Fury of the Six (The Preston Six Book 5) (14 page)

He opened his eyes and she laughed and cried at the same time. He blinked. “Poly?”

His voice made her smile while tears streamed down her face. It might have been her name or anything else in existence, but the light in his eyes and the fact that he still knew her meant she still had him. She didn’t have to face the next phase alone.

“Yes, it’s me,” Poly said and held his hand.

“Did we get Evelyn back?”

“No.”

He squeezed her hand and closed his eyes. Tears dripped down his temples and into his already soaked hair. Wiping his face, he looked at her again. “What are we waiting for then?”

With Poly’s help, he got off the bed and up into a standing position outside of the machine. She took a lot of his weight on her shoulder and walked him out of the room.

They all cheered and applauded as Joey and Poly appeared in the waiting room. Poly was taken aback from the large group of the people she loved looking back at her with smiles and tears. She hadn’t even realized her mom, Julie’s mom and the rest of the parents were there. Joey received a hug from Karen and Minter. Then Hank walked up.

“You okay, Hank?” Joey asked.

“Yeah, how you doing?”

“Better. I thought I broke myself back there.”

“Tough to break a kid like you,” Harris said as he made it through the crowd.

“Harris,” Joey said, hugging him. “They got her.”

“I know and we are on the brink of getting her back and ending this all.” He hugged Poly and then stepped back and addressed everyone in the room. “We have planned this out for over a year, and for some of us, our entire lives . . . and just now, we are at the precipice of the end. This was the part we all knew would test our resolve, push our faith to the limits, and the next step may be more than some can handle. But together, we will finish this and put an end to Marcus. Soon, we’ll honor those who have fallen in our quest.”

They cheered again and Poly watched Joey raise his hands and join in. Happy to see him with a functioning body didn’t assuage the thoughts racing through her mind. Thoughts of Evelyn with that man. They had to make their move now.

“We need to prepare,” Harris continued. “Restock the guns and arrows. I doubt silk steel will work again. We have a few other materials we hope can get through.”

“I’m not going to throw knives at him next time,” Poly announced. “I’m going to walk straight up to him and choke the life from his body with my bare hands.”

Harris turned to a grim expression, and the corners of his mouth pulled back in a sick smile. “I hope we can deliver that outcome to you, but can you give us one day to resupply before you go on attack?”

“Eight hours.”

“That’s enough time,” Harris said. “You heard the lady. Bring your weapons and follow me to the armory.”

Poly sighed and watched everyone file out, many saying goodbyes. She hung back with Joey until the last person left the room. “You doing okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, a bit stiff but,” he wiggled his fingers, “These are working again.”

“The doctor said if you do it again, the machine won’t put you back together. There is no wiggle room. If you do it again, you die.” She pursed her lips and stared at him. It was hard to put into words the way she felt for him and how much he meant to her. Tears flooded her eyes for the umpteenth time that day.

“Don’t cry,” Joey said, hugging her.

He felt sweaty and smelled like burnt hair, but she relished in his touch, embracing his body and losing herself in his chest. He wiped a tear from her face and pulled her chin up, kissing her on the lips and then again on the forehead.

“Whatever happens next, we can make it through it if we have each other,” Poly’s voice wavered.

“We’ll get Evelyn back.”

“I know,” she said, but wasn’t convinced. After so many attempts to get to Marcus, they had only managed to wound him.

“We should go help prepare,” Joey said and sagged against her.

She pushed him back upright and he stumbled back. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just feeling tired.” He gave her a don’t-you-worry look that made her do exactly that.

“Should I get the doctor?”

“No. How long was I in there for?”

“Sixteen hours.”

He gripped his chest and squeezed his eyes shut. “He has had her for sixteen hours?”

“I know.”

“And you agreed to another eight?”

“Joey, you can barely stand. I can barely stand. We need to regroup and be ready for Marcus with our best.”

He took a deep breath and looked at the door. “I can rest when we have Evelyn back.”

Poly saw the look building in his eyes and knew he was about to get stubborn on her. She only had one card to play. “I need the rest. I’ve been staring at your body in that machine for nearly a day. I haven’t slept or ate in I don’t know how long.”

He walked back and hugged her. “I’m sorry. I just can’t stand thinking of him having her.”

“We need to be somewhat rested if we are going to have any chance of besting Marcus.”

“We’ll sleep for a few hours, then we go.”

“Okay.”

Her and Joey found a room and slept for the next eight hours. Poly made sure to not set the alarm clock and it was Lucas who woke them when it was time to go.

One by one, they gathered near the circle in the house, some sporting new weapons. Minter held a large rifle with a scope and Harris hand delivered Joey his guns.

“These are loaded with a deadly party pack,” he said.

“Thanks.” Joey put the guns back in their holsters.

Poly looked over her man. He looked better, a lot of the shakes he tried to hide were missing and some of the color was back in his face.

Lucas walked into the circle alone and stood next to the stone. As discussed, he was going to jump ahead of the group to find the path Marcus took, and then jump back to get the rest.

“I’m going with you,” Joey said, stepping away from Poly. “You’ll need a second person to cover you, giving you time to portal back out if needed.”

“
If
it’s a master stone,” Lucas said. “It’d be good for someone to have my back.”

“It’ll be a master stone,” Harris said. “You’ve got the specialized Panavice Julie made for you, correct?”

Lucas tapped his pocket. “Yep.”

Poly moved forward to touch Joey’s arm. She didn’t want him going with Lucas, but she knew he had to. As horrible as it sounded, they couldn’t allow all of them to be in a single place they didn’t know. If Marcus set up a trap, Lucas and Joey should be able to handle it well enough and get out of there.

He turned and kissed her on the lips. It shocked her for a second because he never showed much affection in public, especially in a room full of people, but she got lost in his embrace and kissed him back. It felt as if they hadn’t had a moment together in a long time and now she wanted to get away from it all and take her husband somewhere private.

He took a step back and she tugged on his sleeve.

“I’ll be right back,” Joey assured her.

“You better.”

Not to be outdone, Lucas got up from the stone and grabbed Julie, dipping her into a long kiss that Poly couldn’t stop staring at. Once finished, he nodded to Joey and returned to the stone. “You ready?”

“Yes.”

“Julie knows the code as well, but if we don’t return in a week, you’ll know our fate. Here we go.”

“A week!” Poly ran to the circle, but they were already gone.

TREE’S LIKE HE’D NEVER SEEN before towered over them. The jungle canopy blocked so much of the sun it felt as if they were in the twilight of the day. Joey took a few steps and fell to his knees, unable to keep the charade going.

“Joey?” Lucas ran to him. “What’s wrong?”

He grabbed his stomach with his shaking hand and threw up on the jungle floor. Sweat dripped from his face as he heaved again and again.

Lucas paced next to him. “We should go back, man. You’re sick.”

“No.” Joey held out a hand. “I was just holding it back for too long.”

“You faker! I knew you looked off.”

“I can’t let Poly see me like this. She has enough to worry about.”

“That machine didn’t fix you all the way, did it?”

“I feel better. I do.” Joey pushed up to his knees and got to his feet. On his way to the edge of the circle, he wondered if Lucas got the code right. Marcus wouldn’t bring Evelyn to a world like this. Just getting over the enormous roots spreading over much of the forest floor would have been an obstacle too large for a person carrying a baby.

The Panavice confirmed his suspicion. “She’s not here.”

“This is a master stone, he probably jumped, thinking he’d lose any trackers.”

Joey took a deep breath and knew Julie had sent Marcus the report through Alice that they were dead. Did Marcus always cover his tracks this efficiently, or did he know they we’re still alive?

Lucas held his Panavice close to the stone and scanned the top of it. “I got the next code.”

“Let’s go.”

“We should get you back to the doctor.”

“No.”

“You should be resting.”

“Lucas, you better never tell any of them about me. Let me deal with it. It passes over time. Besides, they know what we are doing and until we find her, there’s no reason to go back.”

“I don’t like this, Joey, not one bit.”

“If your baby was taken, I’d do whatever it took to get it back.”

“Him,” Lucas corrected.

“Him?” Joey smiled. “You’re having a boy?”

“Yeah, Julie got a scan while you were . . . healing.”

“I’m so happy for you. Why didn’t you tell us?”

Lucas walked to the stone. “Julie didn’t want to take anything away from what you guys were going through. The pregnancy was kind of a shock for us in the first place. Guess my boys can’t be stopped by mere modern day protection.” Lucas laughed. “You ready?”

Joey nodded and stuffed his shaky hand in his pocket.

“Here we go.”

The stone hummed and Joey glanced at his shield, making sure to capture enough clean air in it before the jump.

The midday jungle turned to darkness. Rain poured down on them and Joey ran the scan on his Panavice, locating the signals. His heart leapt at the sight of the two red dots on his screen. They were only a few miles away. He gazed into the darkness, in the direction of Evelyn and Edith. He had no idea what planet they were on, or where he was in the world, but it didn’t matter. He was closer to Evelyn, closer to having a family that wasn’t perpetually endangered. “Got her. Three point two miles that way.”

“Great. Now we just need to figure out where we are.”

Joey spotted another marker on his screen and knew exactly where they were. “Sharati’s not far from here.”

Lucas wiped the rain back from his face and flung the excess water on the ground. “Just great. Out of all the planets, Arrack is where he’s keeping her?”

“This is also what we’ve been looking for, his headquarters outside of Earth or Vanar. This is the last stage,” Joey said.

“I got bad news,” Lucas said looking at the stone.

“One way stone?” It wasn’t a question. He knew and turned back to face Evelyn’s direction. They’d have to find another stone to get the others.

“Yes,” Lucas said.

Joey glanced down at his Panavice and pinged Sharati. She accepted and her face appeared on the screen. Joey tilted the screen and let the water fall off.

“Joey?” she asked.

“We know where she is.”

“I see her on my screen as well. I’m coming to you. Meet me half way.” Sharati’s camera turned away from her as she turned it off and Joey saw a group of Arracks around her.

“We better play it safe with her,” he said to Lucas.

“I don’t trust her either.”

Joey watched Sharati’s red dot on his screen as she moved toward them. He began their trek in Evelyn’s direction and hoped the rain would let up. He couldn’t see more than a hundred feet ahead.

“Should we use our lights?” Lucas said loud enough to be heard over the roaring rain.

“Better not.”

Lightning crashed and lit the landscape. More desert looking than anything else, rocks, dirt, and sloping terrain were laid out before them. They could manage it.

“Come on, we’re meeting Sharati.”

Lucas kept his bow out with an arrow clipped in place, constantly scanning their surroundings. Joey kept his guns holstered and wished he had worn rain appropriate clothes. The shield didn’t do a thing for water and it soaked into his clothes, weighing him down. His feet might as well have been stepping through a shallow pool. Streams ran everywhere, and in the first hundred feet, he’d plunged into knee deep puddles. Taking big steps, he climbed from a deep puddle as a lightning strike lit up the terrain just enough for Joey to get his bearings and keep on course toward the hill on the horizon.

Checking the red dots, Sharati made much more ground then them. Joey ignored the warning calls from his body and pushed harder, getting some distance from even Lucas. “We’ve got to pick it up, Lucas,” Joey said, looking over his shoulder.

“Pick it up? I’ve got twenty freaking pounds of water I’m carrying here. My socks are soaked. My socks!”

Joey sighed and started to jog. He made it ten feet and fell, face planting into the mud. He pulled his foot out of the water hole it went into.

Lucas laughed. “Watch out, that first step’s a doozy.”

“Let’s just get to the top of the hill so we have the higher ground.”

“You think something’s up?” The smirk left Lucas’s face and he looked out into the darkness.

“Always.”

Joey crawled up the hill, not even bothering with trying to walk up the embankment; after several falls, Lucas joined him. The soft mud caked on his hands and knees, making the climb that much more difficult.

At the top, Joey stayed hunched over, breathing hard and letting the rain pour down his face, dripping from his mouth and nose. The effort took more out of him than it should have and he struggled to get back on his feet. He stared at the dark sky and watched another flash light up a distant cloud.

What were the chances of getting caught in a desert downpour? Two, maybe three times a year this might happen. He thought of Evelyn and knew Edith would protect her from the elements. He glanced down and saw Sharati’s red dot close by now. She should be visible from the hill they were perched on. He stopped and turned to face her direction.

As if on command, a bolt lit up the desert.

He had been right about Sharati. She didn’t just have a few Arracks with her, she had a small army. Joey’s heart picked up and he gripped guns in both hands. She’d saved them on a number of occasions, but she also tried to kill them. Which one would show this time, friend or foe?

He might have yelled, or asked the group to stop running at them, but the rain and wind drown out any chance of that. With each passing second, the urge to run straight to Evelyn became stronger. If he could just get close to Marcus, he could stop it all. He didn’t want to put one more person at risk if possible. The Arracks moved as a unit and if they had ill intentions, Joey knew there was nothing he could do to stop them.

“She’s got company,” Lucas yelled.

They waited and watched, hoping this interaction would be to their benefit. Sharati took lead and had her group halt at the bottom of the hill. She didn’t have any troubles in the mud, easily making her way up the embankment. She reached the top and gave them a toothy smile as if out of practice.

“You’re fortunate to be here on a raining day,” Sharati said. “The city has been praying for rain for months and when Marcus showed up, it started to rain. You are very blessed indeed to be here for this.” The rain slid off her silver skin and made her look shiny and smooth.

“Well, aren’t we the lucky ones,” Lucas said, wiping his face in futility.

“She’s that way, not far from here,” Joey said. “Will you help us?”

Sharati looked back at her group, a mixture of male and female Arracks, some with the yellow streaks on their shoulder. “That’s why we are here. We know Marcus didn’t make the rain, just as we are sure he is the cause of all our pain since he arrived here.”

Lucas stepped to the side and slipped. He slammed onto the muddy surface and then scrambled, trying to get back to his feet and falling again. Joey reached over and helped him up. Lucas tried to shake some of the mud off, but it stuck and smeared all over his clothes. He lifted his hands in the air and shook his head.

“You okay?” Joey asked.

“Just . . . no.”

“Sharati,” Joey said. “If we leave now, I think we could be to her in a half hour.”

“No, there’s a flash flood river between us and her. There are no bridges for miles, and no way to cross safely.”

Joey turned and looked at his Panavice. Evelyn hadn’t moved since their arrival on the planet. Lightning cracked in the distance and the wet landscape ahead revealed itself in the flash. How bad could a desert river be? “We’ll go it alone then,” he said.

“Joey,” Lucas said. “That’s not the plan. We are supposed to go back and get everyone.”

Joey kept his back to Lucas and looked out into the darkness.

“It’s tough to
stand
in this stuff,” Lucas continued. “You really think we can cross a river in it? You sure you’re fine?”

Was he fine? No, but at what point had he been fine? Maybe before any of this started, but fine was a luxury of a distant life and a future goal. He’d give Poly and Evelyn their
fine
if it killed him. He stomped away from them, toward Evelyn.

“This isn’t the plan, Joey,” Lucas yelled over the rain.

Joey spun around. “Really? The
plan
?” Joey slapped the water off his face and glared at Lucas. “When has a plan with that man ever worked? What, you think we should go gather up your wife and yet to be born child, or my wife or our best friends and take them to him? Should we keep delivering our people on a silver platter?”

“This is about Samantha, isn’t it?”

Joey turned away from him and ran his hands through his hair. He screamed at the sky before turning back to Lucas. “We just have to go there and catch him by surprise. He can’t track our Pana’s and Julie said it would be impossible for him to trace Evelyn’s and Edith’s trackers. This is our chance, Lucas, you and me could end this now.”

Lucas didn’t answer and Joey threw up his hands and walked away. The mud slid under his soaked feet as he walked past Sharati and down the back side of the hill.

“It’s suicide,” Lucas called from behind.

Joey kept stomping through the mud and water.

“He’s a stubborn one,” he heard Sharati say.

Joey didn’t look back and kept in a straight line toward Evelyn. He didn’t want to bully his best friend into anything, but he wasn’t going to risk the ones he loved anymore.

“Wait for me, for Pete’s sake.” Lucas splashed through the water and caught up to Joey. He put his hand across his shoulder and walked with him. Joey looked over to his friend and stopped.

“I want to end this as well, you know?” Lucas said.

“I know,” Joey said and felt bad for questioning Lucas. “We just need to get past this river and we’re there.”

Lucas nodded and they turned to walk toward the two red dots.

The rain lessened as they moved down the hill and back to the flat terrain. Water filled up the desert like a sponge, but the sponge couldn’t take any more and the water seeped everywhere, filling every hole and depression. Joey glanced back and saw Sharati and her group following closely behind.