Forged in Ember

by Trish McCallan

  “Look, I’m sorry about what happened to those boys. But I had nothing to do with that. When I gave them the technology, it was under the promise that they’d use it only on their own soldiers. It was supposed to be used to track their men if they went AWOL. It was never supposed to be used on innocent civilians and certainly not children. I had no hand in that.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Mac spun around so fast he went dizzy. He waited for his head to clear before stalking forward. “You gave it to a bunch of sociopathic monsters. Men who’ve killed hundreds if not thousands of innocent people, and you didn’t think they’d use it whenever and however they saw fit? You gave the technology to them. You enabled them to use it. You’re every bit as fucking complicit as they are.”

  “Mac.” Zane’s calm voice rose from the table. He caught and held Mac’s gaze, his green eyes full of relief.

  The rage was so hot and so consuming, it took him a minute to realize why all three of his men had relaxed. And then it hit him. Link had just admitted he’d been the gateway to the crap they’d injected into Amy’s kids, which meant Link had the data to reverse the drug.

  Relief funneled off the rage, allowed him to breathe again. He’d taken his first step back to the table when a knock sounded at the door.

  Amy.

  He pictured the relief on her face when she heard the news. The hope.

  “You can give your apologies to their mother,” he told Link over his shoulder.

  Or better yet, he could give her the cure and the means to save her children.

  Chapter Fifteen

  THE DOOR TO Mac’s quarters opened so fast, he must have been standing right next to it. Amy’s gaze found Mac’s face and clung, searching for an indication that Link had supplied the information she needed. That he’d admitted to developing the compound killing her children.

  She found satisfaction in his eyes, so Link must have told them something Mac felt they could use.

  As though he’d read her mind, Mac nodded. “He’s admitted to giving the NRO the tracking compound.”

  She stepped into the room and waited for Mac to close the door. “Has he told you how to counteract it?”

  Her focus turned to James Link. Good God, the man looked terrible. Eyes sunken into his face. Deep lines gouging his forehead and bracketing his lips. His skin looked pale, almost gray.

  It took her several moments to realize he was studying her as closely as she was him.

  “I’m sorry about your kids. I am. Truly,” he said, his voice sincere.

  Amy felt Mac tense beside her. She glanced over and watched anger narrow his eyes and flare his nostrils. The hairs on her arms prickled, and she swore she felt a blast of heat come from him.

  “I’ve already told you,” Mac snapped, stalking to the table. “That doesn’t do a fucking bit of good.”

  Amy followed more slowly. “So Dynamic Solutions developed the compound.”

  Link nodded. “It’s basically a tracking device. It was developed as a long-term means to track endangered species through both land and water.”

  Amy held her breath long enough to steady her voice. “If Dynamic Solutions developed it, then you must have an antidote, a way to reverse or neutralize the compound?”

  Link lifted a skeletal hand and brushed the hair off his forehead. “I wasn’t involved in the development. That was Leonard. It was his baby.”

  Okay . . . Amy forced the impatience aside. The longing to return to the clinic and Benji’s side was at war with the urge to stay and find out how to save him. “But you must have access to his data? You can find out what he did, what he used, the protocols he had in place. He must have recorded everything that went into the compound. The recipe for the antidote.”

  Even if Embray hadn’t developed an antidote yet, if they had the recipe for the compound—so to speak—they could reverse engineer a way to neutralize it. At least it would give them a place to start.

  Link looked away, an expression falling over his face that drove daggers of panic through Amy’s chest. He looked defeated. Full of guilt.

  “What?” Her voice was hoarse.

  “It’s doubtful I’ll be able to access the mainframe.” His gaze gravitated to Mac. “You’re right. The NRO doesn’t value my services. Nor do they need me to control Dynamic Solutions anymore. They control the board. The minute you took me, I became expendable. If they followed the protocol the board recently approved, the moment they realized I was compromised they’d have wiped me from the mainframe. Voted me out of office. Poussey will step in as acting head.”

  Frozen silence gripped the room.

  Amy felt her lungs deflate.

  No. No.

  “You’re lying.” But Mac’s voice lacked certainty.

  Link shook his head. Scrubbed a hand down his face. “No. I’m not. It will be easy enough to prove.”

  “How?” Amy asked, her voice tight and breathless, fingers of panic squeezing her lungs.

  “If you have a computer handy, I can try to log into the mainframe.”

  “I’ve got one.” Mac rose to his feet beside her. He walked across the room and through the door to his bedroom. From over the waist-high walls she saw him grab a laptop off his bedside table. He carried it over, lifting his eyebrows when he caught her looking at it. “I took your advice and asked for one.”

  He set it on the table and pushed it toward Link. “Help yourself.”

  As Link opened the lid and started working the mouse pad, Mac directed a meaningful look at Rawls. “Doc, why don’t you give him a hand with that?”

  Translation: Watch him like a hawk and make sure he’s not playing us for fools.

  Rawls took the hint and scooted his chair over until it was right up against Link.

  After a few moments of silence while his fingers moved over the mouse pad, Link looked up. “I’m locked out.”

  Mac bounced a glance off Rawls, who confirmed the statement with a frown and nod. His lips tightening, Mac scowled across the table. “Try again.”

  Another few seconds of silence, followed by Link and Rawls grimly shaking their heads.

  “Again,” Mac snapped.

  Amy sat back, sliding down in her chair as though her bones didn’t have the strength to hold her upright. Defeat crawled through her. It didn’t matter how many times Link tried. If he was locked out, he wouldn’t be getting in. He wouldn’t be accessing the data. Her children wouldn’t be getting the antidote they so desperately needed.

  A numb disbelief swept over her.

  What was she going to do now?

  “How do we know you’re not using the wrong username or password?” Zane asked.

  “You don’t.” Link pushed the laptop away. “But I’m not lying about this. I’m not faking it. I want to cooperate with you. I want to help you in any way I can.”

  “You’re fucking NRO. What in the fuck makes you think we’d believe you?” Mac growled, surging to his feet and circling the room as if he simply couldn’t sit still any longer.

  Raising his head, Link looked Amy square in the face. “If there was anything . . . anything at all I could do for your boys, I would.”

  She unlocked her jaw. Forced herself up in her chair. “You must know something about this compound. Something, even the smallest thing. What they used?”

  If the doctors here could just get a toehold, something to build on . . .

  He shook his head.

  “Then Embray? If he developed it.”

  Link’s face seized around the most god-awful combination of regret and pain. “He can’t.” His voice caught. “He’s gone.”

  She’d been right. The two men had been friends.

  “What about Dynamic Solutions? Is there anyone in the company who could smuggle the information to you?”

  He frowned, shook his head. “The data is classified. There are only two of us who can access the data. Me and Sheldon Poussey. Sheldon is compromised. He’s NRO now.”

  Amy backe
d up, trying to look at the issue from another angle. “If we grabbed Poussey . . .”

  “He’d be wiped, unable to access the data.”

  In other words, they’d be in the same boat they were in now.

  “What about Eric Manheim?” Mac asked. He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. “He’d be able to get the information.”

  “Yes, he would. If you could find him. And if you could grab him.”

  It went without saying that they couldn’t use Link to get to Manheim. Amy searched her mind, desperate for some avenue to pursue. Another way to approach the problem. But nothing came to mind, and they were running out of time.

  “There must be something we can do,” Amy whispered. She needed to get back to Benji. But the thought of returning to her son’s bedside, only to watch him die . . .

  Link swallowed hard. His face was full of anguish. “I’ll answer any questions the doctors have, but I’m afraid nothing I say will make a difference. If I could go back, change what I did, I would. Unfortunately Dynamic Solutions has not developed a time machine yet.” He grimaced. “I don’t mean to be facetious. Really, I don’t. I deeply regret joining with Manheim and the others. I thought . . . I thought I shared their vision, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that I didn’t think things through clearly.” He paused, his face haunted. “Leonard was right. I should have listened. I wish I’d listened.”

  “What vision?” Cosky asked, leaning forward in his chair, his gaze sharpening with interest.

  Amy bit back a protest. Who cared about the group’s agenda? She needed to know about the compound. From Link’s answers to her questions, it was clear he didn’t know how to save Benji.

  “The NRO’s agenda is surprisingly pure. They want to save the planet along with the human race.”

  Eyes widened in disbelief.

  Link shrugged. “It’s true. At the current rate of human consumption, population explosion, and global warming, it will be a miracle if humankind still exists in two hundred years. Earth can’t continue to support humanity. Not when we are systematically circumventing the planet’s ability to support life. The NRO’s goal is to save Earth and prevent humanity from going extinct.”

  “How?” Amy asked, trying to reconcile what Link was telling them with actions she knew the NRO had taken.

  From what she’d seen so far, the NRO lacked the altruistic attitude James was painting. They’d killed John. They’d had her kidnapped and brutalized. If Mac and his men were right, they’d slaughtered the passengers of two airplanes and planned to slaughter all the passengers from a third. Plus, there was the kidnapping and murder of Faith’s scientific team. Everything she’d seen and heard indicated that these people were ruthless, murderous monsters.

  Link sighed. “By cleansing the planet of the bulk of its population.”

  Amy almost laughed. His explanation was so cartoonish, or maybe comic-book-villain-ish was more accurate. There was no way . . . no way anyone could seriously plan something so . . . diabolical.

  Except Link wasn’t laughing. Neither was Mac, nor Zane, nor anyone.

  “Faith’s new energy generator,” Zane said slowly.

  Link nodded. “The new energy generator accelerated the NRO’s agenda. Prior to its discovery, Manheim and the council were taking smaller but devastating steps to reduce the population. Sterilizing hundreds of remote villages in Africa, India, and China. Infecting people with various fatal diseases. The sudden explosion of cancer, for example . . .” He stopped to shake his head. “But the increase in births has overridden the decreases in population. Until the clean energy project, there was no way to easily clear off huge swaths of people without poisoning the land, air, and water.”

  “Until the clean energy device,” Rawls repeated slowly. “You’re saying they can use this device to clear the world of humanity?”

  “Yes. It’s been rewired. Rather than collecting energy and storing it, the new device will disperse a sonic vibration that will travel for hundreds of miles.” He shook his head again and closed his eyes as though he didn’t want to see his audience’s faces when he admitted to the rest of it. “It will kill every human being in its path.”

  “But that’s crazy,” Rawls said, his face slack with shock. “You say they’re all about saving the planet? If the device releases a sonic vibration that’s capable of killing people, it will kill any living creature in its path. Don’t they realize you can’t fuck with an ecosystem like that? A complete kill-off will affect everything. The lack of insects, bats, and birds will affect pollination. The lack of flies and beetles will affect decomposition.”

  “Of course they realize. For all their faults, they’re far from stupid,” Link said. “Keep in mind that water, air, and vegetation will not be affected. There will be no residual effect once the devices fall silent. The affected areas will eventually rejuvenate. New animals, insects, and birds will move in. The NRO already has labs set up to inseminate, grow, and repopulate animals and insects en masse. The surviving creatures will spread out; they’ll adapt. Earth will reshape itself.”

  Amy shifted uneasily in her chair. The crisis she found herself embroiled in was bigger than her and the boys. Much bigger. Even if she managed to get the antidote in time, what Link was talking about could easily kill them, along with everyone in this room.

  “How many devices would they need?” Cosky asked.

  “Thousands. But they are halfway there.”

  “Do you know where they’re producing them?” Zane rubbed a finger along the furrow above his eyes.

  “No.” Link leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “Coulson’s in charge of the devices, along with production and distribution.”

  “Coulson who?” Rawls asked.

  Link glanced around the table. “David Coulson, the head of Care-One Pharmaceuticals.”

  “We need to take this to Shadow Command.” Zane turned to Mac.

  “No shit.” Mac scowled. “What kind of time frame are we looking at? How soon can they produce enough of these devices and get them in place?”

  “They are aiming for January first. A new year . . . a new Earth.”

  “Sweet Jesus,” Rawls whispered. “That’s less than four months away.”

  “We know about it now. We can stop it.” Cosky laced his hands behind his head. “Piece of cake.”

  “Absolutely. What are we waiting for?” Rawls drawled.

  “What about Embray?” Amy asked. “I take it he didn’t agree with the direction the NRO wanted to take. Is that why they killed him?”

  “Lennie was horrified.” Link’s eyes went blank and his face pinched as though he was remembering something terrible. “He accused Manheim and Coulson of not wanting to save the world—but of trying to control it. To install themselves as dictators. To decide who lived and died.”

  “So they killed him.” Mac’s voice was grim.

  “No. Much worse.” Link swallowed hard. “They couldn’t control Dynamic Solutions if Lennie died. So they destroyed him instead. They injected him with a combination of drugs from David’s company, which caused an instant stroke. The stroke destroyed his brain stem. With Lennie alive but incapacitated, I stepped in to control the company. They immediately had me appoint NRO sympathizers to the board.”

  “Wait. Wait.” Amy jolted forward, energized again. Did I hear him right? “Embray is alive?”

  “If you call it living,” Link said tightly. “Lennie wouldn’t. He’s in an unresponsive coma. No neurological activity. He can’t answer your questions.”

  “He’s alive.” Amy turned to stare at Cosky. “Kait . . . if he’s in her thirty percent . . .”

  Bodies straightened and eyes sharpened as the possibility made its way around the table. If Kait could heal Embray and he still remembered the science behind the tracking isotope, there was a good chance he could create an antidote.

  “Where’s Embray?” Mac braced his arms on the table. “What kind of security does he have?”


  Link looked puzzled. He glanced among the men at the table, his gaze finally settling on Amy. “He has no security. Why would he need it? He’s unable to answer questions. He’s in a coma. He’s got round-the-clock nurses and a doctor on the premises. That’s all that’s necessary.”

  “Where is he?” Mac repeated, his voice hard.

  With a shake of his head, Link looked even more baffled. “I had him moved to Wilkes Island, Dynamic Solutions’ retreat, a week ago. It’s private. Remote. He used to love it there.”

  If Kait could heal him . . . Amy swallowed hard, the rise of hope so sudden it was almost painful.

  Maybe her boys had a chance after all.

  Chapter Sixteen

  SLOUCHED IN ONE of the jet’s huge padded-leather seats, Wolf stared unseeing out the small window next to his head. They’d sent the big bird to collect him. The Citation Latitude. She was Shadow Mountain’s most recent baby, and a treasured one at that. Capable of cruising in excess of eight hundred klicks an hour and more than five thousand klicks on a single tank of fuel—she was a wonder of aeronautical engineering and craftsmanship.

  The fact that they’d sent her, rather than any of the other birds they had to choose from—planes that would have accomplished the same thing just in more time, like the jet he’d flown down on—well, it spoke of Neniiseti’s urgency. The need to have Wolf on base . . . now.

  With Jude lost to them, Wolf was the elder of the Eagle Clan. He would lead the death prayers and the recall ceremony. He would tie new warriors to the mental web as well as excise those who wished to leave it. He would take up Eagle Clan chieftain tasks and leave the warlording behind . . . for the most part.

  A necessity that did not sit well with him. Not well at all.

  Jude had been the Eagle Clan chieftain. To fill his wo’ohno . . . Grief swelled, followed by a surge of rage. He pushed both down deep and held them there. It was not the time for such emotions.

  It felt odd to be returning on the Citation. Black Hawks or the new experimental Shadow Eagles were more his thing. Machines for a warrior.

  You are no longer a warrior. Best get used to traveling in style.