Got Thrills? A Boxed Set (A McCray Collection)

by Carolyn McCray

  The Eclipse spun about, nimbler than Cleo would have ever given her credit for being. She positioned herself above the biggest concentration of jets. A radiant flash blossomed from the military shuttle. Each ray was tipped with what looked like a miniature sun. Cleo had to look away to keep the light from burning her retinas.

  But rather than signifying the Eureka’s demise, the burst was aimed away from their ship. A blinding wave of destruction tore through the fighters. More than half of them tumbled out of the sky—flaming wrecks trailing wreaths of smoke down to the water below. The remaining jets flailed helplessly, either damaged or piloted by men done temporarily blind. Cleo almost felt bad for them. Even partially shielded by the hull of the Eclipse and her own eyelids, she had dark spots dancing in front of her face.

  Simon, clearly not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, gestured at Jarod. “The Pacific…Skim just above it. Our hull is still superheated from the descent.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Just do it!”

  The Eureka screamed out of the sky, pulling up to skim just meters above the waves. The ship slowed while her superheated skin boiled the water under them. A cloud of steam wrapped around the Eureka, effectively causing her to vanish from sight.

  With all the view screens fogged with the steam, no one could see to steer. Jarod appeared to be flying solely by instrument and touch.

  Buton warned, “They can still track us by radar.”

  Jarod growled at the map on one of the screens off to the side. “If only there was a place to land—”

  But Cleo’s attention had been snagged by the news feed still spilling out of the screen. She found she had no ability to drag herself away from the terror she found there. Words burst out of her without any conscious volition.

  “Dear God!”

  Visions of riot and conflict spreading across the globe clashed with what the entire crew sensed. All eyes except Jarod’s and Simon’s were now turned to view the cataclysm about to envelop the nations of Earth. Blood and violence were everywhere…and spreading fast.

  “We can’t let them have the crystal!” Cleo spoke to the crew, her tone pleading.

  Jarod gave what looked to be his “duh” look. “No kidding.”

  Cleo took a deep breath. He didn’t get it.

  “I mean ever. Look at what it’s doing!”

  She pointed at the screen, the images searing in their vitriol. Somehow, impossibly, they were getting worse. Mankind was on the brink of planetwide devastation. This could not be allowed to continue. And they had the power to stop it.

  Mia glanced back at the uncovered diamond, and Cleo’s eyes followed. Even in the morning light, it glowed with a breathtaking inner radiance. Mia’s tone was agonized.

  “How could something so beautiful cause all…all…” She pointed to the vid-screen. “…this…?”

  Buton spoke with surprising gentleness. “Mankind simply is not ready.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on there,” Jarod blurted out. He turned to his tiny copilot. “Simon, take over.”

  Jarod leapt out of his seat and was by the diamond in microseconds. He placed a hand on the gem, running his hand over its glowing surface. The gesture was loving, awestruck…and possessive.

  “I’m ready. I’m really, really ready to unload this baby and retire.” He spoke quickly to preclude any interruptions. “We worked hard for this. We deserve it.”

  Cleo laid a gentle hand on Jarod’s shoulder and pulled him to face the screen.

  “But does the world deserve this?”

  The conflict on Jarod’s face as he looked from the stone to the screen and back again was heartrending. The violence on the screen was worse. Cleo knew that she was doing the right thing.

  Rob appeared from the back end of the ship, hopping on one leg. His other prosthesis was not in evidence. He called out to the silent crew.

  “You should have seen the hitchhiker we—” Rob’s face changed as he realized that practically the whole crew was gathered around the stone. “What’s going on?”

  Jarod’s tone was bitter. “They want to throw the diamond overboard!”

  “No freaking way!” Rob clearly was not onboard with that idea.

  Cleo stepped forward, trying to reach out to the teenage boy and explain. “It’s not that simple. It’s—”

  “No! No! No! It’s ours! Nobody can take it away! Nobody!” Cleo dodged to keep Rob’s flailing fists from hitting her in the face. Rob was apparently not going to listen to a word of what she had to say.

  “It’s not about us or them. It’s about war and suffering.” Mia stepped into the conversation.

  “Oh, so you’re going to tell us what it’s all about now?” Rob yelled back at her.

  “Seriously, Mia, I’m not sure how much say you have here.” Jarod added.

  As Rob, Jarod, and Mia argued more heatedly, Cleo stepped back. Her mind couldn’t wrap itself around all that was happening. She looked at the jewel, glittering with the promise of wealth, and could feel nothing but frustration. She felt Buton come up to her side.

  “It seems thay no one is ready to let him go.”

  Getting another one of Buton’s cryptic utterances was doing nothing for her temper. She snapped at Buton.

  “Him who?”

  Buton gave a sad smile. “He who not only informs your past, but who also dictates your future.”

  Cleo was moments away from throttling the man. Was there a good reason why he couldn’t speak in a way that normal humans could understand? Then she looked over at Jarod and Rob, yelling at Mia about their “find.” There was so much passion in them. Suddenly, the two looked alike. But they didn’t look like one another. They looked like someone else entirely.

  They looked like Chuck.

  Cleo turned toward the fighting trio. She knew what she had to do. What she had to say. To both of them. This had nothing to do with money, reward, or winning. It had nothing to do with anything that they had thought it was about.

  “Guys.”

  Their argument was so loud at this point that none of them heard. Time was of the essence, so Cleo decided that this was going to require some shock therapy. She set her voice to “stun.”

  “Guys!”

  The two men stopped ganging up on Mia and turned to face Cleo, surprise registering in both of their faces. Lowering her voice, Cleo spoke with quiet strength.

  “There’s really no question of what we need to do.”

  “But—”

  Cleo cut Rob off before he could even get started. “Making twenty gazillion dollars won’t change the fact that because of us, people are going to die.”

  Pointing once more to the escalating carnage on the screen, Cleo searched their faces. She tried to put all of her love and compassion for both of them into her eyes. They had to understand. She then gazed down at the diamond.

  “We need to let it go.”

  Cleo reached out her hand for Buton’s. She needed his intellect. She needed his quiet strength. She needed more than that.

  And then, when their hands touched and warmth flowed through her, Cleo realized something else. As important as it was for Jarod and Rob to release Chuck, it was just as important for her.

  “We need to let Chuck go, too.”

  * * *

  Rob’s ears rang with Cleo’s last statement. He couldn’t…wouldn’t…believe that she had just said that. What gave her the right? He spoke with what felt like the suppressed rage of two years of missing his dad. His voice rasped out of his chest.

  “Dad would never—”

  Jarod cut him off, his voice ringing through the hold. “Your dad was reckless!”

  The words stunned Rob. They felt like a slap in the face, an affront to the core of his being, and an insult that could never be forgiven. Rob felt bitter bile rush to spill out of his mouth, but then he took a closer look at his uncle. It looked as though Jarod was just as shocked as he was.

  Jarod lowered his voice and co
ntinued. “He was reckless with his life, with yours, and with the crew.” Rob could feel his uncle’s pain as Jarod stared deep into Rob’s soul. “He was wrong in Jamaica. He would be wrong here, too.” Jarod took a long moment, and then whispered, “We have a chance to be right.”

  Rob could feel his whole body shaking with rage that could not be released. All the pain of losing his dad. Losing his legs. Losing his faith in something…someone…bigger than himself. His dad had been his hero. And now everyone was asking him to toss him aside. How could he do that? How could they ask it of him?

  Jarod laid a hand on the back of Rob’s neck. Part of Rob wanted to shove the hand away. The other part wanted nothing more than for his uncle to hug him and tell him everything would be okay.

  “Your dad was a good man, Rob. A very good man. He just wasn’t perfect. And he didn’t always make the right decisions when it came to you, to us…and even to himself.”

  It was the truth. Rob could feel that truth pushing against the walls he had built up, the shrine he had made for his dad to keep him close. To keep him in his heart. And now it felt like that heart was breaking into tiny, jagged shards.

  He groaned in pain, not wanting to look into his uncle’s eyes. Rob couldn’t handle the love he saw there. It was love that was asking too much of him. He couldn’t do it.

  Jarod pointed at the monitor. “The world’s at war, Rob. Look.”

  Against his will, Rob felt the horror on the screen compel his eyes up. It was bad. It was really bad. So much pain. As much as was going on in his heart. More. He glanced down at the diamond.

  Jarod’s hand guided Rob’s eyes to meet his own. Rob could see how hard this was for his uncle. He was in pain, too.

  “It’s up to you.”

  Mia was clearly stunned. “You’re going to let a teenager decide—”

  “Yeah. I am.”

  Rob took one last look at the war covering the world. He looked back at his uncle Jare, at all the love and care he saw there. And then something inside him broke. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he choked out, “And I really wanted a condo with a hot tub.”

  Jarod chuckled, Rob’s tears reflecting his own. “Maybe someday.”

  * * *

  Jarod had never been prouder of his nephew. He watched as the boy…no, not a boy. Rob had more than proved that today he was a man. Jarod watched the man in front of him pull himself together. Rob took a shaky breath and then spoke.

  “Guess fate wasn’t on our side.”

  Cleo elbowed Buton in the side and said with a wry grin, “But it seems karma just might be.”

  Jarod snorted. He was sick to death of hearing about karma. That, and patience. He looked and saw Cleo’s fingers wrapped around Buton’s. Great. Now they were a team.

  “We’ll see about that.” He stopped and looked around at the screens. “Where exactly in the hell are we?”

  Buton pointed to the navigational map. Jarod leaned in for a closer look.

  “Whoa. We’re only twenty miles from—”

  “Challenger Deep. My thought exactly. We’ll be over the Mariana Trench in two minutes.”

  Mia pursed her lips in confusion. “What’s that?”

  “It’s the deepest ocean canyon in the world,” Cleo responded.

  Jarod rubbed his hands together in mock excitement. “Seven miles straight down. Come on.”

  It once more took every able body on board to haul the diamond out to the hatch. The thing was truly a monster. A gorgeous monster. Worth more than the Midas Touch. Seriously. What the hell was he doing? Jarod heaved the door open as wind whipped into the cabin.

  He called out, “Simon, bring us in low…Mia, watch the map. Call out when we’re over the trench.”

  The ship was mere inches from the tips of the waves, steam pouring off the surface from the continued heat of their ship.

  Jarod yelled to Simon, “That’s low enough!”

  Mia called out from her station. “Ten seconds!”

  As she continued the count down to one, Jarod and Rob stood over the stone, soaking in its radiant glow. Jarod looked at Rob.

  “I think your dad would be proud of you.”

  Rob replied, blinking back more tears, “Of us.” Rob included Cleo in his gaze. “Of all of us.”

  Mia finished her countdown. “Two. One! Go!”

  The men heaved the crystal out of the hatch. As it splashed into the ocean, Jarod let out the biggest sigh of his life.

  “Karma officially sucks.”

  Simon’s voice cut through Jarod’s morose moment. “We’ve got company!”

  Jarod headed back up to the cockpit. It was time to face the music.

  * * *

  This was the endgame. Gil had worked so long to make this come to fruition, and now it had. Victory was sweet. Victory over Jarod? Even sweeter.

  Sure, Jarod had played a halfway decent game, but in the end, the predator always took down the prey. The Eureka was trapped. There was nowhere for her to go. Jarod was caught.

  Gil heard Captain Stavros speak to the Eureka over their radio connection.

  “Do not attempt escape. Our weapons are locked. Release control of your navigation systems, and we’ll land you safely.” The captain paused, and the silence was significant. “If not, we’ll vaporize you.”

  Gil felt his smile just get bigger and bigger. This day could not get any better.

  A voice, not Jarod’s, came back from the ship. “That’s a big 10-4, Smoky.”

  They could hide behind all the humor they wanted to, but the Rogues knew that they were beaten. Outgunned, outmanned, outplayed, and outclassed, the little pigs were lying down and waiting for the big bad wolf to come and eat them up. By the hair of their chinny-chin-chins.

  The crew mobilized to remotely take over the Eureka’s navigational system. With the Rogues’ ship safely in tow, the Eclipse set a course for Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, about two hundred miles to the northeast.

  Gil spent the next twenty minutes alternating between calculating the amount of money he was going to make off this venture and staring out at the Eureka and laughing maniacally. He hadn’t had this much fun in as long as he could remember.

  As the ships entered American airspace and glided toward Hawaii, Gil took a moment to spruce up. While his arm still ached, he removed the sling, as he felt it diminished his sense of personal power. He washed his face. He took time to sculpt and craft his hair. Moments like these did not just happen…they were created. And Gil wanted his final blow to Jarod to be devastating.

  The poor man would never recover from this one.

  * * *

  Jarod spent the flight playing five-card stud with Simon. He now owed the man fifty matchsticks and the shirt off his back. Fate and Jarod had not been on speaking terms lately.

  The Eureka limped onto the first of the runways, making a less-than-spectacular landing. She came to a halt—more from parts falling off than from any sort of braking on the pilot’s part.

  The landing of the Eclipse, on the other hand, could not have been smoother. The sleekness and menace of the military vessel had only increased with the wear and tear of going to and from the Moon. What once was a pristine craft was now one infused with purpose.

  As the Eureka ground to a halt on the sunbaked tarmac, military personnel swarmed into the craft, hauling out Jarod and the crew with more than a little brusqueness. As they were dragged out of the ship, Jarod watched as more troops flooded into the Eureka to begin tearing her apart. He grimaced, both from the sun and from the imminent destruction of their spaceship. That beast had taken them to the Moon and back. She deserved better than this.

  Dr. Weigner and Gil stalked toward the Rogues, accompanied by a military man with, as far as Jarod could tell, a stick up his rectum the length of Montana. Weigner came to a halt less than a meter away from Jarod. The doctor jutted his chin out as he spoke.

  “Where is it?”

  Jarod put on his best stupid look. He had been worki
ng on it for years. It was a good look.

  “Where’s what?”

  Gil stalked closer, sneering at Jarod as he added his two cents. “Don’t play the mother starling, limping away to protect her young! We know you found it!”

  Jarod found himself thinking about how often Gil used animal metaphors. That probably meant something. He decided to ask Mia later.

  Again, Jarod kept his face studiously blank. “Found what?”

  Weigner gave Gil a hard look, suddenly unsure. “The mother lode?”

  Jarod stared at the doctor, his face uncomprehending. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Gil stepped forward and backhanded Jarod across the mouth. Jarod wiped his mouth, bringing his head back up to eye level. He looked at Gil…and smiled.

  “All I know is that you assholes attacked us unprovoked. And don’t think you won’t be hearing from my lawyers.”

  A soldier crossed over from the sad remains of the Eureka. What the ravages of space travel, being repeatedly attacked, and reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere had not completely accomplished, the American military had finished. Brilliantly.

  The soldier stopped in front of the military man with Gil and Weigner and snapped a smart salute.

  “Captain Stavros.”

  Stavros replied with a certain amount of impatience. “Well?”

  “All clear, sir.”

  The captain gave a significant look to Gil. “There’s nothing there?”

  “No, sir. We tore everything apart. Down to the hull.”

  Simon placed a hand on his forehead and groaned. Jarod patted him gently on his back. Simon let out a long lament.

  “My baby!”

  Doctor Weigner looked from the serviceman to Gil, and then back at Stavros. “This is impossible.”

  Buton spoke as he would to a remedial student. “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

  Weigner snarled back at him. “Dimwitted…” The doctor groped, searching for a word he clearly couldn’t find. He gawped like a fish on land for a moment, and then rushed off toward the wreckage of the Eureka, clutching his head with both of his hands. As he neared the entrance to the craft, they heard him scream.