“Hold!” Dane ordered as Freed brought his M-16 to bear.
A man with a large red mustache stepped through the black and the circle disappeared.
“Ed,” Dane whispered.
“Dane,” the man acknowledged.
Dane stared in disbelief. His team leader looked the same as he had the day Dane had last seen him, over forty years ago, his face drawn with fatigue and stress, but his hair was still bright red, his body still straight and hard with youth.
“How-” Dane began, but Flaherty stepped up to him and gripped his shoulder.
“There’s not much time. We have to stop them.”
“Stop who?” Dane asked. The others had crowded around, watching the reunion silently.
Flaherty pointed at the golden beam. “The ones who control that.”
“But-” Dane stepped back, his system overwhelmed. “But who are you? You can’t be-”
“It’s me,” Flaherty assured him. “I know it’s hard for you to accept but it is me.”
“Where were you?” Dane asked. “It’s been over forty years.”
A shadow passed over Flaherty’s face. “Forty years?” He shook his head slowly. “I knew it was a while, but forty years?” He fixed on Dane’s eyes. “Linda?”
Dane blinked, the question assuring him it was his old teammate more than anything else the man could have said. “She’s married, Ed. A long time. She has grandkids.”
Flaherty nodded, the words sinking in. “It’s all right. It’s the way it should be. I can’t go back any way. Never could. Never can.”
“But how-” Dane couldn’t get the words out.
“I don’t know,” Flaherty said. His face showed his own confusion. “I went sideways. That’s the best way they explained it to me. They saved me from the Shadow and took me a step sideways, which is where they were. Where they’ve always been.”
“Who is they?” Freed demanded.
Flaherty held up his hands. “The Ones Before. That’s what they were called by the people of this city long ago. I don’t know exactly who or what they are, but they sent me here to help you stop the others.”
“The others?” Dane repeated. He tried reaching into the other man’s mind but there was a wall there he couldn’t penetrate.
“Those of the Shadow,” Flaherty said. “They want to take our world. They need it. We have to stop them.”
“I don’t know-” Freed began
“Shut up,” Ariana snapped. “How do we stop the Shadow?”
“The beam,” Flaherty looked at Ariana. “You didn’t stop it at the plane soon enough. The Shadow were able to cannibalize your plane and the computer on board and move what they needed here, to the Prang. They can only use what they take here, on this side. They can’t come through yet, not without protection inside their machines. Neither can the Ones Before who saved me. They also use what they can and they used me. They saved me.”
The words were coming out in a tumble. Dane reached forward and grasped his team leaders arm. “Easy, Ed. Easy. We’ll help.”
“Animals-if that’s what you want to call them-some of them, from the other side, they can come through. But water seems to stop them. But water doesn’t stop the machines the others use. Or the beams.”
Dane was trying to follow what his old friend was saying.
Tears welled up in Flaherty’s eyes. “I can’t come back, Dane. They saved me, but I can’t come back. They’re controlling this space around me, but they can’t do it for long, and then I have to go back.” He leaned forward. “You have to stop the Shadow. You have to.”
“How?” Ariana repeated.
“Stop the golden beam. Now. Before it’s too late. You only have ten minutes before the final connections are made and it can’t be stopped. All the Gates will be connected and then they’ll open wide.”
“What can we do in ten minutes?” Dane asked.
Flaherty put a hand to his forehead, as if he were in pain. “Destroy the Prang. The Shadow can stop anything you send in here that uses electromagnetic energy. They can see that, use it, like we see light. And radiation. That’s what they really use and what they really need. They want our planet. This place and the others like it are the launching points for their invasion into our world. You can’t let them get any further.”
Dane looked past Flaherty at the massive Prang. Ten minutes wasn’t enough time to get back out. And if even if they got out, how could they destroy it not using weapons from the outside?
Dane closed his eyes. He cleared his mind, opening it. He saw it, and he knew that the image had been sent to him. From whom he didn’t know, but it was the Voice of the Gods as Sin Fen had told him.
Dane focused his mind and sent a sharp mental spear to the east.
Chelsea felt her master. He was with her. She looked around, head turning in all directions. But where was he?
But the command was as if he were whispering in her ear. She leaned down and sunk her teeth into Sin Fen’s shoulder. The woman started, eyes slowly opening out of her unconsciousness.
Sin Fen shook her head, feeling pain, nausea. And on top of that an insistent voice.
Dane? she mentally asked.
We must act quickly! Dane’s voice was in her head, echoing through her brain. Chelsea was already tearing at the rope that was wrapped around Sin Fen as Dane sent her his message, showing her what must be done.
“Hey!” Someone was shaking Dane on the shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked into Ariana’s deep blue ones.
“We’ve got to do something. Now!” She was pointing back, across the moat. With a loud cacophony of hisses, seven snake heads on one body slithered into view, pausing at the edge of the moat.
“It won’t cross the water,” Flaherty said.
“Great,” Carpenter spoke for the first time, “but how the hell do we get out of here?”
“Maybe we don’t,” Dane said. “But we’ve got to stop the beam.”
“The Ones Before can assist you in getting out once you destroy the Prang,” Flaherty said.
“How do we do that?” Freed asked.
“I’m getting us some help,” Dane said.
Sin Fen pushed the remains of the rope off of herself and stood. She rubbed Chelsea’s head, long fingers scratching her ears. “Good girl.”
Chelsea bowed her head, pushing up against the fingers.
“No time for more, big dog,” Sin Fen said. She began climbing her way out of the ravine pulling a knife out of the top of her boot.
“Sir, we’re only twenty miles off shore of Florida,” Commander Sills told him. “This thing keeps growing like it is, we’re going to run out of water.”
“Hell,” Rogers said, “it does that again, a lot of civilians in southern Florida are going to be like us.”
He felt warm. He had no idea what someone who’d taken a fatal dose of radiation was supposed to feel. The last thing he wanted was for his crew to suffer. He planned on staying on station as long as his crew could remain operational, but once the sickness grew too acute, he would take the Wyoming down and end it quickly for all. And keep his contaminated submarine from hurting anyone else.
Sin Fen crested the edge of the ravine. A black suited mercenary turned at the sound of her arrival. The alarm died in his throat as she flicked the razor sharp knife into his neck. She had his submachinegun in hand before he hit the ground.
She walked into the camp, firing before anyone was even aware she was there. The other five mercenaries died in less than ten seconds, never knowing what had happened.
She caught Paul Michelet trying to climb into the passenger seat of one of the Huey’s. She halted his escape by the expedient means of firing through the cockpit plexiglass and stitching a neat pattern of bullet holes in the pilot’s chest.