“Come with me,” Ilya said.
“I can’t,” Granger replied.
“I’m not leaving without you. They’ll kill you.”
“I know.”
Ilya looked confused. “Why would you say that?”
Granger took the teen’s face in her hands. “I don’t have time to explain. Perhaps one day you’ll get your answer. But for me, this is how it must be. It’s my time.”
As Jordan and Chris advanced on the men from behind, Channeler emitted an aurora of incredible power, illuminating the interior of the Pyramid in a shimmering wall of pure energy as awe-inspiring to observe as it was terrifying to experience.
Jordan motioned to Granger to send Ilya to her. The woman nodded, helped the teen to his feet, and pointed to the two agents.
“Get to safety. Hurry!”
“But professor!”
“Hurry, Ilya!”
Ilya shuffled his wounded body across the floor to Jordan.
The ground on which Merrick and Egan stood remained steady, unaffected by the power of the device.
Jordan and Chris advanced to meet Ilya. Jordan placed one arm around his neck, the other around his waist. “Let’s get you out of here,” she said.
Hanover stayed ahead of his partner as they backed away, then stopped. He trained the Thermite grenade launcher on the two men.
“I have a shot,” Chris said.
“Not yet,” Jordan said. “The woman’s not clear.”
“I’m holding this position.”
“Chris, don’t!”
Hanover dropped to one knee, steadied himself.
“Go, Jordan! Get the boy out of here!”
Ilya shuffle-stepped with Jordan to the service ramp at the back of the Pyramid.
“How’s the leg?” Jordan asked. “Can you walk?”
Ilya weight-tested his leg. The pain had abated. He nodded. “It feels pretty solid. I think I’m good.”
“All right,” Jordan said. “Listen to me carefully. Go down that hall and through the doors. There’s a gap in the floor. Hug the side of the wall and you’ll be able to pass it. You’re home free after that. Think you can manage it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.” Jordan turned to head back into the Pyramid.
Ilya grabbed her arm. “You’re not coming with me?”
Jordan shook her head. “My partners in there. I’m not leaving without him. Now go!”
Jordan waited until she watched Ilya Puzanova disappear behind the door then headed back up the service ramp and into the Pyramid.
Chris was crouched on one knee. She crept up behind him, tapped him on his shoulder.
“Is the kid safe?” Chris asked.
“He’s on his way out.”
“Good.” He sighted Merrick and Egan in the crosshair of the weapon’s scope. “Let’s see what this baby can do.”
Hanover slipped his finger off the stock of the grenade launcher and placed it on the laser trigger, marking the ground between the two men. He took aim. “Come to Papa, motherf--”
Ashley Granger made her move.
Intent on taking her own life, she ran toward the deadly wall of energy that was Channeler.
Chris lowered the weapon. “What the hell?” he said.
Egan caught up to her and threw her to the ground.
Merrick turned on the woman.
But in that split-second Ashley Granger accomplished exactly what she had hoped to do. She had diverted the men’s attention away from their defense to pursue her.
Instantly, Channeler’s force field fell.
The two men stood the middle of the Pyramid.
Relieved of its last ounce of structural integrity, the entire building collapsed. The assault teams ran for cover.
Merrick, Egan, and Ashley Granger lay buried beneath a mountain of twisted metal and concrete debris.
116
JORDAN AND CHRIS watched as the fractured ceiling of the eighteen-story Pyramid shook violently. Chunks fell from the foundation walls as it cracked and crumbled.
“It’s coming down!” Chris yelled. “Fall back!”
The fatally wounded Pyramid let out a dying breath in the form of a thunderous boom! then succumbed to its injuries. The two agents raced for the safety of the service entrance’s reinforced archway. Structural steel supports fell from the ceiling, clanging on the ground behind them. Panels of the Pyramid’s aluminum walls ripped apart, soared through the air, and smashed into the metal bleachers like a symphony of cymbal crashes. Industrial diffuser lights mounted high up in the ceiling exploded, raining white-hot metal and glass down upon the agents.
The once impressive sports facility had collapsed and lay in ruins atop the crushed metal bleachers. The air, redolent with the smell of burning electrical wires, crackled, hissed, and smoked beneath the wreckage. Thick black smoke snaked through the debris, found the surface, struck out and coiled skyward. Clouds of dust floated up from the ground, stirred by the arrival of an ocean breeze. The orange hue of the setting sun provided light.
Under the twisted wreckage of the fallen structure lay Dr. Jason Merrick, Commander Ben Egan, and Ashley Granger.
Jordan coughed, brushed away the dust and smoke, and looked for Chris. She found him a few feet away, partly covered by a sheet of the aluminum ceiling. He was unconscious. Blood poured freely from a gash in his forehead.
“Chris!” Jordan pushed away the fallen debris, scrambled to her partner and examined his wound. He would need stitches, but the injury was not life-threatening. She lifted his head and applied pressure to the gash. He began to come around.
“You okay?” Jordan asked.
Chris opened his eyes.
“Thank God,” Jordan said. “I thought you were dead.”
He groaned. “You run like a girl, you know that?”
“That’s probably because I am a girl.”
Chris nodded, touched his forehead, winced. “Next time we’re trapped in a building with a couple of psychopaths and the place starts to fall apart, do me a huge favor?”
“What’s that?”
“Wear running shoes. Those heels aren’t cutting it.”
Jordan smiled. “You know I can outrun you on my worst day, Hanover. Heels or no heels.”
Chris tried to push himself up, felt lightheaded, lay back down. “Fat chance. I pushed your ass out of the way, you fell, and I became a ceiling sandwich. That’s how it went down.”
“Pardon me,” Jordan replied. “You did not push my ass out of the way. I had three easy strides on you.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Chris replied. “That’s how my report’s going to read: ‘Building falling. Ran for cover. Agent Quest’s ass in the way. Pushed it, I mean her, to safety. Injured by falling debris. Saved the day.’”
“You’re a real American hero, Hanover.”
“I prefer superhero.”
“I’m sure you do.”
“I think I deserve a parade.”
“Now you’re hallucinating.”
“No doubt the result of my near-critical injury,” Chris said. He touched his forehead.
“Oh, so now it’s near critical.”
“Which I sustained in the line of duty...”
“Apparently.”
Chris smiled. “…while pushing your ass out of the way.”
Jordan shook her head. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Admit it. You love it.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”
Chris sat up. The pressure Jordan had applied to his wound had worked. The bleeding had stopped. A mountain of rubble occupied the center of the Pyramid.
“Merrick and Egan,” he asked, “They’re dead?”
“They just had a building fall on top of them,” Jordan replied. “What do you think?”
She helped Chris to his feet.
The agents looked around them. The entire facility had fallen. In the dusty haze, DARPA commandos and FBI HRT teams slowly b
egan to make their way toward the middle of the fallen Pyramid, ground zero of the destruction.
Suddenly there was movement. A blue light began to throb beneath the debris.
“God, no!” Jordan said.
Channeler had been activated.
117
WHEN THE BUILDING fell, Egan tried unsuccessfully to protect his handler from the cascade of metal that had been the Pyramid. Trapped beneath the wreckage, Jason Merrick struggled to move his body, then became acutely aware of the reason for his immobility. He was anchored to the floor, his legs impaled by mangled tentacles of reinforcing steel bars. His effort to scream met with little more than a whisper: “My legs!”
In his attempt to control Granger, Egan had turned his attention away from the energy vortex. The field, which had shielded them from the falling debris, had collapsed. Panels of serrated metal and steel beams were piled high around them.
“Dr. Merrick!” Egan yelled. He slid across the floor and began prying the steel rods out of Merrick’s legs. Merrick screamed in agony.
Egan cradled the scientist in his arms, then rose to his feet. “I’m going to get you out of here,” he said.
Merrick’s head lolled to one side. Ashley Granger’s lifeless eyes stared up at him from the rubble. She had been decapitated, her head the only part of her crushed body recognizable beneath the mass of concrete, steel, and broken glass.
Merrick drifted in and out of consciousness. “Stay with me, Doc,” Egan yelled. “You hear me? Stay with me!”
A familiar voice spoke to Merrick, soft, gentle, and comforting: It’s all right, Jason, the woman said. Everything is going to be fine.
Merrick spoke. “Alma?”
Voices rose outside the wall of twisted debris. The assault team was coming.
Merrick touched Egan’s arm. “Put me down,” he said.
The metal band on the Commander’s wrist glowed bright blue.
“I can hold them off as long as I need to,” Egan said.
Merrick shook his head. “No.”
“Don’t worry, Dr. Merrick. I’ve got you.”
“Put me down.”
“But…”
“Please, Commander.”
Egan hesitated. He could still protect them. He could summon a tremendous burst of energy and send it across the entire campus killing every soldier, FBI agent and SWAT cop around them, decimating the place and every other building around it for miles.
Merrick spoke, his voice weak. “There’s one last assignment I need you to complete.”
His words brought Egan back to reality. He dropped to the ground and lay Merrick on the floor.
“There is a metal tube in my pocket,” Merrick said. “Take it out.”
Egan opened Merrick’s jacket and retrieved the cigar-shaped cylinder.
“Open it.”
Egan unscrewed the end cap, dropped it on the ground.
“Take it out… slowly.”
Egan turned the tube on its side. The thumb press of a syringe slid into his hand. He removed the injection device from the tube.
“It’s the second phase of GENESIS,” Merrick whispered, “the LEEDA project. You’re ready, Commander. You’ve earned it.”
Egan examined the injection device in the pale light. A rose-colored liquid fluoresced within its clear barrel. The syringe vibrated against the palm of his hand.
“Inject yourself,” Merrick said, “Your thigh.”
From outside the walls of their self-made tomb, loud voices accompanied the sound of chunks of concrete and sheets of metal being thrown across the floor. They were coming for them, getting closer.
Egan inverted the needle and watched as a tiny air bubble drifted to the surface of the strange liquid. He removed the needle’s protective plastic sheath and tossed it aside. Holding the syringe firmly in his hand, he pressed the plunger and freed the trapped air. A single drop of the precious solution rested atop the bevel of the primed needle. He placed the tip of the syringe against his pant leg.
Merrick watched as he prepared the injection. “You should feel a rush at first,” the scientist said. His breathing had become more difficult, labored. “That will be adrenaline,” he continued. “It will be followed by a brief sensation of euphoria. Are you ready?”
Egan nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Good.”
Merrick closed his eyes, concentrated, connected with Egan’s brain neural interface, and sent the operative his final assignment.
Egan acknowledged the download. “I understand.”
Merrick winced as a wave of pain hammered his chest. “After the injection there will be no turning back. Know that your body will follow your mind, Commander. Do you understand this?”
Egan nodded.
“Good,” Merrick said. “This will be your final assignment. When it has been completed, I want you to start a new life. LEEDA is my gift to you. You will become wholly integrated; the human embodiment of a lifetime of my research, all that I have worked for. I can’t think of anyone more deserving.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Remember the importance of what I said, Commander. Your body will follow your mind.”
Commotion outside the twisted metal walls.
Mere feet away now.
Egan jammed the needle deep into his thigh, pushed down on the plunger, and injected himself. He fell on his side, his body shocked into submission by the rush of the LEEDA formula as it coursed through his bloodstream. Within seconds the primary effect of the injection subsided. The secondary wave spread through his body and brought with it a feeling of mental strength, power, and exhilaration unlike anything he had ever experienced in his life.
Channeler unlocked from his wrist.
The device fell to the floor.
“It’s done,” Merrick said. “The transition is complete. Now concentrate. Follow the target. Finish the assignment. Go where LEEDA takes you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Inside the metal fortress, a rose-red light glittered and encompassed Egan.
Merrick smiled. “Goodbye, Commander,” he said.
The walls fell.
The scientist felt a crushing pain in his chest, took his last breath, and closed his eyes.
The DARPA commandos pushed aside the last of the debris. “Hands!” they yelled. “Show me your hands!”
Merrick offered no response. Commander Aikens knelt and checked his pulse. Hallier stood beside him. He shook his head. “He’s gone, Colonel.”
“Secure the body immediately,” Hallier ordered. “Get it back to Los Alamitos. Keep a guard on it.”
“Yes, sir,” Aikens replied. He motioned to the corpse of Ashley Granger. “And the woman?”
“Not our concern. Leave her for the coroner.”
“Yes, sir.”
Hallier looked down. The Channeler device lay at his feet. Beside the metallic band lay a spent syringe and metal tube, marked LEEDA. The Colonel pocketed the items. “Jesus,” he muttered.
Hallier warned Commander Aikens. “No one but DARPA gets near this body, understand? Secure it for transport.”
“Copy that, Colonel.”
“Good,” Hallier said. He turned to leave.
Aikens stared at Merrick’s body and Grangers mutilated corpse. “Colonel?”
Hallier stopped. “What is it?”
“Where the hell is Egan?”
Hallier walked back. “Listen carefully. No questions. Maintain your post. Under no circumstances does that body leave your sight. Think you can manage that?”
Aikens soldiered up. “Yes, sir.”
Hallier walked away from the dead man and placed a call to his superior at DARPA.
“This is Ford.”
“It’s Hallier, Brigadier General.”
“Situation report.”
“Merrick is dead, sir. Egan is gone.”
“What do you mean… gone?”
“Precisely that, sir. We were too late. LEEDA is active.”
118
JORDAN, CHRIS, AND Assistant Director Ridgeway found Ashley Granger’s decapitated corpse in the debris pile, then watched as DARPA commandos transferred Merrick’s body into a field transport bag and zipped it shut.
Ridgeway presented her credentials to the Special Operations team leader. “Open it up,” she said. “I want to see who was responsible for this.”
The soldier shook his head. “Sorry, ma’am,” he said. “No can do.” The commando motioned to his men. They stepped forward, lifted the body bag, prepared to leave.
“Where’s the second body?” Ridgeway asked.
“Ma’am?”
“Soldier, you know as well as I do that there were two men standing here, not just one,” Ridgeway said. “So I’ll ask you again. Where’s the second body?”
The commando ignored the Assistant Director and addressed his men: “Transfer the package to Los Alamitos. Full protection detail.” He turned to leave. Chris blocked his way.
“Sir, you need to step aside,” the DARPA commando said.
Hanover ignored the warning. “The lady asked you to open the bag.”
The commando waved his men on. “I’ll catch up,” he said. He turned to Chris. “First things first. I’ll take back that weapon.”
Hanover handed him the Thermite grenade launcher. The soldier pointed to the gash on Chris’ forehead. “That looks painful.”
“Nasty shaving accident,” Chris said. “I’ve had worse.”
“Not from me,” the soldier replied, “but the nights still young.”
Chris stepped closer. “Don’t let me stop you from trying.”
Ridgeway spoke. “That will be enough, Agent Hanover.”
Chris held the soldier’s stare.
“Agent Hanover,” Ridgeway said, “Stand down.”
Chris slowly stepped aside. The soldier nudged his shoulder as he walked past, glanced at Ridgeway, then whispered in his ear. “Have mommy put a Band-Aid on your boo-boo,” he said. “If you ask real nice maybe she’ll kiss it better for you too.”
“The offer’s still open,” Chris replied. “Anytime, anywhere.”
The agents watched the DARPA commandos leave the crumbled Pyramid carrying Merrick’s body.
Jordan looked at her partner. She shook her head. “Really?” she said. “Of all the guys in the world to pick a fight with you want to tangle with that guy?”
The Jordan Quest FBI Thriller Series: Books 1-3: The Jordan Quest FBI Thriller Series Boxset Book 1 Page 46