Phantom Prospect (18 page)

Annja summoned the sword and it appeared in her hands in the blink of an eye. She slashed down on the first guard’s gun, knocking it from his hand. The second guard brought his gun up but, at that moment, Cole’s head snapped up and he kicked the guard square in his crotch.

“Annja, my hands,” Cole said.

Annja cut the chain between his cuffs and then turned back to the first guard, who had backed away from Annja after seeing a mystical sword appear out of thin air.

“Still thinking about blowing us up?” she said.

He held up his hands. “I was just following orders.”

“Of course you were.” Annja advanced on him and he stumbled over a crate. He landed hard but then rolled backward. As he came up, Annja saw that he had unholstered his pistol and was bringing it to bear on her center mass.

She slashed down and the guard fell under her blade.

Annja swung back to Cole, who was busy wrestling with the second guard. She saw the second guard score a kick into Cole’s stomach and Cole fell toward the shaft. Annja leaped forward and steadied him with the flat of her blade before he could topple over the edge.

As she guided him from the edge, the second guard grabbed his gun and turned it on them.

“Stop!”

Annja froze, her sword held horizontally by her right side. “All right, just take it easy.”

The second guard backed away to check on the first guard. Annja shook her head. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

The guard looked and blanched at the sight of what Annja’s sword had done. He stared at her. “Where did you get that thing?”

“What thing?” Annja asked.

The guard didn’t hesitate and raised his gun. As he did so, Annja flicked her hands toward him and sent the sword spinning right at his head. His neck spouted a fountain of blood before he fell forward, a spreading pool expanding outward toward the shaft with the nuclear bomb.

Annja helped Cole to his feet.

“Are they dead?” he asked.

Annja nodded. “Yeah, the sword saw to that,” she said as she willed the sword back to the otherwhere.

“Good. The bastards.” Cole looked around. “Can we leave now? I’m tired of being here.”

Annja smiled. “I wish. We’ve got to take care of some other business first.”

“What business?”

“First, my handcuffs, then the bomb.”

Cole grabbed a set of keys from one of the dead guards. He freed Annja’s hands and then removed the broken cuffs from his own wrists.

Cole shook his head. “I must have missed some of the details after they knocked me out. What did you say about a bomb?”

Annja pointed at the shaft. “You see that?”

“Yeah, you saved me from falling down there. What about it?”

“Take a look at what’s inside.” Annja waited until Cole crawled over to the lip of the shaft and looked down. The color drained from his face and he stared back at Annja. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Unfortunately.”

“That’s a nuclear device, Annja.”

Annja nodded. “Yep. That’s what Henderson is using to open up the reservoir of oil that’s buried beneath the bedrock in this cavern.”

“You’re joking.”

“I wish.”

Cole frowned. “So, we’re sitting atop a nuclear bomb right now. Any idea when it’s going to go off?”

Annja frowned. “Don’t know. Those two were supposed to put us down there and then take one of the mechanical sharks to rendezvous with Henderson at another facility.”

“He’s waiting for them?”

Annja shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Why maybe?”

Annja sat down on the lip of the shaft and dangled her legs over the side. The bomb sat thirty feet below her. “Depends on how much you trust Henderson’s word.”

“And you don’t?”

“The guy’s a fruitcake. Banking on his word would make as much sense as trusting a politician. What I think is going to happen is Henderson is going to get a safe distance away and then trigger that bomb. If the guards are gone, well and good, but I don’t think for a moment he really gives a damn about them.”

“Which means we don’t have a lot of time,” Cole said.

“Exactly.”

Cole cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but why the hell are we staying here instead of getting out?”

Annja pointed at the bomb. “Because if that thing goes off, then hundreds of thousands of people might die.”

Cole frowned. “The bomb’s not that big, Annja.”

“Henderson’s got this thing positioned atop a fault line. As in earthquake fault lines.”

“So it will cause an earthquake.”

“What it might do is precipitate a massive quake that would result in a tsunami that could take out part of the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada.”

Cole’s eyebrows shot up. “No way!”

“We’ve got to stop that thing from going off.”

“Just like that?”

Annja faced him. “Got a better idea?”

“Hey, my specialty is sharks. Bombs weren’t on my course electives, Annja. I’m fairly useless in this situation.”

“Well, you can always amuse me with your comedic gold routines.”

“Great.”

Annja looked at the walls of the shaft. The drilling had left a series of pockmarks that Annja thought could make decent hand-and footholds. She lowered herself over the edge and found her way onto the first one close to her feet.

“Jesus, you’re really serious about this,” Cole said. “You think you can do something?”

“I don’t know. But I’ve got to try.” She looked up at him. “Look, it’s not fair for me to ask you to stay. Why don’t you take that shark and get out of here?”

“Don’t tempt me,” Cole said.

“I’m serious.”

Cole nodded. “Yeah, I know you are. But what good will it do me if I run? Even if I get out of the cavern, there’s no guarantee I’ll make it out and back to the
Seeker
. And if this thing is below the ship, then the
Seeker
and my brother might be in mortal danger, too. That’s not cool.”

“Agreed.”

“I’ll stay.”

Annja continued climbing down, using the holds until she at last made it to the small ledge sitting next to the yellow container. She looked at the top of the container and saw the variety of symbols, all of which were clearly designed to scare the bejeezus out of anyone who got too close.

Annja took a few deep breaths and looked at the four claps securing the lid to the main body of the bomb. “I screw this up and we’re going to glow in the dark,” she said.

“You screw that up and we won’t have to worry about glowing,” Cole said. “There won’t be enough pieces of us left to glow.”

Annja nodded and released one of the metal clasps. It popped back and Annja heard a vague hiss of escaping air. Cripes, she thought, have I already released radioactivity into the air? Was she already breathing contaminated air? I have no clue what I’m doing here, she thought.

“How’s it going?” Cole asked.

Annja shrugged. “Here goes another clasp.” She undid the clasp and heard another hiss of escaping air.

“That sound freaks me out,” Cole said.

“You and me both,” Annja replied. She released the third clasp. She took a breath and sighed, trying to stay focused. A line of sweat broke out along her hairline and she wiped some of it away before turning back to the device.

“Fourth time’s the charm?” she called out.

Cole laughed. “Let’s hope so.”

Annja bent back and looked closely at the device. All right, she thought, just one more to go and then maybe I’ll get a better look at what this thing is all about.

She undid the fourth and final clasp.

Another hiss of air escaped.

“I’m ready to lift the lid off,” Annja said.

“Go slow,” Cole said.

Annja looked up at him. “What makes you say that?”

He shrugged. “Every movie I’ve ever seen they always say that. Maybe bombs don’t like being rushed. Damned if I know.”

Annja tuned back to the bomb and lifted the yellow lid off. She stood and threw it up at Cole. “Hang on to this, will you?”

He caught it and set it down next to him on the lip of the shaft.

Annja peered down at the wiring and the digital display on top of the bomb. To the right of the display, a small remote receiver with a wire sticking out was situated next to a bunch of wires.

“It’s rigged with a remote,” she said.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Annja examined the rest of the area. “There must be a hundred different colored wires twisting this way and that all over the place.” Annja peered closer and saw a metal cylinder in the center of the device. She tried to remember any facts she might have come across relating to nuclear bombs.

She couldn’t think of a single one.

She took another calming breath and started touching the various wires, trying to see if there was a single one that looked as if it might initiate the reaction that would trigger the bomb.

“What do you see, Annja?”

“I don’t know what I’m looking at. It could be any number of things here. There are so many wires. It’s confusing as hell. It probably takes an atomic scientist to make sense out of this thing.”

“Well, you’d better hurry up or it won’t matter anymore.”

“I need a knife to cut these wires.”

Cole frowned. “Annja, don’t you have, like, the biggest knife in the world, in that sword?”

Annja laughed. “That’s a bit like using a hatchet for surgery.”

“Sometimes a hatchet does this job,” Cole said. “And I don’t think anyone’s going to complain about your bedside manner as long as you get results. Like, soon.”

Annja nodded. “Good point.”

She drew the sword again.

“I’m going to cut the wires,” she said. “First for the remote and then for what I think is the timer.”

“Go for it,” Cole said.

Annja eased the tip of the blade through the mass of wires closest to the remote receiver. “If this is the receiver and initiator, then I’m hoping this takes it out.”

“And if not?”

“Then we’re screwed.”

“Well,” Cole said. “Good luck. Here’s to choosing right.”

Annja nodded and carefully started slicing into the mass of wires. The sword divided them one after the other until she’d cut through a dozen of them. Annja removed the sword and leaned back.

“Did it work?”

The display suddenly flashed and a digital readout lit up showing a rapidly dwindling clock.

“Damn.”

Cole’s voice floated down to her. “What’s that mean?”

Annja looked up at him. “I think it means that I made the wrong decision when I cut the wires.”

“Are you sure?”

Annja nodded. “As soon as I cut the wires leading from the receiver into the center of the bomb, the clock sped up.”

“How much time is left?” Cole asked.

Annja looked at the clock. “Two minutes.”

“Two minutes?”

“Yeah.”

Cole said nothing for a moment. Then he cleared his throat. “Well, that’s not much time to do anything except hope that there is an afterlife, huh?”

Annja smiled. “Pretty much.”

“Nice knowing you, Annja.”

“Likewise,” Annja said. But she kept peering at the clock. What if she cut the wires leading from the clock? Were they booby-trapped? Would that simply initiate the detonation? She frowned. They had so little time left that if she chose to cut the wires it wouldn’t make much difference if she was wrong.

“I’m going to cut some more wires,” she said.

“You always face death this calmly?”

Annja shrugged. “Maybe I’m just used to it.”

“That’s really sad.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Annja bent over the timer with her sword and saw where the wires came away and led into the metal cylinder. If I can just get those cut before the clock runs out, she thought, then there might be a chance to stop this.

She eased the blade below the wires and watched as it sliced through them cleanly. Then she leaned back and checked the clock.

The display still showed the clock running down. She frowned. There must have been a secondary power supply for the clock. But would it still initiate the detonation if it wasn’t connected? She didn’t know.

“What’s going on?” Cole called.

“I cut the clock’s wires, but the timer’s still counting down.”

“So, what’s that mean?”

“I have no idea. A nuclear scientist I am not,” Annja said. “I think this is going to be one of those times when we have to do a wait-and-see.”

“Well, climb the hell back up here and hold me until we either die or live,” Cole said. “I’m feeling very vulnerable just now.”

Annja smiled and scrambled back up to the top of the lip. Cole held out his arms. “I know this flies right in the face of the extremely macho persona you’re used to with me, but dammit, I need a hug.”

Annja wrapped him in her arms and felt him squeeze her back. “You’re adorable when you act like a little kid.”

“Oh, great, thanks,” Cole said. “That’s a fair thing to go off to the afterlife with, huh?”

“I could have said worse things.”

“Forget about it. How much time is left?”

Annja looked down and checked. “Ten seconds.”

Cole looked at her. “It’s been fun. Seriously.”

Annja looked into his eyes. “Likewise. Thanks for the good times.” Then she bent forward and kissed him on the lips, feeling him press back into her with whatever emotion he had running through his heart at that moment.

They stayed that way for far longer than ten seconds. Annja finally broke away from Cole and took a breath. “Wow.”

Cole frowned. “Shouldn’t we be dead?”

Annja nodded. “The clock should have finished running down by now.” She peered over the lip of the shaft and saw that the clock read nothing but zeroes. She glanced back at Cole. “Clock’s finished.”

“And no boom.”

“No.”

Annja came back up and sat beside Cole. “Well, that’s interesting.”

Cole took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I want to ever come that close to being blown up again.”

Annja looked at the lid of the bomb. “What the hell is that?”

“What?”

Annja pointed. “On the underside of the lid. Looks like an envelope.”

Cole scrambled over and pulled the small envelope off the inside of the lid. It had been taped down securely. Cole held it up. “Think we ought to read it?”

“Well, yeah.”

Cole ripped open the envelope, read the note card inside and then a big smile broke out on his face. “Well, this is interesting.”

“Give it here,” Annja said.

Cole handed it over to her and Annja read the few lines.

Annja shook her head in disbelief. “I love it. Henderson thought he was pulling one over on the guy who built this, and instead, he got cheated in the process. Fantastic.”

“That whole thing is just a big dud?”

“Seems to be.”

Cole laughed. “Well, that’s the first bit of good news we’ve had all day. How about that?”

Annja looked around and took a deep breath. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

Cole groaned. “Oh, don’t tell me that, Annja. You’re spoiling the good mood I’m in.”

Annja shrugged. “Can’t be helped. Henderson thinks he’s getting a big bang. And when he doesn’t, you know what that means.”

“He’ll give up his life of crime and go raise organic vegetables or something?”

“Not a chance. He’ll come back here to find out what went wrong.”

“So, let’s get the hell out of here, then. We can leave now, right?”

Annja frowned. “I don’t know. If Henderson comes back and we’re not here to stop him, then he might get away and be free to just do this all over again someplace else. And this time he won’t let himself be fooled.”

Cole sighed. “So, you mean we have to stay here and take him down, huh?”

“We should.”

“Why can’t we just let the cops handle this?”

Annja shook her head. “People like Henderson don’t get captured by the police. They’ve got too much money to ever do any time no matter how heinous their crimes. Henderson will get his high-powered attorneys to bail him out. He won’t serve a bit of time despite almost killing thousands.”

“Well, when you put it like that.” Cole frowned. “How long until he comes back?”

“I’d guess within a few hours.”

“He’ll have a lot of people with him, won’t he?”

“I’d guess,” Annja said. “He won’t come back here alone. And if he thinks we’re still alive, he’ll want to make sure we don’t make it out alive.”

“We need help,” Cole said. “It’s too much for us to handle by ourselves.”

Annja nodded. “Take the shark and get back to the
Seeker
. Tell Hunter, Jax and Dave what’s going on. See if they have any ideas.”

Cole stood. “You’ll be all right by yourself?”

Annja nodded. “I’ve got some things to get ready for our visitors. Just don’t waste any time. Get up there and get back. We might have the element of surprise right now, but it won’t last if Henderson comes back first.”

Cole nodded. “I’m leaving.” But he leaned in and kissed Annja again. “Just in case.”

She kissed him back. “Who knew shark guys were such good kissers?”

Cole smirked. “I’m the exception to the rule.”

Annja watched him hurry away and then turned back to the shaft. She would try to get the bomb to look as if it hadn’t been tampered with. That way, it would draw them all over to the shaft. She could count on that much at least.

But she knew the surprise would be short-lived. Once they got the lid off they’d know what was going on. And then they’d be even more on guard.

Annja tossed the lid down and then scampered back into the shaft. In two minutes, she had the lid secured tightly again and climbed out. Looking down, it seemed as if nothing had been touched.

She turned back to the two dead guards. She had to dispose of their bodies. She dragged them into the corridor where the prison cells were and hid the bodies there. Then she tried to mop up the blood and gore as much as possible.

She set about exploring the rest of the facility. The control room turned out to be a big letdown. The only thing inside was surveillance equipment for the prison cells. Aside from that, there was very little. They didn’t even have a radar screen set up so she could see if Henderson was on his way back to the cavern or not.

Annja spent the rest of her time setting up several choke points leading away from the dock. If she could funnel Henderson and his men into a variety of kill zones, then they stood a chance at making this work.

She ran around the complex collecting guns and ammunition. She’d need it for the rest of her crew when Cole brought them.

But how long would it take Cole to get back? She had to imagine that once he got out of the cavern complex, he would be able to find his way to the surface and then locate the
Seeker
.

But how would they take to seeing him again? They might even have pulled up anchor and gone back ashore.

Annja tried not to focus on that possibility. If she was going to be the only one facing Henderson and his gang, she wanted to make sure she had the maximum advantage possible.

To that end, Annja positioned guns and ammunition at each of the choke points. She created a series of fallback options. She could stage closest to the dock and take out a few of the guards before giving that up and falling back to the next control point. By staggering her attack that way, she hoped to whittle their numbers down until she would eventually have to close in and do close-quarters battle with them using her sword.

The ammunition wouldn’t last forever.

And they might get a lucky shot off.

Annja would need all of her skill and cunning if she was going to make it out of there alive.

She thought about Cole. That had been some kiss. But had there been any real feeling behind it, or had it just been a function of almost dying together? They’d never really had much of a relationship before and to think that a simple kiss would change that seemed a bit naive to her.

But then again, she’d enjoyed the kiss.

And, in retrospect, she supposed there might be some potential. If she wanted there to be.

Annja frowned. First things first, she decided. There’d be plenty of time to ruminate on whether she and Cole had a future once Henderson and his gang of thugs had been dispatched.

Until then, Annja had to keep her head on straight.

She fully expected Henderson to show up at any time. More than an hour had passed since Cole had taken the mechanical shark and traveled back to the
Seeker
.

Annja wasn’t convinced there was enough time for Cole to get reinforcements down there before Henderson returned.

This was going to be up to her.

Again.

She heard a noise down by the dock. A motor sound was coming from the interior part of the cavern.

Someone was coming down the tunnel.

Annja moved to the first position, picked up a submachine gun and yanked the charging handle to put a round in the chamber.

Showtime.