She was pale and tense, but he could literally feel the hot force field of determination that blazed invisibly around her. A strange thrill flared deep inside him. He was torn between the need to protect her and a soul-stirring pride in her courage. His woman, his wife.
The ultraviolet waterfall was waiting for them when they came out of the curve. He slowed the sled a little and started summoning dark light, as much as he could pull.
A whirlpool of pulsing midnight swirled into existence in the passageway ahead of the sled. He had intended to try to tackle the monster by attacking its tightly whirling core. That was standard practice for dealing with UDEMs, both the kind that floated at random through the tunnels and those that were human-generated.
But the energy barrier did not have an obvious core. The intricately churning psi looked as strong and tight at the outer edges as it did at the center. He aimed his flaring vortex of dark energy at the side of the waterfall.
Dark light slammed into ultraviolet near the point where the energy veil met the tunnel wall. There was an explosive sound not unlike a burst of fireworks.
"Look," Sierra said. "You sliced off a piece of the ghost."
His first salvo had taken a big bite out of the monster. But the gap disappeared almost instantly. Within seconds the veil repaired itself.
He could punch through it, but the hole would not last long enough for them to slip through the opening.
"I've got an idea," he said. "Move closer to me, as far away from the edge of the sled as possible."
She didn't ask any questions, just slid across the bench seat until she was only a couple of inches away from him. There was so much psi in the atmosphere now that her hair swirled around her face as though she were swimming in a pool of invisible water. Impatiently she pushed a few tendrils out of her eyes and held the shovel at the ready.
The moving dam of energy behind them was getting close. He didn't have to look back to know it was there. He could feel the stuff coming toward them like a tsunami. Time had run out.
"Looks like we do this now," he said.
He pulled more midnight energy, more than he had ever summoned in his life. The waves of darkness pulsed and churned. When they were big enough, he threw everything he had through his amber and divided the night ghost at its core. Two whirlpools of highly volatile night fire appeared directly in front of the sled.
Instead of using the twin ghosts as battering rams, he positioned one on the front of the sled and the other against the passenger side of the vehicle. He had to maintain exquisite control. The slightest brush would sear their psychic senses. He might make it because he had some natural immunity, but with this much energy involved, he would likely be a candidate for a nice quiet parapsych ward afterward. He doubted that Sierra would survive. As for Elvis, who knew? Dust bunny paraphysiology was a mystery.
He drove toward the ultraviolet waterfall, aiming to get as close to the tunnel wall as possible.
Light and colors from across the spectrum flashed and flared as the churning night in front of the sled smashed into the ultraviolet beam. An opening just large enough to accommodate the sled appeared.
He floored the accelerator. Metal screamed when the left fender of the sled scraped against the tunnel wall. Ultraviolet energy surged, seeking to plug the opening, but the whirlpool of darkness that he had stationed on the right-hand side of the sled held the beam at bay for the seconds they needed to get through.
And then they were on the other side.
He saw another sled. A man in a motorcycle helmet, visor raised, sat in the front of the vehicle. He held a small device in both hands. There was no way he could swivel the gadget around, because the action would cause the ultraviolet beam to sweep over his two companions who stood beside the sled.
"They made it," one of the Riders yelled. "Turn this thing around and follow them."
"Shit, here come the others," the man inside the sled shouted. Panic lanced through his words. "They can't see us through that beam they're generating. They'll run right over us. We'll be fried."
The second man outside the vehicle ignored him. He jerked a long-bladed knife out of a belt sheath and lunged forward. His trajectory took him straight toward Sierra's side of the sled. He managed to grab the edge of the door opening, clearly intent on vaulting up into the cab.
Sierra aimed the shovel at his chest and shoved. The attacker screamed, lost his grip, and fell back onto the floor of the runnel.
Fontana checked the locater and took a hard left. The shouts and curses of the men faded quickly into the distance behind them.
Chapter 23
"WE CAN OUTRUN THEM, RIGHT?" SIERRA ASKED.
She felt strangely, unnaturally calm now that there was a genuine reason to panic. Either her overcharged senses had finally succumbed to the stress and burned out altogether or else being chased by a bunch of guys who wanted to kill you was a sure cure for claustrophobia.
"It will take them a while to regroup back there," Fontana said. "We should be able to put some distance between us."
Something about his tone of voice warned her that the situation had improved only moderately in his view. He was driving with a hard efficiency, glancing frequently at the dashboard instruments, pushing the little vehicle to its limits.
Elvis, still perched on the dash, was fully fluffed again and leaning forward excitedly, clearly enjoying this new game of tunnel chasing. Nevertheless, he still had all four eyes open.
She twisted in the seat and looked back. Behind them the branching corridors were empty. "You lost them."
"Not for long," Fontana said. "All we can do is stay ahead of them. Their sleds can't move any faster than ours."
"I thought you knew some tricks for throwing off their locaters."
"I do, but they aren't guaranteed to work. The real problem is that we haven't got time to make it to the main gate."
"You said it was only a couple of hours away."
"We don't have a couple of hours now. I burned a lot of amber getting us through that ultraviolet ghost beam. In less than an hour, I'm going to go out like a de-rezzed light."
A chill shot down her spine.
"The burn-and-crash thing?" she asked.
"I told you there were some major downsides to melting amber. It's a huge psychic energy drain. Takes time for the body to recover. I'm going to need at least three or four hours of sleep, and I'm not going to have any choice about it when the crash hits."
She cleared her throat. "I, uh, thought there was a period of increased excitement following a big burn. That adrenaline-testosterone rush business."
He gripped the wheel. "What do you think is keeping me awake and driving right now?"
She drew a deep breath. "I see. Well, I'm sure I can drive the sled."
"But can you use an amber-rez coordinator or a compass to find the gate?"
She winced. "No."
"Remind me to teach you one of these days. Every Guild boss's wife should learn how to navigate underground."
"I'll be sure to put it on my to-do list."
"Meanwhile, we haven't got an option; we're going to go into the jungle."
"What?"
He glanced at the sled's locator. "There's a gate into the rain forest not far from here. The Riders won't know about it."
"No offense, but that's what you said about the warehouse exit."
"This is different," Fontana said. "This is mine."
The intensity of his words made her look at him.
"Yours?" she repeated.
"I found it a week after I moved into the mansion. Turns out one of the things dark light is good for is opening gates into the rain forest. I never told anyone that I discovered and opened this particular gate."