Ballistic: Icarus Series, Book Two Read online

  “The hell you can’t,” Jake said as he threw the door open.

  He shoved me through past the threshold and the rest of the group poured in after me. Bella wove her way through the pack and hobbled to my side whimpering up at me. The second Jake closed the door behind us all hell broke loose. Thunder and lightning blasted overhead, and the walls started shaking as the skies let loose a fury to shame the gods.

  Chapter 14

  The Message

  There was no way to know for sure how much damage had been done by the storm or whatever that had been, but one thing was for sure, it wasn’t over. The wind howled, and the framework shook within the foundation. The ground quaked around us, and it sounded like it was raining stone over our heads. It felt like the end of the world all over again. As much as I wished he were here, part of me hoped my brother was as far away from this as possible.

  Bella paced back and forth at my feet. She shuffled and sniffed at my brother’s bedroom door, whining at an almost imperceptibly high pitch. It grated on my nerves. I didn’t blame her for being uneasy, but it certainly wasn’t helping my own nerves one bit. The next time she passed me, I grabbed her collar and led her toward Beans’ bed.

  “Lay down, girl,” I said firmly. “I know you are scared, Bells, but pacing is not helping any of us.”

  She looked up at me and cocked her head to the side. With a huff, she lowered herself at the foot of my brother’s bed and stared at the door from there. I scratched her behind her ear in a silent apology and walked away.

  Christa and Ty had curled up against the wall by the closet in the corner, and Jake and Falisha sat on the desk near them. Riley was sitting on my brother’s bed hugging his pillow against her chest. Though his room was larger than the vault had been, there was no doubt in my mind it felt like just as much of a shoebox to Riley. She hadn’t said a word since the door had closed behind us.

  “Looks like your brother was a pretty smart kid,” Eli said, holding up a stack of papers that had been lying on the desk. “All of these have A’s on them. Literally, every single one.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like him,” I said running my finger along the books on his shelf. His favorite wizarding novel series sat in order on the top shelf. Every other inch of space was held by comic books. “He always just got stuff. School was easy for him.”

  “Finally, someone I can relate to,” Jake laughed, but it was forced and awkward. His eyes darted back and forth across the floor, and he rubbed frantically at his neck. He flinched a second before a loud crack of lightning exploded overhead.

  “Alright, what the hell is up with you,” Falisha wheeled on him. “You are acting so weird.”

  “Are you serious?” Jake’s brows furrowed and he bit his lip. “We are hiding out in some stranger’s basement, trying to outrun monsters, soldiers, and a lightning storm of death. I think I am entitled to act a bit strange.”

  “No. Uh-uh,” Falisha said ignoring the dust that rained down into her hair. “Don’t even try that crap with me. You have been acting all itchy and twitchy since we left your mom’s place.”

  “You’re crazy,” Jake turned away, but Falisha grabbed his arm and spun him back around.

  “Doesn’t mean I’m wrong,” Falisha said, bracketing his arms. “Dude, I’m worried about you. Talk to me.”

  “Just tell them, Jake,” Riley said absently as she sank onto the bed. She turned her back to the door, wrapped her arms around her knees, and started rocking.

  “Tell us what?” Christa asked. For the first time since I’d met her, she sounded genuinely worried about someone other than herself. “Jake?”

  “It’s nothing, really,” Jake’s neck jerked awkwardly as if he was hearing voices.

  I stepped closer to him, worry creeping up into my throat. “What’s going on, Jake?”

  Jake’s eyes drifted from Falisha’s to mine, then back again. His shoulders slumped, and he let out a sigh. “It started a couple of days ago. After we left Micah’s.”

  “Explain,” Falisha said, crossing her arms. “Now.”

  “You remember when that first lightning storm hit?” Jake shifted his feet anxiously.

  “Obviously,” I said.

  “I sort of felt it coming,” Jake said straightening his spine.

  “What do you mean you felt it?” Falisha asked.

  “It’s kind of hard to describe,” Jake said, scratching at the back of his head. “It’s just a tingle at first, I guess. Then, the pressure starts to build. It’s like when you get a migraine, and there’s this faint buzzing. The closer the storm gets, the less I am able to tune out. I felt it before the first big storm, but I thought it was just residual pain from Micah breaking my nose. I didn’t make the connection until it happened again, today while we were on the road.”

  “You’re saying you felt this coming,” Falisha pointed above her.

  “Unfortunately,” Jake said. “Right now, it feels like there are a million needles in my skin. My stomach is doing backflips, and my head is going to explode.”

  “That’s exactly how I felt when the scritters attacked,” Zander’s eyes looked haunted.

  “It’s weird, though,” Jake mused. “It’s both vague and overwhelmingly specific. I feel like my heart is connected to the sky. It makes me want to run as far as I can, as fast as I can.”

  “Sounds like barometric reactivity,” Eli said, cocking his head to the side. He grabbed his penlight from his pocket and stepped closer. “Isn’t that interesting?”

  “Interesting?” Ty grabbed Eli’s wrist as he approached Jake. “My friend, here ain’t a science experiment, Doc. He’s a person, and right now, he looks downright miserable. So, maybe you could take your creepy mad-scientist hat off for a minute, and help him out?”

  “Calm down, Tex,” Eli rolled his eyes and jerked his hand away. “What Jake is experiencing, this sensitivity to atmospheric changes isn’t harmful. It’s odd, sure, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Ty said placing a broad hand on Jake’s shoulder. “He looks pretty concerned to me.”

  “I’m fine.” Jake’s face reddened. Christa narrowed her eyes and looked back and forth between the two of them. He shrugged out from under Ty’s hold and stepped away from the door toward Falisha. “I’m getting used to it.”

  “Why didn’t you say something about this sooner?” Falisha asked. “This is us, Jake. We are a team, remember?”

  “I dunno,” Jake averted his gaze. “There was already so much going on. I didn’t want anyone to worry.”

  “But if you’re sick—” Falisha began, her eyes misting with worry.

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Eli threw his hands up. “You are all getting worked up over nothing. Barometric reactivity is an adaptation, not a disease. This type of thing is common in the animal kingdom. As a matter of fact, most species of deer can—”

  Something large crashed to the ground above us, stopping him short. A couple of tiles popped loose from the drop ceiling in the corner. The ductwork and pipes that lay behind it were exposed. A cloud of dust swirled around us, dancing in the beam of Eli’s flashlight. When most of it had settled, he carefully made his way over and shined his light into the gaping hole in the corner.

  “I should have known when I saw that door,” Eli smiled.

  “What?” I said, brushing the debris from my hair as I made my way over to him. “What is it?”

  “This is a clean room,” Eli said.

  “Okay?” I raised a brow.

  “This place equipped with a medical grade ventilation grid, anti-microbial, double-thick air filters, and a stainless steel ducting system,” Eli pointed his flashlight up, and it glinted off the exposed u-bend. “It’s almost the exact same set-up I had in my lab at the C.D.C. Why on Earth would these random nobodies have a system like this?”

  “They weren’t random nobodies,” I glared at him. “The Fosters only took in kids with medical problems. My brother has r
eally bad asthma. He’s been on medication for it since he was two.”

  “If that’s true,” Eli said absently, “then finding him is pointless. Wherever he is, we’re probably too late.”

  The air rushed from my lungs as if I’d taken a kick to the chest. “Why would you say that?”

  “Any number of reasons,” Eli shrugged, staring up at the shiny metal tubing above us. “The intense heat, the thick smoke, and the increased particulates in the air, for starters. Any one of those factors would have been enough to make his lungs give out. The odds are overwhelmingly not in his favor. If he was anywhere but this room when Icarus hit, there’s no way he made it.”

  “Oh, God.” My legs decided they didn’t want to hold me up anymore. I dropped hard against the wall, my hair hanging loosely in my face. I couldn’t breathe. “No.”

  “Jesus, Eli,” Falisha glared at him then turned to me. “Don’t listen to him, Sarge. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’m sure your kid-brother is just fine.”

  My throat tightened as I blinked back angry tears.

  “Come on. Can we please talk about something less depressing?” Christa said hugging her knees to her chest.

  “Give her a break, Sweets,” Ty said nudging her with his shoulder. “Liv’s just worried about her brother. I reckon Jake felt the same way before he found you.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure he cried himself to sleep at night,” she grumbled letting her legs fall to the floor. “This sucks, and I’m over it.”

  The wind howled and wailed outside. Something big slammed to the ground above us. Plaster dust rained down on us from the gaping hole in the corner. A couple more ceiling tiles popped free and knocked a flashlight to the floor. It skidded across the fake wood surface and spun in a circle before rolling to a stop at Ty’s feet.

  “We just gotta wait this out, Christa,” Ty said standing the flashlight on its end. The beam cast a pale glow onto the trembling ceiling grid, and dimly lit the room. “We’ll be on the move again before you know it and everything will be alright.”

  “Right,” Christa said rolling her eyes. “Because that’s how things work in this little freak show of ours.”

  “That’s enough, Christa,” Jake warned, but the strain was visible on his face as well.

  “For once, I agree with you big brother,” Christa barked back. “I thought things were bad at the hospital, and believe me they were, but this—?” she gestured around the room, “this is just ridiculous. As if explosions, crazy guys with guns, and undead monsters weren’t enough, now we have to deal with flesh-eating super rats, freak lightning storms, and a tornado. What else could possibly go wrong at this point?”

  “Best not to ask that question,” Falisha said, shaking debris from her ponytail as she moved to the opposite side of the room. She sat in front of Christa on the floor and leaned her back against the end of Beans’ bed. “I know it sucks, Princess. You won’t get any disagreement, here, but all we can do is what we can do. Complaining about our situation doesn’t make it better.”

  “I know, alright. I’m not an idiot.” Christa sighed and leaned against Ty’s shoulder. She looked exhausted. “I’m just saying, we came here for her brother, and the kid isn’t even here. So, now what?”

  “Now, we wait till the storm passes, and we try again,” Ty said smiling over at me.

  “Okay, fine. Let’s say we do find Beano,” Christa said.

  “Beans,” I corrected her harshly.

  “Whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “Let’s say we do find the kid. What then?”

  “Then we find Z’s dad and get to Salvation,” Jake said.

  “If the place actually exists.” Christa huffed.

  “It exists,” Eli said.

  “And assuming we don’t get caught by those soldiers, fried in the sun, or eaten by the monsters first, right? I swear we have a giant target painted on our backs.” Christa rubbed her eyes, then pointed at me. “And it’s all because of her.”

  “Christa,” Jake scolded. “That’s not fair.”

  “What is, anymore?” She crossed her arms, pouting. “This sucks.”

  “We are right here with you. We’ve noticed the suck, okay?” Jake sat down next to her. “Feeling sorry for ourselves and placing blame is not going to help solve any of our problems, Chris.”

  “What is going to solve them then, Jake?” She sniffled her eyes brimming with unshed tears. “What magical answer do you have up your sleeve, today, huh? How do we get ourselves out of this mess?”

  “I have no idea,” Jake stared at the floor and rubbed his neck. “What I can tell you, though, is that if you are not actively trying to be a part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.”

  “What else is new?” A stray tear rolled down Christa’s cheek, and she swiped at it angrily. “That’s what I am, right? Just your stupid sister. Christa, the pretty little problem.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jake narrowed his eyes at his sister. “I never said that.”

  “You didn’t have to,” she sniffled. “You think I don’t know what you think about me, Jake? What everyone thinks about me? I have spent my entire life living in your giant, freaking shadow. Oh, look it’s Christa Toler, the genius-boy’s stupid little sister. Good thing she’s pretty because she sure is dumb. That’s me. Dumb, dumb, dumb.”

  “You are a great many things, Christa Marie Toler, but dumb is not one of them,” Jake smirked scooting closer to her on the floor.

  “Whatever,” Christa crossed her arms. “We both know I am the stupid one.”

  “Really?” Jake poked his sister’s leg. “Would a stupid girl have found a way to change the security filters on her brother’s computer and lock up all of his accounts? Would a stupid girl reprogram the time zone settings on her mom’s phone so she could stay out past curfew without getting busted?”

  “How did you—?” Christa’s eyes widened at her brother.

  “Yeah, I knew about that. I didn’t nark on you because I was actually pretty impressed.” Jake smiled proudly at her. “Christa, me being really smart doesn’t automatically make you stupid, okay? You are just a different kind of smart than I am, is all. If you were stupid, there was no way in hell you’d have survived what you have.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” Christa smirked. “The cell-phone thing was pretty cool, wasn’t it?”

  “Very cool,” Jake said nudging the cowboy’s boot. “Right, Ty?”

  “Totally,” Ty said squeezing Christa’s shoulder and laughing softly. “Hell, if anyone is the dumb one, here, it’s me.”

  “Shut up, Ty.” Christa sniffled and laughed along with him. “Okay, so what do we do now? Where do we go if…I mean when the storm stops.”

  “I think I might be able to help with that,” Eli said as he sat on the end of my brother’s bed. “I have been reading through Harley’s journal looking for something, anything about this Seco business.”

  “You find anything?” Zander shone his flashlight down at the open book in Eli’s lap.

  “Nothing about that, no,” Eli shook his head and handed the book to Zander, “but there’s something here I think you should know.”

  “What is it?” Zander sat next to him at the foot of the bed. Eli shoved the leather-bound book into Zander’s hand and tapped on the page.

  “Just read it,” Eli said raising his voice so he could be heard over the gusts and bangs overhead.

  Zander cleared his throat, and his eyes met mine before he began to read aloud.

  JL has proven to be a major civilian asset on this project. Today he got his hands on a copy of the original schematics for Substation S. The digital images he provided suggest that the original blueprints given to me by Jafar were falsified. When I toured Substation S at the onset of E99’s so-called control of the compound. I was told that the max occupancy was around seventy-five thousand. The original zoning specs suggest the capacity to be more than twice that. When I confronted Jafar, he barely flinched before laun
ching into a well-rehearsed response.

  “Several factors were taken into consideration with the design modifications at Substation S. This facility is at the pinnacle of post-event sustainability. Substation S is meant to set the bar for the other four spokes. Quality of life was our top concern. Ultimately, the World Council and I decided to expand the living quarters rather than overall capacity of the compound.”

  I questioned Jafar as to how he and the Council could justify placing more value on legroom than on human life, his tone changed dramatically.

  “It is not your place to question the motives of the Council, Captain James. Your job, no, your duty is to command the E99 in such a way that the Council’s directives are met. Our goal, and by extension, yours and that of your men, is to protect the greater good. Fewer substation inhabitants will mean less rationing of resources, a greater quality of life, and longevity for everyone. After all, when the worst happens, I would hate for you or that son of yours to be stuck on the outside looking in, all because we went soft.

  I took that for exactly what it was. A threat.

  And he said when the worst happens.

  Not if, but when.

  “Jesus, dad,” Zander said dropping the book into his lap and scraping his hair out of his face. “He never did know when to back down.”

  “Oh, it gets better,” Eli reached over, flipped the page and pointed to another section of the text. “Start there.”

  The project has been completely corrupted. I had hoped Jafar’s influence was isolated to the station, but the Black Network is much more extensive than I ever thought possible. This thing has become a massive machine that operates on half-truths and misinformation.

  The cogs are working together, but without any real information. Many of the units have no idea what or whom they are protecting, or why. They are little more than highly trained, deadly puppets and Jafar holds their strings.

  According to the records GJ received from E today, we know…