TWENTY

I sit in the circular room with the Lens.

The more I get used to it, the more I hate it.

We have already called on the dark gods to help. In our hands we hold the blood of four highly placed Telar that Umara has said often work together in the United States. On a hunch, I have placed all of their blood samples together in the same vials. I feel they will be together. Word will have reached them from Switzerland. I’m sure the Telar are on red alert.

We are not long in our trance when I see the four in my head. My intuition is proving to be accurate. The four Telar, two men and two women, are together in the same suite. My internal vision of the room is so clear it is like I’m standing in the corner. I scan for clues of where they might be and see the name of a hotel on the phone. The Century Plaza in Century City.

The Telar are only twenty miles away from where I am!

The four sit on the floor of the suite, holding hands like we do. They have sensed our approach and have immediately gathered to form a Link. The mental fusion surrounds them like a fiery bubble and I see the faint images of the Familiars that support them.

These creatures don’t resemble the ones that stand behind the kids. They are taller, more humanoid than the Cradle’s, and they have broad wings and fearsome faces, from which radiates a haunting red glow. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they looked like fallen angels. Whatever, their power is ancient and strong and I know we’re in for a difficult fight.

Mentally, I warn Lark not to attack without my okay.

He ignores me and launches an angry mental bolt toward the bubble. I have to admit it’s powerful. It contains not only the energy of the Cradle and the Lens, it has the strength of every member of the Array behind it. Brutran has brought in all her troops to help with the attack, although the scattered kids in the Array are not aware of what we are fighting.

The bolt strikes like a laser and it seems for several seconds the protective shield of the Telar will fail and we can ravage their minds. During this time I get a useful glimpse of their security.

But then the bubble hardens and our laser fizzles. Not only that, as if in response to our attack, a globe of what could be burning silver forms above the Telar’s shield and launches itself in our direction. How it knows where to find us, I’m not sure. However, the Telar were able to obtain my blood while they held me captive in Arosa, and it’s very possible I’m the homing beacon they are using to lock onto.

The globe strikes us like a psychic torpedo. Half the kids below let out a scream and the ones beside me all groan in pain. We’re not dealing with the top level of the Source and already we’re in trouble. Again, I send Lark an order to back off, to let me have complete control. It hurts to send him the message. The back of my skull throbs. It feels like someone hit me with a baseball bat that had a stick of dynamite attached.

I give the kids time to settle back down. I notice that the Telar are not in a hurry to hit us with another torpedo. I suspect the attack took a lot out of them, too. According to Umara, they’re not accustomed to using the Link to harm others. Indeed, it was only with the appearance of the IIC and the Array that they began to revive the Link. For eons, the Telar believed they were invulnerable.

Staying deep in a trance state, I’m still able to open an audio line to the kids below us. I speak in a soft voice, it’s all I can manage.

“This is Alisa, I’m taking command of the Cradle. There’s no need to fear. These four Telar are strong but moments ago I got a clear picture of who’s protecting them. Their guards are other Telar who have no form of psychic protection. They have guns and are stationed outside the door of those we’re attacking. One of these guards is the granddaughter of one of the top four. That means we can lock onto her mind using the blood we’re already holding. Give me a minute and I’ll pinpoint this individual. Then we’ll attack.”

It takes me only a few moments to regain my concentrated state and shift my focus from the corner of the suite into the hotel hallway. A dozen guards lounge on a row of chairs. It’s obvious the Telar have rented the entire floor to insure their protection.

I was being completely honest with the Cradle. I feel the blood we hold resonating with one of the female guards. She happens to be a slightly built woman who looks no more than twenty. She’s probably like Charlie, one of the younger Telar. She looks more worried than her partners. But her fear isn’t a bad thing, not from our perspective. Her fear can open the door wide for the Cradle to step inside.

Once again, I whisper to the entire Cradle.

“This is the plan. We want the woman at the end of the line to walk to the door where the principals are gathered. She’s to knock and if no one answers, or if another guard tries to stop her, she’s to start shooting. It doesn’t matter if she gets through the door and kills the four. She’ll disrupt their Link.”

For the first time, I feel the full power of the Cradle pour through me. I realize they trust me more than they do Lark. They know he disobeyed me, and they know his rash attack led to the slap we took. Now they’re anxious to put an end to these Telar.

The woman, her name is Darla, feels a sudden urge to walk down the hall and knock on the door of her superiors. She’s been told they’re not to be disturbed for any reason but at the moment she doesn’t care. The other guards pay her little heed. Half of them are dozing.

Darla knocks on the door. Hard.

Her commanding officer jumps to his feet.

“Darla! Get away from there!”

Darla lowers the tip of her M16 and opens fire. Her CO wears a protective vest but Darla shoots him in the face so it doesn’t do him much good. She rakes the line of guards, back and forth, and exhausts the clip in her weapon. Half the guards are dead, the others are wounded. While they try to gather themselves, I order Darla to toss a couple of grenades their way. She is young but she’s fast. The grenades are flash-bangers. They send out a deadly shock wave, not shrapnel. Darla hits the floor as they explode.

The rest of the guards die, at least all the ones in sight. But I hear running feet, more are on their way. I order Darla to stand and the entire Cradle pushes her back to her feet. Pulling out a fresh clip, she reloads her M16 and fires point-blank at the door’s deadbolt. The wood splinters and the door bursts open.

The fearsome four have broken their Link. They stand with their handguns drawn and shoot Darla the instant the door opens. It’s strange to be in Darla’s mind one instant and have it go blank an instant later. At the same time, I don’t care. The laser mind of the Cradle is on the move and I’m guiding it.

I steer the kids into the mind of one of the ancient women and force her to turn her gun on the others. They shoot her in the head before she can pull the trigger. Inside of me, another TV screen suddenly goes blank. Very well, I focus the Cradle on a bald man with a huge head. His name is Kram and he’s extremely old. His order is the same—to shoot his partners.

Yet he resists, for an instant, and manages to shout out a word.

“Tarana!”

The name has a strange effect on our group.

Our psychic laser suddenly flickers on and off.

Tarana? Isn’t that the name of the creature Brutran spoke about? The one that taught her a bunch of secret knowledge? I didn’t know it worked for the Telar as well.

Actually, for several confused seconds, I have no idea what’s gone wrong. My vision of the hotel suite phases in and out, and I feel a horrible ripping sensation at the base of my skull. Before I know it, I’m on my feet with my eyes wide open, the rest of the kids staring at me.

We broke the Telar’s Link . . .

Yet somehow they managed to break us.

It was that damn word, “Tarana.” It has its own power.

I notice many of the kids have nosebleeds.

“Listen!” I shout. “The Telar aren’t far from here. I’m going after them with some of Cynthia Brutran’s men. While I’m gone, you’ll help keep track of their movements. Don’t try to psychically attack them unless I order it. Just stay alert and follow them. They won’t escape.”

I disconnect the line and kneel beside Lark. His nosebleed is bad, perhaps because he tried to lead the attack on the Telar’s Link. Blood soaks his expensive shirt and he’s lost his cocky grin. He’s as pale as a ghost, this eighteen-year-old punk who is accustomed to commanding evil spirits.

“Lark,” I say. “We need to stay in touch with each other. Can you talk and still stay connected to the Cradle?”

He nods weakly. “I can help you track them.”

“Good. No more heroics. Don’t try to take them down.”

The guy’s been humbled. “I hear you, Sita.”

I pat him on the back and turn toward the door. Jolie stops me by grabbing my pant leg. “Don’t go,” she pleads.

I crouch beside her. “It’s better I kill them with my hands than waste our mental powers trying to take them down.”

“Are there many more?”

“After this, we have only one more group to kill.”

Jolie nods to herself. “I want them to die.”

Upstairs, I alert Cynthia and Thomas Brutran to the situation. I portray the Telar’s close proximity as a major break, which I believe it is. They say they can scramble three helicopters in ten minutes.

“Make it five,” I say. “And I want Charlie to give each of the men who are coming with me a shot of the vaccine.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Tom says, and rushes off. His wife studies me critically.

“I watched your last session on remote,” she says. “It looks like half the Cradle is about to stroke out.”

“That’s not my fault. Lark disobeyed me.”

“Lark’s not the one who worries me. It’s the next round, when we go after Haru and his people. He won’t make the mistake these ones did. If he sets up a powerful Link, I don’t know how you’re going to punch through it.”

“Leave that to me. I have a secret weapon.”

“I don’t like secrets. Tell me.”

“Gimme a break, you live for secrets. Now get out of my way, I have work to do.”

Brutran tries to stop me. “Wait. I’m going with you.”

“That’s insane. These are Telar. Just one of them attacked my house in Missouri and I was lucky to escape alive.”

“I’ll take precautions but I’m going. I’m still the head of this firm.”

I shake my head. “It’s your life.”

Ten minutes later we’re airborne over Santa Monica with Century City only five miles in front of us. The latter is loaded with crowded but elegant skyscrapers. Its real estate is some of the most expensive on the planet. The Century Plaza Hotel stands a block away from the Fox building.

However, an intelligence update, from Lark and Brutran, tells us that our three prime Telar have already left the hotel and are heading toward one of the town’s original twin towers that were built back in the seventies. They are only forty-four stories tall, pale shadows of the World Trade Center towers that were lost on 9/11, and yet the other skyscrapers have quietly built up around them, almost as if they were the founding parents.

What’s unique about the two towers is their flat roofs. Helicopters can land and take off from them. The Telar must have sensed me behind the Cradle. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so anxious to get out of town.

It’s dark, after midnight, and the city lights are bright.

I sit up front with the pilot, with headphones on and six heavily armed men at my back. I’m in touch with Cindy and Lark via a cell plugged into my right ear. The boy sounds weak, his voice is faint. He’s following the Telar with his mind’s eye. Cindy’s in the helicopter off to my right.

“I wouldn’t get any closer than a mile,” I warn her. “If the Telar have a sharpshooter like the guy who visited me in Missouri, then we’ll be lucky to make it to the towers.”

“These copters are bulletproof,” Cindy says.

“The Telar have lasers.”

“We know. We have samples of them. They can’t take down these copters.”

“They have disruptors,” I add.

“What are those?”

“I don’t know. But they hit us with them in Colorado and I can assure you they are nasty weapons.”

The helicopter on my left suddenly lights up. A dozen lasers have focused on it. The pilot swears as if blinded but luckily he doesn’t bump into us. The black paint on the exterior of the copter begins to peel. The vehicle looks as if it’s caught in its own private ray of sunshine. It glows in the night sky like Santa’s sleigh. If I were aboard I’d be reaching for a parachute.

“Bravo One, this is Bravo Three. Our hull temperature is over four hundred degrees. Our fuel tank is rapidly heating. We might be forced to retreat. Over.”

“Bravo Three, this is Brutran. Under no circumstances are you to retreat. Over.”

“Cindy,” I say. “Let them go. Gasoline can only get so hot before it explodes. It doesn’t matter how fancy your shields are. Bravo Three can always return later.”

Brutran appears to consider my request, although I know she hates for me to question her orders in front of her people.

“Bravo Three,” she says. “You have my—”

The helicopter on our left explodes.

The shock wave is deafening, the fireball blinding. Our main rotor, tail rotor, and tail fin are pounded with debris. Swearing, our pilot fights to keep us aloft. But as he pulls up on the controls I caution him to keep low.

“Stay down until we’re ready to land on top of the building. Weave around the trees if you must. But keep those lasers off us.”

“Gotcha,” the pilot says, and I can tell he wishes I was in charge instead of Brutran.

“Bravo Two, this is Bravo One, what’s your status?” Brutran asks.

I speak up. “We’re keeping our heads down, Bravo One. Suggest you do likewise if you don’t want to join the Telar’s next target-practice session.”

Brutran doesn’t answer but her helicopter suddenly veers low and away. They are no longer heading for the building. Brutran’s life can’t be that much of a nightmare. She sure as hell doesn’t want to die.

Lark informs us that the three Telar we are pursuing have entered one of the towers. He sounds confused and is unable to specify whether it’s the north or south tower. Brutran calls to people she has assembling on the ground for an update. This is one advantage in having the IIC as an ally, even if it is temporary. They have lots of people you can call for help.

From studying the buildings when we were high up, I noticed there were more men and machines on the roof of the north tower. Yet there was a single helicopter on top of the south tower, and the buildings do connect underground. I wonder if it’s a trick. . . .

Brutran interrupts my thoughts.

“Bravo Two, the Telar have entered the north tower. Over.”

“Bravo One, copy that. Telar are in north tower,” I say.

From everything I’ve seen of the Telar, I know their technology is far superior to anything mankind has, and that includes the IIC. There’s an excellent chance the Telar are listening to us now, and are going to try to take off from the south tower. I share my thoughts with our pilot. He frowns.

“They’re running scared. Do you think they’ve had enough time to come up with such a clever plan?”

“I’ve learned never to underestimate them,” I say.

“But if your guess is wrong . . .”

“If it’s wrong, I’ll know soon enough and you can come back for me. Which brings me to another point. I don’t want you to land on the south tower. You’ll come under heavy fire from the other tower. Just fly over and I’ll jump out.”

He looks at me like I’m crazy. “We’ll be moving too fast. I’ll at least have to stop and hover.”

I don’t have time to get in an argument. I touch his arm and let the power enter my voice. “I appreciate your concern but I’ll be fine. Just give me a rifle, plenty of ammo, a dozen grenades, and I’ll be on my way.”

The pilot instructs his men to fill my order and pretty soon I’m jamming my pockets with everything I can carry. The pilot is skillful, he swoops low around the Fox building before suddenly crossing the street and climbing.

We’re almost to the south tower when the lasers hit. They dance over our hull and pierce our armored glass. The internal temperature jumps twenty degrees. The lasers make my eyes ache and virtually blind the pilot. I briefly grab his controls.

“I’m steering us, don’t worry!” I shout. “I’ll turn our back on them just before I leap out. When you hear my door slam shut, you have to take back the helm.”

“It’s getting hot in here,” he says, sweating, afraid.

“Their lasers have a limited range. Duck below the south tower as I leave and use it as a shield. Trust me, you’ll be all right.”

The leap out of the helicopter reminds me of the last time I jumped from a helicopter to escape the Telar. Then I had Shanti in my hands, and Seymour was with Teri. It was that night, high in the Rockies, on top of a half-frozen lake, that Teri hit an ice patch in the water and shattered her leg. In that instant her death became inevitable, although I refused to accept that fact for a long time.

Now I leap alone, into a red corona of laser fire, and land rolling on top of the south tower. I watch with relief as my copter makes a quick dip, after passing the building, and escapes the Telar’s bombardment.

I’m not given a chance to relax. The lasers converge in my direction and I run as fast as I can to the edge of the building and duck down behind a two-foot-high concrete lip. The north tower is a hundred yards away, its roof crowded with three copters and a dozen armed men and women.

They don’t immediately open fire and that helps confirm my guess. The soldiers are worried about hitting the parked helicopter behind me. It’s the one that counts because it’s the one the three members of the Source are hurrying toward.

However, even if the three high-ranking Telar are presently in my building, they can always switch to the north tower. To discourage such a move, I rush toward the corner of the building and prepare to open fire on the north-tower roof. But since I’m no longer in the line of sight with their precious helicopter, they immediately start shooting at me, effectively pinning me down.

They switch from lasers to conventional weapons. It might be that the lasers don’t work against concrete or else the Telar are skittish about melting the side of a well-known building. In either case a barrage of machine-gun fire erupts less than a foot above my head.

The bullets are of the armor-piercing variety. They begin to chew away my protective concrete, powdering the air with white dust, and I see I have only a few seconds before I will be exposed. Rolling vigorously to my right, I stand, take aim, and kill half a dozen people on top of the other tower. They drop suddenly, and the sound of silence, as their machine guns die, is just as abrupt. I use the time and the shock to blow out anything that looks like a radio. Then I run to the single waiting helicopter.

I disable it carefully by unplugging a chip attached to its ignition system. Who knows, I might need the helicopter later. I can always replace the chip. I work out of sight of the remaining Telar on the north tower. They’re still trying to recover from my devastating attack. Fortunately, I don’t see any of them on the radio or even a phone. I can only hope I’ve taken out their communication equipment.

I have lost the plug to my cell. It must have fallen out at some point.

Finally, I enter the building, taking a short stairway that leads down from the heliport. It doesn’t take long for me to find a set of elevators. Neither appears to be in use, but I can tell at a glance they’re too small to support the bulk of the building’s traffic.

Sitting down in a windowless hallway and closing my eyes, I let my hearing expand downward, floor by floor. I’m not just listening for people, I’m trying to detect a specific heart signature. The Telar have a powerful pulse; it separates them from normal people.

Ten floors below me, I hear a dozen people cleaning—vacuuming, sweeping, washing the toilets—while another two type on their computers. Letting my hearing drop further, I pick up fifteen more. Five are painting and plastering, two are typing while listening to music, six are arguing about future sales, and two are having extremely loud sex.

I drop lower. There are so many floors, it’s a strain for even my ears to hear what’s happening below the twentieth level. But I’m lucky because I become aware of three people in the stairway, climbing upward, and I only hear them because sounds echo in that vast hollow chamber.

They climb at a steady jog, taking no breaks, but don’t breathe as hard as they should for such strenuous exercise. Also, their pulses don’t exceed a hundred and twenty beats a minute. These facts alone convince me they’re Telar, but are they the three I’m looking for? That is the question.

I don’t want to spend the whole night killing foot soldiers. I have to get back to the IIC’s headquarters to greet Umara and the others. Then I have to kill the top members of the Source, although according to Umara these three are crucial to its operation. I’ve already witnessed their amazing ability to link. It worries me how four of them were able to bloody so many of the kids. If Umara can’t boost our power substantially, we’re not going to win this fight.

The three Telar continue up the stairway. The more I listen, the more confident I become that they’re the ones I’m looking for. They are sticking close together, like people would who have known each other a long time and are used to turning to one another in times of crisis. Also, there are two men and one woman in their group, just like at the hotel.

Standing, I push the button on the elevator and call it to the top floor. This is a calculated risk. It will probably warn the Telar where I am. At the same time, I might need the elevator if I’m to trap them in this building.

I listen closely as the cubicle rises. The system is old, it takes its time. The three Telar also appear to stop and listen. I want the elevator on my floor but I don’t want to use it just yet. Fortunately, there’s a garbage can in a nearby restroom, and when the elevator does finally reach my floor, I’m able to jam it in the doorway and secure the elevator in place.

The Telar don’t seem to understand what I’ve done. Their desire to reach the helicopter might be overshadowing their reasoning. They continue their upward march.

I go in search of the stairwell. There are two, I discover, but only one is occupied. I know the Telar are still twenty-five floors beneath me. Yet I open the door as quietly as possible. I do a pretty good job until the lower hinge screeches. At that instant I hear the three stop jogging and go still. I have no choice. Moving forward, softly closing the door, I tiptoe to the edge of the stairwell and peek over. It’s a long way down.

I can’t see them but I can hear them. Breathing. Listening.

I have an opportunity here. I have grenades. The guys in the copter told me they have a standard five-second delay after the pin is pulled. I estimate it will take seven seconds for a grenade to reach my enemies if I simply let it go. Of course it will drop faster if I put some muscle behind it. But too hard a throw might cause the grenade to fall too quickly.

I calculate as best I can how much extra speed I need to add to my grenade. It is really no more than an educated guess. Pulling the pin, I step to the handrail and throw the grenade straight down.

I listen as it falls and note that those below me also seem to be listening. No one rushes for the door, at least not at first. But then there’s a sudden shuffling of feet and I realize they’ve figured out what I’m up to. Far below I hear a door open, followed almost instantly by a loud explosion.

The grenade I dropped was different from the kind Darla used to kill the guards. This one throws off a brutal sphere of hot shrapnel. I’m not surprised when I hear a guy scream as his body is raked by pieces of metal. An unmistakable thud follows and I know he has fallen. But he’s alone, I hear the other two running for their lives.

They appear to be heading for the main elevators. I race back to the elevator I have waiting for me and push the button that will take me to the lobby.

The slow ride down is maddening. If I can reach the bottom ahead of them, they’ll have to go through me to escape.

At the same time, they could try for the roof. They might figure, even if I’ve sabotaged the helicopter, they have people on a tower just a hundred yards away. If they can signal them, they might get picked up before I can arrive and kill them.

Right now, anything is possible.

My elevator finally lands. I rush out into the main lobby and find two Telar guards waiting by the front door. I shoot them in the head before they know I’m there. I might have just chased them away but they had already shot the human watchman.

Studying the lights on the main elevator board and listening, I estimate my two remaining adversaries have stopped ten floors above me. I have already called for another elevator and have one waiting for me. I suspect the Telar heard me kill the guards and are thinking the roof is now a better bet.

Are the two remaining Source members in touch with their people in the other building? If they are, they will stand a better chance of escaping if their helicopter pilots on the north tower are waiting to lift them off our roof.

The Telar on the tenth floor finally reenter their elevator and head upward. I watch them climb, for a second, before leaping into my own elevator and hitting the top button. Now I’m in the elevator shaft next to theirs. I can hear them talking to each other, a man and a woman, as they rise above me. That’s how I know they haven’t tricked me.

But as I pass the tenth floor, I hear something. Breathing, powerful heartbeats—I’m not sure. It makes me wonder why the couple above me is talking at all. They must know about my hearing. They should be silent.

Then I get it. These Telar are not just old, they’re smart.

The voices I hear in the elevator above me, it’s one cell phone talking to another. But they’re not ordinary cell phones. Those wouldn’t have fooled me for an instant with their poor sound. No, these are Telar cells, like the kind Matt gave me, their sound quality is perfect.

The two Telar never did leave the tenth floor.

I have been tricked.

I struggle to stop my elevator but it goes up another two floors and I get off on the fourteenth. I run like hell to the stairway and am not surprised to hear them galloping down the stairs ahead of me. But before I can uncork another grenade, they exit the stairway at what I estimate to be the third floor. Hell, they could jump through an office window at that height and survive.

Then the truth finally hits home.

That’s what they’re going to do!

They have me above them and they know exactly where I am.

This is their best chance to get out of this building alive.

I listen as they run to the far side of the tower, away from the stairwells and elevators. I hear them kick in a door. Damn, I totally underestimated them, they’re going to get away.

Unless . . . what?

Unless I get to the ground floor the same time they do.

I rush to the window at the end of the hall. Before I jump, I wait a few seconds for the sound of another window exploding. There it is! On the other side of the building! I hear their weight as they land. They’re outside! I have at most five seconds before they reach the north tower.

Backing up a few steps, I prepare to rush the glass and fall fourteen miserable floors. I can survive such a fall, I’ve done it before. Not that it’s comfortable. I mean, I’m a vampire not a goddamn bat. I can’t fly.

Something makes me hesitate. It’s the idea that they would expose themselves by running between the two buildings, which jumping out a window would force them to do. By dumb luck, due to the layout of the hallways on my floor, I’m unable to glimpse the ground on their side of the building. However, they don’t know that, which makes me wonder why they would expose themselves where I could just pick them off with my rifle.

Yet I heard their window burst open.

I heard the weight of their bodies hitting the ground.

But what if it was the weight of something else I heard landing?

A desk for example. They could have shoved two desks out their window. Now that I think about it, I didn’t hear any running footsteps after they hit the ground.

Then the truth hits me again. A new truth.

They are still on the tenth floor.

They still haven’t left the building.

Their goal is to get me to leave the building.

Smart. Very smart. They almost had me.

Yet two can play their game.

Picking up a desk, I throw it through a nearby window.

To them, they just heard me jump outside and fall fourteen floors.

I just stand there, waiting for them to make a move.

I hear two people enter the tenth-floor elevator.

They push a button and head up.

I run up two floors, before I return to the secondary elevators and call the elevator that took me to the lobby a few minutes ago. When it arrives, I ride it to the top floor. Climbing the stairs that lead to the helipad, I see a Telar helicopter swooping in to make a quick pickup.

Taking aim, I shoot off the tail rotor and the tail fin.

Nasty, trying to steer a copter without either of them.

The copter spins out of control and vanishes over the side.

I approach the two big shots carefully. The bald man with the big head, Mr. Kram, and his daughter, Alia. I know of their relationship from the attack we made on them at the hotel. They’re armed with handguns but they don’t reach for them. The woman’s left arm is bleeding, probably from the grenade I dropped in their path. I gesture to the wound.

“How did you hear it coming?” I ask.

“I felt it coming. It was a good shot,” the man says.

“Thank you,” I say.

Alia stares at me with dread. “We don’t support Haru. We told him not to take you prisoner.”

She’s speaking the truth. I return the favor.

“You’re members of the Source. It was the Source that ordered the creation of X6X6.”

“We never thought it would be used,” Kram says. “Even now, it hasn’t been released.”

“Can you guarantee it won’t be released?”

“No,” he says.

I gesture with my gun. “Then what can I do?”

“Spare my daughter, Alia. She opposed the virus from the start. Haru hates her. She’s only a member of the Source because of me.”

“And because she’s a powerful psychic.”

“She’s a healer at heart,” Kram says.

I study Alia. “Is that true?”

She shrugs. “I do what I can.”

I shake my head. “I have to destroy the Source.”

“Alia will never go back to the Source,” Kram begs. “Not after tonight.”

“What’s so special about tonight?”

“I finally saw the spirits Haru has attached to us,” Alia says.

“You must have known about them,” I say.

“I did. Alia did not,” Kram says. “Please. We’ve heard you can be . . . merciful.”

“I can’t let both of you go,” I say. The truth is, I need one of them alive. “You may live, Alia.”

The man is grateful. “Thank you.” He turns to his daughter. “Go, Alia. Please.”

Alia weeps as she falls in his arms. “No, Papa. I can’t.”

He gently cups his daughter’s face. She has inherited many of his features but not his huge head. With dark lustrous eyes, a mane of black hair, she is truly beautiful. He wipes away her tears.

“It’s for the best,” he says. “The things I’ve done, I deserve this.”

“No.” She looks to me. “Please, for the love of God.”

“Don’t push me, Alia,” I say. “As it is, I want something in return for your life. When we attacked your Link, I glimpsed your minds and saw you have extensive relationships with generals and admirals in NATO. Both of you know the people who command the most powerful missile systems on earth.”

“That’s true,” Kram says.

“I also saw that Haru has retreated to a temple in Egypt with his inner circle. When the time is right, I’m going to mentally contact you, Alia, and ten minutes later I want a barrage of cruise missiles to strike that temple.”

“Impossible,” Kram says. “The remaining members of the Source expect your attack. They’ll be in the Link, and in such a state no physical weapon on earth can harm them. The demons they’re aligned with would instantly know about the danger and would avert it.”

“I’m aware of that. When I mentally contact Alia—and my contact will be some time in the next six hours and it will be crystal clear—it will mean the Source’s Link has been broken and they’re open to attack.”

“I can’t imagine how you’ll break them,” Kram says.

“Let me worry about that. Now, are there any codes or numbers or names you need to pass on to Alia so she can keep her end of the bargain?”

“Yes,” Kram says. “Let me tell her what to do.”

They have a brief whispered conversation in ancient Egyptian. I hear and remember every word. Kram gives his daughter three separate ways to blow up the temple. When he is done, she starts to beg again for his life. I shake my weapon in her face.

“Walk away, Alia,” I say.

Kram kisses her cheek. “Go, darling. Go with love.”

Alia finally appears to accept that her father’s life is over. She hugs him and walks past me toward the door that leads to the stairs and the top floor. I point the rifle at Kram.

“Any last words?” I ask.

“There’s a rumor you met Krishna. Is it true?”

“Yes.”

“Was he who they say he was?”

“I don’t know. I like to think so.”

“Was he wonderful?”

“More wonderful than you could dream.”

The man smiles and closes his eyes. “It’s a good dream to have right now. Thank you for my daughter’s life.”

I raise the rifle to shoot. Just then I hear a click behind me.

The cocking of a hammer on a pistol. I whirl and fire.

The bullet catches Alia in the heart.

She falls to her knees. “Papa,” she whispers.

He rushes to her side but she’s already dead.

There’s nothing I can do to ease his grief except shoot him.

I would if I didn’t need his help.

“Now it’s you I’ll be contacting,” I tell him as I walk toward the helicopter. A moment later, I reattach the ignition chip and fly away.