Shadows Strike(51)
“Yes.”
“Do they know you? Have you been to this base? Interacted with the higher-ups?”
“Yes.”
“Then call whoever is in charge there and tell him you’re on your way.”
He shook his head. “I don’t have the number.”
“Chris?” Seth said.
Chris pulled a small spiral notebook out his pocket and shouldered his way through the throng. “I got it.” Thumbing through the pages, he held the notebook out to General Lane.
A muscle in General Lane’s jaw jumped. “How the hell did you get that?”
Chris shrugged. “It’s what I do.”
“Call it,” Seth urged. “Now. We’re running out of time.”
General Lane drew a cell phone from his uniform pocket and dialed the number Chris showed him.
Heather turned to Ethan as her father spoke to whoever answered. “If my father’s going, I’m going.”
“The hell you are.”
“I’m the reason he’s caught up in all this. I—”
“Heather,” Seth interrupted, “you’re staying here.” His tone brooked no argument. He turned back to her father. “General Lane, tell him to step into an empty room that has no surveillance cameras.”
The general did so.
Ethan heard complaints and what-the-hells erupt on the other end of the phone.
“He’s there,” General Lane said.
“All right, let’s do this,” Seth told the group. “We don’t have time to strategize, so just take out as many vampires as you can and tranq the rest. We’ll—”
“Seth,” Ami cut in.
He broke off, startled by the interruption.
“I should go with you,” she said.
“No.” He looked to the others. “As I was saying—”
“Seth,” Ami interrupted again, louder. “I have to go with you. You and Zach may not sense Gershom’s presence if he’s learned to block you the way Zach has. He could be there now, close enough for you to capture when you get there, close enough to harm you or the other immortals while you’re distracted by the vampires, and you wouldn’t even know it. I would.”
Marcus, who stood behind her, wrapped his arm around her and the baby, drawing her back against him. “It’s too dangerous.”
“And letting Gershom get away if you have an opportunity to capture him isn’t?” she countered.
“She’s right,” Zach said. When Seth’s eyes flashed golden with fury, Zach held up a hand. “I don’t like it any more than you do. But this bastard is trying to start fucking World War Three. And you know what Einstein said about World War Three.”
David spoke: “I know not with what weapons World War Three will be fought. But I know that World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.”
“Exactly,” Zach said. “If Gershom is there, we need to catch him and turn him over to the Others. And Ami may be the only one who can sense him.”
Ethan still wasn’t sure how that worked. One of Ami’s alien abilities was being able to recognize the unique energy signature of any person with whom she came into contact. Everyone had one, apparently. And once she learned it, she could always sense that person’s presence if they were near. It was how she had known about Zach’s clandestine visits to David’s home long before Seth had. She had sensed him.
Ethan didn’t know how or when she had obtained Gershom’s energy signature. But if she knew it, then she really would know instantly if he put in an appearance at the base.
“Let me help you end this,” she pleaded.
Seth hesitated.
“We’re running out of time,” David murmured.
Seth gave her an abrupt nod.
Marcus swore.
Ami crossed to Aidan. “Would you take Adira to the network?”
Aidan looked to Seth, then nodded.
“Marcus,” Ami said, “get the diaper bag.”
Marcus left the room in a blur.
“Should I stay at the network to help guard her?” Aidan asked.
Seth nodded. “Gershom seems to delight in fucking with me. I don’t want him anywhere near Adira. If he shows up at the network, bring her here. If he follows you here, teleport her away and keep teleporting, over and over again until you hear from me. Every time you teleport, it will slow him down a little more and make it more difficult for him to find you.”
Aidan nodded.
“And take Chaahk or Imhotep with you.”
The elder immortals in question looked at each other, then did rock, paper, scissors.
Chaahk swore. Imhotep grinned.
“Have fun,” Chaahk grumbled and joined Aidan.
Marcus raced past into the kitchen, then entered the living room, carrying a duffel bag and a big-ass diaper bag crammed full of Ethan didn’t know what. He looped the straps of both over Aidan’s shoulder. “I put milk, juice, and snacks in the diaper bag. This one,” he said of the duffel, “contains some of her favorite books and toys.”
Both parents hugged and kissed Adira, then handed her over to Aidan.
Aidan clumsily gathered the toddler against his chest. As soon as Chaahk clutched his shoulder, the three vanished.
Darnell crossed to Ami, his arms full of weapons.
She donned them quickly with his aid, all the while ignoring her husband’s irate glares.
“Ami,” Seth said, holding his hand out, “you’re with me.”
“Okay.”
“Marcus, you, too.” As soon as the couple reached his side, Seth said, “Seconds, be ready. I’ll send Aidan, Zach, or Richart for you if things get hairy.”
The Seconds stepped back.
Ethan stole a quick kiss from Heather, then urged her to join the other mortals.
“General, step forward,” Seth ordered.
General Lane snagged a couple of sidearms from the table, then joined Seth.
That he did so without balking surprised Ethan. Usually those who were most accustomed to giving orders weren’t so great when their turn came to take them.
Marcus slid an arm around Ami, then rested a hand on the general’s shoulder.
“Everyone else,” Seth said, “grab a shoulder.”
Every immortal touched the shoulder of the person on his or her right.
“Zach, be ready to teleport them on my mark.”
Zach nodded.
Such would be an incredible exhibition of power. Richart, a mere two centuries old or thereabouts, could only teleport one or two people at a time and grew weary quickly if he had to do so more than once.
“General,” Seth said, “is your man still waiting?”
“Yes.”
Seth gave no additional warning. He just teleported the four of them away.
The room to which the cell signal guided Seth was bare. Cement walls surrounded them, reinforced with as much heavy steel as those at the network, he suspected, if vampires couldn’t breach them. No paint. No furniture. No fixtures of any sort aside from the lone fluorescent bulb overhead.
A shout of surprise erupted from the room’s sole occupant. The officer dropped his phone and drew his sidearm.
General Lane leapt forward and threw out a hand. “Hold your fire! Hold your fire!”
The man focused wide eyes on the general’s face. “General Lane?”
“Yes. Lower your weapon, Colonel.”
The man lowered his weapon and, after two tries with shaking hands, returned it to its holster. “What . . . How did you—?”
“That technology is classified,” the general said, all business.
Seth silently applauded the general for finding the perfect thing to say. Unlike the media, soldiers understood that some things needed to remain classified in order to give the military an edge over those they fought. Implying that teleportation was some kind of new hush-hush technology the military was developing had been a stroke of genius.
Chris had been right. General Lane would make a strong ally.
Though the colonel’s eyes still bugged and his breathing remained rapid, some of the tension left his stance.
Above, through layers of concrete and steel and soil, Seth could hear rapid gunfire. Screams. Growls and howls of glee as vampires bred chaos and visited their frustration over their inability to breach the compound upon the soldiers trapped outside it.
“Has the compound been breached?” the general asked.
“No, sir. Not yet. But I don’t know how much longer it will hold.”
That was all Seth needed to hear. He looked at Ami. “Is he here? Do you sense him?”
Ami squeezed her eyes shut as she concentrated on sifting through the many energy signatures on the premises.
The colonel started to speak. “Who—?”
The general cut him off with a motion of his hand.
All waited in silence.
“I don’t sense him,” she announced, opening her eyes.
“You two stay here and let me know if that changes,” Seth ordered. He looked to the general. “If your men should harm them—”
“They won’t,” General Lane interrupted. “I’ll see to it.”
Seth nodded and teleported above.
Mayhem. Destruction. A setup not unlike the other base.
Tropical jungle outside fences strewn with razor wire. A sandy moat with craters blown in it from mines the vampires had tripped on their initial approach. A cement wall.
But far fewer structures rose around him, since most of the base lay underground.
Seth was a little surprised by how many human soldiers still lived.