“Cassandra! You’ll never guess… Oh yeah.” By the time we’d crowded in behind him he’d decided his high-tops needed a polish and was rubbing one on the back of his pants leg. He glanced back at us. “I, uh”—he stuck his finger in his ear, wiggled it a few times.—“I need to pee.” He nodded to Ruvin as he strode from the room.
I looked up at Raoul. “What was that all about?” I asked.
“Maybe he’s worried.”
“Cassandra can take care of herself.” I didn’t buy a word of it and I’d just said it.
I swallowed my concern, told myself Cassandra wasn’t back yet because the exits were probably guarded, which meant we’d have to go get her as soon as we finished the mission. But that otherwise she was probably just fine. Really. Then I settled on the chair next to Raoul’s. Jack, reacting to the mood, dropped to his belly and laid his chin on my shoe. He began to chew at my laces.
Bergman left his post in the hallway to come hover behind us. I’d never seen him so grim. Which would’ve been enough to concern me. But I could almost see the gears turning as he stared toward Kyphas’s room.
“Where’s Astral?” I asked.
“She’s watching the demon,” Bergman said. My eyebrows lifted. “She may be… different now. But she still works.” He cleared his throat. “Unlike my bug,” he added, half under his breath.
I said, “Just because we haven’t heard from the Odeam team doesn’t mean your bug’s failed. It could be—” I stopped, mostly because he wasn’t listening. His eyes hadn’t budged from the demon’s doorway. Judging by the gleam in them, he was imagining some complex, devious revenge. Hopefully it would require an invention that would keep him out of trouble until we’d found the Rocenz and sent Kyphas out of range.
When we were settled Vayl said, “Ruvin’s wife was retaken at the airport. Fortunately she was able to distract her kidnappers long enough for Laal and Pajo to escape to the plane, which is well on its way to New Zealand by now.”
Ruvin dropped his face into his hands.
“What the f—?”
Vayl stopped me with a look. “We should be able to free her as before, but now we must wait until after we have accomplished our mission.”
“This isn’t right!” I said. I shoved my hands into my hair and pulled, but it didn’t stop Brude from giggling like a first-grader who’s just been visited by Santa Claus. With Tabitha back in gnome clutches the chances for a high body count—and thus an increase to his army’s numbers—had just multiplied. Because Ruvin would do anything the Ufranites said now. Which meant when the larvae hatched, he’d be there waiting, a walking breakfast buffet, instead of following our plan, saving his hide and NASA’s goodies as well.
As Brude danced around his throne room, which was quickly gaining form and color, Granny May murmured, No, Jazzy, something about this isn’t right at all.
I peered through my curls at Vayl and Raoul. They should be dangling at the end of their collective patience as well. Instead they sat staring at Ruvin, silent and… comfortable. Shouldn’t they be pacing? Or at least pissed?
I looked over my shoulder. Cole had finished his business and come out to stand beside Bergman. They were always quick to point out Vayl’s questionable decisions. And this was a doozy. So where was the criticism?
Ruvin’s shoulders were shaking, so I guessed he was crying.
But Vayl. Well, he was a master at hiding his thoughts, so who knew? Another thread of doubt drifted through my mind. I caught it before Brude could get a whiff.
Huddle!
My girls gathered on Granny May’s front porch.
I’m questioning this scenario. But I know Vayl wants me to believe everything he’s showing me. In fact, I think it’s vital that I do, or else Brude will suspect and then we’re probably all deeply screwed. So when I have a stray thought that might raise Brude’s suspicions, you four have to distract him. I’m counting on you especially. I nodded to Teen Me. In fact, I’ve been thinking… there’s a place in my head where we might be able to lock him away. I swallowed dryly as I remembered it. You know the one I mean.
Tears sprang to her eyes as I reminded her. What do I have to do? she asked.
Get in his face when I start to have doubts about what’s real and what’s for his benefit. Then, when the time is right, I’ll give you the signal. You’re going to have to open the door. You’ll have to shove him in.
But… I’m trying so hard to avoid it. For me it’s only a few years in my future.
As soon as you close the door you can lock it. He’ll be stuck in there with the memories. And hopefully we’ll never have to open it again.
The parts of my mind that had survived Brude’s onslaught nodded grimly. When he noticed them talking and demanded to know what they were doing, Teen Me stomped down the porch steps, strode right up to him, shoved her chin practically into his sternum, and screamed, “You are such a prick!” Then she burst into tears and ran into Granny May’s house.
Brude held out his hands, baffled by her outburst. What did I do? he asked.
I shrugged. I guess your charm doesn’t work on the virginal ladies.
My Inner Bimbo spoke up, leaving the huddle to collapse into a wicker chair as she said, Hell, it doesn’t even work on the horny ones.
Brude stalked off, Granny May’s uproarious cackle poking him in the back as he went.
Now that Ruvin had returned, we couldn’t put off the next phase of our mission any longer. Luckily it didn’t require a full crew, just Vayl, Cole, Jack, and I. Which left Bergman, Ruvin, and the talking cat to guard Kyphas. Not a comforting combination. So we’d convinced Raoul to stick around until we returned. At which point we promised him he could get on with the rest of his evening.
Armed with every weapon I’d packed, including a blood-test kit designed for involuntary donors, I drove Ruvin’s Patriot through the cold, trash-littered streets of Wirdilling. The fact that he’d allowed me behind the wheel of his dream machine showed how much this latest development had crushed Ruvin. Determined to make it right for him, Vayl sat silent at my side, his cane lying across his lap like a second seat belt. Cole took up the entire backseat, looking a lot more relaxed than the jumping muscle in his cheek let on. As he checked the sites of his Parker-Hale he said, “You know, I studied the pictures Bergman took of the primary school pretty thoroughly, but I didn’t see much in the way of sniper cover.”
“Some big eucalyptus trees are growing by the back corner along with a few pines,” I replied. “You should be able to find a comfortable spot there.”
“So the whole Odeam team is inside the building?”
“That is where Ruvin dropped them off,” said Vayl. “They have no reason to leave until the appointed time. In fact, I suspect the Ufranites are stationed beneath them to make sure they do not wander off.”
Cole nodded to the kit in my hand. “How confident are we in that tester?”
“The results are ninety-nine percent accurate,” Vayl said. “Within thirty minutes after we take the team’s samples, we will know which members—besides the vice president—are carriers.”
I nodded. “Then phase two of the plan kicks in.”
“If necessary,” Vayl added. “Perhaps he will be the only traitor after all. In which case our mission will be finished before we leave NASA’s guesthouse tonight.”
“You’re sounding awfully optimistic. What’s the deal?”
Vayl was studying me with those gemlike eyes of his. “You are scratching less,” he murmured. “It is only a matter of time, my Jasmine.” A slow smile lifted his lips, which hadn’t touched mine in so long I suddenly felt like a downhill racer. I needed Chap Stick for the dryness and cracking. And a long night by a cozy fire to warm all the spots that had begun to chill in his absence.
I said, “Oh. Yeah. Well.” Why did my mind always spin and stutter when what I wanted most was to whisper all my deepest feelings into that perfectly curved ear of his right before the nibbling began? I sighe
d.
“You guys make me want to gouge out my eardrums. Seriously,” Cole said. We’d almost reached the primary school by now. Approaching it from the back this time, I found a small neglected corner dominated by delicate-leaved sugar gums, thorny acacia, and a mass of vines twisting around the fence. I parked there, knowing it provided perfect cover for three people who intended to kill a man before the night had ended.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Though it might’ve been well lit while functioning as a school yard, the outer edge of our target’s quarters now hid in deep shadows. The only working fixtures perched above the doors, both the one with the intricate lock we’d decided to avoid, and the basement illusion.
“Are you ready?” asked Vayl as Cole and I stood at the top of the steps. Cole finished screwing on his silencer, exchanged a look with me, and we both nodded.
Inside my head Brude shouted, I will not allow this!
“My brain-buster is threatening us,” I murmured.
Vayl unsheathed his sword. “Then it is time. Cole and Jasmine, trade positions. Now!”
Like a switch flipping behind my eyeballs, the clarity of the moment sharpened to almost painful brightness. The speed of each movement, while outwardly phenomenal, still registered in my mind like I was playing it in slow-motion so it could be cataloged for future reference.
Cole slipped the harness of his weapon over his head and shoved the Parker-Hale into my hands along with his ammo belt.
At the same time I passed the blood-test kit into his.
Vayl spun and plunged through the fake doorway. Cole sped after him while I sprinted to the fence, hauling the rifle’s strap over my head as I moved. Once again my track training kicked in, allowing me to get a foot onto the fence, which gave me a boost into the lower branches of the nearest pine before Brude could roar, What is happening?
None of your damn business, I thought as I scaled the tree, needles and sap both leaving their mark before I was high enough to switch to a sugar gum that had grown in tandem with the pine.
Sweet silence greeted my final push to a sturdy crook where I could brace my hips while standing on the lowest branch. I unslung the rifle and checked my scope. Yeah, I had unobstructed views of all the windows and doors on this side of the school.
I disengaged the safety and chambered a round. I didn’t have time to doubt Vayl’s strategy. He had to figure one of the reasons the gnomes wanted easy access to their carrier(s) was to protect him/them. So he also had to bet their magic plant door would be alarmed once the carrier(s) took residence. But Vayl also knew Brude was a threat. So he’d decided to go in fast and dirty.
Maybe I won’t have anything to do, I thought. Maybe the riot we caused in the warren has already turned the guards against their shaman and the whole scheme has washed away like an eroded riverbank. I only had thirty seconds to believe that angle, because after that the first head appeared, sticking out of the fake concrete passageway like a target at a county fair duck shoot. My shot hit it in the ear and it dropped instantly, half in and half out of the door. The same was true for my next three targets. Then somebody smartened up and quit sending the grunts into the line of fire.
During the breaks I snuck peeks at the action through the windows.
Vayl and Cole had separated. Cole’s job, which would’ve been mine, was to anesthetize the team members whose affiliation we couldn’t place and pull a blood sample. It would be a quick, simple procedure. Two plugs up the nose that released fast-acting sleepy gas. Then set the head of a device that resembled a staple gun against a major vein, hold it for three seconds while it lifted the vein to the top of the skin, and pull the trigger. Instant suckage followed by wound closure so quick most victims never realized they’d been punctured. The blood would be automatically stored in a compartment in the handle and a new vial moved into place for the next sample. The only downfall? You’ve gotta keep good track of who you’re testing if you haven’t marked the vials. So Cole would be murmuring descriptions into his transmitter as he went. That way Bergman, who was preparing to run the tests back at base, would have no doubt whose results belonged to whom.
A small light came on in the room closest to the main door. Cole had opened the test-kit lid, which came with its own built-in beam. “Black-haired dude with goofy mustache and a unibrow,” he whispered. “I think it’s the software engineer, Johnson.”
“Got it,” Bergman replied from over half a mile away. Have I mentioned lately how much I love his gadgets?
A shadow crossing past the windows in the room nearest the front of the building let me know Vayl had set to work. I couldn’t see much through the gauzy white curtains. But thanks to Bergman, I could hear. So I glanced around the playground to make sure the gnomes hadn’t made use of a different escape hatch, and listened close.
VAYL: “You will speak to me in a reasonable tone of voice. You will not scream or call out. Do you understand?”
GNOME-PUPPET (no doubt influenced by Vayl’s hypnotic suggestions): “Yes.”
VAYL: “What is your name and title?”
GNOME-PUPPET: “My name is Dade Barnes. I’m the vice president of Odeam Security Software.”
VAYL: “Do you understand what you carry within your blood?”
DADE: “Of course. It’s no big deal. Like an infection you get over once they administer the shot. And now I’ll be able to keep my house. My wife and kids.”
VAYL: “Dade, there is no shot. You have been duped.”
DADE: “Heh.”
VAYL: “Who else carries the larvae?”
DADE: “Just me. They call me the godpleaser. I’m like a saint to the gnomes.” I can almost hear him grinning. He loves the adulation. I sense that he regularly got his ass kicked in high school.
VAYL: “You have betrayed your country. You are about to cause millions of dollars of damage. You may be responsible for the deaths of thousands of human beings if—”
DADE: “You think I give a shit? What’s my country ever done for me? What’s my fellow man ever done for me?”
VAYL: “Ah, so your status within your company, the house, wife, and children. Those would all have been attainable in any other country by a social misfit whose parents regularly demonstrate for the nation’s destruction?”
DADE: “How did you know about my—”
VAYL: “Answer the question.”
DADE: “Highly unlikely.”
VAYL: “And your fellow man? Are you saying you and yours have never benefited from advances in medicine such as antibiotics, cancer prevention and treatment, or even simple headache remedies? What about electricity? Clean water? Or perhaps we should discuss the woman who found your daughter wandering alone in Target and escorted her to the front, where her mother was waiting, before some monster could make off with her.”
DADE: “Are you some kind of psychic?”
VAYL: “No. I am Vampere. And I have come to kill you.”
DADE (his voice shaking now): “Y-you don’t have to do that. I won’t go into to the Space Complex tomorrow. Or ever.”
VAYL: “No, of course not. But you will die. The larvae erupting will cause you a most excruciating and bloody death. You will not be a hero, nor will your widow be rich. But you can redeem yourself today. If you do not know who else on your team has been turned, at least tell me who turned you.”
DADE (sniffling): “It was the shaman.”
VAYL: “Where would a gnome shaman get such a large amount of money as you no doubt required?”
DADE (sniffling harder): “I don’t know. I never even met her. After the first call it was all just Internet contacts and money wires.”
VAYL: “Her? The shaman is female?”
DADE: “Psh, yeah. Are you sure it’s going to hurt?”
VAYL: “Have you ever had a blister?”
DADE: “Yes.”
VAYL: “This is like being encased in blisters that explode from the bone outward. You will die screaming.”
DADE: “
Aaaah, God.”
VAYL: “I believe your god respects his children’s choices. You made the choice, Dade. As a result your country has been forced to make another. Come with me.”
DADE (quick intake of breath as Vayl’s power lifted. I could feel it, even from outside, the icy-cold tendrils of a Wraith’s touch, freezing the traitor into lethargy even as the smooth undertone in his voice insisted on cooperation.)
Distraction, as gnomes began to emerge, not from their faked door, but from bolt-holes in the back corners of the lot. I picked them off. Two from one. Four from the other. Pause to switch clips. Bam, bam, bam. Another set of head shots that left Ufran with yet more dead to process.
Stop shooting, you foul wench! Brude screamed, striking me with such a headache I was momentarily blinded.
“Help me out, ladies,” I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut, hoping the tears that rose would clear them.
Teen Me launched herself at the chieftain, her first bitch released before she’d even screeched to a halt within millimeters of his rage-blotched face. What is your major malfunction? she demanded. All this yelling just makes you look like a big, fat bigot! Admit it! The real reason you’re half crazed is because Jaz won’t kneel down and kiss your feet!
Hogwash! She is to be my queen. How much higher can a man raise a woman?
Gimme a fucking break! You’re not going to let her make any decisions when New Hell opens its doors. She’s just supposed to keep her mouth shut and make you look good, right?
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