Kenneth took up the story. “But it wasn’t a tomb, it was some sort of—”
“Wormhole,” Tessa filled in,
Kenneth nodded. “Yeah, some kind of a dimensional doorway.”
Blake kept his face impassive. Since joining the A51, he’d heard his share of lunatic stories. He’d even encountered a few crazies wearing aluminum hats and talking into tin cans. He could tell the difference between those who were certifiably insane and those who were telling the absolute truth as they believed it.
Had a section of his arm not been fried to a crisp, Blake would have wondered what color Kool-Aid these people had been drinking. As it was, he doubted he’d hallucinated the injury. “And where did this portal lead?”
Kenneth and Tessa shared a look between them.
“To Ishaldi,” Tessa said. “But it isn’t all ruins. There is a city there, and another race of people.”
Kenneth eyed Blake’s injured arm. “And they aren’t exactly friendly toward humans.”
Blake’s stomach rolled. “I think that’s pretty clear.”
Kenneth laced his fingers together and laid his hands on the table. “I just wish it didn’t sound so insane coming out of my mouth,” he answered, giving Blake a rueful smile. “Honest to God and I’m dying if I’m lying. There is a portal under the Mediterranean Sea and we accidentally opened it.”
Digesting the information he had, Blake thought a moment. “I’m no scientist, but the opening of a wormhole would jibe with a sudden surge in electromagnetic activity,” he ventured slowly.
Surprise colored Kenneth’s face. “You say that like you believe us.”
Blake nodded. “From what I’ve seen, I’m starting to.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Can you tell me more about the other, um, people you encountered?”
Addison sighed and ran her hands through her short spiky hair. “They’re called the
Mer
. That’s short for mermaid.”
“Like half fish, half human?”
Addison pointed at Tessa and then to Gwen. “Not quite, but it’s what we are.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder like a hitchhiker. “Unfortunately it also describes those bitches outside.”
That one caught him by surprise. “You’re joking, right?”
Addison shook her head. “It’s no joke and it’s not very funny to us. For a long time the Mer have hovered on the brink of extinction. But we’re here, the few of us that remain. And we’ve always wanted to learn where the Mer came from. We have always believed we had a homeland, somewhere, so we went looking for it.”
Blake sobered. The entire picture still wasn’t complete in his mind, but it was beginning to form a coherent image. “And that would be Ishaldi?”
Tessa took up the narrative. “Jake Massey was my fiancé at one time,” she explained. “When he found out I was a Mer, he became obsessed with finding Ishaldi—it was going to be the discovery that made him a legend.”
Blake thought back to the dossier. “I seem to recall Massey wasn’t very highly regarded in the archaeological community.”
“Everybody thought Jake was a nut,” Addison put in. “Which means nobody believed him when he started jawing about the existence of an intelligent, nonhuman, sea-based species.”
“Which would be the mermaids?”
“You got it.” Tessa laughed shortly, a strained, unpleasant sound. “So tell me, how crazy do we all sound?”
Blake had to shake his head. “Uh, not too bad, actually. If I worked in any other division, I wouldn’t have believed a word. In fact, I’d wonder what dope you were all were smoking and when the next spaceship was landing.”
Addison eyed him. “Except you know better, don’t you, Agent Whittaker? Care to share a little of what you’ve seen in your career?”
Blake shrugged. Since they were all in the jam together now, he had no reason not to be honest. “As an agent of the ASD, every bit of information I hold is strictly confidential.”
Gwen brightened, peeking out from behind her sullen mantle. “Does that mean you won’t tell anyone about us?” she asked hopefully.
Finishing his coffee, Blake set the empty container on the table. The painkiller had kicked in and his arm didn’t ache so terribly bad. He no longer felt like someone had poured gasoline on his skin and set him afire. “Let me put it this way,” he ventured after a thoughtful pause. “What you’ve told me today will be held in the strictest of confidence. My superiors aren’t going to allow such sensitive information to be spread to the general public, if at all possible.”
Gwen sagged weakly against the wall in relief. “Oh, thank the goddess.”
“I’d have to agree,” Addison said. “It probably isn’t the best idea if we’re identified as Mer, given the problem we’ve got going on outside.”
Blake looked around the room. “If you’re Mer and they’re Mer, why are they trying to kill you?”
“It’s me Queen Magaera wants,” Tessa said.
Blake held up a hand, temporarily halting her narrative. A new name had popped up. “Now, who is she?”
A deep frown shadowed Tessa’s face. “Queen Magaera rules the Mer people,” she explained. “Those women who attacked us are her soldiers and they’ve been sent after me.”
Blake ran his fingers through his hair. “Why?” A lot of information was coming his way, too much and too fast to make sense of. He’d soon need a scorecard to keep up with the players.
Tessa winced. “I accidentally rekeyed the sea-gate to accept only my resonance, my magnetic imprint, so to speak. Queen Magaera needs me to reopen it so she can bring the rest of her army into the world.”
Kenneth pointed toward the ceiling. “Magaera’s soldiers aren’t going to go away until they kill us and recapture Tessa. In their society, people like you and me are slaves. Inferiors.” He laughed shortly. “And those they don’t put a yoke on, they slaughter.”
Remembering the massacre of the skipper who’d ferried them across the bay, Blake felt every bit of sensation drain from his body. A cold trickle of sweat worked its way down his spine. The tension in the room was beginning to get to him.
The fact that the Mer are hostile toward humans changes the entire game plan
.
Rather than merely being quarantined and suppressed, the Mer might have to be taken care of with more drastic action.
He didn’t even want to think about what that might entail.
Pulling in a breath, Blake shot Kenneth a look. “So how many of these unfriendly Mer happened to follow you home?”
Chapter 6
G
wen sat on the lower bunk, back against the wall, feet dangling over the edge of the bed. Tessa sat beside her. Addison was stretched out on the top level, humming a nonsense tune.
Across the room, Kenneth and Blake Whittaker were futzing with the half-installed radio system.
“Lucky was the one who knew this stuff,” Kenneth was saying. “He was supposed to come back this week and get it finished up.”
Whittaker tried connecting a few wires. Sparks flew around his fingers. He jumped back. “I don’t know what he’s done here,” he said as he examined the tip of his badly scorched finger. “But it’s one huge mess.”
Gwen rolled her eyes heavenward. Terrific.
Just another thing to go wrong
.
She doubted the list could get any longer. In the space of twenty little minutes not only had they been attacked by a cadre of killer bitches, they were also trapped in the basement with no way to summon help. Oh, and now a federal agent knew they were mermaids.
“This day can’t get any worse,” she grumbled.
Tessa reached over, squeezing her arm. “It’s not so bad, Gwen, that people know we’re Mer. We belong here just as much as anyone does.”
Throat tightening, Gwen swallowed hard. “I’ve always been ashamed because we’re different, the fish out of water.”
“Spending your whole life hating what you are isn’t any way to live, Gwyneth,” Tessa murmured, using Gwen’s full name. “A Mer is what you are, what you were born to be.”
Feeling the burn of tears rise, Gwen quickly blinked. “I’m not like you, Tess. You’ve always pined for Ishaldi, imagining our great and glorious past. Not so glorious now, is it, to find you belong to a vicious, human-hating race?”
Tessa slowly shook her head. “Not all Mer are like Magaera and her council. There are others who believe humans and Mer can coexist in peace. Those are the ones we need to help. As Queen Nyala’s descendants, we have a duty to try and restore the Tesch Dynasty to its rightful place.”
Gwen snorted. “You’re letting that queen stuff go to your head. It’s hard to even believe we’re descended from a royal dynasty.”
“I’d believe it,” Addison piped up from above. “Look at all the cool gems we have to prove it.”
Tessa winced. “Had,” she reminded. “The choker and orb were destroyed when I opened the sea-gate.”
Addison peeked down over the edge of her bunk. “Those things are awesome,” she said. “And it’s too bad we don’t have the other pieces. Didn’t you say there was a scepter, Tessa? That went with Aunt Gail when she moved off the island?”
Tessa brushed her hands across her face. “Yeah, Grandma divided the pieces between her and Mom. According to Queen Magaera that scepter was the most powerful piece. It could supposedly give the user control over land and sea, though I’m not entirely sure how it works.”
“Well, we haven’t got it,” Gwen said. “So it isn’t going to do us any good.”
Addison grinned. “But we’ve still got a
Ri’kah
.”
Gwen felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck rise. Although it looked like nothing more than an elaborate armband fashioned of gold and semiprecious stones, the ornament was absolutely deadly when in the hands of a Mer skilled in the ways of Mercraft.
Without thinking, her hand rose to the pendant she wore around her neck, a simple unpolished quartz crystal. This was her soul-stone, a gift every newly born Mer female received at the time of her birth. But it was much more than a birthstone.
For a Mer, crystals had a magical property. Using crystals was one of the ways a Mer could tap into and enhance her own inner energies. Scientists called it psi-kinetics.
Gwen just called it a curse.
Tessa perked up. “Wait a minute. We’re not as helpless as we think we are.” She slid off the bed. “Ken—where’s the Ri’kah?”
Her husband turned to answer. “I think I stored it with the tranq gun. Why?”
Tessa had no chance to explain. An explosion from outside hit the door.
SMASH!
The force striking the reinforced steel door heated the metal to the melting point. A large bulge appeared where the bolt struck it.
Everyone instantly understood Tessa’s question.
Tessa jumped off the bunk. “That’s why we need it, honey!” she shouted.
Addison rolled off the top bunk. “Shit! It didn’t take them long to figure out where we are.”
Whittaker eyed the damaged door. “I’ve got a feeling this isn’t going to be pretty.”
It was the understatement of the century.
Kenneth’s eyes bugged. “That door is supposed to be made to withstand a freaking tornado.”
“Tornado, yeah,” Tessa shot back. “Bolts from a laser gun, no.”
Whittaker leaped on her comment. “You wouldn’t happen to have one of those?”
“Matter of fact, I do.” Tessa looked to her husband. “Where is it?”
Kenneth hustled toward a panel built into one far wall. He unlocked it, pulling out some object that looked to be wrapped in felt and a small metallic case.
Tessa quickly unrolled the felt. She slipped her hand through a spiral of gold laced with crystals. Her fingers curled around the grip. A large clear-cut stone spanned her knuckles. She extended her arm. “Bring ’em on.”
Whittaker moved in for a closer look. Bemusement crossed his face. “Is that all it is?” he asked, clearly expecting to see an elaborate example of alien technology. “A bracelet?”
Tessa shook her head. “Mers have the ability to pull the energy out of crystals and reconvert it into electrical voltage. Add a little heat and light and you’ve got a pretty damn effective laser.”
“Piezoelectricity,” Kenneth added. “And it packs one hell of a wallop.”
Whittaker eyed the ornament. “Don’t suppose you’ve got more than one?”
Tessa opened her mouth to answer but never had the chance to speak. A second blast rocked the door, followed by a third. The odor of metal burning and melting permeated the small chamber. The stench was horrific.
“They’ve still got us outgunned.” The federal agent eyed the door. “And once that thing comes down, it’s going to be a bloodbath. Caught in here, we’re just sitting ducks.”
Gwen slid off the bunk. Whittaker was right. They had literally boxed themselves in. “I’m not willing to sit here and wait for them to blast us.” She eyed the damage to the wall and door. Solid steel and concrete were coming down around them.
Kenneth opened the small metallic case. “The only other thing we’ve got is the tranquilizer gun.”
Whittaker claimed the pistol. “This is for taking down animals.” A grunt slipped past his lips. “Don’t you think bullets would have been a better idea?”
Kenneth shook his head. “The idea was to stop a person, not kill them.”
“Considering they want to kill you, that’s awfully generous,” the fed shot back.
Kenneth indicated the row of ammunition. “I’ll accept putting them into unconsciousness, not oblivion. When we were in Ishaldi, I had to kill a couple of those women. I didn’t like it, and I won’t do it again.”
Whittaker quickly loaded the pistol, then pocketed a second clip. “That’s admirable. Stupid, but admirable. I happen to prefer deadly force.” He checked the sights. “These things usually work better when you’re behind the animal, not in front of it while it’s charging. Guess I’ll have to make do.”
Gwen’s head came up. Did he just call the Mer animals? She hoped it was a slip of the tongue and not his actual feelings about an unfamiliar species.