Fury of the Six (The Preston Six Book 5) (6 page)

“Yeah?”

“Get out of here, now.”

“But what about—”

“Now!”

“Roger.”

“Break the cameras,” Minter said to Gladius. “Maybe we can buy some time.”

She took out her throwing knives and spotted the camera in the corner. She threw the knife and struck the lens, knocking bits to the ground. Scanning the rest of the room, she searched for any more.

“The medical room. I saw a few,” Hank said and broke the leg off the chair and ran into the room.

Gladius looked at the timer, one minute. “You, what’s your name?” she asked.

“Gingy.”

“Alice will be back up in a few seconds and she will expect you here, correct? I’m going to give you one warning. If you give her any clue that we are here, I will end you. I don’t care if it’s with my dying breath, I will stab this knife through your face. Understand?”

Gingy nodded as the clatter of Hank busting up the medical room’s camera made her flinch.

“I need you to say the words.”

“I understand.”

“Good. Now take a seat on the couch.”

Minter dragged Emmett toward the medical room.

Hank, breathing hard and holding the chair leg said, “I think—”

“Shh,” Gladius whispered. “We can’t talk in a few seconds. She’ll hear us. And guys, do a master shut off on your Panavices. She’ll detect them.”

Hank thumbed his Panavice as he darted to Minter and helped pull Emmett into the medical room. Gladius wanted to help, but she wasn’t about to leave Gingy alone for one second. Taking a seat right next to her, she pointed her knife at her gut.

Gingy clutched her notebook tightly against her chest. “Is Emmett going to be okay?” she whispered.

Gladius put one finger over her mouth. “Make her believe you broke the cameras.” She looked at her Panavice and with a few seconds left, did a master turn off on it. The first few seconds would determine everything. Either they were going to die, or they were going to be living in a nightmare of silence and deception.

JOEY’S HAND SHOOK UNCONTROLLABLY AND his head throbbed in pain. Someone nearby sobbed and it stirred him awake. “Poly.” His voice sounded weak and a blurry figure moved in response.

“Yes,” she sounded elated at first but turned cross. “Joey, you promised.”

She came into focus. Her bloodshot eyes, staring at him. He reached to touch her face, but his hand wouldn’t move. He looked down to find leather straps attached to his arms and legs. Poly, sitting a couple feet away, had the same straps. He pulled on the strap only to find a chain holding it to the ground.

“Good to see you back, buddy,” Lucas said.

“How long have I been out for?” Joey asked.

“A few hours,” Poly said.

He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, trying to clear them. The room still seemed hazy, but he took in the circular room as best he could. Leaning forward, he looked at each of his friends lined up in a sitting position against a plastered wall. “Where’s Evelyn?” he asked, jerking around when he couldn’t see her.

“Right here,” Edith said. “Surprised these silver bastards didn’t tie her up as well.”

Joey breathed a sigh of relief and looked at his little girl’s face. She regarded him with a smile. He still had her, and that was a start.

His pulse sped up as he thought about the last moments before the Arracks descended on the stone. They had to still be on their planet. These were their type of mud-plastered buildings. “Any guards?” Joey whispered and winced at the pain in his head.

“A couple outside the door,” Poly said.

His hand shook and the tremor moved down the whole right side of his body. His restraints clattered and kept some of the motion to a minimum.

“Joey?” Poly slid her hand closer to him until the chain locked up. He reached and felt her hand with his shaking fingertips.

Normally, he could minimize it with shear willpower, but now the shakes controlled him. After a few seconds, it dwindled, not from his commands but more from running its course. He raised his hand up the few inches he could and made a fist, then extended his fingers out. He needed his shooting hand to work.

“They took all of our stuff,” Poly said, seeing him feeling at his sides for his guns.

Joey grimaced and looked to Julie. “You’ve had a few hours, I’m sure that was enough time to figure a way out of here, right?”

She looked at the dirty floor between her legs. None of them were looking at him. He knew each of them well enough to know he’d missed something major. Even Lucas kept his mouth shut and only glanced at him.

“What?” Joey asked.

“You promised. I can’t do this without you, Joey. But I have to know, if you went slo-mo, then why didn’t we make the jump? We shouldn’t be here.”

“I . . .” he struggled to find the words to tell her their daughter had the same gift as him. “Eve was there, with me, in the slow-mo.”

Poly gasped and shot a look to Evelyn. She turned back and reached her fingers out to him. Tears filled her puffy eyes. “He’s coming here to take her and we’re just stuck here, helpless.”

Seeing her vulnerable, and hearing the will leave her, hurt Joey. He too felt the tears building and he pulled on his restraints, needing to hold his grieving wife and let her know they were going to get out of this. He wouldn’t allow Marcus to take their baby. He’d do whatever it took.

“Julie?” he called between gritted teeth.

She jerked her attention to him. “First, we need to get out of these restraints. Then we can formulate a plan of escape.”

“I say we ambush Marcus; end it all right here, right now,” Joey said.

“That’s crazy,” Julie said.

“We know he’s coming,” Lucas said. “When was the last time we knew where he was, or where he was going? This may be our only chance.”

“That’s not the plan. Believe me, I want to kill the guy as much as you all do, but we need to look at the bigger picture. We have to find his last place of hiding and that means, we go through phase four of the plan.

Joey growled, pulling on the chain. He wasn’t going to allow phase four to happen, even if they all thought it was part of the plan.

“We can escape and get to a stone,” Julie said. “Play out the rest of our plan. Our friends are expecting us to do our part.”

Joey nodded. It was sensible . . . “But, this is a good opportunity. We could end it today, we could be done with this.” He wanted it to be over, to be rid of Marcus and anyone supporting him. Damn the worlds if they needed him.

“We can’t face him here,” Julie said. “We have to escape and get to a stone. Remember Hank, Gladius, and our fathers?” she looked at Lucas. “They have their plan and are expecting us to carry out ours. The stone isn’t far from here. We might have a chance.”

“Great, now how do we get out of these?” Joey clattered the chain on the stone floor.

“I’ve been working on mine for the last few hours. I have a metal spur on my chain.” She rubbed her arm next to her legs and Joey noticed the frayed leather on her shackles.

“How much longer?” Joey asked.

“Probably three hours.”

He winced at the number. He didn’t know what would happen next, but Marcus would be there soon and as badly as he wanted to confront him, he didn’t want to do it sitting tied to the floor.

“Queen, get back here,” Edith called out, but Evelyn was already crawling away from her. Edith reached, but her chains kept her seated. “She just jumped and pushed off me.”

“Evelyn,” Poly called. “Baby, come here. Come to Mommy.” She sniffed and extended her arms out as much as the restraints would allow.

“Ju-ju,” Evelyn said, determined on her path.

“Yeah, come to your Auntie Julie.”

Evelyn turned toward Julie and stopped at her foot. Joey leaned forward to get a view of what his daughter was doing.

“Come to me,” Julie said, but Evelyn kept out of her reach. “What are you doing, sweetie?”

“Ju.” Her baby brow furrowed. Not even old enough to have full-fledged eyebrows, her face crunched up in concentration with her hands on Julie’s leg strap.

“What—” Julie said and then gasped. The bolt attached to her strap broke in Evelyn’s hand. “How did you do that?” She stared at her freed leg. “Do the rest of them.”

Joey stared, unblinking at Evelyn as she moved to the next leg. He squinted and ignored Poly’s glare. If Evelyn was doing what he thought she was doing . . .
There!
She blurred for a split second and the bolt broke. “She’s speeding up and using it to break the restraints,” Joey said. “Evelyn, don’t do that. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

She giggled and moved to Julie’s hands. With both free, Julie jumped to her feet and picked up Evelyn. “You are one amazing baby girl. Yes, you are.” She gave her a hug, then handed her back to Edith.

Joey swallowed and watched his daughter laugh as Edith tickled her stomach. She was much more than any of them, and each day he saw her growing into something astonishing. He didn’t need to bring this up to Poly. The tears streamed down her face as she watched Evelyn.

“Now what?” Lucas asked.

Julie shook her head and pulled at Lucas’s chains. “I don’t know how she did it. These are heavy duty locks.”

“Queenie can do all sorts of stuff,” Edith boasted.

The door flung open.

Joey’s heart stopped; they were too late. Then he saw a single Arrack enter the room. Joey yanked at his restraints, but he knew the creature could kill them all without too much trouble. Julie balled up her fist as the Arrack approached. It stopped a few feet from her.

“I was sent here to help you. He’s coming soon. You need to leave,” it said, pushing a key into Lucas’s restraints.

“Who are you? Who sent you?” Julie asked.

Ignoring her question, he moved to free Poly. “He’s coming for her.” The Arrack nodded toward Evelyn. “She’s something very important to him.”

“Yeah, we know,” Poly replied, rubbing her wrists as her restraints fell to the ground.

The Arrack moved to Joey. “You are the messenger?”

Joey knew what the Arrack was asking. “Yes.” Unknowingly, he had delivered a message that killed off much of the Arrack world, a weight that crushed his soul. “Had I known . . .” he shook his head, “I’m sorry.”

The Arrack squinted as he unlocked the last bolt. Joey flung the restraints and stood up.

“Free her as well, please.” Poly pointed to Edith.

“She’s not part of the deal.”

“What deal? What are you talking about? Get her out of there or we aren’t leaving.”

“I was told only about you four and your baby.”

“I don’t care who told you what. Just give me the keys.” Poly yanked the key from the Arrack.

It looked impressed. “You are fast.”

Poly huffed and unlocked Edith.

“What’s your name?” Joey asked.

“Tick.”

“Well, Tick, I thank you for the freedom,” Lucas said. “Now please tell me you have a plan beyond this?”

“Oh yes, I killed the guards on the outside and the others have cleared a path to the stone.”

“Others? Who are you with?” Poly asked.

“There’s a large group of us who know the truth. We have sworn a blood oath against Marcus and will not honor a new agreement. Now, we must go. They won’t be distracted for long.”

Poly took Evelyn from Edith and inspected her much like a quality control person looking for frayed edges or chipped paint.

“Please, we have to hurry,” Tick urged. “He will be here soon.”

“Can we get our weapons? There is a bow . . .”

“Yes, yes, out here. Come on.”

Lucas followed the Arrack and Joey kept back near Evelyn, expecting a trap at any second. He only hoped this guy was taking them to their weapons and not to some strange elaborate plan orchestrated by Marcus. Joey gripped his shirt tight, fighting the shakes. He limped up the steps and Poly glanced down at his leg.

Two dead Arracks lay on the floor as they made it to the top of the steps. Joey looked at Tick again. This little thing killed both of those guards at the same time?

“Right over here.” Tick used another key to open a cabinet. He pulled the wooden door open and Joey saw Prudence sitting on top of the rest of their items.

They collected their belongings in short order and he felt the whole situation shifting back in their favor. Armed, they had a chance.

“Not far from here, the stone is.” The Arrack opened the next door and daylight flooded into the room.

Julie leaned back and said, “Something doesn’t feel right.”

Joey was starting to have the same feeling, but he looked back at the two dead Arracks. They seemed real.

“What choice do we have? Let’s just run to the stone and take the first ticket out of this hell hole,” Lucas said.

“I’m with Julie. This feels off,” Poly said.

They left the building and spotted several more dead Arracks.

“Not far,” Tick said.

Outside, it felt late in the day. The sun lay hidden behind the trees, casting long shadows. Thankfully the light was at his back and he hoped it gave him a slight advantage. If Marcus was pulling the strings, he’d need all the help he could get.

They left the dirt road and traveled into the forest. A small path had been cleared, maybe a deer trail. Joey kept one hand on his gun, and the other he used to turn on his shield. He felt the air around him shimmer as it enveloped him.

Ten minutes in to their walk, Tick stopped. “The circle stone is right over there. This is as far as I go.”

Joey looked over the hedges to the cleared circle. “Ambush?” He looked to Lucas.

“I don’t know, I don’t see anything or anyone.”

“Please, hurry,” Tick said.

“Lucas, check it out,” Joey said.

Lucas grasped Prudence and walked with an arrow in hand, scanning the surrounding forest. Joey pointed his gun out front, waiting. “Clear,” Lucas called out.

Joey motioned for the rest to go into the circle. He walked in last.