by M. G. Herron
“No,” Dyna said. “I did that.”
I stopped cold. “What? Why?”
“To get rid of the woman. This matter is urgent.”
“Fine,” I said, snatching my phone and the power cord from the wall. “I’ll drive. But we have to make a few stops first.”
14
I slammed down the metal lid of the lockbox in the back of my pickup, and latched it. It never felt so good to have cold steel at my back.
We’d spent the rest of the afternoon gathering supplies for the stakeout—food and water, weapons and ammunition. Kilos complained the whole time, but as long as Dyna was cool with it, he went along.
Dyna insisted that Elekatch would wait until after dark to strike, because Pharsei were nocturnal. That fit with what I’d seen, and it gave me more time to clean up and shower, so I didn’t argue the point. Now, with the sun going down again, almost exactly twenty-four hours after I’d first learned about Cameron Kovak and his DWI, we were at the armory, a five by five storage unit where I kept my extra guns. I closed the padlock at the bottom of the sliding door, sealing the unit.
“You won’t be able to maneuver if you’re carrying that many weapons,” Dyna said, looking pointedly at the lockbox where I’d just stowed my pistol, an automatic rifle, and a few other goodies. “Your lack of agility was your downfall on the rooftop during your last encounter with Elekatch.”
“What do you mean, downfall? How was I supposed to know he would eat two XREP rounds for dinner?”
“As I tried to explain this afternoon, Pharsei consume raw electricity and transform it into energy in their bodies. Additionally, Elekatch is an order of magnitude stronger and faster than you or me, so it would be unwise to encumber yourself with heavy weaponry. Only Kilos, with his enhanced genetics, is a physical match for the Pharsei.”
“I won’t be shooting stun rounds this time,” I said.
“What will you do if he corners you and you’re out of ammunition?” Kilos asked.
I glared at the big albino. “I’ll use my knife. Get in the car.”
Kilos rolled his eyes in an all-too-human fashion. “Finally,” he responded, climbing into the truck and stretching out, catlike, in the back seat.
Dyna sat ramrod straight in the passenger bucket as I started the engine and drove out of the storage facility, headed for the highway onramp.
As I drove, I could feel my heart thundering in my chest. I realized that, without conscious direction, my mind was replaying the rooftop scene in my head on a loop. My mouth went dry, and I squeezed my F-150’s worn steering wheel.
The big guy in the back closed his eyes and relaxed as we merged onto the highway. Dyna, however, proceeded to vivisect me with her flat gaze.
“Will you stop staring at me like that?”
“You need to relax. I can feel your fear.”
“Fear seems like a useful emotion right about now,” I countered. “It’s kept me alive on more than one occasion.”
“A Peacekeeper must practice control over his emotions even in the most difficult situations. Acknowledge the fear as the powerful energy that it is, and then try to channel it.”
I wanted to say something smart in response, but I could tell she was trying to be helpful in her odd way. Instead, I asked, “How?”
“Take a deep breath.” Dyna inhaled through her nose. “Then let it out.”
I rolled my eyes, but obeyed her instructions, breathing in through my nose, then out through my mouth.
“Again.”
“And then what, wax on, wax off?”
“Again,” she said, more forcefully.
I sighed but did as she asked.
“Now try to redirect your energy into a more useful channel.”
“Like what?”
She looked around for a second, then laid a hand on my shoulder. I felt a cooling sensation on that side of my body and relaxed slightly. “Focus on the road in front of you. The cars around us. Driving is a good meditation. That’s it. Keep breathing.”
I took a slow, deep breath in, filling my lungs with air. Then, shakily, exhaled.
Breath by breath, the exercise pulled me back into a calmer state. The fear didn’t disappear, but it did stop bouncing its foot so much. My shoulders dropped as my neck muscles relaxed. I noticed I still had a twinge in my back from sleeping in the chair, but it was no longer troublesome. It was more of a nuisance than a real pain and would soon go away.
The rest of the ride passed in silence. We made good time. In twenty minutes, we crossed the river on the Highway 360 bridge, and then exited onto a two-lane road heading into the hills.
Dyna directed me along a few more turns. After about five minutes, we approached a power plant surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, clearly designed to keep trespassers out.
“Maintain your velocity,” Dyna said.
I kept the speedometer needle pinned on fifty-five. “A normal person would just say, keep driving.”
“Now,” she said, ignoring my remark, “turn around, and park on that side of the road so that we can survey the property.”
I slowed then popped a U-turn and pulled off on the shoulder. Kilos opened his eyes and leaned forward from the back seat. I could feel his breath quickening on the back of my neck as he went through a series of his own mental preparations. I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of combat they’d seen to be so calm in this situation. I’d met plenty of cops, FBI agents, and even soldiers who’d acted less experienced than these two. The three of us stared silently at a bank of solar panels, past a web of electrical lines to a square, three-story cement building beyond.
As for myself, despite Dyna’s curt instruction, I found I was still pretty jumpy. I slouched lower into my seat. Every time a car crested the road headed in our direction, my body tensed until it passed. From the power plant, a dozen cars or more exited until only a few remained. As the sun fell below the horizon, exterior lights, yellow and steady, uninterrupted by any power surge or sparks, illuminated the building and parking area.
“Are you sure he’s here?” I asked.
“He is nearby,” Dyna said. “I can feel his presence. Also, this facility is the most logical target. A Pharsei’s inclinations are… unique, and surprisingly devoid of imagination.”
Something occurred to me, and I thought back once more to that memory loop of the brief rooftop altercation with Elekatch. To the conversation I had with him before I blacked out completely. He seemed to be able to pluck thoughts right out of my mind. “When he knocked me out on the rooftop, I felt a kind of pain in my head. He knew my name.”
Dyna nodded as if that sounded familiar. “Pharsei are also known for their telepathic abilities.”
“So, he can he read minds?”
“Not read, exactly. It is more accurate to say that within close proximity, he has the power to project himself into your thoughts.”
I felt my fear harden into a white-hot anger. “Is that what he was doing on the rooftop—pawing through my brain? How do I stop him from doing that?”
“We don’t have time for a lesson right now. If we see him, let us”—she pointed to herself and Catman in the backseat—“do the fighting. You remain at a distance and use your…” She flipped a wrist toward the lockbox in my trunk. “Long-range weapons.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, so they’re not cumbersome now, are they?”
“They are, but I’d rather you do what is comfortable for you at this point. Once Elekatch is in our custody, then we can worry about making sure you receive comprehensive education and training to ensure these gaps in your knowledge are no longer a liability.”
I pushed my tongue into my cheek and said nothing. She seemed to be forgetting that, unlike Kilos, I didn’t work for her. My gut also boiled at the thought of being the newbie in this party. One thing still tickled at the back of my brain, though.
“What does he need the power for?” I asked.
“We have our suspicions, but none can be independ
ently verified at this time.”
“Care to share those suspicions with me?”
She paused. “Do you plan to accept my offer and join our ranks?”
I shook my head. “No way. I told you, I’m not your snitch.”
“Then I do not think it wise to share that information with you. It is superfluous to our current objective.”
A cold sweat flashed down my spine. Maybe she hadn’t forgotten. I grunted, then breathed deeply and steadily to dispel my irritation.
“That is better,” she said.
A few more minutes passed in silence while we watched the power plant. There was a gatehouse with a single guard inside. Only about half a dozen cars were parked in the lot adjacent to the solar panel array. These days, power plants didn’t require many workers, and even still, most of them went home after work.
Dyna suddenly squinted and put her fingers to her temple. Then her eyes snapped open and she cursed in an alien tongue.
“He’s inside now.” Dyna knocked impatiently on the dashboard. “Drive to the gatehouse.”
The plant, built recently to provide power to the growing residential and commercial districts northwest of Austin, reminded me of a military base. I drove up to the open door of the gatehouse and rolled down my window, putting on my most cheerful smile. The guard was chunky, his gut hanging out over his rent-a-cop pants. He had one thumb tucked between the pages of a paperback novel as he squinted through his bifocals at us. “Can I help you?”
“Hey there,” I said. “How are ya? I’m just looking for—”
I bit off the words as the guard slumped forward in his chair. The book got sandwiched between his gut and the edge of the desk. His head went forward onto the keyboard with a plastic clank. Soon I heard the annoyed beeping sound a computer makes when you hold down a button for too long.
Dyna climbed out of the truck, stepped into the gatehouse, and pressed buttons until one of them opened the gate.
“How did you do that?” I asked, leaning out of my window. It looked like the guy was sleeping.
She cocked her head, and I felt a prodding at my mind like Elekatch had done on the rooftop. My anger flared like a torch, and I gritted my teeth. The probing sensation retreated, and a smile spread across Dyna’s face, glowing golden in the dusk.
I glared at her as she walked around and climbed back into the truck.
“Stay out of my head!” I snarled angrily.
“Consider that your first lesson. That is what you need to do with Elekatch, but with less anger. Anger makes you reckless and clumsy, and in such a state, it will be easy for him to slip past your defenses.”
I shoved my tongue against my teeth. My cheeks shook. “How about a little warning next time?”
She scoffed. “Elekatch will not give you a warning.”
“I—” I gritted my teeth. “Can you just—”
She held up a hand. “That’s as much as I can teach you right now. We must get inside the facility before Elekatch realizes we are here.”
Shaking my head, I stepped on the gas.
The road curved around the solar panels and led to the parking lot in front of the power plant. As we approached, my eyes were drawn to a flashing light at the roofline.
Dyna sighed, pointing toward the anomaly. “He already knows.”
“Let’s get this over with,” Kilos growled.
Dyna nodded. “Use of deadly force authorized.”
“Let me out of this rusty can, human.”
“Hang on! And don’t call me ‘human,’ you overgrown tabby cat.”
I pulled into the nearest empty space and jammed the truck into park, then swung the door open and stepped to the back of the truck.
Grabbing my Kimber 1911 from the lockbox, I put it in the shoulder holster under my left arm. The feel of cold steel against my skin steadied my hands somewhat. Compared to this, bargaining with the Gatekeeper seemed like a walk in the park. From the lockbox, I also retrieved a flashlight and a couple extra magazines.
The Peacekeepers were already at the front door. Dyna cupped her hands at waist level, and hoisted Kilos up. He grabbed the top of the doorframe, kicked off Dyna’s hands, and scampered straight up the wall like freaking Spider-Man, muscles rippling, blond dreadlocks waving against the darkening sky.
A snarling laughter, like two rocks grinding together in a tuba horn, echoed down from the rooftop.
“Come on,” Dyna hissed in a whisper. “Inside! Hurry.”
She ducked into the building as the lights began to flicker.
15
Dyna charged ahead, barreling through an empty lobby, and then down a long hallway into the facility. Drawing my pistol and gripping it with two hands, I ran after her into the strobing lights.
As we moved, a deep and steady humming grew louder until I could feel it in my chest. I followed the Peacekeeper, jogging as fast as I could through the corridors while checking our tail and trying not to trip over my own feet in the process.
As we approached a set of double doors, there was a series of ripping pops from behind us.
Dyna and I both dove toward the wall, shielding our heads. Glass rained down and we were plunged into total darkness as the overhead lights exploded one after another.
“That’s not good,” I said. I clicked on my flashlight and held it out wide to my right, angled at the ground. Sometimes, you see law enforcement depicted on television shows resting their gun against the flashlight, one in each hand. That’s not realistic, or smart. Until you know where your enemy is, you don’t want to give them a shiny target.
Thankfully, we were alone.
“We need to get to the roof,” Dyna said, her whistle-chime voice shrill and breathless. She shouldered open the double doors, keeping her hands open at her waist, palms out.
As we crossed the threshold into a warehouse-like room, I could feel the humming vibration in every cell of my body like I was standing next to a ten-foot-tall speaker at a rock concert. I pointed the flashlight around me, looking for a stairwell. The room was huge, swallowed in shadows. Dozens of generators filled the cavernous space, tall like silos, with maintenance paths curving around and between them. A large screen and keyboard were set into consoles at the foot of each generator, but their screens showed a scrambled mess of garbled windows, random code snippets, and red and black error messages; apparently the whole system had been overloaded along with the lightbulbs.
Several frantic voices cut through the din, forcing me and Dyna to take cover behind the nearest generator. Waves of heat emanated from it. Setting my back against the curved hull of the machine, the vibrations went even deeper, shaking my arms numb.
“These puppies are working overtime right now!”
Dyna nodded. “Elekatch has taken control of the facility.”
I edged around just a bit to get a sight on where the voices had come from and bumped into a man wearing a white helmet. He was lifting a walkie talkie to his mouth when he saw me. Dyna leaned out and grabbed him, then cupped her hand over his mouth to stifle a scream. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed in a heap at her feet.
She pulled the worker’s slack body into the shelter of the generator. I stared. Maybe being a Peacekeeper did have its perks. That was a skill I could use in my work. “You’ve got to show me how to do that.”
Peering around the generator again, Dyna pointed to an office in the far corner of the vast plant. Several more flashlights flared to life, illuminating laptops and scattered papers, coffee cups and large printouts held up in gloved hands. There were maybe six people in total. Probably a few more checking out the generators, too, like this guy had been.
“Care to share any of those suspicions with me now?” I said.
“Elekatch must be trying to siphon the excess energy.”
“Into what?”
Shaking her head, she changed the subject. “Kilos is strong, but he can’t hold Elekatch indefinitely without our support. How do we get to the roof?�
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Moving carefully so the generators stayed between us and rest of the workers we could see, we finally located a set of metal stairs that zigzagged up a corner. They led to a metal balcony, where engineers and operators could observe the generators from above. From there, a ladder led to platform with a single door near the roof.
Dyna went first. I raced up the stairs after her, pocketing my flashlight.
I followed her through a door, onto the roof, gripping my gun and bracing for impact, but Elekatch was nowhere to be seen. Partially obscured behind several air-conditioning fans and other HVAC equipment, a bright object emitted a blue-green glow.
I didn’t have time to study the source of the light. My eyes were immediately drawn upward. While we were inside, thick, billowing clouds of steam had belched from the tops of the five cooling towers. Their barrels stuck up like smoking guns in the night. The ambiance of the glowing light played off the clouds to silhouette two shadowy figures leaping along the tops of the smokestacks.
I gaped. “What is your partner playing at?”
“He’s distracting the fugitive.”
Dyna licked her lips once, and then darted across the roof toward the turquoise glow.
As she studied the light source, one of the shadowy man-shaped figures struck out at the other. As the struck man fell through the air, tentacles splayed out from the ends of his appendages like a starfish, slapping to the wall of the smokestack and slowing his fall.
The other figure—who must have been Kilos—dove off the lip of a smoke stack. He yanked Elekatch from the wall on his way down and they landed with a loud thud in a puff of dust.
Elekatch was up and scrambling toward us in a second, using his tentacles to cartwheel Kovak’s body like a marionette. A hissing scream anticipated his arrival, rage infusing the throaty vocalization.
The tentacled alien vaulted up and came down on the near side of the roof, leaving lacerations in the rooftop where the barbed ends of his tentacles scraped. He stood there, expanding and contracting Cameron Kovak’s skin like a water balloon, stretching it to translucence at points as the Pharsei evidently caught his breath.