Atlantis (33 page)

He splashed forward, Freed and Beasley following closely.

*****

To the south, wading through the same water, Ariana and Carpenter also saw the city walls. They no longer sensed forms around them and both felt more at ease now that they could see and weren’t surrounded by the mist. But the golden beam coming out of the center tower of the dead city and the ominous sky overhead produced its own share of anxiety.

Carpenter looked over her shoulder, back toward the massive ridge that surrounded the city. “Think the snake has a way through?”

“I hope not,” Ariana answered.

“What do you think is in the city?” Carpenter asked.

“I don’t know,” Ariana snapped.

“I do something to you?” Carpenter asked.

Ariana halted in surprise and looked at the other woman. “No.”

“Well, you sure act like it,” Carpenter said. She wiped a hand across her forehead and flicked away the sweat. “I’m just a minion, doing what I was told to do. I didn’t screw up your mission and I sure as hell helped you get this far. If you’re pissed at your father, pissed at Hie-Tech, pissed at God-knows-what, that’s fine, but we’re all we got, so let’s try to treat each other a little better, OK?”

Ariana slowly nodded. Carpenter reached out and gripped Ariana’s forearm and squeezed. Ariana wrapped her fingers around Carpenter’s, feeling the muscles rippling under her fingers.

“Let’s find out what’s going on,” Carpenter released her grip.

*****

Chelsea eased under a bush, her nostrils flared wide. She edged forward to Sin Fen’s unconscious body, battered and bruised from the fall down the ravine. Chelsea dipped her head and ran her rough tongue along Sin Fen’s cheek. There was no response. Chelsea whined, wishing for her master.

She leaned forward, this time pushing her soft muzzle against the woman.

*****

There was a hole in the stone wall. The blocks, each about four feet square, were blasted apart, as if a large hammer had come down on them. Dane climbed up some of the rubble and began working his way over it. Freed followed, giving Beasley a hand.

Dane felt his skin tingle as he crossed the center of the wall and entered Angkor Kol Ker. He paused, letting the other two catch up.

“Feel that?” Freed asked.

“Yes.” Dane stood perfectly still. “This is the heart of it.”

Dane looked left and right. A broad road ran along the inside of the wall. Directly ahead streets ran between stone buildings, which the jungle had battered but not completely obliterated. And above them, a kilometer away, the golden beam reached into the dark sky from the tip of the Prang.

As Dane climbed down the rubble, he heard something to his left. He spun in that direction, weapon coming up, even though he sensed no threat. The muzzle centered on two women, one black, one white.

“Ariana!” Freed ran forward.

Dane lowered the weapon as Freed reached the women. He followed with Beasley at his side. Freed rapidly did the introductions.

Ariana took them in with a sharp glance. “How do we get out?”

Dane almost smiled. She was wasting no time getting to the heart of the matter.

Freed pointed back in the direction they had come. “That way.”

Dane shook his head. “We haven’t accomplished what we came for.”

“I have,” Freed said.

Dane swept his hand toward the moat. “You’re welcome to go back.”

Freed paused. “We wouldn’t have a chance without you.”

Dane turned in the opposite direction. “That’s what we’re here for.”

Ariana followed his gaze. “A similar beam came out of our plane, but we blew it up.”

“Do you know what it is?” Dane asked, even though he already knew the answer.

“I don’t know what any of this is,” Ariana said.

Dane focused for a moment on the other woman. “You’re with Foreman also?” he asked Carpenter.

“How did you know that?”

Dane gave a short laugh. “Seems like his reach is everywhere. He’s had many years to prepare for this.”

Carpenter shrugged. “You obviously know more than I do.”

“What are we doing?” Freed asked in exasperation. “Let’s get out while we can.”

Dane shook his head. “If we don’t stop that--” he pointed at the beam--”there will be nothing for us to ‘get out’ to.”

“How do we stop it?” Freed demanded.

But Dane wasn’t listening. There was a crackling noise to the right. A small black circle appeared in the air, about a foot in diameter and four feet off the ground. The circle grew elliptically, extending down to the stone street.

“Hold!” Dane ordered as Freed brought his M-16 to bear.

A man with a large red mustache stepped through the black and the circle disappeared.

“Ed,” Dane whispered.

“Dane,” the man acknowledged.

Dane stared in disbelief. His team leader looked the same as he had the day Dane had last seen him, over forty years ago, his face drawn with fatigue and stress, but his hair was still bright red, his body still straight and hard with youth.

“How--” Dane began, but Flaherty stepped up to him and gripped his shoulder.

“There’s not much time. We have to stop them.”

“Stop who?” Dane asked. The others had crowded around, watching the reunion silently.

Flaherty pointed at the golden beam. “The ones who control that.”

“But--” Dane stepped back, his system overwhelmed. “But who are you? You can’t be--”

“It’s me,” Flaherty assured him. “I know it’s hard for you to accept but it is me.”

“Where were you?” Dane asked. “It’s been over forty years.”

A shadow passed over Flaherty’s face. “Forty years?” He shook his head slowly. “I knew it was a while, but forty years?” He fixed on Dane’s eyes. “Linda?”

Dane blinked, the question assuring him it was his old teammate more than anything else the man could have said. “She’s married, Ed. A long time. She has grandkids.”

Flaherty nodded, the words sinking in. “It’s all right. It’s the way it should be. I can’t go back any way. Never could. Never can.”

“But how--” Dane couldn’t get the words out.

“I don’t know,” Flaherty said. His face showed his own confusion. “I went sideways. That’s the best way they explained it to me. They saved me from the Shadow and took me a step sideways, which is where they were. Where they’ve always been.”

“Who is
they
?” Freed demanded.

Flaherty held up his hands. “The Ones Before. That’s what they were called by the people of this city long ago. I don’t know exactly who or what they are, but they sent me here to help you stop the others.”

“The others?” Dane repeated. He tried reaching into the other man’s mind but there was a wall there he couldn’t penetrate.

“Those of the Shadow,” Flaherty said. “They want to take our world. They need it. We have to stop them.”

“I don’t know--” Freed began

“Shut up,” Ariana snapped. “How do we stop the Shadow?”

“The beam,” Flaherty looked at Ariana. “You didn’t stop it at the plane soon enough. The Shadow were able to cannibalize your plane and the computer on board and move what they needed here, to the Prang. They can only use what they take here, on this side. They can’t come through yet, not without protection inside their machines. Neither can the Ones Before who saved me. They also use what they can and they used me. They saved me.”

The words were coming out in a tumble. Dane reached forward and grasped his team leaders arm. “Easy, Ed. Easy. We’ll help.”

“Animals--if that’s what you want to call them--some of them, from the other side, they can come through. But water seems to stop them. But water doesn’t stop the machines the others use. Or the beams.”

Dane was trying to follow what his old friend was saying.

Tears welled up in Flaherty’s eyes. “I can’t come back, Dane. They saved me, but I can’t come back. They’re controlling this space around me, but they can’t do it for long, and then I have to go back.” He leaned forward. “You have to stop the Shadow. You have to.”

“How?” Ariana repeated.

“Stop the golden beam. Now. Before it’s too late. You only have ten minutes before the final connections are made and it can’t be stopped. All the Gates will be connected and then they’ll open wide.”

“What can we do in ten minutes?” Dane asked.

Flaherty put a hand to his forehead, as if he were in pain. “Destroy the Prang. The Shadow can stop anything you send in here that uses electromagnetic energy. They can see that, use it, like we see light. And radiation. That’s what they really use and what they really need. They want our planet. This place and the others like it are the launching points for their invasion into our world. You can’t let them get any further.”

Dane looked past Flaherty at the massive Prang. Ten minutes wasn’t enough time to get back out. And if even if they got out, how could they destroy it not using weapons from the outside?

Dane closed his eyes. He cleared his mind, opening it. He saw it, and he knew that the image had been sent to him. From whom he didn’t know, but it was the Voice of the Gods as Sin Fen had told him.

Dane focused his mind and sent a sharp mental spear to the east.

Chelsea felt her master. He was with her. She looked around, head turning in all directions. But where was he?

But the command was as if he were whispering in her ear. She leaned down and sunk her teeth into Sin Fen’s shoulder. The woman started, eyes slowly opening out of her unconsciousness.

Sin Fen shook her head, feeling pain, nausea. And on top of that an insistent voice.

Dane?
she mentally asked.

We must act quickly!
Dane’s voice was in her head, echoing through her brain. Chelsea was already tearing at the rope that was wrapped around Sin Fen as Dane sent her his message, showing her what must be done.

“Hey!” Someone was shaking Dane on the shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked into Ariana’s deep blue ones.

“We’ve got to do something. Now!” She was pointing back, across the moat. With a loud cacophony of hisses, seven snake heads on one body slithered into view, pausing at the edge of the moat.

“It won’t cross the water,” Flaherty said.

“Great,” Carpenter spoke for the first time, “but how the hell do we get out of here?”

“Maybe we don’t,” Dane said. “But we’ve got to stop the beam.”

 “The Ones Before can assist you in getting out once you destroy the Prang,” Flaherty said.

“How do we do that?” Freed asked.

“I’m getting us some help,” Dane said.

*****

Sin Fen pushed the remains of the rope off of herself and stood. She rubbed Chelsea’s head, long fingers scratching her ears. “Good girl.”

Chelsea bowed her head, pushing up against the fingers.

“No time for more, big dog,” Sin Fen said. She began climbing her way out of the ravine pulling a knife out of the top of her boot.

*****

“Sir, we’re only twenty miles off shore of Florida,” Commander Sills told him. “This thing keeps growing like it is, we’re going to run out of water.”

“Hell,” Rogers said, “it does that again, a lot of civilians in southern Florida are going to be like us.”

He felt warm. He had no idea what someone who’d taken a fatal dose of radiation was supposed to feel. The last thing he wanted was for his crew to suffer. He planned on staying on station as long as his crew could remain operational, but once the sickness grew too acute, he would take the
Wyoming
down and end it quickly for all. And keep his contaminated submarine from hurting anyone else.

*****

Sin Fen crested the edge of the ravine. A black suited mercenary turned at the sound of her arrival. The alarm died in his throat as she flicked the razor sharp knife into his neck. She had his submachinegun in hand before he hit the ground.

She walked into the camp, firing before anyone was even aware she was there. The other five mercenaries died in less than ten seconds, never knowing what had happened.

She caught Paul Michelet trying to climb into the passenger seat of one of the Huey’s. She halted his escape by the expedient means of firing through the cockpit plexiglass and stitching a neat pattern of bullet holes in the pilot’s chest.

“Please!” Michelet held up his hands, turning away from the chopper toward her.

Sin Fen fired, a quick pull of her finger, only one bullet coming out of the muzzle, smashing into Michelet’s right leg just above the knee and knocking him to the ground.

“Shut up,” she said as he screamed.

She grabbed her sat-phone, which was lying on top of several packs and punched in a number.

***

“Yes?” Foreman was aware that his hands were gripping the edge of his seat, the knuckles white.

“Dane is at Angkor Kol Ker,” Sin Fen’s voice was level and controlled. “The Prang in the center of the city is the main source of the propagation. The main Gate.”

“What can we do?”

“We have to destroy it.”

“Yes.” Foreman agreed. “But we can’t send in aircraft. We can’t even fire a cruise missile. Nothing we have will work in the Gate.”

“Dane has a plan.”

“Tell me.”

*****

Beasley was staring at the ruins around them, taping them with his camera. Carpenter was seated on a large stone, exhaustion showing. Ariana was watching Dane, waiting. As was Freed. Flaherty looked tired also, his features drawn, as Dane had remembered them after cross-border missions. He knew the clock was running, that they only had minutes left, but the bulk of the Prang defied them, the golden beam shimmering with power.

Flaherty caught his glance. “Just like back in Kansas, eh, partner?”

Dane nodded. He lowered his voice so only Flaherty could hear. “You don’t know what happened to you?”

Flaherty shook his head. “I don’t know where I am when I’m not here, only that it isn’t here. I know it doesn’t make sense, but it’s so confusing. There’s another side. Really ‘over the fence’ if you want to call it that. Some other dimension where these ‘others’ exist. And they’re fighting over there, the Ones Before and the Shadow--that’s what they were called long ago but I don’t even know what they call themselves. I only hear their voices. Inside my head.