We pulled apart, the exam table squeaking as Ben slid off so he could stand, while I sat upright for the first time since I’d awakened. Rebecca Morse stood in the doorway, her expression somewhere between apologetic and urgent.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said. “But we have a problem.”
Ben’s hand found mine automatically, our fingers interlacing. The sparks had faded, but I could still feel the resonance between our electromagnetic fields.
“What kind of problem?” he asked.
“I just found out that DAPI is mobilizing military units. They’ve decided to treat the EMP as a potential terrorist attack, so they’re preparing for tactical deployment.” She came farther into the room, a frown pulling at her dark brows. “I have to believe they’re scanning the area for any possible places we could have used to hide, and that means sooner or later, they’ll figure out where we’ve gone to ground. I estimate we’ve got twenty-four hours, maybe less, before Rosenthal’s troops storm this facility.”
Twenty-four hours. I looked at the phoenix, still wrapped in its electromagnetic blanket, still slowly dying.
“That’s not enough time,” I said. “None of us knows how long the phoenix’s rebirth cycle might take.”
“Then we’ll have to accelerate the process somehow.” Rebecca Morse moved to the phoenix’s table and began carefully unwrapping the shielding that had sheltered the creature all this time. “Dr. Rosenthal wants to weaponize phoenix fire. We need to understand how the rebirth mechanism works if we’re going to counter her.”
The phoenix stirred as the blanket came away, and I felt its consciousness brush against mine. It was still suffering, still desperate, but also hopeful now that I was awake and aware.
“We need expertise,” Ben said. “Someone who understands phoenix mythology and the mechanics of rebirth cycles.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Well, someone like that shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
Ben gave me a faint smile in response to that remark, but then his expression grew serious again as he continued, “There’s a man I know. Lewis Webb. He’s a cryptozoologist who specializes in dimensional creatures and their life cycles. He might have some information we could use about phoenix rebirth.”
I frowned. “Can we trust him?”
“He’s spent his career documenting supernatural phenomena without trying to weaponize them. That’s more than I can say for most researchers in this field.” Ben squeezed my hand. “And right now, we need all the help we can get.”
Agent Morse nodded. “I can arrange a secure meeting. But it has to be soon. DAPI’s surveillance net is tightening.”
Twenty-four hours to save an ancient creature, stop a government conspiracy, and prevent the weaponization of dimensional magic. Twenty-four hours to do the impossible.
Again.
“Set up the meeting,” I said. “But it has to be somewhere remote. Somewhere DAPI won’t expect.” I paused for a moment and thought furiously, mentally ticking through every obscure place in the area that might suit our purposes. “There’s an old fire lookout tower about ten miles east of here,” I went on. “It’s been abandoned for years, but it has a clear view of the surrounding forest. We’d see anyone approaching long before they reached us.”
“That could work.” Agent Morse had pulled a tablet out of her field jacket and was already typing coordinates into it. “I’ll contact Lewis Webb and arrange the meeting for this evening. That will give us a few hours to prepare.”
A few hours. I wasn’t sure if we could afford that much time, but we needed to know everything about the phoenix’s rebirth cycle before we embarked on such a dangerous experiment. An impossible situation, just like everything else I’d faced recently.
“We can do this,” I said. “And it’ll be on our terms, not Rosenthal’s.”
Rebecca Morse smiled grimly. In her cargo pants and hiking boots and thermal Henley-style shirt, she didn’t look much like the polished FBI agent who’d confronted me only a month earlier. That was all right, though. Now I understood that she was an ally. A friend.
And we needed all the friends we could get.
Chapter Four
The fire lookout tower rose above the pine canopy like a skeletal finger pointing at the sky. Ben pulled Rebecca’s big black SUV onto the overgrown access road and killed the engine, then studied the structure through the windshield. The tower had been abandoned for decades, its wooden stairs weathered to gray, its windows dark and empty. But it would give them a clear view of anyone approaching, which was exactly what they needed.
“You’re sure Lewis will come?” Sidney asked from the passenger seat. She’d been quiet during the drive, her electromagnetic senses stretched thin as she monitored the area for any possible DAPI surveillance. Her face was still tight with effort, and he noticed how her fingers were white-knuckled on the door handle.
“He’ll come.” Ben paused to look down at his watch. Four-thirty. They had half an hour to go before the scheduled meeting. “Lewis doesn’t trust government agencies any more than we do. When I told him what was happening, he said he’d been waiting years for someone to finally stand up to DAPI.”
Rebecca emerged from the back seat, her dark gaze already scanning the tree line with the air of someone who’d done this same sort of thing hundreds of times before. “I’ll set up a perimeter. If anyone approaches, we should have about five minutes’ warning.”
She pulled some surveillance equipment from her pack and disappeared into the forest. Ben watched her go, then turned to Sidney.
“How are you holding up?”
