The Lost Power: VanOps, Book 1

by Avanti Centrae

  The next thing she knew, a tall, clean-shaven, white-haired man with olive skin landed on the pyramid from the helicopter somewhat less gracefully than the two younger men. She caught a whiff of cologne.

  As the helicopter roared off, with help from a flash of lightning, she got a glimpse of the pilot through his window. His black hair was pulled into a stylish ponytail and he had dark skin, determined features. Who is he?

  Then the white-haired man demanded her attention with a thick Spanish accent. “Give me those obelisks.”

  Expecting her to comply, he held out his left hand. It was missing the ring and pinkie fingers. His right hand held a pistol, pointed toward her midsection.

  Maddy took a step toward him. Through their bond, she could sense both Will’s emotional strength and his urging not to give up the obelisks.

  Pausing, she studied the situation. On the other side of the tripod, AJ was standing between the scarred Russian and the guy Bear knew, or thought he knew. Both had guns and the Russian’s weapon was pointed at AJ’s temple. On her right, the old man was in the corner, closest to her. On her left, Bear stood next to her, angry and ruffled. And Will, his face in a furious frown, stood next to Bear, almost directly across from the Russian. To say the odds were not in their favor was an understatement. She considered all her options and didn’t like any of them.

  Lighting arched across the sky, so close that she felt the hair on her arms raise, throwing the old man’s face into ghostly relief. He seemed familiar somehow. He was tall, listed a bit. Had a receding hairline. How did she know this man?

  The breeze shifted and brought the smell of Old Spice to her nose. In that instant, everything clicked and volcanic fury surged through her. This white-haired man was the bastard that had locked her in the closet over and over again when she was young.

  “You’re our...grandfather.” Her tone was menacing. Her anger, a blistering rage so hot her face seemed on fire.

  He dropped his outstretched hand and laughed. “Yes, little Maddy. You’re smart. The plane crash wasn’t as bad as I made it look.”

  Will’s eyes were wide, his tone incredulous. “You faked your own death?”

  The lined face turned to look at Will. Comparing the two men, the family resemblance became clear--both tall, both olive-skinned, although Will’s skin tone was lighter. They had matching green eyes. It unsettled her.

  “Hello, Will. You’re smart, too. Yes, I died to the world in the hopes your father would go on this quest, and I could follow him to the prize. I kept an eye on him through tapping his phone, and the receptionist of that attorney friend of his--she was a hot little number.”

  Will shook his head, sending droplets of water flying. “You had her killed.”

  “No choice once things were set in motion.”

  Maddy wanted to keep him talking. Buy time to think. “But why?”

  “The throne. Ever since Carlos suggested we drown his twin, I knew it was my birthright. But then he was on guard and I could never find a way to remove him. I need the Power.”

  Maddy had known Prince Carlos for a scoundrel but to have truly murdered his own brother with the help of another took a special kind of evil. And if their grandfather had killed once--

  Maddy’s grip tightened on the obelisks as a significant piece of the puzzle clicked into place. “You! You killed our father! So we would go on the quest and you could follow us.”

  “Your father was never on my side, he let me down. Never followed the clues. To make matters worse, he saw me on TV during the recent uprising in Jerusalem where I was trying to get to your precious Guardians. He was about to tell you I was alive. Why did you think he set up that little family reunion? I couldn’t have that.”

  “Then why try to kill us?”

  “I knew you’d go on the quest with a Russian sniper on your tail. Ivan was just herding you along. Until now.”

  Maddy shuddered. This obsessed man had killed his own son--and meant to kill them next.

  “Why the Russians?” Bear growled.

  “I made Slavic friends decades ago when on business for my father. They took me in after I ‘proved my sincerity.’” He laughed and showed them his missing fingers. “One particular friend contacted me a few months ago, seeking a novel fuel source for his plans. So, you see, the timing was perfect.”

  “What about Maria?” Will cried. “Why did you kill her?”

  The Russian looked down and shuffled his feet, but the black-haired man with the beak replied. “She was caught in the crossfire. It was unintentional. Now--please hand the obelisks over. This is also a matter of national security. We believe these obelisks will help our fight against ISIS and the Islamic terrorists.”

  “You’re full of shit, D’Angelo,” Bear spat the words. “And you’re a traitor, too. These...these scum...killed Hana, Juergen, the twins’ father, and Will’s wife.”

  “You have a lot to learn about the covert world, boy, and motivation. Give us the obelisks and you’ve got a long, happy career in front of you.”

  “To hell with you,” Bear rumbled.

  Maddy’s chest grew warm with pride at Bear’s words.

  Lightning cracked again and the old man yelled, “Stop it! I’ll have the obelisks or the boy dies now!” He looked at Maddy, stretched out his hand again. “Emma, give them to me.”

  Emma, her grandmother’s name--his wife.

  Emma, who had died with their mother in the car crash.

  Emma, whom the king said she resembled.

  More fragments of the mystery dropped into place, and she unexpectedly felt sorry for this old man who must have lost a piece of his mind over the death of his wife. And to have hungered for the Spanish throne to the point of ordering the death of his son. He’d have to live with that.

  Knowing her anger would only play into his game, she put it on a shelf and breathed into her belly, into her power. She listened and became one with the rain, with the night, with Ramiro, with Alexander, with AJ and the love she felt for him. The obelisks thrummed in her hands. I could use them. But her grandfather was holding AJ hostage and his release was more important. Maybe his life, at least, would be spared.

  She stepped forward and handed the obelisks to her grandfather.

  At that moment, everything happened at once.

  As lightning crashed, her misguided grandfather tucked the gun into his belt, clutched the obelisks, and raised them overhead to the darkened sky. “The Power is mine!”

  Several baseball-size globes of blue-gold lightning poured from the obelisks. Maddy stared, transfixed, as the lightning balls, like drops of plasma from a blue sun, spun around in the sky for a long moment.

  Then, they boomeranged back toward the pyramid, toward their source. One of them brushed her grandfather’s shoulder, another landed on his left foot. He stumbled forward, fell to the ground, his hands hit the pyramid, and he lost his grip on the obelisks, which rattled across the stones.

  As she dived for the obelisks, Maddy nodded at AJ. Recognizing the signal the two of them had always used to start his aikido routine, AJ stomped down hard on the Russian’s left foot. The child’s attack seemed to amuse the sniper, but it caused him to look down, distracted, just long enough for Bear to pound into him with a football tackle. The Russian and Bear fell to the stones as a gun went off.

  “Bear!” Maddy yelled.

  Then thunder filled her ears and a serpent’s tongue of regular lightning struck near the pyramid. It seared her skin, dizzied her, and knocked her down. After a count of three, she was able to stand up, obelisks in hand. She wobbled on her feet, alarmed about Bear, AJ, and Will.

  However, before she could see how they were doing, her grandfather lunged for her at the same time that Will rushed forward, pushing their grandfather sideways, knocking the old man off balance and toward Maddy. As he fell in her direction, Maddy grabbed his arm and maneuvered him sideways with a fluid aikido move, adding further speed to his trajectory. She’d intended to simply move
him aside, but on a piece of fallen stone, her grandfather tripped toward the pyramid’s edge and tumbled part of the way down the slanted stone face. He landed with his head dangling from his neck, clearly dead.

  Maddy stared at the body, still as a pillar of ice. A mixture of horror and relief stirred beneath her frosty outward appearance as she considered the ruthless justice, self-inflicted.

  A rat-a-tat sound shattered the night. The helicopter, which had been out of sight, made a run toward them while laying down a trail of machine gunfire. It was clear to Maddy that to save AJ, Bear, and Will, her only choice was to use the obelisks against the incoming fire.

  Hoping the pilot could eject, she prayed the obelisks wouldn’t backfire on her like they had her grandfather and that she could direct her energy when it truly mattered. She found the deep well of her love, listened, and let her passion flare. She tapped into the Power to pour heat into her hands. An invisible flame filled her entire being, along with an intense sense of wonder so immense she felt she might burst. She flared blue fire at the helicopter, sensed it hit home, and the helicopter arced toward the desert floor.

  Was that the sound of the rotors getting blown off? Did the pilot eject? She squinted, but through the rain and dark night couldn’t be sure.

  “Maddy!” AJ yelled.

  Quick as a cat, she turned and barely registered the crash of the helicopter in the distance.

  As she turned her gaze around, the Russian crouched over AJ. Had the blond man been protecting AJ from the machine gunfire? Next to the Russian, the man from the café wobbled on all fours, intent on a silver pistol that was lying on the stone a few yards away. Bear could be no help--he lay on the ground, clutching his leg.

  AJ squirmed out from under the Russian and jumped on top of him. The sniper, eyes also focused on the lethal silver weapon, attempted to use his right arm to stand, but his reddened hand gave way and he stumbled while trying to shake off AJ’s weight.

  In a vain attempt to end the threat, Will threw a knife at the off-balance sniper. He caught the Russian in the right cheek, and the Russian paused in his efforts to shake the boy.

  Maddy also hesitated, not wanting to use lethal force against the Russian and concerned that balls of lightning might injure AJ. However, she knew aikido wouldn’t help her if he got ahold of that gun. Apparently caught off guard, the sniper’s posture gave her an opening that she might be able to use and still spare AJ.

  Bear, Will, AJ: their lives were all in immediate danger. She had to risk it. With a deep breath, she raised the obelisks to the clouds. Her internal flame connected with her hands and blue balls of lightning sparked toward the Russian, her father’s killer. The ball lightning seared a midnight-black hole through his lower abdomen.

  He looked down toward his belly, eyes wide with shock, pale hands touching the charred edges of his shirt. AJ nimbly detached himself from the man’s back while the assassin dropped to his knees and crumpled to the stones.

  The sniper rolled to his side and died, a flash of relief passing over his features. Her gut clenched with the realization that she’d just killed a man. But maybe violence was a form of suicide, as Edith had suggested.

  There was one assailant left, no time for reflection. In slow motion, the man from the café sprawled to reach the weapon. He grabbed it with his right, outstretched hand, and pointed it at her as he rolled. His pistol flared white at the same time she sent blue lightning toward him. A split second later, a flare of jagged lightning roared out of the heavens and struck the tripod, which burst into flames.

  The assailant’s bullet slammed into her and ripped her chest backward. But her balls of fire returned the favor by burning a hole through his heart. As she dropped to the ground, the white-hot obelisks fell from her grip onto the pyramid’s stone surface, and shattered with the sound of breaking dreams.

  The remaining ball lightning spun over Bear’s head as he looked down into her eyes. The balls looked like fireflies, lazily flitting through the summer sky.

  And Bear. He was so tall. So handsomely tall.

  CHAPTER 76

  5:14 a.m.:

  Staring at the carnage around the top of the pyramid, Will’s fury faded with the deepening realization that his grandfather was dead and justice for his father and wife had been served.

  A small reserve of energy fueled his movements. In the dim light of the burning tripod, he paused to be doubly sure that the blond Russian sniper, the intelligence officer who looked like a mobster, and his murderous grandfather were all dead.

  He snatched up AJ and rushed over to join Bear at Maddy’s side. Will knelt in the broken remnants of the obelisks, which fanned out around her shoulders and mixed in with the splashed blood from her wound.

  “Is she okay?” Will asked.

  Bear ignored the blood dripping from his own thigh while holding pressure on Maddy’s chest wound. “Her pulse is steady. The bullet went through the right side of her chest below her collarbone. She’s breathin’ okay, but is losing a lot of blood.”

  “She’s going to live?” AJ interrupted.

  Will replied, “I hope so. The bullet missed her heart, but we still need to get her out of here or she’ll die from shock! You too, Bear. How’s that leg?”

  Bear looked down at his leg. “I guess I should wrap it.”

  “Maybe one of these guys has a phone.” Will stood, strode over to the Russian and the mobster and rustled through their clothes, finding nothing. Swearing, Will took the sniper’s scorched shirt and the light jacket off the other body.

  Will shook with frustration. He draped the large shirt over Maddy, cradling her head with one sleeve, then handed the jacket to Bear, who stood and tied the sleeves around his thigh.

  How were they going to get out of here? Will took over applying pressure on Maddy’s wound. Can Bear and I carry her down the pyramid? It wouldn’t be easy.

  Someone shouted in the distance.

  Bear moved over to the side of the pyramid and looked down. “Looks like the cavalry is comin’ to the rescue. Must’ve heard all the commotion.”

  “The guards?” Will asked with relief.

  “What guards?” AJ asked.

  “The men who guard the pyramid. They’re on their way up here.”

  AJ moved off to stand next to Bear. “Good. They can help with Maddy.”

  Bear put his arm around AJ’s shoulder.

  While Bear and AJ watched the guards climb, Will looked out over the desert. He thought he’d seen the pilot of the helicopter blow the rotors and eject before the machine hit the ground, but he’d been distracted in the struggle and wasn’t sure.

  The rain was tapering off, as light gathered in the east. Will squinted to make out the flames of the ruined helicopter in the distant desert sands, but didn’t see the pilot. Who was the pilot and where was he, or she, now? Will didn’t like loose ends.

  AJ walked back over to Will and picked up one of the shards of obelisk. “This is cool.”

  Will looked at it. The rising sun shone around a cloud, caught the splinter, and flashed a scarlet prism on the stone surface of the pyramid. Not a good idea to leave those pieces lying around.

  Will handed AJ the backpack. “Yes, very cool. Why don’t you see if you can gather up the rest and put them in here?”

  AJ obediently began to pick up the other pieces and put them in the pack.

  Maddy’s forehead felt cold under Will’s hands. The bleeding had slowed with the pressure but he was worried. What if the bullet grazed her lungs? What if it takes too long to get help?

  She was something, this sister of his. His heart grew warm with pride. While he’d failed miserably, she’d passed every test Ramiro had thrown at them, had learned to use the obelisks, and had saved their asses in the end. He shook his head with wonder. The guards clambered to the top of the pyramid.

  They’d probably hand him over to the walrus cop. But he was glad they’d shown up. At least they could help carry Maddy down this ancient relic an
d get her to the hospital.

  CHAPTER 77

  Napa, California, August 7, 7:45 p.m.:

  Two weeks after their victory in Giza, Maddy and AJ headed out to the private, western-facing patio as the golden rays of the setting sun lengthened over the vines of her father’s vineyard. After surgery on her chest and shoulder, then a week in the hospital in Cairo recovering, they had all come back to the States.

  It had taken them a few days to get things together for their father’s funeral service, which had been held earlier in the day. Maria’s would be held next week in Brazil. Even though she’d gone through a box of tissues, Maddy was grateful her sister had waited for the service until they made it back.

  Looking out at the rows of vines and distant oak trees, she was glad to be home. She took a long, contented breath, settling into her patio chair. It had been a frightening but exhilarating adventure, and although Maddy was deeply troubled at having to kill to survive, she grinned to herself in surprise at how much she had enjoyed walking the knife’s edge.

  “C’mon, sensei, hurry up!”

  “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

  Sensei. Her heart swelled with pleasure and gratitude. Although the bullet wound in her chest had not healed enough to allow her to take her next aikido test, with her newfound skills at directing energy, she knew she would pass with ease. She would be, at long last, on the fast path to becoming a martial arts teacher, so she didn’t bother to correct AJ this time.

  The patio table was set for dinner, and Will was already sitting at the table, sipping a glass of merlot. He’d found it in the cellar, a vintage their dad had bottled. She, Will, and her sister had inherited equal shares in the vineyard but they hadn’t decided what to do with it.