The Wraith: Danger Close (Superhero by Night Book 4)

by Jeffery H. Haskell

  She hadn’t had time to tell me over the phone, so she was explaining the whole thing to me as we flew over the Atlantic ocean.

  “He’s going to blow up the Earth and our entire solar system the way I blew up his,” she said. The way she said it, so matter-of-fact and with a straight face, I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry.

  “Why don’t you and your Protectors go in and take him down? I mean, I want the guy, don’t get me wrong, but this is a lot bigger than I bargained for,” I said.

  She shook her head. “We could, but he’s close to being able to turn it on. How close, I don’t know. It might be a matter of him just hitting the button a few days early and half the Earth blows up instead of all of it… I don’t know. But—”

  “But if I go in and verify where they are, and shut down the machine, then you and the cavalry can come in?”

  She nodded. “Yup. Once we know he doesn’t pose a threat, we can swoop in and save the day. So-to-speak. Questions?”

  I laughed. “Oh so many. What happens if I can’t shut down the machine? What happens if he’s much closer than you think and we have no time?” I asked.

  “I have a satellite—”

  “—Of course you do,” I said.

  “It’s moving to intercept right now. If either of those situations happens, just get out and call down fire. I’ll hit the place with a high energy projectile fired from orbit. It will atomize everything in the castle, out to a few hundred feet,” she said through my interruption.

  “Wait, wait, wait... a what?” I asked. “If you blow the place up, won’t that set off his, uh, bomb?”

  She shook her head. “No. This kind of tech requires a specific energetic reaction. Simply blowing it up won’t set it off. Think of it like a car. Shooting an engine won’t cause a car to start, even though an engine is just a series of controlled explosions,” she said as if I understood any of this.

  As much as I didn’t want too, I was going to have to rely on her. “Okay, I’ll trust you know what you’re talking about.”

  Her hurt expression was priceless. “Madisun Dumas, did the word ‘trust’ just escape your lips? For shame,” she said with a smile.

  I laughed, then cut my grin short and narrowed my eyes at her. Her laughter faded and nerves took over.

  Then I laughed again. “Got you,” I said.

  CHAPTER 24

  Château de la Mothe-Chandeniers. A lonely name for a lonely castle sitting on it’s own lake. They dropped me off a mile from the location, leaving me to infiltrate the place on my own—which was fine with me. Bogs and fields surrounded the place, along with a few stands of trees. In the middle of the night, even with a half moon, it was easy to stay undetected as I made my way to the large building.

  Castles and dragons were fairy tales of a youth I’d long forgotten. But here I was, charging a castle to fight an evil wizard with a magic machine that could destroy the world. Not that he was a wizard, but he might as well have been considering what I knew about science.

  I had my usual gear on me, plus the suppressed FN2000 Krisan secured for me. I also had the high-tech stun pistol and a radio Lockheart gave me so we could communicate. Along with the armor, or I guess costume as she would call it. Unless she was going to part with a suit of armr for me I would have to refuse any further items. Gifts came with baggage and I didn’t want any.

  I stayed low and invisible, using the uneven ground to hide from the occasional car. Three hundred feet from the castle I ran into the sentries: two men in camouflage carrying MP-5s walked the perimeter, speaking in hushed whispers.

  “You really believe all that nonsense Lockheart spoke about? Destroying the world?” Spice asked in a whisper from where she crouched beside me.

  “She has no reason to lie,” I replied as quietly as I could.

  “I guess so... I don’t know if I would survive if the world was destroyed. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t, so don’t fail here, okay?”

  “How selfless of you,” I said sardonically. “No one would survive if the world was suddenly sucked into a black hole. Maybe think about someone other than you and your stomach for once.”

  She shook her head. “You know what it’s like for me. I’m a predator, all I think about is where my next meal is coming from... like those two,” she said pointing at the sentries.

  I waited for them to pass by, about fifty feet away as they walked from the right to the left. I narrowed my eyes, trying to see if they had any kind of radio gear or another way of checking in.

  Should I kill them? This was a stealth run, not a ‘kill everyone.’ If they found me before I was ready... they could set off the machine.

  “No,” I told her. “Stealth first, killing later.”

  “Tease,” she said and vanished.

  I waited until they were out of sight, then moved across the small path they followed around the castle. The building had plenty of trees on the shoreline, obscuring the high rock walls. The castle itself was completely surrounded by water; not an inch of ground existed outside the walls, and the only way to the front door was a long, narrow road that was monitored for sure.

  I knelt on the shore, obscured by the foliage, and examined the picturesque castle. Inside there were plenty of lights shining out the windows, and on top of the roof there were flood lights shining down on the road. But... any bright light at night made for good shadows. Getting in would be a piece of cake.

  I triggered my shadow step, reaching out through the darkness to the roof and appearing on the other side with the memory of the freezing dark passing quickly. Every time I used the power it was like having a bucket of ice water dumped over me while wearing a bikini—regardless of Lockheart’s special clothes.

  Once I was on the roof I made my way to the back of the castle where the lake stretched out behind it. I figured they would have security everywhere, but they might have the least amount on the hardest approach. ‘Guard everything’ was as impractical a request as ‘provide 100% security 24/7.’ It simply couldn’t be done.

  At the back, I leaned out and saw my target, a balcony twenty feet down. I slipped out over the edge and fell silently on to the bricks. I hit with a muffled thump, freezing as I landed, listening for any alarms.

  Nothing. The French doors leading inside were easily circumvented and I was inside in a hot second, moving through the storage room that had once been a bedroom.

  “I’m in,” I whispered into the radio. There was no reply.

  “Arsenal, I’m in.”

  Nothing.

  I checked the device and sure enough it was on, it was. I turned up the volume and I could hear feedback… we were being jammed. I glanced back at the balcony and decided I would press forward. I could always make a loud noise or find some other way to call her in.

  As I approached the door to the inside, I heard a ruckus; loud machines, metal on concrete, and something barking like a dog, but not random.

  Ugh. More of those hybrid monster things.

  I really didn’t want to fight more of the alien werewolves. They were ridiculously hard to kill, and while I could do it, it took time. And time was something I didn’t have.

  The door leading into the castle was a wooden wreck, easily a century old before I was born. I opened it and slipped out, keeping my back to the wall as I slid down the side of the hall. The inside was how I pictured it. Open, but not empty. The rooms were all outward facing, while the inside was hollowed out. In the center was a giant machine. It had three spheres of varying sizes rotating around each other over some kind of glowing plate the size of four cars parked in a square.

  “What the hell?” I whispered.

  Getting down on my chest, I inched my way to the edge of the balcony that overlooked the inside of the castle. The interior was seventy percent open space. It had the look of a giant ballroom. Doorways in the far walls led to rooms, but not much else. Either the place had been hollowed out, or there wasn’t much here to begin with.

  On t
he far side of the machine were two of the hybrids, huge and bristling with anger as they clawed at the ground. In front of the machine were a half dozen people, two women and four men. They were all wearing white lab coats, had computer tablets, and were busy working on the machine.

  One of the hybrids snarled and glanced up in my direction. I eased myself back slowly, as not to trigger a pursuit response.

  I heard a grunt, followed by loud stomping across the room.

  “What’s the progress?” The sound of the man’s voice rolled through the room like a rock slide. I felt something in my mind want to answer him and I didn’t even have an answer!

  “Spice,” I called the demon that possessed me.

  “What the hell is that?” she whispered from above me where she stood looking down. She was dressed in a ninja outfit; swords and everything. I rolled my eyes at her lame attempt at humor.

  “I’m guessing that’s the Th’un?” I asked her.

  She nodded. “Madi, I don’t know about this. I’ve eaten a lot of things but this... this looks wrong.”

  Great. The entity who feeds on death thinks something is wrong. Just what I wanted to hear. Maybe I should retreat now and call in Arsenal once I was out of range of the jamming.

  “Can you protect me from his mind powers?” I asked her.

  She cocked her head to the side a little, closed her eyes and hummed? After a moment, the pressure of his presence faded and I realized I had sweated the whole time he had spoken.

  “I can, but... it’s not easy. We have a surplus of energy, but Madi, I can’t do this and power you up a whole lot. Try not to get killed,” she said. Spice wavered, something I had never seen her do before, then she vanished.

  “Great,” I muttered. Well, time to get Lockheart.

  “Sir, the device is ready. We are just waiting for it to power up.

  “Now, as you promised— can we go to our families?” one of the scientists asked.

  “You have to keep your word, I do not. Krisnatch,” he said. A hybrid roared and tore forward, claws scraping across the ground until they hit flesh. The man screamed for a half second before I heard the unmistakable sound of tearing flesh followed by breaking bone.

  Dammit.

  I couldn’t let these people die. I leaped up, ran forward and braced one hand on the balcony, and leaped over.

  I barely had time to register what I saw as I fell. The Th’un, Mr. Axiom, was the size of a small forklift; nine feet tall, with massive arms that he leaned forward on like a gorilla. His face was flat, with flaps where his nose would go and a lip-less smile.

  My aim was perfect. I fell 15 feet, landing right on top of the hybrid that was busy devouring the unfortunate man I couldn’t save. In one swift move, I whipped out the Kukri and jammed it into the things ear, bypassing the armored skin and driving the eight and a half inch carbon fiber blade right into its brain.

  It jerked upward, dislodging my knife and sending me flying, the blade clattering along the stone floor to the machine. I sailed through the air as it collapsed into the puddle of the man’s blood it was devouring. I hit the hard stone on my shoulder and rolled, coming back up on my feet.

  “Wraith,” Axiom said in his horrible voice.

  “Time to pay the piper, bitch,” I said as I slid the Fn2000 up to a ready position and pulled the trigger. He was hardly going to be difficult to hit.

  And he wasn’t. The bullets tore through the odd jumpsuit he wore, only to bounce off his flesh, leaving small ripples like rocks in a pond.

  Crap.

  “Krisnatch,” he roared and pointed at me. The other hybrid charged forward, snarling and barking as it raced after me.

  Time to try a trick.

  I dropped the rifle and braced myself in a gunfighters position, waiting for the hybrid to hit me.

  Like the others, it roared right before slamming into me. Sun Tzu said it was important to know your enemy as well as yourself. At this point, I knew these damn hybrids all to well.

  Just before it hit me I whipped out the IP Pistol and jammed the gun into its maw and pulled the trigger as fast as I could. The sheer weight of the critter flung me to the ground and we slid along the hard stone for ten feet before coming to a stop.

  It twitched like a dog having a dream about running. I heaved the thing off me but couldn’t recover the pistol from its gullet. I would have to make do without it. Odds were good that Axiom would be resistant to it any way.

  “Start the machine!” he roared at the scientists as he approached me, slapping the ground with his fists and coming at me with his body turned slightly. He really was like an overgrown ape in the way he moved.

  I rolled to the side, avoiding his stone shattering blow, and ran for the scientists. They hadn’t started the machine; I could kill them and keep him from winning. The only problem was, they were innocent. Instead, I ran right by them, pushing the closest one into the rest to delay them while I raced for my true destination.

  “Stop,” Axiom roared. I felt it. The force of his will hit me like a truck. Ricardo, the black-marketeer I’d met in Belize had warned about Axiom’s mental powers, but damn. He hadn’t know the extent of them.

  The poor scientists froze in place—even their breathing stopped. They couldn’t even blink.

  I struggled to take a step forward then stopped when I realized I could, but not much. I flexed my hands to make sure I could still use them.

  “Puny humans. You think you’re the only ones who have powers? If not for your champion, the fleets of the Th’un empire would have laid waste to this mud ball and turned your people into goo!”

  The building shook as he used his huge arms like poles to hop toward me. He landed next to me with a crunch, evil in his eyes as he raised his arms.

  “Your family was nothing, your life is nothing. You cannot stop me,” he said using his power to reinforce the idea.

  “You’re right,” I said. “But she can.” When I had searched the room earlier, I found the one piece of gear that looked human made; a radio frequency jammer. Essentially a large radio with an omni-directional signal that pumped out enough juice to block all radio signals. Once again, I mentally thanked Joseph for making me read every book about every piece of military gear ever made.

  I threw myself back as his massive fists came down where I had stood a second before and shattered the stone to powder. While I fell, I pulled out the 1911 and fired four rounds squarely into the delicate electronics.

  It exploded in a shower of sparks, drawing his attention for a moment. I rolled to the side and put my legs under me. “Arsenal, get in here now!” It didn’t take long; I was halfway to the scientists when a massive explosion blasted through the roof and Amelia Lockheart landed in all her armored glory.

  Axiom roared, reached up and hit a button on his shirt. Armor sprang to life around him, flowing out of his clothes until he was a mirrored Juggernaut.

  “That’s a new trick,” Arsenal said as she raised her arms, firing weapons at point blank range.

  He charged right at her, through her blazing blue fire that hit him squarely in the chest. Massive fists slammed into her, knocking her aside as he ran for the black hole machine. I didn’t see a way to stop him, so I aimed to get the lab coats out of the way.

  I grabbed the first one and pushed her toward the front door. “Go,” I yelled in my own scary voice. That shook them and they ran like the devil chased them. I helped the last one get up from where I had knocked him down and motivated him with a push.

  The Th’un pulled up short from his machine when Arsenal grabbed his back, her armored fingers made a horrendous metal stressing sound and she flung him bodily against the far wall.

  “You’re done, Axiom,” she said. “Just like the rest of your pathetic people.”

  He laughed, a barking nose like a dog. “I don’t think so... krisnatch!”

  Howling came from every corner of the castle, drowning out what ever Arsenal said next. A hundred glowing eyes appeare
d in the balcony above us and another dozen in the doorways on the main floor.

  “Ah darn,” I whispered.

  CHAPTER 25

  “Blow it up,” I shouted as I ran to her. She whipped around, raised both her arms, and fired brilliant laser like blue beams at the device. They hit some kind of energy shield and dissipated.

  Then we were out of time. He ran through the shield and typed furiously on the keyboard. The creatures above and around us roared, charging forth with slavering snarls and wicked sharp claws.

  “Tank missile,” she said. Why? I had no idea. It wasn’t like she needed to announce her weapons. A device sprung up on her back and fired a blazing hot projectile that turned the nearest three hybrids into superheated paste.

  “They’re bullet proof,” I told her as I stood with my back to her side. Maybe since Axiom wasn’t trying to control me anymore, I could use my full strength and wrestle one down? But… there were hundreds.

  They stormed us. Arsenal punched one so hard its head burst. I ducked a clawed hand and uppercut the creature’s mouth, clamping it’s jaws shut on the slavering tongue sticking six inches out.

  “Here,” she said. I turned to see what she was doing when a three foot long, black bladed sword emerged from her hand. She tossed it to me. “Don’t tell anyone you saw that!” she shouted over the beasts. I snatched the blade out of the air and swung it hard at the tongueless beast in front of me.

  I was shocked beyond belief when it sliced clean through, sending the head rolling on the ground. “Oh! I have got to get me one of these!”

  I ran forward, sliding at the last second, bringing the blade up and slicing open a hybrid from throat to crotch, spilling its guts all over the floor. Spinning as I stood, I ran the next one through and sliced away half its torso as I came out.

  “Arsenal, what’s he doing?” I asked with a nod at Axiom.

  “He’s trying to activate the machine. Hold these things off and I’ll stop him,” she said. Leaping into the air, her jets whined and she flew right at the shield.