Memory Zero (31 page)

“You do nothing but wait here. I’ll turn off the power.”

“And if we’re discovered?” Jan asked, a hint of fear in her voice.

“You shoot. Don’t hesitate.”

Lyssa nodded. “How will we know when the power’s off?”

Sam’s smile was grim. “I intend to make a lot of noise once it is.” Hopefully that would draw Jack’s attention away from this area. “Once you hear it, you run, and you don’t look back.”

Again Lyssa nodded. Pain haunted her blue eyes.

“You okay?” she added.

Lyssa hesitated. “I scraped my belly pretty badly getting out.” She shifted her hand, revealing a large, bloody tear on the front of her shirt.

“But the baby’s okay?”

Lyssa smiled. “Oh, yes. The child is an ox. It’s just his mother who’s the weakling.”

“Will you make it up the hill?”

“I made it out of the vent, didn’t I?”

That she did. Sam squeezed her shoulder gently. “Just be careful. Once you’re clear of this area, contact Gabriel, not Stephan.”

Alarm flitted through Lyssa’s pale features. “Why?”

Sam hesitated. She had no right to tell Lyssa about the bomb or the shapeshifter—such information was better coming from someone close. “There have been several attempts on your husband’s life. Gabriel has him hidden, and only he knows how to contact him.”

The tension in Lyssa’s body eased a little. “I know they’d planned for such an event. I’ll contact Gabriel first.”

“What about my husband?” Jan asked softly. “He should know I’m free, before he’s forced to do something by that … that monster.”

Karl had already been forced down that path. “Wait and see what Gabriel says.”

Jan nodded. Sam rose and nudged the unconscious felon with her foot. “If he moves, if he even blinks, shoot him. Don’t hesitate.”

Tension leapt into the silence, sizzling through the night, but it was coming mainly from Jan rather than Lyssa. The younger woman might look frail, but Sam had a suspicion she was far more dangerous than she looked.

“Good luck, ladies. Hopefully, I’ll see you both a bit later.”

“May fortune smile kindly on your ventures tonight,” Lyssa said softly.

Sam smiled. The God of good fortune had looked the other way her entire life, so why should that change now? “Thanks,” she said, and wondered, as she stepped away, how neither Gabriel nor Stephan had noticed the change in Lyssa. Or had they, and put it down to the hormones of pregnancy? Had it been only
her
presence that had revealed Suzy’s true nature—if indeed the shifter
was
Suzy, as she suspected?

She moved back to the corner, then stopped to study the six buildings critically.

The minute she stepped out into the open, the monitors would have her. And if she didn’t do it soon, Jack would send people to look for her.

The fastest route was a direct route. By the time Jack realized she wasn’t actually going for a car, she’d hopefully have figured out some way to get rid of the generator. After taking a deep breath to calm the nerves fluttering in her stomach, she ran out of the shadows and into the open. The monitor failed to respond for a second; then she heard the hum as it clicked into action and began tracking her movements. With a bit of luck, Jack would think she’d come from the main doorway.

She ran across to the nearest building and stopped in the shadows. Her heart raced as fast as a steam train, and her breaths were little more than short gasps—from fear, more than exertion. In the distance, thunder rumbled. Behind that came the pounding of distant rain. Closer, the soft crunch of gravel as someone walked toward her. To her left, on the far side of the nearest building, the soft exhale of air and a bittersweet smell began to taint the storm-held freshness. Someone was smoking rat-weed, the newest sensation on the drug scene. He was the one to go for—the drug, for all its much vaunted heightening of senses, often had the opposite effect.

The footsteps drew closer. Time to go. Keeping to the shadows as much as possible, she ran across to the next building. With her back pressed hard against the wall, she waited. A man appeared, and then stopped. He studied the shadows where she’d stood only moments before, then raised a hand to his ear.

“She’s not here.”

So they definitely were tracking her. The man turned, staring straight at her. She froze, barely daring to breathe.

“I’m telling you, she’s not here,” he repeated.

How could he not see her, when she could see him as plain as day? What game was Jack playing now?

“I don’t care what the monitor said—she’s gone. Check the other screens.”

He moved on. The sound of his steps faded into the distance, yet she couldn’t move. What the hell was going on? Foreboding beat a quick tattoo through her heart. Taking another deep breath, she moved on. The smoker was around the far corner.

“Hey, you,” she whispered.

He spun, weapon raised. Faster than the first, but still not fast enough. She knocked him out, eased him to the ground and grabbed his weapon. Another laser. Jack kept his men well armed, if nothing else. She wondered where he’d gotten the money.

She set the gun on the lowest setting—she didn’t want to kill anyone if it wasn’t absolutely necessary—then moved on. There was a monitor on the corner of the next building. She raised the laser and shot it. Sparks flew across the darkness, firefly bright. She sighted at the monitor farther along and took that out, too. Then she turned and ran back the way she’d come. Keeping to the side of the buildings and to the shadows, staying out of the range of monitors, she headed for the hut that held the generator.

Shouts rang through the silence, but they were coming from the area where she’d shot out the two monitors. A man appeared from the building to her left. She raised the laser and fired several shots. He went down with a gurgling sound that shuddered through her mind. She’d hit his larynx, probably made him mute.
Still a hell of a lot better than death
, she thought,
shoving the horror of it from her mind. The door to the generator room was locked. Taking aim, she switched the laser to full and melted the shit out of the lock. Then she kicked the door open. It slammed back with the force of her blow.

Inside it was dark and unguarded. Two large generators sat on the concrete floor, and a small control board was to one side of them. There were far too many buttons on the board. She had no idea which was the right one to turn off the electricity to the fence, and it could take forever to find out. With no time for finesse, she put the laser on full and shot the hell out of the board. Metal and plastic melted away, then white light exploded, punching her backward and snatching the breath from her lungs as she was flung back against the wall. She hit the floor with a grunt. For several seconds, she struggled against the blackness threatening to snatch her mind into unconsciousness. Smoke hissed through the gloom, and red fingers of flame licked the remains of the board. Coughing slightly, she studied the generators. Sparks flew into the darkness, diamond bright against the fire. Electricity tingled across her skin, wild and somehow free. From the storm, not the generators, which were still working. She took aim again and shot them both. Then she ran like hell for the door.

She barely made it.

A gigantic rush of heated air picked her up and threw her sideways. She hit the ground hard, tasting dirt as she slid along it. Heat licked across her back, burning deep. Realizing her shirt was on fire, she rolled, dousing it. Another explosion shuddered. She cowered against the ground, throwing her arms over her
head, trying to protect it as deadly spears of wood and metal arrowed through the air. Flames leapt upward, a gigantic ball that lit the night sky.

If Jan and Lyssa didn’t see or hear that, something was definitely wrong with them. Jack wouldn’t miss it; that was for certain.

Ignoring the pain of the burns on her back, she scrambled to her feet and ran for the parking lot. She didn’t get ten feet before Jack’s voice rose from the darkness like a demon from the grave.

“No farther, Sam. You’ve done enough damage for one night.”

Jack appeared suddenly to her right, holding a laser as powerful as her own. Jack, the vampire, faster than she’d ever be. She swore. The two women needed time to get up that hill and get away. Somehow, she had to provide it.

She fired haphazardly in his direction, then dove sideways. Blue-red light burned across the ground inches from her feet. She scrambled to her feet and kept on running.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Sam.”

No. Just use her. Willingly or not. Heat sizzled across the night air. She leapt for the corner of the nearby building. Sparks flew, gold and white fireflies that danced across her face as the laser burned a hole inches above her head.

Malevolence stung the night, and evil, then the sound of running steps. Her so-called friend, approaching fast. Shuddering, she scrambled back up and ran on.

“Stop. This is my last warning.”

She ignored it, ignored the sense of danger throbbing through her veins. Ignored the specter of death
hovering in the storm-held skies. There was a car only a few feet away. Ten seconds was all she needed to get in, hot-wire the com-unit and get the car going. Ten seconds. Surely that wasn’t asking much.

She didn’t make it. Heat blasted into her back, throwing her to the concrete. Her head smashed against the pavement and stars danced before her eyes. She bit back a cry of pain, fighting to stand, fighting to run. To no avail. Her back was wreathed in fire, and her body refused to obey her wishes.

The last thing she heard before the darkness closed in was Jack’s gentle sigh.

G
ABRIEL WALKED TO THE EDGE
of the roadside. Nestled in the valley below them was what looked to be a small military encampment. There were seven long redbrick or bluestone buildings in all, surrounded by a high wire fence. He had no doubt the fence would be electrified. The men who’d taken Sam were somewhere below them. Whether she was still there was another matter entirely.

He glanced around as Karl joined him at the edge. Hands shoved deep in the pockets of his jacket, Karl studied the camp for several minutes, then met Gabriel’s gaze. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s far too quiet.” The only lights were a couple on the building at the far edge of the camp. There was no movement, no guards that he could see. Everything suggested it was a trap, with a capital T.

“If they’d found the bugs, surely they would have destroyed them.”

“Maybe.” Maybe not. They were dealing with a
warped mind. Kazdan could do anything. “I might take a flight down and see what I—”

The rest of his words were cut off as an explosion ripped across the night. Flames leapt high, burning into the sky as metal and wood flew like sparklers through the camp.

He dropped to the ground, followed almost instantly by Karl. The lights in the far buildings went out, and several shouts could be heard above the noise of the explosion.

“Someone’s hit the generator,” Karl commented.

Gabriel nodded. Maybe someone who wanted the fence taken out. Otherwise, why bother?

Laser fire lit up the night, brighter than the fire from the explosion. “Someone’s heading north, if those shots are anything to go by.”

“And someone else is heading up this hill,” Karl said. “Listen.”

For a moment he heard nothing, and then came a soft heel scuff and the sharp clatter of rock tumbling down the slope. He tapped Karl on the shoulder, and then pointed to the right. Karl nodded and rose to his feet, moving away as silently as a shadow.

Gabriel shifted shape. The wind flowed under his wings, thrusting him up past the tree line. Whoever was climbing the hill wasn’t very fit. He could hear their panting as clearly as he could smell the acid tang of the fire.

He swept down the slope, wings brushing the highest tips of the gum trees. Rodents scattered, their high-pitched squeals of terror music to his hawk hearing. He ignored them, gliding on. Shadows ran through the trees just ahead—female, rather than male. Their shapes alone told him neither was Sam. Yet both were
shapes he knew. He dove through the trees, changing as he neared the ground.

“Lyssa,” he called softly.

She turned with a cry of relief, all but falling into his arms.

“Oh thank God, Gabriel. I thought I’d never see you again.”

He frowned. The woman in his arms was trembling with fear, and the front of her shirt was covered in blood—blood that he could smell more than see. She was also more drawn, and a hell of a lot skinnier, than the Lyssa he’d seen only yesterday.

The second woman stopped and turned around. It was Jan, as he’d half expected. “You okay?” he asked, over Lyssa’s head.

Jan nodded but wrapped her arms around her body, as if in an effort to stop her sudden shivering. The bushes to his left rustled. He tensed and then relaxed as Karl stepped through. Jan ran to him. Karl hugged her so tightly Gabriel thought he’d squeeze the life out of her.

He stepped away from Lyssa, holding her at arm’s length, his gaze searching her pale face. “Tell me what happened.”