Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
By eight in the morning, I’d been awake for an hour, and I’d been watching Ben sleep for most of that time.
Weak gray light made its way past the ancient grove’s canopy and fell in shifting patterns across his face, but I kept my attention on the steady rise and fall of his chest, memorizing the peaceful expression he wore…
an expression I knew wouldn’t last once he awoke to the reality we faced.
I should have gotten us moving before dawn.
To be honest, I should have done a lot of things differently.
The phoenix dozed near the remains of our small fire, its plumage a sickening orange rather than the pure gold it should have been.
Even in sleep, corruption radiated from it in waves.
Those strange abilities of mine hadn’t been completely depleted the day before, although part of me wished they had.
If they were gone, then maybe I could have tried to ignore how dire the phoenix’s situation really was.
A dull ache throbbed somewhere behind my temples, and I doubted it would get much better as the day progressed.
The nosebleeds had finally stopped sometime during the night, but the tremor in my hands remained.
Best guess, I had enough energy for minor sensing work.
Anything more would push me into dangerous territory.
Unfortunately, the question wasn’t whether I could use my powers. The real question was whether I’d have any choice.
Rebecca Morse had sent us a message around two in the morning.
DAPI mobilizing. Major operation. Estimate arrival at your location 0800-0900. Rosenthal personally supervising. Equipment unknown but assume enhanced protocols.
Now it was closing in on eight, and we should have been long gone. To where, I had no idea, since it seemed we could be tracked wherever we went. I was pretty sure Rebecca would have said it didn’t matter, that we needed to be like Dory if we wanted to avoid capture.
Just keep swimming.
Ben’s eyes opened, and he seemed immediately alert despite the abbreviated sleep he’d gotten the night before. It still kind of amazed me how fast he could focus even without caffeine. Sure, he liked his cup of morning coffee as much as anyone else, but he could function just fine without it.
“How bad is it?” He’d taken one look at my face and read everything I wasn’t saying from my expression, but that didn’t stop him from sitting up and reaching for his equipment bag.
No point in sugarcoating things, not in the gray cold of that foggy morning. “Rebecca says they’ll be here within the hour. Sounds like Rosenthal’s coming herself.”
Ben paused in the act of pulling out his electromagnetic field detector and met my eyes. We hadn’t been together all that long, but it still seemed as if he could read in my face everything I wasn’t saying.
“How’s your energy?”
“Low.” I didn’t bother to elaborate. He’d seen me collapse yesterday, had watched me bleed and shake. He knew exactly how drained I was without me having to spell it out. “I can sense nearby electronics, maybe jam a device or two if I have to. That’s it.”
“Then we’ll run.” He started packing with efficient movements, no wasted motion. “There’s a cave system I found when I was studying Google maps of the area. We can be three miles away before they even reach the grove.”
The phoenix stirred as he spoke and lifted its head.
Through the connection we’d formed during my failed cleansing attempt, I felt its exhaustion, its resignation.
It couldn’t fly anymore, could barely walk.
The corruption had continued to spread, tendrils of shadow fire eating away at its essence minute by minute.
“It can’t move on its own.” I couldn’t keep the defeat out of my voice. “We’d have to carry it.”
Meaning that Ben would have to carry it, since I barely had the strength at the moment to drag my own carcass around.
His hands went still on the pack he’d been securing. In silence, he looked over at the phoenix and then at me, and I could practically see the mental calculations going on in his head. He’d already arrived at the choice we both knew we’d have to make but neither of us wanted to voice.
“Then we’ll stay and defend ourselves.” His voice was a little too matter-of-fact.
Those words settled between us, solid despite their obvious impossibility.
Such a choice meant I’d have to use powers I didn’t have.
It also meant that Ben would have to face trained tactical operators with nothing but his brains and his determination.
Formidable as he was in a lot of ways, he was just one man, and not anyone with the background to deal with such a situation.
But leaving the phoenix to die alone was unthinkable.
“I can set up some basic defensive measures,” Ben continued as he rose to his feet. “The equipment we brought from Jessop’s facility will help. We can create interference patterns, confuse their approach vectors. That should buy us time.”
Time for what? I wanted to ask. Time for me to recover?
That would take days. Time for backup? We didn’t have any.
Yes, Rebecca Morse was out there in the forest somewhere, but I had to believe she was more focused on creating diversions.
There was no guarantee she’d get here in time to help in any measurable way.
What we needed was a miracle.
I didn’t say any of that, however. Instead, I nodded and pushed myself to my feet, fighting a wave of dizziness as I rose.
The world swam for a moment, and I blinked and willed my body to behave.
“I’ll do a perimeter sense.” To my surprise, my voice was almost steady.
“With any luck, I’ll be able to figure out their approach routes. ”
“Sidney — ”
“I can handle it,” I cut in. “What I’m going to do isn’t anything major. Just some passive sensing.”
The look he gave me said he didn’t believe those words for a second, but he also knew better than to argue. We’d had this fight before. My powers, my risk tolerance…my choice.
I moved to the edge of the grove and settled onto a moss-covered stone that had probably been there for centuries. I took a slow breath and reached out with my electromagnetic senses, letting my awareness expand beyond my physical form.
The headache sharpened immediately, a spike of pain behind my eyes that made them water.
I blinked and pushed through it, cataloging the electronic signatures within my limited range.
Normally, I could sense for two miles in any direction.
Today, I was lucky to manage five hundred yards, and even that felt like dragging my consciousness through barbed wire.
But there — to the northeast, maybe four hundred yards out.
A cluster of electromagnetic signatures, and not the simple patterns of phones or radios or TVs, something I’d almost gotten used to over the past few weeks.
These were much more complex. They appeared to be shielded in some way, which meant they had to be military-grade.
And there were dozens of them.
My eyes snapped open. “Ben. They’re already here.”
He looked up from the makeshift sensor array he’d been assembling. “How many?”
“At least thirty signatures, probably more beyond my current range. And Ben — ” I broke off and swallowed hard.
I hated to give him even more bad news, but he needed to know.
“Their equipment is different, shielded in a way I haven’t encountered before.
When I try to sense any details, it’s like hitting a wall. ”
His mouth tightened, but he continued to work, as if he thought that half-assed collection of electronics could somehow protect us from the enemies we were facing. “EMP-hardened. They learned from our last encounter.”
Of course they had. Dr. Rosenthal hadn’t gotten to such a position of authority by making the same mistake twice. The barrier I’d created yesterday, the way I’d jammed their surveillance network — she’d adapted, had brought equipment specifically designed to resist electromagnetic interference.
Which meant my already limited abilities had just become even more costly to use.
Ben abandoned the array and reached into the bag where he’d stowed his tablet. His fingers flew over the screen. “If they’ve surrounded us, we need to identify the weakest point in their perimeter. See if you can find a gap.”
I reached out again and gritted my teeth against the pain.
The hardened equipment made it like trying to see through frosted glass — I could sense the signatures were there, could get a general impression of location and movement, but the details remained as fuzzy and indistinct as the distant trees in the foggy forest that surrounded us.
“They’re not in a full circle yet,” I told him as I studied the pattern. “There’s a gap to the southwest that’s maybe fifty yards wide. But they’re closing it. Five minutes, probably less.”
“Then that’s our window.” Ben grabbed both our packs and slung his over one shoulder while mine dangled from his other hand. “We move now, fast and quiet. The phoenix — ”
A soft trill interrupted him. The phoenix had risen to its feet, wings half-spread despite their obvious weakness. I could feel its intention. It wasn’t going to come with us. Instead, it planned to stay here and draw their attention.
“No.” The single syllable was sharp, brittle with worry. “We’re not leaving you.”
The phoenix fixed me with those wise, golden eyes and showed me an image that seemed to beam directly into my mind: Ben and me escaping through the gap while DAPI forces converged on the grove.
Time. Space. Survival.
Sacrifice.
“Sidney.” Ben put his hand on my shoulder, gentle but urgent. “We have maybe three minutes.”
I stared at the phoenix, this magnificent creature that was dying because DAPI had deliberately corrupted its rebirth cycle. This being that had existed for centuries, maybe millennia, guarding the portal and maintaining the balance between worlds. Leaving it felt like abandoning family.