by Lark Brennan
“What about the sensor? Are we taking it with us?”
The million dollar question he’d been struggling with since Sombrero. “Do we have a choice? The sensor or thousands of lives—even if it just buys us some time, it’s worth giving it to him.”
“Is it? He’ll destroy lives with the laser, if not tonight, tomorrow or the next day. What advantage will the sensor give him in the long run?”
“None if I set it to wipe clean in six hours. It’s got the same auto-destruct feature as our ComDevs. I’ll just set it to blow at a specific time instead of activating the fingerprint and voice code lockout the ComDevs use.”
She nodded. “Good plan. In six hours we’ll be gone or dead.”
He trudged back to the Range Rover, reviewing his mental to-do list and wishing they could just drive back to the harbor and fly away. The wind kicked sand up into his eyes and he swore. Why would anyone pay megabucks to live on this god-forsaken side of the island?
He looked around and saw nothing but jagged hills. No other villas or houses of any kind, only the ruin of a sugar mill high on the next hill overlooking the compound—a point that appeared to be the island’s tallest peak. Of course the plantation owner would have chosen the highest elevation for his windmill, which was now a round stone tower crumbling against the darkening sky. Tolian had chosen his remote location well.
• • •
The squirt-gun icon on his ComDev screen flashed twice, confirming the final app was programmed and functional. Bodie smiled. He’d made improvements to the standard Durand Tech apps and installed a couple handy ones of his own.
“Ready?” Lex asked.
Standing on the other side of the open window, her dark hair was pulled back from her face in a ponytail and her skin glowed with excitement.
He took her face in his hands and kissed her gently. “Let’s do this, babe.”
They half-crept, half-slid down the steep hillside to the back of the compound. She’d tucked tranquilizer pistols and the Beretta in the oversized pockets of her bush jacket. His backpack was loaded down with all the weapons he could carry and the sensor cushioned in the front panel. Not much fire power to attack a well-defended compound, but better than nothing. When they reached the bottom, they took cover behind a line of yucca plants.
Leaning into her ear, he spoke softly, trying to ignore the familiar honeysuckle scent of her skin. “I can send an interference signal with my ComDev to freeze the images on the surveillance cameras covering the helipad entrance. We’ll have ten seconds max before the cameras auto-reset. I assume you can disarm the gate.”
She grinned and lifted her own device. “Standard Protector enhancement. Just say when.”
“On three we run for the gate. One, two, three.” Together they rose and tore out across the helipad. Just as they reached the gate, the first couple notes of David’s ringtone sounded. Lex swore under her breath and cut them off.
“The gate,” Bodie whispered sharply.
“One second….”
They didn’t have a second. His heart pounded. They were out of time.
The lock clicked and she yanked the gate open far enough for them to slip through then eased it closed. Silently they ducked between a tall hibiscus bush and the cinderblock perimeter wall. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “Calls still override my apps. I haven’t gotten around to downloading a fix.”
“At least put it on vibrate so your social life doesn’t get us killed.”
She flicked the switch on her ComDev and slipped it into her breast pocket. “See anyone?”
“No.” The compound was quiet. No alarm had sounded and no one came outside to investigate. His skin prickled from the odd blend of delphic and orphic shimmering around them. This delphic had a distinctive taste and smell much different from the neutral energy he’d always experienced before. He reinforced his shield but the energy cocktail still set his teeth on edge.
“Picking up anyone in there?” he asked and pointed to the long narrow building to their right.
“Yeah. ComDev’s not blocked here. Interesting. Two people. First floor at the other end.”
Silently they passed the huge open walls, careful to use the lush foliage as cover. Sure enough, at the far end of the building two dark-skinned men sat in front of a big screen TV engrossed in a soccer match.
“This is too easy,” she said. “If they turn around distract them.”
She tiptoed into the room and raised the tranquilizer gun. Pop, pop. Both men slumped in their armchairs. Two down. Bodie joined her in the lounge and they rearranged the Dissemblers so from the outside path they appeared to be watching the screen. A quick search confirmed this building was guest quarters—living room, kitchenette, four bedrooms and baths. If access to the bunker was here, it was well concealed.
“There’s nothing in there,” she said as they stepped out into the shadows of the courtyard. “Tolian’s the ultimate control freak. If the research is important to him, he’ll regulate who comes and goes from the lab. I can’t see him putting the entrance in the garage or an outbuilding.”
“So we go in the villa.”
She hesitated. “It’s too quiet.”
Creepy quiet, but standing outside speculating wasn’t getting them any closer to Oxley or the laser. His ComDev could read high concentrations of metal and electronics. He tapped the app and slowly scanned the villa. The device detected electronic activity in what he guessed was the main living area and a combination of metal and electronics in the wing toward the back closest to the hill.
“This way.” He stepped out of the shadows and raced across the open courtyard. The back of the villa was open to the night, the vast kitchen with its monstrous stainless steel appliances empty and dimly lit. He cursed softly. “So much for fancy apps. Let’s look around anyhow.”
He started toward the front of the villa and she caught his arm.
Her hand was cold and her grip firm. She leaned into him and pointed toward a thin line of light on the far wall. “There’s another room behind that panel. What about surveillance cameras?”
He flashed his ComDev in a 360-degree arc, watching the screen. “None in the living quarters but what do we have here? Bingo. Cameras and alarms dead ahead. Good going, princess.”
Freezing the camera images, he motioned her to stand back. Sure enough the wall of the pantry slid open revealing an elevator.
“It could be a trap,” he said.
“Could be. If Tolian knows we’re here, he’s biding his time catching us. We may have enough lead to locate Oxley but we need to move fast.”
He agreed. The open kitchen made them easy targets. “Stand back.” Drawing the pistol from the holster under his jacket, he pushed the call button and held his breath. The motor hummed quietly as the car rose and the doors opened. Empty. They got in and he pushed the B button. The seconds it took to descend felt like an eternity. When the door opened, they raised their weapons and braced themselves.
The man who stood outside the elevator door stared at them in surprise. Lex shot him with the tranquilizer gun before he uttered a sound.
“You’re quick on the trigger,” Bodie said.
“He’s a Dissembler. I’m a Protector. If I’m not quick, I’m dead.”
They stepped into the corridor and Lex pointed toward a door to their right. “The other person is through there.”
“Stay behind me. If it’s Oxley, he and I have business.”
Slowly he opened the heavy steel door. Beyond was a modern electronics lab, and at a workstation facing the wall sat the pale, white-haired figure of Oxley Cowan. He turned slowly in his chair, a smile spreading on his face when he recognized them.
“You’re early, Jack,” he said. “And you brought Miss Durand.”
Bodie’s grip tightened on the cool steel. The little weasel was going to tell him what he wanted to know. He took two long strides and aimed his pistol at Oxley’s for
ehead. “Where’s the laser?”
“Still a bully.” Ignoring the Beretta, Oxley stood and approached Lex, hand extended. “Since Jack has no manners, let me introduce myself. Dr. Oxley Cowan.”
Lex pointed her tranq gun at his chest. “I don’t care. We’re here for the laser.”
He smiled. “Of course you are. What Jack couldn’t invent himself, he’s going to steal.”
Bodie grabbed him by the shoulder and whirled him around. “Only a madman would build a delphic laser, much less use it. I don’t know who’s crazier, you or your master.”
“I have no master,” Oxley snarled. “I’m the greatest scientist of our time—far superior to you—and my invention proves it.”
Bodie crossed his arms and shook his head dismissively. “Really? I’m not seeing it. So you built a laser that can zap dolphins and dive boats. Nasty weapon but not a scientific breakthrough. Any kid with a credit card and an internet connection can put together an invention that blows things up.”
Oxley’s pale face pinked. “I do not blow things up.”
“Semantics.”
“You’re a fool. You want to see semantics? I’ll show you semantics.” He pulled out a chair, sat down in front of a large monitor and started tapping angrily on the keyboard. A moment later a diagram appeared on the screen. “My design is pure genius.”
A low whistle escaped Bodie’s lips. The schematics were so simple and efficient he had to admire the design. But something critical was missing. “Impressive. Where does the concentrated delphic come from?”
A rosy flush rushed up Oxley’s pale neck and face. “That’s classified.”
Bodie grinned. “Classified? From who? From you?”
“Of course not!”
Lex lowered her gun. “You can’t work the laser on your own, can you? You need Tolian’s power to make the laser work.”
Oxley glared at her. “I don’t need anyone.”
She turned to Bodie. “He’s lying. He stinks of majik but he’s ordinaire and can’t control any significant delphic on his own.”
“Bullshit,” Oxley sputtered. “I was the one who sent those goddamned whales into oblivion.”
She stepped toward him and Bodie caught her arm. On second thought, he released her, seeing the benefit of letting her beat the intel they needed out of the obnoxious twerp. She caught Oxley by the throat and his eyes widened.
“Patience isn’t my strong suit,” she said. “Answer Bodie’s question. Where does the concentrated delphic come from?”
“It doesn’t matter. You can’t control it anyhow.”
Bodie gestured to Lex to let him go. “Then why not tell us and prove how inadequate we are? Or better yet, show us how it works.”
Oxley rubbed his neck and glared at Lex. “I’m not telling you shit.”
“Wrong answer.” Lex landed a quick blow to the side of his head and momentarily stunned him. “Want to try that again?”
Oxley rubbed his ear and glanced from her to Bodie.
“Show us the laser and how it works or we can go for round two,” she said.
Oxley’s thought process played out on his face. Was he more afraid of the pain Lex inflicted or Tolian’s anger? He sucked in a breath.
“It only gets worse,” Bodie told him, and noting the trembling of the guy’s hands, added, “She’s really good at this.”
“I might as well tell you. You can’t control the energy and he’ll never let you out of here alive.” Oxley cleared his throat. “They do it with some kind of majik. Tolian can do it with his mind alone.”
“Tell us exactly how the integration between the psychic manipulation and the technology works,” Bodie demanded.
Oxley barked out a nervous laugh and dropped back into the chair in front of the workstation. “It’s genius and totally beyond anything you ever imagined.”
The monitor transformed into a picture showing a design in three dimensions. The laser itself was remote to the controls—installed in the ruins of the sugar mill high on the hill behind the villa. It was the ideal vantage point to hit any target within a two hundred-seventy degree radius. But Bodie still wasn’t seeing how the energy got from a human source to the laser.
“We’re wasting time,” Lex said. “Let’s just destroy the damned thing and get the hell out of here.”
Cowan shuddered and his expression transformed into a cold mask. When he spoke the tenor of his voice deepened and held the hint of an accent. “You’re too late, Miss Durand.”
Lex swore.
The delphic energy in the room took on a rancid tang that sent a wave of nausea through Bodie’s gut until he consciously blocked it. “What is it?”
She readjusted the gun in her hand. “Dr. Cowan isn’t alone, are you?”
“How perceptive. Surely you didn’t think Joaquim’s little tricks with the security system would allow you to enter undetected.”
The hair stood up on the back of Bodie’s neck. “Where’s the laser itself? Show us where it is or you’re a dead man.”
A deep voice filled the room. “Shoot him if you like. He’s dreadfully annoying.”
Oxley fish-mouthed his objections then froze, entranced.
Bodie and Lex turned in unison to face the newcomer, hands on their ComDevs and weapons at the ready.
Tolian filled the doorway. Almost as tall and broad as Bodie, he exuded power and menace. Even from twenty-five feet away, Bodie’s stomach roiled from the tainted orphic energy vibrating off the man’s body, charging the air.
“Who will operate the laser if he’s dead?” Bodie asked.
Tolian’s smile was hard and cruel. “I can, Henri can, although he may not be available for our evening demonstration thanks to Miss Durand’s stun gun. Dr. Cowan grossly overestimated his own contribution and never could operate it on his own.”
Bodie glanced at Lex who stared at Tolian in silence. Her stillness worried him. Her ComDev hit the floor with a crash that startled their host and reminded Bodie to lockout his own device. In Tolian’s hands, an operational ComDev could be a formidable weapon against the Durand.
“Put your weapons down. They’re useless against me, as Miss Durand must know.”
“Only if you can stop us pulling the trigger,” she said. “And your telepathy can’t penetrate our shields.”
“Yes, I noticed Joaquim had acquired the defense. Does your brother know his asset has been compromised? Inconvenient but not an insurmountable problem. Once we have an agreement and return to Amazonas, I’m sure Joaquim will see the benefits of joining our side. ”
Bodie swallowed hard to control the churning in his gut. “We will never come to an agreement. I want the laser. It’s my intellectual property.”
Tolian laughed. “Oh, Joaquim. You have no idea what we can do together—you with your science and me with my…” He thought for a moment. “Me with my many talents. I control power the Durands have coveted for centuries. My disciples live and die for a chance to possess just a taste of what I’m offering you.”
Beside him Lex stiffened. “Bodie wants no part of your foul, disgusting majik,” she spat. “I’m glad I’m the one to stop you.”
Bodie saw her pull the trigger of the tranquillizer gun and watched a dart fly out from the barrel. But it never reached its mark. Instead, it fell to the ground at her feet.
“Oh, my,” Tolian sneered. “My majik seems to have neutralized your little gun. Joaquim, if you’re planning to shoot me too, please get on with it so we can go back to the house and have a drink and a bite to eat. You must be hungry after your wait on the hillside.” A flip of his hand and Oxley sputtered back to life.
“Aren’t we going to get a tour of the lab?” Lex asked.
But the Brazilian Sentier had already started down a long corridor, toward the villa. “Later,” he said, then paused. “Come, Alexis, walk with me and tell me about your Foundation.”
She stalked past Bodie and Oxley, who then followed close behind. “No.”
&nb
sp; Tolian gestured for her to go before him. “Then I insist you do the honors and pick out the cruise ship for our evening entertainment.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I brought you the sensor,” Bodie said. “In return, you promised not to use the laser on a cruise ship.”
“Did I?”
“Yes, and you need me to unlock it and turn it on.”
“I’d expect no less.” With a sweep of his arm Tolian gestured for Lex to proceed up a well-lit stone staircase.
Her Protector training kicked in and she memorized the details of the route. No door between the corridor and the stairs, no security cameras, no light switches. Every cell in her body recoiled from the foul energy and stench of majik rolling off Tolian. If there was no way to take him down with conventional weapons, how would they stop him and get to the laser?
The entire villa opened to the outside, a testament to Tolian’s confidence in his abilities to secure the complex. If there were security cameras, they were well hidden. Automatically she noted possible escape routes.
“Before we discuss business, we’ll have a toast, Oxley,” Tolian said with a smile. “Please open a bottle of Dom Pérignon and serve our guests.”
“Prisoners,” she muttered.
“You did break in to steal my property,” Tolian said. “But I’ll overlook that detail. After all, you were invited.”
A cork popped and she flinched. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the pale scientist shakily pouring champagne into four flutes. Even if they got Oxley alone, Tolian would maintain control of him. She glanced at Bodie, who hadn’t moved from his stance, staring out at the sea.
Balancing the tray of glasses, Oxley offered the champagne to her and she shook her head.
“I insist,” Tolian commanded. “Joaquim, join us.”
Bodie turned and silently strode across the room, his face stony and cold. Having distributed the flutes, Oxley hung back from the group until Tolian waved him forward. Tolian raised his glass. “To the brilliant mind behind the evening’s show. A genius that will be remembered for turning the course of history when I finally bring Adrien and Mark Durand to their knees.”