by James Axler
Bry checked his terminal screen, waiting for the switchover to complete and take effect. “We’re ready,” he announced.
“And we’re live,” Brewster said a moment later. “Power diverting now.” He watched his laptop screen for five seconds before looking up to where Lakesh sat poised before the mat-trans console. “Readings are...off the chart, Dr. Singh. We have thirty seconds, at best, before the system burns out.”
“That’s more than enough,” Lakesh said, striking a switch on his console. “Brigid?” he called over the Commtact. “We’re scooping you out of there now. Get into the mat-trans and lock the door. And inform the others that it may hurt.”
* * *
“ROGER THAT,” BRIGID SAID before ripping the power lead from the radio.
The room seemed suddenly silent without the radio’s buzz, even though the mat-trans was beginning to cycle through its prep sequence.
“We’d better get inside,” Kane said.
Brigid nodded, tapping the door code into the keypad of the matter-shifter’s chamber. She took one last look out the holed wall of the hospital as the door slid open. Out there, the column of cosmic energies was widening, ripping through whole buildings as it expanded across the ville. It burned brightly, lighting the ville like the noonday sun.
“How long do we have?” Grant asked, seeing the look of consternation on Brigid’s face.
“Less than a minute,” Brigid estimated as the shock wave ripped through a building just a block away.
Together the three Cerberus warriors stepped into the mat-trans and locked the doors.
* * *
“THEY’RE IN,” BRY CONFIRMED as he watched the changing digits on the control screen.
“Power’s being channelled,” Brewster explained. “Scoop is ready.”
At the mat-trans control console, Mohandas Lakesh Singh jabbed the button that would scoop Kane and his team out of the other world. And held his breath.
* * *
THROUGH THE ARMAGLASS wall of the mat-trans, Kane, Grant and Brigid could see the energy wave plowing through the ville toward them, a hundred broken lines of green-gold lightning blistering across the pebbled safety glass, brighter and brighter.
“This better work,” Kane said as the mat-trans began to shudder beneath them, the power sequence engaging via remote.
The tidal wave of energy swooped closer, crashing into the hospital with the power of a thousand suns. In the street, the Magistrates and their vehicles were consumed in the cosmic whirlpool, and the missing facade of the building was torn through in an instant. Inside the mat-trans chamber, the Cerberus warriors gritted their teeth as the wave struck.
The mat-trans glowed brilliantly for a single second as it shunted its three occupants to another destination. And then the wave hit and the mat-trans, the room and the whole hospital disappeared in a burst of cosmic static.
The wave continued its rapid expansion, carving a searing path through the abandoned ville of Quocruft before blasting outward, consuming everything in its way. From a distance, Earth looked like a beacon, a shaft of energy sticking through it like an olive on a cocktail stick.
* * *
MILLIONS OF MILES AWAY, as she crossed through the orbit of Jupiter, Tiamat witnessed the great conflagration that impaled Earth, consuming the planet too soon for the dragon mother ship to complete her final download and bring the Annunaki back from extinction. Her last child was dead, she knew, stillborn before he could ever know life.
* * *
THEY WERE SURFERS on the cosmic wave, multiple worlds racing before their eyes. Kane, Grant and Brigid could only strain as a billion different images vied for space in their brains, their bodies hurtling across the timeless stream.
And then they were home.
They stood in the hexagonal chamber, the familiar brown-tinted armaglass walls arrayed before them, new cracks visible in the old panes.
“Everyone okay?” Kane asked through rasping breaths. He was leaning over, pressing his palms to his upper legs as he tried to shake the vertiginous feeling of movement that buzzed through his body.
Brigid nodded very slowly while Grant muttered a few words of agreement before vomiting in the corner of the Cerberus mat-trans. They were home.
* * *
LAKESH’S TEAM WERE READY with thermal blankets and rehydrating drinks when the mat-trans doors were finally opened once the power flux had dissipated. The system was powered down entirely, and Lakesh informed everyone that it would be out of commission for a week while they recalibrated everything and replaced the burned-out components.
“A normal facility would require three weeks to recover from something like this,” he reminded his team, “which is why I’m telling you all we’ll be back online inside of seven days. Don’t make a liar out of me.” He smiled then, knowing that his trusted personnel would step up to the challenge. They always did.
Domi took pains to tell Kane, Grant and Brigid about everything that had happened while they had been away. They had missed an other-dimensional invasion and it had been that invasion that had tapped into their mat-trans journey and thrown them to the abandoned ville of Quocruft.
They had visited a dead world and lived to tell the tale. That was all that really mattered. Donald Bry promised to recalibrate their Commtacts as soon as everyone had caught their breath.
As the others got themselves sorted out, filed their reports and caught up on a much-needed meal, Brigid Baptiste excused herself. She headed through the corridors of the Cerberus facility alone, wrapped in her own thoughts. Brigid made her way to the residential area where a whole run of self-contained suites and rooms was arrayed along a corridor like an apartment block. Like the rest of the Cerberus facility, the corridor had been carved directly into the mountain and it had a cold, rocky feel, reminding Brigid of cave exploring.
The beautiful redhead strode past the doors, acknowledging the occasional familiar face as she passed other personnel. Two-thirds of the way down the corridor she stopped, gazing at the door before her. There was nothing remarkable about it; it looked much like the others that lined the corridor. If anything, it had less character than the others, where some occupants had painted decorations or hung charms on the doors.
Brigid reached forward and tried the handle. It was unlocked—of course it was unlocked, why wouldn’t it be?
She pushed the door wide, stepping into the darkened room that sat silently behind it.
“Lights,” Brigid said to the empty room, and the automated lights came to life with a momentary dimming.
Inside, the suite was very simple, just a couch, a desk and a bed. There was a door to one side that led to a private shower cubicle and toilet, a small nook where coats could be hung and a simple fitted wardrobe. Brigid walked over to the desk, eyeing the notebook that lay open on it. The page was filled to the halfway point with complex equations written in a neat, precise script. Brigid smiled as she saw that a line had been crossed through and corrected beneath by the same hand. Typical of Daryl Morganstern, to correct his own work before he showed it to anyone else.
Brigid took a moment just to take in the atmosphere, to feel the man’s presence one last time. “I’m sorry, Daryl,” she said to the dead man’s living quarters. “I didn’t mean for you to die. You were so kind, so brave, even in the end. You died a hero’s death to protect me. And to protect Cerberus.
“I know I should have said all this earlier,” she finished, “and I’m sorry that I didn’t.”
Brigid remained in the room the rest of the night, tidying and boxing the man’s possessions so that the living quarters could finally be given to someone else when the time was right.
* * * * *
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin ebook. Connect with us for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free o
nline reads and much more!
Subscribe to our newsletter: Harlequin.com/newsletters
Visit Harlequin.com
We like you—why not like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
Read our blog for all the latest news on our authors and books: HarlequinBlog.com
ISBN: 9781460312650
Copyright © 2013 by Worldwide Library
Special thanks to Rik Hoskin for his contribution to this work.
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com