The Forbidden Trilogy (96 page)

***

The pen stank of mud and piss. Simmons sat in a corner on
the floor, looking quite the mess. Her hair hung in strings around her face and
her clothes were covered in gunk. Lucy thought she'd feel happy or vindicated
seeing Simmons in this condition, but she just felt sorry for the stupid bitch.
It shocked her, though, to go from the memories of a young, hopeful Simmons to
this angry, jaded monster that she'd become.

Lucy walked up the to pen. "Steele wants you
back."

Simmons smacked. "So you finally figured it out,
huh?"

She nodded.

Simmons hung her head. "You're wrong though. He'd love
to see me dead."

"Sam read his mind and sent me his thoughts. He wants
you back. Have you seen the TV?"

Simmons snarled, but the expression only touched her lips.
"That bitch told you about my past?"

"She just showed me the truth. I understand now. Steele
wronged you."
Kinda
.

A feint smile. "He did, didn't he?"

"Yes. So have you seen the TV?"

Simmons shrugged. "Someone told me about it."

A fly buzzed around Lucy's face and she brushed it away. It
landed on Simmons, who didn't flinch. Damnit, Lucy couldn't afford for Simmons
to shut down right now. "That demonstration he's doing out there,
broadcasting it to the entire world... it's for you."

"No, it's for him. Everything he's ever done has been
for himself." Still no emotion, no response. The fly sat there nibbling
its feet, or whatever flies did.

Ugh.
She needed to sympathize. Lucy lowered herself
onto the balls of her feet, refusing to sit on the dirt. "I saw how he
mistreated you, how he hurt you."

She had to bite her tongue to keep from bringing up all the
monumental mistakes Simmons had made. That wouldn't help her cause, right now.
She breathed and remembered her lessons in the valley, to stay calm and focus
on the task without letting her emotions make her rash or stupid.

What would Simmons want more than anything? Not to be with
Steele again, clearly, but.... "Would you like to hurt him back?"

For the first time, Simmons looked up. "It's too late
now." But a glimmer of hope sparked in her eyes.

Lucy used it. "No, it's not. You can defeat him."

Simmons laughed—a cold, hard gesture that didn't reach her
eyes. "He's more powerful than ever. How could
I
do anything to
him? I'm powerless."

Lucy wanted to smack her for being so stupid and selfish,
for thinking that people only held value if they held power. Instead, she
dangled a promise in front of her. "You give him what he wants. And then
you give him this." Lucy held a syringe out, the one she got from the
armory, filled with the drug that took away para-powers.

Simmons looked at the needle and then looked up at Lucy and
smiled. This time it reached her eyes. "I'll do it."

Before Lucy could enjoy the small victory, and the hope that
came with it, something large dropped from the sky and crashed into the ground,
remolding the earth into a crater. She and Simmons looked up, and both gasped.

Beleth.

From Drake's view in the helicopter, Diamond Head looked
like a giant crater surrounded by buildings. He hadn't expected there to be
green shrubbery scattered throughout the volcano, but it made sense considering
how long it had been inactive. In the broadcast, Steele had been on the summit
above the observation platform, presumably because it offered the best view for
offense and defense. Since Steele's plan involved Sam giving him Ana's powers,
they both had to be there, and Drake had seen extra vials of the drug he needed
to get his para-powers back.

Fighting him head-on would be suicide, especially without
his powers, but that was why he had a team. "Darren, you'll lead the
attack against Steele while Robyn and I go after the drugs and Sam."

Darren crossed his arms. "
I'll
go after
Sam."

"I know you have... feelings for her." It pained
Drake to say that. "So do I. But this isn't about us. It's about her, what
she needs right now. I don't have powers. You do. You need to lead the strike
team against Steele."

Darren scowled and clenched his fist, then released it.
"You'd better get her back."

"I will. We need to be careful. Darren, your powers
won't be enough to take Steele down, not with what he's become, but you can
distract him from a distance, which is more than any of us can do. Even if I
had my powers, unless I could crack his mind, I wouldn't be able to do that. So
create a big enough diversion, for long enough, that he stays engaged."

Each member of the skilled team possessed useful
para-powers, and all were armed with weapons and vials of the drug that would
eliminate Steele's powers.

"Greg, Gary, Mary, Norm—keep your eyes open for a
chance to strike. If we can disarm him, we can take him down." Drake made
eye contact with each person in the helicopter. "This can work, guys. It
has to. Sam and Ana need it to. But it's bigger than that, even. What Steele is
doing will not only end the lives of a lot of people, but will result in a
world that will never accept paranormals for what we are. He's already killed,
used and abused so many children in his quest for power. We can't let him
succeed. I don't know what he's planning with an inactive volcano and the
world's attention, but let's not find out, okay?"

Norm lowered the helicopter to prepare for a landing.
"We're all going to die."

Drake slapped him on the back. "Way to keep it
positive, dude."

They couldn't land on Diamond Head directly, for risk of
Steele pulling them out of the sky, and they couldn't get too close, since the
U.S. military had created a perimeter around the volcano to keep civilians from
getting in—their way of 'maintaining control' of the situation.

Yeah, that's clearly working so well.

The two teams split up to accomplish their missions. Darren
and his group would use Mary to seduce their way in and challenge Steele
directly, while Drake and Robyn snuck in from behind to power-up and save Sam
and Ana.

Though the military had done their best to evacuate the
area, locals still pressed in to see what was going on. Some watched the live
footage on their iPads and iPhones even as they tried to catch a glimpse of the
madman live in action.

Robyn and Drake closed in on the scene, pushing people away
to get close. As they approached, a homeless man dressed in rags snuck under
the caution tape and made a run for it.

Two soldiers in camo tackled the guy to the ground and
dragged him away.

Was he trying to join Steele to get access to power? Drake looked
around and realized a lot of the people he'd assumed were locals looked very
poor and lost, beaten down by society. Steele offered them hope and power, so
of course they'd come to collect.

Robyn transformed into a solider and pushed through the
tape, holding Drake by the arm.

One of the soldiers on duty stopped them. "What are you
doing, bringing him in?"

Robyn, looking like a soldier herself, shrugged.
"Orders from top. I heard he's got some information."

The soldier used his radio to ask his commanding officer,
but no one responded. "They're probably in a meeting. Okay, go on. Any
damn information sounds good right about now."

The tension drained from Drake as Robyn smiled and escorted
him deeper into the military camp. Tents, soldiers and tanks littered the area
adjacent to the tuff cone that created the symmetrical crater. Doing any of
this without power gave Drake a serious headache. He'd spent his whole life
able to walk in and out of anything with the use of his para-powers, and being
vulnerable when so much was at stake scared the crap out of him.

All the soldiers stared at a new element added to the U.S.
Monument—a giant stone wall made from jagged rock pulled up from the earth by
the Grunts that Steele had created. Another barrier, and they still had a
forty-five-minute hike up the crater.

Robyn, still in soldier gear, whispered to Drake. "How
are we going to get there?"

He shook his head. There hadn't been time to wait for IPI to
coordinate with the upper echelon of the government in order to give non-agents
clearance. Not to mention the fact that the U.S. military didn't actually know
about IPI, at least not officially, and certainly not the ground crew. IPI's
agents in charge had been Simmons and Morrison, and one was in jail and the
other dead. They were scrambling to get their shit together, just like everyone
else.

Drake and his teams were on their own. "We need a
distraction or...." He motioned to a heavily armored vehicle. "Or
something distracting. Get in."

They climbed in the truck, with Robyn in the driver's seat,
since she still looked like a solider. "What's next?"

"We drive straight at the wall."

She dropped her hands from the steering wheel and one
covered her stomach.

Drake hoped she wasn't going to be sick on him.

"Are you crazy?"

"A little. When your baby gets kidnapped, it does tend
to make you nuts."

A thoughtful, sad look crossed her face. She rubbed her
stomach again, then clutched the wheel and nodded. With a push of the gas
pedal, they revved up and built up speed.

Outside, soldiers around them yelled for them to stop, but
Drake pushed her to go faster.

Robyn accelerated, heading straight for one of the gaps in
the wall.

Someone or something moved in front of the truck to block
them. Drake recognized him, the red Grunt, the one who had helped Steele
capture Sam. This could actually work out to their advantage—or not.

Only one way to find out.
"Head straight at
him."

Robyn did. Sweat poured down her face and she flickered back
and forth from herself to the solider, probably losing control of her powers
with fear and focus.

The Grunt stood his ground, then kicked down. The earth in
front of their truck pushed up into a cone.

Robyn steered to the side, barely avoiding the rock. More
pillars burst from the earth, like teeth clasping for food. One hit the side of
their car, throwing them off track. They almost tipped over.

Drake hollered, "Step on it! Keep moving fast!"

Robyn put the pedal to the metal, and they stormed the
Grunt, dodging teeth of stone.

The beast roared and punched the earth, ramming it forward
in another cone.

Robyn turned, but the side of their vehicle slammed into the
rock and they lost balance. With such a top-heavy truck, they fell to the side
and rolled upside down. The sound of crunching metal and smell of gas and dirt
filled the truck as Drake slammed into the side of the window, shattering it.

When the truck settled and they stopped moving, Drake
unfastened his seatbelt and reached for Robyn. "Are you okay?"

She cradled her left arm and winced. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"You don't look it." He looked behind him,
ignoring the pain in his neck and body.

The Grunt walked toward them.

"We're out of time. You have to shift." He pushed
against his door, but the thing jammed.

"Okay, okay." Robyn closed her eyes and focused. Her
body grew bigger, shifting into something less than human, but then she lost it
and became herself again.

"Come on, come on!"

"I'm trying. It's not that easy." She took a deep
breath and tried again.

A giant read and black hand ripped open Drake's door and
tried to grab him, but something else pulled Drake out of the way, out through
the other door: another Grunt, a grey one. Intelligence sparked in its eyes.

"Robyn."

She smiled, but a smile on a Grunt was not a pretty site. It
made the beast look hungry for human.

The red one walked around the vehicle, noticed Robyn, and
looked her up and down quizzically. She held Drake like her prisoner and they
both stayed still, waiting to see what would happen.

He moved closer and sniffed the air around her. Drake hoped
Robyn smelled like a Grunt too.

The red one leaned in, licking his lips. Hot breath sprayed
against Drake's face; it took all of his will to stay still.

Apparently satisfied that another Grunt—Robyn—had Drake
under control, the red one stood up straight and walked away.

They both breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Robyn shook from nerves. "Holy shit that was
close."

They began their long hike up the crater. According to
Drake's brief research, they first had to travel over an unpaved trail up
uneven rocks—about two hundred feet. They would then have to go through a
tunnel and up another three hundred feet. Finally, there would be a small
lighted tunnel to a narrow spiral staircase—a hundred and twenty feet—until
they reached the inside of the observation platform.

The near-hour of hiking didn't tire Drake out as much
physically as it did emotionally. Every second that ticked by he thought about
Sam, and what Steele was doing to her and their baby. It killed him not to be
doing something more.

Once they finally came through the spiral staircase, Drake
found the place he needed, an old military bunker with a flat roof and green
walls. Down the mountain, slits opened up the earth, exposing the lower levels
of entrenchment. He'd seen it on TV, as Steele showed off his supply of Blue
Power—all contained within that bunker, guarded by a dozen Grunts.

They needed another distraction.

As if fate were finally helping them, a loud rumble came
from down below. A piece of the stone wall had exploded, tossing up a storm of
sand and dirt. Darren and his team must have been creating the distraction
Drake needed.
Perfect timing.

The Grunts all turned and started moving across the cone to
intercept the intruders. Drake hoped they could handle the Grunts and Steele,
but he had to focus.