“They’ll take him back to Mountain Home,” Katie said. “What I need you to do is help put out the blaze before we end up with a forest fire on top of the mess we’re alreadydealingwith.”
Even this far north, in the near middle of summer, the land was tinder-dry. If the fire got out of control, the resulting disaster would devastate the area and put countless livesatrisk.
Alexei pushed himself to his feet, fire already sparking at his fingertips as he reached for his pyrokinesis. “Amready.”
17
Leave the Body and LeaveitCold
Footstepson the heavy metal decking of the transport jet had Sean looking up from undoing his flight harness. His shoulders dropped in relief when he saw who had come to greethim. “Hey.”
“Shouldn’t be here,” Alexei said gruffly as he pulled his tactical goggles over his hardhelmet.
“I have lung-scrubbers in me right now. I’llbefine.”
Sean watched as the taller man maneuvered around the cargo boxes full of supplies the transport jet had ferried over from Mountain Home Air Force Base. Sean had caught a ride back into the field only after Gracie had arrived at the base to take the child he’d saved intohercare.
Phaedra was still traumatized, and rightly so. Sean had hated to leave her, but Gracie was the best person to care for the child in the aftermath of what she’d survived. Katie had mentally blocked the girl from using her clairvoyant power, so everyone would be spared the rush of images Sean was hit with when he pulled her offDeclan’sship.
Shoving aside the flight harness, Sean stood up to meet Alexei halfway. Alexei looked tired, a tightness to his mouth and around his eyes that spoke of an untreated headache. Considering the charred pit of debris Sean had viewed from the jet’s window upon their arrival, it wasn’t a surprise Alexei was hurting. He and the handful of other pyrokinetics must have had their hands full last night keeping the fire under control while the hydrokinetics put it out bit by bit. Smoke and the risk of flare-ups meant it would’ve been a slow goingprocess.
Sean only had vague recollections of escaping that inferno, which was probably for the best. Suffocating was a nightmare he didn’t need toremember.
They were the only ones on the jet, but it still surprised Sean when Alexei pulled him in for a hard kiss that gentled inseconds.
“I’m okay,” Sean murmured against Alexei’s mouth before pulling away. The last thing they needed was for someone to see them acting inappropriately in thefield.
Alexei didn’t let him get very far, lifting a hand to cup Sean’s cheek. “You barely breathing when we reach you. Katie say you ignore order toleave.”
Sean winced. “I know. I probably should have left when she told me to, but if I did, I wouldn’t have been able to rescue Phaedra. Last thing we need to deal with is the other side controlling aclairvoyant.”
The idea of a precognitive and clairvoyant focusing their considerable power to undermine the MDF and similar foreign agencies still sent a chill down Sean’s spine even these many hours later. Seeing the future was one thing, because the future was ever-changing. But having the power to see distant events happening in real-time—anything from a car accident to a classified government meeting—was dangerous in a different way. No secret would be safe with a clairvoyant in enemyhands.
Alexei’s mouth twisted in a grimace, gray eyes tired. “Good you save her, but next time should listen to Katie. She’s second forreason.”
“I’msorry.”
Sean could phase through solid objects, but he still needed to breathe. Coming out into the inferno had made it nearly impossible to orient himself at the time. Sean knew he was lucky the rest of Alpha Team had worked swiftly to come to his rescue. He’d owe them for that, even if they would never accept the debt. But judging by Alexei’s reaction right now, it hadn’t been easy for him towitnessit.
“Come on,” Alexei said, tugging Sean forward. “Can help withcleanup.”
They took a few seconds to readjust their hard helmets and goggles, making sure the nanotech strips that would blur their features were in place, before heading for the ramp. All MDF agents and field operatives needed to keep their identities hidden, especially with so many people wandering around out here. SOCOM and Strike Force knowing who they were was vastly different than the pressfindingout.
They exited the jet onto the main road that once led to North Star International and was currently doubling as a landing strip. It may have been hours since the raging fire was brought under control and put out, but the air still smelled like smoke. Sean coughed a little as they walked, mindful of where he put his feet on the brokenground.
Gracie had healed the tenderness in his lungs, but then injected him with lung-scrubbers to fully fix the damage so she didn’t stretch her power. Several MDF agents would be off field duty for a while and quite a few Strike Force operatives had been injured as well, some critically. Gracie had opted to heal a lot of people only a little in order to spread out the use of herpower.
Sean squinted through his goggles at the bright morning light as they walked. Only a few scattered twists of fog coiled over the brown mountainsides, the morning sun having burned most of it away. Sean could barely see the few high-rise buildings of the neighboring city of Dillon rising into the sky from their current location. Reporters traveled back and forth between the small city and the massive staging area the media had set up at the perimeter of the crimescene.
The federal government had slapped a no-fly zone over the area once the dust settled. The exits leading on and off I-15 near the property were closed for at least the next twenty-four hours. The Wolcotts’ ranch was located beyond the city limits, and only a small portion of it had been zoned for commercial buildings. After the fight wound down and prisoners were apprehended, the private property was cordoned off by multiple agencies. The MDF, FBI, and ATF all descended on the location to help secure the area and begin the laborious process of documenting any and all evidence leftbehind.
It would take weeks, especially because excavating the collapsed building and near-sinkhole where the hangar was would require authorities to go slow. Sean knew the spinmeisters already had their stories hitting the news streams. He’d watched a couple of talking heads argue about the fight while getting injected with the lung-scrubbers. The arguments hadn’t been pretty. People were debating whether the situation at hand constituted a callous attack by the government on innocent civilians or a preemptive attack to stop terrorists in their tracks. Either way, Sean knew the public would shuffle into their respective partisan camps soonenough.
It wouldn’t matter that the MDF had solid evidence of an American biotech company colluding with the enemy, or that a private military company had been helping them sell Splice on the black market for years. Some people would always question the truth. Considering the investigation would eventually focus on a sitting senator and a high-ranking CIA official only made the process of looking for evidence more stressful. They had to get itright.
Alexei led him to the makeshift command tents where Jamie was holding court with other high-ranking officers and agents from the various agencies onsite. Jamie still wore his filtration mask, less because of the air quality and more because his voice came through a shade different, making it easier to hide his identitythatway.
“Glad to see you’re back on your feet, Wraith,” Jamie said, looking away from the layered command windows everyone was studying. All Sean could make out were timetables, maps, and the detailed outline of a collapsedbuilding.
