by Angela White
“What?” Heather demanded angrily. “Don’t look at me that way!”
It got the attention of the sleeping men. They all jerked as Angela came to the stand in front of her former Eagle.
“Tell me why.” Angela already knew, but it was important that everyone else did too.
“I’m sick,” Heather admitted reluctantly. She didn’t expect help or sympathy from the enemy.
“I didn’t have to be the enemy,” Angela began, but Heather snarled, “Save it!”
Sighing deeply, Angela knelt in front of Heather’s cage. “I could have healed your disease. A weak immune system isn’t like Cancer.”
Heather wasn’t going to be swayed by proof of any kind. Her mind raced furiously through escape plan and even murder plots.
Angela reached a hand out. “Let me show you something.”
Aware that Angela could force it, Heather slowly extended her hand.
Angela clasped it gently, voice sad. “I find you guilty and sentence you to be reclaimed.”
Heather screamed, jerking back, but Angela’s hold was like steel. She stole Heather’s life with a vicious, regretful, mental yank.
The withered corpse fell over, hitting the bars.
Shouts for mercy filled the tent as Angela stood up. Heather had admitted to revealing Safe Haven locations and protection to the government. She’d followed her traitorous orders and trailed the recon teams. Angela had counted on someone doing that, but she’d known the government would have them on the satellites anyway as the only thing moving across the country. Heather had sacrificed herself for information that the enemy didn’t even really need. It was pathetic.
Ignoring the screams and her dying soul, Angela continued to the next captive.
Adrian watched her take the lives that these men and women had wasted. They would have been shot or hung later. It was better that Angela took their energy, and through her, they would remain in a fashion, finally serving the greater good. He had no worries that he was next, despite deserving it. He waited for her to stop in front of his cage before speaking. She’d spared only one of them.
Next to Adrian, Sergeant Wallz remained silent and grateful that Donner wanted him enough to trade for.
“Be careful with Donner,” Adrian warned. “He’s not stable.”
“We know.”
The double timbre of both witch and woman was evidence of the merger he’d suggested.
Adrian nodded his approval. “You’re right on track. The pieces are in place and you’re about to end this ugliness forever. How does that feel?”
Angela’s face lit up with the first real smile he’d seen from her in a long while. He noted the gray in her hair still standing out in stark contrast, but he didn’t comment on it. Donner didn’t need to know she’d fed recently. That was intentional.
Angela held out a hand.
Adrian placed his in hers with only a twinge of nervousness. She was powerful enough to kill any of them now.
Angela searched his mind for last minute details, always suspicious of tricks, then pulled out. She let go of his hand and left the tent. She’d needed a brief second of human contact before she went out to face her people. After this, she might be dead or a prisoner for the rest of her life. She was unable to see that future and now knew that was because there wasn’t a future for them until this moment was decided.
Angela hit the button on her belt as she stepped from the tent that was surrounded by her guards and friends. They’d come running to help her when the prisoners had begun to scream, but they’d quickly retreated from the canvas when they’d discovered the reason for it. A few of the witnesses had fled to other parts of this campsite, but Shawn stayed close to his boss as she walked through the cold drizzle.
“This is Safe Haven. We are surrounded...Do it now!”
Outside the gates, a massive set of explosions went off, circling the cliff and blasting away chunks of stone. Set by Kenn and Jeff, the detonations had been carefully placed to chip away a large part of the flat area, creating a wide gap that the soldiers would have to jump across, exposing themselves. Pieces of debris wouldn’t cover it and the enemy no longer had gear or the will to scavenge anything sturdier.
As the dust settled over everything, the radio lit up again.
“This is Donner, Ms. White. That was your last act of defiance. My men will overrun you in less than an hour.”
Angela didn’t answer yet, waiting for what she needed to hear.
“End it now and I’ll spare them.”
Angela’s mind flipped into the fourth ring of her plan. She answered with loathing, “Come on in and we’ll settle the terms.”
“On my way.”
Angela knew it wouldn’t take long. Donner was ready for this moment.
Angela went to the command tent, waving a few of her closest people along. It was time for the part she’d been dreading.
Neil, Jeremy, Cynthia, and a few others followed her in silent disapproval. Neil and Jeremy went first.
“The last two numbers were in her Will.”
“Why did Samantha leave us her Will?”
Angela faced them with the truth. “Because she wasn’t sure if she might die today.”
Neil and Jeremy shouted, but Angela lost her patience. She mentally shoved them both out of their chairs and onto the damp canvas floor. Her gifts were still growing.
Both men stayed down, but continued to demand answers.
“You had no right!”
“She’s pregnant! How could you use her?!”
Show some respect! the witch bellowed. The mental pain sank in, ringing and silencing every activity across the camp.
Angela brought the witch under control and slowly went to her chair, sat in it.
“Get Adrian. Its time he told everyone the truth.”
There was restless muttering as Shawn went for Adrian and the crowd around the tent grew.
Adrian didn’t resist, taking the chair across from Neil and Jeremy when Angela waved him into it.
Adrian met her eye. “You’re sure?”
“We’ll win,” she answered tonelessly. “I’ve seen it.”
That was good enough for Safe Haven’s former leader. He used his un-cuffed hand to push the button. “My name is Adrian Mitchel…and I work for the United States government. I have for most of my life. After the war, I was supposed to take Safe Haven to the nearest bunker and hand them over. The government doesn’t want survivors to gather. They want you to die.”
2
Donner listened to Adrian’s tale with frustration. He was unable to get through until Adrian let off the radio transmit button and that man wasn’t going to until the story was finished. The main bunker was controlling the radio waves now, watching and listening. Donner might be able to get one of his fleeing men at the den to cut them off anyway, but by the time it happened, this call would be over.
After a minute, Donner tried to put these newest pieces together for his profile. It was something that nearly everyone listening was doing. The idea that Adrian–their very reason for being together–was a traitor and secret agent, was overwhelming.
“When the bunker made contact, they didn’t like how long I was taking. They threatened my son. When I refused to hand over Safe Haven, they began hunting him to draw me in. It worked. We went into Little Rock and killed them all.”
Donner put that piece into place with a snap of understanding. Something had delayed Mitchel and the bunker had thought he’d turned on them. “Bad choice, threatening his son,” Donner murmured. “Especially when he was already on your side.”
Adrian’s voice had paused. It came again, broken. “I was supposed to die there. I wanted to, for the sins I’ve committed, the trusts I’ve destroyed. I’m…I’m sorry for all of it. I’ll be executed knowing I owe a debt that can never be repaid.”
As if they knew he wouldn’t cut them off now, the radio stopped crackling and then Angela’s voice came.
“Why did
you work for them?”
“I was born in the lab. I didn’t have a choice.”
“You could have refused when you were older.”
“I was already corrupt by then. I didn’t have a reason to change.”
“You found one, leading Safe Haven?”
“No. I gathered Safe Haven’s flock and guards to watch my ass while I went to Little Rock for my son. They meant nothing to me until you came.”
Now Donner understood what the delay had been and how Adrian must have been tortured by trying to earn what he would never have when the truth came out.
“Because with me, you could be free of them?”
“Yes, but not only me. They have our kind enslaved across the planet. I didn’t need to change myself. I needed to change the world.”
“Which is why you didn’t try to stop the war?”
“Yes. The herd had to be thinned anyway, but the weakened governments would provide us with that opportunity.”
“I thought you said you were corrupt.”
“I was,” he admitted shamefully. “Because I had refused my destiny, my purpose, until the war came. I chose not to fight when I couldn’t win.”
“So you sided with the enemy until it was convenient to reveal your truth?”
“It’s not just my truth,” he pointed out. “You all believe in it too or you wouldn’t be here dying.”
“But we didn’t help cause the downfall of society and then cover it up!”
“No, you would never break that way.”
“No.”
There was silence for a minute where Donner waited eagerly for more, not bothering to look at the destruction below the noisy chopper. He didn’t care.
“What was the master plan?”
“To gather enough descendants to fight them!” Adrian shouted, clearly growing angry that she didn’t understand. “They have no right to hold us! Experiment on us! Take our kids! That world is over now and I’d do it all again!”
The radio went dead.
Donner contemplated it as his pilot flew them closer to his life-long dreams. If he could have produced his own children, none of this would be happening, but Donner was suddenly glad it had worked out this way. Using Angela to eliminate the remaining government was perfect justice for their kind, a neat sentence for her becoming a traitor to her rulers. The child would be his reward. Donner’s good mood rose to the surface and he slapped the pilot on the arm, grinning. “Great day for a ride!”
The pilot, nervous enough, gave a weak chuckle and concentrated on landing where Donner wanted him to. Once he got the crazy Major to the cabin, the pilot planned to vanish into the night. After witnessing the devastation below, he didn’t want any part of Safe Haven and the descendants. They hadn’t even used magic to accomplish all that! What could Angela do if she unleashed her full powers? The pilot didn’t intend to stick around and find out.
3
“Stay away!”
Greg and Shawn were trying to keep the pissed fighters from dragging Adrian from the tent. It took Angela coming to stand behind them to calm the mob down. They had a deep respect for her.
“I’m trading him for our people,” Angela announced. “He’ll be in a government cell before dawn.”
The small crowd frowned and muttered, and Angela raised a brow. “Should I put a bullet in him and try to buy Samantha and Tracy? What about Seth and the others?”
No one had an answer, but everyone was clearly unsatisfied.
“I want our people returned. I may be able to accomplish that without trading him, if you prefer that Adrian is kept to face a Safe Haven trial.”
Again, mutters and grumbles and no satisfaction. Angela led them into the option she needed them to pick. “We could trade him, get our people, and then snatch him away at the last minute. Or kill him while he’s in their custody.”
“We can’t leave him for them to use anymore,” Greg said lowly. “I say we use him and then dole out Safe Haven justice when it’s all over.”
There was a feeling of stress easing as Angela topped it off with, “My justice, if you like. It isn’t gentle.”
They knew that too well from the last days and even from before that, when she’d brought Adrian out of Little Rock and then kept them alive through nature’s fury.
“I agree. Use him to trade and we’ll do a snatch-n-grab they won’t be ready for. I’ll lead it if you want.”
Hearing Zack would be going along also helped.
“Same here,” Daryl called. Cynthia, under his arm, added her agreement.
Neil and Jeremy were relieved that Angela hadn’t made it all about sacrificing Samantha, but they were still terrified that she wasn’t coming home.
“You’ll get another chance for answers,” Angela told them. “We all will.”
She moved into the filthy command tent as the crowd slowly broke up.
Angela couldn’t respond the way she wanted to. That had been one of the hardest parts of this scheme so far, telling them about Adrian. It was right behind the dozens of men and women they were missing and presumed to have lost.
Angela waved her top men to the table that had surrounded her with their bodies as the crowd outside had gone from tired fighters to mob.
“If I had done this any other way, we would have buried our entire camp and those with us. I started the fight. I drew them here. I wiped them down to the same levels we’re at. The playing field is level now. You’ll only have to deal with the threats one at a time. React as I would. After that, they’ll leave us alone for a long time.”
Neil wasn’t sure why she was telling them these things, but the other men had already caught on, including Jeremy, who had noted that same expression on Samantha’s face right before she left for this run.
“Things will go fast once the chopper lands. He won’t spend extra time or let himself be taken. None of you are to interfere.”
“But we could overrun one chopper!” Neil exclaimed. “And then have Donner to–”
“Do you think the bunker will trade our freedom for Donner’s life?” Angela demanded coldly.
Neil wanted to say yes, but couldn’t. He shook his head.
“Neither do I,” she said, sinking further into her depression. “I’m trading for all our lives, including my own. Do as I tell you and let him take us out of here.”
“What does it accomplish?” Shawn asked, knowing Marc would want that answer.
“I have several things to try when he gets here, but I expect all of them to fail. Going with him will allow everyone a safe pass off this death zone and give Marc time to convince the soldiers on the other side of that gate to join us. When that happens, come get me.”
Angela waved them out when they would have argued, calling for Cynthia. “I need a few minutes, gentlemen.”
The males left the tent grumbling, but satisfied she still had their best interests at heart. As long as they could tell Marc it had been for the good of the camp, he would let them live.
“Something went wrong on Jennifer’s end of the plan,” Angela stated lowly as soon as they were alone. “She won’t be here.”
Cynthia frowned. “Is she okay?”
Angela nodded, packing thing into a small kit. “Yes, and so is the baby, though the same can’t be said of Lilly. She planned to take Jennifer’s child to Donner and trade for a pass to the bunker, but Autumn had a better idea.”
Cynthia didn’t ask what would happen to Lilly once Jennifer got her daughter. That scene would be uglier than what Angela had done here.
“I think that too,” Angela agreed. “We’ll proceed without her.”
“But she’s your guard and escort, and then Marc’s right hand.”
Angela glanced up pointedly.
Cynthia realized the duty was now hers. “Yeah, okay. I can do that.”
“Good. Would you like to go over it with me to be sure we’re together?”
“Yes, that’s a good idea.” Cynthia didn’t let herself worr
y over the change. Angela had told them adjusting would be necessary in places.
“The hardest part first,” Angela instructed, scribbling on a notepad.
“I have to handle Marc.”
“Yes. He has to read this before he leaves the gates.”
“And if I can’t, then I have to handle his duties.”
“And you can,” Angela supported. “This isn’t the first time you’ve saved lives.”
Cynthia smiled in pleasant surprise as Angela handed her the note.
“Stay with Marc through this. He’ll have Kendle if he wants her, but he’ll pick anyone else if he has the choice.”
“I will,” Cynthia vowed. “We’ll have work for her. If she returns.”
“She and Kevin’s team are close. They had to wait out the explosions and it’s not safe for them to come out yet. They’ll be in soon though. It might trigger a new fight at the gate. Make sure you’re ready for that.”
Cynthia took out her notebook and wrote it down, then placed the message to Marc inside. She’d already memorized it in case her book was damaged, but she was dreading that moment. It wasn’t a nice note.
“It has to be harsh,” Angela explained, hearing the rumbling blades of a helicopter. “Our camp surviving depends on it.”
4
“I don’t want to go. I request sanctuary.”
Those words drew frowns from Adrian and Conner, who were in the canvas behind the command tent together, cuffed to the table.
Angela had just come in and the Sergeant hadn’t wasted a second.
“Please.”
Angela was aware of time now running faster and raised a brow. “Sell me.”
“Donner has a secret plan to challenge the government after he claims you and Adrian. I don’t want any part of fighting for either side.”
Angela saw no lies in David’s mind, only concern for his own actions. She was forced to adapt her plan on the fly again.
Angela raised a hand and sent a bolt of red light that slammed into the Sergeant’s chest to knock him backwards. He sprawled awkwardly against the bars and didn’t move.