Terkels twist, p.13
Terkel's Twist, page 13
“God, that would be absolutely terrible,” she cried out.
“You apparently have hit somebody’s radar, and some of the studies or work that you’ve been doing has made you a person of interest.”
“Crap.” She thought about the study they had been involved in. “We did find one way to help mitigate the damage, but honestly it was not even foolproof. One person managed to limit the effects, but there was still damage.”
“What damage and how strong a level of damage?”
“Blackout effects but, in a situation like this, if an attack is underway, they would still be vulnerable.”
At that, Terk’s voice popped into her head. Did I just hear something about an EMP test you did?
“Yes,” she said out loud and explained. “But honestly, it was minor.”
Maybe minor, but what are the chances you gave somebody that idea?
“I don’t know,” she cried out in frustration. Only then she realized that Stone was looking at her weirdly. “Oh, shit.” Celia scrubbed her face. “Stone is looking at me like I’m nuts.”
That’s fine. Terk laughed. Stone is used to it.
She looked over at Stone. “Terk says you’ve looked at him like he’s nuts too.”
Stone cracked a smile. “Yeah, but I hadn’t really considered what it looks like when somebody else was doing it.”
She glared at him. “The same. … I’m nuts too. In case you hadn’t figured that out.”
“Oh, I got it all right,” he said, laughing. “Absolutely got it. What I hadn’t really thought about was the possibility of there being more people like him.”
“Well, there is at least me and his team. You know his team, don’t you?”
“I know lots of them. We’ve certainly worked with a bunch of them.”
“Well, it’s no different than working with me,” she said in exasperation. “I mean, I want to say we’re … special.”
Stone nodded. “Definitely special,” he agreed calmly. “And I don’t think you guys realize even how special.”
She heard Terk muttering in the background. “Talk to me,” she said, “but you’ll have to stop muttering.”
He snorted. What’s the point of trying to talk to you, when you’re busy talking to Stone?
“Well, if you want me to not talk to Stone, you could have said something. I’m not used to this weird conversation that goes back and forth on two channels.”
No, of course not, and I apologize.
She stopped and stared at Stone. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you apologize, Terk.”
Stone just shook his head and ignored her seemingly one-sided conversation.
It’s not as if you know me, Terk said in exasperation. So I promise that I do apologize when necessary.
“Back to the study, I mean, sure people saw the published papers, no doubt. Maybe some people found my research, or maybe it fell into the wrong hands. Maybe somebody did a search on EMP and psychics, then found my published study. I don’t know. It’s possible. … I really can’t say. We were trying to get grant money to continue those studies, and, of course, that was impossible. Everybody was talking about it being woo-woo stuff that couldn’t be proved.”
And who funded the first one?
“Honestly, I did,” she admitted, “which is why I’m always broke because I’m forever testing my own research.”
And that’s a smart thing to do, Terk noted, but publishing the results wasn’t.
“Thanks for that,” she snapped. “You do realize that, in order to get grant money, you have to give them some kind of results. I had to do something in order to get more money to continue the research.”
But it didn’t work to generate any research funding, right?
“No, it didn’t work,” she snapped, glaring at the monitors in front of her. “But I’m not sure that truck could hold enough equipment to give you the powerful blast that it needs.”
“Unless it’s drawing power from somewhere else,” he murmured, but this time he spoke through his headset and telepathically.
Stone started talking. “Yeah, I hear you, Terk. I’m not exactly sure that anybody could connect to a satellite for something like that.”
“But the fact is, we are connected,” Terk noted. “If they could tap into our power source, then potentially that would give them enough.”
Stone looked over at her, and she nodded slowly. “I don’t know what would be required on a large range scale. That’s not my area of expertise.”
She was glad that she had been allowed in here. The fact that she might have something to offer hadn’t even occurred to her, but she was grateful that she could. And she had felt so disassociated from all this, until Terk’s arrival. Back then the pregnancy hadn’t felt real, until the babies started kicking, and then it was all too real.
Not knowing what the hell had happened to her life had sent her into a spiral of depression, but now? … Now, she had a direction.
She had a purpose now, and the fact that she might have contributed to this entire nightmare—unwillingly through her own work—was something that would take her a long time to resolve. Whether she had indirectly been part of the attack against him or not, she hadn’t known anything about it, and she certainly hadn’t played an active role. She wondered if Terk could even ignore and get past that.
Having connected with Terk’s energy, there was just that sense of surety about her place here. She was not quite willing to acknowledge that he was definitely the father but willing to consider that he could be. And that in itself was a huge step all on its own.
Her head spinning, she glanced up at the monitors and tapped it again. “Oh my,” she said, nudging Stone. “I don’t know what this is.”
He hopped over to take a closer look. “Yeah, definitely a problem.” He tapped his headset. “Terk, we’ve got the four men now out the other side of that truck.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m not sure, but I think they’re trying to protect it.”
“That would make a sick sense in a way too,” Terk murmured.
Stone added, “If this is superimportant to them, they must protect it.”
“Of course they do, but, at the same time, we also don’t want anything to go boom in the night.”
“No, we don’t,” Stone murmured calmly. “And there have been an awful lot of booms in the nights lately.”
“Here?” Terk asked, his voice sharp.
“No, nothing new, nothing recent. You already know about all of it from the past.”
“I won’t approach,” Terk replied, “until we sort out where they’re going.”
“I’ve got two of our men coming to you. Logan and Flynn are both out there. Both with drones.”
“Okay, give them my position and have them join me.”
“Already done. Sit tight. We’re on this.”
“Yeah, I know you’re on it. I just don’t want anybody hurt.”
“No, neither do we.” And, with that, Stone signed off. He looked over at her. “He’ll be okay. You don’t have to worry.”
She only now noted that her fingers were clenched together so tightly that crescent-moon indentations were left on her palms. She shook her hands out and whispered, “I’m just not used to this.”
“Nobody gets used to this,” he murmured. “Just keep doing what you’re doing, and it’ll be fine.”
She wasn’t so sure, but she could do nothing else but sit tight and hope that this all worked out.
One thing she did know was that this situation was definitely outside of her experience, and chances are the rest of this entire chaos would be as well.
*
Terk was happy to have the backup but still felt out of place without his team. Yet it was always good to know he was covered. The two teams had helped each other on cases before, but this would be something none of them were cut out for.
His team, Terk’s team, he knew was definitely cut out for this. Being the people they were, with the abilities they had, it was easier.
He studied the four intruders, watching as they separated, with two heading out to the far side. Those two had now split, one heading south and the other east. Terk could no longer see them.
And they left the truck with the other two, who were obviously heavily armed. However, as the one walked forward, he kept looking back at the vehicle, as if not sure that it was safe to leave it behind. Of course the answer was hell no. It wasn’t safe to leave behind.
The minute Terk could get down there, he would move that sucker a long way away. He just didn’t exactly know what was going on inside the vehicle. And that would be an issue. If there was any way to immobilize the humming device within the truck, he’d do that too.
At that, he checked his pockets, though he knew he didn’t have it. Damn, he should have grabbed some C-4. And, should he get a chance to put that in the vehicle and blow it to smithereens, he would. Levi might have to give some explanations to the local authorities, but Terk wouldn’t worry about that now. Not his problem.
He almost laughed at his own thought because, of course, it was his problem. He wouldn’t do that to Levi, but he also knew that Levi had an awful lot of pull when it came to shit like that around here. But who knew that they would need C-4 tonight, like they quite possibly could.
Terk worked his way closer, waiting to see what the two men heading in his direction would do. When Terk heard Stone in his ear, Terk pinpointed Flynn and Logan. He confirmed over the radio with Stone. Then, with them both nailed down, Terk watched as the two men from the truck approached.
Both intruders were heading in the direction where Flynn and Logan were, probably tracking them by the launch of their drones. Terk had seen the drones in the air, but both were likely damaged now, after taking out the other drones. Ice wouldn’t love that. But if they’d done the job …
Hearing a clunk off to the left, he acknowledged that Logan had taken one of them down. He waited for Flynn to take out the other one. It was a hair louder but not by much.
At that, Terk slipped forward and headed toward the truck, trying to keep out of sight of the other two men. He had to assume they had comms, and, with the other two down, he knew the remaining two would find out something was up and would circle back soon.
At the truck, he tried to open up the big camper-size cover to the bed, where somebody could pile up their shit. It was locked. It took him only seconds to pick the lock and to open the door. He slipped inside, then, closing the door behind him, he turned on his flashlight. His heart froze. “Some machine is in here, and it is rumbling,” Terk reported via his headset.
He had no clue what it was, so he immediately snapped photos of what he could see and sent them to Stone. Then, as an afterthought, he sent them to Celia’s phone.
She responded in his head, saying, I have no clue what that is.
He asked, Is it anything similar to the EMP system you had?
No, not at all, nothing like that. Definitely not anything that big.
And yet you still managed to knock out abilities?
Yes, assuming these machines are the same, we used a lighter and smaller variation of this before, and it took several weeks for some of my team to come back online.
Stone was again in Terk’s ear, telling him that his team was on its way here.
He swore at that. “Damn. And that just means they’re back in the line of danger again.”
Can you stop them? Celia asked.
I don’t think anything will stop them at this point, he said, with a fatalistic tone that said he was used to dealing with some facts that just weren’t helpful. But still I can’t put them in danger again. I’m warning them right now.
What happens when shit hits the fan for you? she asked.
Just don’t be surprised.
And, with that, he disappeared from her mind and her screen. At the vehicle, he checked underneath and all around it, knowing that he was in danger of being seen, but, at the same time, he didn’t want them to turn this sucker on or to do something with it that would knock out anybody.
Finding wires, he started snipping. He saw no C-4, but that didn’t mean that this vehicle wouldn’t be wired to explode. He had only his instincts. And, with snippers in hand, he studied the wires. Black or yellow? He sent Stone a message. “Black or yellow?”
“Jesus, man, don’t just do it haphazardly. You’ll blow yourself up.”
“I didn’t see any explosives on the vehicle. And I’ve got the tester with me, and there’s nothing in the vicinity.”
“So, what is it then?”
“I don’t know,” Terk said, “but I’m very afraid that, if anybody finds out that I’m in here, they’ll turn it on, and I’m the one who’ll get fried.”
“Absolutely you’ll get fried,” Stone said in outrage, “but I’m not sure how to stop it.”
“The only other option is to blow up the truck,” Terk stated.
“Well, you’ve got Logan out there. He’s carrying C-4. It won’t take very much to take care of the truck, and then they won’t have the weapon either.”
Terk contemplated that, and just then he sensed an energy approaching. “Check on the satellite. Somebody is coming.”
“I can’t see anybody,” Stone replied.
“I don’t care if you can see him or not,” Terk replied in a soft voice. “He’s coming. You need to find him.”
At that, Stone swore. “Yeah, he’s coming all right, and he’s completely camouflaged. Couldn’t see him on the satellite, but I got him now.”
“How close to the truck is he?” Terk stared at the truck’s back door.
“Too damn close. You can’t get out now.”
“No, I can’t. That’s probably what they want. Chances are they’ll lock me inside and turn on this sucker.”
“Don’t worry,” Stone said. “Flynn and Logan are heading toward you. Logan is handling the drone. The enemy drones have been decommissioned. If he has firepower on his drone, he’s welcome to cut down the numbers.”
“Which means,” Terk noted, “these local footmen are just caught up in this part of the plan. I wonder if these intruders know that they’re so disposable.”
“Is that what you think is happening here with Camo Guy?”
“Yep, I think the foot soldiers came to do a job. They were probably fed a line about what it was they were supposed to do, and, now that they’re off doing it, they have no idea that they’ll get taken down. They may not even know what’s in this truck. Now somebody else that they weren’t expecting is here—Camo Guy.”
“Are people really that stupid?” Stone asked.
“Lots of guys do things for what they think are the right reasons but don’t realize how wrong they actually are.”
“I hear you. We do have Camo Guy coming up on the truck right now though. He’s just reaching for the door.”
“Yep, I got it,” Terk muttered. Tuning Stone out, Terk waited just a fraction of a second more, and then, with a strong right kick, he slammed the door open into the guy’s face. He jumped down, as Camo Guy scrambled to get up, while pointing a handgun right at him.
Terk smiled at him. “What’s the matter?” Terk asked. “You can’t do this man to man?”
“I’m not such a fool. They say you have all kinds of abilities.” He bounced to his feet, staring at Terk warily.
“Who? Me?” Terk acted surprised. “You don’t even know who I am.”
“Yeah? Well, your face was given to everybody on this team.”
“What about the guys you sent out ahead of you?”
He smirked at that. “Well, maybe we didn’t share that with them.”
“So you know that you’re all going to die on this mission, right?”
“Only if you guys are assholes.”
“Because you’re entering private property and carrying weapons in an obvious attempt to harm people on the property,” he said gently. “That kind of thing will get a guy shot. And we’re the kind of people who don’t pick up a weapon unless we intend to use it.”
“Yeah, well, I’m the same.” He grinned. “And remember who’s got the weapon on you.”
“I see it.” Terk gave a negligent shrug. “It’s not like you are ever going to use it though.”
“What the hell, man? You think you’re better than me?” he mocked. “I’ll shoot you where you stand.”
“No, you won’t. I’m sure you’d like to, but that gun won’t fire.”
The gunman raised his gun. “Do you see this? I’m more than happy to use it, asshole.” Angrily, he pointed it at Terk’s knee and pulled the trigger. To his astonishment, nothing happened. He stared at him and then glared at the gun in his hand. “What the fuck?”
“I told you. It won’t fire.”
“You think I’m an idiot?” The guy looked at his gun and started pulling the trigger several times, but nothing happened. “What the hell? You couldn’t have done anything because you never touched it.” He was well beyond pissed over the whole scenario, but he braced himself and said, “Fine, I’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”
“Yeah, let me know how that works out for you.” Terk laughed.
The guy roared and charged. Terk stepped to the side but wrapped an energy band around his feet and pulled upward. The guy immediately tripped and fell to the ground. He couldn’t even separate his legs. Terk, with one hard punch to the jaw, knocked him out. “Stone, he’s down. Send in the reinforcements.”
“Both Logan and Flynn heading your way,” Stone replied. “What the hell was that with the gun?” There was something in his voice.
Terk snorted. “What? Couldn’t you see? It didn’t fire.”
“Yeah, I know it didn’t fire,” Stone snapped, “but shit, man, if you’ve got tricks like that, I want to know how it works.”
“Oh no, you don’t want anything to do with the boogeyman, remember? You like things black-and-white. Things you can see.”
“Yeah. Well, I also would like to know how the hell you did that. If I’m up against a gunman again, I would like to take care of him, just like that. Hell, you don’t even need the weapon in your hand.”
