“Tell Killjoy nullification field moved. Am without power,” Alexei said.
“Fuck,” Davis muttered. “Relaying.”
Alexei brought his weapon up as the sound of gunfire filled the street up ahead. Matthew and his team had closely followed the fire tornado to monitor areas for cover. They’d gotten as close as they could and were picking off what enemy they could find. Half a dozen fighters were still on fire, and their frantic flailing to put out the flames made them easy targets. When Davis started shooting, the loud sound of his heavy caliber sniper rifle going off was music to Alexei’s ears.
Unfortunately, his own weapon didn’t have Davis’ reach and Alexei couldn’t stay on the roof forever now that his power was nullified.
“Need to move,” he said.
“I’ll cover you,” Davis replied.
It took Alexei mere seconds to make it to the ground. Regrouping with Matthew took a little longer, but Alexei soon found himself by his former captain’s side, once again staring down the enemy.
“Ready?” Matthew asked as he reloaded while Alexei covered him, dropping his empty magazine to the ground.
“Da,” Alexei said.
“Then let’s get you to Apollo.”
Alexei nodded grimly, trying his hardest to shove the heavy worry over Kyle to the back of his mind and focus on the mission.
It was harder than it should have been, but he did it, because Alexei knew his brother was counting on him to be there for him, just like when they were kids.
16
The Silence Screams
The Ellipse Visitor Pavilion normally acted as an information center for tourists. The automated kiosks provided downloadable maps and suggested points of interests for the National Mall. The bathroom facilities weren’t anything to write home about, but the old building near the intersection of Fifteenth Street NW and E Street NW had withstood the test of time and was a familiar landmark on the National Mall.
It just couldn’t withstand sustained shelling from a Howitzer.
“Incoming!” one of the Strike Force operatives yelled.
“How many of the damn things do those arseholes have?” Liam demanded.
“Too fucking many,” Jamie snapped as they hunkered down behind the M2398 Mobile Gun System armored vehicle Strike Force had deployed.
The explosion from the shell finding its target made Jamie’s ears ring through the thin protection of the borrowed hard helmet he wore. Debris flew through the sky, most of it falling far past where they knelt for cover. Dust from the collapse of the building blew over them, the armored vehicle not enough to keep it at bay.
“I want that Howitzer taken out!” Jamie yelled over the sub-channel of comms that included everyone within their vicinity.
“Copy that, Apollo,” a cool soprano voice replied, not sounding ruffled in the least.
Jamie straightened up, careful to keep his head below the bodyline of the armored vehicle as the remote weapon station with its 105 millimeter M368C5 rifled cannon swung around toward its target. The sound of it going off practically deafened him, but Jamie could still access his comms, and that was all that mattered.
“Target destroyed,” the gunner announced seconds later.
“You know,” Liam began mildly. “Across the pond, we aren’t prone to losing military weapons like this.”
“Not the time,” Jamie growled.
He wasn’t in the mood for Liam’s battlefield brand of humor, not with Kyle still missing. That fact was like an anchor weighing down his thoughts, distracting him from the pressing need to stay focused on the fight he was in.
It didn’t stop him from reaching out to Katie on the mental link tying them together. For once he was thankful she wasn’t an empath and couldn’t read the terror saturating his thoughts.
Have you found him? Jamie asked.
No, Katie said. I’m sorry. I’m trying.
The director had cleared Katie, Mercedes, and the handful of other telepaths for full use of their telepathy in this fight. That meant broad scans of the population were allowed, but in a megacity with millions and millions of people living within it, searching for a single mind amidst so many took time.
And time was something they didn’t have.
Something Kyle didn’t have.
Jamie walled off, yet again, the overwhelming worry and despair he felt over Kyle’s MIA status. Gritting his teeth, he split his focus between barking out orders to their Strike Force contingent over comms and staying in contact with Katie.
Kyle was in our condo. He didn’t update anyone that he was resetting position. What happened? Jamie wanted to know.
The echoing silence in his skull made Jamie grind his teeth.
Your condo was attacked, Katie said, her words falling through his mind in a quick jumble. The director thinks it was targeted first.
Ice slipped down his spine, spreading through his chest. Why the fuck didn’t he—
He wanted you to focus on the mission.
I fucking told him not to keep me out of the loop! Why didn’t you tell me the second you knew?
Because I’m trying to find Kyle, and I can’t do that while worrying about your mental state in the middle of a fucking firefight!
Her telepathic shout made Jamie wince, mouth pulling into a snarl as he walked. Liam came up beside him, giving him some extra coverage.
My job is to find and eliminate Blanchett, but they have a telepath on the ground who is keeping her and everyone else around her shielded and hidden from us. She must be keeping him out of her power’s nullification field, which means he has to be close to her. Pinpointing their location is difficult. I’m doing the best I can.
The strain in Katie’s mental voice caused Jamie’s anger to momentarily die out. I know. Just find him. Please.
Because if she didn’t—it wasn’t something Jamie was ready to think about.
To live without.
Katie slipped out of his mind without a word and Jamie put his faith in his second-in-command to come through, as she always did when the chips were down.
“Any news?” Liam asked as they jogged beside the armored vehicle.
Jamie shook his head, unable to speak. Liam grimaced in the face of his silence and didn’t ask for clarification. Jamie flexed his fingers around the grip of his weapon and readjusted its position against his shoulder.
They were heading south toward the National Mall, bypassing the huge Ellipse lawn to their right and a burning bus to their left. Up above, the foreign energy shield was trying to reform again, smaller than before, but even as Jamie watched, another section south of them flickered and began to dissolve. Sean was still taking out the shield anchor platforms located outside Blanchett’s nullification power. None of their fighter jets had yet targeted the aerial anchor hovering high in the air above the National Mall, too focused on dog fights high above the megacity.
Two fighter jets had already been shot down; Jamie didn’t know whether they were friendly or not. The damaged fighter jets had ultimately crashed into the megacity and distant fires were lighting up the sky as bright as neon, but more dangerous. Civilian casualties were going to be high, especially with Splice chemical bombs going off in random areas.
“This is too bloody well-coordinated,” Liam grunted. “Fucking precogs.”
With Stanislav having seen an endgame none of them were prepared for, aided by Bennett’s interference and Declan’s need for revenge, they were all hard-pressed to keep up. All of Jamie’s ability to plan for the last possible scenario meant nothing in the face of precognition. He couldn’t see the future.
Stanislav Pavluhkin could.
Jamie shouldn’t have been surprised at the sound of a call coming through on an encrypted, personal line, but he was. He answered it without looking at the ID on his bioware as Liam took point and Jamie stayed on his six, the armored vehicle rumbling along beside them.
“Hello, Jamie,” Stanislav said in greeting, his Russian accent sounding th
ick in Jamie’s ears.
Jamie’s stomach churned; bile crawling up his throat. He swallowed it down. “Stanislav.”
Liam did a double-take over his shoulder, swearing loudly, before facing forward again. They were almost to the street, members of Strike Force using scattered trees as cover when they could, but Jamie wasn’t paying any attention to their location. A dangerous state of mind to be sure, but all his formidable attention was taken up by the voice in his ears.
“All of this could have been avoided if you had simply agreed to my terms.”
“You ever see a future where I became your fucking lapdog?” Jamie snarled.
“Yes.”
That simple, easy answer made Jamie hate himself in that distant alternate universe just a little.
“Fuck you.”
“You should know that you can’t win,” Stanislav told him. “Not against me.”
“If you think we’ll—”
“This isn’t about your team, Jamie. Or about your family. This is about me having something you want. Or should I say, someone?”
Jamie stumbled onto Constitution Avenue NW, his feet refusing to move him forward as Stanislav’s words echoed like a broken bell through his head. He stood there, in the middle of the street, seeing nothing but the smile on Kyle’s face from earlier that evening, this morning, yesterday, and all the days before in the nearly two years they’d been together.
He couldn’t fathom a life without seeing Kyle again.
“You have Kyle,” Jamie croaked out, not caring about code names, because those were meaningless between them now.
Maybe they always had been.
“I do.” Stanislav sounded amused, as if Jamie’s fear and heartbreak were his own personal form of entertainment. “You seem to think you’re a businessman, Jamie. So let’s talk business, shall we? Meet me at the Supreme Court Building in twenty minutes. I’d say come alone, but I know how you think. You won’t find your powers working where you are heading.”
Jamie wondered, just for a second, how Stanislav had slipped past all the security in place to set foot in the United States. Precog or not, there were so many layers to account for that it seemed impossible. It didn’t matter though, because Stanislav was here. Jamie’s heart pounded in his chest at the thin shred of hope that Kyle might still be within reach and alive. Until he got eyes on Kyle, he wouldn’t believe it.
“I want to speak with Kyle,” Jamie said, trying not to sound like he was begging, when that’s all he wanted to do.
“You don’t give the orders here. Twenty minutes.”
The line went dead, and Jamie gritted his teeth against the scream clawing at the back of his throat. He blinked, his surroundings coming back into focus. Liam had signaled for everyone to hold position around Jamie while he dealt with the call, covering him. Jamie met Liam’s steely gaze and tried to draw strength from his oldest friend.
“Does that bastard have him?” Liam asked.
“Yes,” Jamie replied, the word a hollow sound between them.
“Where?”
Jamie swallowed thickly. “Here. In D.C.”
“What’s the plan?”
Jamie was notorious for always having a plan, but his ability to defend against oncoming threats had fallen apart beneath Stanislav’s power. All he knew was his own path forward.
“I need to meet with Stanislav.”
Liam nodded. “What do you need us to do?”
It took several seconds for Jamie to pull together his fractured thoughts into some semblance of order. The fight going on around them in Washington, D.C., became secondary to getting Kyle back. It wasn’t the professional decision—but it was the only decision Jamie could make.
“Hold the line here,” Jamie said, meeting Liam’s gaze. “The White House is still under attack. The president is still inside there. Our parents and other innocent civilians are still at risk. I need to know they’re safe.”
Liam was too polite, or perhaps, too aware of the tightrope Jamie walked with his emotions right now to point out that no one was safe at the moment.
“Don’t worry about them,” Liam promised. “Do what you have to do.”
Jamie sucked in a deep breath, desperately searching for a calm that had slipped away however long ago, and called out to Katie. Viper, link me to Inferno.
Do you have an update? she asked.
As much as Jamie wanted to lie, to do this on his own, he knew he couldn’t. He needed his team now more than ever, but he needed them to not do anything stupid.
Stanislav is in the field. He has Kyle, Jamie told her. Don’t tell the rest of the team. Not yet.
Apollo—
Trust me, Viper.
The second or two of silence in his mind was heavy with the years of unspoken words Katie had held back in the face of his decisions. And like so many times before, when she finally spoke, the trust she had in him to do the right thing never wavered.
Linking you to Inferno.
Jamie gave out his latest order over comms and through the mental link. “Inferno, I need you and Killjoy to meet me at the United States Supreme Court building. Be advised, the nullification field has shifted from the White House up to the Capitol Building into Third Street. We’ve still got civilians in the Capitol Building under attack.”
He was guessing at the nullification field reach, but if Blanchett was with Stanislav, then it only made sense. Katie carried his order to Alexei’s mind. Matthew’s confirmation echoed in his ears while Alexei’s rang through his mind.
“Copy that, Apollo,” Matthew said.
Wilco, was Alexei’s flat response.
“Think I saw a motorcycle over that way, sir,” one of the Strike Force operatives said as he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Couple of abandoned cars, too.”
Jamie was too far away from the Supreme Court Building to make it there by foot in the midst of fighting under such a tight timeline. Borrowing a vehicle was the only option, and he wasn’t going to ask to use the armored vehicle currently covering the group. They needed it more than he did.
He only needed Kyle.
“All ground troops, you are ordered to cover Apollo on his route east,” Liam said over the comms on a general channel.
He would have issued more orders, except his comms were cut as the director came on the line, overriding everyone.
“Apollo, you will hold your position,” Nazari barked out.
Jamie rarely disobeyed a direct order. He’d spent his life following them, after all. From his father’s demands to his superior officers’ needs, Jamie had done what needed to be done time and time again. But when it mattered, when it was important, when he knew he was in the right, that was when he disobeyed.
Like the old song went—freedom was just another word for nothing left to lose.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Jamie said, refusing to back down. “But I can’t do that. Apollo out.”
Jamie hit the kill switch on his RealIdent chip, frying the bioware and effectively shutting down his comms. He still had Katie to guide him, as always.
I’ll get you to Kyle if it’s the last thing I do, she promised.
As with any good sergeant, Jamie trusted Katie would get the job done.
Jamie peeled away from the group, racing east toward the intersection. The bus from before wasn’t the only vehicle burning on the street. Jamie bypassed all of those, attention locking on a viable car whose owner was still slumped over the steering wheel, dead from a bullet through the back of her head. The car itself had crashed into a light post, the engine still running. The only way to find out if it still worked was to drive it.
Jamie hauled the body out of the car and left it in the street. He got behind the wheel, staring grimly out the heavily cracked, bullet-ridden windshield. When he put the car in reverse, the street light wobbled precariously before falling across the sidewalk. The car, despite its dented front end and bloodstained seat, was good to drive.
So Jamie drove it.
He careened back around the corner, heading back up Fifteenth Street NW toward Pennsylvania Avenue NW. He passed pockets of hunkered-down Metropolitan police as well as the National Guard who didn’t so much as point their weapons at him.
Keeping your route clear on our end, Katie told him, her mental voice sounding a little strained.
Human minds weren’t built to handle any of the mental powers easily. Katie used her telepathy to keep fingers off triggers, regardless of the damage she left behind in the minds of the people on their side. Right now, Jamie’s priorities didn’t include Washington, D.C., or its people. Katie knew that.
Whether it was Katie’s sheer mental will or Stanislav’s ability to see the future, Jamie’s drive to the Supreme Court Building happened quicker than he anticipated. The bulk of the fighting was taking place within the National Mall and around the White House. That didn’t mean the going was smooth, but Jamie wasn’t stopping for anything or anyone until he reached his destination.
He detoured onto Indiana Avenue NW, the street name changing halfway through as he took a wide route around the National Mall and the smoking Capitol Building. The nullification field remained strong around him, which made him think Stanislav was focusing more on him than on anyone else in the field. If it meant his team and all the other MDF metahumans could keep fighting outside of Blanchett’s range, then Jamie was fine with being her target.
Jamie drove down Second Street NE with one destination in mind, trusting in Katie to watch his six from wherever she was in the field. He braked to a hard halt when Katie gave the order.
Stop, she ordered.
Jamie slammed his foot on the brake and turned the engine off, getting out of the car. He brought his borrowed rifle with him, bringing it up in a smooth motion as bodies slipped free of the surrounding shadows near the houses.
In the Requiem (Metahuman Files Book 5) Page 25