The Fusion Cage (Warner & Lopez Book 2)

by Dean Crawford

  Mary aimed at him, the pistol pointed between Alan’s eyes. ‘Now.’

  Alan stared up at her, his eyes glazed with tears, but then to her surprise he shook his head.

  ‘No. You’ll have to just shoot me, I’m not going out there!’

  *

  Amber’s eyes widened as she saw a pair of tiny looking doors open high up on the tower and Mary appeared, a gun held to the head of a man slumped on his knees before her.

  ‘What the hell, Mary?’

  Her mother had never before shown even the slightest hint of aggression or violence in all of the years Amber had known her. A pacifist, philanthropist and devotee of nature, Mary Meyer had never even owned a gun as far as Amber could recall. Now, she was threatening the life of a man who looked suspiciously like he worked in the facility and was likely as innocent as Amber.

  I don’t want any bystanders to get hurt, Mary had said. Amber’s finger rested on the trigger of the rifle but she began to waver uncertainly as she watched the exchange high above her. The man was crawling away from Mary, one hand held uselessly up to shield himself from the gun as he inched his way toward the ledge outside the heat chamber, three hundred feet above the desert floor.

  ‘Don’t do it, Mary,’ Amber whispered.

  Mary shouted something at the cowering man, the wind now whipping at his hair as he backed out onto the ledge, and then she fired the gun over his head. The shot flashed brightly from the pistol’s muzzle and a few seconds later Amber heard the faint report on the wind.

  Without conscious thought Amber switched her aim from the cowering man to Mary Meyer.

  ‘Don’t do it mom,’ she whispered again.

  *

  ‘Move!’

  Alan crawled backwards, fully outside of the chamber now on the wide ledge that surrounded the heat chamber. He was barely three feet from the edge, and as he got his first good look down so he shook his head again, anger finally breaking through on his features.

  ‘To hell with you, I’m not going any further!’

  Mary aimed over his head and fired a single shot. The pistol jerked in her hand and the report rang in her ears, an unfamiliar burning smell assaulting her. Alan shook his head again, crying openly.

  ‘No, I’m not going further!’

  Mary lowered the pistol and aimed at Alan’s head, steeled herself. Emotions churned through her mind as she thought about what Stanley had endured, at what had been done to him, and as she looked at the man cowering before her she realized that she had become what Stanley’s enemies had become: inhumane.

  ‘Mary, no!’

  The shout from behind her sent a shockwave of alarm through her entire body and she whirled and aimed at the man who had appeared in the chamber behind her. Surprise gave way to fury as she saw Huck Seavers standing before her, his chest heaving as though he had been running.

  ‘You!’ she hissed.

  ‘It wasn’t what you think it was!’ Huck said quickly. ‘They had me over a barrel just like Stanley!’

  Mary took a pace toward Huck, the pistol aimed squarely at his chest.

  ‘You, the multi–millionaire coal man, comparing yourself to my late husband?! How dare you even speak his name?!’

  ‘I didn’t murder him, Mary!’ Huck shouted, the wind picking up around the tower as the sunrise began to warm the deserts below. ‘He let go!’

  ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

  ‘I had a hold of him!’ Huck shouted. ‘He was being attacked by a man, the same man who convinced me to go into business with Majestic Twelve! I helped Stanley because I realized, too late, that we would all be dead if somebody didn’t make a stand!’

  Mary shook her head. ‘You were at the scene! You killed my husband!’

  ‘I tried to save him!’ Huck protested, his hands in the air beside his head. ‘It’s why I came here! My own family are being threatened now, just like yours! I’ve had to hide them away! I’m not your enemy, Majestic Twelve is!’

  ‘What happened to Stanley?!’

  ‘He let go!’ Huck insisted. ‘Said that he didn’t want to give anything away about what you two had planned! He knew they’d get to him in the end! He told me you’d be here at Crescent Dunes, that’s all!’

  Mary wavered, tears staining her eyes as she tried to figure out who was lying in what felt to her to be a world of liars. She kept the pistol aimed at Huck.

  ‘You’re not interested in my husband, or me! All you want is your profits!’

  ‘Yes!’ Huck shouted back. ‘And those profits are here!’ He pointed at the fusion cage in the centre of the chamber. ‘That’s it, right? The fusion cage that everybody’s chasing after? I don’t want to destroy it, Mary, not any more. I understand what Stanley was trying to do! I want to help. I can manufacture it for you, produce ten thousand of them and ship them for free! It’s the only way to stop Majestic Twelve from covering all of this up! Help me to help you, and let that man go! He’s innocent!’

  Mary stared at Huck for a long moment and then she realized that he was telling the truth, saw the same light of compassion in his eyes that she had so often seen in Stanley’s. Huck Seavers, incredibly, had seen the light. Huck saw the change in her expression and he lowered his hands and took a pace toward her.

  Mary lowered the pistol and turned to Alan, who was still lying in terror on the ledge.

  The shot cracked past Mary, a snap on the wind like a bird’s wing, and she turned to see Huck Seavers quiver. The coal man’s chest shuddered and Mary saw a faint spray of crimson blood puff out on the gusty air from his back as the color drained from his face.

  Huck Seavers looked down and saw a red stain spreading on his chest.

  Mary dropped her pistol and dashed to Seaver’s side as his legs gave way beneath him and he slumped onto the chamber floor, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping for air.

  ‘No!’

  Mary felt terror ripple through her belly as she held Huck in her arms and screamed at Alan.

  ‘Go, get help!’

  Alan, unsteady on his feet and pale now from the sight of so much blood, staggered past them and ran for the exit. He got as far as the stairwell and then Mary heard a deep thump. She looked up and saw Alan collapse, his eyes rolled up into their sockets.

  Moments later a dark skinned, Middle Eastern looking man ascended the steps to the tower, a pistol in one hand as he walked out into the chamber and saw Mary.

  ***

  XLII

  ‘This is it!’

  Ethan drove onto the parking lot and raced past the rows of vehicles there as he aimed directly for the nearest track that led toward the tower.

  ‘Enemy front!’

  Lopez’s shout alerted Ethan and he swerved as several agents emerged from a parked SUV and aimed their pistols at them. A crackle of gunfire rattled out and Ethan hunched down in his seat alongside Lopez as bullets smashed through the windows and sprinkled glass chips across them.

  The gunfire swept past them and the car lurched to one side as a round punctured a tire. Ethan heaved on the wheel to keep the vehicle straight as he came up again and saw a dark, tall figure leap out of the way of his vehicle. Ethan got a brief glimpse of the man’s face, his dark skin and angry eyes, the salt and pepper hair cropped close to his scalp.

  ‘That was Mitchell!’ Lopez gasped as they raced by.

  ‘Majestic Twelve are already here,’ Ethan said. ‘We don’t have much time.’

  The engine of their car coughed and spluttered as a cloud of gray steam billowed from beneath the hood. The vehicle slowed and Ethan instinctively slipped the car into neutral and let it coast toward the tower.

  ‘There’s somebody up there,’ he said as he leaned forward and peered up at the dizzying heights.

  The car rolled to a halt a hundred yards from the tower and Ethan climbed out to see Aaron Mitchell close behind them.

  ‘Go,’ Ethan said to Lopez as he backed up. ‘Get to Mary and cover her until we can find a way out of here.�
�

  ‘We’re in the desert, Ethan,’ Lopez said cautiously as Mitchell advanced, his guards in their vehicle close behind him.

  ‘Get inside the tower and keep moving,’ Ethan insisted. ‘I’ll hold them off as long as I can.’

  Lopez glanced behind them at the soaring tower. ‘Is this because you don’t like heights?’

  ‘Will you get on with it?!’ Ethan snapped.

  Lopez turned and dashed through the tower entrance, and Ethan slammed the doors shut and searched for something to seal them with. Huge overhead pipes hissed and hummed with energy, but he could find nothing suitable to protect Lopez inside the tower with. He grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and turned to face Aaron Mitchell.

  Ethan stood in silence in front of the tower entrance as Mitchell approached, his dark coat billowing in the rising desert wind, his skin dark and his eyes concealed behind glossy black sunglasses, one hand casually tucked into the pocket of his coat. He looked every inch the avenging angel of death as he moved to stand within a couple of yards of the entrance and then raised a hand behind him. The SUV containing his men slowed and pulled up a hundred yards away, covering the escape route.

  Mitchell turned back to Ethan and regarded him silently for a moment.

  ‘Mister Warner. Once again you have placed yourself in a position of great jeopardy.’

  ‘Bad luck and trouble seems to be my forte.’

  ‘Stand aside, and I will let you live.’

  No preamble, no threat, just a statement of fact. Ethan tensed. He saw no weapon on Mitchell, no sign of any intention to attack, and yet Mitchell was clearly under no doubts of his ability to crush Ethan. Mitchell probably had forty pounds on Ethan and a good three inches in height, likely a longer reach and, given the man’s formidable size and confidence, a Special Forces background that Ethan lacked.

  ‘No can do,’ Ethan replied.

  Mitchell’s shoulders sagged slightly. ‘So be it.’

  Aaron was fast, incredibly so. The hand in the pocket of his jacket was not there at all, only the sleeve tucked in place, his arm instead behind his back with a pistol in his grip. It flashed around to aim at Ethan, who instantly tossed the handful of sand he held in his left palm and dropped into a forward roll.

  Mitchell’s shot cracked out, his rising arm countered by Ethan’s rapid drop as the bullet zipped over Ethan’s head and smacked into the tower with a metallic clang. Ethan threw his shoulder down as he rolled through and struck out with his right boot.

  The hefty size ten slammed into Aaron’s groin even as the sand stuck in his eyes, and Aaron groaned and folded over the blow. Ethan scrambled to his feet and reached up to slap one hand across Aaron’s wrist to push the gun away and prevent him from taking a second shot while with the other he swung a bunched fist. The blow struck Aaron across the cheek with a crack but the agent was already making the only play that he could.

  Aaron rushed in and let his entire body weight plummet into Ethan. Ethan hurtled backwards and down, turned his head aside in the direction of the gun just before Aaron’s muscular chest crashed down onto his face, but even blinded and winded Aaron was quick enough to stretch the pistol out beyond Ethan’s reach, pinning him in place with his weight.

  Ethan heaved against the agent’s huge body but he knew already that he would not be able to dislodge him. Aaron widened his legs to keep Ethan from toppling him off to either side, giving him the chance to recover from the devastating blow Ethan had delivered. Ethan forced one leg between Aaron’s and jerked it up, driving his knee upward in an attempt to deliver more blows to the bigger man’s groin, but despite groans of pain Aaron remained in place and folded his arms around Ethan’s head as he pressed his chest down.

  Ethan struggled against Mitchell’s immense weight and strength but he quickly felt the bigger man regaining himself. Mitchell’s wrist turned as he tried to aim the pistol at Ethan’s head, only Ethan’s grip on his wrist preventing him from fully bringing the weapon to bear. Pain bolted through Ethan’s hand as he tried to keep the pistol at bay, his breathing laboured and his head pinned against the dusty desert.

  Ethan reached down with his free hand and fumbled in his pocket and a moment later he found what he was looking for. Ethan flicked the Zippo lighter into life and held it against Aaron’s coat, and moments later the stench of smoke and the heat of flames billowed from between them.

  Aaron let out a roar of pain and hurled himself up and away from Ethan, his coat in flames as he tried to throw it off and aim at Ethan at the same time. Ethan shot to his feet, one hand still on Aaron’s wrist and blocking the pistol, and he hopped off his right boot and onto his left as he then slammed his right knee up into Aarons’ flank.

  Aaron’s ribs crackled beneath the impact and Ethan saw the agent double over in sympathy with the pain. Ethan turned in the opposite direction, twisting the pistol over in his grip and tearing it from Aaron’s grasp. Aaron cried out in pain as he dropped to one knee, and Ethan grabbed the pistol and stepped back, aiming at Aaron.

  ‘Hands behind your back, face down on the floor and I’ll let you live,’ Ethan gasped, short of breath.

  Aaron did not look up, until a sudden gunshot echoed from within the tower and a scream followed. Ethan whirled without hesitation and dashed into the tower, Lopez on his mind as he tore up the steps.

  *

  Amber blinked and her heart raced in her chest as she saw Mary collapse beside Huck Seavers’ body, and with some terrible certainty Amber knew that she had made a mistake. Through the telescopic sights she could see Mary trying to stem the flow of blood from Huck’s wounds, his body no longer visible where it had collapsed, only Mary’s grief stricken face.

  Amber saw the man Mary had only moments before been threatening leap to his feet and flee the scene, disappearing out of sight. Then, slowly, Mary got to her feet and Amber saw her lips moving as she spoke to somebody out of sight, deeper inside the tower.

  Amber’s heart thumped in her chest as she thought of Seavers bleeding out in the tower. What if she had shot the wrong man? She recalled Seavers talking to her in the car in Saudi Arabia, of how she had believed him back then. What if she had been wrong about him killing Stanley Meyer? What if he had in fact been trying to help Mary?’

  But she had turned her back on him, and he had moved toward her. He could have pushed her off the edge of the tower, tried to take her gun, anything.

  Amber struggled to control her wildly swinging emotions as she watched Mary talking, saw her backing away toward the edge of the platform. Amber tried to still her beating heart as she took aim, seeking whoever was threatening Mary now.

  Somewhere, far behind her across the desert, she heard the faint sound of police sirens echoing across the vast wastes.

  ***

  XLIII

  ‘You are a very brave lady. I did not think that you would do my work for me.’

  Assim Khan looked appraisingly at Mary Meyer, and the body of Huck Seavers lying before her. Mary Meyer slowly got to her feet and glanced at the pistol she had dropped.

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ Assim Khan snapped as he kicked the weapon out over the edge of the chamber and into oblivion.

  Mary swallowed thickly and began to move around Huck Seaver’s body, hoping against hope that Amber was still watching. Having been sickened by the shot that had hit Huck, now she found herself begging to hear another like it.

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter, really,’ Assim murmured. ‘All that matters is that this thing here is removed from play.’

  Assim gestured to the fusion cage with the pistol.

  ‘Saudi Arabia,’ Mary guessed on an impulse. ‘They sent you, didn’t they?’

  Assim smiled but shrugged.

  ‘I’d have come here for Lithuania, if the money had been right.’

  Mary’s heart turned cold as stone. ‘Money. You know one day you’ll die, and you can’t take that money with you.’

  ‘T
rue,’ Assim smiled without warmth. ‘but it makes a life better to have it than be without it. Pick up the cage.’

  ‘Pick it up yourself.’

  Assim shrugged and aimed at Mary. ‘Whatever.’

  The shot was deafeningly loud in the confines of the heat chamber and Mary almost fainted as her hands shot to her chest and sought the blood that she felt sure must be pouring from her.

  Instead she saw Assim slump down onto one knee, shock on his features as he turned to aim down the stairwell behind him. From nowhere a dark haired Latino woman burst into view, one heeled boot smashing into the pistol to send it spinning from Assim’s hand out across the chamber. The pistol skittered past Mary and flew out over the edge of the tower.

  Lopez slammed into Assim and sent him sprawling across the floor as she shouted at Mary.

  ‘Run, now!’

  Mary, stunned and uncertain, turned instead for the fusion cage and lunged for the control switches on its side.

  *

  Aaron Mitchell got out of his vehicle at the control centre even as he heard the sirens approaching from the far distance. He could see the flashing lights of a stream of law enforcement vehicles rushing toward Crescent Dunes, and he knew that behind them would be helicopters and probably the media too.

  He had little time, and despite the pain in his ribs he knew that he had to complete his mission.

  ‘Be ready to leave,’ he ordered his driver, and then turned for the control centre.

  The control centre was empty but for the bodies of five engineers lying on the ground, firmly bound and gagged. Aaron looked at them only for a moment to ensure they could not interfere with him, and then he turned to the control panel itself.

  The array was controlled entirely by computers which handled the rotation and angle of each of the thousands of heliostats arrayed around the central heating tower. A cursory examination of the control panel confirmed that Mary Meyer had shut the entire array down, the mirrors pointing not at the tower but at the sky. On reflection, at last he understood what Mary had been trying to do: the power from the fusion cage would light Las Vegas, but the mirrors would remain deactivated in front of the television crews that would inevitably arrive behind the law enforcement. The tower would be ablaze with heat, even with no solar energy directed toward it, and that would pose too many questions for Majestic Twelve to possibly cover up.