Legacy

by A D Starrling

  Ethan grudgingly allowed her to complete her assessment. She sat back on her heels a moment later and observed him with a curious expression.

  ‘Staff Sergeant?’ said Reynolds.

  ‘He’s fine, sir. Don’t know how, but all his vitals are normal.’

  ‘Is he fit to participate in the mission?’ said Reynolds.

  The staff sergeant opened her mouth to reply.

  ‘If you think you’re stopping me, you’ve got another thing coming,’ snapped Ethan.

  He rose from the stretcher and rubbed the back of his neck before walking a few steps under Reynolds’s watchful gaze. He could feel strength returning to his limbs. In fact, he was starting to feel amazing.

  ‘How far are we from Yuma?’

  ‘We land in five minutes,’ said Reynolds curtly.

  Ethan turned to Asgard and finally answered the unspoken question in the Bastian noble’s face. ‘Yes, she did. But she’s back.’

  Reynolds gave them a puzzled look.

  Asgard closed his eyes briefly at the confirmation of Olivia’s death. The inflection in Ethan’s tone registered belatedly.

  He stiffened. ‘And?’

  ‘She’s…stronger. Much stronger than before.’

  Even if he had a hundred years, Ethan couldn’t explain the feelings being transmitted across his mental bond with Olivia. All he knew was that he had never before experienced the power he could feel pulsing through their connection. His soulmate was…different. And his own abilities had grown once more, resonating with her newfound strength. He felt it in the way his birthmark tingled.

  ‘The facility.’ He looked at the major. ‘I know where it is. We need access to satellites.’

  Ethan watched the soldier head toward the bank of computers at the front of the plane. He gritted his teeth and projected his thought to the woman he loved. Hang on. I’m coming for you.

  A thrill shot through him when he heard her faint reply.

  I’m waiting.

  Jonah observed the chaotic scenes on the security feeds from the cameras inside the main research level. On the one hand, what he was seeing sent a trace of fear through him, the first he’d experienced since the day Asgard Godard chased him on the glacier in the Urals. On the other, it thrilled him like little else had in the last few hundred years.

  Olivia Ashkarov’s death appeared to have unlocked the full potential of her extrasensory and psychokinetic powers. And the effects were all too devastatingly clear to see.

  He’d been on Level Two when the alarms started going off and had joined Scoleri in the secondary command center there. The room was a hive of activity as Scoleri barked orders at his men and the human soldiers attempting to secure the lower floors of the facility.

  ‘I want her captured at any cost,’ said Jonah. ‘Use every ounce of tranquilizer in the base if you have to. And get snipers in position. I doubt anyone is going to be able to get to her at close range.’

  Olivia moved down a corridor lined with flashing crimson lights. The scorching hotness inside her chest had abated to a tolerable warmth. She could feel the unearthly energy thrumming through the golden lines surrounding her heart, each representing a piece of her soul. Beneath it was the electric force that was the power of the other Seers, the spark that had ignited her own abilities beyond anything she had ever experienced.

  Figures with guns materialized in her path, men and women who sought to stop her.

  They dropped away as quickly as they appeared, powerless to resist the psychic pressure that blasted through their heads. Weapons fell uselessly to the ground and bullets went astray in the face of the psychokinetic waves emanating from her body.

  Olivia marveled as how much easier it now was to get inside their heads. And not just theirs—she could feel other minds out there. The minds of half-breeds and immortals. Although she couldn’t overpower their consciousness as she could the humans, she could still hurt them.

  She came across several training ranges and armories as she negotiated the fourth level of the complex. Muted explosions followed in her wake as she disabled the machines and crushed the contents of the arsenals, like she had done the labs and control room below. She’d discovered she could tap into some of Ethan’s elemental powers since she’d awoken from her first death. She couldn’t manipulate things as well as her soulmate could but she was able to cause enough destruction to incapacitate their enemy.

  More soldiers turned up to challenge her. She delved inside their heads before switching off their minds, brushing them aside as easily as she would flies. Among the thoughts she accessed, Olivia searched for the location of the person she wanted to find the most.

  Jonah Krondike.

  ‘Madeleine?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Can you hear that?’ said Howard.

  Madeleine shifted on the floor and winced. The iron manacles around her wrists were digging into her skin where her arms dangled above her head. The wall behind her had taken on a physical presence determined to etch its every line and groove into her back. Even her butt had gone numb.

  She was surprised either of them had managed to get even an hour’s sleep.

  ‘Hear what?’

  ‘That rumbling.’

  Madeleine hesitated. ‘Well, I didn’t want to say anything, but your stomach’s been making noises for a while now.’

  ‘I don’t mean that,’ snapped Howard. ‘You really can’t hear it? It feels like—’

  The ground trembled slightly.

  ‘—an earthquake,’ he finished quietly.

  They stared at each other. Madeleine swallowed as the tremors intensified. Their gazes swung to the cell door.

  ‘How far underground are we?’ said Howard.

  ‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ muttered Madeleine. ‘They didn’t exactly give us a grand tour when they brought us here.’ She paused. ‘Why?’

  ‘Quakes are more destructive beneath the Earth’s surface,’ he replied stiffly. Bangs suddenly rose in the distance. ‘And unless it’s the Fourth of July, I’m pretty sure those were gunshots. Get ready. Something’s happ—’

  They both jumped when the door exploded off its hinges and struck the opposite wall of the cell. The quake intensified, bringing dust down from the ceiling of their prison. A slight pressure gripped Madeleine’s skull as she stared at the distorted metal panel sliding to the floor. She drew in a sharp breath; she knew this feeling. She heard a voice inside her head and looked toward the doorway.

  Madeleine.

  A figure stood there. Madeleine froze, fear sending a shiver racing down her spine.

  It was Olivia.

  The immortal’s slim figure was covered with a plain hospital gown and her feet were bare. There was a strange glow to her face, as if her skin were filled with an inner light. Her eyes glowed a brilliant jade.

  Olivia looked between the two prisoners. ‘Are you okay?’

  Madeleine nodded shakily. Metal groaned above her. The weight around her wrists disappeared, the manacles clattering noisily against the wall. A corresponding rattle sounded from across the cell as Howard’s shackles broke under an invisible force. She saw her own wonder and dread reflected in his gaze.

  In some ways, this feels like that time back at the mansion, when she unleashed that psychic storm. And the thing she did at the lake house, where she shielded us from the harmful effects of her powers. But…something’s different.

  For one thing, the energy she sensed from the Seer felt electric and incredibly powerful.

  ‘Come,’ said Olivia.

  They rose and followed her cautiously out of the cell. Madeleine wondered whether Howard felt as helpless to resist the Seer’s command as she did.

  I will not hurt you. I have to maintain this level of control to get us out of here.

  Madeleine startled at the words that streamed inside her head. She opened her mouth to voice a question but was cut off by Howard.

  ‘You can get inside my mind?’ said the Crovi
r immortal in a stunned voice.

  ‘Yes,’ said Olivia.

  Bodies littered the end of the corridor. The soldiers looked to be unconscious, their breathing so shallow Madeleine first thought them dead.

  I’ve suppressed their consciousness. I will only kill if I have no option.

  Olivia’s words sounded strangely detached inside Madeleine’s head. She stared at the immortal’s back, awestruck at the supernatural forces she was witnessing once more.

  ‘What happened to you?’ said Howard in a low voice.

  Olivia glanced at them. ‘I died.’

  ‘Let me get this straight,’ said Reynolds. ‘You’re telling me the location of the complex was revealed to you through a psychic connection with one of the prisoners we’re meant to be rescuing?’

  Although the major’s tone remained even, the expression in his eyes told Ethan he was not buying his story. It also indicated a short fuse was burning toward a fiery end somewhere.

  They were standing in the shadow of the Globemaster, on the tarmac of the Laguna Army Airfield. The Rangers were offloading their equipment from the plane’s cargo hold. Although the sun had just risen above the horizon, the chilliness of the desert night was already dissipating. And it seemed they weren’t the only ones who were up. Distant gunfire and explosions carried from the battle ranges to the north and east, where the training exercises were already in full flow.

  A Lockheed C-5 Galaxy bringing the rest of the Rangers and several all-terrain vehicles touched down on the runway to the right, its super-sized tires squealing. Another two Globemasters, a couple of C-130 Super Hercules, and an Airbus A400M were lining up to land behind it.

  Reynolds’s gaze shifted briefly to the military aircrafts in the sky. As far as Ethan had gathered, the major had been told a foreign contingent would be joining them on their mission. The Ranger did not look thrilled by the lack of details on the troops who would be working alongside the soldiers under his command.

  ‘Look, with all due respect, I am not taking my men and women out into the desert on a wild goose chase just because you think you’re hearing voices inside your head,’ said Reynolds stiffly. ‘I don’t care if—’

  ‘Satellite pictures coming through, Major.’

  Reynolds turned to the intelligence officer manning a field laptop a few feet away. ‘That was fast.’

  The sergeant hesitated. ‘We had a little help from our friends, sir.’

  He glanced at Ethan and Asgard.

  Reynolds scrutinized the immortals. ‘You guys have surveillance satellites in our skies?’

  Ethan shrugged. Asgard remained silent. They didn’t know the exact details of the Bastian councils’ capabilities, but judging from what they’d seen so far, it was pretty extensive; it was best if they pretended to be in the know.

  A real-time image of the proving ground appeared on the computer screen.

  Ethan’s pulse sped up. ‘Pan out to the east.’

  Reynolds gave him a guarded look while the sergeant complied with his instruction. The immortal ignored the major and focused on the desert landscape unfurling on the monitor. A range of mountains came into view, a mass of jagged summits interspersed with tortuous, shadowy canyons. An immense flat plain stretching at least ten miles across emerged beyond them.

  Ethan went still when he spotted the black peaks on the far side of the lowland.

  ‘There, stop!’ he barked.

  The sergeant froze the screen.

  ‘Where is that?’ said Ethan tensely.

  ‘That’s part of the KOFA Region,’ said Reynolds. ‘It’s not far from the Smart Weapon Testing facilities.’

  ‘I mean that range two miles east.’

  ‘There’s nothing there. It’s just part of the Kofa Mountains.’

  ‘Trust me, there’s something there,’ said Ethan in a hard voice.

  ‘I’ve been on this proving ground on more than a hundred training exercises,’ said Reynolds. ‘There’s—’

  ‘Sir, there are more images coming through,’ said the sergeant. He tapped on the keyboard and opened another window.

  A series of shots filled the screen. They stared at them for confused seconds.

  Ethan inhaled sharply when he grasped what they were looking at.

  ‘What the—?’ Reynolds muttered, his face losing some of its color.

  The sergeant gaped, his wide-eyed gaze fixed on the pictures.

  A cell rang, startling them.

  Asgard took the satellite phone out of his tactical vest and answered the call. ‘Victor?’ The Bastian noble paused, a frown darkening his face. ‘Yeah, we’re looking at it.’

  The new multispectral satellite imagery that had been sent through to the intelligence officer’s laptop showed a massive, circular underground structure extending thousands of feet beneath one of the mountains Ethan had identified. It was connected to the surrounding valleys by a network of tunnels, some of them as much as a mile long.

  ‘Fuck me,’ muttered the sergeant.

  Reynolds cocked an eyebrow.

  ‘Sorry, major,’ said the soldier. ‘But that place is bigger than Raven Rock.’ He enlarged the central pictures. ‘It seems to have six levels, the lowest being half a mile beneath the surface of the desert. The top one appears to have been blasted out of the mountain itself.’ He studied the screen. ‘Whole structure’s shaped like an inverted, broad-based cone, sir.’ He scrolled down. ‘Looks like they’ve even got their own power plants south of the main complex. And a heliport inside some kind of giant pit.’

  Asgard disconnected and held the phone tightly in his grip. ‘That area is under the control of a special branch of the army inside the United States Special Operations Command and the DoD. It’s a top secret R&D site. The man in charge is a General William Gunnerson.’

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Jonah got the call at 06:29.

  ‘Get out. They’re coming for you,’ said the man at the other end of the line.

  Terse voices punctuated the alarm echoing across the command center around Jonah. They’d just lost Level Four.

  The Crovir noble turned away from the clamor and clutched the cell to his ear. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Godard contacted Dvorsky last night. The Bastian First Council got in touch with us shortly after. The Crovir First Council just agreed to assist the Bastians and the US Army. It seems Victor didn’t reveal all he knew until now.’ The man hesitated. ‘I’m sorry, we didn’t have any other choice.’

  Jonah frowned. ‘I understand.’

  ‘Godard and Storm discovered your approximate whereabouts yesterday. They’re in Yuma right now, with troops of Rangers and several hundred immortals.’

  Sweat broke out on Jonah’s forehead. He looked at the camera feeds filling the west wall of the control hub and focused on the row at the top. They showed the desert landscape outside the base and the access tunnels. Scoleri had already increased security at the main entry and exit points.

  ‘How did they find out about this place?’ hissed Jonah.

  ‘I don’t know. Victor didn’t reveal that part of the puzzle to the council. I’m sending some of my own operatives among the Crovir Hunters joining the assault teams.’

  Jonah clenched his teeth. ‘I’ll be out of here by then.’

  ‘Good. And they know about Gunnerson. US Army Counterintelligence is closing in on his location in Washington as we speak.’

  Anger flooded Jonah at his accomplice’s words. ‘He knows too much. Terminate him.’

  ‘I ordered the hit five minutes ago.’

  The containment door crashed open, the thick steel panel bouncing off the wall inside. Olivia stepped through the doorway and disappeared into the gloom beyond. Howard walked in behind her, Madeleine in his wake.

  The Crovir immortal stopped and blinked. ‘What is this place?’

  As his vision adjusted to the shadows, he made out a gigantic cave below the steel walkway they stood on. The far side was at least four hund
red feet away. Dim spotlights dotted the high ceiling and the rock walls rising around them.

  His gaze focused on the space beneath their feet. Rows of bullet-shaped, metal structures lined the floor of the chamber as far as the eye could see. Each of the capsules was connected to an array of complex equipment and monitors. Emergency lights throbbed behind glass windows set in the distant walls and showed the empty labs beyond.

  Olivia turned and headed for a metal staircase on the right. Howard glanced at Madeleine. She shrugged. They followed her.

  They were on the lower floor seconds later. The Seer crossed over to the nearest row of metal structures, her bare feet silent on the smooth concrete. She stopped in front of one and wiped at the curved surface. An aperture appeared beneath her hand. Howard stiffened.

  It was a small window.

  ‘Are these what I think they are?’ said Madeleine.

  Howard turned and saw the scientist on the other side of the aisle. She was looking inside one of the capsules, her face pale.

  ‘Yes,’ said Olivia. ‘They are suspension pods.’

  Howard’s mouth went dry. He stepped over to where the Seer stood and followed her steady gaze.

  A monstrous figure floated in a murky liquid inside the tank. He was naked but for some gray trunks covering his groin. An endotracheal tube rose from his mouth and connected to a mechanical ventilator on the outside. Lines and wires dotted his body. He looked to be asleep.

  Dread filled Howard as he looked at one of the monitors on the side of the pod. Waves pulsed steadily across the screen, indicating normal vitals. The label at the top said “Subject 550.”

  ‘This is Phase Two, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Olivia turned and made for the middle of the cave. Madeleine and Howard followed slowly, their anxious gazes lost on the tanks stretching out around them.

  The Crovir immortal felt a sudden flicker of pressure inside his head. The hairs on his arms rose at the spike in the Seer’s psychokinetic powers.

  ‘What are you doing?’ said Madeleine.

  Olivia closed her eyes. ‘I’m stopping the process.’