Ciara looked at Mike again, this time frowning and completely perplexed. She watched as Morris reached down toward the wreckage that now covered the floor and picked up a large sheet of metal, about four feet in width and five feet long. He walked back toward them and held it out in front of him.
“Get on,” he said.
“Are you serious?” Ciara asked, incredulous.
“It’s a good idea, actually,” Mike added. “We can use it to lower ourselves down the elevator shaft to the other floor.”
“Why don’t we just fly?” Ciara said mockingly.
Instead of a retort, they all merely looked at each other for a moment. Then, as Morris placed the flat sheet of metal on the floor, they quickly stepped onto the smoldering platform. Without time to think further, they took each other’s hands, and Ciara watched as Morris closed his fist around empty space, where only he could see a psychic projection of Jane.
Together, they turned their power toward the thick, blackened surface.
“We’ve trained for this, guys. Remember?” Morris said.
He was right. They had trained for this. They had been running simulations in the psychic space they had created collectively for weeks before any of this. Ciara reached out and gripped the sheet of metal. She pulled upward on it and felt its heavy weight. As the strength of her friend’s minds also drew upon it, she gasped and pulled hard, watching as it rose into that air. Knowing they had no time—or chance to falter—they quickly and steadily floated it toward the elevator shaft, then lowered it down toward the floors below, where columns of smoke had begun to rise. They passed one floor. Then another. Then came the third. Together, they slowed the platform until it came to a stop.
“OK. Now for the hard part,” Morris said.
Keeping her focus on the platform below, Ciara turned her attention to the door.
“You guys keep this thing up, I’ll take care of the door,” Morris said.
Ciara was growing increasingly worried, and she finally let her guard down and flinched as she looked at Mike. The two of them stared at each other. The strength of holding up the platform and keeping the illusion of Jane fully present and realistic was taking its toll. But still, she knew there was no time for weakness, and so she turned away from Mike and focused on keeping the platform steady.
Above them, there was a crackling sound as an electrical cable broke free from its housing and began to send showers of burning embers into the shaft above them. Ciara flinched, trying to avoid them. Thankfully, most of them scattered against the wall behind them and fell into the darkness below.
She took a deep breath then and felt an incredible pressure on her mind release as she heard the door slide open, moved by Morris’s power. Apparently, the entrances to the lower floors weren’t quite as reinforced as the one to the control room. Ciara glanced aside and saw a three-foot gap separating them from the doorframe. Beyond it, another corridor awaited. She breathed a deep sigh of relief.
“Come on,” Morris said.
Ciara looked down and focused on moving the platform toward the door. It sailed forward steadily, and after a few seconds, it hit the doorframe with a clank. The three of them jumped off and landed haphazardly in the dark, empty corridor, gripping each other for support.
Ciara took another deep breath and looked around, still keeping her focus on the psychic illusion she was projecting for Morris. She was paying attention to him, and she noticed that every now and then he would stare into a corner, appearing to look at nothing. For a moment, she almost felt like giggling, but suppressed it, for what they were doing—deceiving him like this—was not funny at all. Still, she knew Jane had been completely right; it had been the only way to get him to move. She thought of Jane then, and panic almost overtook her, but there was no time for that either. She closed her eyes, refusing to allow herself to think of any outcome that might result in tragedy.
Morris glared at her. “Ciara, which way?”
Ciara took a step forward and peered into the corridor. In the distance, lights flickered, and tendrils of smoke flowed across the roof, moved by unseen currents. “Straight ahead, about fifty feet,” she answered promptly. “We take a right and then a left. There’s an access point there for one of the escape pods.”
How are you guys doing? Jane’s voice came through clearly.
A deadly silence fell over them. Ciara gaped as she realized Jane had forgotten to keep their telepathic signal quiet. Tentatively, she turned to Morris.
He was staring back at her.
Mike took a protective step closer to her.
“What the hell was that?” Morris asked as he looked between them in complete bewilderment.
***
How are you guys doing? Jane asked.
Almost there, Ciara answered.
What about you? Jane frowned as she sensed the edge in Ciara’s voice.
Ugh, we’re OK, Jane. Minor setback, but we’re doing OK.
I think I’m going to have to jump. She could feel Ciara’s fear mix with her own at this admission.
Without anything to hold on to? Jane, I don’t know if we’ll be able to find you with the escape vehicle. You could—
I know, Jane said, already facing the railing at the edge of the deck, psyching herself to jump. I don’t have much choice, do I?
Guess not. I’m going to watch you the whole way.
The ship lurched violently, almost knocking Jane off her feet, and smoke began to pour out of the other side of the hull, down from a lower section where Jane couldn’t see.
Time to go, she said as she walked to the very back of the gray, featureless bulkhead there and then turned back around. She felt the pain in her ribs and grimaced. This is going to hurt, she thought. Bracing herself, she took a deep, painful breath and ran for the railing. She gathered speed as she closed the forty-foot distance. Then, as she neared the edge, she pushed herself off the surface with the power, virtually flying into the air. At first, her arms flailed in a circular motion, but then as she pushed herself with the power, her body formed into a perfect dive, and her arc through the air was flawless. Bringing her hands together, she flew downward toward the dark ocean, with her heart beating hard in her chest.
The surface hit her hard, and several things happened at once. Her mouth gaped open as the frigid cold touched every exposed cell of her skin. Her ribcage took some of the impact and felt like it had exploded with pain. She turned as quickly as she could, despite all the sensations she was feeling, and pushed her way back to the surface. When she broke through the growing waves there, she screamed, and it was a raw, primal howl. Then she yelled out again. She didn’t stop until her throat was hoarse and tears were streaming down her cheeks.
Sense took over as she turned back toward the ship.
How much time, Ciara?
One minute. We’re in the escape pod now.
There was a pause then, and in her mind’s eye, Jane could feel Ciara searching around the interior of the unusual, spherical object.
I think it’s damaged, Jane.
Fear gripped her as a massive wave approached. She reached for the power and used it in a clumsy fashion to push herself up over the top of the crest as it began to break. She fell back down the other side, and immediately her thoughts turned to Ciara once again. In the distance, she could make out the next wave as it approached. She had twenty seconds at best until it hit her.
She turned back toward the ship to address Ciara again, but she realized that some other fear had silently gripped her as she stared at the other approaching wave in the distance. During the last push she had given herself over the top of the wave, it had felt like the well had run dry, as though that final ordeal had drained her power. Not only that, but she was battling the temptation to simply close her eyes and go to sleep. Instead, she took a deep breath, turned around in the water, and glared at the ship.
Can you escape? Can you get
out of there, Ciara?
Yes, we can. But I don’t think we’ll be able to direct its course once we’ve cleared the vessel! I don’t think we can come and get you.
Jane gritted her teeth. For a moment, she ran out of breath and sank beneath the water. She immediately pushed herself back up and gasped for air. When the water had cleared from her eyes, she was once again facing away from the vessel. She saw that the next wave was bigger than the last and it was almost upon her.
Ciara. I might not make it. Tell Morris I love him, she said flatly.
I’m here with you. You’re going to be fine. Thirty seconds. Jane, listen to me. You’ve only drifted about a hundred feet from the ship. You have to erect a shield around you to protect yourself from the blast. Otherwise, you’ll drown for sure. Do you understand? JANE?!
Jane’s eyes opened and closed. She stared back at the vessel, seeing that Ciara was right—she had drifted about some distance from it, and now it resembled only a glowing blur to her. Her eyes closed once more, and she fell into unconsciousness for a brief second. Right at that moment, she felt a rough hand slap across her face. Her eyes opened wide, and she grasped her cheek. “What the hell?”
That was me, just a little slap to keep you awake. If you DARE fall asleep again, the next one will be a punch, do you understand? Ciara’s voice growled in her mind, louder than she had ever heard a telepathic instruction before, except perhaps those that had once or twice come from Max.
Jane nodded. Fine. I got it.
OK. We’ve got about twenty seconds left, Jane. Get your shield up now! Our escape vehicle is launching in five seconds.
Behind Jane, the next wave rose up, and she turned around and glared at it as it towered over her.
***
“Straight ahead, about fifty feet,” Ciara answered Mike’s question promptly. They were now carrying Morris between them. Each of his arms were slung over their shoulders, and his feet dragged behind them. When he had heard Jane’s voice coming through clearly from somewhere else, the illusion had shattered completely, and she and Mike were unable to calm him down. Deftly, as he argued with Ciara, Mike stepped behind him, and in that incredibly unique fashion they had all so recently learned, he had touched a hand to his neck, rendering him unconscious.
“We take a right and then a left. There’s an access point there for one of the escape pods.”
“How many people can they hold?”
She hesitated. “I don’t know. Doesn’t matter anyway, Mike; we have no choice!”
“Right,” he replied.
The white lights that covered the walls at the side of the ship flickered on and off, and a veil of thick, viscous-looking smoke covered the ceiling. It snaked around above them, with black columns flowing over each other as though it were alive—like an angry serpent, waiting to strike. Immediately upon looking at it, Ciara knew that there was a danger that the smoke itself could ignite.
“How much time?” Mike asked.
“One minute—I think,” Ciara managed to utter while at the same time she communicated with Jane on the outside of the ship.
They took a right at the end of the corridor. Shortly after that, they took a left. “Where?” Mike asked.
“There!” Ciara yelled, pointing to a hexagonal shaped recess in the wall on the left. It was about twenty feet away, and Ciara slowly let go of Morris’s arm, lowering him to the ground. She approached the recess in the wall. “OK,” she said. There was a panel on her right with a button, and she pressed it. The panel came to life and displayed the words “confirm door release.” At the same time, the voice from the computer system spoke the same words from the small speaker embedded into the panel. She pressed the green confirm button. There was a hissing sound, and the hexagonal door slid open, revealing a small space inside with enough room for six people to sit comfortably.
She rushed back over to help Mike carry Morris, all the while continuing to communicate with Jane. She lifted up his arm, and they made their way to the entrance.
“You get in first, Ciara.” Knowing there was no time left to argue, she did as he asked, stepping over the steel frame that ran around the exterior of the entrance. Then she turned around to help Mike carry Morris inside. They fit him into a harness on the left and closed it around him tightly. Then she turned around and reached for one of the harnesses on the other side of the pod.
“OK, Mike, no time left it. Buckle in!” She sat on the firm seat, thankful that it was wide and flat. She was reaching for the harness when it took on a life of its own, wrapping around her and fastening tightly into the side of the firm seat fixture. She looked to her right as Mike sat on the seat next to her and the harness fastened around him in the same fashion.
“Please confirm departure,” a pleasant voice said from within the vehicle.
Mike and Ciara stared at each other, sharing a perplexed expression.
“Yes! For the love of God, depart!” Mike yelled.
Ciara looked out just in time to see the door slide shut automatically. At the corners, she saw it seal itself to the edges of the opening—as though the material was melding together.
The pod began to move just as a tremendous explosion rocked the ship. Mike hit his head on the metal frame that encased the chair and yelled out in pain. Ciara immediately put her hand up to the wound as he grimaced.
“Due to the hazardous nature of the area, acceleration will be rapid. Please ensure all safety harnesses are well secured.”
They stared at each other.
Two seconds later, the pod stopped moving. Then it accelerated to a tremendous speed. Ciara was pulled forward against her harness until it gripped her so tightly that she had difficulty breathing. It dug into her chest, and she tried to reach for it, but she wasn’t able to hold up against the rapid acceleration. The light of a fading sun appeared above them quickly, and then after a moment, the pod crashed down into the water. They rolled over a few times, bounced, and then finally came to a stop against a giant wave. The pod circled up over the wave, and then she felt her stomach lurch as they fell down the back of it. Her eyes rolled, and despite the nausea she now felt, her thoughts immediately returned to Jane.
She looked to her right to find Mike was smiling at her.
“You enjoyed that, didn’t you?” she asked.
He nodded.
She reached across and touched her hand to the wound on his forehead, from where a drop of blood was now falling. She gasped at the sight of this, realizing that it could be a serious concussion.
He was holding his hand flat to his temple, and he turned and glanced at her. “I’m OK,” he said in a quiet voice.
“You sure?” she asked.
“Yes. Just a bump. I’ll be fine.”
Another wave caught the craft and lifted it up. This one was huge—easily twenty feet high—and they rose up toward its peak.
“Where are they coming from?” Mike asked in a low voice.
Just as he said this, there was a tremendous flash in front of them, and Ciara realized quickly that the ship was completing its self-destruct sequence. She reached her arm up to shield her eyes from the tremendous light, and as she did, she caught a brief glimpse of Mike doing the same. She dared to raise her arm a fraction of an inch to see if the light had dissipated. It had, but not by much, and now she caught a glimpse of the shockwave approaching.
“Crap!” she yelled out just as the pod reached the crest of yet another wave. It fell down quickly on the other side, and the shockwave washed over the top of the water, barely grazing their vessel as it fell toward the trough in the wave, twenty feet below. Ciara was forced upward by the motion of the falling pod, and she watched as the tremendous beam of light and energy from the shockwave passed over their heads. In its wake, snaking trails of fiery blue plasma followed behind.
The pod came to rest in the water below, rolling gently from side to side. For a moment, there was onl
y the gentle rocking of the sea.
Ciara’s eyes grew wide as she realized she had forgotten Jane. Immediately, she closed her eyes and focused, but as her psychic sense expanded outward, she was gripped by terror, for no matter how hard she looked, she could not sense her friend’s mind in the vicinity.
***
Jane watched as the last wave rose up beneath her, and thankfully, this one was gentle. She glided up its side, keeping her head above the water, and then fell back down with its motion easily. There was a small explosion at the side of the ship, and Jane watched as a spherical pod flew from the edge of the vessel. It reached her in less than a second and then continued flying over her head. She turned around and watched as it zoomed past her and headed out into the ocean. Within a few seconds, its light had dimmed, and she was alone.
With her last strength, she turned away from the vessel, curled up into a ball, folded her arms tightly around herself, and reached for the power. Indeed, there was little left, and drawing from it made her even more tired. Still, she used everything she had, forming a psychokinetic barrier at her back, and then forming it into a transparent shell around her—a shield.
A blinding light filled the ocean in every direction, and for a moment, through squinted eyes, Jane could see down through the water to hundreds of feet. Then the shockwave hit her and impacted her shield, washing over her like a tsunami. She held on for a few seconds, but then her power was drained completely by the effort, and the shield collapsed around her, exposing her to the remains of the flowing wake. Her eyes flew open once more, and then she lost consciousness.
CHAPTER 24
TREY, GONE
Zoe was holding Trey’s hand, and he, herself, and Noah walked the streets of Paris back toward the facility. She didn’t want to think about the destruction he had caused there—or whatever force had been controlling him had—but she knew she would soon be facing the reality of it, whatever it proved to be. Looking at Trey from time to time, she could see in his eyes that he had completely returned to himself. He no longer appeared to be the confused young man she had been watching over throughout the last few months. In fact, he had the demeanor of a person who had just had a massive burden lifted.
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