I pulled open the Path. The raging current pulled me in and I got a good look at Barry. Anger and fear swirled around him.
There was something else hidden in the Path. The creature gained strength that went unnoticed without reading the Path directly. It wasn't trying to thrash against its prison. It pulled strength from its cage and the air around itself.
“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no.”
Kyrian looked at me. Her excitement didn't wane, though it was hidden from her face. “What's wrong, Cassie?”
I didn't answer. Inside the interrogation room, Logan started eying Barry. The monster's gaze was also fixed on Barry.
From the Path, I could see the guilt that surrounded Barry was palpable as he faced the creature.
Panic welled up. I grabbed my crutches and hobbled out of the room as quickly as I could. I shoved the door to the interrogation room open and entered the roaring strength of the Path.
The air around us popped. Nausea welled up but I pushed myself into the room. The beast pulled together a monumental force. Chains snapped and it jumped on top of the table.
The sordis stretched up to full height. “You will pay for your broken deals.”
Wind sped through the room and the beast lunged at Barry.
Logan tried to block the attack, but he was thrown back. The Path showed the force, solid as a wall, as it struck out against Logan. The demon sunk claws into Barry's arms. It pulled Barry forward so they were face to face. Fear coursed onto Barry’s Path.
“What did you do?” Logan yelled, getting to his feet.
“Get this thing off me!” Barry screamed.
Deep in the Path, the ebb and flow washed over me. Grabbing the energy strung tightly around the beast, I turned it into an unseen rope and tried to pull the creature away.
It was no use. I wasn't strong enough.
I wedged air made solid between Barry and the Lost. The monster was forced away, but took a chunk of Barry with him. The beast’s teeth dripped with blood. Barry leaned against a wall for support.
Logan had his gun in his hand. A shot fired. Screeches from the beast filled the small room. Logan's gun was smashed out of his hand by a force created by the creature. I reached for my own gun. Rough wings slammed into my chest, throwing me out the open door.
I bounced off the wall, crashing into the ground. My crutch clattered down the hall.
Roping themselves together, tendrils of energy sprung from the room and flung themselves down the halls in each direction. I tried to break the bonds between it and his feelers, but it was too quick.
A wailing alarm rang through the building. Kyrian must have triggered the lockdown. The creature’s head whipped back and forth before it darted toward the control room.
Logan rushed out of the room with Barry following. Blood dripped down Barry's arm and he slunk against the wall. Logan took two steps down the hall before turning on Barry. He pulled Barry out from the wall enough to slam him back into it again.
“What did you do?” Logan's fierce voice was backed by his alien appearance. His face began morphing into angles and his ears were at their points.
Logan had Barry by the throat.
“It's not what you think.” Barry's voice was strained. “We were losing money.”
Logan balled up his hands in Barry's shirt and lifted him off the ground. “So you sold out the Lost?”
Barry's face turned red. “No, I was helping. Washington wouldn't listen. Now they're listening!”
Logan dropped Barry and pressed an arm against his throat, pinning him to the wall. “And Cassie? What about trying to kill Cassie?”
My concentration broke. The Path fell away.
Barry's face turned blue. He tried to pry Logan's hand away. “I just wanted her out of the way. Not dead.”
My face felt flush. On the other side of the hall, I used the wall and one crutch to get back on my feet.
“Why?” Logan yelled.
“I thought...” Barry struggled to talk through Logan's chokehold. “I thought she would see what was happening.”
“And my grandmother?” I asked through gritted teeth.
Barry shook his head and didn't answer.
Logan made a sharp hissing sound that made my skin crawl.
Barry sputtered, “She would see the portals coming. I needed more time.”
Logan drew back and let Barry fall to the ground.
“You ran this?” I asked, sneering at the man on the floor. “This whole thing. For money?”
“We needed the money,” Barry said raising his voice. “We have to keep the secret and that costs money. A big case gains attention.”
“Hurt a few to save the rest,” Logan said, shaking his head.
“My intention wasn’t to have you killed,” Barry said.
My lip curled back and I felt compelled to back away.
“Not killed, no,” Logan spat, “but out of action.”
“I knew she would tie me to the case,” Barry said.
A scream rang through the hall, closely followed by a man running at full speed. He tripped over my crutch and fell. He didn't even seem to notice us as he jumped back to his feet and started running again.
“He can't get out that way,” I said, watching the man's retreating back.
Logan moved away from Barry and put his back to me. “There's no way out right now. The doors will be bolted and anything glass will be shuttered. Full containment.”
Gunfire came from the control room.
I pulled out my gun and started to hobble forward.
“Not so fast,” Logan said.
“We've got to get in there,” I said.
Logan turned to me and looked me over. “Are you good for this fight?”
One leg broken and leaning on a crutch. I could feel bruises and pains from the long night.
It didn't matter though. We had a job to do and we knew what we were up against.
“I'm ready,” I said.
Logan nodded and turned toward Barry who flinched. “We'll be right behind the boss man.”
Barry stood a moment looking toward the control room. Then he pulled out his gun, checked his clip, and started down the hall.
“Let's get 'em, partner,” Logan said to me.
We headed straight towards the gunfire.
Chapter 29
The door to the control room had been ripped off its hinges. As we approached, the alarm died away. Barry peered around one side of the doorframe and Logan and I looked in from the other.
The room had normal lights on, but blaring safety lights also lit the room like a stadium. The large computer screen on the wall was black with a green command line flashing, waiting for instructions. Muffled sounds came from behind desks. In the middle of the room, stalking in a circle, the sordis clawed at the floor.
Under the harsh glare of the lights, it looked unreal. The leathery skin looked like dull black latex pulled across a grotesque frame. The movements were jerky as the thing widened its circular movements. It barely paused when a desk blocked its way. A skeletal wing pushed into the metal frame. For the amount of effort the beast displayed, he might have been pushing a feather. Power surged and the desk flew up, crashing into another desk.
“How much power are we dealing with here?” Barry asked.
With the power flowing around, finding the Path wasn't difficult.
“He's gathering everything he can around him, but it's coming out of him as fast as he's taking it in,” I said.
Shots erupted from somewhere out of sight. One bullet struck home, ripping through the thin skin of the creature’s wing. Without looking, the creature made the air around him solidify. When the noise stopped, the wall of air dissipated. Tendrils of pure energy rippled out, latching onto a chair, which was hurled across the room toward where the shots came from. Guided by the creature, the chair moved in arcs until it crashed down into someone. They cried out as the chair ground down into them, and then there was silence. The so
rdis lost interest and started circling.
Barry let out a shaky breath. “Where's the energy going?”
“Down,” I said. “He's pouring everything down, probing...” My voice died away as I watched the creature claw at the floor again. “He's reaching for the portals.”
“They're two stories below,” Barry said. “He can't do much with them from here.”
I shook my head. “I think he can reach them from here. If he taps into it? I'm not sure what will happen, but I don't think it'll be good.”
“Time to put a stop to him,” Barry said. “I'm going to run in and grab his attention. I'll head to that desk,” he gestured toward a random desk.
Logan picked it up from there. “There's an office a few yards from this door. I’ll go there, and Cassie, you stay here. Wait for my signal and we'll attack from both directions.”
Barry didn't reply. He slipped into the room.
“Hunker down here and stay safe,” Logan said.
After that, I was alone. There is something unsettling about being alone with a brightly lit monster.
I concentrated on the flow of the Path. Wisps of smoky gray shimmered and whipped around the room while a large flowing trunk drove itself into the floor to grasp around in the unseeable floors below.
Stop the flow, stop the flow, I thought. Maybe when the distraction started? I readied my gun and aimed, waiting for someone to make a move.
Barry. It was hard to believe that he had sunk this low. Dealing with monsters to try to make Washington sit up and pay attention. In a twisted sort of way, it had worked, but how could he not see the price? How many did he hurt? If this got out, how would the Lost react to agents?
Stopping this thing was the only thing that mattered now. I knew it would raise its defenses as soon as the shots started, but maybe I could weaken them.
Barry's voice rose from somewhere out of sight. “This world isn't for you.”
The beast didn't look up, but it started to raise the protective wall of air. Seeing the flow, I reached through the Path and cut through the wall. Before I could tell if my tactic worked, I started to fire.
The creature shrieked when other gunshots erupted. The wall was gone and the shots were well aimed. It folded its wings in, trying to make itself smaller. The trunk of dark energy surged downward and struck home. The power of the portals cracked open and started to pour into the creature. The lights went out, but the Path was fiery white.
The sordis turned to me. I pulled the trigger and nothing happened. The clip was spent.
It couldn't smile with a beak, but through its fury and pain, I also felt triumph.
“Broken pacts will be paid,” it said.
Shots fired from Logan's direction. I tried to block the creature’s defenses but it was like throwing a pebble to stop a waterfall. The beast turned and crouched. It sprang forward. Barry’s scream pierced the air. I left the relative safety of the hall and entered the room while trying to form an assault on the creature's Path.
The air pressure was intense.
The sordis screeched and clawed Barry up from the floor. A swirling mass started to form beside them.
“I know my way back,” it said.
Barry screamed. I tried to pull the Path, to alter it in some way, but it felt carved in stone. With no plan, I moved forward as fast as my broken leg could manage. Barry was dragged into the portal. I stopped and stared. Screams continued to tear through the hole between dimensions after Barry disappeared. Moments later, the portal closed. The pressure in the room subsided.
“He's gone.” My voice came out far too loud in the still room. All traces of Path connected to Barry and the sordis had been broken. The remnants left behind swirled, as if uncertain, before morphing into the slow-paced flow of a nearly empty room.
Logan came up beside me. We stared at the place they disappeared.
Kyrian walked into the room and broke the silence. “It's gone?”
We turned. In the dim light from the hall, she looked pale and unsteady on her feet.
“They're gone,” Logan said.
The thought of asking her where she had been entered my mind, but fell away just as fast. She had never been an agent. What could she have done?
Instead, I asked, “Where's Hank?”
Logan paled. “Hank?” He called out. His voice had the broken edge of panic.
Despair from Logan engulfed me before I broke away from the Path. It felt like heartbreak.
I hobbled around trying to navigate through the mangled desks and debris. “Hank?”
Kyrian joined us. “We need a head count.” Her voice carried through the room. “Call out if you can hear us.”
Groaning came from under a bulky computer monitor. Dropping my crutch, I pulled aside a monitor and found an agent. Blood had soaked through his shirt and trickled from his ear. Logan was staring at me apprehensively from across the room. After a quick shake of my head, I called out to two employees that had gathered, but were only staring blankly at the wreckage. They mutely took over putting pressure on the gash across the man's chest.
The crunch of metal pulling away from metal came from Logan.
“Hank!”
I used my crutch for leverage and left the bleeding agent. When I made it over to Logan, he held our unconscious handler.
Logan talked to Hank in a calm but firm voice, telling him to wake up.
“Get the doctor!” I yelled across the room to Kyrian.
She had been issuing orders to people as they entered the room. “He's on his way.”
Tears streaked Logan’s face. I had no idea that Logan's relationship with Hank ran this deep. I started clearing away wrecked keyboards and chairs in an effort to free up more space around the two. When the doctor rushed in, bag in hand, I waved him over.
Dr. Yelton relayed orders for a brace and stretcher. He gripped Logan's arm, forcing the elf to look him in the eyes. “He's been knocked out. It doesn't look bad, but he needs a CT scan. Move him carefully upstairs and I’ll meet you there.”
Logan nodded and waited for the stretcher. Dr. Yelton went to examine the next person injured.
When the stretcher arrived, I started to follow my partner upstairs.
“Stay here.” Logan's face was fierce. “Help where you can.”
I would have protested, but a pleading look was in Logan's eyes that I had never seen before.
He wanted to be alone. It hurt, but I understood.
I fell back and examined the room. Three more men were injured. Two people were clearing walking room through the wreckage. Kyrian was in the center issuing orders.
After limping over to Kyrian, I stared mutely around. It seemed like hours had gone by. Days even. If it weren't for the shot Dr. Yelton gave me, I'd be weary and bleary eyed. Instead, I was numb.
“Barry wanted you out of the way,” Kyrian said.
I couldn't bring emotion to my voice. “He did.”
“He thought you could have tied him to his crimes.”
“I should have tied him to the crime.” I sighed and leaned heavily on a crutch.
“Go see the doctor,” Kyrian said.
“I should help out here,” I said without moving.
“Washington will be here later today,” Kyrian said. “I want you checked out by the doctor and back home.”
Kyrian strode off without another word.
Progress was being made around the room, but it was slow. Over the loudspeakers came three long, low tones. Lockdown was being lifted. Metal shutters on windows and doors would be rolling back. More agents would be arriving.
The place where the portal had opened and closed stood empty. I shook my head. Enough agents would be around. Someone else can keep an eye on this. As agents started arriving, I headed toward the clinic upstairs.
I was expecting similar chaos and noise around the patients’ rooms, but things weren't bad. Keeping quiet, I sat in one of the hallway chairs. The MyTH doctor and extra medical staff on hand
provided quick care. Rooms were in short supply. The Lost and seriously injured took the rooms, injured agents, like myself, sat out of the way.
“He's awake.”
Logan was standing beside me. I hadn't noticed him walk up, but that shouldn't surprise me. He didn't look tense, which was a good sign.
“He'll be okay then?” I asked.
Logan nodded. “A knock on the noggin and a few bruises, but he'll be good as new. How about you?”
I had to think about the question before answering. “I'm good. Kyrian wanted me to see the doctor before heading home.”
“Home? She doesn't want you to stick around? Be debriefed or something?”
“No, she’s more worried about the guys from Washington arriving.”
Logan nodded and sat down. We watched people come and go. We watched the doctor become more and more worn down.
“Listen,” Logan said keeping his eyes on an agent standing down the hall. He seemed uncomfortable. “About downstairs. With Hank—”
“It's good that you found him so fast.”
“Yeah,” Logan said. He didn't look away from the man down the hall.
“He's going to be okay.”
Logan stayed silent.
“We're all going to be okay,” I said.
A corner of Logan's mouth curled up in a half grin. “Good to hear,” he said.
Chapter 30
“I'll be out for a few hours,” Gran said. “Logan will be here to pick you up for work soon, so we'll catch up tonight.”
“I’m off work for the week,” I reminded Gran.
“I know, hun, but Logan’s going to need you today.”
The thought of going into work made my stomach turn into knots. “Sure thing, Gran.”
After Gran left, I flipped on the TV and mindlessly flipped through channels. I was under doctor's orders to take it easy for a week, and for once, I wanted to listen to those orders.
Twenty minutes later, Logan came in through the kitchen and I went to greet him.
“How are things at the office?” I asked, as I pushed a plate of cookies in his direction.
“The boys from Washington have moseyed out of town.”
AIR Series Box Set Page 32