Cryostorm (33 page)

The roar of the engines increased as they neared.

“Everything okay, here?” A deep voice, muffled by a ski mask hollered. I couldn’t even see his face.

“Yeah. Blowing off steam.”

“Pretty impressive.” Three more snowmobiles zoomed past. “You been at it a while.”

We had now that I thought about it. Damn surgery was taking forever.

“Where you headed?” Georgia asked.

“Prepping for The Center mission.” He nodded. “You’re welcome to come. Anything you can tell us would help.”

“Where?” I asked.

“Behind those trees, white shed. Weapons and tactical hold.”

“Be there in five,” I said. “When you leaving?”

“On standby. So, could be any time.”

“Sweet.” I was so going with them when they got the call. Whether they liked it or not.

Georgia watched me with wide eyes. She knew it, didn’t she? Twin vibe going on? Or was I really that transparent.

The lead guy cranked up the engine and zoomed around us.

“No. No. No. I know what you’re thinking. You’re not going. We’re not going. It’s not—”

“You don’t have to go. But I am.”

“No. What about Nate? You can’t leave him. He’s in surgery.”

“I’ve got a phone. You’ll call me.”

“No. Mandy. No.”

“Hey. I’m going for him. He deserves to have someone end this thing for him. For all of us. All of the people like us that they’ve tortured.”

“But we’re getting them legally.”

“Ah, hell. You know they’ll slime their way out of it, G. They’ve done it for years. Why else would they get a team like those guys up and ready?” I moved back, toward the direction Rambo Guy pointed. “I’m doing this. I hope you come with me because we’re wicked-strong together, but I understand if you don’t want to. This has only been your fight for a few months. It’s been mine for going on five years.”

Georgia yanked my arm, forcing me to face her. “I’m with you.”

“Really?”

“I can see, hell I can feel, how much you love Nate. That means, by sister-twin bonds, I also love him. But we’ll get Jasmine to come, too. Make it official.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.” I started walking.

“Let’s fly. Make an entrance,” Georgia said.

I launched myself into the air and pointed my hands further back so I shot forward. Georgia came up beside me. The cool air whipped through my hair and bit at my skin. The thought of being part of bringing down The Center, for real this time, was something that gave me an energy I hadn’t had in a long time. Vengeance for Nate helped light my fire, too.

I shifted my weight and curved around a tall pine tree and saw the structure. I cut my power and plummeted to the ground but shot out a swoosh of snow before touching down. I landed next to the snowmobile the leader had been on and Georgia landed on the other side.

“Nice.” The tall guy stepped forward and held out his hand for a high five.

“So, what’s the deal here?”

He gestured forward. “Come on in and take a look.”

“You can show us this already? We just enrolled.”

“You’re on the advanced track, I think. It sounds like you have a lot of experience.”

I laughed. “Yeah. Experience. Don’t know much, though.”

“That’ll come.” He held the door open. “Come on.”

I entered a world of organized chaos. People scurried all over. Cages of weapons lined the perimeter of the room. In the center sat a sea of desks, computers, TV monitors, and more people hunched over them. Pointing, talking. So much stimuli, I couldn’t figure out which to focus on first.

So I chose our host. “What’s your name?”

“Robert. You’re Amanda and Georgia Hillman. Code names Kelvin and Blaze. Sweet names by the way.”

“And you? What’s your power?” Georgia asked our tall, bulky friend.

“No power. A handful of us have some. Simms has speed. Dillon telekinesis. Samuel strength. But no fire and ice or flying.”

“Wow.” I shook my head trying to wrap the tired brain matter around this concept of Mutant University. “So, what’s the deal?”

“We plan our missions from here. Connected here. Out back, where you guys were messing around, is where we train sometimes. Depends on the scenario we’re running.” He moved toward the chaos of people in the middle of the room. “For this one, we’re locating all The Centers.”

“All of them?”

“Yes. Two mobiles that are on the move as we speak. Two brick and mortar structures.”

“Where are those?”

“Florida and up north, here in Wyoming. We have a team in place in Florida already. We’re getting ready for Wyoming.”

“So, Robert. How can we get in on this?”

“You can’t.”

“But—”

“Not cleared for this much, sorry, ladies.”

“Let me talk to Brandon,” I said.

“He’s back in Arizona. He’s not ops. He’s book smarts and melting.”

Shit.

Georgia’s phone rang, then mine.

Shit. Shit.

I yanked the phone from my jacket pocket. It was Scott’s number. I tapped the screen and saw the text.

Come back. They’re done.

Dread coiled its cold tendrils around my intestines. Four words. Didn’t say yay or nay just to come back. That had to be bad.

“Breathe, girl,” Georgia whispered. When had she moved to right beside me?

I looked at Robert. “See what you can do about getting me and Georgia on your roster, okay?”

He shook his head. “Not my call.”

“Then call whoever can make the call. Please.”

He dipped his head, but I knew that look. No way in hell was he going to put his neck on the line for us.

“Who makes the call?” I asked.

“Hudson.”

“Thanks.”

He saluted, and I turned on my heel and darted for the door. I catapulted up into the air. Hadn’t done the flying thing a lot, but running through the snow would have been entirely too slow. I was ready to go kick some ass.

We landed at the side doors we’d gone out and Scott stood there waiting, Jasmine, Tim, and Martin flanking him. Even from way up high, I could see the whites of his eyes they were so wide. Evidently he’d not seen this too much. I angled my hands so I hovered. Georgia was by my side, her heat wafting over me.

I cut my flow and landed a few feet from them. When I did, I saw the grave look etched into his forehead, and I knew I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

I stepped forward, and his eyes confirmed it.

“Scott?”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mandy. They couldn’t get it.”

Anger bubbled. No, that’d be rage. Coupled with some frustration and hatred for good measure. “It hasn’t been very long. How could he possibly know he couldn’t get it so soon?”

“He saw the X-rays and imaging on the flight over. Nate was prepped and ready for a scope. Mandy, he tried to work at it. He said it is something he’s never seen nor heard of. Embedded into the tissue itself. It’s bioengineered. Enmeshed in the brainstem so deeply and intricately that even with the most steady hands…”

My knees shook, threatening to cave. So, Robo Nate was right when he said there was nothing we could do. That’s why he came here. He knew we’d try and fail. Only had to endure a little bit of surgery.

Oh, and get me to marry him.

“I want to see him.” I stomped past Scott, and he grabbed my arm.

“I’m sorry, Mandy.”

“What happens next? I mean, with Robo Nate? What—”

“That’s up to you, I guess. He didn’t seem too violent anymore. He had agreed to bring you here.”

“He likes me.” And is totally married to me.

“Then I guess it’s your call, isn’t it?”

“Not really. We know what he wants. I can’t do that. I won’t do that.” I shook my head. “He’ll try and take it, though.”

“Then we’ll have to look at our options with GEM here.”

“There’s a trigger phrase, could there be a shut down phrase? Can their computer guys, like, hack into his brain somehow?”

“I’ll ask,” Jasmine said. “We’ll look at every option, Mandy. Everything.” She grabbed my shoulder.

Zach stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, watching. Lois was behind him some, hands over her mouth. Both of them had been on the receiving end of Nate’s kindness. Especially Zach. Nate sacrificed a lot to help him, despite him being my ex-boyfriend. My heart throbbed.

“Oh. Jasmine. I want to see Hudson so I can tell him more about The Center and GenCorp.”

“I’ll track him down.”

“I’ll go heal Nate. No need for him to suffer through recovery if I can fix it.”

“I’ll go with you,” Georgia said.

“No. That’s okay. I’m good. Thanks.”

I was nowhere near good, but this one I had to do alone. “Jas. Text my phone and let me know where I can find this Hudson guy.”

“Sure thing.”

Within minutes, I found my way through the maze of hallways to the medical unit. Nate lay flat on his bed, sheet up to his chest and motionless. I crept up to him. Monitors spewed out an even-beeping tone. That same IV, the one keeping him unconscious, dripped its sleeping potion with steady drops.

Would they keep him like that for always? Drugged out so he can’t act on his mission with me? Would the computer geeks find a way to hack into his brain and shut Robo Nate down? But the main question was would I be able to be with Robo Nate as his wife?

I scrubbed my face with my hands and sucked in a deep breath. I loved Nate, but could I love Robo Nate, too? Deal with that glowing red eye forever?

Leaning forward, I pushed all the hair from his forehead and let my hands follow the curves of his cheekbones, then over his chin, and down his neck to his chest. I pressed my lips to his, then to his ID stamp, then I stepped back and threw a healing shell over him.

Focusing on the hole in the back of his head, I closed my eyes.
Heal.

I dwelled on that and lost myself in the images of Nate flashing through my mind. Our first kiss in his apartment. Up on the trail for my birthday surprise. Then after he picked out all those tracers. All our sneak make-out sessions while on the road, searching for Lois.

My stomach lurched. He could
not
be gone for good. Just couldn’t be. I refused to let The Center snuff out My Nate. My husband!

A knocking sound drew me from my daze. I pulled in my healing ice and turned around.

There stood a tall man with two scars running down the side of his face. He was so big he nearly filled the entire doorframe. He wore black army fatigues, had one of those earpieces stuck in his ear, and guns and knives strapped everywhere else.

“You must be Hudson,” I said.

He nodded. “I understand you’re looking to get in on the Wyoming mission.”

My turn to nod. Seemed the thing to do here. “And my sister. We’ll come in handy.”

“I hear. Very powerful.”

I brushed my hand over Nate’s chest and rested it on his markings as I kept my stare on Mr. Army.

“Report to base in fifteen minutes. Get fitted up.” With that said, he turned on his heel and marched away.

A wave of apprehension and excitement slammed into me, but I turned to face My Nate. I leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be right back. Just going to quick go kill those bastards who did this to you.”

Chapter 48

“W
e’re to secure and observe for now.” Mr. Army said to the troops piled into the back of the van. “Once everything is in place, it’ll be a simultaneous strike.”

“Legal eagles didn’t work, huh?” I ran my hand down my chest over the black vest. “Told them they were slimy.”

“Had to try. We’re the last resort option.” He glanced at the rest of the team. “We have two newbies with us. Despite how powerful they are, they are new to the fold so watch out for them.”

One guy slapped my shoulder. “Stick with me, I’ve got your back, little one.”

Sure, this guy was tall and wide as a hundred year old tree trunk, even sitting, but he didn’t have a power. I smiled pretty, knowing I’d probably be healing him later. “Thanks.”

“Don’t listen to him. He’s a big talker,” a girl, who had long, blonde hair, pulled back in a braid that wove around her shoulder and rested on her chest, said. “You guys do what you do and you’ll be fine.”

“And what do you do?” Georgia asked.

She held out her hand, palm up, and a zip of electricity flickered above her skin.

“Hey, careful with that. We’re in a car. Small space. Electricity. Doesn’t go well,” the one they called Hayes said. He pinned me with a stare. “Saw you two flying around. That’s pretty tight.”

“Thanks,” I said. “What’s your power?”

“I hear well. Like your friend Jasmine.” He grinned, showing me a mouthful of perfectly white teeth. “Plus, I regenerate. Can’t heal anyone else, but any injury I get heals up pretty fast.”

“Sucks when you’re fighting him in the ring during training, though,” Braid Girl said.

“Please. You couldn’t injure me if you wanted to, lightweight.”

“We’ll see you in the ring tomorrow, buddy.”

“Amanda. Georgia,” Hudson said. “When we strike it’s quiet as possible. You two, along with Electro Hands here will guard the perimeter while the rest of us go in. Some will get through. It’s inevitable.”

“We kill them?” Georgia asked.

“Do what you need to prevent them from leaving. Those who survive will be brought back to base and questioned.”

I glanced at Georgia. “Any chance the ones responsible for Nate’s chip are here?”

Hudson nodded. “There’s a chance. From what our research team gathered, the ones responsible for that technology originated from this base.”

“But Bev said she was having someone in Florida brought to Nevada who was named in Nate’s records. So he or she might not be here.”

“We’ll keep our eyes and ears open. We’re here to clean house and bring back what we can.” He pinned me with a glare. “We are to effectively shut down this base as the others are getting shut down. You hear me?”

“Yes, sir.” I nodded. And for once, I was fine with it.

I’d hit the last straw with everything where Nate was involved. I would do what was needed to end this, and if that meant killing some of these assholes, I would. Hell, I might even smile while doing it. “Then we move on to Bev and her minions.”