Gathering Storm (33 page)

Storm.

He reached up to touch the swelling around
the cut on her cheek. “You know you’re not supposed to get in
trouble without me.”

Big tears immediately started sliding
through the grime on her face. “Is that a rule?”

“Hard and
fast.”

“Yeah? Well, you’re not
supposed to get lost in space either.” She reached up to swipe at
the rivulets. “Glad you’re back.”

“Me, too. Where’s Ram?”

“Ireland.”

Storm’s eyes widened at that. “Ireland.”

“Yep. The mum’s big deal
birthday.”

“Great Paddy.”

“Exactly.”

“
Okay, let’s see where all
this blood is coming from?” He started to rip her shirt from the
shoulder, but she stopped him with a hand on top of his.

“Not serious. Leave it alone.”

He decided to capitulate
for the moment. “Who’ve we got?”

“Glen, Fennimore, Z Team,
and my kids.”

“Trainees?”

“They’ve been astounding. Some of them
should get medals.”

He nodded. “Z Team?”

“Who knows? Haven’t seen
or heard them for hours. You were right about them. They didn’t
want to work with any of us or listen to what we had to say. So
they’re off on their own and I can’t begin to tell if they’re
helping or...”

Storm let out a string of
curses. “Sounds
exactly
like them.” He looked back at Elora. “So, where
were you off to when I came in?”

She studied his face. “You
know who they are?”

His face didn’t move at all except that his
mouth tightened. “The same fuckers from the woods.”

She smiled and winced.
“Well, not the
same
ones. Obviously. But yeah.

“Here’s the thing. Monq
developed this gas. He calls it the Equalizer. Installed alarms all
over J.U. that disperse the chemical.”

Storm looked puzzled.
“What’s it supposed to do?”

“What it
does
is makes them the
same as you. For three hours and seventeen minutes.”

Realization flickered over his face and his
eyes ran over her body. “That means you, too.” She nodded. “How
long do we have left?”

“Less than an hour. We’re
almost out of time. I…”

The intercom cut her off.
“Knights under fire, center ladder going up, between Hub and two.
Kris and Wakey, E.T.s behind the spurt.”

Storm looked at Elora. “Can you interpret
that?”

“I think so. We’ve got
people taking fire in the central stairwell between here and the
second floor. Two of my trainees are approaching the fountain with
trouble hiding behind it.”

“Okay.” He reached over
and withdrew her pistol from her holster.” Let’s see what you’ve
got for me.” When he saw it was the snub nose, he said, “I was
hoping you brought a real gun.”
He said that last as he was moving to the door. “Stay where
you are or you’ll answer to the acting Sovereign.
Understand?”

He didn’t wait
for an answer. He plastered himself to the wall that curved around
the
Hub and began moving toward
the stairs. The Ralengclan were busy on and near the Hub stairs and
didn’t notice him stop at the coffee counter, where two aliens that
should have stayed home lay dead. He picked up one of the weapons
and examined it quickly to make sure he understood its operation,
then slung the strap over his neck and picked up the second to
carry.

Checking
around
, it appeared that all who
were engaged in the conflict were occupied and not expecting
another player to jump in so late in the game. He was thinking that
could be just the edge he needed to put this thing to bed nice and
quick. He started toward the stairwell, hugging the wall as he
went.

Across
the
Hub, Kris and Wakey were
doing the same thing, converging on the center stairs from the
opposite side. He saw the two trainees and recognized them,
although he didn’t remember their names. He caught their attention
and signaled a gesture meaning, “Stay where you are.”

They stopped and
nodded. Disobeying Lady Laiken was one thing. Saying no to Sir
Storm was a whole other game level they knew they weren’t ready
for.

When Storm was
almost at the bottom of the stairwell, he glanced back at the kids.
There were two Ralengclan coming from who knew where. He was about
to break silence and give himself away to shout, when “Shoot to
Thrill” was cut off and replaced with a broadcasted voice yelling,
“Wakey! Falcon! Behind you!”

Storm’s
adre
naline had spiked when he
saw the imminent danger those kids were in. He was too far away to
give much support with what he had. The alien weapons were rapid
fire, but they were heavy and surprisingly short range. All he’d be
able to do was watch like the horror show it was.

Without a blink’s
hesitation Kris and Wakey
raised
their weapons and turned like synchronized swimmers then advanced
on the aliens acting like they thought they were made of Shieldo
instead of flesh and bone. It was just as beautiful as it was
insane.

The aliens
were so surprised by the display of
bravado that they hesitated. They got off some shots. Wakey felt a
hint of air and heat go by his face, but they never hit targets.
The team of Wakenmann and Falcon weren’t laying down scatter. They
were into pure surgical, just like Mother said. Face and
groin.

In under a
minute the skirmish was done. Two kids gave each other a high five
like they’d just scored in basketball while Spaz proudly announced,
“And the Rising Hawk team scores! Three, four, open the door. Hope
Mother is listening to this broadcast. New kids like four on the
floor.”

The boys turned
toward a pale-looking Storm who gave them an appreciative nod and
that simple gesture made each boy grow a couple inches taller on
the spot.

The stairwell
erupted in a near-continuous volley of fire. Storm looked around
the corner to see what he was facing before he started up the
stairs. For the first time in his career as a Black Swan knight he
froze in the middle of a fight because of what he saw on the
landing. Sir
Fennimore was down,
hit multiple times. He appeared to be unconscious, but it was
impossible to tell because of the guy who was shielding Fenn’s body
with his own. That guy, who happened to look exactly like him, had
an autofire in each hand, one pointed up the stairs, one pointed
down. The two of them were pinned, but the lookalike was keeping
the aliens off Fenn. Or trying to.

Thanks to Spaz’s heavy metal
blast, the Ralengclan had no idea someone was approaching from
beneath them. So Storm picked them off effortlessly. When they went
down, that left him face to face with his twin.

The doppelganger didn’t waste
time. He trained both weapons on the two above and was joined two
seconds later by the Storm who belonged in Loti Dimension. The
remaining two were taken out the same way Storm got number three
and four. A math instructor who lived on the second floor decided
he didn’t want to wait inside his apartment any longer. So he
loaded his Magnum and walked down the hall to the head of the
center stairs.

There he found
tw
o guys in combat gear set on
finishing off the knights below. He raised his weapon with both
hands and shot each in the back of the head before they had any
idea someone was behind them.

And the last
four were over before Spaz had time to announce buckle his shoe.
The music stopped. “This is the Voice of the Fray giving the all
clear. That’s right folks, it’s over. All meds on deck. You’re
needed in the Hub stairwell between one and two and in Operations.
Three men, um, persons, down. Again, lock down terminated.
Emergency medical personnel to Hub stairwell and
Operations.”

Angel turned to Storm. “The Great
Storm, I presume.”

“
And you
are?”

Angel hesitated
for the space of two heartbeats. It’s one thing to be told there
are other versions of you in the universe, but another to come face
to face with one. He stared into black eyes identical to his own
and said, “Impersonating you.” H
e grimaced when he started to move off Fennimore.

“
Where are you
hit?”

Angel looked down like he had to
check. “Nothing that can’t wait. He’s the one in trouble.”

Storm took a
closer look and had to agree.
Fennimore was Swiss cheese, riddled with so many holes, there
was little chance he could survive it. They hadn’t retained the
kind of surgical med staff at Jefferson prepared to address that
much trauma. The equipment was still there, but the people were
gone.

Kris and Wakey
had come bounding up the stairs and gave each other a look when
they saw two Storms on the landing.

Storm turned to
Kris
. “Go up top. Tell the
pilots I said to warm a Whister. Got an emergency to go to town.”
He looked down at Fenn as the boys were making their way past up
the stairs. “Hold on.” He stopped them to add to the instructions.
“We can’t carry him up without doing more damage. Tell them to
bring the bird down to the rugby field. Get a stretcher off one of
the Whisters and bring it back with you.”

When
Kris and Wakey got to the top and found
the pilots dead, they didn’t need to have a conversation about what
was going to happen next. One thing was certain, neither of them
would ever complain about drills again.

They’d been taken through the
paces on preflight checklist so many times they could do it in
their sleep. More importantly, they could do it quickly and
efficiently, in the wee hours of the morning with no sleep, and
with the toll taken by stress and repeated adrenaline spikes.

The Whister’s
near-silent blades whirred
into
rotation, spinning so fast they appeared to be invisible when the
engine purred awake. In six minutes they lifted off and Wakey set
the Whister down on the rugby field as gently as if he’d done it a
thousand times.

Kris jumped out, opened the side
panel, and pulled out a stretcher. The two boys didn’t dialog about
who would do what. Wakey was a better pilot. Kris was bigger and
stronger.

Voices could be heard all over the
building as people started to emerge from lock down.

Rosie and Glen
arrived at the bottom of the
Hub
stairs together.

Storm pinned
Glen with a look. “I’m guessing cells have been scrambled so
there’s no calling out?” Glen nodded. Storm’s gaze shifted to
Rosie. “Can you go take care of Helm so your mother can get Ram and
bring him here? Elora’s hurt.”

Rosie looked
stricken. Storm could see by the look on her face that Rosie loved
her auntie. “I can find him, Dad. I know Uncle Ram’s
signature.”

“Uncle Ram.”
Storm repeated that. It sounded so strange to hear this young woman
call his teammate Uncle Ram, but at the same time, it sounded
right.

“
He’s at the
Derry palace. In Ireland.”

“
No
problem.”

“
Okay. Hurry.” As soon as he said it he thought better of
leaving it like that. “WAIT! Make sure he’s securely
attached.”

She nodded and disappeared.

Elsbeth had
decided she would head toward Operations, but the only way to get
there was via the Hub stairwell where her new fiancé lay dying on
the landing between one and two. When she came upon that scene, she
sank to her knees next to him and temporarily forgot all about
being a nurse.

It was clear by
her reaction that Fenn was more to her than a patient who needed
medical assistance.

“
Elsbeth,” Storm
began gently. “I’m not med. You’re going to have to tell us what to
do.”

Her eyes jerked
to Storm like she hadn’t realized he was there and from there to
the other Storm. A thousand questions joined the shock and grief
that were already present on her face, but she decided to triage
her own emotions.

A crowd had
gathered at the top of the Hub stairs and at the bottom. Kris was
yelling, “Make way! Everybody out of the way!”

On his way by, he told a couple of
the other trainees who had gathered to run to the Whister outside
and get the other stretcher.

Rosie popped
into the Hub tied to Ram with a halter lead, which had been handy
because she’d found that Ram had risen to an Irish dawn and gone to
the stables for a ride so tack was handy. He quickly untied the
tether knots and ran toward the stairs where a little crowd was
gathered. They parted when they saw him coming and read the
panic-stricken look on his face.

Storm and Kris
were helping to move Fennimore onto the stretcher while the doc on
the scene told them how to do it. An orderly was holding Fenn’s
unconscious head as they lifted. Kris looked up and saw Ram first.
He simply said, “Operations.”

Ram turned and
sprinted across the Hub and down the short concourse to the open
door. Kris yelled after him, “Bring her to the Whister on the rugby
field!”

The first thing
that came into his vision was blood pooled on the floor. Then he
could see that she was sitting up, but looking like a rag doll.
Last, he got a look at her face as he went to his knees and slid on
the blood.