Ice Baron (Ice Chronicles, Book One (science fiction romance)) (25 page)

“
No!
” Anya screamed out.

Onred’s chuckle sounded demonic. “Surrender.
Or the boy dies. Right now.”

Anya gasped. In that moment, her
only course of action became clear. She thrust her hand into Joshua’s jacket
pocket and snatched out Michael’s phone. Two finger taps, and she accessed Alpha
channel.

“I surrender!” she choked out. “I’ll
meet you anywhere you want. But if you hurt
any
of them, the deal is
off.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Utter silence
fell
in the conference chamber after Anya’s
pronouncement.

“You little
fool
,” Birn
snarled, and lunged for the phone.

Anya scrambled to her feet and
backed away, seeking refuge—a safe place to be. Her family! She could think of
nothing else.

She bumped into Michael’s solid
chest and spun away, backing away from the cluster of staring men. Disbelief immobilized
Joshua’s features, but she didn’t care. With shaking hands, she lifted the
phone to her lips. “Did you hear me, Onred? I surrender. Let him go.
Now.
”

She gazed at the screen. Fear
mixed with hope. Yet when Yegor released Damon’s hair and her brother hunched
forward, unharmed, a tiny cry of relief left her lips.

Onred’s enormous face occupied the
screen again. “We’ll free that one in the wilderness as a sign of good faith.”
The screen split to reveal Yegor dragging Damon from the room.

“He’ll die,” Anya gasped. “Give
him snow wear.”

“
You
bring snow wear,”
Onred smiled. “We’ll release him at these coordinates.” Numbers flashed across
the bottom of the screen, and in her peripheral vision Joshua and Ray swiftly
took note. “You have thirty minutes. If you try to welsh on our deal, Marli
will lose her head.” The screen turned black.

Anya trembled so hard her teeth
chattered. She crossed her arms, unbearably cold. She wanted to cry, but would
not. Could not. Now she had a roomful of angry men she must convince to approve
of her plan.

Michael eyed her. “You lost it,
little one.”

Joshua’s silence spoke volumes. A
muscle flickered in his jaw.

“I’m going,” she said into the
silence. “Who’ll help me?”

“I will.” Birn’s caustic statement
surprised her.

“Why?”

“You started this mess. You’ll end
it. My bird will take you to the coordinates.”

“Birn,” Joshua said in a low,
controlled voice. “It’s my call. Not yours.”

“How about we vote?” Birn
retorted.

Joshua’s tawny gaze narrowed.

Birn skated insubordination. The
big man looked away from Donetsk’s baron, his cheeks coloring a little.

“Anya’s surrender will end
nothing,” Ray interposed calmly. “Onred has given us an opportunity, gentlemen.
The Dubrovnyk children are within thirty minutes of those coordinates. I’ve
already plotted them in. It narrows their captivity to two cities. Satellite
One is watching both. Within minutes, we’ll know where they are.”

“Onred may be hiding somewhere
else. He may not go to the meeting place.”

“I’ll wear a transponder,” Anya said,
grasping at Ray’s thin straw of support. “You can track me to Onred after I surrender.”

“I don’t like this.” Joshua said
through clenched teeth. “It’s a trap.”

“Of course it’s a trap.” Anya
choked on a laugh. “He’s going to capture me. That’s what he wants.”

“No. He wants your entire family
dead. What will stop him from killing both you and Damon, the minute you arrive?”

“But…”

Ruthlessly, Joshua finished, “Then
he’ll kill Marli, Elise, and David.”

“But he…can’t,” she whispered. And
yet, of course Joshua spoke the truth. She put hands to her burning eyes. “What
can we do? I can’t let them die! I can’t!”

“I know.” Joshua said gently, and
to her surprise, he moved to stand before her. “We’ll come up with a plan.
Trust me.”

“I do trust you. But…”

When she burst into tears, Joshua
pulled her into his arms and tucked her up securely against his strong, solid
body. His warm lips pressed into her hair. “We’ll save them. I promise you,
Anya.”

She clung to him and struggled to
stop crying. She needed a level head. Her siblings needed her to think rationally.
She pressed her cheek into Joshua shoulder and, just for a moment, let him be
strong for her. Gradually, his strength and confidence of purpose seeped into
her. When she looked up, his level, tawny gaze held hers, and hope upheld her
spirits. Her rock. Her lion she could always count upon. “I trust you, Joshua,”
she whispered again. “Tell me what to do to save my family, and I’ll do it.”

The faintest smile touched his
lips, and for an insane moment, Anya thought he just might kiss her. “Good,” he
murmured.

Michael cleared his throat.

With a guilty start, Anya
remembered the others in the room.

Birn scowled at them both. Even
Ray’s brows had climbed halfway up his high forehead. Hastily, Anya stepped
away from her protector. This was the last thing they needed; for Birn and Ray
to wrest power from Joshua because of suspected indiscretions with her.

“I’m sorry.” Quickly, she wiped
her cheeks. “I usually don’t fall apart like that. I’m ready to listen to ideas
that any of you…” she appealed to all of them, “would like to suggest.”

Birn’s heavy frown remained, but
he said nothing. The men resettled at the table.

“I’ve got a plan,” Michael said. “Now,
listen.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Anya sat hunched
forward in Falcon’s swift
warship, hands between her knees. Nerves tightened her muscles. “God help us,”
she muttered.

Michael’s risky plan involved a
technological prototype never tested outside of ZCA. He had installed the
shield in his airbird two weeks ago, hoping for a chance to test it in the real
world.

Now’s his big chance,
Anya thought grimly. She plucked
at her seatbelt’s shoulder harness. It felt confining. If only she could pace
off her nervous energy. If only Birn had come up with a better plan to finish
the coming confrontation.

If only Joshua were here. He had a
way of calming her that no one else possessed. Currently, he followed the warship
in a standard issue airbird. Both Birn and Ray had vehemently opposed Joshua
accompanying the mission. But Joshua had made up his mind; and, as Anya well
knew, nothing would sway him from his course. Onred couldn’t learn of Joshua’s
presence, however. If the territory baron managed to kill them both, this war
would end now.

“We’re here.” Falcon tapped
buttons above his head and sent her a glance. “Ready?”

Two artillery men flanked Falcon
at the helm. Two more covered the rear of the aircraft. They were the best
sharp shooters available at short notice.

Anya closed her eyes, trying to
calm the knot of fear gnawing in her chest. This mission would be a disaster.
She felt it in her gut. Michael’s original idea had been good, but the rest of
it…no. The horrific endgame plan was Birn’s idea. But Joshua had agreed to it.
Their alarming orders were to blow up Onred’s men and ships once Damon was
free. If Yegor was there, as Joshua believed he would be, the second level of
assassination would be complete.

And, as a result of their
treacherous, double-crossing plan, Onred would murder her siblings. Anya had no
doubt about that.

However, her passionate arguments
against the plan had been ignored. According to Birn and the other commanders,
the Dubrovnyk children were already as good as dead. Onred fully intended to
kill them, so Donetsk might as well take out as many Altai men as possible,
while they had the chance. Joshua agreed with the last two points, but not the
first. He had given orders for an extraction team to fly to Gorno tonight,
under cover of the raids, to rescue her siblings.

But they’ll be dead by then,
Anya thought. Once Falcon killed
Onred’s men, Onred would murder her siblings right away—and probably on the
Alpha channel, for all the world to see. Why would he wait until dusk? Unless
he wanted to torture her family still further.

No, Birn’s plan would end in certain
death for her brothers and sisters—unless she made a move sure to upset every
balance of power. This, she planned to do. Joshua would be furious with her yet
again.

Tough. He had signed off on the
ruthless plan. His decision angered her, even though she knew he believed he
was doing the right thing. Well, she disagreed. Someone had to stand up for her
family. And maybe her “element of chaos” would prove useful, as Ray had
suggested.

Her first goal, however, was to
see Damon safely to Michael’s airbird. After that, her life would be the only
one at stake.

“I’m ready,” she told Falcon, and
released the confining seatbelt.

“Remember to cut right. Stick
close to Michael’s bird.”

She nodded, and glanced out the
window to the scene awaiting her. The cluster of military birds hovered in a
small valley. The Altai Mountains—Onred’s territory—soared up all around them.
Three aircraft faced them, backed by a black warship. Three men stood before
them, and one slight figure knelt on the ground. Damon. He wore a T-shirt and
shorts, but that was it.

Onred was a monster. Anya spit an
angry word between her teeth.

“Be quick,” Falcon advised. “Or
the boy will lose his feet.”

Frostbite. Hypothermia. How long
had Damon knelt in the snow? Anger chased off the last of her nerves.

Anya pushed the door release
button and jumped down a meter to the soft snow pack. She’d brought snow wear
for Damon, including socks, and had packed them in Michael’s bird. But she hadn’t
thought to bring boots. That’s because she hadn’t known Onred was such a fiend
that he’d make a child freeze to death in his bare feet.

Michael’s bird hovered twenty
meters distant. Even if his technological wonder worked, the next five seconds
would prove her most dangerous. Anya darted toward its protective shadow.

Three…two…one.

No laser fire. She had made it.

Onred’s men watched her. Although
each man wore his hair in a buzz cut and sported a goatee like his foul leader,
Onred was not present. That wasn’t a surprise. The center man was Yegor—Onred’s
first-in-command—the one who had held a machete to Damon’s neck. So, Joshua had
been right. Yegor was here. That would please the men fingering their weapons
behind her.

Slowly, she walked forward.
Michael’s bird kept pace, but Falcon’s warship remained stationary.

Yegor raised a hand. “Far enough,”
he said in a thick accent.

“Release him,” Anya ordered.

“Leave the bird. Come closer.”

“Not until you release him.”

One of the henchmen shoved Damon
hard, so he fell face forward into the snow. His wrists were bound, so he could
not save himself. Fury knotted in Anya’s belly. Slowly, painfully, Damon
managed to roll to his knees, and then staggered to his feet. His knees
remained partially bent, as if frozen in place. Purple marks underscored his
eyes, and blood had frozen in a river from his lip to his throat.

Anya struggled to control her
grief and her anger. “Come on, Damon,” she called in a firm, encouraging voice.
“Come closer, as fast as you can.”

Her brother stumbled forward. His
feet jarred into the snow, as if walking on deadened stubs. When he had made it
halfway to Anya, Yegor shouted, “Stop!”

Damon swayed. His body, except for
his battered face, looked the color of a pale, blue ghost.

He was about twelve meters distant
from Anya—not close enough to be protected by Michael’s ingenious shield. Its
range was five meters.

Anya strode fast for Damon.
Michael’s bird kept pace beside her.

“Stop!” Yegor trained a laser on
her.

She dared another small step. Now,
seven meters separated Damon from Michael’s shield. “Let me help him,” she
snapped. “He’s freezing.”

“The bird
stays.
” Yegor
shouted. All three men trained lasers upon Anya. “You, come forward alone.”

She raised a hand to Michael and
walked forward four meters. Now three meters separated her from her brother. “Now
he
comes forward,” she stated.

The men conferred in low rumbles.
Disagreement was clear. In the end, Yegor waved his hand. “Boy. A few more
steps.”

When Damon was close enough, Anya
dared another half step and pulled him into her arms. His cheek against hers
felt like ice. Snow wear wouldn’t help him now. He needed immediate medical
attention. Good thing a doctor flew in Michael’s bird.