The Ring Bearer (20 page)

“I knew you were on a budget Danato, but…” Daniel started to joke, but Ethan didn’t bother letting him get them too far off subject when this was clearly an abnormal situation.

“I sent Duke to medical to see if the animals are going to be in danger without power. Otherwise I came straight here.” Ethan sat down placing the flashlight across Danato’s desk so they had marginal light for their conversation.

“Good thinking. Belus is checking on…something, but he’ll be over soon. I should have word from maintenance on the cause of all this soon.” Even as Danato said it the walkie-talkie crackled and a man on the other end cleared his throat.

“Ahh, Danato?”

“Report.”

“Yeah, um, this is going to take us a little while to fix.”

“Fix. What’s wrong?”

“The main circuit breaker is fucked. I need to rewire the whole damn thing.”

“Do it fast. What about the backup generators? Can’t we get them started?”

“They’ve been compromised as well.”

“Compromised how?” Danato asked.

“The wires have been melted down like solder, like they got…struck by lightning.”

Danato lowered the radio to the desk. His eyes glazed in thought.

“Efrat?” Ethan wasn’t willing to wait for Danato to verbalize his thoughts. “But why?”

“I don’t know. I told him we would give them asylum.”

“And they’re likely to take you at your word?” Ethan asked. Danato grimaced. He obviously didn’t think his word should ever be questioned. “They aren’t really stable. Maybe they’re taking an opportunity to get revenge on Clark and his men. You can’t renege on your promise if Clark is already out of the picture.”
Danato paused thinking about that. “That’s risky considering Clark is primed to shoot on sight, but your right. They’re unstable. They’re already considering some hefty extremes to get their freedom.” Danato picked up a pencil and tapped it relentlessly on his desk. Ethan was surprised he wasn’t barking orders. “Something’s missing,” he mumbled. “It just doesn’t make sense. They have what they want.”

“Unless…” Ethan started, but the eagerness in Danato’s face gave him pause. Danato usually didn’t leave the reigns to a crisis lying around. “Do you think Clark would go to this extreme? An elemental weapon would be just the thing to take out our wiring.”

Danato nodded absent-mindedly. “There’s only one threat he’s been waving in our faces.”

Ethan jumped up before Danato had a chance to offer an order. He was half way down the hall, with Heaton on his tail, before he heard Danato barking into the radio for back up at Cori’s location.

35

Cori looked up at the high raftered ceiling of her home and momentarily hoped that it was all just a bad dream, but the duct tape holding her hands together over her head told her otherwise. The hair raised on her arm told her who, but it didn’t tell her why.

That was the only question on her mind, and the only one she could verbalize. “Why?”

She lifted her head off the cold wood floor and saw Efrat side saddled on the back of the couch. He managed to look comfortable despite the awkward position. He was holding his arms out so he didn’t shock himself. He looked like surgeon constantly trying to stay sterile. 

She looked around the dimly lit room, but they were alone. She was once again surprised the house didn’t prevent his entrance like it did for Belus, but she imagined carrying her unconscious body qualified him for entrance.

“Efrat, what’s happened? Why am I here?” A brief hope crossed her mind. “Did you save me?” The scornful expression he offered her told her she was as naïve as he always accused her of being. “Efrat, what do you want?”

He clenched his jaw and took in a deep breath before speaking. “I used to be a good man, an honorable man. You saw that. I know you did. I was happy, healthy, and personable. Then this place.” He clenched his fists and looked at them with revulsion. “I could have dealt with this. Overtime, I know Dr. Frank would have figured something out. She would have fixed it.”

Cori shifted testing her restraints, but the tape was too thick to break. She couldn’t direct her power with her hands together. Anything she released would just be reabsorbed. Efrat must have planned on that. Her best defense was also her greatest weakness.

“Clark keeps waiting for us to give in and become his weapons. All we want is a normal life, but he won’t allow that. At least with Danato we might have a chance.”

“Danato is a good man, I promise. I wouldn’t have placed your life in his hands if I didn’t think he could protect you. Believe me Efrat; I don’t want to see anyone else die.”

He stared blankly at her, like she was a television on mute.

“Dr. Frank had that same reverence for life. We used to call her Dr. Frankenstein.” Efrat looked around the room like he hadn’t had a chance to look at it yet. “She’s gone now. There’s only one option left for us to live a semi-normal life.”

“What’s that?” Cori asked.

“Remi and Garr are going to request amputations as soon as we are legally in Danato’s custody.”

Cori’s mouth dropped open. Somewhere in the back on her mind she knew that Jill had considered that as a last resort, but she was surprised to hear anyone volunteer for the procedure.

“Jill believed that with intensive training you might be able to control the powers.”

“Six years hasn’t brought me any enlightenment. I don’t plan on waiting another six to achieve it,” Efrat snapped.

“Are you sure amputation is what you want?”

He pinned her with another glare, that she didn’t imagine she deserved, but she wasn’t sure he was capable of any other expression at the moment. “I’m not getting an amputation. I’ll lose a hand in battle, but there is no way in hell I’m going to volunteer to lose it. Not if there’s another option available.” His glare faded, but the predatory gaze he offered in its place wasn’t an improvement.

“What are you talking about?” She felt her voice slip into a whisper like what he was about to say was a secret they should be keeping quiet.

“Your rings absorb my power quite well.”

Cori nodded. She could feel tears well in her eyes as the fear started to set in more firmly. “But they don’t come off. You tried yourself.”

“Yes. I tried again while you were unconscious. They won’t budge.”

Cori blinked back her tears and shrugged. “Sorry. I would give them to you if I could.”

“You still can.”

She shook her head vigorously. “No, I can’t. I don’t know how.”

Efrat reached for something on the sofa. As he drew up the large familiar cleaver that usually laid in a drawer because it was too big for the knife block, she let out a whimper.

36

Ethan latched onto General Clark’s throat before either of them had a chance to insinuate guilt on the other. Heaton stood between him and one of Clark’s men. Two soldiers were already laid out on the glossy concrete. One because of an ill-planned attack on Heaton that resulted in being flipped over Heaton’s shoulder—he was still gasping for air. The other soldier was passed out when Ethan had arrived.

In the waning light of the high windows Ethan could see Clark’s sputtered profanities mist the air with saliva. He wasn’t threatened by him, and he was tired of pretending that he was anyone of consequence to him. “Where is she?” He nodded to the open cell that Cori no longer occupied.

Clark choked out a few unintelligible words before Ethan lowered him enough to stand flat footed. “I don’t know,” he rasped trying to wrench from the steel muscled noose.

“Bull shit.” Ethan shoved him away and looked to the out of breath soldier behind him. “Where is my wife? So help me somebody better talk, because I’m done with the paperwork part of this deal.”

“We don’t know! She was gone when we got here. The cell was open and Baker was passed out.” The soldier gestured to the other guard on the floor.

“I presumed you had taken her,” Clark said. “I was on my way to question you when you arrived. I was going to congratulate you on your sabotage ruse.”

“It’s not a ruse, it’s Efrat,” Ethan said without regard to the secrecy they had for hiding the elementals. If they were indeed behind this, he no longer cared about protecting them from Clark.

“Efrat?” Clark said.

“He fried the generators.”

“He’s here?” Clark said more baffled than irritated by the statement.

“He’s been here. We were going to offer them asylum, but if he’s responsible for Cori going missing then I’ll hand him back to you on a silver platter.”

“That’s an interesting deal. Perhaps I should have been negotiating with you all along.”

“Perhaps you should have,” Ethan said with even tone that made the conversation undercut Danato’s authority even further.

“I’m not sure Danato would agree,” Clark said with a slight smirk. Ethan didn’t respond. He couldn’t outright disparage Danato to Clark. Somehow that was going too far. “Perhaps my men should assist with the search. After we find her, we can discuss my reward for helping you.”

“Just one thing before I accept.” Ethan waved over Daniel who arrived late with Nevia in tow. As soon as they were bathed the afternoon light from the windows, Nevia spotted the armed guard Heaton was protecting him from and she put him in the sight of her gun. The glare Clark offered her screamed his detest for her impudent self-confidence.

“What’s the scoop Ethan?” Daniel asked noticing the open cell door.

“Cori’s missing. Clark says he doesn’t know anything about it. Jordan, why don’t you get your lie detector over here.”

Nevia lowered her gun and approached Clark, but he pulled his pistol on her. She raised hers again and Ethan drew his as well. Overlooking itchy trigger fingers, a slew of demands were thrown around by everyone.

Before any demands could be met or negotiated, the armed soldier covering Heaton flew half way through the section, seemingly without cause. The demands stopped. Heaton and Ethan looked back at Daniel.

Daniel stepped up behind Nevia towering over her, yet still behind her. He wore the same deathly dark expression on his face that he had during his last encounter with Clark. Ethan started to lower his weapon in preparation to keep his friend from murdering Clark.

“Take your gun off her,” Daniel said simply.

Nevia must have smelt the same danger from Daniel, because she also started to lower her gun despite her head still being targeted by Clark.

“What kind of a freak are you?” Clark glanced over Daniel’s body as if it would punctuate the insult with an exclamation point, but the shake in his voice left it less than scathing.

“I’m the guy that just told you to lower your weapon.”

Clark glanced and Ethan as if to check if Daniel was as dangerous as he seemed to be. Ethan gave a slight nod and made a point to show that he was also holstering his gun. Clark licked his lips nervously and put his away as well. Nevia was the last to holster, but she kept her arms crossed for easy access while she distantly sniffed the air around Clark.

“He’s just as surprised by all this as we are,” Nevia confirmed.

Clark’s brow deepened in further confusion. “You’re all freaks.”

“Look at the employer,” Heaton mumbled beside him.

Ethan ran his fingers over his hair and took in a few thought-clearing breaths. “Okay, Clark here’s the deal…” Ethan’s radio squawked and Danato’s grumbled voice came over. “Go ahead.”

“I’m at the greenhouse. Garr and Remi are still here, but they said Efrat left an hour ago.” Clark’s head tipped like he couldn’t believe they were just a few hundred yards away from the prison.

“Did he tell them why?”

“No, just that he had to figure something out on his own. Apparently, he figured out how to hobble us. I can only assume he’s trying to escape. How’s Cori?”

Ethan sighed. Why was there never any good news about Cori? “Cori’s missing.”

There was a slight pause on the other end. “Did she…” was all that Danato could formulate. Given Cori’s current resume it wasn’t outrageous for him to think Cori might be helping Efrat escape. Ethan hadn’t considered that for a moment, but even as he did he didn’t want to believe it. Cori had too many marks in her bad decision column. He knew she wouldn’t risk doing something stupid in such close proximity.

Then again.  

“No,” Ethan said with more confidence than he felt. “Cori’s not
that
conniving. If anything Efrat has talked her into or threatened her into helping him again. Or maybe he thinks he’s helping her. No matter what the reason is, the first step is finding her,” Danato agreed and clicked off the radio.

“He thinks she’s helping him escape again,” Clark said looking to his unconscious man.

“I don’t think so, but Danato can’t rule it out. We just can’t think of any other reason for Efrat to take her.”

“Perhaps they’re running away together. They seemed quite close to me.” Clark had started the statement with a hidden smile in his eyes, but as he finished his eyes trailed to the floor in contemplation.