by I. T. Lucas
Where was he?
Why hadn’t he come out yet?
Hopefully, he wasn’t looking for Jin. Had he connected the two incidents?
Kalugal had asked him if he’d been sent by Navuh, so that was where his mind was going, and Navuh would never have used a woman for his schemes. So, if Kalugal still thought that Arwel was connected to his father, it wouldn’t occur to him that the girl who’d bumped into him was with Arwel. She would be just another face in the crowd of frozen humans.
Was he ever going to see her again?
Their story couldn’t end like this.
The Fates had not brought them together only to break them apart.
Furthermore, they wouldn’t have been arranging matings left, right and center if they knew about the clan’s imminent demise.
It was ridiculous to base his hopes on the elusive Fates, but as the saying went, there are no atheists in foxholes, and even a nonbeliever like Arwel found himself praying to a higher power.
Please don’t let it end like this. But if you need a sacrifice for your boon, take it out of me, and spare Jin.
70
William
As soon as Arwel yelled, take cover, William opened his channel to the other Guardians so they could hear what was going on.
The problem was that William was operating on blind, and the only information he was getting was through Arwel and the girls’ earpieces.
The cameras inside the club had been tampered with, most likely by Kalugal or his guy. William couldn’t see the girls going in, nor could he see the shrouded Kalugal.
The same was true for the camera in the parking lot.
By the time he’d hacked into the feed, it hadn’t shown the Ferrari or Magnus’s car, when he knew that it should.
“Everyone, go in,” William shouted as he heard the gunshot through Arwel’s earpiece.
“Arwel ordered us to stay in the car,” Michael said.
“He didn’t say anything to Gregor and me,” Magnus said. “We are going in.”
“So are we,” the Guardian in the backup car announced.
“I’m trying to get to Arwel,” Kri yelled. “Everyone is screaming and pushing to get out.”
“Are Jacki and Jin safe?”
“They are hiding behind the bar.”
A few tense seconds passed, and then William heard another voice coming through Arwel’s earpiece. “Freeze! No one move, and no one utter a sound.”
William froze with his hand on the control screen, the command affecting him even though he was nowhere near Kalugal.
The air silence from the Guardians meant that the same had happened to them.
The only one he could hear was Jacki, who was talking to Jin. “We are majorly screwed. I’m the only one the compulsion doesn’t work on.”
William strained, trying to move his hand to open a channel to Onegus, but it refused to cooperate. On second thought, it was a good thing that he hadn’t succeeded. Kalugal could have compelled Onegus to freeze as well.
And if he had any doubts, a moment later they were dispelled when Kalugal spoke directly into the earpiece. “Everyone listening, stop talking, texting, and any other form of communication. Don’t move unless you are driving. If you are, pull over to the side of the road and then sit in the vehicle until I tell you to move.”
Arwel’s device went silent, but William could still hear some of what was going on through Kri’s earpiece. It was muffled, drowned out by the loud music still blasting as if nothing had happened.
If not for his immortal hearing, he wouldn’t have heard Kalugal order his man.
“Rufsur. Pick him up and carry him to the car. Put him in the trunk.”
“He’s not going to fit. It’s too small.”
“Then put him in the back seat.”
“Yes, boss.”
A drop of sweat detached from William’s forehead and landed on his desk.
Jacki was right. They were all majorly screwed.
71
Jin
“Crap.” Jacki’s eyes darted around. “It’s now or never. I need a weapon.” She grabbed a stainless-steel cocktail shaker. “Not heavy enough.” She tossed it aside and grabbed a large bottle of vodka. “That’s good. I need another one.” She skirted the barman who was frozen in a crouch next to Jin and went for a second bottle. “I need that damn pepper spray.” Jacki left the bottle on the counter, pulled herself on top of the bar, and jumped down on the other side. “Where is my damn purse?”
Through the tether, Jin saw Jacki crawling between people’s legs, searching for her purse and the pepper spray. She was wasting time, and in the meantime, Kalugal could be driving off with Arwel.
Jin switched to Kalugal’s tether.
Through his eyes, she saw him throw the gunman into a dumpster. Kalugal wrapped his hand in his shirttail and pulled the gun out of his pocket, wiped it, and then tossed it into the dumpster as well.
What was he going to do next? Drive away? Come back and look for her?
Pepper spray in one hand and a vodka bottle in the other, Jacki leaned over the bar. “Wish me luck.”
Jin blinked and then closed her eyes to follow the tether to Jacki.
As her friend ran out the back door at full speed, Kalugal looked over his shoulder.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Jacki hurled the bottle at his head. If not for his inhuman reflexes, she would have made it.
But he snatched the bottle before it could hit him and smiled at Jacki. “Nice try. Now, be a good girl, turn around, and go back inside.”
“Like hell!” She ran at him with the pepper spray aimed at his eyes.
What the hell was she doing? He was going to kill her or tie her up and throw her into the dumpster together with the gunman.
But before Jacki could reach Kalugal, his guy intercepted her, catching her from behind with an arm around her waist, and at the same time wrenching the pepper spray out of her hand and tossing it away.
As he threw her over his shoulder, Jin got just as dizzy as Jacki from seeing things upside down.
“What do you want me to do with her?” Rufsur asked.
Jacki struggled, pounding on his back and kicking her legs.
The guy didn’t even grimace. It was as if a child was wriggling to get out of her father’s grip. He wasn’t hurting her, but he wasn’t letting go of her either.
Kalugal looked at Jacki’s struggles dispassionately. “Will she fit in the trunk?”
“I think so. She’s not as chubby as she looks. It’s all clothing.”
“Stop!” Jacki yelled at the top of her lungs. “Rape!”
As if that was going to help her.
“You’d better tie her up and gag her.” Kalugal gripped Jacki’s chin and squeezed. “Is the immortal your boyfriend?” He lifted her face. “You must love him very much to take a stupid risk like that.
Jacki stopped struggling. “Immortal?”
Kalugal smiled indulgently. “You didn’t know. He must have liked the challenge of an immune. A woman he couldn’t thrall into sleeping with him.”
“Let me go. I won’t make any trouble.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. You are not just a random human who happens to be immune to mind manipulation. You are connected to immortals, and you’ve seen my real face.”
“The clock is ticking,” Rufsur said.
“Load her up.” Kalugal looked at Jacki, who started struggling again. “It’s not a long drive, and you have nothing to fear. No one is going to rape you. You have my word.”
72
Kalugal
“Call security and tell them to move everyone into the bunker,” Kalugal said as he pulled out of the club’s parking lot.
“Are you going to lock down the bunker?”
Kalugal nodded. “Until we know what we are dealing with. If this was a random coincidence, then a lockdown is not necessary, but if they were after me, it is, and that’s the more likely possibility. If he w
as there alone, I would have been inclined to believe that it was random. But he had backup.”
Rufsur glanced at the back seat. “Why don’t you ask him?”
“First, I want to get back to the bunker and secure it. His questioning can wait.”
Kalugal was worried about the woman in the trunk. She was too quiet. Even though she was tied up and gagged, he’d expected her to kick and thrash.
Maybe there wasn’t enough air in there for her to breathe? What if she suffocated?
Humans were so damn fragile, and he didn’t want her death on his conscience.
When he heard a thump and then another one, Kalugal let out a relieved breath.
Apparently, she’d been stunned by the revelation that her boyfriend was an immortal and only now had gotten over the shock.
“You’ll have to sell the Ferrari,” Rufsur said. “The buddies of the guy in the back probably saw us put him inside.”
The car was registered to one of Kalugal’s subsidiary corporations at a different address, but it was too easy to spot.
Regrettably, Rufsur was right.
“I’ll replace it with a different model.”
“You should go for a different make. The Aston Martin Valhalla is going to be a sweet ride.”
Kalugal chuckled. “You keep complaining about the Ferrari having a joke of a backseat and a small trunk. The Valhalla is a true sports car. Besides, it’s not offered for sale yet.”
“Aha. So, you were thinking about it.”
“Of course. I’m a collector.”
And now he was adding an immortal of uncertain origins and an immune human to the rare treasures stored in his bunker.
If the immortal was part of Annani’s clan, then he could be used as a bargaining chip. The question was how much the goddess cared about her people. If it were Navuh, he wouldn’t even negotiate, not unless the immortal had knowledge that could endanger the island or Navuh himself.
Was the male in the back someone important in the clan?
Kalugal doubted it. An important member of the clan would not rush to save a bunch of humans at the risk of exposing himself. But then his girlfriend was inside, and he’d probably acted on instinct.
He would soon find out, though, so there was no point in speculating.
After the car lift descended into the underground garage, Kalugal parked the Ferrari in its designated spot and killed the engine.
“What do you want to do with the immortal?” Rufsur asked.
“Pick him up and carry him to a holding cell. I’ll carry the immune.”
Rufsur grimaced. “I’ll get one of the men to do it. She’s a feisty wench. She’ll bite and scratch you.”
Normally, Kalugal didn’t mind a little rough play, but only if it was in a sexual context and consensual. The woman’s heart belonged to another, and he had other things to take care of.
“Make it so.”
“Do you want me to put them in the same cell?”
“Yeah. Why not. She was so desperate to save him, I’m sure she’ll appreciate being locked up together with him.”
It was possible that the two were just teammates, but lovers was more likely. The immortal had exposed himself to protect the immune, and she’d run out to help him with no regard for her own safety.
“Do you want to unfreeze him?”
“He will be released at the same time as the humans in the club. I’m sure he heard the command.”
“In case he didn’t, maybe you should do it again. If he pisses in his pants because he can’t use the toilet, I don’t want to have to clean him up.”
“Very well.” Kalugal turned to the immortal. “Ten minutes from now you can move and talk.”
He got out of the car and headed to the security office.
“Has everyone made it back already?” he asked.
Dammal shook his head. “Phinas is five minutes away, and he has Dandor and Welgost with him. But Ruvon and Hivak are all the way in San Francisco. I told them to stay there and get a hotel room. The rest are down here.”
“Very well. As soon as Phinas is back, lock the place down and initiate the perimeter’s code red security protocol.”
“Yes, boss.”
“I’ll be in my office.”
Pushing his hand into his pocket, Kalugal closed it around the earpiece.
Once the lockdown was executed, he would unfreeze the rest of the immortals connected to the listening device.
In the short term, it would be safer for him to leave them frozen. But leaving them in that state guaranteed their exposure, and that was an undesirable outcome that would make his life more difficult in the long term.
Humans should not be allowed to discover the existence of immortals. If they ever did, a witch hunt would start, the scope of which the world had not seen before.
Not only would they feel threatened by a superior race of people living among them, they would also want to get their hands on the secret to immortality.
73
William
“Hello,” Kalugal’s voice sounded in William’s earpiece. “Everyone listening can move and talk now. Good night.”
“Wait!” William called. “What have you done with Arwel?”
He had to act fast and keep the guy talking. Which meant that he had to start the negotiations before Kalugal disconnected the earpiece.
Sweating profusely, William forced himself to concentrate. His fingers flying over the keyboard, he typed up a message to Kian to get his earpiece in and get online.
“Oh, so that’s Flyboy’s name. I haven’t had the opportunity to chat with him and his girlfriend yet.”
William’s heart skipped a beat. If Kalugal had Jin, they were flying blind. He’d hoped she could tell them what was going on.
The problem was that he couldn’t check with her as long as he had Kalugal in his ear.
“Flyboy? And what girlfriend are you talking about?”
His phone pinged with a text message from Jin. He has Jacki. She and Arwel are locked in a cell in his bunker. He initiated a lockdown of the entire place.
William had never been more glad of his ability to do several things at once.
He texted back. Call Kian.
Magnus already did.
So why the hell hadn’t he come on the line yet?
William wasn’t a military man, and he knew nothing about negotiating a hostage situation.
Then it dawned on him that Jin and the rest of the team were still connected to Arwel’s channel and could hear Kalugal. What if he decided to compel them again?
William cursed soundlessly.
He was no good at handling a critical situation like this. His first action should have been to isolate Arwel’s channel.
“Your man sailed over the crowd to knock out the shooter, which was very impressive, but it also gave him away. Then Flyboy’s immune girlfriend rushed to save him and fought like a hellcat. But don’t worry, we handled them both with care. As you are aware, I don’t need to use force to extract information from people.”
Brave, stupid girl. What had she been thinking?
“She is not his girlfriend, and we know where you’ve taken them. As we speak, your place is being surrounded.”
He was bluffing, but it was going to be true in a minute or two.
The door to his office burst open and Vivian rushed in in her pajamas. William lifted a hand to stop whatever questions she might have.
“Kri just called me…” She stopped when he pointed to his earpiece.
Kalugal chuckled. “I can just command them to freeze again. Should I do it now?”
“They are no longer connected to this channel. It’s just you and me.”
“Who am I talking to?” Kalugal asked. “Are you the head of this operation?”
"I’m just the communications guy. The head of the operation is going to join us in a moment.”
“Wonderful. I can’t wait.”
Damn. Maybe it wasn’t a good ide
a for Kian to come on the line. Kalugal could command him to do whatever he pleased.
His fingers flew over the keyboard. Don’t open the channel without Turner next to you. I’ll connect Turner’s earpiece to Arwel’s in a second.
“If you are planning to compel him as well, it’s not going to help you. His second-in-command is an immune.”
William hoped that he wasn’t revealing the ace up Kian’s proverbial sleeve too soon. The trouble was that he had no experience in crisis management, and he was just doing everything he could to keep Kalugal talking.
“How fascinating. I can’t wait to hear who your boss is and what he wants with me.”
74
Jin
Jin used the hem of her dirty T-shirt to wipe her tear-stained cheeks for the hundredth time since Kalugal had unfrozen everyone connected to Arwel’s channel. “Wasn’t that the right turn?” she asked Kri.
The Guardian had been talking on the phone, and she might have missed it.
“We are not going back to the house.” Kri put her phone down. “My instructions are to keep you safe. You are our bargaining chip.” The Guardian lifted her hand off the steering wheel. “Not to trade you for Arwel, of course. Just letting Kalugal know that we can see and hear everything he is doing should be a good enough motivator for him to cooperate.”
“I don’t mind getting traded if it will keep everyone safe. I don’t know anything useful, while Arwel knows everything.”
“That’s very brave of you. But I don’t think it will come to that.”
“Just let Kian know that it’s on the table. Okay?”
If she could save Arwel and the rest of the clan by sacrificing herself, Jin would take it with both hands.
“Where are we going?”
She didn’t care what happened to her next, but changing into a clean shirt qualified as public service. Hers was covered with tears and snot that she hadn’t been able to wipe off while frozen.