Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Harold Goddard, alias Mr. Smith, walked restlessly around the first floor of his mansion.
He had nothing to worry about, he told himself.
He’d killed three people in the past few days, and that should take care of any problems he could anticipate.
First, there had been the boat captain, Carson.
Then the detective, Gabe Bowman, and the artist, Olivia Langston.
Both of the latter had been stupid to get tangled up in his business.
Now they were all dead. That should put an end to any worries he had. But he couldn’t rein in his paranoia. Only it wasn’t paranoia if you really did think someone could be stalking you.
He stopped in the control room and saw that Andrew was watching the screens.
When Harold saw nothing unusual, he went out back and scanned the river.
It was quiet and peaceful in the darkness.
But far in the distance, he saw the lights of a boat.
As he watched, they winked off. Or was that a trick of his mind?
Had he really seen a boat disable its lights in the navigation channel?
And if he was right, did that mean an invasion force was coming for him?
If so, who the hell were they and how did they know to show up here?
Conspiracy theories swirled in his head, but he had to ignore them for the moment. If he was under attack, he had to defend himself.
He rushed back to the control room in time to see an SUV on the camera that monitored traffic on River Road. It slowed when it passed his driveway, then continued out of sight. Nothing usual except the slowing, but his fine-tuned sense of worry had begun to make his nerve endings tingle.
“Let me take the chair,” he said abruptly.
Andrew stood at once and moved to the side of the room.
Harold quickly slid into the seat. He’d been preparing himself for trouble since he’d first taken over this estate.
He’d put special measures in place. Too bad that some of them were untested.
But there were others that depended on good old-fashioned armament.
First, he sent out a vibrating alarm to the phone of each of the guards on duty, cursing himself that he’d given some of them the evening off.
When he had alerted the men, he reached to pull out the computer keyboard and began to call up a program.
As he worked, he split his attention between the computer and the man standing beside him.
“Get to the front of the house,” he said. “And be prepared to execute the drill we practiced.”
“Yes, sir.” As his henchman answered, he was already on his way out the door.
* * *
Rachel was in the shotgun seat beside Jake as he slowed on River Road.
“I think we’d better get a few hundred feet from the mansion before we park,” he said.
There were murmurs of agreement from Stephanie and Craig behind them.
Jake found a place where he could pull off the road. After he parked, Rachel sent a message to the team in the boat. We’re here.
Reading you loud and clear, Matt sent back.
Where are you?
Approaching the dock at low power.
We’ll get in position near the front door.
So far, so good.
As soon as we spot the cameras. I’m going to cut the power to the surveillance system, including the lights, Rachel said. That will probably alert Smith that something’s up. But on balance, it’s better that he can’t see us.
Matt sent her his agreement. They had discussed cloaking themselves psychically, the way they had when they’d mounted the water rescue mission. But in the end, they’d decided that making themselves invisible would drain away too much power with the group, so spread out.
The foursome got out of the vehicle, collected the weapons they’d brought, and started back to the mansion on foot, moving as silently as they could through the darkness, staying off the road, keeping to cover as much as possible.
As they drew near Smith’s property, Jake scanned the roofline of the house and the trees.
I see the cameras, he informed them, directing the others to the locations.
They all stopped, formed into a tight group, and sent energy to Rachel as she shorted out the video system.
In the next moment, she cried out as something she had never experienced jolted her.
She couldn’t say what it was, but all at once some kind of bolt struck her.
Not something physical. It was mental, and it shot straight to her brain.
Her hands went to her head as she tried to block out the intense pain that bloomed like a nuclear explosion.
The others in the group gasped, and she knew they were experiencing the same sensation.
It was impossible to stay on her feet. Her knees buckled, and she fell to the side, hitting Stephanie on the way down.
Smith must have...she tried to say, but she couldn’t form the words.
It had happened fast, and it had happened to all of them. And there was more than pain. She felt a grogginess invading her mind like mist creeping along the ground swallowing up the landscape.
To her amazement, when she looked up, she saw that Jake was still standing. She tried to reach him with her mind, but for the first time since they’d bonded, that was impossible. She simply couldn’t catch his thoughts.
Fear crackled inside her, and she realized how much she’d come to depend on that mental connection. It was as though she had lost part of herself. Was it the same for him?
She felt his hand find hers and squeeze. “Gotta get out of here,” he croaked.
“I...can’t.”
“You have to,” he said, giving a savage tug on her arm. “Or we’re gonna die.” Somehow the tug and the words prodded her to action.
She might not be able to stand. She might not be able to think clearly.
But if she had any say in the matter, she wasn’t going to let Smith wipe her out—along with the rest of her clan.
She began to crawl away from the house, back toward the road, praying she could escape from whatever was turning her mind to cottage cheese.
Anxiously, she spared a glance back over her shoulder and thanked God that Craig and Stephanie were following.
They looked as bad as she felt, but they were moving.
As she fought through air that had turned to thick syrup around her, she remembered something else that froze the blood in her veins.
The boat team was headed for the dock. She had to stop them.
Desperately she tried to send a message, but she couldn’t get the words out past the invisible wall around her head.
* * *
Gabe guided the boat silently toward the pier that jutted out into the water.
It was like his mind was divided into two halves.
Travis focused on the navigation and Gabe scanned the estate ahead, where floodlights illuminated the grounds.
He could see no guards on duty, but he knew the surroundings were under observation.
Probably there was a man in the control room he’d seen sitting at the bank of screens watching for trouble. How many men were there besides Smith?
He’d seen six. There could be more.
When the exterior went dark, he knew that the other team had cut the outside power. Presumably, that meant that not only were the spots out but also the video cameras.
Beside him, Matt sent his thanks to Rachel.
Immediately, he sensed trouble.
“Rachel didn’t answer,” Matt informed him.
At the words, a knot of worry started deep in his chest. There was a time when Travis could have flitted to the front of the house to find out what was going on out there. Those days were over.
As soon as the boat bumped against a piling, Matt snatched up a knapsack, jumped out, and began tying up the vessel. The moment it was secure, he turned and helped Elizabeth out. Olivia stayed by Gabe’s side.
Gabe was halfway to the lawn when he heard Travis shouting inside his head. Not just to him but to the other members of the water team.
Get off the dock. Get off the dock.
Could they jump into the water?
No. They had already reached the bulwark of large, jagged rocks that reinforced the shoreline.
All he could do was throw down his pack, grab Olivia’s hand, and run toward land, pulling her after him. Together, they pounded up the last few feet of boards behind Matt and Elizabeth, who had already made it to the lawn and were heading for cover behind a gazebo.
He and Olivia were seconds behind them. They had almost reached the other two team members when he felt the ground shake.
Moments later, he heard an enormous boom behind him, like a barrage of artillery shells had gone off.
He grabbed Olivia and pulled her down, covering her body with his as debris from the pier and the boat began to shower down.
Wood and metal flew through the air like confetti, and Gabe braced for impact.
But everybody else was focused on protection.
He could feel himself and Olivia joining with Matt and Elizabeth to put up a dome over the four of them.
As the deadly rain fell, it was deflected, bouncing off the invisible shield, preventing anything from hitting them.
When one of the boat’s twin engines landed nearby, he shuddered.
He eased off Olivia, but cradled her against him, thankful that she was all right, vividly aware that he could have lost her in these first moments of the invasion.
I wish you hadn’t come. The silent words were from Travis.
I go where you do, she answered.
He couldn’t stop trembling, and he knew it wasn’t fear for himself. It was fear for her.
Whose emotions am I feeling, yours or mine? he asked the other man who had joined with him in his body.
Does it matter?
He could only answer, No.
But he knew this was not the time for a philosophical discussion. They had to save their lives—and get to Smith. The bastard had already proved he was tricky. This was just more evidence of his relentless ability to counter threats.
Gabe wasn’t sure how long they lay there, but finally, the immediate effects of the blast subsided.
How did you know? he asked Travis.
I can’t explain it, even to myself. I was on alert for the bastard to do something totally unexpected. Then I sensed it.
We’d all be dead if you hadn’t warned us, Matt said.
Or seriously injured if you hadn’t put up that shield.
You were part of it.
Can we assume Smith thinks he sent us to our maker? Elizabeth asked.
Assume nothing, Gabe shot back. We have to get to a more secure location. Men could be coming to investigate. Stay low. Stay in the shadows. Somewhere in his mind, he realized he was silently speaking to the others with sudden ease. He guessed that the emergency had juiced up his ability.
After weighing the pros and cons of staying together or splitting up, he decided that separating only gave the enemy the opportunity to pick them off one by one.
I’m going to contact the other team, Matt said.
Gabe waited tensely for word that Rachel and the other four were okay. When Matt shook his head, Gabe felt the terrible tension in his chest expand. What the hell had happened to Rachel’s team?
Or were they somehow being blocked from responding? He prayed it was that simple. At least he hadn’t heard another explosion—or gunfire.