by Meg Xuemei X
“It looks similar to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus,” Vladimir said.
“It can’t be modeled after that. The natives have their own gods,” Lucienne said. “Besides, how would they know about one of the Seven Wonders of the World?”
The jet’s intense searchlight homed in on two fifteen-foot-tall, winged statues guarding each side of the temple. At the feet of the statues lay a sacrificed lamb and a pig’s head. Incense smoke swirled into the air from an open altar.
“Orlando,” Lucienne called, “behead one of their idol gods.” She pressed a button on the control panel. BL7 opened a triangular side door and hovered in the air.
Orlando lifted a rocket launcher to his shoulder and fired.
Marble debris rained down. A second later, the god’s head on the right side of the temple plunged to earth.
“Lucia, I beg you,” Vladimir sighed. “Don’t make a habit out of abolishing relics.”
“Just trying to give the natives a new god,” Lucienne said. “Better to behead their gods than put bullets in their flesh.”
She turned on BL7’s external speakers. “People of Nirvana,” she announced, “we are the outsiders from the sky. We have the gods’ power and have beheaded one of your gods. We can destroy you, your town, and everything you love, just as easily. You don’t stand a chance if you choose to fight us. We do not come to hurt you, so don’t make us.”
The king’s hysterical shouting was drowned out by BL7’s roar and Lucienne’s announcement. “We’re going to land the gods’ vessel and have a word with your king and queen.”
BL7 dropped Orlando onto the terrace of the temple. In position, he adjusted his night-vision sniper rifle, the best in the black market, training it toward the crowd below until he found the archers.
The machine touched down in the center of the square. The giant commando stepped out first and pushed down his helmet. Looking through his visor, he held an M16 automatic rifle out before him. The sensors inside the helmet gave him three-dimensional audio and detected threats faster than the mind ever could. Lucienne had personally tested the outfit. It was sensually powerful.
With a collective gasp, the villagers staggered back several feet. “Monster!” they called the giant. The king’s army waved their weapons and shouted in ferocity and fear.
Duncan, the last commando, jumped onto the top of BL7 to cover the team’s blind spots. He mounted an MG43 machine gun, his eyes locked on the crowd.
Carrying a case, Lucienne stepped out of BL7 with Vladimir at her side and walked straight toward the king and queen. The nine guards shielded the royal family in a half circle, while his army moved to surround Lucienne and her warriors.
Flipping two handguns—including an Armatix Pistol—in his hands, Vladimir gestured for the guards to step back so that Lucienne could approach the king. Lucienne read the king’s conflicting thoughts—if he ordered an attack, could he get the upper hand? He had witnessed the manifestation of the outsiders’ gunpowder. But if he lost this battle, the outsiders would slay him. The queen whispered to the king, and with a grim expression, he waved for the guards to back down.
As the guards fell back, Vladimir, tense and on alert, stayed put. Lucienne stood in front of the king. “We meet again, King and Queen,” she greeted with a cozy smile, “as I promised.”
“I don’t want war, either,” the queen said in Spanish.
You know you can’t win. “Then we’re on the same page,” Lucienne replied in Spanish.
“Is it gold you want?” the queen asked. “We’ll offer you a load of gold for you and your men to leave in peace.”
“I have more gold than you can imagine. I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.” Lucienne laughed.
The king gritted his teeth.
“Then why have you entered our kingdom and risked your life?” the queen asked. “We’ve allowed you to conduct your affairs in Hell Gate, and that should be it.”
“Unfortunately, we haven’t found the source of the abnormal climate change. Meanwhile, our world is suffering from global warming,” Lucienne said. “We need to locate Ashburn Fury first. Something must have happened before he disappeared.”
“The cripple is gone forever,” the king said. “No one has ever survived once they’ve crossed the Hell Gate.”
“Ashburn Fury’s fate is in the hands of the gods and is not for you or me to decide,” Lucienne said. “But first, you need to open your eyes.” She pulled a laptop computer from her case.
The king and queen jumped back at the sight of the laptop.
“It won’t bite.” Lucienne switched on the computer.
The guards stepped toward her. In the blink of an eye, Vladimir was at her side, his Armatix trained on the guards. “One step closer, and I’ll blow your brains out!” he warned viciously.
The bulky guard who almost stomped the farm couple to death in Hell Gate had bloodlust in his eyes. Lucienne read his savage thoughts. He believed they could outnumber her warriors. If he killed this outsider queen, the king’s army would prevail. Without warning, he threw a two-blade dagger at Lucienne in an attempt to behead her.
Vladimir’s sanjiegun instantly lashed out, smashing the flying dagger. Before the dagger even hit the ground, the guard dropped, his body riddled with bullet holes.
“Stop!” Lucienne raised a hand, and the sound of the ear-piercing gunfire ceased.
The first blood had been drawn, and Lucienne wanted to be sure this didn’t turn into a blood bath. Just when she was about to order a retreat, three black wolf-dogs bolted toward her and Vladimir. Someone had unleashed the war mutts.
Lucienne slid her whip from around her wrist and pitched it in the air. The uncoiled whip stretched to seven feet, hissing, but didn’t even have the chance to draw second blood. The beast at the forefront bellied up amid the sickening sound of its neck snapping. Cam the giant tossed its corpse aside. The last two mutts collapsed with a yelp ten yards before they reached Lucienne. Vladimir’s Armatix killed one of them. Orlando’s rifle gunned down the other.
Lucienne turned to the king and queen with a blank expression. “Are you ready to conduct business now? Or do you have more variety?”
Vladimir trained his gun on the king, aiming for the space between his eyes. “You won’t get the chance again, dick!” His finger tightened on the trigger, ready to pull.
“Don’t shoot!” the queen called, then urged her husband. “King Henry!”
The king raised a finger in the air and called to his army. “Enough!” He frantically waved off his guards, and they dropped back again, carrying their leader’s body with them.
Ignoring the tension, Lucienne let her fingers dance on the touch-screen keyboard. “We’ve wasted enough time.”
A streaming video appeared on the screen—clips from war documentaries and violent movies with high-fidelity sound. She turned the screen toward the king and the queen.
“Moving pictures on glass?” the queen asked in puzzlement.
“These are real wars and real deaths on this glass,” Lucienne said.
The king and queen stared at the screen—air strikes, dismembered human bodies piled up, buildings collapsing into ruins. Fire and smoke and bones.
The king turned his ashen face away, not at all shocked by the images, but full of fear that his kingdom, too, would be reduced to ashes. The queen, who had less stomach for blood and gore, doubled over and vomited.
Lucienne glanced at Vladimir with a rueful smile. She was trained to be a shark. “Be a predator, never prey,” Jed often told her. But she was the shark that always worked to make bloodshed the last resort. Vladimir gazed at her with approval before fixing his hard stare on the guards. “Sun Tzu once said, ‘The best victory is to win without fighting, without spilling blood,’” he said.
Lucienne squeezed his hand in appreciation before turning to the king. “We’re the good guys. If the bad guys come, innocent blood will spill on your lovely streets.” She called to the screen, “Mis
s Wen?”
Ziyi’s animated eyes lined with heavy blue mascara replaced the graphic pictures on the screen. “Yes, Your Majesty,” she greeted. Lucienne almost rolled her eyes. Ziyi must have heard Orlando calling her that in front of the natives.
“Mr. King, Miss Wen is going to employ a Sky Eye to watch you from space. Show Mr. King where he is.”
An image of the king and his queen looking lost on the temple’s marble stairs replaced Ziyi’s glossy red lips on the screen. To highlight the effect, the satellite camera zoomed in and portrayed a close-up of the king’s twitching mustache.
“The glass mirror is going to suck our souls!” the queen cried.
“It has no interest in your souls,” Lucienne said.
Awe-struck, the king looked up at the heavens to find the Sky Eye.
“It sees you, but you can’t see it,” Lucienne talked into the screen. “Thank you, Miss Wen. I can take over from here.” And the screen faded to blackness.
“I must show you one last thing, Mr. King.” Lucienne clicked an icon and brought to life a video of military parades—hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching behind massive tanks. “Imagine all of them swarming Nirvana like millions of locusts,” she sighed.
The king clenched his teeth, his voice choked in fear. “They mustn’t come! The gods built this kingdom for their chosen people. Our ancestors had the land—”
“The bad guys don’t care. They can't be reasoned with. They can't be bargained with. They don’t feel pity, remorse, or fear,” Lucienne interrupted. “But as long as my people are safe in Nirvana, Miss Wen won’t inform the rest of the world of your land.” She straightened her shoulders and looked into the king’s eyes with a piercing gaze. “I advise you to let your people know it’d be a horrible idea to attack us in any way—sneak up on us, ambush us, cut our throats while we sleep, or poison us with food and drink. If we don’t survive, you don’t.”
The king flinched. He exchanged words with his queen in their local tongue. “How long will you stay in my kingdom?” the king asked Lucienne venomously.
“Until we find the sacred token missing from Hell Gate and return it to the gods, so the climate will return to normal.” Lucienne’s keen eyes locked onto the king and queen, trying one more time to read their minds and see if they knew anything about the Eye of Time.
“Whoever committed such an unholy crime shall be punished to death!” the king said.
“Father, Ashburn the Extra is the one who committed such a crime.” Prince Felix stepped forward. “He must have stolen the token—the god’s magic box. So the gods’ light went out.” He gestured at the blacked out town with indignation.
“We’ll catch whoever took the magic box,” Lucienne said. “We must now bid you and your people goodnight. We’ll be back.”
The king and queen looked sullen, and the crowd remained hostile but silent.
Lucienne and Vladimir shared a look. They’d gained the access to Nirvana. Vladimir gestured for the men to withdraw.
BL7 shot into the sky like a black arrow. In a few seconds, it vanished from the sight of the islanders.
CHAPTER 10
BL7 descended on the Island of Sphinxes.
Lucienne inhaled deeply the night ocean air as she stepped out of the plane.
A formidable-looking man in a black trench coat strode toward her.
“Kian,” she cried, breaking into a run. He enclosed her in his arms. Even in the safety of their own territory, Kian never let his guard down. His cold sapphire eyes on his clean-shaven face stayed alert. They only warmed at the sight of her.
“Welcome home, kid,” he said, kissing the top of her hair.
“Welcome home yourself.” Lucienne laughed, breaking the embrace. “Didn’t you arrive only a few hours before me?” Kian had been tracing the Sealers for three months outside the Sphinxes.
Lucienne knew her enemies wanted Kian dead almost as much as they wanted her. If they got him, they’d surely maim her. “Next time, bring more people with you,” she said in a stern tone. “I mean it!”
“It’s more convenient to travel lightly,” he said.
Orlando stalked toward Kian, and the two men clasped hands.
“At least take this one with you,” Lucienne said. “Like his fish, Orlando doesn’t require a lot of sleep.”
“I sleep. I just do it with one eye open,” Orlando said.
“I prefer you sleep with both eyes open,” Kian said.
“Working on it. One on Lucia and one on my fish,” Orland said.
Vladimir approached them, regarding Kian coolly. “McQuillen,” he acknowledged.
“Blazek,” Kian said flatly.
Both men’s expressions turned neutral.
Lucienne sighed. She recalled someone saying you can’t have two alpha tigers in the same family. But at least they managed to be civil to each other. Three of them shared power in Sphinxes, but she could override their decisions when she had to.
Kian returned his attention to Lucienne. “We’ve smoothed out New York operation.”
“Which means we’ll have to renovate the Illinois station next,” Lucienne said.
“The Red Mansion,” Kian said with a nod. “I’ll be there to prepare for your arrival.” He eyed Vladimir as they all headed toward a high-powered black van with darkly tinted windows. “Blazek can manage to stay behind for once.”
“I go where Lucia goes,” Vladimir said. “She’ll need more protection in the enemies’ oldest stronghold.”
“You’ll only distract her in her home base,” Kian said. “Anyway, it’s purely family business.”
Before the two could get into an argument, Lucienne cut in, “Family business has to wait. I’m returning to Alaska at first light tomorrow. We’re taking three choppers.”
After the van dropped everyone outside the stone castle, Kian drove Lucienne back to her pristine white mansion that stood out atop the cliff above the ocean.
The house sparkled like a diamond in a small forest of flaming red maple trees. When they were alone, Lucienne pulled the necklace out from around her neck and opened the locket. “The Eye of Time,” she said, waiting for Kian’s reaction.
Lucienne watched his eyes rivet on the shining chip lying inertly on the Twilight Water. The apple in his throat bobbed up and down as he said in a proud, choked voice, “The prophetic dream you had ten years ago came true today, Siren.”
Lucienne’s eyes moistened.
“Trouble is,” she said, “what I harvested is merely a shell of what the Eye of Time should be. Someone else got to it first and initiated it and then left it behind.”
“The Eye of Time is the ladder to the unlimited sky. With every step, you’re moving closer to the stars,” Kian said softly. “And you have it in your possession. That’s what matters.”
Lucienne nodded.
“One step at a time, Lucia. I couldn’t be any prouder. As for that someone—”
“We’ll take back what he’s taken from us.”
“Look at that thing. I still can’t believe it is the Eye of Time.” Kian’s eyes shone softly. “After a million years, it fell into our hands.”
“I only wish Jed was here to see it.”
“I do, too, kid.”
Together, Kian and Lucienne gazed at the Eye of Time that reflected the lust red maple leaves overhead for a very long time.
CHAPTER 11
Inside Laboratory SX1 in Sphinxes, scientists and technicians linked testing equipment to three beta computers. Lucienne unchained the charm from her necklace and pushed a pin on the side of the locket. The Eye of Time rose half an inch above the translucent substance. Free from the Twilight Water, the Eye glowed with immense power.
Placing it under the microscope, Lucienne peered through the lenses. Numerous wires marked the surface of the Eye. Everyone else looked at the beta computers that streamed the visual she was seeing through the lenses.
“It’s so thin, and yet it comprises the most complicate
d designs,” a chubby scientist said in awe. “How could millions of wires be engineered into such a tiny chip?”
As he spoke, the wires on the chip started throbbing like veins, shifting, merging, and transforming into a brain.
“It’s communicating,” another scientist called excitedly.
Lucienne watched rows of strange numbers, symbols, and alien characters tumble in succession by the window of the Eye. A strange light brightened her eyes as a sense of knowing surged through her, but at the fringe of great discovery, it slipped off her mind like a fading light at dawn.
“It fired numbers,” Ziyi called.
“Record them,” Lucienne ordered.
Ziyi’s fingers flew over the control panel.
“If we can figure out these astronomical numbers, the human race will make a quantum leap beyond our wildest dreams.” The chubby scientist entered data as he continued monitoring one of the betas, which suddenly beeped an alarm.
“The data has surpassed the capacity of all our quantum betas,” Ziyi said, her dark brown eyes widening. “It’s taking control of the computers!”
“Shut them down!” Vladimir called.
“Not yet,” Lucienne countered, watching the alien characters vanish from the Eye, except for three looping symbols. Just as she began to realize something was wrong, the betas erupted in smoke and electric sparks flew all over the lab.
“Lucia, you must restrain the Eye of Time!” Vladimir said.
Spellbound, Lucienne stared at the symbols flashing out of the Eye, faster and faster, until they became a stream of light.
The lab blacked out.
“It’s telepathy,” Lucienne called out in amazement, oblivious to the guards’ rushing footsteps, the scientists’ whining, and someone, probably Kian, barking orders. She was unable to tear her gaze from the Eye, bathed in magic mint light.
“Lucienne Lam!” Kian growled. “It’s going to destroy the lab!”