License to Love (An Agent Ex Novel)

by Robinson, Gina

  “Who’s on board?” Tate had his gun aimed at the pilot.

  Trust no one. For all they knew this could be a double-cross. A plot to lure more soldiers onto the plane to meet their deaths.

  “No one. My passengers bailed over the desert.”

  What? Lani’s heart stopped. How had they missed that? She had to contact Ty and Rock immediately.

  As she reached for her cell phone to contact Ty, a movement on the screen monitoring the illusion caught her attention. Lani frowned and paused with the phone in her hand.

  “What in the world is Ty doing?” Lani whispered to herself, heart pounding as she watched the hovercraft carrying Rock and Ty fly erratically, as if Ty was drunk at the helm. It bounced around so much she lost visual contact with Rock and Ty.

  She hit a switch in front of her and called engineering. “Something’s wrong with craft one. Take control—”

  An explosion rocked the screen where just a second before the plane from Vegas had arrived. The plane was completely engulfed in flames and sirens were going off. She couldn’t see Tate in the mayhem.

  As Lani pulled up Tate’s number to call him, Ty’s hovercraft exploded before her on the other screen, turning into a great fireball.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  An aerial acrobat, Rock was not. He jumped, tucked, and rolled right onto the hardest patch of ground in the entire desert. Or so it felt. He knocked his head pretty good against a boulder, too, as he came to a full and complete stop with a mouthful of dust. Damn, rocky landscape. He had to work on sticking his landing next time. He spat the dirt out and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

  Ty, however, had made a perfect stuntman landing next to him, and rolled to his feet while Rock was still struggling to catch his breath.

  An explosion nearby nearly blinded Rock and sent his ears back to ringing mode. Next to him, Ty shielded his eyes with his arm.

  Rock’s first thought was that the bomb had blown up the hovercraft. But as his eyes adjusted to the dark again and his night-vision goggles kicked in, bits of shrapnel rained down on him, and Rock realized the bomb had exploded in midair.

  “Damn, they missed it. Great job, man.” Rock punched the air and bounced to his feet.

  Ten feet from them the hovercraft wobbled and floated unmanned, looking precariously close to crashing.

  “Damn is right. RIOT doesn’t miss. They exploded that bomb on purpose. Don’t you see? They want the hovercraft. It’s experimental and top secret. I’m sure we’re guinea pigs for the boys at Dreamland who are probably testing it out in a real-time environment—our mission.

  “Unless I miss my guess, which I don’t, it’s what RIOT’s been after all along. Or part of what they want, anyway. A bonus, maybe.” Ty shook his head and stared at the craft. “Shit! If we wreck that vehicle, we’re toast. Come on, we’re gonna take our ship back, dude.

  “Get your weapons ready, set your wand gun to kill, and watch your back. RIOT will be coming after us with everything they’ve got.” Ty took off at a run for the hovercraft.

  Rock pulled his wand gun from his pocket, and took the safety off. He took out his thumb gun and his spy ring and pounded after him.

  Ty, with his washboard surfing-dude abs, was in shape and faster than Rock. The surfing spy dude pulled away from Rock and in no time was hanging on the edge of the hovercraft, trying to pull himself aboard.

  Unfortunately, two intruders in night camo beat Ty to the hovercraft by seconds. They tossed themselves over the edge with athletic ease and into the craft just ahead of Ty. One of them was a big, burly brute holding an automatic pistol that he aimed at Ty’s head.

  “Shit!” Rock had to do something. As he ran, he took aim with his thumb gun, praying for a little accuracy. The closer he was to the target, the better his chances of hitting him.

  Ever tried to aim your thumb while running, and shoot for accuracy without using a site when there was absolutely no time for hesitation?

  As Rock took aim, a red laser beam spotted the kill zone on the intruder. Yes! Will was on the job, backing them up.

  Seeing himself marked for death, the intruder froze. Rock ran, pointed, and shot just as the intruder ducked.

  The shot went wide and missed his intended target. Back to the thumb gun practice range for him. Next time he was going to ask for a bomb-piercing bullet. Fortunately, his shot pinged off something in the hovercraft, startling the other RIOT thug, giving Ty time to let go of the craft and roll for cover. The CIA would just have to forgive Rock for the hole he may have put in their vehicle.

  Ty came up shooting, but the hovercraft, which could move in any direction—front or back or sideways—leaped into warp speed, as Ty had jokingly called it, and feinted sideways. Warp speed wasn’t really the speed of light. But it was a hell of a lot faster than Rock could run.

  Behind them in the desert, the NUFO crowd had temporarily paused when the bomb went off. Good plan on RIOT’s part to create a real panic. The crowd recovered and raced full bore toward them.

  “Cows! Where are the damn cows we requested?” Ty was on his feet yelling into his mouthpiece.

  On cue, a herd of cattle, which had been penned nearby waiting for their stage call, suddenly stampeded out of a cattle shoot, cutting the crowd of vehicles off from the spies and the hovercrafts, creating mayhem worthy of a Western movie. In seconds, Ty and Rock were surrounded by worked-up bovine.

  Cows, dust, aliens, lasers, hovercrafts. It was like a scene out of Cowboys & Aliens.

  Rock pulled off his spent one-shot thumb gun and stuffed it into his pocket. Now, armed only with flash powder, a poison spy ring that required close range to kill, and his six-shooter wand gun, Rock felt decidedly outgunned. Next time he was going to demand a rocket-launching magic hat.

  Rock was not a rancher, not a cattle person at all. He had no idea how to handle a confused mass of Daisy the cows. Were these milk cows or meat on the hoof?

  He just stood there a second in the midst of the mooing madness, trying not to further upset the cattle or turn them against him, too.

  The confiscated hovercraft had halted and was hovering on the edge of the cow crowd. Damn, it’s looking for us.

  In all the madness, Rock had temporarily lost visual contact with Ty as the herd swallowed him up.

  “We need hovercrafts,” Ty said into his mouthpiece, nearly being drowned out by mooing.

  Good. Ty hasn’t been trampled to death.

  A movement a few cows away caught Rock’s eye. Ty was commandeering a cow and climbing aboard with surprising confidence. Ty threw his leg over the cow and seated himself, somehow managing, while riding bareback, to hang on as it bucked and kicked like it thought it was a rodeo star. As Rock watched, Ty actually managed to point his bovine steed toward Area 51.

  Impressive. Ride ’em, cowboy!

  “You’re never going to catch a hovercraft on a cow,” Rock replied.

  “Cattle can travel faster than horses in the short run. Until we get some wheels, do you have a better idea?” Ty’s words were nearly drowned out by the earsplitting mooing and the sounds of pounding hooves. Not to mention the new round of alien signals and music emanating from the NUFO crowd.

  “What the hell has the crowd so worked up again?” Rock asked.

  “You mean besides the bomb exploding?” Ty said.

  Rock glanced up to see an alien warrior rising out of the hovercraft.

  Ty saw it at the same time. “Shit!” they said into their mouthpieces in unison as it became clearer what the game was. RIOT had taken control of Rock’s illusion and it was obvious they were intent on further panicking the crowd. “Where the hell did that thing come from?”

  RIOT’s alien was a scarier, less sexy version of Rock’s. It had Sol’s nasty, copycatting stamp all over it. Worse, it carried an ugly, impressive, highly lethal-looking weapon, holding it threateningly. Which explained the NUFOs’ sudden urge to communicate with the aliens. They were trying to convince it they were fr
iendly. We come in peace.

  Good luck with that, Rock thought.

  Unfortunately, the NUFO music was not calming the savage, or even domesticated, beast. The NUFO calls intended to make contact with aliens only upset the cattle more. Rock didn’t think the music was that bad.

  Ty cursed some more, a jolted, choppy sort of cursing made so by his bucking bovine steed. “Like dogs, cattle can hear higher frequencies than we can. The NUFOs must be broadcasting high-frequency sound waves. We have to get out of this herd before the cattle go crazy and trample us to death.”

  Death by alien, RIOT, or cattle. Not good choices.

  Rock yelled into his mouthpiece. “Will, Zach, Jake, forget the illusion. Get over here with your hovercrafts and pick us up. Now.”

  Ty was yelling more commands, trying to reach HQ inside Area 51. His calls went unanswered. “Damn, RIOT must somehow be jamming our signals from inside Area 51. We’re on our own, boys.” He sounded breathless as he rode his bucking cow. “Hey, bossie, bossie, calm down, girl.”

  “We’ve already dropped Jake at the gates,” Will answered.

  Zach cut in. “We’re still being remotely controlled from inside Area 51. They’re sending us through our preapproved illusion pattern. Give me a sec. I’m trying to wrestle control away and switch to manual operation.”

  “Can you do that?” Rock asked. “Do you know how?”

  “I don’t just play games. I have an engineering degree from MIT,” Zach said. “I’ll give it all I’ve got, Captain.”

  Rock rolled his eyes as the cow next to him cuddled up to him and began making eyes at him. He didn’t know what she suddenly saw in him, but it appeared to be love at first sight. “Nice, girl.” Rock reached out, cautiously, and stroked her forehead.

  She let out a loud moo, but at least it sounded happy.

  “Sounds like you have a new friend. Where are you guys?” Will said. “Your GPS is down and I can’t see you in the dust and dark. Can you give us a signal?”

  Rock had magic up his sleeve in preparation for the big reveal. Hell, he always had magic up his sleeve. But once he shot a sparkling flare up and gave away their location, RIOT would be after them again, too. Under the cover of cow, they’d been fairly safe. “We’re less than a mile from the gates on the Area 51 side of the stampede.

  “As soon as Zach gets control of your crafts, let me know and I’ll send up a flare. And when I do, you two get your butts over here as fast as if you’d just been teleported. RIOT is looking for us, too. You better believe they’ll see the flare and come firing.”

  “Roger,” Will said.

  An eternity seemed to pass while the cow next to Rock continued to make eyes at him and the cow on the other side let loose a large, unpleasant-smelling cow pie. Rock dodged out of the way just in time to save his shoes. Meanwhile, Ty had his cow under control and was maneuvering her to the edge of the crowd to make a dash for Dreamland. Rock hoped Ty had some badass weaponry on him, something more powerful than a six-shooter wand.

  “Got it, boss!” Zach’s voice rang with excitement. “We have control.”

  “But do you know how to drive?” Rock replied.

  “I’ve played video games all my life. Piece of cake,” Zach said.

  “Will?”

  “I’m no slouch, either,” Will said. “Send up the signal and be prepared to board ship when we hover above you.”

  “Here goes nothing.” Rock shot a sparkling flare straight up into the dust cloud above them. The flare startled his new friend Daisy the cow. She kicked and let out a loud moo, sending Rock back a step into that fresh, steaming cow pie her buddy had made minutes before.

  He was still cursing and wiping his shoe in the sparse desert grass as a shot whizzed past him.

  The hovercrafts had a low noise signature, which was part of the genius of using them for the illusion. Unfortunately, that meant Rock and Ty couldn’t hear a now enemy-controlled one coming after them. Or hear the friendly ones approach.

  Rock ducked back into the herd of cattle, trying not to get kicked or trampled. The cattle had seemed to realize he was the source of that frightening flare and now they didn’t trust him. They gave him a wide berth. Even Daisy turned her back on him, leaving Rock in the open like a sitting cow thief as the lynch mob approached.

  Ty had reached the edge of the herd. Will’s hovercraft spotted him and swooped in to pluck him off his somewhat trusty steed. By hovering ten feet off the ground, the crafts were high enough to cruise above the cattle. The engineers had warned them not to hover at that height too long. It was a strain on the fans and engines.

  The fans blew stiff breezes below the craft, providing the cushion of air the hoverers floated on. The cattle didn’t like the late-night burst of wind and quickly cleared a path beneath the crafts. Ty’s cow didn’t like the wind from the fans any better than the rest of the herd did. As Will leaned over to grab Ty, and Ty pushed himself to a stand on the cow’s back to pull himself into the craft, the cow bolted from beneath his feet. Ty dangled from the vehicle as bullets whizzed past him.

  Off balance, the craft tipped precariously to the left. Zach pulled up in his craft on their flank. Ty shouted at him to rescue Rock. Zach ignored the orders and came around in his craft to give Ty a boost into Will’s vehicle.

  Meanwhile, Rock was surrounded by cow dung and the equally unpleasant odor of sweating cattle. Those were not the worst of his problems, however. Now that the cows had abandoned him, the commandeered hovercraft had spotted him and was headed directly at him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  It was utter mayhem on the tarmac—fire, gunfire, fire engines, smoke. Area 51 had been breached and was going into lockdown. Lani couldn’t reach either Tate or Tal. And she’d lost contact with the magic crew and Ty on the outside, too.

  But she still had a visual on the main craft. To her great surprise, Rock’s hovercraft had not exploded. Instead, it was now being piloted by Sol dressed as an alien king and his RIOT henchman.

  A flicker of hope crashed through her—where were Rock and Tate? Was it possible they were still alive? Had they somehow managed to escape?

  The crowd of NUFOs was in full panic mode now as Sol made threatening gestures, almost taunting them.

  It was clear to Lani that RIOT had taken control of the illusion, twisting it to fit Sol’s warped sense of magic, and was intent on driving the NUFOs into Area 51, causing more mayhem while RIOT stole the developmental hovercraft and whatever else they could cart out of Dreamland.

  Lani studied the feed with a trained eye, putting herself in professional spy mode to hold her emotions at bay. There was no sign of Rock or Tate. At least she hadn’t seen their bodies. Yet.

  A message from engineering cut into her thoughts. “We have a problem. We’ve lost control of the hovercrafts. They’ve somehow been switched to manual and gone rogue.”

  The video feeds from the two auxiliary hovercrafts had been cut off. Lani couldn’t bring up their cameras. “Looks like we’ve lost them, too. Do what you can to regain control.”

  There was only one thing to do—take back control of the illusion and stop the panicked hordes from storming past the point of no return. Already camo dudes were massing at the entrance, aided this time by soldiers with battle experience under their belts. If Lani didn’t act, innocent people would die, and more damage done to intelligence and national security matters. She had to perform the reveal. And trust Jack and his crew to rescue her baby and Nanny.

  She got on her mouthpiece. “I’m going out to end this illusion. I need backup.”

  She grabbed a rocket launcher and headed out.

  * * *

  Ty toppled into the craft and Zach headed out for Rock. Zach had the advantage of being closer to Rock than the enemy hovercraft. And all that high-performance video game driving paid off. Zach zipped in, hovered above Daisy, and threw Rock a rope. Yes, a rope. Low tech, but efficient. Since junior high PE Rock had been a ropeclimbing champ.


  He scrambled up the rope and fell into the hovercraft with Zach just as the enemy craft got close enough to see the enemy’s eyes.

  “Rock, how thoughtful of you to show up at another one of my performances.” Beneath the creepy alien costume, Sol’s eyes gleamed with malice in the moonlight. “Not planning to upstage me again, I hope.”

  “Really, Sol? Stealing another of my illusions? Originality isn’t your strong suit.” Rock pointed his wand gun at the evil magician. “Now, you’re standing in something that’s mine and I’d like it back. If you’d kindly exit the vehicle, we can do this all without bloodshed.”

  Sol’s laugh was positively bloodcurdlingly maniacal. He was obviously off his mind and out for revenge. “Make me, Rock. What’s your plan, exactly? Are you going to hit me with the death curse?”

  Rock smiled back, trying to keep his anger under control. “You know I don’t believe in real magic. I have a reputation as a debunker to maintain. Now, don’t make me shoot you. Jump out and take your goon with you.”

  Around them, the cattle were lowing and spreading out into the desert. And the NUFOs were winding their way through the herd on foot and in a slow-moving menagerie of vehicles. Rock could only imagine what the NUFO crowd must think of a magician holding an alien at bay with a wand. The cows didn’t look too thrilled about it, either.

  Rock had to get to the gates and head off the NUFOs with the big illusion reveal before the NUFOs crossed the line and someone got killed. He had to trust NCS to save Stone at the same time. But first Rock had to dispatch Sol.

  Rock whispered to Zach. “Get me close enough that I can jump on that hovercraft. Then take out the thug and let me deal with Sol.”

  “Come and get me, Rock.” Sol hit a button and his alien helmet lit up, emitting a blinding light show directly into Rock’s eyes. At the same time, he pointed a laser saber at Rock.

  Damn it! Rock pulled the wand gun trigger and fired into the light just as Sol’s craft surged forward and rammed into them.

  Sol let out a scream. For an instant, Rock thought he’d delivered a fatal shot. The laser saber dropped and Rock could sort of see again through the spots in his vision. Sol was holding his arm and cursing.