Destiny

by A D Starrling

  By the time they hit the ground, their vacant eyes staring sightlessly beneath the bullet wounds in the middle of their foreheads, Alexa was already running, the Marines and the Freemasons following in her steps.

  A figure came out of the control room as they closed in on it. Alexa recognized the man’s combat suit as he reached for the automatic rifle looped around his chest, his motions lightning fast.

  She holstered the Sigs, jumped, and locked her legs around his waist. The super soldier lowered his weapon and reached for her throat as she twisted violently and brought them both to the ground with a scissor kick.

  He slammed into the concrete, the rifle clattering noisily out of his grasp, his fingers falling from her flesh. Alexa rose into a low crouch, blocked the knee heading for her head, and saw four blank-faced figures in liquid-armor suits step out of the control room.

  ‘Do it!’ she barked at one of the Marines.

  She snatched her sais from their sheaths and leapt out of reach of the fallen super soldier as he lunged toward her. She straightened, deflected the swirl of fists that came her way from two more attackers, and caught a glimpse of the Marine punching the button of an EMP grenade. The transmitter went dead in her ear.

  Alexa dove beneath a deadly blow and drove a sai up into a super soldier’s chest. Satisfaction tore through her as the blade cleaved through the deactivated combat suit and sank into his heart. She cut the man’s throat with the second sai before slicing another super soldier across the gut.

  Movement ahead caught her eye.

  ‘Oh shit,’ muttered one of the Freemasons. He stared at the colossal figures moving down the passage toward them.

  Heat bloomed in the center of Alexa’s chest. She lobbed two flash bombs inside the control room and felt the ferocious energy burst forth and flood her veins, hardening her limbs and focusing her senses.

  The ground trembled and shook beneath her feet as she turned to face the giant super soldiers, the power of the soul residing inside her resonating through her very core and fusing with her own. A savage smile curved her lips.

  Zachary peered over the edge of a crate and studied the layout of the warehouse.

  ‘That’s a lot of hardware,’ murmured the US Army Special Forces lieutenant next to him. They stared at the helicopters, tanks, and armored vehicles lining the vast space below. ‘You weren’t joking when you said this guy wants to start a war.’

  ‘The people with me have been fighting him and his allies for a long time,’ Zachary said.

  The lieutenant hesitated. ‘By people, you mean that hot, scary chick headed for the control room with the Marines?’

  Zachary smiled faintly. He examined the bridge cranes and walkways crisscrossing the space above them. ‘That hot, scary chick is my wife.’

  The lieutenant blinked. ‘Wow. You have bigger balls than me.’ He observed the uniformed men stationed across the shadowy chamber. ‘Those the—super soldiers we were warned about?’

  ‘Some of them are,’ Zachary said. ‘We won’t know until we engage them.’

  The lieutenant frowned. ‘The way this place is laid out, they’ll see us the moment we’re on the ground.’

  ‘I have an idea.’

  The lieutenant followed Zachary’s gaze to the roof. He raised an eyebrow. ‘That could work.’

  They had disposed of some dozen men before a burst of gunfire sounded in the middle of the warehouse, giving away their presence.

  Zachary steeled himself when he saw a Special Forces soldier fall from where he had been fast-roping to the ground behind a guard fifty feet to his right. Bullets whizzed around him. He clung to his rope and looked down. An armed figure stepped out of an aisle between two rows of Apache attack helicopters twenty feet ahead.

  Zachary cursed, swung violently to the side, and dropped rapidly, the thick cord humming between his gloved hand and thighs as he fired back. A cacophony of shots exploded around the warehouse as the Special Forces soldiers engaged the rest of the enemy.

  He released the rope when he was still six feet from the ground, arched his body through the air, and struck the guard in the chest with his shoulder as he landed. They tumbled to the ground and lurched to a stop next to the front wheel of a Humvee, their guns clattering beneath the undercarriage.

  Zachary felt a blow glance off his hip, grabbed his attacker’s ankle as he lunged under the vehicle to grab his automatic rifle, and yanked sharply. The guard cursed and rolled onto his back before kicking at him.

  Zachary blocked the boot with his hand, slipped his broadsword from the scabbard at his back, and stabbed the man in the left thigh. The blade slipped through the guard’s uniform, pierced his leg, and wedged itself an inch into the concrete beneath his limb. He cried out and cursed where he lay pinned to the floor.

  ‘I know this has gotta be hurting like a bitch, but can I say how pleased I am right now that you’re not wearing one of those liquid-armor suits?’ Zachary commented brightly as he climbed to his feet. ‘I mean, seriously. Talk about unsporting.’

  A shadow engulfed him from behind.

  The guard’s lips twisted into a mocking grimace as he looked up past Zachary’s shoulder.

  Zachary twisted to the side. A large fist blurred an inch past his cheek and smashed into the door of the Humvee. His stomach dropped when he saw the dent and knuckle prints it left in its wake.

  He looked over his shoulder, saw the giant super soldier, and clasped the handle of his sword.

  A hand closed on the back of his neck.

  Zachary gasped as he was lifted off his feet and rammed violently into the side of the Humvee. The guard screamed beneath him, blood gushing out of his open wound where the blade had escaped his flesh.

  Zachary sagged against the vehicle and shook his head dazedly. He gritted his teeth and tightened his hold on his weapon as the super soldier grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Air left his lips in a guttural choke when his attacker punched him in the gut. The super soldier switched his grip to Zachary’s throat and raised him off the ground once more.

  Movement flashed behind the giant. A figure in saffron robes darted through the air, a jō staff spinning in its hands. The super soldier grunted as a series of powerful blows landed on his back, arms, and legs. He released Zachary and turned to face his new adversary.

  Zachary stumbled as he hit the ground feet first.

  He regained his balance and smiled fiercely at the young man standing to the super soldier’s right.

  ‘Anzan.’

  The brother of the monk who once saved Zachary’s life and who had become one of his and Alexa’s most cherished friends grinned at him briefly before locking stares with the super soldier once more.

  The giant moved.

  Anzan deflected his furious attack, his movements nimble as he danced across the ground, always a hairbreadth from the super soldier’s deadly hits.

  Zachary headed toward them, his broadsword in hand. He swung the blade at the giant’s back and scowled when it struck the combat uniform and juddered in his grip.

  The giant twisted around and backhanded him across the face.

  Stars exploded across Zachary’s vision as he sailed off his feet and slammed into the back of an armored vehicle. He groaned, shook his head lightly to clear the ringing in his ears, and straightened.

  Alarm flooded him when he saw the giant land a blow on Anzan.

  The monk gasped as the super soldier knocked the jō staff out of his hands and rammed his fist into his gut. He clenched his jaw and raised his arms to block the vicious punch heading for his skull.

  The giant blinked and froze. His head swiveled slowly sideways.

  He stared from the blade that had impaled his forearm through the sleeve of his combat suit to Zachary’s savage smirk. His vacant gaze moved to the device in Zachary’s grip.

  ‘I don’t think so, asshole,’ Zachary growled.

  He dropped the EMP grenade, clutched his broadsword in both hands, and yanked it out o
f the giant’s flesh before driving it into his chest.

  The super soldier grunted as the blade carved through his uniform and entered his body.

  Zachary withdrew his weapon, inhaled sharply, and ducked beneath the giant’s swinging fist. He moved back and joined Anzan as the latter retrieved his staff weapon from the ground.

  ‘He’s a tough bastard to kill, isn’t he?’ Zachary said as they faced the super soldier.

  ‘As my brother used to say, he is a most savvy opponent,’ Anzan murmured.

  Zachary stared. ‘Seriously, Yonten used to say that?’

  Anzan pulled a face. ‘We think he drank a lot of bad yak milk when he was a child.’

  Zachary studied their glassy-faced opponent. Though the EMP device had disabled the giant’s liquid-armor suit, it appeared to have had less of an effect on his neural implant compared to the other super soldiers Ethan and the others had faced in Nevada.

  Zachary held the broadsword in a white-knuckled grip and dug his heels into the ground, the energy of the warrior prince whose spirit he had inherited soaring inside him and filling his bloodstream.

  There’s no way I’m dying this time. He glanced at the fierce young monk who stood at his side. And neither will he.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Ivan startled when the cell door crashed open. Though he had anticipated what was about to happen, he still stared, dumbfounded, at the three figures framed in the opening.

  Lily and Tomas Soul’s faces reflected a depth of maturity he had not expected to see in children their age. But more than the fact that they seemed older and wiser than their physical appearance would imply, it was the determination in their eyes and the absolute power he felt emanating from their bodies that sent a shiver of awe down his spine.

  Standing behind them, his blue gaze startlingly similar to that of the little girl before him, was King Bastian. The older Immortal watched Ivan silently, his expression inscrutable.

  ‘Come,’ Lily said.

  Surprise jolted Ivan. Barely half a day had passed since he’d awakened in Vlado’s research facility and started communicating with Lily in his mind. It was the first time he was actually hearing her voice in person.

  It was as soft and serene as it had sounded in his head.

  He hesitated before dipping his chin.

  Fifty minutes ago, Lily had woken him up and warned him of the events about to unfold. When she had communicated what she had perceived from her psychic contact with Olivia Ashkarov regarding the vast troops on their way to confront Vlado’s army, Ivan had struggled to believe her. For Lucas Soul and his cousins and allies to have assembled so many humans and Immortals to assist them in their mission at such short notice seemed practically impossible.

  You don’t know our family and friends very well, do you?

  For a moment, Ivan had wondered whether the little girl was being ironic. It hadn’t taken long to realize she was genuinely curious.

  No, I do not.

  Tomas spoke then, his amused tone strangely adult-like. They are pretty determined. And as stubborn as they come.

  What Lily had said next had left Ivan reeling in shock.

  We’re going to do what?!

  Lily had repeated her statement. We’re going to break out of here and go up to the labs. We have to stop what Vlado and his scientists are doing.

  Tomas’s voice had come again. And we have to help the others when they get here.

  Ivan had stared blindly at the wall, bewildered.

  He’d glanced from the camera in the corner of the cell to the electrified exit.

  But how?

  Leave that to us.

  Ivan cast a final look at the room where he’d been kept prisoner and headed out the door.

  A warm feeling washed down his left arm and right hand as he followed the children and the king up a concrete corridor. He blinked and slowed to a stop.

  The burn mark on his palm had disappeared, as had the ache from his broken limb.

  ‘Was that you?’ Ivan said, stunned.

  Lily glanced at him over her shoulder and nodded.

  ‘But—but I thought Conrad Greene had to physically touch someone to heal them!’

  ‘We don’t have to,’ Tomas said.

  Lucas lowered himself carefully out of the opening in the ventilation pipe and dropped into the emergency exit tunnel. He landed softly on his feet and scanned both ends of the somber passage before signaling to the figures above him.

  Reid, Anatole, and a troop of Bastian Hunters joined him in the tunnel.

  ‘Have Alexa and Ethan connected their devices to those networks yet?’ Lucas murmured into his transmitter as he unsheathed his katana.

  It was a couple of seconds before Jordan replied. ‘That’s a negative. They’ve actively engaged the enemy and have triggered their EMP grenades. We lost all communication with their teams and access to those two stations’ security cameras twelve minutes ago. They’ll have to physically reboot the systems before Eva, Howard, and I can get in again.’

  Lucas’s heart plummeted.

  Eva’s analysis of the structure of the three facilities had revealed they would likely be resistant to a large, external EMP discharge. With this in mind, they had decided to arm themselves with EMP grenades to deal with the problem of the liquid-armor suits. They had planned to use them at the very last moment, when they were face to face with the super soldiers. They had known they would knock out every electrical circuit around them once they did so, including their own communication devices.

  Though Lucas would have preferred access to the research base’s security cameras to navigate the level they had just infiltrated, he knew roughly from the GPR and infra-red images they had studied in the last few hours where their target was. By his estimation, they still had two hundred and seventy feet to go before they reached it.

  Reid laid a hand on his shoulder.

  ‘They can do this,’ he said quietly. ‘Trust in them.’

  Lucas swallowed and nodded. ‘I do. I just hope they’re okay.’

  They headed fifty feet east along the tunnel, turned, and came to a steel door.

  Lucas removed a small, explosive device from a pouch on his combat uniform and placed it on the lock.

  ‘Once this goes off, they’re gonna know we’re here,’ he warned.

  Anatole bared his teeth in a cheerful grin. ‘Let the fun times begin!’

  Reid sighed. ‘I worry about how much you enjoy these life-and-death situations.’

  Several of the Bastian Hunters muttered their agreement as they retraced their steps and crouched in the adjoining passage.

  Lucas glanced around grimly as he lowered himself next to them. ‘Remember our primary objective. We have to take control of that command post.’

  He took a deep breath and detonated the bomb.

  Vlado bolted upright at the sound of the alarm. He yanked back the bed covers and reached for the phone on the nightstand just as it rang, the sound muted by the shrill blare echoing across the room.

  ‘Sir, we’re under attack!’ barked one of the Crovir Immortals in charge of the research facility’s security. ‘There’s been an explosion on Level One, near the command post. We have intruders in the warehouse on that floor too and we’ve lost contact with the port and the weapons base. The cameras on Level Thirteen have also gone offline!’

  Vlado scowled and climbed off the bed. He tucked the handset between his ear and shoulder and headed rapidly for the closet.

  ‘Do we know the identity of our attackers?’ he said darkly as he shrugged into a custom-made, liquid-armor, combat suit.

  ‘We believe they are the Immortals related to the children we captured on the island. The rest of them appear to be human soldiers and Bastian Hunters.’

  Vlado holstered a gun, slipped a knife into a sheath on his thigh, and walked over to the bed. He hesitated before grabbing the polished sword resting on metal brackets above the headboard. He strapped it to his back and opened t
he drawer of the nightstand.

  ‘Have the jet ready for evacuation.’ He removed a rectangular device from inside the drawer and pocketed it. ‘And mobilize all the super soldiers. They are to engage the enemy and kill them on sight.’

  Vlado ended the call, grabbed his satellite cell phone, and turned just as the door opened.

  Jessica Wu stared at him from the threshold, her face pale.

  ‘You know what to do,’ he said.

  She swallowed before nodding, her expression determined.

  Vlado exited his quarters and made for Crovir’s rooms at the other end of the floor while Wu headed off toward the elevators. He passed the soldiers he’d assigned to the older king’s guard and found him sheathing a pair of ancient swords that had graced the wall of the dining hall.

  ‘I take it by that infernal noise that something has happened?’ Crovir said blithely.

  Vlado nodded stiffly. ‘Yes. Come with me.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ the king said as they left his chambers.

  ‘To the secondary command post.’

  Vlado’s mind dwelled briefly on the prisoners on the thirteenth floor. He knew it was likely the children who had disabled the security cameras down there.

  Whatever they’re up to will have to wait for now.

  Olivia frowned at the super soldiers. She had already suppressed the consciousness of the Immortals and half-breeds in the warehouse and those within a hundred-foot radius of her location on the first level of the research complex. The only ones left standing were the vacant-faced figures confronting them across the depot packed with armored vehicles and military hardware.

  ‘Are you getting through?’ Madeleine shouted from where she, Anna, and a group of Bastian Hunters engaged two super soldiers on her left.

  ‘I need more time!’

  Olivia blocked a blow to her head with her sword, clenched her teeth, and pushed at the elastic barriers she could sense around the super soldiers’ minds.