by Gini Koch
Gower shook his head. “I’m not the right person to be Pontifex. It should stay within the family line.”
I snorted. “Like Christopher has the Zen to be the religious leader? From the first day I was with you guys, I knew who Richard’s successor would be. At least, who it should be.”
“But you have to accept it, Paul.” White’s voice was gentle. “And I must insist you decide quickly. The Pontifex needs to advise Jeffrey whether we should let our enemy live or not. I can’t make that decision objectively any longer—I know what that means.”
Gower swallowed. “I promised to protect you with my life, Richard.”
White nodded. “Protect me now as our religious leader. Protect the world by working with the superconsciousness that loves us.” He stroked Jamie’s head. “A new day is coming, Paul. Change is here, and we have to adapt to it properly or we will perish. Please—I ask this as my last act as Sovereign Pontifex, that you succeed me while I live, not after I die.”
Gower looked at both of us. Then he nodded and turned around. “Jeff, let him live.”
CHAPTER 65
JEFF HEAVED A SIGH but he stopped slamming Al Dejahl into the wall. “Oh, fine. I want him locked up and not on the same floor where I live.”
“That won’t be an issue, I’d assume, Jeffrey.” White gave me a small smile. “Let’s get the rest of our people, shall we? Then we can discuss personnel changes.”
A contingent of big Security A-Cs showed up and carried Al Dejahl off. Camilla shook her head. “Killing your enemy is a lot safer.”
Gower nodded. “In self-defense, yes. Just because you can? No.”
Jeff came over to me. He picked me up and kissed me. “I suppose telling you to stay here while I go back to the others is useless.”
“You know it. Mom, do you have any milk left?”
“Plenty.”
Jeff put me down, helped me take the Snugli off, then he cuddled Jamie and kissed her head. “Mommy and Daddy will be right back, Jamie-Kat.” Mom took her, and we strapped the Snugli on her. Jeff looked at White. “You’re sure?”
White nodded. “Yes.” He looked at the others. “We’ll do this more officially, I’m sure, but as of now, I am no longer Sovereign Pontifex. That honor, and all the authority and respect that comes with it, now belongs to Paul Gower. Listen to him as you’ve listened to me all these years.”
Jeff nodded. “Anyone who doesn’t will be considered a traitor. I don’t like traitors, in case anyone wasn’t sure.” He looked at me. “Let’s go.”
I looked at White. “Embassy, Mister White?”
White smiled. “I’d assume so, Missus Martini.”
I looked up at Jeff. “Meet my newest recruit.”
Jeff shook his head. “You’re like Typhoid Mary for adrenaline junkies.”
“It’s a gift.” I took White’s hand. Jeff raised his eyebrow. “Hey, he’s my partner.”
Jeff took my other hand. “So am I. And I have to guess you can handle a double dose of hyperspeed now.” We headed off to the launch area. “Embassy, now, all together.”
“Yes, sir, Commander.” The A-C was the same one who’d worked the gate when White and I had left hours—or was it days?—ago. It seemed like days, but reality told me it was just hours.
I looked around. He was the only A-C on the job in this area. “You’re back on duty fast.”
He flashed a quick smile. “My brothers always said I ignored directions really well. I was able to resist the order to assemble and stay in the launch area.” He looked down. “I did give in to the mind control, though, finally.”
“So did everyone else, including the Head of Security. I think you did pretty damned well, all things considered.”
Jeff grunted. “I agree.”
He looked proud for a moment. “Thank you, Commanders. Please be careful . . . again,” he said to me.
“Will do.” My throat felt tight. “Do you know . . . were your brothers with Captain Crawford?” I held my breath. Maybe they’d been sent to Florida.
He swallowed. “One of them was, yes.”
I had to know. “Which one?”
“Wayne.”
The empath. The big, fun, nice empath who knew me well enough in a short time to know where I’d hidden a file. One of the only two who could back me and Chuckie on the superbeings as supersoldiers thing. “Why didn’t he go to Florida with William? Why did Tim break them up? They were a team.”
“William’s married and has a baby due soon. He . . . he told me Captain Crawford said you’d want the expectant father to be safe.”
“He was right.” I’d wanted all of them to be safe, though.
The A-C looked at Jeff. “Gate’s ready, Commander.”
Jeff nodded. “Thank you.”
We walked through together. It occurred to me that I still didn’t know Wayne’s younger brother’s name. I didn’t have time to dwell on that, though. The gate still made me sick, and this time we weren’t landing on a moving train. I might be superenhanced, but gates were apparently going to stay the bane of my existence.
It was dark, but I could see decently, only there wasn’t much to see, just a lot of boxes and the gate we’d exited through. “Where are we?” I whispered.
“Basement.” Jeff was speaking softly. “Stay together. Richard, they won’t know you’re not Pontifex any more. Have no idea what that will or won’t mean, just be aware of it. Kitty, seriously, let me run in first, okay?”
“Man thing?”
“Yeah, I don’t want to see my wife killed, call me a caveman.”
“Later, when we have a bassinet and the baby’s asleep.”
White chuckled. “It’s nice to know she always focuses, Jeffrey.”
We went up three sets of stairs to the second floor. I could hear raised voices. “How is one human managing to hold off our entire freaking team?”
“We’re not as good with hostage situations as you are.” Jeff’s sarcasm knob was back to eleven.
“Guess not.”
We rounded a corner and ended up in a doorway to what I realized was a ballroom. Why the A-C Embassy had a ballroom I didn’t know, but I also didn’t have time to worry about it, because I saw how Gaultier had our team pinned.
He didn’t just have Amy—he had all of Jeff’s family.
CHAPTER 66
EVERYONE BUT AMY WAS HELD in what looked like an electronic pen that locked them against a wall with no door or windows. The pen glowed and shimmered—I got the impression touching it was a bad idea.
On the plus side, in addition to all of Jeff’s sisters, nieces, and nephews, the rest of his brothers-in-law were in the net as well, meaning they might not all be traitors like Clarence. I decided not to dwell on my new definition of “plus side.”
Gaultier was in front of the pen. He had Amy in a chokehold and a gun at her head. We were in a doorway that was in the middle of the long room—Gaultier and his mass of hostages were to our left, our team was spread out to our right, Christopher in front of them.
Jeff was ready to leap into the room, but White and I held him back. “Wait,” I whispered.
Gaultier hadn’t spotted us. “You can’t win.”
Christopher snorted. “And you can? By doing what, exactly? You kill her, kill any of them, and I kill you. How do you win that way?”
Gaultier laughed. “If I die, the pen will kill them all. You want to be the one who kills all those little children?”
“How did you turn into this?” Amy snarled. “You weren’t always like this.”
“Sure he was,” Chuckie said. “I told you, you just didn’t want to believe it. Your mother died, and his only restraint died with her. Speaking of which, where’s the trophy wife? She in on this or sitting home thinking you’re on a business trip?”
Gaultier smiled. “She’s perfectly safe.” He shook Amy. “She’s not against being queen of a new world. What’s wrong with you?”
I studied the pen. “Where’s the swit
ch, do you think?” I whispered in White’s ear.
“I’d imagine on his person somewhere. Do you notice anything odd about him?”
I looked carefully. “His nose isn’t broken any more.”
White nodded. “He enhanced himself. The drug is popular.”
“Your wife might enjoy life on a new world, but you won’t,” Christopher snarled. “It’s eating you up.”
“What?” Gaultier laughed. “The Surcenthumain? Hardly. I feel great.”
I knew what Christopher wanted to do, but I didn’t see a clear way for him to do it without Amy or all of Jeff’s family dying. Which meant we needed to disengage the net and create a distraction.
Moved back a step and spoke softly. “Poofies.” Six Poofs showed up, silently, at my feet. I went down on my knees. “Can you get to Alfred’s family, Harlie? Behind the net?” No Poof mewling or purring. I took that as a “no.” Limitations to Poof talents was not the news I was hoping for.
White stepped back and squatted down. “Can you rescue all of Alfred’s family who are held here in the net in this ballroom?” The Poofs bounced up and down, then disappeared.
“Dude, again, you rock beyond all others.”
Jeff pulled me and White to our feet. “What do I have to do to get that kind of hero worship from you?”
“Tell you after I help Christopher.”
“Me, not you.”
“No, me. I’ll explain why later, okay?”
Jeff opened his mouth to argue, but White put his hand on Jeff’s chest. “Please, Jeffrey. Trust us.” He looked at me. “Missus Martini, your plan?”
“Going with the crazy again. It’s working so well for me right now.” Dug into my purse and pulled out my portable speakers. Plugged in my iPod, programmed the song, handed it to White. “He has a gun, so put this in the doorway, but be sure you and Jeff are against either wall when you turn it on.”
White nodded. “I approve of the song choice.”
I took my purse off and put it down and to the side. There was a door opposite us, I ran around to it. Got there in about two seconds. Hyperspeed was awesome. Christopher and Gaultier were still talking. He’d learned something from hanging out with me for the past couple of years. Keep the bad guy monologing, keep everyone alive.
“Is it the drugs making you act like this?” Amy asked. “Or are you actually enjoying it as much as you seem to be?”
Gaultier chuckled. “There’s nothing more enthralling than power. You used to understand that.”
“That’s not how I was raised. You were never like this when Mother was alive.”
“You need to stop mewling for a woman who’s been dead for years. She lacked vision, something I see you’ve inherited from her.”
“Right now, I’m praying I’ve inherited everything from her.” I recognized the expression on Amy’s face—I’d seen it at her mother’s funeral and a few other times in our lives—she wanted to cry and was determined not to.
“Including an early grave,” Gaultier said with a sneer.
Hoped the Poofs were in place, because I could see Gaultier getting antsy. Had to figure he’d learned how to calibrate a gate, and I was confident there was more than one gate in the Embassy. Meaning that if he got away, we were going to have a hard time finding him, or stopping him from getting to Alpha Four.
“What are you waiting for?” Amy said. She sounded scared, but more, she sounded angry. “Why don’t you just kill me and all the others?”
“He’s waiting for me.” I walked into the room, but not too far in, close enough to leap back out through the doorway if I had to.
Gaultier laughed. “I knew you’d come. Yes, I am waiting for you. Come here, or I kill Amy and the others.”
I shrugged. “Go ahead. Al Dejahl might recover from the beating Jeff gave him, but I wouldn’t count on it. Cooper’s dead, Chuckie took care of him. Mister White and I took out all the Diplomatic Corps and all your C.I.A. buddies. That pretty much only leaves you.”
“And you’re here to take care of me?” Gaultier sneered. “You might be enhanced, but I have the upper hand.”
“Dude, seriously, upper hand? Who says that crap any more? You’re reading too many old megalomaniac how-to books. The modern megalomaniacs prefer something more effective than holding a bunch of little kids behind an elec-tronet.”
“The old ways are still effective.”
“Yeah?” I studied my fingernails. “Take a gander.” The net was empty. My Poofs had done their job.
Gaultier didn’t look pleased. “No idea of how you did that, but you apparently can’t whisk Amy away as easily, can you?”
“Nope. Besides, I’m figuring you and the rest of the Psycho Squad rigged the Embassy for bombs and such. Otherwise you wouldn’t be so confident standing there alone with a whole lot of younger, stronger, and seriously more pissed people in front of you. So, uh, guys? Do the bomb squad thing, will you?”
“Move and I set them off,” Gaultier said quickly.
“Blah, blah, blah. You can’t set them off because you’re in the freaking building, and we’re all really clear that you want to live forever. That’s what you think the drug will do, ultimately, right? Extend life—unlimited strength, regeneration, power.”
Gaultier shook his head. “You wasted your mind. You actually can think, can’t you? But you’ve wasted yourself with these people and their quixotic need to save the world.”
“Only world we’ve got.” I looked at Reader. “Seriously. Bomb check, unscramble the signals, and so on. Chop, chop, time’s wasting.”
He grinned at me. “Sorry, just love watching you work.” Reader barked some orders and the team left, other than Christopher, Chuckie, and the four women.
“Chuckie, get the girls to safety, would you? Science Center’s clean, finally. I’d suggest going through the gate in the basement, but if you want to see what they did to your apartment first, I have no objection; just keep the ladies with you.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. Get Abby and Mimi out of here, and get Melanie and Emily back to their daughters, who have made them proud but could use their kickass mothers right now, trust me.”
Naomi grabbed his hand, and the five of them zoomed off at hyperspeed.
I figured White had to be holding Jeff back by this time, but I tried to send an emotional signal that Jeff would be more useful defusing bombs and such. Wasn’t sure if he got it or would listen to it, but a girl could only try.
“So, just the four of us. Cozy.” I yawned. “Damn, I’m tired.” I really hoped I wasn’t going to have to do anything, because that exhaustion Gower had told me was likely seemed to be coming on fast. “Really, you’re going to off your own daughter?”
“She’s weak. I’ll have stronger children, children who won’t question me.”
“I liked you better when I thought this was all about money. Seriously, you suck at the megalomania. Believe me, I’ve seen some pros, and you’re like amateurville. Ames, try not to be too embarrassed by him. I’ll tell you about Jeff and Christopher’s grandfather some other time—talk about a guy who turned megalomania into an art form.”
“Do you ever shut up?” Gaultier asked.
“No,” Christopher said with a laugh. “She never does.”
“Part of my charm.” I hoped the team had the brains to figure out to tell White, not me, when all the bombs were found. Also hoped they’d find them soon—my breasts had been near my baby, and they wanted to do their job in a big way. “So, while we stand here in what I like to think of as the Psycho Standoff, how’d you make Christopher forget he shot up the first time?”
Gaultier snorted. “He was willing. Every time it came up, he was fighting with Reynolds about it.”
“C.I.A. have Chuckie bugged, huh? I’d have thought he’d sweep for that regularly.”
“He does, but your boy here carried the bug in with him.”
“Really? Wow, how did you get him to do that?” I cou
ld tell Christopher was furious and getting more so. Good. He was going to need the anger soon.
Gaultier laughed. “One of his nieces gave him a keychain he carries with him.”
“Which niece?”
“Stephanie.” Christopher’s teeth were gritted. “Sylvia and Clarence’s eldest.”
“Oh, yeah, we’ve met. She’s the one who told me your father would never let me marry Jeff. Got it on you?”
Christopher never took his eyes off Gaultier. He reached into his pocket and tossed the keychain to me.
“Interesting. Most of Alpha and Airborne have this same thing. She gave them to everyone for Arrival Day this year.” A-Cs didn’t celebrate most Earth holidays, but they were big on the official day they’d first landed on Earth. “I didn’t get one.”
“Jeff’s niece didn’t give you a gift?” Amy sounded shocked. I was impressed—even during this kind of hostage situation she could focus on propriety. Amy would never jog around during a solemn ceremony, and she knew all the forks to use, too.
“Oh, I got a gift.” I saw someone’s hand wave to me from the opposite doorway. Hoped it was the “get ready” signal, not the “run away” signal. “She gave me some tunes.”
CHAPTER 67
ON CUE, A HOWLING like only Screamin’ Steven Tyler could make blared out, loud and, in this room, echoing, as Aerosmith rolled into “Nine Lives.” Gaultier jerked and Christopher moved.
I could only see him because I was enhanced. He ripped the gun out of Gaultier’s hand and away from Amy, crushed it, shoved her out of the way, and then started pounding. As everyone said, Jeff was bigger and stronger, but Christopher was nastier.
I trotted over and grabbed Amy before she hit the ground. Christopher had moved her gently, but an A-C moving fast is hard on a human. I put my arm around her and got us to the wall to watch. I leaned against said wall. I’d only been this tired after being forced into a 10K run when I’d just been recovering from the flu. I wanted to lie down, but it didn’t seem like the right time to nap.
The music stopped. I assumed White was clear we didn’t need it any more.