“I have. Just finished with two apparitions checking from different approaches, and a third outside. All clear.”
“Wait, all clear? You mean, no one outside?” I asked.
“That’s right, no one.”
“But isn’t there always someone on sentry duty?”
Alex shrugged. “Must have been called away.”
Ella opened her eyes wide. “I’ve lost contact with my projection by the node.” She jerked. “Just lost the one near the first square.” She closed her eyes, rocking on her heels. “My projection outside the gate… there’s a squadron of aircraft heading this way. VTOL aircraft. SAVAK!” She gulped air. “Run,” she said. She flinched, gasped, and staggered like someone had just gut punched her.
“They fired missiles.” She opened her eyes.
I looked at Alex. “That gate—how hard will it be to get through it?”
“Might take some time with anything short of a nuclear weapon.”
That was a nasty thought. Another came to me. “Or unless they have an Empowered or three.”
He nodded. “And I believe they do. Including an earth mover and another that can break stone with kinetic energy.”
“We need to leave, now.”
Ella was hugging herself.
“Ella. Ella!” I pulled her arms apart. “You need to send your projections out to places you haven’t checked. And we need to head to the node. Now.”
No one argued.
“Come on, everyone, follow us,” I shouted and took off at a run. A few people followed me, the rest looked back at Ella.
I waved at her. “Come on!”
She repeated my order. Alex ran to catch up. He stumbled as he ran. He had to be exhausted. When you were new to your power, it was really hard to push yourself.
He reached me, just as he stumbled again. I grabbed him before he could fall.
“Easy,” I said. “Take a few breaths. Give yourself some time.”
“We don’t have that time.”
“You’ve got to take it,” I told him. “If you don’t, you’re toast. And we’re toast.” I ran my arm under his shoulder to brace him. “Time for me to pull my weight.”
We had to reach the node before SAVAK broke in.
Loris and her goons must have left by now.
That ended up being another thing I was wrong about.
15
It took what felt like forever to reach the tunnel sloping down to the node. Another group had joined us, led by two of Ella’s projections. She had another projection at the gate. She’d released the others she’d said, but she hadn’t given herself a chance to recover, and was staggering along, like a zombie. Alex didn’t look much better.
The air in the tunnel now felt bone dry, and hot, instead of warm. I was up front, with Alex and Ella. We rounded the curve and stopped dead.
A steel wall covered the tunnel, from floor to ceiling and wall to wall.
This had to be Keisha’s work, which meant she was on the far side, with Loris.
“We have to get through this wall,” I said. I smacked my palms together. “Forget that. We need to get around it.”
“But how?” Ella asked. Her eyes were worried.
I didn’t blame her.
“I’ll see about sending root through the rock, then break it.”
She and Alex both looked doubtful. He rubbed the back of his neck.
“That’s going to take a lot of power,” he said.
I nodded. But I wasn’t alone.
“But I have some help, too.” I grinned at Hala and her little group.
She saw my look and smiled back.
“Want to help me do something cool?” I asked her.
“Sure!” She and the other Imbued kids ran up to me.
I turned to Alex. “You ready?”
“I’m not sure I’m up to boosting you,” he said.
“Maybe just a little,” I said. “You’re right to want to keep recharging your power.” I gave him a hug, and used the opportunity to whisper in his ear. “If I’m going to do the trick with the crystalline encrustations again, I’ll need all the boost you can give me.”
“I’ll do my best.”
I hugged him again. “Thanks.”
I kneeled next to the kids, explained what we were going to do. They all nodded. Good thing that they seemed to understand. Most spoke English, but we seemed to connect on a deeper level.
They were practically jumping up and down with excitement. I grinned again. Things were looking up, steel wall or no steel wall.
Ella stood off to one side, twisting her hands.
“Okay, hang on, kids.”
I went over to Ella, put my hand over hers, and squeezed. “We can do this.”
“But Loris, she has so much power. And she has Keisha with her, maybe some more Imbued.”
“Can you use your projections to cold cock Loris?” I asked her.
“You mean, hit her in the head?” She fiddled with a zipper on her jacket. “Yeah, I guess, if I could get close enough. Except that she can use her power on me through my projections.”
“Really? Just like that?”
“I think so.” She shrugged. “I don’t know how to stop that.”
“Ella, your projections were always angry with me.”
Her eyes looked down. “I’m sorry about that, Mat. I didn’t mean for them to be so angry, but she said it was the best way to keep you safe, by sending you away.”
I put an arm around her shoulder. “I mention it because she made you mad at me, right?”
“Well, I was already angry with you. I really wanted you to leave me alone. I guess that was also part of what she did.”
“She tricked you. Used your anger to make more anger. She played you and everyone else here like a fiddle. She even did a number on me.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she flipped her braid back over her shoulder. “But you didn’t fall for it.”
“She still did enough of a number on me that I didn’t figure things out right away.”
“You’re stronger than me, Mat, you always have been.”
“Just older, Ella. You’re tougher than you realize.”
“But what does that do—” she stopped herself. “You think my being angry at her will make it easier for her to persuade me, is that it?”
“You got it in one.” I hugged her. “Remember what Ruth always said—sometimes you have a right to be angry. But she also said, that even if you do, don’t let it rule you.” I swallowed. “I’d let it rule me for way too long because I thought it kept me alive.”
Ella hugged me again. “I’m sorry, Mat.”
“Me, too.” I took a deep breath. “The way Loris ran this place was a freaking outrage. She ran it like her own private kingdom. She had wanted to make a new religion, with everyone here her loyal followers. So, yeah, you and I and everyone else has every right to be pissed at her.”
“I can’t kill her, Mat, I just can’t.” Desperation filled Ella’s face.
“You won’t have to. You are brave. You are strong. Your anger can ground you, make you aware. But don’t let it run you. If you do, she’ll use it.” I left at that, but we both knew I would do the deed. Loris was as dangerous as Mutter had been, as Brandon Ellis had been. She didn’t give a shit about anyone but herself.
“I need you to create as many projections as you can. See if you can’t take out as many goons as possible.”
She nodded, obviously trying to steel herself to do what I asked. “I’ll do my best,” she said, quietly.
“There’s one other thing,” I said. “Something I have to tell you now.”
“Okay.”
I licked my lips. “When I had my second vision, the one in the Sacred Spring, I saw that it wasn’t me imprisoned in that crystal waterfall.”
“Who was it?” she asked.
“Our mother.”
Shock and denial erupted across her face.
“She’s dead,” Ella whispered.
“Ruth always said so.”
“But she’s not. I know it.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” she asked.
I took a deep breath. “Because we aren’t just fighting to live, and save everyone here. We’re fighting so we can find mom and rescue her.”
Ella nodded, a dazed expression in her eyes. She took a breath, straightened up. Her jaw tightened. She reminded me of me right then.
“Okay, now I’m angry,” she said.
Atta a girl, I thought. “Just remember, use it to ground you. This is about freeing ourselves.”
She nodded.
I motioned at Alex. “Boost Ella as much as you can, once we’ve gotten the roots through.”
Even as I said that, I reached into the rock, seeing the roots, which grew deeply here. Something kept them away from the node, which was only a few hundred feet away.
I closed my eyes, concentrating on sending my power into the rock, and down, down to where the roots were. Roots that sang to me, a deep rumble. They still trembled from the earthquake I’d caused. I sent them into the cracks in the rock, to widen it, but also over it. I coughed, suddenly burning with heat. Sweat rolled down in my face.
A small hand, a child’s hand, grasped my left hand. Another held my right. More hands were on my back.
“Thanks,” I said, and pushed my power further into the roots. We had to make sure that the rock wouldn’t weaken so much that it would collapse.
The roots were ancient. I staggered back. The song was like a tidal wave. I couldn’t control it. The roots trembled and the walls shook.
An adult’s hand squeezed my shoulder, and power flowed into me. Alex.
The space behind my eyes throbbed. Was this what it was like to have a stroke?
Suddenly, I could see, in my mind, the roots running through the rock around the tunnel, and toward the node. The tunnel there was covered in the living crystalline plant things, and the root stayed away. The encrustations were in the rock, and joined to the node, which was like the underside of a gigantic forest, which was here, and not here. The fairy road.
The rock shook again, but this time from behind us.
SAVAK and their Empowered must have finally broken through. We didn’t have much time.
I caressed the roots with my power, even as my own nerves burned from the power Alex pushed through me.
Break through to the air, I said to the roots. Walls shuddered.
The roots pushed through, and then I thickened them.
The rock cracked.
“Now!” I told Ella.
I opened my eyes.
Roots ran through the rock, like the path they had taken down to the Sacred spring.
The children were all huddled around me, still touching my hands and my legs.
“Stay here,” I said.
I went into the roots, which pulled me through the rock.
I heard Alex shout behind me. “Mat!”
I heard other voices shouting, but then I was too far, the roots pulling me toward the far side.
They pushed me out into the tunnel.
Gunfire boomed, and men shouted. A dozen Ellas in the gray costume jumped and dove around the node. Men fired automatic weapons. Bullets ricocheted off the rock. One projection was hit in the back as she finished her cartwheel across the tunnel. My heart leapt. It was only a projection, but it was identical to Ella. Another one was shot in the head.
I had to stop this. I sent the massive roots into the tunnel. They moved like quicksilver across the tunnel floor.
Metal disks flashed at them in a spinning arc, cutting the roots, which spewed dark sap.
The roots’ pain thundered in my head and I grabbed at my temples. A thousand headaches exploded in my skull.
“Give up, Mat!” Keisha shouted. She stood in front of Loris. Her face was contorted in rage, and the veins in her neck popped up.
Behind her Loris sheltered between two big guys with pistols, who watching the other big guys shoot up Ella’s projections. More projections appeared, and just as fast were shot down. It had to be destroying my sister.
I reached out to the encrustations, to summon the gas, but my power slid off them. What had happened?
I didn’t have the strength. Pushing through the rock had burned me out.
The goons kept shooting at Ella’s projections. There were fewer Ellas now, but a number of the thugs lay unconscious on the ground.
“You should listen to your friend,” Loris said. “None of this is necessary.”
I ignored her. I faced Keisha. “Keisha, you are my best friend. Always!”
“You lied to me,” she shouted. “You’ve always lied! You’re even lying now. You were never my friend!”
“Keisha, you never let anyone tell you what to do,” I shouted. “Don’t start now.”
She walked toward me, razor blades orbiting around her. “I let you tell me what to do. No more.”
“So, you’re trading up to a cult leader?” I asked. “Fine, I was an asshole. I screwed up. But I came back for you,” I said.”
Keisha jerked her head at Loris. “She said you didn’t leave because you want to control this place.” She looked confused.
More gunfire, sporadic behind her.
If I could just summon up enough power to get the roots moving again, I could knock Loris and her goons off their feet. I pushed.
Nothing doing.
Keisha sneered at me, the razors spinning as they orbited her, faster and faster.
“You just want to run everything.”
I laughed then. I looked past her at Loris. The gunfire had stopped. The projections had all vanished.
“You’ve got that wrong about me, lady,” I told her.
“Everyone wants power.”
I shook my head, looked at Keisha.
“You know me, Keisha. I’m a pain in the ass. But when have I ever really wanted anything other than to get on with my fucking life, and take care of my family, and my friends? Especially you.”
“But you lied so often.”
“That sucked. I’m sorry.”
“You never told me you worked for Support! You bitch.” Her face contorted back into the rage mask. The blades spun toward me.
“I hated doing that,” I said. “Hated. I had to make a choice. Work for them, or go back to prison, for life! I did it for Ruth, and Ava and Ella.”
“But all that damn time you lied, you lied about what you were doing when we were in the Scourge together. You were just setting everyone up.”
“I was stopping that asshole, Mutter!”
“Fine, but what the hell about Ashula and Nefarious? You killed them.”
“No, I was set up.”
“That’s enough,” Loris said, her voice ringing out in command. “This is pointless. It’s all in the past.”
My face was hot. Keisha’s razor blades were just inches away from me. But I wasn’t going to try and avoid them.
“I lied because I had to. Because I didn’t have a choice. Support set me and you up. But so did the Scourge. You and I put an end to Ellis’s nightmare show. Us. No one else.
“Go ahead and kill me if you’re that pissed, but don’t let her tell you what to do.”
“Yes, kill her, Keisha,” Loris said.
Keisha shuddered, and let out a sob. “Damn it,” she said. A tear rolled down her cheek.
Loris’s lips pulled back, and her gaze hardened. “Kill them!” she ordered. The goons raised their guns.
Keisha shoved me out of the way as the guns boomed. I crashed onto the rocky ground. I rolled over, saw her stagger but still standing.
“Go to hell!” she shouted at Loris. She sent the cloud of razors into Loris and the surviving goons. They screamed and fell.
Keisha waved her hands at the titanium wall behind us and it dissolved into a cloud of hot steam. I jumped up from the ground and reached her as she started to topple over.
“Alex,” I yelled. “Help me!” He rushed to
my side, and helped me lower to Keisha to the ground. Ella and the others from Sanctuary joined us.
“She’s badly wounded,” Alex said. “But if we can get her help quickly, I think she’ll live.”
“She’s got to,” I said. Another explosion boomed in the distance. SAVAK must have broken through.
I turned to the node, reached out, felt the power and the life throbbing there.
“Please open,” I said to the node. The Emerald spiral glowed brighter, and then did as I asked.
I waved at the people around me. “Time to go!” I urged. I helped Alex lift Keisha and together we carried her into the Dark-Net.
END
Afterword
Thank you for reading Empowered: Outlaw! I really appreciate you picking up the book and reading all the way to the end!
I hope you enjoyed the novel. Outlaw was a challenging novel to write. Mat’s story went in a new, even more dangerous direction.
If you did, please post a review. Reviews make a real difference in helping readers decide on which book to buy, and I certainly appreciate them!
Mat’s story concludes in Empowered: Rebel, which will be released Winter 2018.
Subscribe to my newsletter at www.daleivansmith.com to stay up-to-date about The Empowered series, my other writing projects, and receive a prequel story as a free gift.
You can also contact me at [email protected].
Hope to hear from you. Thanks again!
Happy reading!
Best always,
Dale
Acknowledgments
I couldn’t have written Empowered: Outlaw without the support and help of so many folks: my writers group, the awesome Masked Hucksters, Jennifer Willis, Rebecca Stefoff, and Wendy Wagner; my wonderful beta readers Ann, Cindy, Greg, Jill, LeAnn, Mark, Rebecca, Tori, Vic; my editors, Mary Rosenblum and Phyllis Radford, who both made the book so much stronger; my fantastic cover designer Clarissa Yeo.
Most of all I couldn’t have done without the support and encouragement of my wonderful wife, LeAnn, who is my first reader.
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