Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2) (55 page)

And shallow consciences
, Michael bit off. He was as worked up as Nikki had felt him in a while.

"Regardless," Savior's tone attempted to shift attention to the matter at hand. "You now have the location of the Gateway, the source of this…infestation. Deal with it as you will," Savior said, shutting down the workstation with a wave of his hand and nodding like their business was done.

"Wait, you're not going to help?" Nikki asked.
 

She tried to swallow the panic that thought caused, or at the very least keep it from showing on her face. Staying close to Savior was supposed to disgust every part of her, but having her power back was worth fighting those feelings.

"I have no more interest in the Gateway project," Savior replied. "I have developed new ways to appease my investors."
 

He cast a weighted glance around the lab at his tinkering puzzles. "Deal with this development as you wish. I will not impede your efforts. Nor, however, will I assist you. These are my investors we're talking about."

"Then why did you let us in?" Nikki asked. Michael's question, not hers. It was a good one. Nikki had been so preoccupied with finding a genesis energy source, she hadn't stopped to consider how wrong this whole situation was, how easy Savior had made it for them to get to him.

"And why tell us all this? What is it you want?" she added.

Savior didn't answer for a minute. He milked the pause until even Gideon tore his eyes from the screens and looked over.
 

"I want you to stop fighting me," Savior said at last. "I am not your enemy."
 

His eyes sought Gideon's, probably because he couldn't handle the disbelief that had to be painted on every other face. Nikki knew hers was slathered in it.

"The day you walked away from our work, you told me you'd seen our world destroyed," Savior said. "You told me I would be responsible. We've been striking at each other ever since, because of your visions. But those visions are from a timeline created when we first opened that Gateway, Marcus. They are from a timeline that diverged from ours the moment we created it. Whatever path I was on then is fixed in that time, but not in ours. If I choose now not to create that—" He pointed to the dead creature. "—then the world in your visions does not exist. Not in this timeline. Not for us. Not for me."

Damn he was good. Every time he opened his mouth, gold and rainbows just flew out. Nikki bet he could talk just about anybody into just about anything.

"You have no interest in another Gateway?" Elias said, his disbelief blunt as a punch. He clearly didn't buy it for a second.

Savior met his gaze. "I have no need of a Gateway. Everything I need is here, now."
 

He looked at Nikki as he finished. He meant her. She knew it. He didn't need a Gateway if he had her. If his power started waning again, he could just charge back up from her, like he did last time. That thought started a fear knot in her belly, but she clenched her jaw and straightened it out.

"My men will show you out," Savior said, gesturing toward the elevator doors that opened at just that moment like he'd willed it to happen. A couple of guards stepped out with lowered weapons in hand.

Savior turned away, and Nikki panicked. She couldn't let her power walk away from her. Not again.

"Hey, you have to help," she said.
 

Elias shot her a look, but Nikki turned and walked after Savior, keeping her eyes off Elias and Ace and everybody else who was looking at her like she was nuts. "You owe us. And by us I mean pretty much the whole world."

"I think not, Miss Flux," Savior said, continuing to walk toward the mirrored doors at the back of the room.
 

"Really?" She stopped, crossed her arms, and cocked her hip in a way that told him what she thought of his argument better than words could.
 

She added some words anyway, of course, in case he wasn't looking at her reflection. "Colorado called. They'd like their population back."

Savior stopped. He didn't turn, but his tight posture and blank expression said her shot had hit home.

Nice, Nik,
Michael said, his mounting excitement coming through in his voice as well as through their link.
Appeal to his humanity. Guilt can be a powerful motivator. Keep going. I've studied a lot of the numbers you…might not remember.

Cute. He knew she'd never been much for studying anything. He clearly didn't want to piss her off though. He wanted to help, to be a part of this. She liked feeling him this excited, but she wasn't sure why he was. Maybe he wanted to hang on to her power as much as she did. Or maybe it was something to do with keeping their enemy close, or some such nonsense.

Say what I say, Nikki.
 

I don't think so,
she replied.
I've got this
.
 

She wasn't the greatest convincer ever, but the confidence running through her wasn't all Michael's. She saw the way Savior looked at her now. He still wanted something from her. She was sure of it. She could use that. She could do this.

Please, Nikki. Just trust me. I know how to get to him.

Fine,
she sighed—she was getting good at doing that in her head.
Your show, for now.

"Is that so?" Savior replied after the kind of slow turn and stare that probably made his underlings wet themselves when he sold it like that. Nikki and Michael weren't buying.
 

What about the 235,000 people in Mesa County alone who died in the blast on E-Day. Or the 4.5 million who lost their livelihoods in the rest of Colorado—

"Remember that Event thing you caused? Do you know how many people lost their lives in Mesa County alone? Over four point five. Mil. Yun."

I said livelihoods.

I know,
she thought back.
I paraphrased. Yours was too wordy, and nerdy. Means the same thing.

No, it doesn't.
 

Whatever
, she snapped.
My mouth, not yours.

Do you have any idea how frustrating this is?
he asked.

You're kidding me, right?

"In point of fact," Savior replied, stepping closer. Nikki could feel the energy hovering a few inches off his skin. The urge to reach out and touch it again was almost too strong to resist. "The death toll from the initial blast, in Mesa County alone, was 235,406, including all the men and women stationed at the facility, men and women I knew personally. If you're referring to the damage to the homes and infrastructure surrounding the blast, yes, the number of those who had to relocate was close to 4.5 million, but only in Colorado. Why stop there? The earthquakes the blast triggered claimed lives and leveled structures in neighboring states."

"That's my point—" Nikki tried to take back over, but Savior rolled on.

"Then there was the fallout, which reached even farther. If you're looking for an accurate tally of lives directly affected, I believe the number would be closer to 34.7 million."
 

He paused but went right over her when she tried to cut in again. "Did you think I was unaware of the consequences of my actions, or that I hadn't dealt with that guilt long before you were born?" His voice was calm, controlled. He wasn't shaken or upset in the least.

Is this going like you thought it would?
she asked Michael.

He didn't answer.

My turn.

"Good for you. You can count," she said, stepping close enough to feel the energy a breath away from her face. "How about just one then?"

He tilted his head just slightly, smiled just enough to let her know he was either interested or about to be condescending. "I'm intrigued. Go on, please."

"What about me?" she asked, proud of her voice for staying strong and clear despite the tremors starting up inside. "What about what you owe me? Have you made peace with me? If so, I don't remember that conversation."

His expression sobered. The way he looked at her—she knew she had him. That, or they were about to kiss.
 

He started to speak, so she reached out her hand to stop him before she thought it through. Her hand hit his shield and every nerve in her body lit up, but not in a bad way.
 

She jerked her hand away, but not before she drew another rush of his power into her. She felt it rippling through her again, hardening her skin, strengthening her muscles.

She wanted to laugh, or roar, or smash something metal just to feel it give under her bare hands. Instead, she smoothed her expression and shook her head.

"Don't apologize for what you did to me. I don't want to hear it." She paused and swallowed.

The shaking was starting. The supercharged adrenaline flooding through her was begging to be put to use. Every muscle was starting to quiver with the need.

Savior just looked at her with that small smile. He'd felt what she'd done—he had to have felt it—but he was too good to let whatever he was thinking show on his face.

"All I want is for you to come with us and fix this mess," she said. "Make this right. If you're serious about being done with this Gateway horseshit, then come help us stomp it out once and for all."

He didn't say a word. Nobody did, even though Nikki could feel the disapproval and concern in the room behind her like it was crawling up her back. Savior simply nodded all formally like they were in someplace fancier than an underground lab and he was simply asking her to dance. Not at all like he was agreeing to help her stop the end of the world.

Elias

"He's what?" Coop laughed, hard. He sobered quickly though, once he realized Elias wasn't joking. As the smile faded from his face, he looked at each of them in turn, like he was still waiting for the punch line. "Are you all high?"

Elias was suddenly glad he'd ordered the corporal to stay topside while the rest of them had gone below. Questioning Elias's judgment was fine in private, but if he'd reacted like this in front of Savior…
 

Not that Elias blamed the younger man, or disagreed. Working with Savior was the worst kind of foolishness—the deadly kind. Elias had agreed in the lab primarily to get Nikki out of there. He could tell she'd dug in her heels, so he'd played along to get her moving. He'd assumed Gideon was doing the same, but now that they were back at the transport, Gideon remained rooted to this insanity.

"Did he drug you guys down there or what?" Coop nearly shouted, heat entering his voice. "You can't be serious."

"Keep it down," Ace said, glancing toward the back of the transport. She didn't call him down for questioning their orders though, which said something.

Elias shielded his eyes from the glare of the floods to glance back as well. The four of them were near the edge of the clearing under the transport's nose. The others were either already onboard or finishing a visual check of the engines, so the chances of them overhearing were slim.
 

Ace was right to be concerned though. Shaking the rest of the team's faith in their leadership was even more disruptive than showing dissent in front of an enemy. Perceived weakness could be overcome; actual weakness within was debilitating.

"As much as I hate to say it, Coop's got a point," Ace said, looking back at Gideon. "I'm not seeing the upside."

Gideon didn't see the look in her eyes. His own were fixed on the trees beside them, or at least fixed in that direction. Elias could tell Gideon was still shaken, visibly so, by what they'd seen and heard in the lab.

"Better an enemy under our watch than behind our backs," he said softly, his gaze staying distant.

"I'd rather this enemy be neither," Ace replied.
 

"Amen," Coop backed her.

Elias nodded and cleared his throat. "Tell me you're not buying Savior's change of heart," he said to Gideon.

Gideon did look at him then. He looked at each of them like he'd just woken up. "No. I wish that I could, but no, I am not."
 

Elias knew there was pain behind those words, even though Gideon refused to let it color his voice. Elias couldn't see the emotion in Gideon's eyes or hear it in his words, he knew it was buried in there, somewhere.

"I trust him no more now than I did before—"

"Good," Coop cut in. "Then let's drop this dumb-ass plan before it drops us. The last thing we need is him tagging along."

Gideon's gaze hardened on Coop, but Elias doubted the corporal was the focus of the dark thoughts behind those mismatched eyes.

"Savior is the one who found the site," Gideon replied. "He will be there if he chooses, regardless of what we want. This way, at least, we ensure he comes alone."

"And we can keep our eyes on him," Ace said with a nod. She sounded relieved, in a way, to see the logic behind Gideon's decision—not any happier, but relieved.

Elias wasn't convinced that was the real reason Gideon wanted Savior with them, but further argument was futile, he knew. Gideon was right; there was nothing to stop Savior from descending on them with an army at his back if they left him behind. Elias had seen that from the start, but he'd refused to let himself accept that they'd been boxed into this course of action, by Nikki, of all people.
 

Savior was determined to accompany them now, thanks to her. She'd been uncharacteristically persuasive in Savior's lab, desperately so. That scared Elias far more than the thought of working with the madman again. What he'd seen between Savior and Nikki in the lab had been unsettling, to say the least, but it shed some light on why Nikki was suddenly so desperate to stay close to the man who'd taken everything from her.

"Coop, fire it up and plot a course," Elias ordered. "Ace…"

She nodded. "I'll get them all saddled up."

Gideon waited beside Elias as the others headed to their tasks, like he knew what was coming.
 

As soon as Ace and Coop were out of earshot, Elias shifted his gaze to Gideon. "He doesn't set foot on this transport," he said, keeping his voice low and even.