Deadly Dozen: 12 Mysteries/Thrillers (207 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

HE EXPECTED THE SUCCESSFUL TELEPORTION to land him in a drug lord’s lair, not a large suburban house with piles of boxes, “moving sale” signs against the walls, and no furniture but a chair and card table.

Nick stood outside the room where Lito sat speaking into his cell phone. Though he’d listened in on humans for countless years, for some reason he’d never felt it was eavesdropping.

Until now.

“You’re not hearing me, Eduardo,” Lito said. “I don’t care if the Hernandezes go over to the Suarezes, I’m done...Then that’ll just have to be on their heads on judgment day, nothing to do with me...I said no....You can do whatever you want with all the assets after I take my share...”

He laughed. “Maybe I
have
gone loco. But for the first time in my life, I’m a hundred percent sure of what I’m doing. With all due respect to Papi I have to do what’s right, you know? That doesn’t include selling women and children….Of course they’ll come after me, they already have. But guess what? I have God on my side...I just know, okay?

“Yes, my old friend. I’m saying goodbye to Maria tonight before I leave for London. Can you believe she asked me to come to the Cabrillo event with her? Guess she’s gotten religious too.”

He was quiet for a few minutes, shaking his head but listening patiently.

“I’ll tell her everything, just pray she’ll believe me. And forgive me. I’ll try and convince her to come with me, if she won’t I’ll just leave.” He passed a hand over his face, weary and seamed with regret. “If she refuses to leave with me, promise you’ll look out for her, okay? Be especially careful about Joey...Yeah, he’s the worst of them...Yeah...Sure...All right, then.” He drew a lugubrious breath. “And Eduardo...Thank you, for everything.”

The next thing Nick heard was a gun being cocked.

“You! Come out here with your hands where I can see them!” Lito’s chair fell as he stood, gun pointed.

Nick emerged from the shadows, his hands up.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “The front door was open and—”

“You!” Lito said, lowering the gun.

“I wasn’t breaking in, you know.”

“Of course not, you’re an angel.” Lito slipped the gun behind his belt and reached out his hand. Nick took it.

To his surprise, Lito kept hold of his hand and pulled him into a one-armed man hug. The wound from the bullet graze had stopped bleeding but it still ached a bit.

“Now I know I’m doing the right thing.”

There was no mistaking the sincerity in his eyes.

“What do you mean, Lito?”

“If being rescued by an angel isn’t a sign from heaven that it’s time to turn my life around, I don’t know what is. And now, here you are again. This isn’t just another sign, it’s a confirmation.”

“I just came to tell you...” How best to put it?

“I’ll do anything you ask.”

“You need to be careful. You’re in a great deal of danger.”

“Obviously.” He smiled. “But you’ll protect me, right?”

Awkward.

“Well, you see...” What good would it do to explain that in a little while he’d no longer be an angel but a human just like Lito? Better just finish what he came to do and leave. “I’m no longer assigned to you,” he said. “Not sure anyone is, actually.”

“What?”

Just tell the poor bloke.

“There’s a bull’s eye painted on your back.”

“Tell me something I
don’t
know.”

“
I’m here to warn you, because you’re on your own now. I can’t protect you anymore.”

“Just like that, you’re checking out?”

He gave Nick a thoughtful look, held his gaze for a moment, then sighed.

“Guess this is goodbye, then.”

“I’m afraid so. You’d better get to London as fast as you can.”

“I just have one last thing to do before I go.”

“Be careful, Lito. I mean it.”

“Don’t worry.” Lito patted the gun behind his back and mustered a brave smile.
“
I can take care of myself.”

“Take every possible precaution.” Nick put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. Lito’s eyes brightened. He stood taller, looked stronger. If only Nick could protect him a bit longer...

“I’d best be going now, my friend.” One last handshake.

“Thank you, my friend.”

“What for?” Nick said.

Lito smiled. “My life.”

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

NICK LEFT THE WAY A HUMAN WOULD, through the front door and out to the sidewalk. Concealed by the shadow of a camphor tree, he focused on the Coronado Bridge until he felt the concrete vanish from beneath his feet.

A cool blast of air rushed over his face and raked through his hair. It wasn’t teleporting but he was flying at superhuman speeds. He looked down to make sure he wasn’t casting a shadow over the bridge.

As he approached the bridge, a sharp pain stabbed his head—the effect of his supernatural powers draining away. Losing balance, he gripped his head between his hands.

The landscape spun as he hurtled down to the water below.

#

He felt no impact, no splash, no suffocating water in his lungs, but Nick knew he’d plunged beneath the bridge. When he regained his bearings, it became abundantly clear that he was between realms.

Sort of.

He wasn’t drowning, but his clothes felt damp. The water seemed neither cold, warm, nor heavy. He drifted in it but didn’t sink or float, the only sensation was the pain now gripping his skull like a vise. It overwhelmed him every time he tried to teleport to dry land.

Large shadows passed over as did the sound of motors and a cruise ship’s horn. The briny dampness became tangible in his mouth, his nose, and pressed against the surface of his whole body. He was slipping through into the physical realm and uncertain he could control it.

He thought he heard someone calling him. The voice itself wasn’t audible, but in his mind the earnest cry evoked images of Clara, Sophia...and Hope.

He turned his head, hit a concrete post. Before he could react, the darkness engulfed him utterly.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

WITHIN THE BOWELS OF CABRILLO STADIUM, Yuri crimped the final wire to arm the second of two nuclear devices strategically placed under the stands of the plaza level on the north and south sides.

“There.” He handed the remote detonators to Dan and Gunther, the two hulking men who’d overseen the activation. “After retina scan, use this button to arm, this one to begin countdown. Scan retina again, then press blue button to abort—”

“Abort?” Dan glowered at him.

“Just in case. I made very simple, even child could—”

“That’ll be all,” Gunther said. He and Dan lifted him up as if he were made of straw.

“Hey!” Yuri struggled, but it was no use. In a few seconds he was in the locker room being slammed against the doors.

“What the hell? I make delivery, set up configuration. Why—”

Gunther opened the door next to Yuri’s right ear, pulled out some neatly wound cord, and started tying Yuri’s wrists behind his back.

“After delivery I get paid! I had deal with Lena Walker!”

“These are
Lena’s
orders,” Gunther said.

Dan got a roll of duct tape from the locker and wrapped it twice around Yuri’s head, tightly sealing his mouth. Just when Yuri thought it couldn’t get any worse, Gunther fashioned a noose around his neck and threw the other end of the rope over a pipe high above them. He started pulling on the rope.

Screams choked off, eyes bulging, heart about to explode, Yuri dared not move as the rope grew tighter.

Didn’t matter.

He knew what was coming.

He shut his eyes.

Heard Sascha say
You’ll never amount to anything.

Heard himself say
I’m sorry, Mommochka.

The last thing Yuri heard was the sound his neck made when it snapped.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

THE IMPACT THAT CAUSED THE DARKNESS eventually ended it. At first a flash of white light, then the dancing flecks that swam around Nick’s head, then the realization that he was mostly in the physical realm but not to the point that he couldn’t exist under water without drowning.

The damage from that concrete pillar felt real enough, though. As he drifted in the depths, a sharp throbbing pain from the bump surpassed all other sensation, which meant the pain of his draining angelic powers had subsided.

For the moment.

Right above his head, a trio of sea creatures swam past him. From their horizontal tail flukes, he could tell they were mammals—dolphins or some other sort of porpoise.

How long had he been unconscious?

Judging by the scant trickles of light that made it to the murky depths, evening had fallen. He’d spent several hours submerged at the bottom of the bay which Hope had almost made her grave.

Time to find that pendant.

With the sand barely registering the presence of his feet, Nick trudged toward the spot closest to where he believed Hope had attempted her fatal swan dive.

He knew the prospect of finding anything but debris and fish muck in those dark depths was about as good as finding a diamond in a junkyard.

He had to try.

Even if it brought on more daggers to the skull. He focused on the image of Hope touching the place on her neck where her pendant had been. Sure enough, a skewer of pain impaled his left eye socket, which throbbed exquisitely.

A dark gray harbor porpoise swam over to watch him. Just past the sleek frame of the porpoise, he saw something shining in the distance. It looked almost like a penlight lodged in some kelp around one of the bridge’s pillars.

Pushing through the ever roiling water and ever increasing pain, Nick slogged over to the flickering light, glad the porpoise was following. He was exhausted, the pain now so intense he almost released the mental image of Hope.

The porpoise swam closer to the light.

Nick took a deep breath—and a few more steps.

Just enough:

The jade pendant hung on a gold chain dangling from a barnacle. Its design was a traditionally entwined dragon and phoenix, but there was nothing else traditional about it. The pendant
glowed—
with a golden light that cast no physical rays, nor did it glint onto the face of the porpoise clicking joyfully while she remained close at Nick’s side.

He reached out and let the pendant float up under his hand. In order to take hold of it, he’d have to become fully physical—his hand, at least. He wasn’t sure he had the ability or coordination to do that now.

But he wasn’t about to give up, now.

As he released the image of Hope, the pain lessened if only marginally. He slipped his hand into the physical layer, lifted the pendant, closed his fingers around it, and pushed it into his pocket. But the sudden compression in his chest and the saturation of frigid water in his clothes alerted him to a troubling realization: He had not been able to control his entrance into the physical realm.

He couldn’t retreat to the safety of the spiritual layer without losing the pendant. Nor could he swim to physical safety if he remained in his current state. Already the pressure of the watery depths was crushing him. His eyes felt like they were bulging out of his head, his lungs were desperate for air.