Ghost Guard 2: Agents of Injustice (24 page)

Chapter 31

It was rather anti-climactic when Abby finally entered Sector Three. After such dramatic experiences, after witnessing the lengths to which ParaIntell went for security and power, she was expecting something more elaborate than a simple stairway. Concrete steps. Metal railing with heavy paint denuded where the fingers of countless others had been. Like a service stairway in some rundown high-rise. Not the ultramodern, black budget facility she’d expected.

She elevated her state of alertness to the highest degree. Was this a trap? She had to be extra vigilant now. Up the first flight to the landing, then the next. It seemed the stairway went on forever. It was a daunting climb, and the dizzying heights seemed higher and higher the more she searched for the top. She almost wanted to give up. She took three steps and it seemed like the stairway went four more. She was beginning to lose all hope that she would ever reach the top.

Somehow, though, she did reach the top. There she found a nondescript door. She opened it and was stupefied to feel the wind in her hair, the sun on her face. Her bearings were off 180 degrees. Her vision took a moment to adjust to the bright sun, and when it did she saw large trucks and bulldozers and forklifts rambling throughout a multi-acre compound enclosed by a wall at least twenty feet high, five feet thick, and rimmed with razor wire. The wall was built strong. What she didn’t know was whether it was built to keep things in or keep things out. Possibly both.

She made a thorough inventory of what she saw, taking great care to hide behind what appeared to be an electrical substation. The humming was disconcerting because it drowned out any opportunity for her to hear, but she could see, and from her vantage point made out the entire layout of the area.

What struck her most was a centralized structure under construction, hence the equipment. Most of the buildings on the perimeter were complete. Administrative buildings with mirrored windows. There was plenty of space between structures, walkways and roads that all led to the building in the middle, the focal point that Abby just could not keep her eyes from. It was a strange building which seemed not built by human hands. At least not live humans. This was Petrovic. There was no denying it. This structure looked like an intensely exploded rendition of one of the doctor’s inventions. It looked like a giant Controller.

What was ParaIntell up to? What kind of abhorrent and dissolute behavior did they think they could get away with? Abby knew the ramifications of such underhanded endeavors. She knew what kind of destruction and mayhem this would ultimately cause. The question that kept reverberating through her subconscious over and over again was why? Why were they doing this, and what did they stand to gain?

Despite her questions and concerns, she had no other option than to act.
Rely on your training, Abby. It’s all you’ve got.

She was comforted by a rush of invisible cold and a shrill little giggle.

“Ruby?”

Ruby answered with another shrill giggle. Then one more onslaught of frigid air with a twinge of ash and soot and smoke told her of another visitor.

“And Brutus. Good. Everyone’s here then?”

“Well, not everyone.” Morris said over the radio what they all were thinking. Especially Abby. She wanted him to be there. More than just for the tactical support, it was for the moral support.

“To hell with Rev.”

“You don’t mean that, Abby.” Morris knew she was just blowing steam as always. Even after they had admitted their love for each other, they still found ways to stay apart, inventing artificial obstacles to their ultimate happiness. “You want him here just as much as we all do. We need him here.”

“Well, he’s not here, and I don’t need him anyway.”

“Be that as it may, Abby, we still have impediments before us, and much of it can be overcome by strictly adhering to our original procedure. We’re only a matter of a few simple steps away from objective.”

As Morris spoke about his plan, a low and mournful horn sounded. Abby shielded her ears from the painful noise. It died away, only to be replaced by a disconcerting voice thundering over some unseen loudspeaker,
announcements of a general nature about the ongoing activity.

Abby set her sights on a large, military style tent near the giant Controller. Surrounding the tent were heavily-armed soldiers, some in armored vehicles, Humvees and small tanks. It was a veritable deathtrap for anyone who dared enter.

“Now what?” she was deflated. It seemed like the entire world was against them.

“Just walk right up and go in,” Morris said.

It sounded so insane, Abby figured it just might work.

In an act of supreme confidence, or supreme lunacy, she insinuated herself into the action. At several points she was stopped and asked for credentials. Abby would smile, point at her tag on her chest, and explain that she was on official business. She got strange looks, but she was always let through. In the end, she made it to the tent where all of the activity was centralized.

When she entered, she saw the doctor’s ethereal presence. Abby couldn’t believe it. He was at the top of a large landing area beneath an opening in the tent’s roof through which the base of the Controller protruded.

From her viewpoint, she watched uncomfortably as the doctor performed an adjustment to the Controller. The effect was instant and impressive, with a large burst of nebulous clouds exploding in the direct vicinity above the machine. It was just like what happened at The Singulate compound a day earlier, only more terrifying because it was being sanctioned by the US government. And it was about a hundred times larger. She suspected that this was so clandestine, maybe even many people in ParaIntell didn’t know about it. Maybe even Mahoney. She could only hope as much, because the alternative was too disturbing.

All hope of Mahoney not knowing was shattered when Abby saw his robust silhouette on the platform next Doctor Petrovic. The second she saw him, she heard him.

“You
will
complete this machine, Doctor,” Mahoney snarled. It made Abby sick to her stomach.

“I’m going in,” she said over the radio. Before Morris could say anything to stop her, she was halfway there. No one noticed as she made it to the platform, and by the time they did it was too late. Heavily armed guards, using modified versions of spirit snares, sprinted from the platform and lunged at Abby. Brutus intervened, soaring toward Mahoney and seizing him instantly, causing the attacking soldiers to back off.

Mahoney struggled mightily with Brutus, but had no way to resist the massive vice clenching down upon his windpipe. He felt his consciousness slipping.

“Does it hurt, Mahoney?” Abby wanted nothing more than to let Brutus crush Mahoney’s throat. But if they killed Mahoney, what price would they pay? That was not a question she was willing to face, so she stared Brutus down until he acquiesced, releasing his chokehold on Mahoney.

“You!” Mahoney scraped the word from his burning esophagus. He was furious. He never imagined Ghost Guard would get this deep into the ParaIntell complex. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!”

“My job, Mahoney!” With a swift kick, she sent the interface for the newest incarnation of the Controller flying, effectively reducing it to scrap. She scooped up a spirit snare and activated the intake mechanism, drawing Emile into its electrical net. There was another snare nearby. Abby immediately sensed Alexandra inside of it. “Let’s get out of here!”

The second Brutus released him, Mahoney shuddered with fury, his jowls shaking, his flabby stomach jiggling. He was sweating from head to toe, but refused to give in. He was in charge here.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he hurried toward a red panel near the bunker’s entrance. He pressed a button and a piercing alarm permeated the entire complex. Then he squawked into the microphone. “Intruders in the Controller bunker! All security personnel to the Controller bunker!”

Abby sprinted to the exit with Brutus and Ruby leading the way. Immediately outside, she was greeted by two armed guards. They would have apprehended her if not for Brutus, who became a sudden wall of wind, throwing the men onto their backs. Abby kept running and didn’t stop, stepping over the men and pushing one back down as he tried to get up. More soldiers were chasing Abby from behind, and Ruby raced between their legs, sending them all to the ground unexpectedly and violently.

This was their plan. Their way out of the complex. Brutus and his visceral strength clearing the way while Ruby, with her craftiness, had her back. And Abby, with her determination, would carry the Petrovics to permanent freedom. No more imprisonment. No more clandestine labor on a machine that should never exist. They had their egress planned to a T. All circumstances accounted for. All contingencies taken. Morris was a meticulous planner, and he had thought of almost everything.

Almost.

They were essentially surrounded by ParaIntell soldiers. That much was a fact. The alarm was blaring. Armed men in pickups, Humvees, and even a Yamaha quad were chasing her. Those details weren’t what had her concerned. It was the tanks. The second she saw the tanks, Abby knew something was wrong. The objects at the end of their gun turrets should not have been there. But there they were. Devices so sickeningly similar and so disturbingly large that she had to let out a shriek of terror and halts in her tracks. The sinewy root tangles. The nests of capillary wiring. Abby understood what was she was looking at. It was the largest, most destructive spirit snare she never wanted to see.

Instantly, the gigantic spirit snare held influence over Brutus and Ruby. Instantly they felt ill and feeble. Worse than that, they both instantly felt the unrelenting and irresistible pull. Both ghosts at the same time had their inner essences hijacked. They both knew they had to go immediately. But they both swore they would never abandon Abby. Not with all of this testosterone around. Not with all the rifles pointed at her. And not with Mahoney as furious as he was.

“Do you know what you’ve done!” Mahoney emerged from the Controller bunker fuming. “Of course you don’t. You have no idea! Now bring back the doctor before I really get upset!”

Mahoney gestured at the tanks wielding the giant spirit snares and they increased their power. Brutus could resist the mighty tug at his inner essence, but Ruby was having a difficult time. Brutus, like a lifeguard at the beach, buoyed Ruby over the surface of the terrifying magnetic attraction, keeping her from falling into the giant trap. He had only so much strength, though. Only so much time. Only so long could he do what he was doing. He didn’t want to admit it, but even he had his limitations, and he was coming dangerously close.

Abby didn’t want to say it out loud, but she knew this was the end of the line. She cursed herself for not foreseeing this tragic turn of events, her lack of leadership and foresight. More than anything, she cursed the one man, or ghost, who probably could have turned the tables in all of this. Under her breath, she muttered his name. A part of her never wanted to see him again. Another part of her wished more than anything else he could be there.

Chapter 32

A storm rolled through the sky from the west, spreading like wildfire, casting a midnight shadow across the land. A black streak suddenly materialized inside the fortified walls of the outdoor complex. Abby knew exactly what it was. Like a silent assassin, the streak of blackness slipped through the maze of tanks and armored trucks with deft precision. The only sound it made was the squeal of rubber as it maneuvered nimbly amongst the soldiers and their vehicles. With one final, sideways, screeching slide, the Phantom seemed to emerge from a shadowy dream.

Rev, at the wheel, grinned at Abby. Then he saw Abby’s steely stone cold expression, his grin wasn’t so large anymore.

“What?”

“Where have you been!” she was in no mood. Rev jettisoned from the car like a slipstream, materializing next to her and unburdening her of the Petrovics’ spirit snares. With supernatural swiftness because of the approaching soldiers, he transported them to the backseat of the Phantom. At the same time, Ruby and Brutus materialized in the backseat as well.

“Let’s go!” Abby jumped in the shotgun seat.

Rev straightened the steering wheel and stepped on the accelerator, pushing the Phantom’s electric power plant to its limits. The car shot like a bullet into the crowd of vehicles, all with heavy weaponry. Shots were fired in a conflagration of hell. It was raining lead.

“You know what you’re doing, right?” Abby began to doubt the veracity of this idea. She knew they were boxed in by that massive concrete perimeter fence, but maybe Rev knew of way out. She dug her fingernails into the dashboard and screamed, “Tell me you know what you’re doing!”

“I got this,” Rev maneuvered calmly through the network of tanks and Humvees, pushing the car through a small gap between two troop carriers. A gap that was getting smaller by the second. But it was too late. The gap closed completely. There was no escape.

“We’re trapped!” Abby .

“Not if I can help it,” Rev had his escape route already planned out, and, with a thought, sent the Phantom hurling towards it.

The concrete wall.

Abby dug her heels into the floorboards, hitting the imaginary brake pedal and involuntarily shouting bloody murder.

“What are you doing! We’re going to hit that wall!”

Abby was spot-on. Rev was taking them on a direct collision course with the massive, iron rebar fortified megalith. There was no space for a vehicle, and it had a mass that a living human could not penetrate. A ghost could penetrate the space. And a ghost could translocate physical objects. Rev seemed to have mastered translocating the Phantom, but Abby wasn’t sure he had the energy reserves to do it again, and with a carful of passengers, living or not.

“Hold on!” Rev was cool under fire. Abby was not so self-assured.

“Rev, you don’t have the energy for this! Rev!”

She kept screaming at him to stop, but the Phantom didn’t stop. Meter by meter it got closer to a head-on crash. Inches before impact, with the most intense form of concentration, Rev spread his essence to encompass the Phantom and everything in it. His energy field had never been so challenged.

Like the car’s namesake, the Phantom became nothing but a ghost, collapsing into granular atmospheric molecules and transforming into pliable interdimensional particles. Particles that easily moved through space, through time, through dimension.

The incident came as quite a surprise for the ParaIntell personnel. They thought they had Ghost Guard cornered. Then, suddenly, they were gone. Mahoney took it the worst. He went on a rampage of wanton destruction and cursed his incompetent subordinates for their failure.

That was neither here nor there for Rev and his crew. They made it out, and, with a swirl of plasma and a shock of electrified mist, reentered the physical plane in a completely new geographic location. Completely new but not completely foreign. It only took a few seconds for Abby to recognize where they were, and when she did, she was amazed.

“Gasworks?”

“You doubted me?” Rev wanted to smile, but he could only think of the way they left things. It still stung.

Abby was equal parts confused, amazed, and terrified. Confused because she didn’t understand exactly what had happened. Amazed because Rev was able to pull off such a feat of translocation. And terrified because now she knew Rev was so depleted of stat-mag energy that he surely needed an infusion.

“Rev, you have to be close to extinguishing!” Morris beat Abby to the punch, reminding her of the distinct division of labor on the team. Morris was in direct charge of the crew’s welfare. Rev’s wellbeing was his responsibility. Abby, in turn, was in charge of the wellbeing of their valued guests, the Petrovics. Morris went to work taking energy level measurements with his stat-mag meter, running it from head to toe and back again.

“I’m fine,” Rev stared at Abby as he slowly faded into preternatural mist. She knew where he was going. Away from her.

“Rev, wait!” Morris was adamant, yet Rev continued his vanishing act. “I need to be certain that you—”

“I’m FINE.”

“Let him go,” Abby cradled the Petrovic spirit snares. Morris took them from her, and she watched with trepidation as he flung the devices to the ground and stomped on them, releasing two clouds of white steam. The hazy duo molded into two distinct human shapes quickly. Abby felt the soft caress of Alexandra’s ghostly embrace. She wasn’t fully formed as a physical entity like Rev or Brutus or Ruby could do. However, Abby still felt her lightly, like a flock of butterflies hovering around her.

“Thank you for rescuing Emile and me…again,” Alexandra’s sweet voice was like a song. Emile smiled and nodded as his wife expressed their gratitude. “You are all so courageous.”

“We were only doing our jobs,” Abby said emotionlessly. She was drained, not because of the back-to-back missions or discovering that ParaIntell was just as sleazy as anyone else. She was tired of fighting with Rev.

“Wonderful work, my boy,” Emile solidified his hand just enough to shake with Morris, who was red-faced with delight.

“It was the least I could do for you, Doctor.”

Abby felt like sleeping for about a week. She smiled and nodded, but her mind was somewhere else. That’s when Alexandra took her aside and looked deeply in her eyes.

“Abby. I know what you’re going through.”

“You do?” Abby asked sleepily, not knowing what Alexandra was talking about.

“Yes, I do. You and Rev.”

“What about me and Rev?” Abby perked up.

“I know about your…problem. I know you’re worried about being intimate with him because it drains him of his power.”

She stared at Alexandra’s ethereal face with surprise. “How…how did you—”

“I just know,” Alexandra winked. “And I also know you’re wrong.”

“What?”

“You won’t hurt him by loving him, Abby. You can’t hurt him. Not if you let out your true nature.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You have power in your soul, Abby. And that power can be quite potent.”

Abby shook her head to make sense out of what she had just heard.
Her
soul? Powerful?

“I don’t know what you mean,” she blurted out confusedly. “What kind of power?”

“I’m not exactly certain,” Alexandra answered. The way she spoke told Abby she was telling the truth. She really did believe Abby’s soul had some kind of mysterious influence, but she didn’t know all the details. “I just know you have an ancient soul, and it can radiate energy if you let it. Why and how—you will have to discover those details for yourself. All I can tell you is that you have nothing to fear making love with Rev. Be bold. Be brave. Love him, Abby.”

“But every time we do I can tell it hurts him,” Abby protested. “I’m hurting him by loving him.”

“No. You aren’t hurting him. Trust me. You just have to learn to let go of your fear, release your inhibitions, love Rev with all you have, Abby. That’s the key. Release your soul’s power and don’t look back.”

“Release my soul’s power?” she repeated incredulously. It sounded insane, the things Alexandra Petrovic was telling her. Then again, deep down inside, Abby felt something was ringing true. She’d always felt she had something special to offer, something besides her ability to see and speak with the dead. It was inside of her all along, this power. Maybe her ancient soul was the reason why she had such supernatural sight. Whatever the reason, she had an epiphany at that moment, and with it a burning desire to find Rev.

She’d been having thoughts and ideas, dare she call them premonitions? She thought it was all just her imagination, but now it was making sense. She felt like she had the power to keep Rev from extinguishing if she just opened up, if she just remained true to her feelings instead of running from them constantly.

“Go, Abby,” Alexandra sensed a shade of hesitancy in her. “Find him. He needs you and you him. Go.”

Abby didn’t need any more encouragement. She rushed up the sturdy brick staircase, up past the ramshackle first floor to the second, into the posh and smartly decorated office space. The heart of Ghost Guard operations. Her office was there. So were Morris’s workshop and the conference room. But she only had one place in mind, and she made a straight line down the long hallway to that very spot, to the very door, beyond which she knew he was waiting.

“What do you want?” he asked the second she came in. She paused for a moment, looking at him as he sat in his desk chair, leaning forward and holding his head in his hands as if he was a real person, as if he was a real man with real feelings. He was as real as any other man. He just didn’t have the physical body to prove it. He was, though, fully manifested now. He had been for quite some time despite the drain on him. He didn’t know why he was there, brooding in full form. Maybe he was waiting for her, waiting for this moment.

No words were necessary, so she didn’t speak. She just ran, kicking off her heels and throwing open her arms. He barely had the time to stand and catch her as she literally tossed herself onto him.

“Abby?” he said nervously as she showered him with kisses. “Abby? What are you doing?”

“Shhh,” she held her finger up to his lips and then kissed them. “Don’t talk. Not now.”

He obeyed immediately, following her lead and kissing her lips, cheek, neck. It tickled her but she loved it, loved his touch. It could melt her heart, and did. The ice that had formed over her heart over the last few days. The frost was breaking, and now what was left burned like a fire.

He lifted her effortlessly, carrying her to the velvet lounge chair near the window. As he laid her down gently, he slipped off her jacket then unbuttoned her shirt. She allowed him to strip her bare, and then watched as his clothes magically disappeared.

Naked, impassioned, ripe with lust. Just as Rev was about to consummate their tender moment, just as Abby felt his enormous manhood about to enter her, a terse and shrill electronic alarm interrupted everything.

“Rev! Abby! I need to talk to you! Now!”

Mahoney had hacked into their internal server somehow, using Morris’s network to send a secured message. His face appeared on Rev’s computer screen, and he was livid.

“You can’t just waltz in here and ruin a multi-billion dollar project like that! Do you realize what you’ve done!”

Abby, concealing her bust with her jacket, wouldn’t let Mahoney say another word.

“You son of a bitch, Mahoney! We won’t stand by and let you build a device like that. It wouldn’t be moral.”

“Moral? You want to worry about morals? We’re in a war, here, Abby. A war for the very survival of mankind, and we need every weapon at our disposal.”

“The Controller is not a weapon,” she argued. “It’s pure recklessness!”

“I don’t care what you think! You work for me, not the other way around! I want all of you in the briefing room pronto! We have a lot of things to talk about, and you have a lot to answer for! Get your asses—”

Abby had reached her boiling point, but instead of engaging that madman in an argument that was going nowhere fast, she unplugged the computer. Mahoney’s combative face vanished.

“I guess we’re in trouble,” Rev took that as his cue to continue with what they had started.

“What else is new?” she surrendered to his touch, giving in to her own feelings. She felt herself opening up, not physically but mentally and emotionally. She didn’t concern herself with Rev and his energy level. Alexandra was right, and she knew it. Abby had enough power in her soul for both of them. She also knew, for both of them, there would be no turning back.