Fury of the Six (The Preston Six Book 5) (18 page)

The screen blanked out and Marcus stood closer to the wall, walking the edge of it.

“What the hell was that?” Gladius asked.

“Please listen to him,” Evelyn said.

Hearing Evelyn’s support of this man invigorated Joey’s resolve to crush down the wall and kill him. He pushed on it with his hands and tried to get Evelyn’s gaze. She looked so much older.

“This is who I believe created the stones,” Marcus continued. “She uses them to wipe entire species off the map. I’m not sure what is behind her motivation exactly, but it’s only a matter of time until she finds Earth. And when that happens, there is nothing you can do to stop her.”

“What does any of this have to do with anything?” Lucas asked.

“The Cough. You think I used it to take control of Earth, and there is some truth to that, but ultimately I am trying to save it, maybe save all the worlds. The tech they possess—” Marcus shook his head. “Don’t you guys get it?” He pointed at Evelyn. “They’re coming and they’ll take all of you, unless she is ready for them.”

“Evelyn, come here sweetie,” Poly said.

“No, Mom. You’ve been scared of me since the day I was born. Don’t think I don’t see the way you look at me. Even now, I can hear it in your breath and see it in your eyes.”

“That’s not true.”

Evelyn hopped off her chair and walked to the edge of the screen. Poly knelt and Joey stood behind her, keeping his focus between Marcus and Evelyn. Seeing his daughter walking stirred emotions of pride, fear, and anger. Marcus changed her, made her body grow into a little girl, but her eyes looked the same.

Poly reached for her, but the invisible wall stopped the mother-daughter embrace.

“
He
hasn’t lied to me.” Evelyn pointed back to Marcus and Joey felt his anger hitting its zenith. Changing his girl’s appearance was one thing, but corrupting her heart and mind was completely another. “So you don’t lie to me now, Mother. Are you afraid of me?”

Poly sobbed and wiped her eyes. “I wasn’t afraid of
you
, but of what you meant. This horrible man,” she pointed at Marcus, “has destroyed all of our lives, and if you were just a normal little girl, he wouldn’t try to take you away from us. But you are right, I knew the first second I saw you, you were different.”

“You think I’m strange.”

“No.” Poly placed her hands on the wall. “No, I thought you were the most wonderful thing ever to appear on Earth. But that knowledge sent deep fear into me because I knew he’d be coming for you.”

Evelyn smiled and looked from Joey to Poly. “I believe you.”

“Then end this now, Evelyn. I know you can stop this. Stop Marcus and take this wall down.”

Evelyn looked back at Marcus and then to Poly. Joey gripped his gun tight and readied himself for what Poly asked Evelyn to do. “You still don’t get it, Mom. I was made for a purpose. I have a specific task I need to complete, and Marcus is going to help me with it. We need him.”

“No,” Poly sobbed. “He’s evil. You can’t trust him.”

“I can tell when a person is lying; he has not lied to me.”

Joey glanced at Lucas and his Panavice. Lucas gave him a slight nod.

“I headed to this room on purpose,” Marcus stepped in. “I knew it’d give me the opportunity to explain things. Now that you know what is at stake—the entire planet and every other one just like it—you need to know Evelyn is our best chance at stopping them and taking the fight to them. I am constructing an entire facility dedicated to Evelyn back on Earth. But she needs a mom, she needs a dad. I want you to join her there in preparation.”

Joey reeled from the offer.

“We aren’t going anywhere with you,” Poly said.

“This is what you wanted . . .” Marcus said. “This is the chance for it all to be over between you and me. No more chasing, no more fear of who is behind you, no more wondering if your family is safe. You and your family can live together and when the time comes, we’ll save all the worlds, with Evelyn at the front line.”

“What can a little girl do to save the world?” Gladius asked.

“I implanted a nanobot into every person on planet Earth and when the time comes, Evelyn will be able to access every one of those.”

“Why don’t you just do it yourself and leave us alone?” Poly asked.

“If I could, I would. This task is solely in the hands of Evelyn.”

“What?” Lucas said, looking at his screen. “No, no, no . . .” Panic spread over his face. He pursed his lips and stared at Joey, trying to convey a message without words. Something had gone terribly wrong, and the way Lucas looked at the Panavice, it must have been Julie.

“I’m sorry,” Lucas said before running out of the room.

Hank moved to follow him, but Gladius put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll watch his back,” she said and ran after Lucas.

Hank raised his hand in protest, but she was gone.

“Just the three of us now, and from the looks of it, Julie isn’t breaking my wall down anymore. Hope she’s okay,” Marcus said with a wry smile that made Joey want to slap it off his face. If he’d done anything to Julie . . .

Joey pulled out his Panavice and looked at the screen. A message from Lucas said,
Julie’s having the baby

No, it’s too soon,
he thought. Poly got up and peered at the screen. She couldn’t hold back her gasp.

“Bad news?” Marcus asked.

“Julie’s having her child. I can’t wait to finally see him,” Evelyn said.

“How do you know that?” Poly asked.

JULIE GROANED AND GRIPPED HER stomach as another contraction hit. Her pants were soaked from her water breaking. She punched in a message to Lucas, and then looked around for another person to help. But in the dark of the night, all she saw were glowing rocks and embers from a few cindered bushes around Marcus’s compound.
Not now, anytime but now, it’s too soon.

She gripped her Panavice and sent another bot into his system, trying to find the weakness in his code. Another contraction and she dropped to her knees. The Panavice slipped from her hands and fell into the dirt.

The contraction passed and she picked up her Panavice. She’d break down the wall if it killed her; she owed it to her friends and to her rapidly arriving baby. She didn’t want a child to be born in a world where Marcus still existed.

OMW,
Lucas texted her
.

She knew he’d come running and regretted telling him, but she couldn’t let them keep thinking the wall was coming down any second. She used her moment of comfort to double her efforts, searching and probing the edges of his program. It was as complex as anything she’d seen, except for the purge people’s tech.

One of her bots sent back a green light message, meaning it found a way in. Her fingers flew across the screen, looking at what the bot found. She opened up her nuke program when another contraction hit. She reeled in pain and dropped her Panavice again.

“Didn’t expect to find you alone,” Emmett said, reaching down to pick up her Panavice.

HARRIS RUSHED INTO THE BUILDING with Travis. The parents were expected to take the left side and they would take the right. He spotted Evelyn’s dot, deep into the bunker and hoped the kids were able to handle Marcus. He had another place to go.

The entry didn’t have a moving Arrack in sight. The parents did their job well.

“It should be near the main power source,” Travis said.

Harris nodded in agreement and ran to the back of the entry and through a double door, held open by two dead Arracks. Past the doors, another room, a banquet room perhaps. It didn’t have any tables or chairs, but a few tapestries hung on the walls with various fruits and vegetables.

He dashed across the room and shoved open another door. Lucas ran into him.

“Whoa, what happened?” Harris asked.

“It’s Julie, she’s having the baby.” Lucas tried to move past him, but Harris pushed him back.

“What of Marcus?”

“They are in a standoff in his room. He’s got a barrier up. Spouting all kinds of junk, saying Evelyn is going to save the world from those purge people. It was his plan all along.”

Gladius ran up to them. “Jeesh, man, you are fast. Hey, Dad, Harris.”

Lucas pushed past Harris and ran toward the front of the building. Gladius raised her brows and ran after him.

Travis stepped toward Gladius, and Harris thought the man might be considering going with her.

“Come on, we’ve got to do our part,” Harris said.

Travis took a deep breath. “I hate she is involved in this. If anything happens to her, I won’t be able to honor my agreement with Poly.”

Harris nodded. “I won’t fight you if that time comes.” He ran down the stone stairs and through many corridors and rooms. The passage became narrow, forcing them to walk sideways to get past the last hallway and then crouch down as the ceiling got lower and lower.

A steel door stood at the end of the hall. There was nothing particularly secure about it but enough to keep out any wandering Arrack who may happen upon it. Harris pulled out his Panavice and typed into the screen. The lock on the door turned green and the door swung in.

The white walls and stainless steel of the interior room felt in sharp contrast to the stone structure they’d been running around in. Marcus was a never ending supply of surprise. How he could have a room like this, made so far from anything remotely considered technological, was a feat in itself. Harris walked into the room scanning for, and not finding, any traps.

“You sure she’s in here?” Travis asked.

“Oh yeah, this is it. The last stored version of her in any world we know of.”

A single black stand sat in the middle of the room, about the size of a filing cabinet.

“Is she . . . active?”

“No, she’s in stasis.”

“You sure he doesn’t have another version out there?”

“I don’t think so. We just need to destroy her here, leaving the last remnants on Earth. And Julie has an end game set up for her as well.” Harris felt his jacket pocket. “You got the card?”

“Yeah,” Travis said and handed Harris a red card with a green dragon on it.

“Nice design. I know of a lady who’d love it.”

Travis nodded but didn’t say a word as Harris slid the card into the slot. He then pulled a Panavice from his jacket pocket and placed it next to the card. The bar on the screen ran up to a hundred percent. Harris pulled the card out.

“This is going to set our worlds free,” Harris said, shaking the card in the air. “And you should have it.” He handed Travis the card.

“I thought this was your whole reason for coming here, to pillage all of Marcus’s knowledge.”

“I trust you will put it to good use.” Harris watched Travis take the red card. “Now,” he turned to the black tower, “we destroy her and everything Marcus ever created.” Pulling a vial from his jacket, he placed it on top of the black cube. He then set a catalyst right next to it, strapped with a small explosive. “Okay, it’s set.” Harris backed away from the device. “Thirty seconds.”

Travis backed up with Harris until they were out of the room and shut the door. Harris watched the seconds count down on his Panavice until it reached one. A small explosion sounded from the room. It was no louder than the firecrackers he played with in his youth, but it wasn’t the explosion that would kill Alice, Renee, or whatever version Marcus created for her here.

He stepped into the room and watched as the liquid vials spilled over the metal cube. It melted the sides and created a hole right through the middle, dripping into the stone floor. In under a minute, the entire cube melted into a black pool on the floor.

“She’s gone,” Harris said. For him, this was the second to last part of their plan and for the most part, it had gone better than he ever could have hoped for.

Now onto the last stage. However, Marcus wasn’t going to go down easily, and from the sound of it, he’d taken to psychological warfare with the kids. He hoped they had the will strong enough to ignore the man’s words until he got there.

Harris rushed back down the stone hall and up the stairs.

“I have an idea,” Travis said as he stopped, halting their progress. “He’s formed a wall that I imagine only Julie can get through.”

“Yes, that’s safe to assume.”

“What if we find a workaround? You have another one of those vial set ups?”

Harris smiled and pulled the vial from his jacket. “I like the way you think, Denail.”

MINTER GRIPPED HIS GUN AND fired into an oncoming Arrack. The building seethed with them and he felt around his jacket for more clips. They protected this part of the building more than any other they’d encountered so far. “Rick, to the left!”

Rick shot an Arrack only a few feet from plunging its dagger into Karen’s back.

“Thanks,” Karen said, holding a gun of her own. Minter tried with all his might to get her to stay behind but she’d insisted.

“Harris gave you the okay, Beth?” Minter called.

“Yeah.”

“You ready?”

Beth walked forward, holding her Panavice. She nodded and placed it on the desk. She pulled out a cord and plugged it into a wall full of panels. A green light lit above the cord. She picked up her Panavice and typed into it. “The download’s going to take ten minutes. Why don’t you guys go help the kids while it’s—”

Minter fired three quick shots into a group of Arracks rounding the corner. Rick fired two more and finished them off.

“We stick together,” Minter said. “If we don’t kill everything this man has, another might take his place. It ends here.”