In Destiny’s Shadow

by Ingrid Weaver

  She hadn’t seen it coming.

  Benedict gripped the edge of the table. He wasn’t going to share his sister’s fate. He almost wished she was still alive just so he could show her. Then she would be the one who had to be grateful to him. Maybe he’d throw her a bone, find her a job to do here, remind her every day that she had been wrong, that he wasn’t a failure, that he wasn’t the screwup she had always called him.

  “We powered up the incubators in the new lab yesterday, Mr. Titan. The backup generator tested out fine. The rest of the equipment should be fully operational by next month.”

  Benedict swiveled his chair toward the man who had spoken. He was small, bald and had an irritating habit of thrusting out his chin to chew his upper lip. He was one of the junior scientists who had been part of the team Benedict had brought over from Europe. He’d gained his current position in Benedict’s inner circle by default, when his predecessor had been killed. “Not good enough, Dr. McNair. It must be ready within the week.”

  “Impossible. It will take at least two weeks to calibrate the instruments properly.”

  “Don’t tell me it’s impossible.” Benedict slammed his palms on the table. The noise echoed from the walls like a gunshot. “I’ve waited more than thirty years for this. I advise you not to try my patience. You, too, can be replaced.”

  McNair tugged at the lapel of his white lab coat, then shuffled the papers that were on the table in front of him. “I’ll redouble my efforts.”

  “See that you do.” He swiveled his chair to the right. “Gus, how are security operations going?”

  Gus rubbed his eyebrow, his gaze darting to the floor. “The gadgets are running good, but we could use an extra shift on the surface patrols. We’ve been shorthanded since last month.”

  Benedict scowled. He didn’t like being reminded how many men he had lost to the FBI’s raids. He didn’t like the way Gus kept stroking that singed eyebrow of his, either. Why was everyone deliberately irritating him? “Then you should be joining the patrol yourself instead of whining about it. You’re not having problems, are you? Was there a security breach?”

  “No, no, it’s going okay. No problem. The helicopter team spotted two trespassers this morning but they scared them off before they got near the perimeter.”

  “Where did they go?”

  “The chopper had engine trouble and had to come back for repairs. By the time they got back there, the campers were gone.”

  “Campers?”

  “From what I heard, they were a couple of Indians.”

  Benedict’s scowl deepened. Since when did Indians go camping? They didn’t need to get back to the land, they lived on the land. Could they have been spying? Perhaps they had been hoping to shake him down for a better deal.

  He wasn’t on Indian land. The nearest settlement, the Antelope Pueblo, was miles to the south. He’d encountered some resistance from a few of the tribe members when he’d started construction here, but that had been easily resolved. He had used the formula that always worked for him in the past: bribe those individuals who could be bought, eliminate those who couldn’t. It hadn’t been that difficult, since even the ones who were paid to keep their mouths shut had only seen what he wanted them to see.

  He waved his hand toward the monitor that hung over the center of the table. “Show me the video from the helicopter,” he ordered.

  The image that appeared on the screen several minutes later was blurred by motion. Two figures stood on a ledge near the top of the cliff to the southeast. A man and a woman. He appeared to be holding her in his arms. The next view was closer. The couple was visible only for a few seconds before they dove for cover.

  Benedict snapped his fingers. “Replay that!”

  A man and a woman. He was holding her in his arms. She had red hair. He had long black hair like an Indian, all right, but he appeared taller than the average native and—What was that glint at his ear?

  Benedict’s mouth went dry. Could it be? He shoved his chair back, got to his feet and leaned over the table. “Again! Slower this time.”

  The images unfolded in slow motion. He watched the couple dive. He saw the rock crumble under the force of the gunfire. “Who gave the order to shoot?”

  “You did, sir. You told us to shoot any trespassers and get rid of the bodies.”

  “Well, I didn’t tell you to shoot them, you incompetent bastard!” He strode down the table to where Gus sat, grabbed the back of his chair and spun him around. “Don’t you recognize who they are?”

  Gus twisted to look at the monitor, his hand stealing to his eyebrow.

  At the gesture, Benedict’s temper snapped. He backhanded Gus across the jaw, knocking him to the floor. “That’s my son and the Becker woman. I’ve been waiting for them.”

  Gus got to his knees. Blood welled from a split in his lower lip. He blinked blearily. “But last week you wanted Habib and me to kill that reporter.”

  “Don’t contradict me! I realized I have a use for her, too. Get Habib to enlarge those frames and pass the pictures to everyone on security. These two are not to be harmed.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Benedict stepped back before any of Gus’s blood could drip on his shoes. “Have everyone double their efforts on my monitoring network. The next time the woman is located, bring her directly to me. There will be a bonus for the man who carries out this order. I always reward loyalty.”

  Gus staggered to his feet. He pressed his mouth against his sleeve and nodded. “What about your son? Don’t you want him, too?”

  Benedict shook out his knuckles, trying to ease the sting from the blow he’d been forced to give Gus. “Do I have to do all your thinking? She’s the weak link. Get her, and we get him. Dr. McNair!”

  “Yes, Mr. Titan?”

  “Is the guest chamber ready?”

  “That isn’t really my department. The construction—”

  “Are you contradicting me, too?”

  McNair glanced at Gus and looked quickly away. “No, sir. I, uh, believe the chamber beside your sanctum was completed before the lab was. Because of your specifications, it was relatively simple to construct.”

  Benedict nodded with satisfaction, his mood instantly improved. He ended the meeting, walked to the elevator and pressed his thumb to the small lighted pad to activate the controls. As soon as his men had filed out, he returned to his place at the table.

  The blurred image of Anthony and the red-haired reporter was frozen on the monitor. Anthony was holding her to his chest, his stance protective. Yes, there would be a use for that woman, Benedict thought. He slid his thumb into the groove between his first two fingers, rubbing rhythmically in and out.

  The psychic power of this place was even greater than he had thought.

  How much greater would it be once he added the power of his oldest son?

  Chapter 9

  Anthony sensed the motion detector a split second before Melina would have broken the beam. He grabbed her by the waist and yanked her backward. “Hold it,” he whispered.

  To her credit, she didn’t make a sound. Off balance, with her shoulder against his chest and her weight on one foot, she froze.

  Anthony looked around, trying to spot what he had sensed. Through the ghostly green images of his night vision goggles, he saw the detector was less than a yard away, concealed in a fissure in the side of the cliff and aimed across the only clear path through this winding section of the valley floor. It was powered by a low-voltage battery, so it took little effort for Anthony to reroute the circuit back on itself, rendering it useless without breaking the signal.

  This was the eighth one they had encountered since they had descended from the ledge where they had spent the previous night. Like the others, it was linked to a live camera. Whoever monitored the security system would be able to tell if the alarm was triggered by a human intruder or by an animal or a stray leaf blowing across the beam. Anthony probed for the camera and found it nestled beside a rock a
bove the motion detector.

  He put his mouth beside Melina’s ear. “I’ll interrupt the video signal for ten seconds to get us out of range. On the count of three. Ready?”

  She shivered, her hair brushing his cheek. Her body tensed as he counted. When he reached three, she sprang into action with him, sprinting to the far side of a group of boulders that loomed to their right. “Are we clear?” she asked.

  He paused as he opened his mind to check the area. There was nothing, only the sigh of the breeze and the distant howl of a coyote. Moonlight flowed over the canyon rim here, making the goggles unnecessary. He pulled them off to allow his vision to adjust. “Yes, we’re clear.”

  “This is incredible,” she said, moving next to him. She had changed into dark clothes before they had left town, so she blended into the shadows almost as well as he did. “It looks empty, but the whole valley must be wired for intruders. We have to be on the right track. How far do you think we’ve come?”

  He checked the display on the GPS unit he had clipped to his belt. “A little over a mile.” He slipped his pack from his shoulders, stored his goggles and withdrew a bottle of water. The going had been difficult since they had left the Jeep, but Melina hadn’t complained. She hadn’t held him up, either. As much as he would have preferred to leave her behind for safety’s sake, he couldn’t help admiring her determination. He offered her the water bottle.

  “Thanks.” She took a drink as she looked around. The vapor from her breath floated palely past her cheek. “There must be another way in, Anthony. I can’t see Benedict doing this route on foot.”

  “He could be travelling by air.”

  “By helicopter?”

  “Or by plane if he has a landing strip. It wouldn’t be difficult to build a runway on one of these flat-topped mesas. We’re going in the hard way because when I scout a location, I prefer to go by ground. There’s less chance of detection.”

  “Only for someone with your talent.” She leaned against the nearest boulder. “Being able to sense the detectors before they sense you must come in useful with that troubleshooting work you do for Jeremy Solienti.”

  “It does.”

  “You mentioned your sisters had talents, too. What was it you said, telekinesis and luck?”

  Even though Anthony was impatient to keep going, he heard the fatigue in Melina’s voice and realized she needed to have a break before they started off again. Indulging her curiosity would provide her with an excuse to rest. “That’s right. With Elizabeth’s ability to manipulate small objects, there wasn’t a lock she couldn’t open.”

  “And with Danielle’s luck, you wouldn’t have been caught. Not that you were doing anything illegal,” she added.

  “No more illegal than what we’re doing now. We used to be an unbeatable team before Danielle moved away.”

  “I’m sorry, Anthony. I didn’t mean to bring up your estrangement. It must hurt.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Your feelings are immaterial, right?”

  “Of course they are.”

  She looked at him for a minute, then shook her head and paused to take another drink. “How did you start working for Jeremy, anyway?”

  “He took us in and gave us a home. I owed him.”

  “‘Took us in’?” she repeated. “You and your sisters?”

  “That’s right. We were thirteen.”

  “You mean he was your foster father?”

  “Not officially, but he was the closest thing to a father that any of us had.” He scanned the area while he spoke. “I had used a baseball bat on our last foster father after he had gone after Elizabeth. I wasn’t going to let either of my sisters be preyed on like that again, so I planned to keep them out of the foster system. We were living on the streets of Philadelphia, trying to make it on our own when Jeremy found us.”

  “Oh, my God. Your foster father tried to molest your sister?”

  “I stopped him before he touched her. I had thought I had killed him, but it turned out he survived. Jeremy pulled some strings to smooth it over so I wouldn’t be charged.”

  “What happened to that…monster?”

  “The guy would have gotten off but I helped Jeremy plant evidence so he would be sent to prison for drugs, instead. Danielle and Elizabeth never found out about that part. It wasn’t precisely legal, but it was the most efficient way to get him where he wouldn’t harm anyone else.” He glanced at her. “That was my introduction to Jeremy’s business.”

  “And all of this when you were thirteen,” she said, her voice unsteady.

  “We weren’t the easiest kids to handle when we were teenagers. We were real hellions when our talents started to come out fully, but Jeremy kept us grounded. Like I said, I owe him.”

  “I’d say your sisters owe you.”

  The thought startled him. He shook his head. “I did what I had to do to protect them. They’re my responsibility. It’s always been up to me to keep them safe.” He looked at the angle of the moon. “We’d better get moving.”

  She was silent as she screwed the top on the water bottle. As she handed it back to him, her fingers brushed his.

  A spike of pleasure jolted him. He scrupulously pulled in his stray energy, just as he’d done all night. He couldn’t let this interfere, he told himself yet again.

  Melina’s mouth was pinched with concern. “Why is it up to you to keep them safe, Anthony?”

  Promise me you’ll take care of them….

  The memory of his mother’s words made him stiffen.

  Melina touched her index finger to his ear where the gold ring pierced his lobe. It was a brief touch, as soft as a whisper, yet as potent as an echo of lightning. “Doesn’t anyone worry about you?” she asked softly.

  Something pushed at the edge of Anthony’s senses. It was a low hum of electric power that he hadn’t been able to feel before. It took him a moment to realize it was familiar. He could distinguish the tiny pulses as portions of the power were bled off. It was close. It had to be.

  But Melina’s touch felt so good, he was tempted to ignore the hum. He wanted to tip his head into her hand and lose himself in the compassion he saw on her face.

  Damn it, what was he thinking? He had already lost one opportunity because of her. He couldn’t let this one slip by. “Melina, it’s back.”

  “What?”

  “The source I felt yesterday. I recognize the signature.”

  She continued to look at him. Her fingers trailed along his jaw to the place where he’d cut himself shaving.

  “Melina.”

  She dropped her hand, cleared her throat. “Where?”

  He reached out, filled with an urge to pull her into his arms and let her caress take away the hurt, all the hurt….

  Damn! He caught himself in time and reached past her to pick up his pack instead. A moonlit-silver cliff jutted into the valley ahead of them. “There,” he said.

  Twenty minutes later they had reached a small, brush-covered rise at the base of the cliff. The bite of diesel fumes tainted the air. A glow of light came from the other side of the rise. The hum of power was audible now, yet it didn’t seem right somehow. Anthony motioned Melina to stay where she was. The slope was lined with vibration sensors. He disabled them carefully, then took his binoculars from his pack and worked his way to the top of the rise.

  Against the backdrop of the night-shrouded valley on one side and the looming cliff on the other, the scene that stretched before him seemed surreal. Two banks of floodlights set on tripods illuminated an area of the valley floor half the size of a football field. Power lines ran from the lights to a generator—was that the source of the hum he had heard? There was a small, metal shed, some portable toilets and three boxy trailers like the kind used on construction sites, but there were no pieces of construction equipment, no dump trucks or pickups. The only vehicle in sight was a black helicopter. It had no markings on the side.

  “That looks like the helicopter that
attacked us.”

  At Melina’s whisper, Anthony lowered the binoculars. He should have known she wouldn’t stay behind. She never did. “Yes.”

  She crouched beside him where he knelt behind the cover of a creosote bush. “Those trailers couldn’t be Benedict’s stronghold.”

  “I agree. There must be more to it than this.”

  The door of the nearest trailer opened. Anthony grabbed Melina and yanked her flat on the ground with him just as two men stepped out. One paused to light a cigarette while the other hitched the strap of a rifle over his shoulder and set off along the edge of the lighted area. A few moments later the second man walked in the opposite direction. Guards, Anthony thought, taking note of their routes.

  “That man with the cigarette,” Melina whispered. “I think I recognize him.”

  “Who is he?”

  “He looks like the man who was in the passenger seat of the van the night Fredo was killed. He was the one firing at us.”

  Anthony adjusted the focus of the binoculars. The guard was a heavyset man with prominent jowls. “He’s missing an eyebrow. It could have been burned off.”

  “Okay, so those trailers must be connected to Benedict,” Melina said. “Do you think he just hasn’t built the place yet?”

  “He’s had months. It would be finished.”

  “Are you still feeling that energy source?”

  “It’s stronger than ever. The generator that’s powering the lights is too small. The real source is deeper. It feels as if it’s coming more from that direction,” he said, gesturing toward the wall of rock on their right.

  “None of this makes sense. Why would anyone…” Her words trailed off. She caught his arm. “Anthony, what’s that on the side of the cliff?”

  He rolled to his side and tilted the binoculars upward. The cliff rose smoothly until it curved inward about two-thirds of the way from the ground, forming an enormous shadowed pocket that was covered by a lip of overhanging rock. It was like a giant version of the shallow cave that had sheltered him and Melina the night before.