive rounds. Then he reversed the movement, sending another volley in attack.

Kael jumped to his feet and fired a three-round burst at the soldier’s left arm, and then another at his right. He dropped behind the low wall just as multiple enemy rounds destroyed the last remaining fragments of glass in the window frames and peppered the wall across the room behind him.

«I’m hit!» someone yelled

«Durand is down!» Greer yelled.

«I’m hit too!» someone else yelled.

«Ahhh!»

The radio transmissions were chaotic.

«What’s happening?»

«Did we get him?»

Kael squinted as the volume in his ear increased. He quickly removed the small device from his ear that connected him to his Team. With his sense, he reached out toward the enemy who remained in place, standing with his weapons ready.

He was unscathed.

Kael retracted his sense, then pushed it laterally to his Team members. Durand was on the ground. There was a lot of blood around the back of his head and his heart wasn’t beating anymore. Greer was leaning against the building with one arm hanging limp at his side. To the south, Jensen was scooting backward from the edge of the building, dragging a wounded leg across the ground. Martinez was hunched over and bleeding from his stomach.

Kael gritted his teeth in frustration. The men he’d come to call friendsthe deadliest warriors he’d ever known, were wounded or dead. The enemy was so close, and yet unreachable. Strapped to his back was the third case of information that might hold the key to Adair’s well-being. He couldn’t admit defeat. As impossible as the odds were, he just couldn’t let go.

As fear began to well up inside him, another more powerful emotion grew, overtaking all else. It was a sensation that he’d felt at other critical moments in his life and had learned to trust. Against all reason, Kael rose to a crawl and began moving for the door on his left. As he moved, keeping below the edge of the concrete, he reached out to his friends.

No more radios. No more hand signals or coded dialogue. Kael dropped all barriers of secrecy and revealed himself. He reached into Greer’s mind and spoke directly to him.

Stay back and don’t interfere, he said. I’ll take care of this.

Immediately, he could feel Greer’s confusion as if it was his own. How are you doing this?

Don’t worry about that right now. Do you trust me?

He felt Greer’s answer even before the soldier put it into a word. Yes.

Jensen and Martinez were scared, but ready to rush onto the battlefield at a moment’s notice.

Don’t attack, he told them. This is my fight.

Both soldiers looked quickly at each other to see if they were experiencing the same thing.

I’ll explain it to you later. Just promise me you’ll stay back and keep safe.

They nodded.

Kael had reached the door and could now feel the enemy’s attention on him, watching his every movement despite the fact that he was behind a concrete wall. Whether or not the soldier had abilities like Kael didn’t matter. Kael wasn’t trying to be secretive; he was simply positioning himself. From his crouched position, he grabbed the door handle and flung it open.

The soldier now pointed one of his weapons at the door.

Kael flipped the selector switch on his weapon to full-auto.

The soldier brought his other weapon to bear, predicting an attack.

In one fluid motion, Kael rose to standing, pivoted to face the enemy, and brought his weapon up. He could feel the energy building up on the tip of the soldier’s weapons and fired in their direction. As he left the door at a run and entered the rail yard, his weapon shuddered in his hands, spewing lead into the air.

Hundreds of rounds flew at each other over the expanse of dirt and iron tracks, colliding mid-air in bursts of sparks.

Kael could feel the movement of each projectile launched from his enemy’s weapon, and targeted them.

His enemy responded in kind, targeting Kael’s shots.

Between them, the ground glistened with littered copper.

The enemy’s weapons were far superior. Each one had a rate of fire that was an order of magnitude greater than Kael’s, and there were two of them.

Kael’s weapon couldn’t keep up. The first projectiles that slipped through hit his rifle and knocked it from his hands. He let it go and reacted with the only thing left at his disposal. Bringing his arms up in front of himself, he focused his sense into a wedge that he thrust outward. Bullets continued to rip through the air around him, but deflected just enough to miss him as he ran at full speed for his enemy. He could almost see the swells of his sense radiating from his crossed forearms.

It was a familiar sensation.

Holding his breath beneath the heated waters of the Monastery as a child, he’d experimented with his new ability, moving his arms and legs through the choreographed exercises that Ukiru had prepared for them. He could feel the way the water condensed before his hands, each tiny particle colliding with another, setting up a chain reaction that pulsed away from his body, rippling out into the lake as it dissipated. It was this observance that he carried with him onto land, using it to identify the weaknesses in Ukiru’s methods. It was this learned ability that allowed him to improve upon what he’d been taught. And it was this same sensation that he now applied to this conflict, warping the path of the enemy projectiles around himself, like the prow of a boat with a river that opens and closes around it.

The river suddenly changed direction.

Kael moved with it.

The swarm of deadly projectiles arced back and forth, up and down, seeking a way to penetrate his defenses.

Deflected rounds chewed up the earth around him. Ricocheted bullets whistled and shrieked, spinning wildly through the air in all directions after meeting the unyielding iron of the railroad tracks. First hundreds. Then thousands. Then hundreds of thousands of metallic fragments filled the air, thick as a cloud. Bursts of sparks and plumes of dirt shot up from the ground.

Kael kept running.

Closing the distance.

The wall of bullets grew denser and denser as the distance between enemies lessened.

Suddenly, there was nothing but open air.

Kael burst forward into a new level of speed, unhindered by the force of swarming metal.

The soldier had run out of ammunition.

Kael was only thirty meters away and moving at top speed.

The soldier dropped his useless and overheated weapons and shed his ammo pack, then launched into a run straight for Kael.

Thirty meters turned into twenty, then ten, then five.

Kael lashed out with a running front kick aimed at the soldier’s chest.

The soldier sidestepped the attack and pivoted, bringing his fist around.

Kael felt the blow against his face just before he went airborne. There was a full second of weightlessness before he slammed into the dirt. He rolled off an iron track and came to a crouch.

The soldier was already on him, throwing punches.

Kael brought his hands up and blocked one after another, taking the punishment against his forearms as he got back to his feet as quickly as possible.

Another right-handed punch came forward and Kael made his move. Simultaneously deflecting the blow and pressing forward, he moved inside the soldier’s attack and rammed his knuckles against his exposed neck.

The soldier flinched in pain.

Kael followed with a kick to the groin then a downward elbow to the temple as the man hunched forward. Without a pause, he wrapped his hands around the soldier’s head and launched into a short jump, bringing his knee up and his hands down with all his might.

The soldier’s head snapped backward and blood gushed from his broken nose. He looked stunned, having clearly underestimated his opponent. He stumbled, trying to reassess the situation, but Kael kept moving, releasing a flurry of random attacks. Nothing was prearranged. Some blows were blocked. Some were not. He attacked relentlessly, exploiting every available opportunity to bring the soldier to a swift end. Kicks. Punches. Elbows. Knees. There was no mercy, no second-guessing. He wasn’t going to let up on this man for even a second. The rail yard was littered with the bodies of men who had received no such mercy. Kael growled like a dog and threw everything he had at the soldier who refused to go down.

Blood was covering the man’s face and arms as he lashed outward, struggling to keep pace.

Kael’s knuckles and elbows throbbed. Every hard or angled surface of his body had been used repeatedly as a weapon, and all were bruised and bleeding.

Slowly, the tide began to turn.

The soldier blocked more and more strikes, anticipating Kael’s movements. His speed increased and eventually surpassed Kael’s. Then he went on the attack.

Kael’s breathing was ragged now, having expended most of his energyenergy that should have been enough to topple ten men of this size. But it hadn’t.

The soldier came at him with calculated movements.

Striking.

Moving.

Probing Kael’s defenses.

Learning.

Studying his opponent.

Kael blocked and moved, his only weakness his fatigue. Each blow was harder and harder. Stronger than any man Kael had fought before. One after another. Quicker and quicker. Kael could feel the momentum building as clearly as seeing an ocean swell rise into a wave. And when the wave reached its breaking point, Kael was ready.

The soldier threw a punch that had his whole body weight behind it. It was meant to cave in Kael’s face.

But Kael’s face wasn’t there when it happened. He snapped his head inches to the side just as the fist came barreling past, harmlessly glancing off his ear. The arm followed it, stretching out into a vulnerable posture. Kael swiftly brought his arms up and folded the enemy’s limb in a joint lock. Kael squeezed with all his might, well past the point where most men would be screaming in agony, begging for release, but Kael wasn’t hoping for submission. He was going to tear this man apart, limb by limb.

But the arm didn’t break.

The tendons wouldn’t rip.

Kael threw his whole body into the effort, but nothing happened. Instead, he felt an incredible strength lift him off his feet and slam him to the ground.

Then the swell curled and the wave came crashing down.

Blow after blow rained down upon Kael, and he wasn’t strong enough to stop them. He tried, but his arms gave way. Once again he was just a little boy, shying away from the handle of a pitchfork. He face exploded with pain, then went numb soon after. The attack was overwhelming. Kael curled into a ball and retreated into himself, drawing his sense around himself like a cloak. In his mind, he saw the Temple again. He felt the coarse sand underneath him as the weight of Rameel’s power pushed down, forcing him into the earth. He felt his legs buckle. He felt his skin start to burn.

He gathered his strength and prepared for a counterattack. He searched the body of his enemy for a weakness, some point of vulnerability, but it was quickly apparent that his enemy was only vaguely human. His bones were made of something metallic, his muscles and tendons of something else. His body had the form of a human, but not all the same materials. Trapped inside this animal was another creature, not unlike the contraptions of this world that flew through the air or moved across the ground with people inside. The soldier’s body seemed to be a merging of human and machine. A new breed of something that should not exist.

At its center was a beating heart. Kael felt the metal threads that expanded from there, running throughout the body like nerves. He felt the dormant source of power that would consume every living tissue and mechanical object as soon as the soldier’s heart stopped. Kael suddenly knew what to do and where his enemy’s vulnerability was located.

The soldier’s legs suddenly exploded above the knees and he fell to the ground.

Kael retracted his sense and opened his eyes, quickly rolling backward to escape.

Across the yard, Greer and Jensen were still in position behind the corners of the building. Their rifles were aimed at the enemy and ready to fire more rounds at a moment’s notice.

Kael came to a crouch and scooted backward across the dirt.

The soldier flailed along the ground, pushing himself to an upright position on what used to be his knees. When he regained his composure, he locked eyes with Kael and began to heave himself across the dirt, still trying to advance and attack.

Kael slowly got to his feet. His muscles were shaking and his whole body throbbed with pain, but he was alive.

Greer’s running footsteps signaled his approach, seconds before he came to a stop next to Kael. His weapon was floating in his arms, trained on the enemy’s head, but his right sleeve was drenched with blood and wrapped with a tourniquet. «Are you alright?»

«Yeah,» Kael replied, looking back to his struggling enemy.

The soldier’s face was twisted in a look of disgust, his failed objective more painful than the incapacitating wounds to his legs. «You’re the one they’re looking for,» he grunted.

«Yes,» Kael answered simply. Then he extended his upright palm toward the soldier, feeling his sense pulse before it. He swirled his hand and pulled his sense inward, collapsing it to a concentrated point above his clenched fist, before thrusting it forward at the soldier’s heart. The sharpened point of invisible force stabbed from Kael’s fingers like a blade, piercing the power source of the soldier’s self-destruct mechanism.

The enemy suddenly arched his back and sat upright on his wounded legs. One hand came off the ground and clutched his chest. «What did you do?»

Kael ignored the man and turned to Greer. «No melting now. He’s all yours.»

Greer turned his eyes to the enemy, but his weapon had never strayed from the target. He squinted. «For Zylski?»

Kael nodded.

The enemy looked up from the ground with a defiant face.

Boom, boom!

His body was thrown backward to the ground where he continued to squirm. Two entry wounds had appeared on the soldier’s arms.

Kael looked suddenly to Greer.

The Team Leader lowered his weapon slowly and shrugged his shoulders. «He’s more useful to us alive. Let’s get that briefcase off his back.»

CHAPTER 28

The Royal Palace, Orud

The guards remained at attention on either side of the doorway. Neither one moved a muscle as a steady procession of seamstresses, maids, and attendants flowed out of the preparation room.

Saba stood out of the way, waiting impatiently to speak with Maeryn.

The last attendant exited, followed by the Captain of the Royal Guard who stopped in front of Saba. «You only have a few minutes.»

Saba nodded and walked past the soldiers into the room.

The circular chamber was small by Palace standards, but lavish nonetheless. Gilded carvings decorated the walls, emphasizing ten full-length mirrors around the perimeter, offering unobstructed reflections of whoever stood on the short dais at the center of the room. But Maeryn was no longer there. She was standing by the only window in the room, looking out through a narrow slit upon the Palace grounds below.

«Shouldn’t you rest before the ceremony?» Saba asked quietly.

Maeryn turned her head a few degrees, which was all she could manage, given the high collar of the gown that was designed to elongate her neck and present her face to the world like a treasure between the petals of a flower. She smiled, looking quickly to the attendants’ chairs, then back to the purple silk of her gown. «Wrinkles,» she said at last. «Welcome back.»

«Thank you,» Saba replied, walking further into the room.

«I was starting to worry. When did you get in?»

«Late last night. I didn’t hear the news until this morning. Congratulations.»

Maeryn smiled again and inclined her head, practicing the formal gesture that would soon become a normal part of her life. «Did you come to wish me good luck?»

Saba swallowed.

The smile disappeared from Maeryn’s face as she instantly picked up on his tension. «What’s wrong? Where’s Kael?»

Saba had been thinking about this difficult moment his entire trip back. He knew what Maeryn had gone through since Bastulhow she’d barely managed to survive losing her husband and her son. Then he’d seen the effect on her when Kael was brought back into her life. Some of the bitterness that had hardened her over the years had slowly begun to dissolve. He knew the news he carried might ruin everything. There was no good way to tell her.

«He wanted to visit the Temple one last time.»

Maeryn frowned. «But we already have soldiers there.»

«Yes, we do,» Saba continued. «Kael just needed a moment of closure and didn’t get it after the battle with the Kaliel.»

«Have you come to tell me he stayed behind a while longer, then?»

«No, I’m afraid not.»

Maeryn inhaled sharply and looked to the ceiling. When she exhaled, it was slow and deliberate. «Okay»

A knock at the door interrupted her. «It’s time, Your Majesty,» the captain said, walking into view.

Maeryn’s new title sounded odd to Saba.

«Give us another minute, please,» she replied.

The captain bowed and backed out of the room.

The room was silent again.

«Go ahead,» she said, turning back to Saba with glossy eyes.

«Kael isn’t here, and he’s not at the Temple. He’s in another world.»

Maeryn opened her mouth but nothing came out.

«The altar in the Temple, it’s not really an altar. It’s a portal into another world.»

«I don’t understand,» Maeryn managed to say.

«I know. I can’t really explain it properly without having a longer conversation, but I knew you’d be unavailable for days and you wouldn’t want me to keep this from you.»

Tears were forming in Maeryn’s eyes, threatening to spill over onto her face and undo hours of preparation. She swallowed hard and tried to resist them.

«Was it an accident?»

«No. He chose to go. He knew what he was doing.»

Another knock sounded at the door. The captain appeared again. «I’m sorry Your Majesty, but they’re ready for you.»

Maeryn pursed her lips. The tears that had welled in her eyes had stayed behind the precipice of her eyelids. «I have to go. But stay nearby. The moment they’re done with me, I want to talk about this.»

«Of course,» Saba replied with a bow, turning to leave.

«Saba?»

He stopped and turned.

«I’m glad you’re back.»

Saba smiled halfheartedly. He truly wished he could bring Maeryn some peace instead of bad news, and suddenly questioned his own value as a friend. «It’s really good to see you,» was all he could offer before leaving the room.

Another world? What does that mean? A portal? Why can’t things just be normal for more than a day?

«Your Majesty,» the captain said, walking into the room with his fellow guardsmen. «This way, please.» He moved to a nearby door and opened it, then walked through as the other two stood beside the door.

Maeryn followed the captain without a word, consumed by her own thoughts. Is Kael in danger? Saba looked nervous, but not grave. And there was something else. Excitement? Why would he be excited about Kael leaving?

The captain led her through a narrow, dark hallway.

Maeryn shook her head to clear away the thoughts. Pay attention, she scolded herself, or you’re going to miss this!

The captain paused before an ornate, wooden door inlaid with gold. The carved face of Orud’s first Emperor seemed to inspect Maeryn with a disapproving gaze. Maeryn took a deep breath.

The captain nodded, then opened the door.

Maeryn stepped out of the cramped passage onto the top tier of a multilevel, wedge-shaped chamber that focused everyone’s attention on the gigantic throne that stood taller than any other feature. Sunlight filled the chamber through colored glass windows that reached all the way up to the ceiling, three stories tall. Overhead, key scenes of Orud’s long and tumultuous history played out in a visual timeline. Paintings of mythical creatures and heroes dominated the entrance of the room, gradually giving way to prominent figures whose existence was proven, and finally reaching a climactic battle scene above the throne that marked Orud’s ascension to regional power. On the walls, stoic figures in white completed the transition, depicting the rule of lawthe crowning achievement of Orud’s struggle for a civilized Empire.

A cheer went up from the gathered crowd and Maeryn turned, suddenly noticing the hundreds of citizens that filled the room and the thousands gathered on the streets outside, visible through ten colossal doors that stood open to the warmth of the morning. The sound was deafening, and Maeryn kept still for a long moment, drinking in the praise that was being poured upon her.

When she started moving to the center of the platform, she noticed the members of the High Council seated upon their lesser thrones, arranged in a semicircle on the next tier down. Below them, but greater in number, were the members of the Senate. And so the pyramidal structure continued, like a cascading waterfall of authority that reached the floor of the chamber where ordinary citizens gazed upward in awe.

It took a moment before Maeryn remembered what she was supposed to dothe first step of the elaborate dance of traditions that she had learned over the last few days. The gold-trimmed, crimson cushion lying before the throne caught her attention, implying the posture that she was required to take. She moved across the platform and stood between the cushion and the throne.

At the end of the chamber, trumpeters blasted out a unique arrangement of piercing tones that was reserved exclusively for such occasions as this. When they concluded, Maeryn knelt upon the pillow. Wind and string instruments took up the melodic responsibility, lending an instant vulnerability to the solemn proceedings. Maeryn waited patiently for several minutes before she saw the procession that had begun outside.

From hand to hand, starting with a single common citizen who’d been chosen by lottery, the crown of Orud was passed through the multitudes on another pillow of crimson. Each successive person carefully took the symbol of Orud’s ruling power and passed it along until it reached the foot of the pyramid. From there, the crown rose through higher and higher levels of governing bodies, representing the transfer of authority that originated with the citizens, was taken up by their representatives, and would find its resting place upon the head of the Empress.

The eleven members of the High Council rose from their seats and gathered at the center of their platform, accepting the crown from the Senate. They turned toward the back of the room and moved as one, gently transporting the circle of golden laurel sprigs that entwined themselves around the crest of Orud which had been expertly crafted from an arrangement of cut rubies.

Maeryn leaned forward and lowered her head. The weight of the crown pressed down upon her, feeling substantial and ominous. She tried to ignore the metaphor and straightened herself with as much poise as she could muster. Then, she slowly rose to her feet, walked the few steps to the throne, and lowered herself gently onto the highest seat in the room and the highest authority in the land.

The crowd erupted into cheers.

Maeryn sat straight as a column, fighting to keep tears from her eyes. She didn’t want anything to spoil this moment. The coronation was only just beginning. There were several more symbolic events that would take place throughout the day, and when the sun fell, the feasting would begin and continue throughout the week. But this was the first step.

She had made it.

Who would have known that so many years ago, two peasant farmersdescendants of the Syvaku who had chosen to accept Orudan rule instead of fleeing south with their peoplewho decided to take in a young, wounded soldier and nurse him back to health, had actually been setting in motion events that would change the course of Orud’s history? They had wanted a better life for their daughter, and so they’d pleaded with the soldier to take their only child with him when he left and to make her his wife. Adair had done so without the slightest hesitation, having fallen madly in love with Maeryn during those weeks. And now, Maeryn Lorus, wife, mother, and grandmother, a woman of humble beginnings, was the first Empress in the history of the most powerful Empire the world had ever known.

Null, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe Office

Stockholm, Sweden

Adair looked comfortable and peaceful on his hospital bed, free of the glass enclosure. His mask was gone, and the electrodes had been removed from his skin. His IV was still in placecurrently hooked up to a fluid bagand the doctors were monitoring his heart rate, oxygen level, and blood pressure. He looked like any other sedated patient, except that he was no longer sedated. The cables that protruded from his temples were coiled like snakes on the side of the bed.

«The atmosphere in the chamber was a sanitized version of our own environment using bottled gases, so we were able to remove him,» the doctor said.

The room was quiet except for the occasional beep from Adair’s oxygen monitor.

«It appeared that the electrodes had been monitoring a whole host of nervous system functions, but the monitoring equipment had been removed, so there was no need to keep them in place.»

«What about those?» Kael asked, pointing to the cables.

The doctor looked at the mechanical serpents. Then his eyes drifted to Thompson who was dressed in civilian clothes and sitting beside Adair’s bed.

Thompson leaned forward. «We still don’t know what those are for, so it’s not safe to remove them.»

«Then why isn’t he waking up?» Kael asked, trying to make sense of the situation.

The doctor suddenly looked uncomfortable. «We don’t know. It’s obvious that he was sedated initially, but there’s been plenty of time for that to wear off. There’s no external force, medically speaking, that is keeping him in a coma. We’ve run a full diagnostic panelCT scan, EKG, blood-work

Other than some minor injuries received during torture, he’s healthy.»

«Could this be a result of the pain he went through?» Thompson asked. «A defense mechanism?»

The doctor adjusted his glasses. «Severe trauma could cause a momentary loss of consciousness, but it would be short-lived.»

«What about the bruising on his face? Could he have received damage to his brain from

«

Kael winced. He hated hearing of the things his father had endured. Gratefully, Thompson stopped short.

«We didn’t find any trauma to the brain,» the doctor answered. «There was some displacement of his jaw. Hairline fractures and torn ligaments. It acted as a shock absorber and took the majority of the force, which is why it is still as bruised as it is.»

Kael rested his face on his hands and closed his eyes. He’d literally traveled across worlds to find his father, and he’d accomplished his goal, yet Adair’s full rescue remained elusive.

«I’m sorry we don’t have better news. Oftentimes, these types of situations will turn on their own. He’s being fed and hydrated intravenously. His body is healing by the hour. He just needs time.»

«Thank you, doctor,» Kael heard Thompson say.

The doctor’s footsteps sounded harsh against the tile floor as they passed by Kael and headed for the door. A second later, the door shut.

A hand came to rest on Kael’s shoulder and he lifted his head.

«There’s nothing you can do for him right now,» Thompson said.

Kael just nodded.

Thompson’s eyes glanced at the clock on the wall. «Come on. We’ve got a briefing in a few minutes.»

Kael inhaled deeply. «Okay,» he replied wearily, then rose to his feet.

The structure and layout of the Stockholm office was similar to Bogotá, though the furnishings gave it a very Scandinavian feel. The natural wooden surfaces of the offices in Bogotá were replaced here by synthetic white and gray. There were hardly any structures that didn’t have a functional purpose. The conference table seemed to stretch endlessly across the room, its color merging with the walls and ceiling. The white expanse was only broken by the faces of those in attendance.

Alan Chisolm sat at the head of the table, flanked by Ian Petran, Ciarán Hayes, and their support teams. Suncio, Matthews, and the members of TAC 1 sat beside Kael at the other end of the table, along with Sean and Nikolaus. Each one had bandages, bruises, or bore some other outward sign of their confrontation with Armaros’ guards. On the wall, one screen showed George Barrett calling in from the Bogotá office, while another allowed Rhiannon Marshall to participate in the meeting from the Division headquarters in the UK.

Directly across from Kael sat Jim Helmsley, who had flown in at the last minute to attend this important meeting in person. «Thanks everyone for coming,» he said. «Before we get started, I’ve got a status update. At the medical complex, security teams seized a few hard drives and some physical files from the BioSynthe offices. They’ve been sent to Command for further analysis. Containment crews were able to scour the building and remove any incriminating evidence, so we’re clear there. They also got to the overpass near the airport and cleaned up that site as well. Unfortunately, Helsinki police moved in on the rail yard a bit quicker than we wanted. Containment was able to secure all the bodies and the shell casings, but they’re pretty sure they left behind some of our slugs and definitely some from the enemy. At all the locations, police will have at least some evidence of what happened from the structural damage incurred, which may mean some fallout for us in the future. Command is monitoring law enforcement communications to contain the situation, but we’ll have to wait and see what the impact will be. Does anyone have any questions before we get started?»

Kael looked around the room, but everyone kept silent, their eyes on Helmsley.

«Alright. Based on what Tactical and Security experienced in the field, we have confirmation that Armaros is somehow connected with advanced weaponry, possibly even responsible for developing it. The targeting systems and firepower of his soldiers are beyond anything the world has seen so far. Our Teams were on the receiving end of a small-scale version of this weaponry, but there’s nothing to indicate this technology is limited to the individual soldier. Command’s Intelligence team is going crazy with all the new data we’ve provided them, and one of their top priorities now is finding links between Armaros’ holdings and larger institutions, particularly radical elements looking for a technological advantage to further their causes.

«But that’s just the start of it. Greer, the soldier you brought in is quite the specimen. Command doesn’t even have the medical facilities capable of making sense out of this guy. No one does. They’re just getting started, but it’s already clear that there’s been genetic manipulation, biomechanical enhancements

Our guys don’t understand most of what they’re seeing, but the term cyborg keeps being tossed around. Matthews, why don’t you bring them up to speed on the briefcases?»

Matthews leaned closer to the table. «The cases you men recovered at the rail yard are, in fact, portable computers. One of the three is damaged beyond repair. Whatever that self-destruct mechanism was, it went right through the armored shell. All the circuitry was fried. The other two are intact and Command is analyzing them now. They already know that the construction of these computers is unlike anything else. The hardware doesn’t fit with any commercially available components, nor does it conform to any known military or aerospace standards. These boxes are based on an entirely different computing technology. The Tech department at Command was able to dummy some interface hardware, but when they accessed the computers, the transfer rate was such a drain on resources that it triggered the backup power grid and crashed a whole segment of their network before melting the hardware. They’re in the process of making another interface. Meanwhile, they did manage to retrieve several terabytes of data. At this point, they can’t tell if it’s encrypted or corrupted. It looks like gibberish, but based on the hardware technology, the department suspects the code is also something entirely new.»

Helmsley nodded, then took over again. «Security teams at the medical complex also found a whole undeveloped wing off the lower level, completely hidden from the rest of the structure. There were dozens of children in isolation rooms and a whole lab full of unidentified equipment, materials, and biological matter. There were some grotesque things happening there.»

Helmsley stopped talking for a moment and just shook his head before continuing. «You gentlemen found a weed. And the more we pull on it, the more roots we find spreading in every direction imaginable. The bottom line is, we not only have our confirmation about Armaros, but we also have several clues linking him to another organization. When we put these things together with the intercepted transmission from this part of the world, we’re starting to get our arms around a much larger, coordinated effort. Their end goals are still unknown at this point, but we’re learning more every minute. Right now we’re drowning in data and Command is asking all Divisions to lend assistance so they can make sense of what we’ve gathered over the past few days. So, clear your priorities and be ready when they start passing out the information. Our organization has made greater strides toward our objective over the last few weeks than in all our years combined. This is an exciting time for us, but we need to stay focused so we don’t squander the opportunity, which leads me to our next agenda item.»

Kael took a deep breath and sat up straighter in his chair.

«Kael. Your heroism and extraordinary contributions on the battlefield were confirmed by numerous sources, not the least of which were my own men. We truly appreciate your assistance to our efforts. And while your presence here has certainly added to our capabilities, it has also escalated the situation. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I can’t help think of the significant losses we’ve suffered to demonstrate our trust in you. We have an agreement between us, and it’s time to make good on that. So, I’ll conclude my end of the agreement by explaining who we are and what we do.»

Kael nodded and kept his eyes locked on Helmsley.

«Back in the 1950s, a field operator in the Directorate of Planswhich would later become the Central Intelligence Agency of the United Statesbegan uncovering clues that he believed linked several conspiracies that were being investigated at the time. The clues that this operative gathered led him to suspect the involvement of his own government, as well as most other countries throughout the world. While working on his primary tasks, this operative continued developing his theory in private and gathering information over his years of fieldwork. Eventually, his personal interests soon overlapped those of other operatives in similar organizations throughout the world. Naturally, his investigations were temporarily diverted to these other individuals. As any intelligence officer will tell you, the first priority is to understand your potential enemies. Meanwhile, he consolidated his theory and research and presented the case to his superiors.

«The presentation went well and the operative received provisional support from the CIA, who approved the creation of a Global Conspiracies Division and assigned additional resources to work under him, helping to gather information. But as new data surfaced and more clues pointed to the United States, reports were sent up the chain of command, bringing about a swift reaction from the White House. The division was promptly shut down and the founding operative disappeared. Rumor was that he’d been executed in secret.

«Truth was, they did make an attempt to end his life, but he knew it was coming and he made sure it appeared as though they had succeeded. After assuming a fake identity, he found himself alone with a secret that he couldn’t share. Some would question his sanity for doing so, but he decided to reach out to the other operatives. What he found was a trail of deaths and cover-ups, indicating that the other governments had done the same thing. This, of course, only proved his theory and gave him more motivation to keep looking. Eventually, he crossed paths with others like himselfsurvivors and enemies of the governments they once served. It was a slow process of building trust among these individuals who had made their careers by staying hidden and suspecting everyone, but in time a common understanding was formed and they began to share information. As this occurred, these men gained a clearer picture of what they were dealing with and the magnitude of their discovery. They believed they had come in contact with nothing less than a Super Conspiracy, as we now call it. The theory that someone or something is controlling all of human civilization through technological, economic, political, and religious influence. Thus, Null was formedan organization dedicated to uncovering and combating whoever was steering human civilization.»

The hair on Kael’s arms stood on end as he remembered a line of the prophecy that Saba was so fond of quoting:

He will uproot the seeds of corruption which you have sown throughout the earth

«It soon became apparent,» Helmsley continued, «that the governments weren’t even aware of what they were doing. They were nothing more than pawns in a larger game of chess. That’s when Null began recruiting and found supporters within the agencies they used to work for. As these new members moved up their respective chains of command, they had increased access to information and resources. When possible, additional agents were converted to the cause, and if the situation arose naturally, they were killed in action. Their fake deaths allowed them to be re-tasked full-time to Null after their identities had been wiped clean. Initially the organization survived on secondhand equipment that had been slated for replacement and demolition. Weapons and other tangible assets were scrapped over the years in order to equip Null’s personnel, but this practice eventually ended when the organization was able to acquire assets through other secure means, or produce their own. Now we are a privately funded, fully independent global organization. You’ve already seen that our strengths are in the areas of intelligence and paramilitary operations. We can’t compete with the sheer firepower of the countries which we used to claim allegiance to, but then our struggle isn’t necessarily a public one.»

The room was silent after Helmsley brought his lengthy explanation to a close.

Kael knew that his turn to speak had arrived. He shifted his weight in the chair and thought about the best place to start.

Helmsley cleared his throat. «Now you know who we are. Who are you and what do you know about the enemy?»

«The things I’m about to tell you will confirm your founders’ theories, but the problem is even bigger than you suspect,» Kael began. «How I know these things will take even more time to explain, so I’ll have to save that for later. I’ll start by telling you who you’re up against, at least in this worldArmaros, Kokabiel, and Satarel.»

Matthews was typing furiously even though every one of Kael’s words was being recorded.

«These three beings are controlling your civilization. They are not human, and they’ve been here since the beginning. Like my own culture, yours probably has fantastical stories of gods and monsters, epic duels between heroes and hideous creatures, powerful beings who shaped the oceans and lands,» Kael said, moving his hands in sweeping gestures above the table. «These three are the remnants of that age and they»

A beeping sound interrupted Kael.

Ms. Marshall suddenly looked down at something in her hand. «Excuse me,» she apologized, then quickly rose from her chair and walked off-screen.

A humming noise then sounded in the room. It lasted only a second before stopping. When it returned, Helmsley looked down and reached for something below the table. «Hold on one second, please,» he replied, lifting his cell phone above the table and reading something on its screen.

Kael paused, realizing that these interruptions must be something urgent enough to redirect Helmsley’s attention from the objective he’d been seeking this whole time.

Suddenly, a distant popping sound came from George’s screen, followed by muffled screams. George turned his head from side to side. «What’s going?» A loud crash interrupted his words and caused him to push away from his desk with upraised hands. «Whoa, whoa! Who? What do you want?» he yelled. Figures in black rushed at him from either side. One struck him hard across the face, while another grabbed his arms and pulled them around the back of his chair.

Most of the people in the Stockholm conference room jumped to their feet with eyes fastened on the screen. Many had hands over their mouths.

«What’s this?» a calm voice asked a second before a new face appeared from the left side of the screen. The man smiled, then leaned closer. «This is good. You all should see this,» he said, lowering himself to look directly into the camera. Behind him, George’s head was slumped forward against his chest. He was unconscious and tied to his office chair.

Kael rose from his seat.

«Null, is what you call yourselves?» the man asked. «That’s more appropriate than you know, considering you will cease to be anything when I’m through with you. You made a serious mistake coming after me.»

Helmsley’s hand slowly dropped away from his ear as he put his cell phone back in his pocket, keeping his eyes on the screen.

«Who was on the diversion op?» Matthews whispered to Helmsley. The quiet words barely hid his panic.

«Armaros!» Kael said, stepping closer to the screen. The face of the god looked exactly like his statue inside the Temple.

Armaros squinted, then smiled. «Ahh

there you are. I didn’t get the opportunity to properly welcome you in Brazil, but I assure you»

«Rameel sounded just as confident the last I saw him,» Kael interrupted. «That was just before I almost took off his head. I hope you paid attention to his message. I know where you are, and I’m coming for you.»

A moment of rage passed behind Armaros’ calm eyes, but he was able to contain it. It was clear that he was much more practiced at dealing with humans than Rameel had been. «I hope you do; it will save me the trouble of coming after you,» he said casually, lifting something dark and shiny and placing it on George’s desk. «Though, you’ll find my head more difficult to take without this sword, I imagine.»

Kael’s heart rate instantly increased when he saw his crystalline weapon in the hands of the enemy.

«Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some matters to address.» Armaros straightened up and the transmission went dark.

The conference room was silent as everyone stared in disbelief.

Then the lights overhead flickered.

Shouting could be heard from down the hall.

The lights flickered again, then went out completely.

Kael could feel the members of TAC 1 quickly come around him in a defensive posture.

The lights came back on.

Helmsley was already reaching for the phone at the center of the conference table. He punched one of the speed dial buttons.

«Security,» a man answered over the intercom.

«This is Helmsley. Give me our threat status.»

«Uh

Negative, sir. So far it looks like we just had a power outage and the redundant system kicked in.» There was a pause before the man spoke again. «Perimeter sensors look good. Nothing on video.»

Helmsley frowned. «Okay. Keep me informed»

The intercom beeped again, and Helmsley tapped another button. «This is Helmsley. Go ahead.»

«Sir. This is Svenson in medical. Adair is responsive.»