They had already detonated an EMP grenade and gotten through the men’s liquid-armor suits with their blades and guns. Still, the super soldiers remained standing, their hardened bodies absorbing what would otherwise be deadly injuries.
Asgard stepped in front of her and deflected the knife heading for her chest. ‘I’ll buy you a couple of minutes!’
Olivia nodded, conscious of the second battle raging in the command post at the opposite end of the facility, where Lucas, Reid, and Anatole had gone.
Are you ready?
Navia’s reply resonated in her head. Yes.
Olivia’s knuckles whitened as she focused on the energy in the shimmering contours of her heart and fused it with the power of the soul inside her. It was easier this time around.
Gasps echoed across the warehouse as she released the violent psychic wave.
Having done her best to protect the minds of her kin and their allies, Olivia was relieved to see them still standing as the echoes of the blast reverberated around the warehouse. Elation flashed through her when she felt the super soldiers’ mental shields stretch and snap under the force of her assault. She inhaled raggedly and forced her way inside their minds.
They shuddered and fell a moment later, their bodies collapsing as she shut down their brains. The sound of fighting ceased around them.
‘You did it,’ Madeleine said weakly, staring at the unconscious figures on the ground.
Asgard stiffened next to Olivia. Her stomach twisted as she followed his gaze to a doorway on the other side of the warehouse. She gripped her blade in her hands and turned to face the group of giant super soldiers walking toward them.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The armor-plated door burst open and smashed onto the floor of the room on the other side.
Tomas stepped inside the lab he and Lily had been taken to the day after they had been captured and brought to the facility. He glanced at the glass wall to the right. It had been replaced, the polished surface reflecting their images once more. This time, he sensed no one behind it. He headed across the floor to the concealed opening where the super soldiers had first appeared, Lily at his side.
‘Where are we going?’ Ivan asked.
‘To save them,’ Lily said.
Tomas placed his hand on the hidden panel, located the lock, and manipulated it with a small surge of elemental energy. The door swung open soundlessly a second later.
Ivan’s puzzled gaze moved from Lily to the shadowy space before them. ‘Save whom?’
‘The children.’
Tomas took the lead and headed into the decontamination room. They passed an airlock chamber, a set of interconnected labs, and finally came to another large, steel door.
Ivan frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘You will soon,’ Tomas said.
He placed his hands against the metal. Lily mimicked him and closed her eyes.
‘They are many,’ she murmured.
Tomas swallowed and nodded. He could sense it clearly now, the strange collection of consciousness he and Lily had felt before. Minds that were similar to but not quite the same as those of the super soldiers. Young, immature beings who did not possess the mental shields of their older peers and had not yet been indoctrinated into the mindless violence and unquestioning obedience that was meant to be their fate.
They knew what these creatures were.
Tomas stiffened when he detected the others around them.
Lily removed her hands from the steel panel and turned to Ivan and King Bastian. ‘There are super soldiers on the other side of this door. Stay behind us.’
The two Immortals glanced at each other warily before narrowing their eyes.
‘You cannot truly expect us—’ the king started.
‘We’re not going to let you—’ Ivan said.
‘You have no weapons,’ Lily interrupted.
‘And these men are beyond anything you’ve ever faced before,’ Tomas added. ‘Please. We will do this faster if we don’t have to worry about you.’
Ivan hesitated for several seconds before finally grumbling his acquiescence. King Bastian dipped his chin reluctantly a moment later.
Tomas looked at Lily and read the resolve in her gaze. ‘Ready?’
She nodded, her expression hardening.
Power surged inside him, flashing waves of golden light that streamed through his veins and filled him with heat. He detected the same violent pulses rising in his twin where she stood beside him.
Tomas concentrated his elemental energy into his palms and let go.
The steel door buckled inward before ripping from its hinges. It soared some fifteen feet through the air, crashed onto the floor of a cavernous space, and skidded to a stop at the base of a glass tank in a shower of sparks.
‘What the—?’ Ivan whispered hoarsely.
He stared, aghast, at the structures filling the gloomy chamber and the tiny figures floating inside. Shadows shifted at the edges of the enormous lab.
Tomas stepped across the threshold with Lily and studied the giant super soldiers headed their way. Among them were the four men who had nearly overpowered them that first day.
‘Together,’ Lily said in a voice of steel.
Tomas glanced at his sister and nodded.
They linked fingers and raised their free hands.
Ivan and King Bastian gasped and dropped to their knees under the elemental and psychokinetic storm that suddenly engulfed the chamber.
Tomas drew a shuddering breath when his energy merged with Lily’s. A dizzying thrill shot through him as he felt his powers amplify and expand. It was like that first time all over again, when they had fought to save one another in the lab. He sensed Lily’s abilities similarly escalating.
The super soldiers stopped in their tracks.
A window blinked into life on the monitor to the left. Howard startled and leaned toward it. Camera feeds started populating the screen next to the dark satellite images.
‘They—they did it!’ Laura said hoarsely beside him.
Howard’s pulse accelerated as another window flashed open on the monitor to the right. It was filled with a second array of feeds.
‘Jordan, Eva, are you seeing this?’ he said between numb lips.
‘Yes,’ Jordan replied on the Sumava link, his eyes bright with excitement.
Their elation faded when they finally registered the scenes of devastation being transmitted from the security cameras inside the underground port and the weapons base. Though they knew the battles had been taking place, they had been unable to see any signs of the conflict from the satellite imaging of the nocturnal landscape.
‘Bloody hellfire,’ Dimitri murmured.
Victor scowled on the video link from Vienna.
Laura rose awkwardly to her feet.
‘Are those—?’
Acid burned the back of Howard’s throat as he gazed at the still figures visible through the smoke and fire dotting the underground complexes. It was several seconds before he saw movement on one of the cameras.
Howard’s heart struck up a rapid tempo against his ribs as he zoomed in on the feed.
A figure in a black combat uniform stepped over a body in the security room of the weapons base and headed over to a computer. He removed something from a pouch at his waist, plugged it into one of the ports, and started working the keyboard.
Howard jumped when a call rang through the speakers in the bunker. He swiped his fingers on the track pad and held his breath as a new window popped up on the main monitor.
‘This is US Army Special Forces Lieutenant Malcolm Henderson,’ the man in the security room said briskly on the video link. He dabbed at the trickle of blood coursing from his split lip. ‘Your friends said to give you a buzz.’
‘Where are they?’ Alarm raised the pitch of Laura’s voice. ‘Are they okay?’
Henderson dipped his chin. ‘They’re fine, ma’am. They’re on their way to the main research facility a
s we speak. We’ll be following them once the rest of the cavalry arrives from the Sixth Fleet to help us secure the prisoners here and at the underground station on the coast.’
Relief flooded Howard. ‘Ethan and Conrad managed to seize the port?’
Henderson raised an eyebrow. ‘You mean the Power Ranger and the Snake Guy? Yeah, they did. Snake Guy took care of some of my injured men before he and the Power Ranger left with the scary chick and the guy with the broadsword. They should be getting there anytime now, along with their troops.’ He glanced to his right. ‘I’ve connected your device to the mainframe. Don’t know whether it’s working.’
Jordan had handed Asgard two USB keys to give to Ethan and Alexa for their mission. He’d placed the devices inside Faraday bags to protect them from the effects of the EMP grenades they would inevitably have to use against the super soldiers.
Eva’s voice came over the video link from Sumava. ‘I’m in the research facility’s network. We’ll have visual shortly.’
‘Thanks,’ Howard said to Henderson.
The lieutenant grunted and disconnected. A third set of camera feeds flashed across the central monitor seconds later. Howard’s stomach plummeted.
‘Oh God,’ Laura whimpered.
Howard reached out and took her hand blindly, his gaze riveted to the unholy battle playing out across multiple levels through the main research facility, where humans and Immortals clashed against an army of super soldiers.
‘It’s okay.’ Howard swallowed. ‘They—they’ll be—’
‘No,’ Laura moaned. ‘My water’s just broke!’
Howard turned. His jaw dropped when he saw the wetness coursing down Laura’s legs and followed it to the darkening patch on the floor.
‘Shit.’
Laura winced, bit her lip, and doubled over, an agonizing groan leaving her throat. Her nails dug into Howard’s hand.
‘Laura! Are you okay?’ Victor called out stiffly across the video link.
‘Do I look okay, Victor?’ Laura snarled.
Pain drained the color from her face in the next instant. She cried out and sat down heavily in the chair.
‘I—I’ll call an ambulance!’ Howard twisted on his heels and reached for his cell.
‘There’s no time!’ Laura’s panicked gaze moved to the blood soaking the bottom of her dress. ‘This kid is coming and I’m bleeding. We need to get him out, now!’
Howard grabbed the internal phone, cursed as he fumbled and dropped it, and snatched it off the floor. ‘Rosa, I need you in the bunker! And bring towels! Yeah, it’s the baby!’ He paused and scowled. ‘What the hell would we need a drink for?’ A grimace twisted his lips a couple of seconds later. ‘Oh. Sure.’ He glanced from the laboring woman glaring at him to the bloody scenes being projected from the other side of the planet. ‘I could do with a Scotch right about now.’
Chapter Forty
Jessica Wu strode briskly between rows of glass tanks, fingers dancing on the screen of her tablet. The scientists stationed in the lab hurried after her, their eyes wide with alarm and fear.
‘These men aren’t ready for this!’ one of them said. ‘They have yet to complete the maturation process.’
‘I don’t care about that,’ Wu snapped. ‘We are under attack right now and we need them to be operational.’
‘But we won’t have time to battle-test them,’ another scientist said in a low voice. ‘You need to stop—’
Wu stopped abruptly, whirled around, and jabbed a finger in the man’s chest. ‘You have the audacity to dictate what I can and cannot do?!’
The scientist blanched and hunched his shoulders. ‘N—no. I’m just concerned about—’
‘I am the one who created these soldiers.’ Wu straightened and glared at the group of silent men and women watching her warily. ‘They will execute the function and duties I brought them into this world to perform!’
Beeps sounded around them as the water levels inside the tanks started to drop, the chemical-rich fluid draining through the sluices at the bottom. The monitors attached to the life pods showed steadily rising vital signs as the super soldiers inside them started to awaken.
A crash sounded from the direction of the lab’s main entrance. It was followed by a shocked scream. Wu frowned and headed rapidly up the aisle. She turned the corner, gasped, and staggered to a stop.
Lily and Tomas Soul stepped over the buckled, steel panel of the door they had ripped out of the wall. Visible in the passage behind them were Ivan Vlašic and King Bastian.
The two Immortals were not alone.
Rage burned through Wu when she saw the hordes of small, half-naked figures wrapped in blankets.
The children!
Her fury escalated as alarms started going off across the lab. She glanced at the closest tanks and swore. The computers and life monitors were frozen, the super soldiers’ revival process disabled by whatever unearthly powers Lily and Tomas Soul were wielding.
Wu snatched the gun at her waist and pointed it at the two figures walking steadily toward her. White fog filled her mind a second after her finger found the trigger. The sound of the shot leaving the muzzle of the pistol reached her dimly as she collapsed to the floor.
The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was the bullet smashing into an invisible force ten feet from Tomas Soul and dropping harmlessly to the ground.
Ivan kept one arm around the shivering children closest to him and held a sleeping baby to his chest. He looked at King Bastian, who was cradling another infant. Others were in the arms of the hundreds of silent figures crowding the corridor behind them.
Footsteps sounded from inside the lab. Lily and Tomas emerged from the shadowy depths of the chamber. Ivan swallowed.
He knew he would never forget what he had witnessed them do for as long as he lived.
The unholy powers they had unleashed on the level below. The brutal display of force and the utter fearlessness they had shown in the face of the monstrous creatures who had opposed them. The psychic outburst that had nearly robbed him and King Bastian of consciousness as they crouched on the floor, battered by the tempest of unearthly energies roaring through the lab where the super soldier children and embryos slept inside their prisons.
It was after they had defeated their enemy that Ivan had seen the other side of their terrifying abilities.
The tenderness in Lily’s eyes as she started awakening the innocent creatures inside the tanks. The compassion on Tomas’s face as he wrapped a blanket around the first boy, one who stood five inches taller than him.
It was thanks to their calming psychic influence that the confusion and fear those children had experienced upon their revival had abated. It was also because of the twins’ guidance that the newly liberated prisoners had helped them rescue their peers from the other life pods.
Lily’s sorrow had filled the chamber when she had gazed at the small creatures they had discovered at the back of the lab, her emotions saturating the air to such an extent that Ivan had found himself choking back tears. There was little they could do to save the hundreds of unformed embryos and fetuses inside the tiny tanks crowding the rear wall, nor the scores of others who failed to wake up in the larger tanks. It was with reluctance and a rare expression of anger that she had turned off their life support.
Ivan startled when she stepped out of the lab and spoke.
‘There’s an emergency exit at the end of this corridor.’ Lily indicated the north end of the passage. ‘It leads to an elevator that will take you to the fifth floor. Beyond it, you’ll find stairs that go all the way up to the outside of this facility. There’s a building housing snow vehicles some thirty feet from where you’ll emerge.’
Tomas glanced at the children and the babies.
‘Take them and leave,’ he told Ivan and King Bastian quietly. ‘Go west, until you reach a crescent-shaped ridge. Wait for us there.’
King Bastian stiffened at the little boy’s words. Ivan blinked and
gaped.
‘What—what are you talking about?’ he spluttered. ‘We’re leaving together!’
Lily shook her head, a sad smile curving her lips. ‘No. There is much for us to do, still.’
Tomas glanced at the ceiling. They could hear distant explosions from the upper levels of the structure.
‘Our family and our friends need us,’ he said.
Ivan’s heart thundered in his chest as he watched them, frustration burning through him. Even though he was the leader of a race of Immortals, he had never felt so powerless in his life as he did in this moment.
He crouched down to their level. ‘I—’
Lily moved toward him and touched his face. ‘It will be okay.’ She pressed her lips to his skin.
Ivan blinked at the warmth of her touch and felt a strange peace sweep through him.
Lily stepped over to King Bastian. He leaned down and she kissed his cheek. Surprise widened his eyes when she hooked her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
‘Goodbye for now, King,’ she said tremulously.
King Bastian straightened and stared at her, a strange expression on his face. A silent moment passed between the little girl and the ancient Immortal.
‘Thank you,’ the king finally said. ‘For all that you have done. And all that you will do.’ He bowed his head.
Lily nodded and bowed back. A noise came from the south end of the corridor. They turned and watched the figures heading toward them.
‘Go,’ Tomas said, his voice hardening. ‘Now.’
Ivan hesitated before following King Bastian. They led the children swiftly down the passage and soon reached a turn.
Ivan stopped. ‘I really don’t think we—’
‘They will be alright, child of Crovir,’ King Bastian said calmly.
‘How can you know that?’ Ivan said, his fingers tightening on the infant in his arms.
‘Can you not tell?’ King Bastian cast a final glance at the two small figures outside the lab, his expression a mixture of sadness and hope. ‘They are both of this world and another. One beyond the understanding of men like you and me.’
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