The Gathering: Quantum Prophecy 2 (26 page)

“Come on,” Danny said. “You can do it!”

The supercomputer creaked; the side caved in and it shifted
forward a little, then stopped. Butler swayed and looked as though he was about to collapse. The force field vanished.

“One more push!” Danny ordered.

His voice barely a whisper, Butler said, “To heck with you, you one-armed freak!”

Danny grabbed Butler’s arm and pushed him toward the doorway. “Insult me later. Just do it!”

Butler took a deep breath and straightened up. The force field appeared around him again, but instead of using it to clear the doorway, he simply charged at the supercomputer and slammed into it with his shoulder. The Cray burst free and crashed to the ground just inside the door.

Butler paused at the entrance, took another deep breath and stepped into the room.

There was a single gunshot; the bullet struck Butler in the shoulder, spinning him about, dropping him to the ground.

Danny couldn’t see any blood: it looked as though the force field had stopped the bullet from piercing Butler’s skin, but it hadn’t lessened the impact.

Butler started to get up, then groaned and collapsed on to his back.

If he passes out, he’ll lose the force field!
Danny thought.

Then…Renata’s skin shimmered as she turned back to human and she ran toward Butler. The first gunshot missed her. She grabbed hold of Butler’s leg and started pulling him to safety. A second shot struck the wall next to Renata’s face.

“No!” Without thinking, Danny ran into the room, then stopped: he could see Renata, Butler and the two mercenaries, but they were all moving in slow motion.

The mercenaries spun about, aiming toward him, firing. Danny watched as the bullets moved past him at the speed of a paper airplane.

He easily and quickly stepped out of their line of fire.

My God…I’m doing it!

Danny knew—somehow—that he wasn’t able to move as fast as he could before he lost his powers and that he’d never be able to attain that speed again. But for now, this was enough. He walked over to the two astonished mercenaries and pulled their weapons from their hands, then quickly tied them up with discarded lengths of cable.

Danny shifted himself back to normal time, to see Renata staring at him in shock.

“Your power’s back.” She smiled at him and placed her hand on his face. Then she collapsed to the floor, clutching the wound in her stomach.

“E
VERYONE
’
S OUT
,” F
AÇADE TOLD
C
OLIN
as he piloted the helicopter back to Sakkara.

“Are they all right?”

“No fatalities, but some serious injuries. Josh and Renata have been shot. Mina’s in some sort of coma.”

“God…Why didn’t anyone else come to help?”

“When the attack started, the air force received an order to assist, but the order was almost immediately rescinded.”

“By whom?”

“No one knows,” Façade said. “General Piers—the base commander—insists that he was instructed to order everyone to stand down, but he can’t remember who gave him that order. They’re on the way now.”

Colin looked out into the night. “There they are…” He pointed. “On the grounds in front of the building.”

“You can
see
them?”

“Enhanced night-vision, remember?”

“Of course. Hold on, I’ll set us down.”

“No need,” Colin said. He unclipped his seat belt and jumped from the copter, landing heavily in the snow.

He looked over toward his family and friends, then there was a blur and a gust of wind, and suddenly he saw Danny standing next to him, a flurry of snow settling.

“So you’ve got your speed again?”

“Yeah. I can’t move as fast as I did before I lost my arm,
but…I’m still a lot faster than anyone else.” They ran over to the others.

“Façade said that Renata…”

“She was shot in the stomach…I don’t know what we’re going to do. She turned herself solid just after I got to her. Colin, we can
see
the bullet inside her! Your dad says that she needs immediate surgery, but there’s no way anyone can operate if she’s solid, and if she turns back she could die before they can get the bullet out.”

“Colin!” Caroline ran up to her son. “Is everything…?”

“I stopped him, Mum. And…I have something to show you. Later though.” He stepped past her and went over to his father, who was crouched next to Renata, a medical kit open beside him. “Dad?”

“She’s in a bad way. At least, I
think
she is. I don’t know what to do, Colin. We can’t possibly operate on her like this, but being solid is probably the only thing that’s helping her. Looks like the bullet is pressing against her spine. If she were to move it could paralyze her or worse.”

“If she wasn’t solid, what would you do?”

“I’d go in and get the bullet out.”

“Is it a delicate operation?”

“Under ideal circumstances, yes. But in an emergency…you just have to dive right in and dig it out.”

Colin looked at Danny. “We don’t have time to get in touch with Renata’s family and ask their permission. So I’m asking
you
, Dan. You’re her best friend. What should we do?”

“She can remain like this for, well, probably forever. She was frozen for ten years after Ragnarök’s battle. But that was different;
she wasn’t conscious then. For all we know she could be in constant pain.”

“What should we do?” Colin repeated.

“Operate. Get the bullet out.”

“All right,” Colin said. “She can’t hear when she’s solid; someone get me a piece of paper and a pen. Dad, what’s the procedure? If you’re doing an operation like this, how does it go?”

“The bullet’s deep, so I’ll have to make a lateral incision in the stomach, about four centimeters on either side of the wound. Hold the skin and muscle open and, well, just reach in, find the bullet, take it out, then sew her up.”

“What if the bullet has punctured her liver or something?”

“It hasn’t; the liver is up here,” he said, pointing. “There could be some damage to the stomach, the duodenum, the pancreas, maybe the large intestine too. But nothing as serious as the bullet pressing against her spine.”

“OK,” Colin said. He looked around. “Where’s that paper and pen?”

Razor handed him a torn sheet of cardboard and a black marker. “This any good?”

“Thanks.” Colin quickly wrote on the card, then held it up in front of Renata’s face for a few seconds.

Danny asked, “What did you write?”

Colin showed him the card: “Dan will operate to remove bullet. When we give signal, turn back to normal.”

“What?”
Danny said. “I can’t do it!”

“You can move faster than anyone else on this planet, Dan. You are
going
to do this! You heard what my dad said.”

“Yeah, but…Col, what if I make a mistake? I might make things worse for her!”

Warren took out a scalpel from the medical kit and showed it to Danny. “Hold it like this, OK? When you’re cutting, take your time. Don’t go too deep; there’ll be a thin layer of fat under the skin and a strong layer of muscle under that. Slice through the muscle, but be extremely careful not to nick her intestines. Once you’re through, push your index and middle fingers through the bullet-hole. Look…” He pointed at Renata’s stomach. “There’s a straight line down from the hole right to the bullet. If you don’t move everything around too much, you shouldn’t have a problem finding it. Once you have it out, start sewing up the skin. Don’t worry about being too neat with the stitches—this isn’t embroidery. Just make sure that the wound is closed.” He reached into the medical kit again and passed Danny a pair of latex gloves. “Put these on.”

Danny held up his left arm. “I only need
one
glove. And I can’t put it on myself.”

“Sorry, I forgot…Hand out then.” Warren stretched the glove on to Danny’s hand, then passed him the scalpel. “Ready?”

“No.”

Colin said, “Yes you are.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to fly her to the nearest hospital?”

“You said it yourself, Dan. Renata could be in constant pain. Do it.”

Danny closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “All right. Give her the signal.”

Colin stood over Renata and gave her the thumbs-up. Renata’s body shimmered and glistened, and she became human.

There was a blur and suddenly Danny was crouched beside Renata. “It’s done! Change back!”

Renata became solid and transparent once more.

Danny stood and held up the bullet. “That was…intense. I hope to God I didn’t do any damage.”

It was then that Colin noticed that despite the freezing weather his friend was dripping with sweat, and his hand and arm were covered in blood. “I’m sure you did fine.”

Warren checked the wound. “Looks good, Danny. Well done!”

Colin said, “I can hear more helicopters coming.”

“That’s the air force,” Façade said. “Finally.”

Colin asked his father, “What about the others? Mina and Josh?”

“Josh is unconscious, but stable,” Warren said. “Mina…I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She’s breathing fine, her pulse is strong, but we can’t wake her up. All the others woke up quickly enough.”

“What do you mean? What exactly happened while I was gone?”

“It’s a long story. We’ve had a hell of a day here.”

Colin laughed. “
You’ve
had a hell of a day? Wait till you hear what
I’ve
been through! I…” He stopped and looked around. “Dad…where’s Solomon?”

W
ARREN ACCOMPANIED
R
ENATA
, J
OSH
and Mina in the air force helicopter as they rushed to the hospital. The others were brought to the nearby air force base while the military rounded up the mercenaries at Sakkara.

The next morning, they were taken to a large conference room on the base, where Joshua Dalton was waiting, his arm in a cast. Next to him stood an old man with four silver stars on his lapels.

A young soldier handed the old man a clipboard and then took out a digital recorder.

“Find a seat, settle down,” the old man said. “This meeting will be recorded. I’m General Scott Piers, United States Air Force. As some of you will know, I was in charge of Sakkara until Mr. Dalton took over. I’ve been asked by the president to oversee the investigation into the recent events.” He glanced at the clipboard. “Present: Caroline Wagner, Colin Wagner, Daniel Cooper, Butler Redmond, Garland Lighthouse also known as Razor. Absent: Warren Wagner, Renata Soliz, Hector Thomas Millar also known as Façade, Solomon Cord, and Mina and Yvonne, both last names unknown. Renata Soliz and Mina are currently under medical care. They are being supervised by Mr. Wagner and Mr. Millar.” The general looked at Josh. “That correct, Mr. Dalton?”

Josh nodded. “It is. Thank you, General.” He looked around at the others. “Before we officially get started, there are a few
things you need to know. First, this investigation could take some time. I’m talking weeks or even months. Second, I’ve just heard that Renata’s operation was successful. She’s healing extremely fast and is expected to make a full recovery.” He glanced at Danny. “Well done. The chief surgeon said you did a lousy job but somehow still managed to save her life.”

Danny grinned at that.

Josh continued. “Third, there’s no change in Mina’s condition. We still don’t know exactly what happened to her. Fourth, all of our actions of the past few days will have to be accounted for in full. What that means is—”

Colin interrupted him. “Where’s Sol?”

“We don’t know.”

“What are you doing to get him back?”

“Everything we can,” Josh said. “Which to be honest isn’t much right now.”

“Until we have him back, this isn’t over.”

The general said, “Colin, isn’t it? Well, listen up, boy…by order of the president of the United States of America, the new heroes are now under my control. You will, therefore, follow the chain of command. You will speak only when permitted.”

“Permission to speak, General?” Colin asked.

“Permission denied.”

“But—”

“I said
permission denied
!” the general roared.

Razor said, “Oh, just let him speak!”

“That sort of insubordination will not be tolerated under my command!”

“Yeah? What sort of insubordination
do
you tolerate, you old fart?”

General Piers turned to Josh. “
This
is how you run your operation, Dalton? It’s hardly a surprise that everything fell apart!”

Colin stood up. “I want to know what’s happened to Solomon Cord’s family, and Danny’s mother and brother.”

“They’re fine. They’re here on the base,” Josh said. “Façade brought them in this morning.”

“Has Sol’s family been told that he’s missing?”

“They know.”

“I want to see them.”

“Later,” Josh said. “Colin, please…we have a lot to get through today.” To the general, he said, “Sir, if you leave this with me, I’ll get them to calm down. They’re not used to military protocol.”

“You have one hour, Dalton,” the general said, then stormed out of the room.

“I’m not going to be part of a military organization,” Colin said. “Josh, get the others in here.”

“They’re not involved in the investigation.”

“
Now
, Josh.”

Colin took Alia and Stephanie Cord aside. “We’ll find your father. I don’t know how, and I don’t know when, but we’ll do it.”

Alia asked, “What about the men who attacked Sakkara? Have they said anything yet?”

“No. Façade said they’re professionals—it’s going to take a
lot to make them talk. From what he can tell, they never met Cross themselves.”

Stephanie said, “I can’t believe Josh is going ahead with this investigation while our dad is still missing!”

“I know,” Colin said. “
I
can’t believe that we’re now part of the U.S. military. I never signed up to be a soldier. I don’t like this at all.”

“Promise me you’ll get Dad back,” Stephanie said.

“I promise. I don’t know how long it will take, but we will get him back.”

Stephanie smiled. “If anyone can do it, you can. Dad thinks you’re the coolest kid in the world.”