Ice Baron (Ice Chronicles, Book One (science fiction romance)) (32 page)

Hatred gleamed in Emelie’s eyes,
and her lips sealed more firmly.

Anya was suddenly weary and
sickened by the hateful cat and mouse game she played with Onred’s daughter.
Could Emelie possibly be an innocent pawn in Onred’s game? Having younger
siblings, she could easily see how Onred could plant the idea of making a virus
in Emelie’s mind. He’d make it sound like a challenging, fun game to a computer
genius. He had probably spent extra time with her, encouraging her. The girl
may well have lapped up his approving attention.

Or, perhaps Emelie was just as
viperous and lying and manipulative as her father. Whatever the case, Anya
truly did not want to hurt the girl. Unfortunately, in order for her plan to
work, Emelie would need to
think
she would. Therefore, Onred would
believe it, too.

“Open up. Time for the gag,” she
ordered.

When Emelie refused, Anya pulled out
her sharpest, most wicked looking knife from her belt.

Tears in her eyes, Emelie
obediently bit down on the wash rag.

Anya taped it securely in place. “Good.
Now we’ll see just how much your father loves you.”

*  *  *  *  *

Joshua woke up. He wished he hadn’t.
His head pounded, and it felt like a thousand needles poked into his skin.

“Call the boss. He’s awake.”

Joshua slumped, feigning
unconsciousness again. He needed time to think, and to plan an escape.

Something sharp poked into his
skull, but beyond a faint twitch of his fingers, Joshua did not respond.

“He’s out. That last blast would
have fried an elephant.”

“What, Boss? …Okay.” A telephone
beeped. “Tie him up. Take him to the others. He’ll execute them all at the same
time.”

“When?”

“Now. Or as soon as he can set up
a camera in the room.” A rough chuckle grated.

Electrodes popped from Joshua’s
body and hard hands shoved him sideways, so he toppled onto the floor. It was
hard to stifle his reflex to break the fall, but he managed to land on his good
shoulder. Ropes trussed his hands and feet, and men carried him quite a
distance. A door opened, and the men heaved Joshua inside. He landed hard on
his back, the breath knocked out of him. The door slammed again.

Tentative hands touched his face. “Joshua?
Are you alive?”

His eyes slitted against the
bright light. “Marli.” The little girl’s bald head swam into view, then Elise’s
joined her.  “Untie me.”

Marli vigorously shook her head. “I
can’t. They’ll kill you. She cast a fearful look over her shoulder. “They’re
watching,” she hissed. “Pretend you’re dead.”

*  *  *  *  *

Anya set her small phone to “video
record” and set it on a table facing Emelie. Her stomach churned with distaste
for what she was about to do. Murderess or not, Emelie was only a child.
Unfortunately, Anya must terrify her.

The camera recorded Emelie’s
unblinking, wide gaze for a full minute, and then Anya advanced toward her with
the frightening knife gripped in her fist. Emelie’s eyes grew wider the closer
she came, and when Anya grabbed the teenager’s hair and pulled her head back,
exposing her neck, a muffled cry tore from Emelie’s throat. Anya pressed the
blade against the tender skin. She felt sickened by her actions, but managed to
level a hard glare into the camera.

“I’ve got your daughter, Onred. If
you kill Joshua or any member of my family, I will kill her, just as she, with
her computer virus, killed Astana. Listen closely. Bring everyone to the main
shuttle bay. I will exchange Emelie for them there. You have fifteen minutes.”

 She turned off the camera and
replayed the video. Good. She would broadcast it on Alpha after she had taken
care of a few more details.

Hatred glared from Emelie’s black
eyes.

Anya smiled grimly. “You were
perfect. Now, I’ve got another present to prepare for your doting father.”

Anya retreated to Emelie’s
computer command center. Following the girl’s blessedly explicit installation
instructions, she shot a copy of the virus deep into the heart of Gorno’s
communications system. She shot another into the security network, which would
hopefully disable Gorno’s shield so the military air strikes could hit their
marks, and another into the environmental controls. She would set the detonation
timers after she had accomplished a few more tasks.

It helped that all of the systems
were wide open to receiving the fake packets of information, thanks to Emelie’s
full access to the system. She wondered how Emelie had broken Astana’s codes
and accessed the computer system—although, to a computer genius, hacking them
had probably been simple.

It seemed poetic justice to serve
the same destruction on Gorno as Emelie and Onred had unleashed upon Astana.
And yet the hardest part lay ahead. Rescuing Joshua and her family from
execution might well prove impossible. Onred certainly would not release them
in the shuttle bay. Of this, she felt certain. However, if she could divert
Onred from guessing her true plan, maybe she’d have a chance to rescue them.

She checked the security channels,
and accessed every camera feed in Gorno. It took long, nail biting minutes, but
finally a picture flickered into place that lifted her spirits. Marli, Elise,
David, and Joshua were held captive together in one room. David lay in a fetal
position in one corner. Marli and Elise hovered over Joshua, who lay on the
floor, too, struggling against his bonds. Why weren’t her sisters helping him?

Joshua unexpectedly freed his
hands, and then sat up and untied his feet.

Suddenly, Marli whipped a glance
over her shoulder. She cried out. Burly men charged into the room. Joshua leaped
to his feet, but a blow to his jaw sent him reeling backward before he could
straighten. Joshua spun and punched a foot into the man’s throat. The guard
went down, clutching his neck.

Three more guards rushed into the
room. Before Anya’s horrified eyes, two men pinned Joshua to the wall and the
other punched his defenseless body until his face was battered and bloody. Eyes
swollen shut, he slid sideways.

“Stop it!” she screamed. “
Stop
it.
Oh, God help him,” she whispered.

The guard delivered one final blow
to his stomach, and Joshua toppled over, torso twisting at an odd angle against
the wall. In the corner, Elise held a weeping Marli. The guards glared at them
and stomped out.

Anya pressed her hands to her
face, trying to control her sobs. Joshua looked dead.
Oh God.
He couldn’t
be. He just couldn’t be!

She pushed the tears from her
eyes, trying to rally concentration and strength of purpose. It was time to
move. If ever she could help them, it would be now. Jaw clenched hard, she
layered Gorno schematics on top of the holding cell’s location. They were on
the sixth floor. Air duct schematics offered direct access. She loaded it all
into her phone’s GPS, and set the timer for the viruses to detonate in one
minute.

Last, and finally, she broadcasted
her video with Emelie on Alpha.

Before leaving the dining nook,
Anya paused, looking back at Emelie’s command center. Images already blurred on
the screen. The virus, doing it’s work?

She would have to leave Emelie
here, alone. If Onred’s daughter managed to free herself, she might be able to
shut down the virus before it had a chance to finish its destructive work. Anya
couldn’t allow that. But she couldn’t stomach shooting the girl, either, even
on blue laser.

Holding her weapon steady in both
hands, Anya shot yellow fire into each of the three computer consoles. Their
screens went black. The virus was already safely embedded deep in Gorno’s
computer networks. Emelie’s computers were no longer needed.

Anya ran from the dining room.
Fury and hatred blackened Emelie’s gaze. Anya had cut to the girl’s heart.
Good. She left without a backward glance.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Out in the hall,
Anya swiftly strode for the fire
escape stairs. She passed a woman and a man, deep in conversation. Neither paid
attention to her, thanks to her fake uniform shirt. Inside the stairwell, she
sprinted for the sixth floor. Halfway up, all of the lights blacked out.

The computer virus. Had it already
attacked the environmental systems?

Using only the metal rail as a
guide, she hurried to the sixth floor landing. Gaining access to a room—any
room—was her next goal. From there, she could climb into the air ducts and
crawl to the room where Onred held Joshua and her siblings hostage.

She peeked into the hall. Floor
lights edged the dim passage. People hurried from one destination to another,
talking to one another in agitated murmurs. Anya slipped into the hall and
followed a slim, dark-haired woman who held a clipboard. The woman hurried
right, down an adjacent corridor. A quick glance at GPS schematics told Anya it
led to Command Central.

She smiled grimly to herself.
Hopefully, Emelie’s virus would wreak more havoc there than a bomb ever could.
Anya continued down the passage, matching the hurried pace of the others.
Surreptitiously, she tried door handles as she passed. None moved. Finally, she
stopped before one that read “Conference Room.” She swiped her key card. When
it flashed green, she took a page from Joshua’s book and strode inside as if
she belonged there.

It was dark inside, except for the
faint glow of a computer screen imbedded in a conference table at the far end
of the room. Unfortunately, three bulky men hunkered over it. Bluish gray
computer light illuminated their faces. One man looked up and frowned. He
reached for his collar. “Secur…” Anya shot him. He spun left, clutching his
shoulder, and sagged in his chair. Impossible to tell if he was dead. Passed
out would do well enough for now.

The other men ducked behind the
table, and Anya dove behind a chair. Unfortunately, the chair legs provided
little protection from the lasers. Fire shot toward her, and she shoved the chair
over. The narrow chair back blocked the laser beam. That time. But it provided
scant protection for most of her body. She shot at the men’s bulky frames. One
cried out and clutched his arm. The other fired at Anya again. The laser caught
her boot, and for a second it felt like her foot was on fire. She turned her
laser on “stream” and swept it under the table, hitting everything in its path.
The other man gasped and collapsed sideways. The winged man still moved, but
slowly. Anya fired again, and he stopped.

No more time to waste. She leaped
onto the conference table. Her computer phone indicated that access to the air
ducts should be about…here. She poked the ceiling, and a square of diamonite
moved. Swiftly, she rose on her tiptoes and pushed it aside, then grabbed the
ledge and swung herself up by her fingertips. Elbows on the steel frame, she
hoisted herself up. No air blew in the pitch black vent. The heating systems
might already be compromised. She could only hope. Anya switched on the phone’s
flashlight, replaced the diamonite square, and crawled fast for the holding
cell.

A tremendous blast shook the floor
beneath her knees, and she crouched lower, trying to keep her balance. Gorno’s
shield had fallen. Had Richert’s warships struck the vulnerable city? Or
Donetski airbirds? At this point, she supposed it didn’t really matter. All the
same, she wished she could see what was going on outside.

Her phone beeped when she was
fifty meters from Joshua’s holding room. Alpha channel. She kept crawling, but
watched the feed.

The shadowy scene made her gasp. A
burly man pressed a gleaming knife tip into Marli’s neck.

“Surrender now, Anya Dubrovnyk. In
the shuttle bay. One minute. Or your sister dies.”

The video feed went to static.

Anya crawled faster. The holding
cell should be about…here. A narrow grating appeared and she peered through.
Her breath caught in horror. Dim emergency lights lit the room. A guard held
Marli by the hair, with the knife still poking into her neck. Another man
gripped Elise. Both David and Joshua lay sprawled on the floor, unmoving. A
third man guarded the closed door, and a camera on a tripod stood beside him,
filming the unspeakably ghoulish proceedings.

“Almost time for night-night,”
crooned the bald bruiser who gripped Marli. Rolls of fat bulged up from the
base of his skull. “I’ll make it nice and easy on you. Hold still, like a good
girl.”

Tears streamed down Marli’s
cheeks. Her eyes looked wild, terrified.

Anya shoved her laser muzzle flush
with the grating, hands shaking. Marli’s body blocked the man. His face was too
near her sister’s. How could she get a good shot at him? She wasn’t a skilled
markswoman. The side profile of Elise’s guard, however, was partially exposed.
A bigger target to aim for.

“Boss says now.”

Marli elbowed the man. He spit a
curse.