One of the demons thrashed toward the helpless woman and children, still tethered by the leashes around their necks to the demon who had brought them into the room. Liv leapt forward, wondering how she’d free them.
The Wolf fell to the ground, and the demon holding the leashes dropped them and fled his flaming comrade.
Elachai appeared next to his wife. He took in the room at a glance, his eyes resting for an instant on Liv’s. He bowed to her.
Then he turned to his family, shouting, “Come with me!” All four vanished.
Typical, Liv thought. She turned, finding Connor in the pandemonium, only feet from her.
“Connor! We can Travel now!”
Connor cupped his hands to his mouth. “T36! Get to the ground floor, NOW!”
Jordan had worked his way around the room to Liv’s side. When he staggered, she threw her arm out to steady him. “You okay?” she shouted.
He nodded and started for the door.
Wildfyre raced in a line across the floor between Liv and the door, lighting up the wall tapestries with a floomp. They burned through in seconds, and the fyre licked at the stone beneath.
Jesus, is there anything it can’t burn?
Liv traced a path to the door, avoiding the three burning lumps that had been demons, the two burning demons still on their feet, and the patches of burning carpet. Gin and Ben had already disappeared into the hall, Trent was at the door, and Jordan and Connor were right on her heels.
Back on the main stairway, two demons raced toward them, and Liv felt naked with no weapons. T36 grouped together to meet the attack, but the demons ignored them and raced past.
Liv grinned, adrenaline making her euphoric. They couldn’t have asked for a better diversion to distract the demons from their escape.
They reached the main floor at a dead run. Where before the cavernous mess hall had been empty, it was now a hive of bustling activity. Every visible demon dropped what it was doing and screamed at the escapees, racing toward them with their unnerving speed.
Connor yelled, “Safe World on mark, one-two-three-mark!”
Liv exhaled and dissolved. She staggered to a stop as she blinked her eyes open. She was high above the world, looking out at the red sand plain that spread for miles in every direction. They were atop the tiger rock.
“Let’s get down,” Connor said, “and get the hell out of here.”
Ben coughed raggedly. “Pun definitely intended.”
Connor smiled grimly and started toward the path that led down the cliff face.
Liv eyed Jordan’s pallor and the grimace of pain that kept his eyes mostly shut. The liar had said he was fine. She was about to ask him exactly what was wrong, but had to leap to catch him just before he tripped off the cliff top. “Connor, not yet.”
“We could have demons on our asses any second here.”
He looked back, saw that Liv was the only thing holding Jordan on his feet, and signaled the others to stop. Liv hoped the demons didn’t show, because their combined weaponry looked to be two throwing knives—Gin handed a knife to Trent and kept another as they spread out to cover the team.
“Where’d this come from?” Trent asked.
“One for them to find, one to keep. I thought everybody knew that rule.”
Trent smiled. “I do now.”
Connor walked silently to Jordan, who was now hissing in pain with every breath, his left hand held tight to his right shoulder. “Jordan?”
“I think it’s just dislocated.”
“Can you walk down?”
“Feels like somebody stuck a foot-long knife through it. I can hardly breathe.” He kept his eyes squeezed shut and the words were strangled through his clenched teeth.
“You want me to pop it back in?” Connor asked, in the tone he would have used if he was in his own kitchen, grabbing another beer at halftime and asking if Jordan wanted one too.
Jordan matched his tone. “Yeah, could you?”
Connor stepped around Jordan and stood behind him, inspecting the shoulder. “It’s definitely dislocated.” He pulled Jordan’s arm away from his body and slowly swung it forward and back. Jordan groaned, eyes fluttering as he swayed on his feet and almost took Liv off hers.
“Connor!” Liv warned as she tried to take more of Jordan’s weight and keep him upright.
Connor ignored her, focusing on Jordan’s face. “It doesn’t feel like anything’s broken. I don’t think it’s torn. It’s really going to hurt.”
Jordan nodded, eyes still tightly closed. “I know. It really fucking hurts now.”
“You’re going to have to relax.”
“Yup, know that too. Give me a minute.”
Jordan opened his eyes, zeroing in on Liv. He lowered his hands to his sides, hissing again as he straightened his right arm. He took a slow, deliberate breath, grimaced, forced his hands open, and took another.
“Okay,” he said. With his shoulders relaxed, Liv could see the misshapen bulge of dislocated bone.
Connor looked at Liv. “Hold him.”
Liv swallowed hard and glanced at her teammates guarding the perimeter. Apparently, none of them wanted to volunteer.
She took a deep breath, stepped behind Jordan, and locked an arm in front of each shoulder. Jordan relaxed even more as she pressed up against him, and leaned back against her slightly. She stretched up with him as he drew a deep breath, and she breathed in too. Cologne and sweat and male all mixed together to form the scent she loved, the scent of him.
Connor gripped Jordan’s right arm. “Ready?”
Jordan nodded again. Liv squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn’t anticipate, tense up, and make Jordan tense up too.
Connor said, “On three, okay? One…two…”
He snapped into motion, both rotating and pulling Jordan’s arm.
Jordan stiffened, pulling Liv forward. There was a pop as the shoulder snapped back into place. “I thought you said on three!” he snarled through his teeth as he took a step forward. Liv let him go.
He turned to her and Connor. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” Connor waved a hand airily.
Jordan rolled the shoulder forward and back. “Still hurts, but I should be fine as long as I don’t have to wrestle anyone.”
“Try to hold it still or it’ll pop out again. Move out.”
The team trooped down the cliff face to the scummy green puddle below, and Connor gave the order for Home World.
Liv opened her eyes on jungle. Connor arrived immediately, looked around, and called the SM with their location.
“We’re going to need weapons recovery too,” Connor said.
Although there was only silence from the radio, Liv was sure the operator had sighed. “Yes sir.”
“Con,” Jordan said. “The grenade didn’t disappear when the demon threw it away. That’s how I burnt them.”
“Ah, that’s disturbing.”
“Woolfe dropped some kind of device on the carpet when I stabbed him,” Liv remembered.
“So?”
“So, they kept us from Traveling. Maybe it affected our stuff too?”
Connor shook his head. “That is so not cool. I don’t suppose you got the device?”
She shook her head. “It wouldn’t have come with us anyway.”
* * *
Back at the base, Liv followed her team as they filed into the briefing room. General Mace took in their battered appearance from his seat at the head of the table. “Are you all okay?”
“Jordan almost had his arm ripped off,” Connor said, “but the rest of us are just punctured and bruised.”
Ben grinned. “You should see the other guys.”
“So your mission was successful?” the general asked.
Connor smiled. “Surprisingly so.”
“Can we spare some time before a full debrief?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then you’d better get down to Medical first. All of you.”
“One thing first,
sir.”
General Mace looked expectantly at Liv.
“Did the recovery team find our gear?”
“I imagine so. Each piece has a locator beacon. Why?”
“We were trapped in Hell, held there, and some of our gear was too.”
He rose to his feet. “I’ll find out. We’ll debrief in half an hour.”
The team rose from their seats and trooped down to Medical. Liv’s wound was disinfected and bandaged. Jordan was forced to lie on the bed next to hers while they examined his arm, then wheeled him down to radiology for a CT scan.
When they wheeled him back into the bay next to hers, she asked, “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” he said.
She watched with a smile as the medical put a sling on his arm and lectured him. It was nice to see someone else at their mercy for once. “You’d better take it easy, wear this sling for at least a week, and get yourself to the physical therapist for rehabilitation. I’ll set up some appointments. Now I’ll just give you something for the pain.”
Jordan raised his left hand. “No. I’m fine. I don’t want any of that injectable crap, it makes me loopy.”
“Well you at least need some anti-inflammatories. Here’s some ibuprofen.”
“Fine.”
Connor walked in. “You okay?”
“Fine. They say I’ll just have some bruising. You got it back in without further damage. Although Dr. Brown wanted me to pass along the message that she’s the doctor and would appreciate if you wouldn’t attempt to do her job. I reminded her you are a field medic.”
Connor smiled. “Thanks. Glad you’re cleared. Let’s go.”
Liv jumped off the bed, and Jordan sat up more slowly.
Connor clasped Jordan’s good left hand, pulled him to his feet, and led Liv and Jordan out the door. Ben, Gin, and Trent were already waiting in the white lobby.
“All clear?” Connor asked.
Gin gave a half-hearted salute. “Yessir.”
General Mace was waiting when they got back to the briefing room. “Well, Commander? Woolfe is neutralized?”
“Yes, sir.” Connor launched into the story, and they spent the next hour going over the mission in detail. Connor finished by saying, “We’ll have to monitor the situation to make sure that it works like we thought, but we may have actually saved not only our world, but all the others that the demons have been raiding.”
General Mace frowned. “You shouldn’t have killed him. He’d have been instrumental in changing the demons’ objective.”
Connor’s eyes were just a little more wintry than usual. “It was necessary.”
The general searched his gaze, then nodded. “So what about Woolfe’s anti-Traveling device? You have no ideas?”
Trent and Liv both shook their heads when his questioning gaze landed on them.
“Sorry sir,” Liv said. “All I know is it prevented Travel of us and at least some of our gear.”
“Speaking of which. Your gear was recovered. The brain ray is depleted.”
“But there was a charge left! I didn’t fire them all.”
Gin scowled. “Demons probably pawed everything. Tough luck.”
Liv nodded. Now she’d have to try and get cartridges made again. Without a specific mission, she bet she’d have better luck getting the Air Force to buy her a new Jaguar.
General Mace said, “Well done, T36. You’re dismissed. Go get cleaned up, and then you’re all on well-earned leave for the weekend.”
To Liv, clean sounded like a magical word. She felt like she’d been rolling in a garbage heap, and she could still smell burning demon in her clothes and hair.
She had just emerged from the locker room, her hair still wet from the shower, when she heard over the comm: “T36 to the briefing room. Repeat, T36 to the briefing room.”
She turned back to the locker room where the roar of a blow dryer drowned out all other sounds. When her shouts received no response, she walked over to Gin where she stood with her head down, drying masses of golden curls, and tapped her on the shoulder.
Gin stood up so fast she almost overbalanced, then turned off the dryer when she saw it was Liv. “Now what?” Her voice echoed in the sudden silence.
“We’ve been ordered to the briefing room.”
Gin rolled her eyes, but stuffed her hair dryer in her locker, slathered some goo on her hands, and ran it into her hair as she followed Liv out the door.
When they arrived in the briefing room, the guys were already there. General Mace stood at the head of the table, his expression grim.
Liv asked, “Sir, what’s going on?”
“I just received word that the headquarters of Innerstellar Technologies is under attack. By demons. I’m sorry to delay your leave, but you’re the closest thing I have to demon experts. I need you there.”
Chapter 24
Liv’s mouth dropped open.
Jordan and Ben both said, “What?” in identical tones of outraged disbelief.
Connor asked, “Where’s the headquarters?”
“Denver.” At her teammates’ surprised looks, Liv explained, “They tried to recruit me out of school.”
“Have you been there?” Connor asked.
“Yeah, they gave me the whole guided tour. Granted, it was a few years ago, but I still remember the layout.” She was already digging into her photographic memory.
“’Course you do.” Connor turned to General Mace. “Do we know when the building was taken?”
“No. Based on communications, our best guess is several hours ago. The general public still doesn’t know.”
“Then how do we know?” Trent asked.
“The head of the company is holed up in there somewhere. He managed to get a distress signal out.”
Liv’s hand jerked on her water glass. She hadn’t expected to encounter Nathan ever again. She sure didn’t want to go rescue him now. She considered raising the possibility of just leaving him there, then gave a small sigh. No, General Mace probably wouldn’t go for that.
Well, you faced Woolfe today and won. Why not Nathan too?
“Isn’t the place swarming with cops?” Connor asked.
General Mace said, “No. The distress signal was sent directly to the Department of Defense.”
“That makes sense,” Liv said. “Nathan Blank has numerous Defense Department contracts, and I’m sure he’s working on a lot of things he would rather the civilian public—even police and SWAT—not know about.”
“How do you know all this?” Jordan asked from her left.
Liv stared straight ahead. “I used to date Nathan. Back when we were the only two Travelers in MIT’s grad program.”
Connor said, “So what can you tell us about him?”
Liv glanced at Jordan’s impassive expression and turned her eyes back to Connor. “I ran into an old friend in Mai Tai who works for his company. She practically gloated about all the technology they were stealing from other worlds. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve sent people to Hell. After all, the demons had to get their advancements from somewhere.”
Trent glared at the table. “Then it wasn’t us who brought them to Home World.”
General Mace said, “Regardless of what brought them here, we have to stop them from getting a foothold in our world.”
Connor nodded. “Agreed. We know one way to kill them now. Wildfyre was… effective in Hell.”
“Although it kind of wreaked havoc on the décor,” Ben said.
“You’ll go to Innerstellar Technologies,” General Mace said. “Your primary mission is to determine whether the demons have stolen any research, and to recover it if necessary. Then retake the building without alerting the general public. Secondary mission is to rescue Blank and any workers being held in the building along with him.”
“At eight o’clock on Friday night?” Ben asked.
“You’re at work at eight o’clock on Friday night,” Liv pointed out.
“Good point.”
<
br /> Connor glanced at his watch and sighed. “Jenny’s going to kill me.”
“Why?” Trent asked.
“I’m missing her play. Opening night. It’s a very big deal.”
“It is a big deal,” Gin said. “She’s the niece with the blue hair?”
“It’s red now. To match her costume.”
“Sorry, Commander.” General Mace looked sympathetic. “I’m sure she’ll understand.”
Connor shook his head. “Yeah.”
General Mace asked, “What do you need?”
Connor refocused on the mission. “We have to get in undetected. The demons must have figured out the building’s security, so we’ll have to find a way to bypass it.”
Gin smiled. “I’m on that like blind on mice. But as for stolen research? If they have something to copy files to, by the time we’re in, they’ll probably have already brought the information back to Hell.”
General Mace smiled grimly. “You’re Travelers. Get it back.”
Liv sighed inwardly. Back to Hell. Damn, but she’d have been happy never going there again.
Connor nodded. “Let’s make some plans. I’m assuming the DoD sent along some blueprints and security information?”
“And a list of employees who signed in to work this morning.” General Mace gestured to the door and a DEPOT employee dressed in Air Force blues appeared carrying several large scrolls and bound manuals.
“The materials you requested, sir.” He dropped everything onto the conference table.
“Thank you, Airman. That will be all.” The airman saluted and left.
Gin spread everything out and looked over the papers. “Sketchy security information,” she complained.
Ben slapped her on the shoulder. “Gives you something to do, Karelli.”
Liv eyed Jordan as he bent over the blueprints, and wondered if she should mention his injury as a possible reason to disqualify him from joining them.
“Dr. Jameson. Your input will be appreciated in the planning stages, but you will not be accompanying your team on this mission.”
Jordan lifted his head and glared at General Mace with such venom that Liv was glad she had said nothing.
“Why not? Sir?”
He gestured to the sling. “You should be resting that shoulder.”
A Despair of Demons (Travelers, Book 1) Page 23