“Take Misty and Forrest and head for pad one, the westernmost rocket,” he told her. “Harley, Caleb, and I will deal with the other two. And move fast. We don’t have much time. Do whatever you have to do to stop those launches.”
Jes wanted to ask him if he was okay, but like he’d said, they didn’t have much time. She, Misty, and Forrest had to stop the first launch and pray Jake, Harley, and Caleb figured out how to stop the second and third launches without Misty there to help them.
“Come on,” she said to Misty and Forrest.
Hurrying out of the room, they headed toward what Jes hoped was the front of the building. With the fighting going on along the back side, they sure as hell didn’t want to go that way. She had no idea how they were going to get to pad one, since it was at least a mile away. Sprinting there was a lousy option.
A few minutes later, they reached the front door only to run into a three-man security team. She, Misty, and Forrest ended up getting pinned down for much longer than Jes would have liked before taking them out. But on the bright side, the security team no longer had any use for the armored Land Rover they’d arrived in, while she and her teammates did.
It took Jes a few seconds to figure out how to get the vehicle started, but luckily, she’d played around in the Hummers in her dad’s unit enough times when she was a kid to understand the basics of driving a tactical truck. The best part was that there wasn’t any key to worry about, just a starter switch that got the big thing rumbling.
Jes sped the truck toward pad one, mostly sticking to the narrow facility roads, but cutting cross-country when it seemed faster. Misty and Forrest obviously weren’t thrilled with the way they got bounced around inside the big metal truck when she did that, but they didn’t complain too much.
Within minutes, the launchpad and its ginormous Ariane 5 rocket was in sight, looming high over them—so tall that even in its gantry, it looked ready to topple over any second.
“Jes, we’ve got company coming,” Misty said.
Before Jes could ask what kind of company Misty meant, a hail of bullets tore up the ground in front of them as a helicopter roared over their heads.
Jes involuntarily flinched. They might be riding around in an armored vehicle, but she wasn’t sure it could take many hits from the large gun the helicopter was using. Especially not when it could hit the lightly protected upper side of the truck.
“Forrest, get on that roof-mounted machine gun!” she shouted, swerving the heavy vehicle side to side to make them a harder target for the door gunner on the bird flying above them. “And keep that helicopter away from us long enough for me to get us to the launchpad!”
In the backseat, Forrest scrambled to open the roof hatch and push it out of the way. He was barely able to keep his footing as he stood to lean through the opening and cycle a round into the chamber of the machine gun.
The helicopter continued shooting at them, but Forrest was able to keep it far enough away so the shots the gunner took at them weren’t all that accurate. It was enough, and a few minutes later, they were at the launchpad.
Jes practically bounced Misty off the seat and almost pitched poor Forrest off the top of the roof when she slammed the brakes, sliding the truck to a stop only inches away from the earth-covered bunker that served as the backup control center for pad one. Forrest tumbled to the ground from the top of the vehicle, unsteady. Misty immediately jumped out of the vehicle and lay down a steady rate of fire at the approaching helicopter, giving Jes and Forrest time to deal with the guards trying to keep them from getting into the building.
Judging by how many rounds Jes had to put in two of the guards to knock them off their feet, they were almost certainly natum. She was worried Forrest had a concussion or something because his aim was complete crap. As a result, she was forced to deal with them on her own, putting several rounds in their stomach while Forrest aimed everywhere but. Her assumption that they were natum was confirmed the moment they hit the floor and turned into the creepy-looking creatures.
“Misty, let’s go!” Jes shouted, ducking her head in to take a peek inside the facility. The place was similar to the main control room they’d been in earlier, but a lot smaller. There were maybe twenty computer stations and only two large TV screens, along with a big digital clock in between them that was currently counting down from twenty minutes. “Forget the damn helicopter and get in here and stop the launch!”
There were a whole group of unarmed scientists—both men and women—cowering against the back wall, eyes wide with fear. Jes considered keeping them around to help stop the launch, but between the language barrier and the terror on their faces, she decided it would be a waste of time. Instead, she motioned them toward the door with the barrel of her M4 and waved them out. They ran, no questions asked. One thing about engineer types—they were good at problem solving. And this situation was definitely not their problem.
Misty ran into the room a moment later, purple ponytail bouncing behind her. “The helicopter gave up and bailed toward the east.”
Hurrying over to one of the computer stations, Misty sat down and immediately did her thing, her lavender eyes going milky white within seconds. As before, Jes left Forrest to watch over his girlfriend while she guarded the door. But at least there was only one way in this time.
“You know, I never really thought you people would make it this far,” Forrest suddenly said.
The tone in his voice combined with the odd word choice sent a shiver up Jes’s spine, and she turned around to see Forrest standing beside Misty, the barrel of his M4 pressed against her temple.
What the hell?
“You were supposed to all die on that open stretch of ground between the fence line and the mission control building,” he continued, his eyes locked on Jes. “I didn’t honestly know what to do when that didn’t happen. And then this freak started surfing around in that computer, and I have to admit, I panicked a little. I wasn’t sure if it would be better to kill you there or see what you would do next. I never in a million years thought you’d have a chance of stopping the launches. I can’t let that happen.”
Jes didn’t think. She brought her weapon up and squeezed the trigger, popping off a three-round burst at Forrest—or the thing that looked like Forrest—without even aiming.
A stomach shot was out of the question with Misty sitting in front of him, so the rounds ended up hitting the creature in the upper left chest and shoulder. It wasn’t fatal for a natum, but it was enough to flip him over the nearest computer desk and send his weapon flying.
Jes quickly moved forward, M4 raised to her shoulder and ready to fire. If the natum was still on the ground, she’d put whatever was left in her magazine in his stomach and end this.
But when she looked over the top of the computer table and saw the creature looking like the Forrest she knew and liked lying there, dark, oily blood pouring out of his shoulder, she hesitated for a split second.
That hesitation cost her.
The natum was off the ground and coming at her in a blur that rivaled the way she’d seen Jake and his fellow werewolves move. It hit her so hard she saw stars as she flew backward through the air and hit the ground with two hundred pounds of creature on her chest.
