Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2) (50 page)

I am swift as the wind.

The rifle kicked, the rack of the action and suppressed pop from the muzzle a shout to Padre's ears. He pivoted his aim and fired on the second creature on the same breath. The first was a kill shot, the second a crippling hit to the hips. He didn't have time for a third.

The creature stalking him roared a challenge on the first shot, drowning out the sound of Padre's second. Furious movement followed from both sides.
 

I am steady as the earth.

He pushed off from the ground, rolling right as claws ripped into the tree around him.

I am calm as the trees.

One hand shot to the com at his throat, the other to his sidearm as he rolled onto his back.
 

"Contact rear!" he shouted into the com.

I am swift as the wind.

He cleared his holster and emptied half the clip into the slashing shadow dropping on him. The twisted, dead branches overhead saved his life. They tangled and slowed the creature just enough that it fell under his fire, the gun blasts thundering over its tearing screams.

That was as far as Padre's luck could take him—further than he'd hoped. He wouldn't be fast enough to get the last one. He couldn't be. He rolled to his feet, spinning to face the creature, expecting claws to tear through him before he finished his turn.

They didn't.

The last creature was right behind him, thrashing against the massive arms wrapped around its chest and neck.

Cole's hard eyes stared at Padre over the struggling creature's shoulder. Then he lifted the arm around the chest to the creature's head, heedless of the slashes he received in return, and snapped the creature's head to the side with a sharp, grinding pop.

Cole let the dying creature fall.

In the fading light, Padre could see a half dozen slashes through Cole's stained and torn clothing, some of them bleeding freely, but his clear green eyes showed no sign of pain or fatigue.
 

"Hunt's not over, boy," Cole grated. Then he turned and ran toward the cabin, moving faster and making less sound than Padre would have thought possible for a man his size.

Padre snatched his rifle from the hide and followed toward the shouts and the spatter of automatic fire ripping into the falling night.

Hounds to Hunter

Elias

"Only half?" Elias asked, keeping his gaze on Cole's.
 

Unsettling as the man's hard green eyes were, they were easier to look at than the rest of him. Cole's clothes hung in blood-soaked tatters around gruesome wounds. Most were no longer bleeding, some already healed over, but overall he looked like he'd just waded through a slaughterhouse. He'd gotten up close and personal with the creatures, fighting with only his bare hands.

"Less than half," the big man grated. "The rest kept to course." He rolled one corded shoulder, eliciting a series of pops loud enough to cause Padre to look up briefly from tending to Impact's wounds on the other side of the living room.

"Thought the smaller group was coming around to flank me," Cole went on. "They did that from time to time, so I ignored them and followed the pack. By the time I figured out they were headed here, I had a lot of catching up to do."

He must have registered the look in Elias's eyes because he growled wordlessly around a brutal smile and said, "Com died that morning, soldier boy. Couldn't have warned you if I'd wanted to."

"What about the backup?"

"That was the backup," Cole growled. "Machines and I don't get along." He threw a glance at Padre. "Ran the boy's bike out of juice catching up to this lot. Left it at the base of the mountain. Had to run them down on foot from there."

Elias nodded. "It's good you caught up when you did."
 

He glanced from Padre sealing the gash on Impact's back to Nikki tending a cut over Corso's eye. Both injuries were superficial. They'd been lucky.
 

"I wouldn't have caught them if they hadn't slowed," Cole said.

Elias looked back at Cole but didn't need to voice the question.
 

"They learned from the island," Cole said more softly, his voice the growl of an average dog this time instead of a mastiff. "Took their time here. Scouted it out. Came up the south face—the hardest way—to throw you off."

The implications of that statement added a new level of chill to the cold pit Elias had been carrying in his stomach for days, a pit that was sure to form an ulcer before long, if it hadn't already.

"Heard enough?" Cole asked.
 

Elias answered with a tight nod, and Cole headed for the kitchen. Through the entertainment system, Ace's voice said, "Kate, can you look—"

"Already looking," Kate mumbled over her absently.
 

Elias glanced at the display. Gideon's shadowed face filled a third of the wide screen. He was leaning on the console under the camera, staring at something before him instead of the display. Over his shoulder, Kate's head was bowed over the virtual console on the tac table. Mos and Coop sat on either side of the table, engaged in whispered conversation. Ace stood in the background watching Kate work.
 

Elias's second in command was concerned, as were they all, but not about Kate. He could read the relief in Ace's expression as she watched Kate work. Elias shared the sentiment.
 

Having Kate back in play changed the landscape for the better. They'd been blind without her, which indicated a weakness, one they would have to address. Coop's skills weren't where they needed to be for him to step in when Kate was out of commission. No one's were. She had a gift, a talent they relied on too heavily. Nikki's struggle to adapt to life without her power was all the illustration they needed of the dangers of such a practice.

Elias glanced over at Nikki, a breath of pride expanding his chest. She'd handled the attack like a seasoned vet, shaking off her shock and following orders without question or hesitation. Then she'd stepped in to help treat the wounded without being asked.
 

Elias had no right to be proud though, God knew. Nikki's strength and perseverance were her own, her determination and courage self-nurtured. He couldn't claim responsibility for any of her positive traits. He hadn't been there to instill or encourage them as she grew up. He could, however, make an argument for his contributing to her distrusting nature and abandonment issues.
 

"Quit whining, you big baby," Nikki laughed as Corso flinched. "I cut myself worse than this when I shaved my legs."

Corso's answering laugh started a twitch in Elias's cheek, one he had to clear his throat and take a breath to ease.

"Maybe what you needed was a steady hand to guide you," Corso said in an oily tone. "Someone willing to take the time to do it right."

Elias had a sudden desire to drag the man outside, but he put a lid on it and screwed the lid tight, much like he saw Padre do across the room. Elias and Nikki weren't at a place in their relationship where she'd appreciate the intrusion, if such a place existed. Maybe one day she'd tolerate it, at best.

Nikki barked a laugh and pushed the gauze against Corso's head hard enough to earn a curse. "I was eleven, perv. Is that your thing? You like shaving kids?"

The pride swelled again and Elias looked away from them, concealing his amusement. Padre didn't bother to hide his smile, but he did keep his laugh silent.

"Are you telling me you haven't shaved your legs since you were eleven?" Corso asked.

"Why would I?" Nikki scoffed. "Do I look like a competitive swimmer to you? Or a gorilla? How hairy do you think I am?"

"Love, you do need my help," Corso persisted.

"Not making it better, shaver."

Elias glanced back to see the thief smiling like he'd gotten the better end of the exchange, but Corso's eyes tightened as he looked Nikki over.

"What about you, love?" Corso asked, reaching out to brush the hair back from Nikki's face as she worked. "You sure you didn't take a knock?"

Nikki shook her head. "I'm right as night," she said with ease. "Only thing bugging me is all my self-inflicted…" She trailed off as she looked at the palm of her hand. She flexed her left hand for a few seconds, then her right, staring at them like she'd never seen them before. Then she looked over at Impact, who was lying on the dining table staring off through the wall as Padre worked.

Whatever that was about, Elias didn't get a chance to dwell on it.

"Gotcha!" Kate shouted through the system.
 

Elias looked back to see the image from the tactical table fill the display screen.
 

"I'm patching it through now," Kate said.

Elias crossed his arms and squinted at the image coalescing out of blue lines. "What am I looking at, Kate?"

"The only power-hungry structure within twenty klicks of the area Cole described," she replied.
 

Padre made his way over to join Elias as a two-story structure solidified and rotated to give them a surface-level view.

"Are you sure about this?" Ace asked from the other side, taking the words from Elias's mouth. The building fleshing out before them was in no way a secure facility. It had too many windows, for one. No recognizable sentry posts or perimeter security that he could see, for another. And as far as covered avenues of approach went, there were no bad options.

"Positive," Kate answered. "I had to work for it. I'm building this from satellite images. As in one of Generation's satellites. As in the only one permitted to cover this strip of forest."

Elias studied the image in silence, too caught up in his analysis to notice Nikki's approach until she spoke.

"Is this where they're coming from?" she asked, stepping up beside him with her arms wrapped around her chest.

"It could be," Elias answered softly. "That's why Cole was tracking them from the base. We were counting on them leading him to the source."
 

He saw concern wrinkling Nikki's brow, but he checked his urge to comfort.

"Kate, can you show us the original sat images?" Padre asked.
 

"I can," Kate's voice replied. "But you'll only get overhead for the most part. You still want them?"

"Please." Padre stepped closer to the screen as the first sat image came up, his eyes tightening as he studied the area around the building.
 

"What do you see?" Elias asked.
 

Padre shook his head and opened his mouth to answer, but the third image stopped him. He spoke to Kate instead. "Can you enhance the lower right quadrant?"

The indicated corner expanded to fill the screen, and Elias saw what had given Padre pause. The area around the main entrance had recently been turned into a killing field. The ground was furrowed, torn, and blackened from fire or blood, or both.
 

"Maybe they lost control of some of the little shits and had to put 'em down," Coop offered.

Padre shook his head, even though Coop couldn't see it. "They weren't trying to keep something in. They were defending themselves. This area was cleared recently. And the staining, it's concentrated on the far end, near the tree line."

"Padre's right," Ace said. "This looks to me like a wave of attackers hitting a wall of sustained fire."

Elias nodded and heard sounds of agreement from the base. "How old is this image?" he asked.

"Almost two hours," Kate answered.

"Wait, so those things attacked this place?" Nikki asked.
 

"So it would seem," Gideon's voice answered.
 

"Which means this isn't the source," Elias agreed. "This was another target."

The image shifted back to the view of the command center, which meant Elias wasn't the only target for Nikki's incredulous look.
 

"Square one again? Are you serious?" she said.

Elias was inclined to affirm until Gideon spoke.

"No," Gideon said. "This may not be what we were seeking, but we must not ignore it. Something in this facility is generating enough genesis energy to draw the alien predators nearly a thousand kilometers. Enough to draw them away from both you and Impact."

"You're not talking some kind of machine, are you?" Mos said.

"He means one of us," Impact said from the dining room as he pulled on his shirt despite obvious pain. "One of Savior's
experiments
."

Elias watched Nikki process that information. It didn't take long.

"When do we leave?" she asked with an intensity she barely kept in check.

"You're sitting this one out, Nikki," he replied.
 

She was shaking her head before he finished, but he turned his attention to the display. He didn't know what was causing Nikki's sudden volunteering spirit, but he didn't have time to sort it out. Despite its apparent security holes, this new facility was too hot for Nikki. The risk tied to walking into the unknown was simply too high.

"Kate, find a rendezvous point south of the target and send it to the transport," he began. "Ace, meet us there as soon as you can."

"Yes, sir," Ace replied, already motioning to Coop to follow her out of the command center. Gideon gave Elias a single nod and closed the connection.

Elias turned to look at Nikki, whose intensity hadn't ebbed a notch while his eyes had been elsewhere. She was facing him, back straight as a rod, expression suspiciously neutral, three fingers raised in the air between them.
 

"Three things," she started calmly. "One—I'm safer with you and the rest of the big guns than anywhere else." Her ring finger curled down. "Two—I'll follow every order you give me. No back-talk." Her middle finger followed.
 

She paused and took a breath while she blinked back some emotion she didn't want him to see. "And three—Michael says we have to be there. He says it's important for some reason."

Elias regarded Nikki in silence, giving her neutral mask time to slip, but it didn't budge. She kept her emotional gears disengaged as the silence stretched. Instead, it was his resolve that wavered.