Legacy
Page 18
The soldiers who had attacked them were on the ground, hands clamped to their heads and faces twisted in agony while the invisible storm buffeted them. Several of the men were throwing up. Some were unconscious. The immortal who had shot Ethan with the tranquilizer dart cowered against a tree, blood trickling from his nose, his mouth a rictus of pain.
Asgard was on his knees, knuckles white and teeth clenched while his hands gripped his temples. A crimson trail flowed out of his right ear. Madeleine and Howard lay a few feet away, their weapons discarded while they fought the same invisible energy threatening to crush their bodies.
And in the middle of it all stood Olivia Ashkarov.
Her hands were curled into fists at her sides, nails biting into skin. Her face was an icy mask of rage and her eyes blazed, dark green and unfocused.
It was at that moment that Ethan glimpsed the terrifying extent of the powers of the one destined to be his soulmate. As his awareness started to fade, he glimpsed movement out the corner of his eye.
Asgard had crawled to his feet and was stumbling toward his niece.
‘Olivia!’ he shouted hoarsely.
The last thing the Elemental saw was the Bastian noble wrapping the frozen Seer in his arms.
Chapter Eighteen
General William Fitzpatrick Gunnerson stared at the scenes of devastation being broadcast on the news channel. A male reporter’s voice overlaid the dramatic images relayed live from a media helicopter.
‘So far, local authorities have refused to issue a statement as to the nature of the explosions that rocked this normally quiet neighborhood several miles south of Topanga State Park at around ten-thirty this morning. The Los Angeles County and Ventura County Fire Departments have been battling the blaze that started on an isolated estate located on several hundred acres of privately-owned land since lunchtime today. The property is believed to be the home of reclusive tech billionaire Howard Titus, CEO of STAEGH Corp. An anonymous source has revealed a possible link to the suspected terrorist activities that took place in the Bear River Mountains three days ago, where fifty-nine Benedictine nuns were brutally murdered. The same source also suggested a connection to the more recent break-in that resulted in the murder of a guard at a biotech company in San Diego last night. With a dry winter behind us and a summer that promises to be scorching, small brushfires have already spread to neighboring canyons and are being brought under control by local fire fighters working with the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.’
Jonah pressed the mute button on the remote.
‘This source, I take it it’s one of our people?’ said Gunnerson, his voice low and passionless.
Jonah studied the man standing in the middle of his office, deep inside the military base where the research facility was located.
With a headful of closely-cropped gray hair and battle-hardened brown eyes, Gunnerson cut a commanding figure. Born into a family with an impressive pedigree of soldiers who had served God and country ever since the first Gunnerson fought for the Confederate states in the American Civil War, he had been in the army his entire life. After graduating valedictorian at West Point, the boy who wanted to follow in his great-great-grandfather’s footsteps went on to an illustrious military career that eventually earned him the Medal of Honor and a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in the Vietnam War. Now a four-star general in the United States Special Operations Command, he was the current leader of the US Army group working with Jonah.
In the years that he had known him, Jonah had come to recognize Gunnerson’s many moods and tics. It amused the immortal that no one in the DoD knew the general’s true nature. To the public and the federal drones who worked with him in Washington, Gunnerson was a highly-decorated soldier and a man of honor, dedicated to the service of his country. To those with a more intimate association with the general, he was an extreme narcissist and a closet sadist. Very few people had ever dared openly defy the man. The handful who tried to hold him to account for his illegal, covert practices had either ended up the victims of fatal accidents or deliberate character assassinations.
Gunnerson’s current body language and tone indicated extreme rage. The last time Jonah recalled seeing him in this state, the man had killed two of his scientists. It had been a sobering experience for Jonah’s team and an unwelcome headache for the immortal, who had had to find suitable replacements for the dead men.
The Crovir noble suppressed an impatient sigh. The only reason he had tolerated his unholy alliance with humans for so long was because he needed their resources, now more than ever.
After Asgard Godard’s zealous attempts to destroy Kronos in the middle of the last millennium, it had taken Jonah several hundred years to grow his army of faithful followers to the size he would need to achieve his long-term goals. On the cusp of the first big tactical move that would have heralded the beginning of the end game, his troops had been decimated by the joint efforts of the two immortal societies a few years ago. The death of Alberto Cavaleti, his closest associate and one of the longest-serving members of Kronos, had dealt a doubly-heavy blow to Jonah’s scheme.
He knew full well that Gunnerson and his cronies in the DoD considered him an employee rather than an equal partner in their ongoing venture. As far as they were concerned, they were exploiting his knowledge of the immortal races to further their own dark gains. They had no notion of his final objective and all that he had done over the course of the last eight centuries to achieve it. By the time the truth finally dawned on them, it would be too late for the US government and the human race.
‘Yes,’ Jonah said. ‘The source is ours.’
‘This is a mess, Krondike,’ said Gunnerson.
‘The two immortals we are trying to capture are among the most powerful beings alive today, General. I never said this was going to be easy.’
Gunnerson watched him broodingly. ‘You had better take care of this. I do not want a whiff of scandal following me back to Washington.’
Jonah could not have cared less about Gunnerson’s long-held political aspirations. He leaned nonchalantly against his mahogany desk and thought of the loaded gun lying in the drawer next to his leg. He resisted the urge to take it out and shoot the man scowling at him from across the room.
The Crovir noble could not wait until the day when humans would be put firmly back on the evolutionary ladder where they belonged, subservient to the higher race that was destined to rule the Earth. The Axis alliance’s defeat by the Allied forces during the Second World War had been a source of great frustration to him, halting the promising experiments he had been conducting in Nazi Germany under the pretense of helping the Third Reich fulfill their power-mad Führer’s Master Race aspirations. A bitter taste filled his mouth at the thought of how often the immortal societies had unknowingly thwarted his plans over the years.
Once we are in power, they will also have to learn their place in the new world order.
‘My men will make sure not to leave any trace of your involvement in this matter, General,’ Jonah drawled.
He observed the aggravated expression that flashed in the man’s eyes and held back a grin. He knew the soldier struggled to be barely civil to him at times. Like many of the senior army officials associated with the project, it galled Gunnerson that he had to show some measure of respect to the immortal who had made all their plans possible.
The man moved to the glass wall overlooking the lab below. ‘You said you had some results to show me?’
‘Indeed. Follow me.’
They headed out of the office and through the corridors of the research facility to a room two stories high and a third the size of a football field. An observation platform protected by reinforced glass ran along the upper level of the underground chamber. Several scientists stood on the deck, tablet computers in hand while they studied the figures on the floor below.
The general froze beside Jonah when he registered what he was seeing. ‘Are those—?’
The glass muffled the sounds of the dramatic action taking place on the training field, where three gigantic figures engaged a group of twenty-five soldiers in close, unarmed combat. Jonah glanced at the timer on the wall and smiled. Four minutes into the practice test and more than half of the troop lay on the ground, incapacitated or unconscious. Technicians occasionally ran out into the middle of the fray and dragged the injured men to the safe zone running around the perimeter of the battle ground, where the medics tended to their wounds.
A team of armed soldiers watched on from the secured doors at either end, tranquilizer rifles and stun batons at the ready in case the test subjects became unmanageable.
‘Bar the expected level of aggressiveness and ruthless focus we bioengineered into them, these three have so far shown no signs of the psychotic behavior demonstrated in the previous batch,’ said Jonah.
Gunnerson walked up to the wall and laid a hand on the glass. His face filled with wonder and his eyes gleamed with a fanatic light as he stared at the evidence of their long-sought success.
‘They are—’
The general stopped, visibly moved beyond words.
‘Yes,’ muttered Jonah. ‘They are all that we had hoped for.’
For once, he shared the man’s excitement. They were in the concluding stages of an experiment that had taken the immortal and the US government decades and millions of dollars to conduct. Despite their many false starts and failures and the deaths of hundreds of test subjects, including almost every immortal he had ever captured, the Crovir noble had known this day would come. His secret experimentation on Boyko Dragov, the pureblood immortal-human half-breed protégé and right-hand man of Alberto Cavaleti, had proven that years ago.
‘How many soldiers did you enroll in this group?’ said Gunnerson.
‘Twenty five,’ said Jonah.
Gunnerson glanced at him. ‘And you’re waking all of them up?’
‘Yes. We’ve brought in more staff to speed things up. The remaining subjects should be entering Phase Three in the next forty-eight hours.’
‘Hmm. That’s good,’ grunted Gunnerson. Despite his reluctance to appreciate the immortal’s achievement, it was evident the general was more than satisfied with their progress. ‘How soon until you start on the next batch?’
‘I am delaying that for the time being.’
Gunnerson turned and looked at him as if he had grown another head. ‘Why? We’ve finally succeeded, goddamnit!’ The man’s cheeks flushed with anger. ‘I want at least two hundred men ready by the end of the year.’
Jonah shrugged. ‘You can get down on your knees and beg me, Gunnerson. It won’t make a difference. I almost have the Elemental and the Seer within my grasp. I want to see how much more we can achieve with their DNA.’
Gunnerson faltered at these words. His gaze shifted to the three giants now standing silently amidst the sea of fallen opponents they had successfully defeated. ‘Do you really think we can improve on them?’
‘Yes,’ said Jonah in a hard voice. ‘What happened to our men when they engaged those two immortals this morning is proof of that. I am not planning to stop our experiments until I get my hands on them and exploit the full extent of their powers.’
Golden light stabbed through Ethan’s eyelids, rousing him. He stirred and blinked.
A familiar, ornate Tiffany lamp glowed on a bedside table some twenty inches from his nose. He pushed up on an elbow and groaned at the throbbing pain in his head.
The noise woke the woman sleeping in the chair next to the bed. Ethan’s hand stilled on his temple.
Olivia straightened, her fingers gripping the armrests. A tortured expression filled her face.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
Ethan sat up and rubbed his face. ‘Why?’
She lowered her gaze and bit her lip. ‘For what…what happened outside the tunnel.’
‘Considering we appear to be at the safe house and not in Krondike’s lab, you have nothing to apologize for,’ he said gruffly. ‘You saved us.’
‘But I—’
The bedroom door opened and Howard walked in with a tray. He stopped when he saw them. A bandage peeked out from under the neckline of his T-shirt.
‘Ah, the prodigal son returns,’ he said. ‘Had a nice nap?’
Ethan grunted and glanced around the room. ‘What happened?’
Howard put the tray down on the bedside table. ‘Well, after your girlfriend almost killed us, we hotfooted it out of the canyon while Jonah’s men were still lying around the place trying to unscramble their brains.’
Olivia’s shoulders drooped.
‘Hey, I’m not saying what you did was necessarily a bad thing,’ said Howard. ‘It’s just…none of us were expecting it. It’d be nice to get a warning next time.’
‘She didn’t know she was capable of doing that,’ said Ethan.
Olivia startled. ‘How did you—?’
‘You would have mentioned it.’ Ethan was astonished to find himself smiling slightly. ‘Besides, you forget—we appear to have…a connection.’
She held his gaze while color slowly flooded her cheeks.
‘Should I leave?’ said Howard.
He cocked an eyebrow, an amused light dancing in his eyes.
Ethan sighed. ‘How did we get here?’
‘We took the SUV we’d stashed in the cave a few miles from the estate and hired a private helicopter in LA. We got here a couple of hours ago. You slept like a baby the whole way through.’
Ethan glanced at the tray. ‘Is that soup?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘What am I, five?’
He pushed the covers off his legs and rose from the bed. Cramps shot through his calves, remnant effects of the tranquilizer. His knees almost gave out beneath him. Olivia grabbed his shoulders and steadied him. Ethan froze.
Her touch burned him through the cotton T-shirt he wore. A light, citrusy scent wafted off her skin and hair, filling his head. Heat seeped down his arms and spread across his body, wildfire singing along his veins. This was different from the way he felt when he wielded his powers. For one thing, manipulating objects didn’t make the muscles of his belly clench with desire.
Howard groaned. ‘Seriously, stop that. I feel like I’m watching something indecent.’
Ethan blinked. Olivia’s face was only a couple of inches away, her green eyes wide with surprise and a degree of apprehension. He’d unconsciously leaned in to kiss her.
Oh shit.
He straightened stiffly, appalled at his own body’s betrayal. Dragging his gaze from the glistening lips so close to his, he turned to Howard. ‘Madeleine and Asgard?’
‘They’re downstairs getting dinner ready.’
A few minutes later, they strolled into a beautiful country kitchen. Towering glass windows took up the left wall of the room. A deck was visible in the soft glow of external night-lights. Beyond it, moonlight bathed a sun-bleached wooden jetty and coated the crest of the surf crashing gently onto a sandy beach. A motorboat bobbed in the water next to the dock.
The safe house was situated on the shores of a lake just over an hour and a half’s drive northeast of Sacramento. Set on secluded private land in the middle of a thick conifer forest, the luxurious two-story, wood and stone chalet afforded them the safety and privacy they needed for a bolt-hole.
Madeleine was leaning against the marble-topped island in the middle of the room. ‘Wow. I’ve never seen anyone hunt, pluck, and cook a pheasant in under an hour before. I’m impressed.’
She bit into an apple. Asgard placed a tray of basted meat back in the oven. He looked pointedly from her to the boiling pan on the cooking range next to him.
‘Oh. Right.’
She joined him and stirred the contents of the pot.
‘Somehow, this picture
of domestic bliss pisses me off as well,’ muttered Howard. ‘I’m starting to feel like the ugly duckling no one wants to hook up with.’
Madeleine turned and eyed him coolly. ‘Did you ever consider it’s because of that smart mouth of yours?’ She ignored the scowling Bastian noble next to her and looked at Ethan. ‘I see Metal Boy is up.’
Ethan exhaled loudly. ‘I do have a name you know.’
Madeleine shrugged. ‘It’s my way of coping with all the reality-defying, supernatural stuff I’ve seen in the last twenty-four hours.’ She indicated Olivia with a tilt of her chin. ‘Psychic Girl was quite worried about you.’
A strained silence followed.
‘Do you always say the first thing that comes to your mind?’ said Asgard.
‘Life’s too short to beat around the bush.’ Madeleine paused and grimaced. ‘Hmm. I can’t quite use that expression in present company, can I?’
A stifled chuckle rang out across the kitchen.
All eyes shifted to Olivia.
‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, abashed.
Madeleine smiled. ‘I like your girlfriend’s sense of humor, Metal Boy.’
Ethan’s protest died in his throat. He had already admitted to the connection that existed between him and the willowy blonde standing a foot away. There was not much point denying it further.
‘By the way, what happened to the cook and the butler?’ said Madeleine.
‘They’re lying low at another safe house,’ said Asgard curtly. ‘If they lose contact with us for more than five days, they’ll assume other identities and terminate all association with us.’
Madeleine grimaced. ‘That’s…rough.’
Asgard’s eyes grew hooded. ‘It’s the way immortals live their lives.’
It wasn’t until they’d finished the meal that Ethan got to ask the question he had been yearning to voice since he woke up.
‘What exactly happened back at the tunnel?’
They were in a lounge overlooking the dark lake. A fire popped and crackled in the stone hearth at the head of the room. This close to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the nights were chilly.