‘What do they do?’ Jordan asked, aghast.
‘They likely use neuromodulation and neural augmentation to keep the soldiers’ biological systems stable,’ Anna said. ‘I suspect the nanorobots incorporated into their bodies at the cellular level can also repair damaged tissues at an accelerated pace.’
‘From Wu’s neuropsychology data, these implants control the super soldiers’ free will and emotions, as well as their ability to feel pain,’ Madeleine added. ‘Not only that, it probably enables them to function beyond the physical limits of their bodies.’
Jordan opened and closed his mouth soundlessly for a moment. ‘So you’re saying these guys are like—cyborgs? Mindless drones with advanced regeneration and combat skills who do the bidding of their masters?’
Madeleine nodded. ‘Yes. The perfect super soldier.’
‘Dr. Godard, Dr. Black, I have just cleaned the last file on Dr. Wu’s hard drive. You need to take a look at this straight away,’ Eva said.
Anna scanned the fresh information Eva had put up on one of the monitors. Her breath hitched in her throat.
‘Shit,’ Jordan said. ‘Even I understand that!’
‘Eva, where are they right now?’ Madeleine asked urgently.
‘They should have arrived in Nevada twenty minutes ago.’
Anna’s nails dug into her palms. ‘Call them!’
Chapter Twenty-Five
Major Steve Reynolds narrowed his eyes at Ethan when he exited the jet. ‘You! I should have known it was gonna be you.’
Ethan acknowledged the scowling Ranger on the tarmac with a smile. ‘Hey, Steve. Long time no see.’
‘Don’t “Hey, Steve” me!’ Reynolds snapped. ‘And it’s Major Reynolds to you.’ He looked suspiciously past Ethan’s shoulder. ‘Where’s the guy with the gigantic sword?’
‘On his way to Mongolia. I brought some other, er, friends.’ Ethan indicated the group exiting the aircraft behind him.
‘Hey,’ Lucas murmured.
He dipped his chin at Reynolds and the two-hundred-strong troop of curious Rangers standing in the shadow of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy parked fifty feet away. Alexa, Conrad, Reid, and Anatole followed in his steps.
Reynolds studied them warily. ‘Are you all, you know—?’ He grimaced and cocked his head toward Ethan.
‘I’m nearly one hundred per cent human,’ Reid said drily.
Reynolds turned to Ethan. ‘What does he mean, “nearly?”’
‘He may have received some Immortal blood in the past and could possibly be a super human,’ Ethan said, deadpan.
Reynolds narrowed his eyes.
‘I’m normal,’ Anatole said.
Reynolds snorted. ‘You don’t look normal!’
‘That offends me deeply,’ Anatole said. ‘And, okay, so I may be a tiny bit Immortal too. But a normal one.’
Reynolds’s gaze switched from Lucas’s blank stare to Alexa’s cool expression and Conrad’s birthmark. ‘So, the rest of you are like him?’
‘Don’t be absurd,’ Alexa said with a disdainful sniff. ‘He’s a brat compared to us.’
Ethan rolled his eyes. ‘You do realize Jared was older than Mila, right?’
Alexa arched an eyebrow. ‘So? She could kick his ass then and she can kick his ass now.’
‘Oh boy,’ Conrad murmured. ‘Rafael thinks that’s fighting talk right there.’
Lucas muttered something under his breath about insubordinate commanders.
Reynolds glared after them as they made for the trucks and Jeeps his troops were boarding. ‘Are those swords sticking out of the back of your combat uniforms?!’
Lucas tried to quell the nervous anticipation buzzing in his veins as the convoy ate away the distance separating them from their destination. Six miles to the west, stark white mantles of snow capped the dark peaks of a mountain range against the backdrop of pale blue sky. The town of Hawthorne shimmered under the blazing afternoon sun in the valley beneath it.
It had been six hours since Sarah Connelly had called Conrad moments before they had been due to board their jet to go to Sumava to meet up with the others. When she had revealed what an intelligence analyst had uncovered on the hard drive of a computer belonging to the primary US Army group that had been working with Jonah Krondike, they’d put their travel plans on hold.
The possible fate of the four submarines that had gone missing in international waters in 1968 was sobering in itself. The rest of what had been unearthed about the events in Nevada in the past fifty years was even more disturbing. If that information were to be revealed to the rest of the world, the implications for the US government’s defense capability and its immediate foreign interests would be catastrophic.
With Connelly and the Immortals no closer to discovering the whereabouts of General Miller, Lucas hoped Nevada would provide answers that could lead them to the location of his children and their unknown enemy.
Five minutes after they landed at the airport outside Hawthorne, they neared the meeting point they’d arranged with the personnel staffing the largest weapons storage facility in the world.
The twenty-foot-tall concrete and cinder block wall of a secure compound loomed on the road ahead, one of hundreds of similar facilities that stretched over an area covering two hundred and thirty square miles of desert valleys and mountains south of Walker Lake. Giant roller gates slid open as the convoy slowed on approach. They thundered through the entrance in a cloud of sand and dust and pulled to a stop in a large, open area some three hundred feet later.
Reynolds disembarked and joined them on the ground. ‘I still can’t believe we’ve come all the way here to do this. How sure are we about the intel from Washington?’
Lucas scrutinized the enormous courtyard they stood in. ‘President Westwood seemed pretty convinced by the evidence he saw.’
The area was ring-fenced by eight bunkers set under elevations of earth running around the perimeter of the compound. Steel doors sat shrouded in twilight under the dirt overhangs. There was no one around.
Movement to the left caught Lucas’s eye. The security cameras positioned above two of the bunkers had just swiveled toward them. He reached for his Glock at the same time Alexa drew one of her Sigs. The others followed suit, their expressions similarly guarded.
Reynolds frowned at them. ‘Hey, easy on the show of force. The guys at this facility are on our side.’
‘Nonetheless, I would tell your men to be ready, Major,’ Reid said.
‘I would do as he says,’ Conrad murmured.
Reynolds raised an eyebrow.
‘Seriously? Do you people honestly believe that the Hawthorne Army Depot, the biggest arms and ammunitions storage facility in the country, never mind the planet, has been compromised and raided by an unknown enemy?’ His tone turned cynical. ‘And, what, no one in the DoD heard about it?’
Ethan glanced at him. ‘How much have your superiors told you, Steve?’
‘Only that we’re meant to check the inventory of some thousand or so bunkers,’ Reynolds said grudgingly. ‘Like, with a damned clipboard and everything. It’s gonna take forever, even with all the men at our disposal.’
Ethan observed the deserted compound as carefully as Lucas and the others. ‘Remember the army guy behind Yuma?’
Reynolds’s face darkened. ‘That bastard Gunnerson? Sure.’
‘He was only the tip of the shithouse in SOCOM,’ Ethan said quietly.
Reynolds’s eyes widened as the meaning behind Ethan’s words sank in. He glanced around. ‘You mean this is another Yuma?!’
Ethan nodded grimly. ‘That’s why we’re here, Steve.’
Realization dawned in Reynolds’s eyes. He drew his Beretta, a muscle jumping in his jawline. ‘So, we’re talking—?’
‘Super soldiers?’ Ethan grimaced. ‘Yes. We ran into a bunch of them yesterday.’
One of Reynolds’s men overhead them and groaned. ‘Did someone just say super soldiers?’
‘Christ,’ gr
umbled another Ranger, his knuckles whitening on his assault rifle. ‘Not those assholes again. My left leg still aches in winter.’
Mutters broke out among the troops.
‘Sergeant Greaves?’ Reynolds said.
‘Yes, Major?’
‘What did I tell you about your language?’
‘You told me to fucking mind it, sir,’ the Ranger said, unabashed.
‘Well do so, goddammit.’ Reynolds turned to his intelligence officer. ‘And where are the contractors who were supposed to be here for our meet and greet? They’re late.’
The sergeant he’d addressed pulled a face. ‘I’ve been unable to make contact with anyone in the depot’s main command post in the last five minutes, sir.’
Reynolds’s face reddened. ‘Why didn’t you say something before, Peters?’
Sergeant Peters pursed his lips. ‘Because you were busy busting Greaves’s balls, sir.’
Lucas stiffened. One hundred feet ahead and to the left, the door of a bunker was sliding open. A second one rattled into life to their right. Reynolds turned to stare at the rectangle of yawning darkness that replaced the steel panel.
‘Spread the word,’ the major said quietly to Peters and Greaves. ‘Safeties off. Everyone check their six.’
Rumbles rose around them as more bunkers opened up. Lucas narrowed his eyes when he saw the shadowy figures in the tunnels beyond the openings. Metal glinted in the gloom.
Reynolds swore. ‘All around defense! Now!’
The Rangers were still moving to form a circle around the vehicles when the shots came.
Lucas dove to the ground in a hail of machinegun fire and aimed the Glock at the shapes framed by the bunker door to his right. Bullets peppered the dirt in a line toward him. He rolled and jumped to his feet, narrowly missing the slugs that danced past his leg.
One slammed into Peters’s shin where he stood a few feet behind him. The Ranger cried out and fell. Lucas raised his gun and fired at the figures inside the closest bunkers as he moved back toward the wounded man.
His stomach dropped when he glanced sideways and saw the damage to the soldier’s limb. ‘Shit! Those are fragmenting bullets!’
‘Major, get your men to pull back to those vehicles!’ Conrad yelled as he headed for the Ranger groaning on the ground. ‘These rounds are gonna tear through them!’
Lucas loaded a fresh magazine into his gun and stepped protectively in front of Conrad. ‘Ethan! Now would be a good time to—’
‘I’m on it,’ Ethan growled.
Gasps sounded around them as the enemies’ bullets suddenly stopped mid-air.
Reynolds gaped at the slugs spinning uselessly fifteen feet from where he stood before glancing at Ethan. ‘Is that you?!’
‘Yes,’ Ethan said between gritted teeth, his hands up and out on either side of him.
He stopped the next volley of deadly rounds flying toward them, the bullets smashing into the elemental energy he was projecting before being crushed and dropping harmlessly to the ground. The super soldiers’ assault rifles met the same fate seconds later.
‘Here they come!’ Alexa warned.
Lucas’s heart sped up as he watched dozens of figures in combat uniform charge toward them from the bunkers. Relief flashed through him when he failed to spot any giant super soldiers.
Still, this ain’t exactly going to be a walk in the park.
Lucas holstered his Glock and drew his daisho with steady hands. Heat surged through his veins, the energy of the two formidable souls who now dwelled inside his heart flooding his bloodstream and filling him with power.
‘Major, tell your men to aim for their hearts and heads,’ he told Reynolds grimly. ‘That’s the only way you’re gonna stop them.’
Lucas blocked a knife headed for Conrad’s neck with the wakizashi, twisted around the super soldier, and thrust the katana into his back. The sword dented the soldier’s uniform and juddered violently in his grip.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Alexa shot a super soldier point blank in the heart, saw the bullet crumble into a flat disc, and slipped under a fist arcing toward her face. She thrust an elbow in the man’s face before hammer kicking the one she had shot in the chest.
She whipped out her second Sig and fired at the two men once more.
The super soldiers barely faltered in their stride, the slugs smashing into their combat uniforms and instantly flattening into distorted lumps of metal.
‘Are they wearing Kevlar?’ Anatole shouted beside her. He blocked a kick aimed at his gut and punched a super soldier in the face.
‘I don’t think so.’ Alexa scowled as a foot glanced off her hip. She jumped back, twisted, and roundhouse kicked two super soldiers in the head. ‘Our rounds aren’t even penetrating their uniforms!’
‘Neither are blades!’ Lucas said on Alexa’s right. ‘We’re gonna have to go for head shots and their throats!’
‘Easier said than done!’ Reid growled as he kneed a super soldier in the flank.
Alexa’s pulse thrummed rapidly in her veins as she scanned the compound. Despite having lost their weapons and being outnumbered four to one, their enemy was gaining ground. A quarter of the Rangers were already down, the sheer brute force and speed of the super soldiers’ attacks overcoming even their advanced combat skills.
Alexa holstered her Sigs and whipped out her sais. Time to get serious.
Dirt trembled around her feet as she drew on the ungodly energy that dwelled within her heart. The savage life force surged through her body, an incandescent heat that pulsed with her every heartbeat and hardened her flesh and bones. She blinked when she sensed an echo within it. The echo of the soul that had awakened inside her upon the rebirth of the long-dead kings.
Alexa darted between the super soldiers, Mila’s power singing in her blood. Their blades danced in their hands and carved through exposed flesh, their warrior hearts and minds as one.
Ethan deflected a kick to his thigh and blocked the fists heading toward him with a burst of elemental energy. Having realized that he posed the greatest threat to them, a group of five super soldiers had surrounded him.
He tapped into the core of his power while he fended off another flurry of brutal attacks. The energy inside him felt hotter and stronger than before, the blazing tendrils darting through his veins so forceful he could almost see their glow under his skin.
He knew it was because of Jared. He could feel him behind his eyes, lending him his strength, his brooding presence strangely comforting.
Ethan had just stopped a third onslaught from the super soldiers when something suddenly vibrated on his thigh.
Reynolds’s head jerked up. ‘What the—? Seriously, is someone’s cell ringing right now?!’
Ethan forced his attackers back with a powerful surge of elemental energy, slipped his phone out of the pocket of his combat uniform, and brought it to his ear.
‘Now is not a good time!’ he snapped.
Conrad saw Ethan stiffen where he stood listening to the unknown caller some dozen feet to the left, one hand on the cell at his ear while he used the other to maintain an elemental barrier against the soldiers trying to get to him.
‘How did you find out about the combat uniforms?’ Ethan said, bewildered. His eyes widened a moment later. ‘You want me to do what?!’
Conrad blocked a kick with his staff, twisted on his heels, and drove one end of the spear into the side of a super soldier’s neck. He grimaced and yanked it out of the man’s flesh before stepping toward the Rangers he had been healing.
He could feel Rafael’s life force resonating inside him, bringing with it an intoxicating mix of warrior strength and healing power that augmented his own fighting skills and healing abilities.
His back met Reid’s as they found themselves inside a circle of three super soldiers.
Reid hook-punched one of the men in the jaw before indicating Ethan with a jerk of his head. ‘What’s going on?’
Conrad ducke
d out of the way of a high kick and slashed a super soldier across the face with his spear. ‘I don’t know!’
‘Look, I’ve never tried anything like that before!’ Ethan said into the cell, staring at the pale sky above them. He flexed his fingers absent-mindedly to stop the two super soldiers coming at him from left field. ‘What about the others?’ A frown wrinkled his brow as he listened once more. He hesitated before dipping his chin. ‘Okay, I’ll give it a shot.’ He ended the call, tucked his cell in his pocket, and looked over at Conrad, his expression grim. ‘I need your spear!’
Conrad blinked, not sure he’d heard him right. ‘What?’
Lucas swung his katana across a super soldier’s neck and glanced at Ethan, his breathing fast and heavy. He could see his puzzlement reflected in Alexa’s eyes as she stared at their cousin.
‘Your spear,’ Ethan repeated to Conrad. ‘I need it!’ He looked around. ‘And I want everyone to lose every single metal object they have on them!’
Alexa frowned at the sai daggers in her hands, elbowed a super soldier in the face, and knifed another one in the neck.
‘What the hell do you mean, lose every metal object?’ Reynolds shouted from across the way.
‘Guns, knives, your backpacks, any piece of metal in your combat uniforms! Drop them, right now!’ Ethan ordered.
Anatole scowled. ‘How the hell are we supposed to fight them?’
Ethan clenched his jaw and turned to Alexa. ‘Can you help me hold them back for a couple of minutes? I need you at the other end of the yard. And get ready to lose those sais when I say so.’
Alexa studied him for a moment. ‘Sure.’
She turned and started to make her way toward the spot he’d indicated, her blades finding the flesh of the super soldiers who stepped in her path with deadly accuracy.
Conrad blocked another attack before lobbing his double-bladed spear over to Ethan. ‘You better know what the hell you’re doing!’
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