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Yolanthe was ten feet away. Nine … Eight …
With what little strength he had left, he called for help. Rachel. Trouble.
Get ready.
He was about to ask, ‘For what’. But the next moment he was flying backward and Rachel was on top of him, her protective energy shield vibrating over them both. At the same moment, the deadly trance-like sensations vanished.
“Fire!” He heard Yolanthe shout. She wanted him alive, but if she couldn’t have him, she’d kill him to keep him out of the hands of other Third ascenders.
On instinct, Duncan rolled Rachel toward the grid wall as wrecker guns exploded the floor where they’d just been. Holding Rachel tight, he then folded her within the corridor well beyond Yolanthe. And at the exact moment he slipped into nether-space, Yolanthe’s wreckers fired into the side walls of the grid. If he hadn’t gotten them out of there, they would have both been dead.
Held within Rachel’s shield, he gauged the next distance he could take her and landed them down the darkening corridor another thirty feet. Within the grid, he could only fold the distance he could see. If he tried to transport them without seeing a destination, they could end up outside the darkening and anywhere on Third Earth.
He glanced down the corridor. Where’s Merl?
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She smiled, then drew out of his arms. This way.
When she took off running, he kept pace. More feet sounded on the grid floor behind them, pounding hard in pursuit. The corridors were curved and branched off at least every twenty yards, a true grid. Rachel kept them moving fast.
Merl’s around the next turn. He felt her shift her telepathic communication and knew she was talking to Merl. When her voice returned to him, she said, He’s blasting the grid wall in three … two … one.
The sound of Merl’s wrecking gun arrived at the same moment he caught sight of Merl. He felt Rachel’s shield disintegrate.
“Good. You’re here,” Merl shouted. “Move it. We’ve only got a few seconds.”
Duncan reached for Rachel’s shoulder and once he made contact, he did a quick fold, taking Rachel to Merl’s position. The grid wall wavered as all three of them jumped through the opening.
They landed in the desert at Apache Junction Two, right outside HQ. The rest of the team was there waiting, each of them tense and facing the gaping grid hole, shotguns in hand, all except for Luken.
The leader of the black ops team sat in the dirt at a distance, his face pale, his wings busted.
Duncan jumped to his feet and brought his shotgun to his shoulder. His wing-power still flowed up his back and down his arm, charging his weapon. He listened for the faint rumbling sound of an imminent wrecker assault, but the grid was quiet until finally the shattered wall began to fade then disappear.
It was over.
Even Yolanthe wouldn’t be able to find them now because of the constantly shifting nature of nether-space.
He breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
Luken leaned forward slightly as Horace, the most powerful healer on Second Earth, worked on his wings. Luken had attempted a fold in full-mount and when he’d materialized, his wings had been twisted. None of them could do it yet, not even Luken who had the most natural power of any of them.
Luken’s lips were a white seam. Still, he called out, “What the hell happened? You were supposed to be on a recon mission to locate a base camp.”
Duncan gave a quick rundown of events, ending with, “Yolanthe showed up.”
The squad muttered a few obscenities.
“Sounds like she has your signature.” Luken shifted his gaze to Merl. “Can she fold someone using a wrist scanner? Is that how she did this?”
Merl shrugged. “Maybe. Although, she might have done the initial fold from the Grid Operating Center. Either way, she has enough power to pull it off.”
“If that’s the case,” Rachel said, “Then why didn’t she take Duncan with her when she had the chance?”
Merl shut his scanner down. “It’s obvious she has limits and I’ll thank the Creator for it.”
Luken met Merl’s gaze. “Was Duncan taken when he was shielded? Did Yolanthe have the power to remove him while Rachel covered him with her shield?” He glanced at both Duncan and Rachel, then back to Merl.
