Destiny

by A D Starrling

  Lucas and Conrad followed slowly in her wake, bodies doubled over and hands clutching at the tarmac to stop themselves being pushed backward.

  The air shimmered around them when the forces pounding them intensified.

  Lucas tumbled. Conrad reached out and grabbed his wrist as he rolled past him, his other hand clasped in a white-knuckled grip around his staff weapon. He’d wedged the double-ended spear into a crack in the asphalt.

  Metal groaned ominously behind them. Lucas glanced wildly over his shoulder.

  The plane was sliding across the tarmac, tires leaving black rubber marks on the ground.

  ‘You’d better stop him!’ Reid yelled from where he lay face down.

  Lucas looked ahead just as a second violent force swept over them. The air trembled around Alexa, her own power escalating as she battled the storm and moved resolutely toward Ethan.

  She had gotten within a couple of feet of him when he suddenly blinked.

  Lucas gasped as the elemental forces washing across them subsided without warning. He climbed unsteadily to his feet, his heart thundering against his ribs. A choked cry brought his head up.

  Ethan had sagged to his knees, a tortured expression on his face. Rasps left his lips as he fought for air, fingers clutching desperately at his throat.

  ‘Ethan!’ Alexa dropped to the ground next to him.

  The Elemental collapsed in her arms and started convulsing.

  Chapter Twelve

  Olivia blinked. The interior ceiling panel of the jet swam into view above her. She inhaled sharply and bolted upright. Fire stabbed through her head at the sudden movement. She groaned and clutched her temples.

  ‘Easy,’ Asgard said next to her.

  Olivia winced as she registered the throbbing pain in her jaw and limbs. She looked around and saw the others watching her carefully from across the cabin.

  Flashes of memory washed through her. She drew another sharp breath.

  She couldn’t remember the exact details of what she had done in the plane; she just knew that she had lost control of her powers somehow. That something terrible had happened was evident from the state of the jet’s interior and her companions’ guarded expressions.

  The only thing she recalled with startling clarity was what she had seen in her mind’s eye during those moments. She had lived what Tomas and Lily had been going through, wherever they were. And what they had endured made her sick to the very pit of her stomach.

  Deep inside the marrow of her soul, Olivia detected a distant resonance across her connection with Ethan. The same distress she had experienced echoed inside her soulmate. She knew instantly that he had lived through the same thing.

  She swung her legs off the couch and bit her lip.

  ‘How long was I out?’ she said shakily.

  ‘Half an hour, give or take.’ Madeleine handed her a drink of water.

  Olivia swallowed it greedily, surprised to find her throat so parched. She clutched the empty glass in her hands after she finished drinking and stared at the floor, unable to meet their eyes for fear of what hers would reveal.

  ‘Who’s flying the plane?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s on autopilot,’ Asgard said quietly.

  Anna crossed the aisle and moved to the couch. She dropped to her knees in front of Olivia, took the glass off her, and gripped her fingers in her own, forcing her to meet her gaze.

  ‘What did you see?’ she said, her tone resolute.

  Olivia clenched her jaw. She didn’t even know where to start.

  ‘Tell us,’ Anna beseeched.

  Olivia studied the expectant look on her face and the faces of the others before closing her eyes, the agony of what she had experienced still echoing inside her.

  Anna’s green gaze bore into hers when she opened them once more.

  ‘Please.’

  Olivia took a deep breath. Though she hated what she was about to do with every fiber of her being, she knew she couldn’t hide the truth from them.

  She clasped Anna’s hands tightly and started to talk in a low voice. Tears rolled unbidden down her cheeks as she related everything she had seen during those ungodly minutes.

  Anger darkened the others’ faces. Asgard swore, his knuckles whitening on the leather backrest of a chair. Anna stared at her unblinkingly, her face dull with shock.

  ‘They gassed them?’ she whispered in the stunned silence that followed Olivia’s revelation, disbelief underscoring her voice. ‘They gassed my children?’

  Olivia put her arms around her cousin and hugged her silently, unable to say more.

  A cry of despair left Anna’s lips and echoed around the interior of the aircraft. She started to sob, her hands clawing at Olivia’s back in her grief.

  Olivia tightened her hold and weathered the storm, her heart breaking all over again as her cousin’s tears soaked into her neck and hair.

  Lucas roared and punched the cabin wall. Reid put a hand on his shoulder, a muscle jumping in his jawline.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Ethan whispered. He sat on the couch, his hands shaking around the bottle of water Conrad had given him.

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ Alexa said, her voice icy with anger.

  Blood pounded furiously inside Lucas’s head. Although he wanted to disbelieve every single word Ethan had narrated since he’d woken up, he knew it was the truth.

  Agony pierced his heart at what his children had suffered. From what Ethan had told them, it was because his soulmate had lived what Tomas and Lily had gone through that he had also experienced it. Which meant Anna knew what had happened.

  ‘Can you tell us anything about the people they were with?’ Conrad said quietly.

  Ethan hesitated, the color slowly returning to his face.

  ‘The men Tomas and Lily fought were super soldiers.’

  Lucas froze, surprise dampening his rage.

  ‘What?’ Alexa said in a deadly tone.

  Lucas stared at Ethan. ‘Are you sure?’

  Ethan nodded. ‘Yes. I’m certain Olivia will agree. Those men looked and acted like the guys we fought in Yuma four years ago.’

  ‘But—’ Conrad started.

  ‘Jonah Krondike died in that explosion,’ Alexa interrupted sharply. ‘The super soldier program he was spearheading was dismantled and the US Army Group working with him disbanded.’

  A dozen questions filled Lucas’s mind as he gazed at his cousin. ‘Victor and Westwood assured us they’d destroyed all the research data.’

  ‘I’m not denying that,’ Ethan said. ‘But I know what I—’ he grimaced, ‘—saw, earlier. Those were super soldiers.’ A flicker of admiration darted across his face as he studied Lucas. ‘And if it wasn’t for the gas they used on them, your kids would have kicked their asses.’

  Lucas blinked. ‘They would?’

  Ethan nodded grimly. ‘Tomas and Lily went down fighting. In fact, I don’t think they’ve stopped fighting and protecting one another since they were taken from the island.’

  A fierce feeling of pride swept over Lucas despite the torment still coursing through him. He swallowed convulsively.

  ‘Did you see anything else?’ Alexa said. ‘Something we could use to find their whereabouts?’

  Ethan narrowed his eyes. ‘Olivia has a name and a face.’

  ‘Jessica Wu,’ Olivia said in a hard voice. ‘She’s of East Asian descent. She had a lab coat on in the brief glimpse I caught of her, so I presume she’s one of the scientists working with the super soldiers.’

  Lucas and Victor frowned on the computer screen. They were on video call with the Bastian headquarters and the others’ jet in Maryland.

  ‘How did your visit to Dresden go?’ Asgard asked Victor stiffly.

  The vision from earlier still resonated inside Olivia. She knew how much Asgard had suffered at the hands of Jonah Krondike and his scientists when they had had him confined in the godforsaken facility where they had been experimenting on the Immortals they’d imprisoned over the d
ecades, including Madeleine’s father. Olivia had been subjected to their cruelty herself when they had held her captive for the short time she was at Yuma.

  The fact that the same thing was happening to Tomas and Lily evoked an ice-cold fury deep in her soul, fury she could see reflected in Asgard’s eyes.

  Even if it cost them their lives, they would make the people hurting Lily and Tomas pay for their sins.

  ‘Vlašic seemed genuinely surprised by what I told him,’ the Bastian leader replied, his expression thoughtful. ‘He’s either an exceptional liar or he truly has no idea about any of this.’

  ‘We’ll get Howard and Jordan working on Wu’s identity,’ Alexa said. ‘As for the 9mm cartridge we brought to Maryland, we’re waiting to hear back from—’

  Another call came through the onboard computer.

  Zachary straightened in his seat. ‘It’s Anatole.’

  He tapped a couple of keys. The red-haired Immortal appeared framed inside another window.

  ‘Hey,’ he said in a clipped tone. ‘I’m on my way back to LA. Princeville was a dead end. The owners of the airport were sold a story about how all of this was some kind of hush-hush military op. Our guys in the Black Hawks paid them in cash.’

  ‘What about the Cessna?’ Asgard said.

  ‘The tail number was fake.’ A muscle jumped in Anatole’s cheek. ‘I already checked.’

  ‘Damn it!’ Asgard muttered.

  ‘Is Eva still working on the satellite images?’ Victor said.

  Alexa nodded. ‘Yes. She hasn’t got any fresh leads yet.’

  Silence descended across the connections.

  ‘We’re back to square one,’ Lucas said, frustration evident in the lines of his face.

  Anna’s hands fisted where she stood next to Olivia.

  ‘We still have the bodies to examine,’ Madeleine said. ‘We may get some answers—’

  A cell trilled somewhere in the background of the Maryland video call.

  Behind Lucas and Alexa, Conrad slipped his phone out of the rear pocket of his chinos.

  ‘Hang on. This is Connelly.’ He answered and spoke in a low murmur for a moment. He stiffened and stopped talking. His eyes slowly widened, excitement shimmering in the blue depths. ‘Sarah, can I transfer you to video call?’

  Olivia’s pulse sped up when he gave his phone to Alexa.

  ‘You’re gonna want to hear this,’ Conrad told them grimly.

  Alexa touched some keys on their onboard computer and flicked a finger across the cell screen.

  Sarah Connelly appeared on the monitor. She was pacing the floor in front of her desk, Capitol Hill visible through the sun-dappled trees framed by the window behind her.

  She stopped and scanned their faces. ‘Hi, Victor.’

  ‘Hey, Sarah,’ Victor murmured.

  ‘Like I was saying to Conrad, it looks like we may have another rogue section in Special Operations Command.’ She ran a hand through her hair and sighed, her expression tired. ‘I fear this one is deep, way deeper than the group who got their hands dirty at Yuma.’

  ‘Tell them what you found at Barking Sands,’ Conrad urged.

  Connelly lowered herself into her chair and leaned her elbows on the table. ‘The commander of the base was informed that a classified op was taking place in the Pacific two nights ago. He received an order to give tarmac access to the C-17 twelve hours before the aircraft’s ETA. All he could give me was a list of names.’

  Lucas startled. He leaned toward the monitor at their end, a muscle jumping in his jawline. ‘Who?’

  Connelly grimaced. ‘They were all fake. They looked convincing enough when he checked them on the army database, as did the chain of command. Someone with exceedingly good hacking skills set those dummy profiles up. I’m waiting to hear back from the DoD about the security breach. They were completely unaware of it.’

  ‘So it’s a dead lead?’ Asgard said.

  Connelly’s lips curved into a smile. ‘I’d have hoped you people would have more faith in me from the last time we worked together. I am the Director of US National Intelligence.’ Her eyes glittered with a steely light. ‘The email communications that came to the commander of the base all originated from the same encrypted server. It took a while to crack the code and trace the sender’s address. They all came from the office of one Rodney Miller. Miller is a four-star general in SOCOM and a former West Point graduate.’ She arched an eyebrow. ‘Remember who else was a four-star general and West Point valedictorian?’

  Olivia inhaled sharply. ‘William Gunnerson. The man in charge of the US Army Group helping Jonah Krondike with his super soldier program.’

  ‘Bingo,’ Connelly said coldly. ‘It seems Gunnerson was just the tip of the iceberg. Like I said, this group is deep. I’m beginning to wonder if it might even be the primary one, with Gunnerson’s section acting as cover in case things went south, like they did at Yuma. No one in the DoD has been able to tell me much about the specifics of Miller’s activities or even his exact whereabouts right now. According to his PA, he’s on leave and is not to be disturbed. As you can imagine, that went down well when I spoke to the Secretary of Defense just now.’ She frowned. ‘Miller appears to have powerful friends on Capitol Hill. Friends who would rather I leave him be.’

  ‘Let me guess,’ Conrad said acerbically. ‘Friends with interests in the military industry?’

  ‘Yes.’ Connelly’s gaze shifted across her monitor. ‘Conrad mentioned super soldiers to me just now. How certain are you people that they are really involved in this?’

  Asgard glanced at Olivia. ‘We’re pretty confident.’

  She nodded her agreement.

  Connelly chewed her lip for a moment. ‘Victor, assume you’ve got the green light for now. I’ll speak to James and confirm with you in the next hour. I’m sure he’ll agree with my decision.’ She drummed her fingers on the desk, her expression preoccupied. ‘We’re gonna want our people on this too, though.’

  ‘Green light?’ Asgard repeated, nonplussed.

  Connelly pulled a face. ‘It means we’re leaving this in your hands for the time being. To do—’ she waved a hand vaguely in the air, ‘—you know, your thing. That Immortal stuff. Just keep it discreet.’ She rose, leaned toward the screen, and leveled a threatening stare at them. ‘And no sea of dead bodies please. We had a shit time explaining Yuma.’

  Chapter Thirteen

  Laura groaned and lowered herself into a chair. ‘I swear this kid’s having a house party on my bladder.’

  ‘Ah-huh,’ Howard said distractedly.

  His fingers flew over the keyboard of the laptop in front of him; he was studying the data his team of hackers had sent him that morning.

  Sunlight sparkled on the limpid infinity pool outside the kitchen and streamed through the glass wall of the mansion, casting the room in brightness. It was midday in Santa Monica.

  ‘Your lack of sympathy warms the cockles of my heart,’ Laura said acerbically. She picked up her chicken burrito, bit into it, and threw a couple of chunks to the two dogs underneath the table.

  ‘Sure,’ Howard muttered. ‘No problem.’ He grabbed a slice of garlic bread from his plate and shoved it in his mouth. Crumbs peppered his five-hundred-dollar D&G T-shirt.

  The cat on his lap opened an eye lazily, cleaned the specks from its fur, and went back to sleep.

  Laura chewed and swallowed before glancing at the butler and the housekeeper. ‘Is he always like this?’

  ‘Mr. Titus gets quite—absorbed when he’s working on a project,’ Bernard murmured diplomatically from where he stood cleaning his Beretta at the marble island in the middle of the pale, stone floor.

  ‘You mean does he turn into a Neanderthal who can just about grunt?’ Rosa flipped a tortilla and frowned when a dollop of tomato sauce joined the breadcrumbs on Howard’s shirt. ‘Christ, I can’t believe he made the list of most-wanted bachelors again. If only those women could see him now.’

  Laura chuckled. S
he and Conrad rarely came to Santa Monica to visit his cousins. As such, she’d not spent much time in Rosa and Bernard’s company. She was starting to really like the two Immortals.

  She had finished her lunch and was sipping her virgin Mojito when Howard suddenly swore. Tension shot through her as she watched his hands freeze on the keyboard and the blood drain from his face. Rosa and Bernard stilled on the other side of the island.

  ‘What is it?’ Laura said.

  Howard glanced at her dazedly. ‘I think I know how they found the island.’

  He ignored their questioning looks, tapped some keys, and grabbed his cell. He ran a hand through his disheveled hair and speed-dialed a number.

  He stiffened when it connected. ‘Jordan? Can you and Eva take a look at the data I just sent you?’

  Howard drummed his fingers on the table while he waited. He froze a moment later. ‘Tell me I’m wrong.’ He listened before closing his eyes briefly, his expression grim. ‘Yeah, I know,’ he said in a hard voice. ‘I doubt he’s behind this too. Which means he doesn’t know he’s being tracked.’

  Lily came to slowly. She was lying on her side on a cot. She blinked and pushed herself up into a sitting position. A queasy feeling swept over her. She swallowed convulsively before looking around.

  She was back in her cell.

  The memory of what had happened in the white room rushed through her. Her stomach clenched.

  Tomas?

  Fear turned her body cold when he didn’t reply. She scrambled to the edge of the bed and frantically sought out his consciousness, panic turning her mouth to ash.

  Tomas!

  I’m—I’m here, Lily.

  Her shoulders drooped at the sound of his distant voice. She closed her eyes briefly, her heart thundering in her chest. Concern replaced her relief when she registered his fuzzy consciousness and the red aura of pain clouding it. He’d just woken up too.

  Are you hurt?

  Tomas hesitated. A little bit. My head feels like it’s gonna explode. You?