by Gini Koch
“Laugh now while you have the weapons,” the first one snarled as most of the Dazzlers giggled. “When our leader comes, you will pay.”
“You laughed while you had the weapons. It seems only fair we do the same.” I looked around. “Girls, we need to store the trash somewhere it can’t get out or make noise. Any ideas? Me, I’m thinking there’s this warehouse made of corrugated steel in the middle of the freaking desert.”
Emily gave me a smile that should have caused several of the terrorists to wet themselves. “I love that plan.”
“Do the gates work?”
“Yes, they only jammed them,” Melanie said.
I took a deep breath. No better time for it than the present. “Where’s Beverly?”
Emily’s eyes narrowed. “You mean Beverly the traitor, that Beverly?”
“Yeah, her.”
“She has our daughters, James, Tim, a couple of human pilots, and Jeff,” Melanie answered. “If Jeff doesn’t get medical attention soon he’s going to die.”
I’d known that already, but it still sucked hearing it. “That’s the plan. Him and Christopher dead, the rest of you turned into parasitic spawners.” The women nodded—beautiful but not dumb at all. “We need to get these slime-balls trussed up. Anyone have any duct tape?”
“Lots,” one of the gals I didn’t know said. “A lot of it on this level, too. It’s amazing what you can do with that stuff.”
“Good. Can you all handle them? We need to get them trussed up and out of sight before Yates shows up.”
Ah, hyperspeed. All but the Che wanna-be were trussed up within seconds. He smirked. “You cannot touch me.”
I looked down at Duchess. “Puppy girl? I don’t like this mean man.” Then I punched him in the face. And Duchess went for what I’d trained her to do when I was really serious about self-defense—his groin.
The screams were lovely.
“Marry me,” Jerry said as he trotted over, my now-silent iPod in his hand.
“Taken, by the alien you were apparently separated from at birth.” If he was still alive, of course. I dropped iPod and speakers back into my purse. I kept the Glock out.
Jerry sighed. “All the good ones are always taken.”
I put my arm around his shoulders. “My love, take a look, a close look, at the mass of women before you, and then take heart. Most of the ones under thirty aren’t married, and—here’s your special bonus—they only want to marry human males.”
He smiled. “I knew helping you land was the right thing to do.”
CHAPTER 52
THE TERRORISTS WERE TRANSPORTED to the warehouse. The A-C males went there to guard them—it would be too hot for the humans we didn’t actually want to roast, especially since the A-Cs planned to turn the thermostat up to broiling.
That left us a goodly complement of military personnel, but not as many as I’d hoped. Turned out most had gone to Home Base when White had realized they needed to move the base of Operation Fugly there.
Emily and Melanie wanted to come with us, but I wanted people I knew I could trust to pull the trigger up on this level. Their daughters were in danger—they’d shoot to kill without question.
“Who else is in on this with Beverly?”
Emily shook her head. “We don’t know.”
“I’m with you that she couldn’t have pulled this off by herself,” Melanie added. “But she hasn’t indicated any accomplices.”
“Figure out who’s missing or might have been acting funny the last couple of days, last few hours in particular, but after you fix the gates. No one can get in here from Home Base. Just be sure that my mother and father are with whoever comes through. If they’re not, then that side’s been infiltrated, too.”
“Got it. Kitty, please get them back safely.” Melanie’s voice broke.
“I’ll do my best. Make sure Yates doesn’t get away.”
“He won’t,” Emily said.
I left Duchess with the Dazzlers. I didn’t want her at risk, and, besides, she was getting so much attention and praise for her part in the chomping of the head terrorist that it seemed a shame to drag her off.
We went back, just our crew of five. All the guys had big guns now, though Hughes still had the baseball bat and Christopher still had the ball. I got the feeling they were both finding comfort in holding them, and who was I to argue? I wasn’t going to give up my purse, either.
We slunk downstairs to see the same four terrorists guarding the doors. Thankfully, we hadn’t made much noise upstairs, and the Che wanna-be’s screams must not have traveled.
“How do we get them out of action and us inside that room?” Christopher whispered in my ear. “I can’t move fast yet.”
I thought about it. “Leave that to me.” I dropped the Glock into my purse, crawled on the floor a little way, then stood up and sauntered over. “Hey, what’s going on?”
Four big guns pointed at me. “Who the hell are you?”
“Gosh, I was going to ask you the same thing. I was napping. Where is everybody? Are we having some sort of a drill?” I did my best to look and sound as inane as possible.
The terrorists exchanged glances. “Why don’t we take you inside?” one suggested.
“Sure, is that where we go for this drill?”
“Yeah, babe, that’s right.” He put his arm around my waist. I managed not to recoil or hit him, but it required a lot of self-control.
One of the others opened the door. It was a large medical bay, and there were several people in the room. As my personal escort shoved me through the doorway, I saw Lorraine and Claudia huddled next to their pilots. The men had been beaten up but were conscious, and they looked angry. Tim and Reader were near them, also looking worse for wear. There were six other terrorists in the room, four of them with guns trained on the six against the wall; two of them were flanking Beverly. But my eyes were drawn to the center of the room.
Martini was on his knees, hands tied behind his back. He looked worse than when I’d last seen him, and I could tell he’d been beaten up like the others. Beverly was standing over him, and her expression of triumph and viciousness made my blood cold.
She was doing something to Martini—his body was reacting as if she were kicking him, but she wasn’t moving. He was trying not to make noise, but grunts of pain escaped. Even like this he was gorgeous. But I couldn’t stand to see the pain etched into his face and body.
I looked back at her face, and I realized she was sending an emotional onslaught at him. The fear and anger from the others in the room would be bad enough, especially considering the state he’d been in when they’d kidnapped everyone, but she was adding on more. And it was killing him.
I’d thought I hated the terrorist who’d hit Emily. I knew I hated Yates for trying to kill my family and Mephistopheles for killing Cox. But I’d never, ever, known what it was to see someone and know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I’d do anything and everything I had to do in order to kill her or him for what they were doing to someone I loved.
“Well, well, if it’s not our little Miss Katt.” Beverly’s eyes shot daggers at me. “Come to help make Jeff’s last minutes truly horrific?”
“You seem to be all over it.”
Martini looked over at me. “Baby, get out of here.” It sounded like every syllable cost him.
“Oh, she can’t do that,” Beverly purred as she sent another emotional hit toward him. “She’s required.”
“Yeah, I know. Yates wants to meet me.”
Beverly nodded. “He has something special planned for you.”
As long as I could talk and keep her talking, we had time. This room had glass on the wall opposite the door, so I could see behind me. The terrorists hadn’t closed the door, probably because they wanted to hear what was going on.
“Funny that he’s more interested in me than in you. And, you know, you’d think, since you’ve been his mistress all this time, that he’d want you.”
“He ha
s greater plans for me,” Beverly snarled.
“Yeah, um, right.” I nodded my head toward the girls. “I’m sure. ’Cause, you know, Yates is known for dating, ah, mature women. Not girls younger than Lorraine.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What he chooses to amuse himself with doesn’t matter to me.”
“Really? Wow, are you understanding. Now, if it were me, and my so-called main man was shagging every hot young thing under the age of twenty-five, I’d be kind of pissed. So you’re either gullible or stupid. Or both.”
“You have no idea of what he plans,” Beverly hissed.
“Oh, come on. It’s so freaking obvious.” I could see my guys moving up. They each had a cloth in their hands. I hoped they’d found some chloroform as opposed to just having allergy attacks. “Yates is dying, and Mephistopheles wants to make babies. But he doesn’t exactly seem to have the right equipment. Believe me, I’ve been up close and personal, and there are no reproductive organs on any of Team Fugly. So they can only reproduce via parasitic infection.”
“They represent our next level.”
“Is that what he’s telling you? Wow, and you believe him? You are one freaked-out piece of work, Bev.”
“Beverly.”
“Bev. You’re acting like a human, babe, aren’t you? Humans are the ones big on betrayal and lying, not A-Cs. I mean, that’s why no one but Jeff uses a nickname. It’s a human thing, and he’s the only one who gets it.”
“Gets what?” Beverly looked confused. So did the others. Martini just looked as though he was going to die.
“The right evolutionary choice is to mate with human-kind. Make us stronger, spread out your genetics, combine the two races. But Mephistopheles knows what that would do.”
“Destroy us!”
“Destroy him. And his kind. Either because we’d be able to reject the parasites or because they’d be able to join with us as they’re supposed to.”
“They create as they were intended.”
“They create as he intends. Not as God intends.”
I hit home with that. “There is no God.” But she sounded unsure.
“Wanna bet?” There were no more terrorists at the door. “Girls? I’d like to mention that you’re field operatives now.” They didn’t react. I hoped it was because they didn’t want to give anything away, not because they had no idea of what I was talking about.
Beverly seemed to have an idea, though, because she grabbed a needle. “Now, now. I’m not going to kill Jeff.”
“No? What are you going to do?”
She smiled, and it was a very evil smile. “I’m just going to make sure that he can’t cause any more problems. He doesn’t have to die. If I give him this shot, he’ll be allowed to live. Christopher, too.”
I knew without asking, but I had to ask anyway. “And what does that shot do?”
“Causes sterility.”
Martini’s eyes closed, and his face scrunched up. I could tell he was fighting to not react. I want to get married and have a lot of kids. He’d said it many more times than once. There was no way I was letting her do this to him. Plus, those were my potential babies she was trying to kill, too.
“Over my dead body.”
“Gladly,” she snarled.
“But, Bev, it’ll be the A-Cs who die. And you’ll go first. Or haven’t you put it together yet and figured out what, exactly, killed Theresa White?”
CHAPTER 53
A MEMORY THAT WASN’T MINE came rushing over me, as if I were watching a scene from a movie.
A woman and two little boys were in a bedroom, all cuddled into bed together, the boys on either side of her, one lying down. The woman looked close to death, but I could see a resemblance to both me and my mother. The boy with the smaller build had his eyes closed; it was clear he’d cried himself to sleep. The other boy was awake, tears rolling down his face. He had light brown eyes and darker hair than the sleeping boy.
“Aunt Terry, you can’t leave us,” he sobbed. “No one else loves us.”
“That’s not true, Jeff. My . . . illness is affecting what you can feel. It’ll all be okay.” She pulled something out from under her pillow. “I’ve put everything you’ll need in here. It’s for you and Chris, only, no one else. It’ll teach you what you need as you get older. Don’t tell anyone you have it, not even your parents or Uncle Richard.”
Jeff took what looked like a glowing cube from her and nodded his head.
“Now, I have to give you something, something only for you.” She leaned forward and blew into his ear. Jeff’s head rolled back, and Terry managed to hold him up. She rubbed his neck until he was conscious.
“What did you do? I don’t feel any different.”
“I gave you something to keep hidden. I hope you never need it, but if . . . the bad monster isn’t stopped, then I want you to give it to someone. Someone special.”
“Who? Chris?”
“No, and you can’t tell him, or anyone else, about this, Jeff. You have to promise me, a deathbed promise, that you’ll never tell anyone else, ever.”
“I promise, Aunt Terry.” He sounded as though he was trying to be brave.
She nodded. “If things don’t get better, then you find the human girl whose fear and hatred of evil give her courage. You’re looking for a protector, Jeff. Someone who can put her own safety aside to protect people she doesn’t even know.”
“How will I find her?”
She shook her head. “You’ll know when you do. That’s all I can tell you.” She hugged him and they lay down. She hugged both boys to her. Jeff went to sleep, too.
Terry looked right at me. “Save my boys. Please.”
The memory washed away. No one had moved; it had only taken a second. “What are you talking about?” Beverly huffed, as the girls gasped and Martini’s body sagged. I got the feeling he was trying not to cry.
I didn’t know where Christopher was exactly, but I hoped he was close by and in control. “Theresa went to Yates right after Mephistopheles manifested. She went for help. I’m guessing that Yates transformed into Mephistopheles and did whatever gross thing they do in order to spread the parasite, but Theresa escaped. She knew what was going on, but this was her father-in-law, and her husband and son were already suffering enough for his sins.”
I moved closer to Martini. “So she did what she had to do, the only thing she could, just in case things didn’t work out and the A-C operatives weren’t able to kill Mephistopheles.”
Beverly grabbed Martini’s collar and pulled him to her. “Don’t come any closer.”
“She implanted a memory into the only person she could, into the person whose talent was actually stronger than hers. A so-called memory that he’d be able to pass along to someone who’d interpret it correctly, when the time came. We’re calling it a memory, but I know what it was—a prophecy, if all went wrong.”
Martini opened his eyes and nodded. His eyes looked more tortured than I’d seen yet, which was saying a lot.
I looked over to Reader, but only so I could see the reflection. Christopher was moving in, as were the rest of my team. “Mephistopheles didn’t implant that memory in me, James. Jeff did.” Reader slowly closed and opened his eyes. Good. He’d seen them.
“That’s absurd,” Beverly said. “You’ve been affected by him. His implant is working.”
“Not like he wanted it to. He hit me with some kind of emotional overlay he’s been manipulating, that’s true, but I could never actually feel it. Jeff could, and it made me say some things that I wasn’t thinking to Christopher. But I have to believe Mephistopheles wanted me obeying him, and I couldn’t even feel his influence. Because Terry’s influence was already in me, protecting me so I could fight Yates and Mephistopheles both.” I looked back to Martini. “You implanted it right when we met. That’s why I fainted.” He nodded again and looked even more ready to die.
Beverly laughed. “So you’re saying Jeff knew all this time and did nothing?”
Martini shook his head, almost imperceptibly. But he didn’t have to. I’d known the truth even before Terry showed me. “Jeff didn’t know. Terry wasn’t going to saddle a little boy with this knowledge.” I looked into Beverly’s eyes. “She programmed him to find me. And, by the way, girls? I’d say the time is now.”
Claudia and Lorraine moved. Or I assumed they moved. Because things were a blur. But when the blur stopped, the terrorists were unarmed and on the ground, and my side had the guns.
Unfortunately, Beverly had Martini. She’d ripped his shirt open. Even in this situation I could look at his chest and get turned on. She held the needle right at the base of his neck. “You move and I’ll ensure he never has a reason to care about proliferation of our race ever again.”
There wasn’t a lot of time. But we had all I needed in the room already. “Christopher, fastball!”
The needle flew out of Beverly’s hand and shattered. Being hit by a baseball traveling at least two hundred miles per hour will do that.
Beverly shoved away from Martini, but not before Walker slammed the door shut. She was in the room, but moving so fast I couldn’t see her.
“She’s going faster than we can see,” Lorraine called to me.
Okay, no worries. “Hughes, batter up!”
He tossed the bat to me, high, and I caught it and stood in front of Martini. I knew she was going to try to get him again, even before Christopher, especially since my three pilots had him surrounded.
I swung the bat out and waited. She slammed into it, and the force spun me around. As we stopped—Beverly bent over the bat—I saw she had some nasty-looking implements in her hands as well as another needle.
I pulled the bat back and swung it, right at her head. “Get away from my man, you fugly-loving cunt.”
I connected and she went flying. She hit the wall, and Jerry bent down. “She’s dead.”
“Good.” I meant it. I dropped the bat and grabbed Martini as he slid to the floor. “Jeff, baby, hold on.”
He leaned his head against me. “I had to—”
I kissed his forehead. “Hush. I know. You did the right thing.” I reached behind him to try to get his wrists untied but I couldn’t do it.