The Forbidden Trilogy (88 page)

He descended a cramped set of stairs and opened the door.
Ned and the girl looked up at him. She had brown hair and blue eyes. Something
in his lower regions tightened as he thought about how pretty she was, but
fraternizing with the patients here would get his ass booted for sure, so he
kept it in his pants. Mostly. He might make another exception for her.

She shook as if scared, and stared at him.

Ned grabbed her arm and pushed her forward. "I found
her wandering around." He paused, as if expecting a response. "I
should bring her in."

Tyler looked her up and down and licked his lips. "She
try to get over the wall?"

"Yes." Ned nodded. "She... um... was climbing
a tree."

Tyler shook his head. "Teenagers. All right, wait a
moment." He climbed back up to his tower, typed his password into the
controls, and the gate opened.

"Thanks," Ned shouted as they walked in.

Tyler sat back down again, repositioned his legs on the
table, and grabbed up his notebook. He wrote a few descriptive paragraphs about
the blue-eyed girl, stuff he could never let his wife see.

Ned had seemed off tonight, had been awfully polite, and
hadn't even called the girl a bitch—which was his favorite word.

Wonder what was up with him?
Maybe he needed a raise
too.
Whatever.

He'd followed his orders, and now his promotion was secure.
Mr. Steele had told him that a brown-haired girl with blue eyes would come
tonight, and he'd told Tyler to let her in. So he did.

The rough hand of the guard pushed me through the gate and
past the guard in the tower. Once we'd cleared his line of site, the man before
me shifted and morphed, his hair growing longer, body trimming down, and shape
twisting... until he was a she. Robyn leaned over, short of breath, and fear
for her unborn baby tweaked my conscious. Maybe she shouldn't have come; we had
no idea what her particular para-power would do to her child, but she'd wanted
to, and I didn't want to stop her.

I needed her to find my own child. Selfish, but there it
was.

Darren had knocked out the real guard and hidden him outside
the gates. I'd been ready to mind-control the guy at the gate, but he hadn't
put up nearly the fight I'd feared. In fact, he seemed to know I'd be coming,
or someone who looked like me, but then he was so lecherous I wanted to vomit.
He was probably just glad to have fresh meat to chase.

Didn't matter; we'd made it, and now it was time for the
next phase. Since Lucy was the only one I could effectively connect with in a
two-way conversation, I used my ear piece to contact Norm. "We're in. Start
bringing everyone through."

The two of us waited behind a secluded building, and within
a few minutes Norm flew over the fence carrying Gary. One by one he went back
and retrieved another team member, until we were all together again. Norm flew
Toby in last, and Drake frowned and crossed his arms. What were we going to do
with the boy, leave him alone at the hotel? Besides, we'd all been training to
do missions by his age, and Toby had spent his life on the streets, so he knew
how to watch out for himself. It was interesting, though, seeing Drake so
protective.

Robyn had shifted back into a guard to do a quick scan of
the area, and came back to report. "There are a few guards patrolling the
main facility."

I nodded. "We'll use mind control to make them look the
other way."

Drake pulled out a purple vial and drank it. "I'm on
it."

I sighed. He shouldn't waste what little of that he had on
something I could have done, but he seemed anxious to prove himself helpful. I
couldn't blame him; I wanted to do everything I could to find Ana.

I took the lead as we walked down a path to the main
building. We passed a few guards on the way, but Drake took care of them. A
quick scan of their minds proved they had been compelled to forget ever seeing
us. I wondered vaguely if people ever dreamed of the memories they lost due to
mind control.

Once we reached the main building, I linked to Lucy.
"We're
in. Robyn will be leading the team to help you."

Robyn tapped her ear, to make sure her comm piece worked.
"Lucy?" Her voice quavered a bit. She was the most nervous of the
group, but that could work in her favor, make her more careful. Hopefully, it
wouldn't freeze her at a critical time.

"Lucy will tell you where to go. She can see you."

Robyn nodded. "What about you?"

"I'm going after Ana and Steele."

Drake stepped forward. "I'm going with you."

Then Darren, naturally. "So am I."

Toby turned himself visible and was already standing by
Drake. "And me."

I rolled my eyes.
Boys.

"Look, I appreciate the support, but Drake and I will
handle this. The rest of you, get Luke, Lucy and the other IPI agent to safety.
Save our friends."

Robyn responded to something only she could hear—had to be
Lucy giving directions—and she waved and turned left, with Norm by her side.
The others followed her, though Darren kept looking back over his shoulder like
a lost puppy waiting for me to call him back.

I hated to admit it, but I was glad Drake was with me. If
anyone could come close to caring about Ana as much as I did, it would be her
father, and he was powerful, especially with access to his para-powers.

As we walked, I reached out with the powers the Seeker had
downloaded into me. Bright dots of light floated in my mind as I connected to
the hundreds of paranormals in the buildings. Narrowing my focus, I sought the
one signature I knew better than anyone's: that of my daughter.

And where Ana was, so too would Steele be.

Her energy pulled me forward with a string of light that had
attached itself to me. The light led me up a flight of stairs and to a door.

I stopped. "He's in there."

I looked at Drake, his handsome face hardened, and finally
understood the part of him that had always eluded me, the part that would do
anything—
anything
—to protect someone he loved. In that moment, and to
some degree in many moments leading up to that, we shared the same
determination. Nothing would stand in our way as we rescued our daughter.

"We attack him together. We don't let him hurt our
baby."

Drake nodded, but his brow wrinkled. "I've tried mind
control on him before, and it didn't work. What if that happens again?"

I held up my pistol. "Then I use this."

I pushed the door open, and we walked through it and into a
giant steel room full of containers. My mind was in shock, and it took a few
seconds before I could comprehend the scene around me. It felt surreal, like
waking up in a twisted
Twilight Zone
episode or a bad sci-fi movie.
Viscous blue liquid filled each container. Inside them, men and women, even
children, floated in the fluid, suspended in limbo. Some of them had mutated.
Hundreds of these containers lined the room, spanning multiple levels.

At the back, Steele stood in front of a giant computer,
staring at a complex display of data on the screen.

The light tethered to me reached into a tiny crib that looked
more like a test tube.
Is this where I was born? Or made?
The thought
made me shiver.

Steele turned, unsurprised by our presence, and walked
toward us. "Hello, Daughter."

I lifted my hand, unlatched the safety, aimed straight for
his chest, and pulled the trigger.

Robyn and her team ran at full steam, no longer worried
about discretion, their images casting a malicious glow against a black
backdrop broken only by long shadows. Their heavy breathing filled Lucy's head
and reminded her of a prank caller in a horror movie.

She shoved that mental nightmare aside and directed them
through the compound. "Go through the hangar. Hurry!"

Flicking back and forth between cameras, Lucy monitored the
team, and the duo of Hunter and Luke, who trembled with exhaustion from their
ongoing battle with Beleth, even as bruises swelled on their body and blood
trickled from wounds. Black blades extended from each of Beleth's hands, and
the clank of metals, as Hunter fought him off with his own sword, reverberated
through their comm units. Luke bobbed from one foot to the other, waiting for
an opening to get to the vent and unleash the sleeping gas in his pack. The
clash of steel and the shuffle of steps, the grunts of those fighting—these
sounds sat suspended in their own world, seemingly disconnected from the scene
in front of her, like a badly dubbed Japanese movie.

A slash from Beleth's blade created a crimson line on
Hunter's arm, and Lucy's heart dropped into her stomach. She squinted,
imagining the cut, like fire, on her skin. She wanted to ask if he was okay,
but knew she shouldn't distract him from the fight.

Instead she switched to Luke's comm. "You have to help
him!"

Luke pointed to the crushed remains of his pistol, courtesy
of Beleth. "I can't. No weapon."

Lucy nearly clawed through the computer screen in
frustration. "Use your powers."

After a brief hesitation, he nodded and ran up behind
Hunter, shadowing him as he raised a force field up to block Beleth's spider
legs and sword attacks. Lucy could tell that they were not in synch. Luke's
shield blocked Hunter's strikes as often as Beleth's, and they couldn't seem to
find a rhythm that worked. Had the stakes not been death, their clumsy dance
might have been almost comical.

Another click back to Robyn. They were almost at the door.
Hurry.
Hurry. Please hurry.

Another click. Sam and Drake had gone to find Ana and
Steele. Just as she zoomed in on the correct camera, she saw them slip into a
room and disappear from her radar. She searched, but could not find a camera
for that room. It either didn't have one, or it was totally blocked from her.
She sent a silent plea that they would be careful and successful, then focused
her attention back on Hunter, Luke, and their friends.

Robyn stopped at a junction. "Left or right?"

Lucy looped through camera feeds. "Left."

They ran down empty hallways.

Beleth continued his fight against Hunter and Luke, and the
screech of metal filled the air.

Sam and Drake were off her radar. Why was it so quiet? Why
hadn't Beleth raised the alarm and alerted the whole compound of the breech?

And why had he said he was sorry? That man wasn't what he
appeared, but she didn't know what to make of him. The tracking device that
she'd removed from her laptop sat on the table, and Lucy looked from it to the
guard's soda can and back, then dropped the device in the soda, letting the
acid eat it away.

She watched the screen helplessly as one of Beleth's spider
legs caught against Hunter and threw him against a wall, exposing weaponless
Luke.

Hunter tumbled to the ground and lay still, even as Lucy's
heart sped up.

Luke scrambled away, but Beleth stopped him. "Fight!
Fight me."

Huh?
It wasn't as if they were filming for a pro
wrestling show. Why didn't Beleth kill him then and there? Not that Lucy was
complaining, but she didn't like having an enemy she didn't understand.

Luke's breathing came through the comm harsh and jagged,
full of fear. His face glistened with sweat.

Lucy kept her voice low and calm. "Luke, you can do it.
I know you can. Don't give up, Bro."

She had to stop before her own panic filled her words, as
she watched Hunter slumped into a heap in the corner, unmoving. He had to be
just knocked out. No way he could be dead. Her mind refused to consider the possibility.

Tension built as Beleth stalked the silent Luke, who acted
as if he hadn't heard either of them. Beleth seemed almost hesitant, resigned
in his task, as though he didn't really want to kill Luke.

Lucy yelled at her brother. "Damn you, don't give up.
There's something more going on here, and I need your help to figure it out.
Get up!"

Beleth towered over her brother.
Oh, God, no.
"Fight
me. Or will you do nothing? Will you sit by and watch, like you sat by while
they killed your mother?"

Why was he taunting Luke? None of this made any sense. They
hadn't even been there when their mother died; they'd still been at Rent-A-Kid,
under lock and key.

"No, I'm not just going to sit by and watch." He
reached into his backpack and pulled out a smoke grenade, then launched it at
Beleth.

As fast as Luke had been, Beleth, as always, was faster. He
dodged the grenade and it bounced off the back wall and clanged to the ground
behind him. He lurched forward, to get out its way, but got caught in the green
fumes as it exploded.

Luke put his gas mask over his face and ran across the room,
but Beleth grabbed at Luke's backpack and yanked it away as he choked on the
gas.

Lucy could see from the monitors that the gas was
dissipating too quickly. In a room that size, it just wasn't enough, but if
Luke used more he wouldn't have enough to complete the mission, if that was
even a possibility anymore. "Luke, screw the mission. Just get yourself
and Hunter out of there."

Leaving his pack behind, Luke scurried across the room and
grabbed Hunter's sword, steel ringing as he slid it off the floor. "I have
to finish this. I will not let anyone down again."

Like two bulls in a stadium, Luke and Beleth charged each
other.

Long spider legs reached for Luke's neck, even as sharp blades
lashed at his torso, but Luke dodged and rolled into a somersault. He erected a
force-field around himself.

Beleth's blade hit it and ricocheted off, and the giant man
fell hard to the ground. The combination of the fight and the gas seemed to
finally be affecting him, at least marginally. He recovered a fraction slower,
but still so much faster than a normal human. With a look of desperation in his
eyes, he pleaded to Luke, "Use the sphere."