Valika had seen many face death, whether at her hands or others. Any opening was like placing a meal in front of a starving man. Brave men could resist so long, but eventually they all gave in and grasped for the opening, even if it was an obvious illusion.
“You’re old,” Alarico said. “Your time is past.”
“So it’s true,” Cesar pressed.
“Yes.”
“He’s yours,” Cesar said to Valika.
“You said you would let me go!” Alarico protested.
“I am,” Cesar said. He laughed. “All you have to do is get past my Russian whore and my loco American scientist and you are free to leave.”
“In handcuffs and with her having a gun?”
“You whine like a baby,” Cesar said. “Are you afraid of a woman?”
Valika stepped forward and uncuffed Alarico and quickly backed away. She put the guns on the table in front of Cesar.
Alarico pushed away from the wall, face flushed. He ripped off his suit jacket, then his shirt. Muscles bulged as he smacked one fist into the other hand. Valika knew he took steroids to supplement his weight lifting.
“I will break her, and then you,” he said to Cesar.
“Again, you have no patience,” Cesar said. “I suggest you concentrate on the immediate task.”
Alarico growled and dashed forward, arms outstretched, but Valika was already moving, dancing lightly to the left and snapping a waist-high turn-kick that caught the man in the midsection. As Alarico doubled over, she backed off and waited.
Alarico straightened up and glared at her. Valika smiled and raised her eyebrows in invitation. He came forward slower this time, like a wrestler looking for an opening. Valika gave ground easily. This wasn’t a fight about terrain. She knew men had a basic instinct that they had to move forward, never retreat, but it made no sense in a situation like this.
She stumbled on an uneven tile, right leg appearing to buckle, and Alarico pounced. Right into the toe of her left boot as she snap-kicked, completely airborne. He fell backwards. Blood blossomed out of his broken nose as Valika kept the momentum of her foot swinging, up over her head, and did a somersault, landing to the rear, on her feet, up on her toes, ready.
Like a wounded bull, Alarico shook his head, blood spraying. Valika could see the rage taking over and knew he was now both more dangerous and more vulnerable.
He charged, arms outstretched. Valika snap-kicked toward his groin, but he turned at the last second and the toe of her boot connected with his thigh muscle instead. As she darted back, the tips of his fingers caught her shirt, ripping material, as he scrambled to get hold of her. She jammed her right hand downward, fingers locked straight, right into his inner elbow on the hand that had hold of her shirt. The pain caused him to lose his grip and she moved back several steps. Alarico spit blood, moving his injured arm, regaining control.
Suddenly a look of surprise spread across Alarico’s face and he jerked backwards, as if hit in the chest. Valika started to move forward to take advantage, but she caught the gesture from Cesar out of the corner of her eye, indicating for her to halt and back away.
Alarico saw it also. He turned to Cesar, breathing hard, in more pain than what Valika had inflicted. “What are you doing to me?”
“I told you that you must get past both my women,” Cesar said. “You have not done well against my dear Valika, so I will give you a chance and see how you do against the American.”
Alarico suddenly gasped in agony and his hands clutched at his head. “Where is she?”
Cesar pointed at Alarico. “Right there in front of you. Don’t you see her? She’s in Aura. Using her computer. Her body is below us in the Aura center, but her essence is right here, doing this to you.”
More blood was now coming out of Alarico’s eyes and ears, turning his head into a grotesque mask of red and white. He shrieked, dropping to his knees in agony, rocking back and forth. The other Ring members were watching in shock, which is exactly what Valika knew Cesar had hoped for with this demonstration.
“If you had had more patience,” Cesar continued, “you would have learned more about Aura and its potential as a weapon. But I believe this is a most effective demonstration.”
“Please!” The word was torn from Alarico’s very soul and all present knew it wasn’t asking for release, but for a quick ending. His hands were scrambling at his head as if he could rip out the pain that was resounding inside of it. His fingers came away with clumps of hair, yet still he kept at it, tearing at the skin.
Cesar sat, impassively watching as Alarico collapsed face first onto the tiles, body twitching for several seconds before becoming still.
Cesar stood. “Do I have any more disagreements with my course of action or questions about the effectiveness of Aura?”
Raisor saw the antenna dish on the wall of the atrium pointed at the dead man as the bright ray disappeared. He had homed in on it using a series of jumps in the virtual plane. Willing himself through each leg, drawing closer and closer to the beam.
He felt more substance, or what might be called substance if there was such a thing on the virtual plane. He could also see clearly into the real plane when he wanted.
He had no idea who these people were, but he did know they were working with technology that pierced into the virtual plane. That they were using it as a weapon not only didn’t bother him, it intrigued him. He would need a weapon to make those responsible for his sister’s death and his betrayal pay.
Like an invisible vulture, he hovered over the atrium and listened and watched.
After the fourth buzz, Dalton knew something was wrong. His hand tightened around the SATPhone. After the sixth, there was a clicking noise, then a new buzz, this one somewhat different.
A voice-not Eichen’s-answered. “Yes?”
Dalton considered hanging up immediately. But then he would be completely in the dark. “General Eichen, please.”
“Who is this?”
“Who am I speaking to?” Dalton asked in turn.
“We can play this game forever,” the voice said, “but I have to assume since you have one of these phones and are asking for Eichen that he recruited you. And you have to assume that since your call to him got forwarded to me, I’m legitimate. I know Eichen told you to tell no one other than him anything-even showed you a note from the President, correct?”
Dalton hesitated, then answered. “Yes.”
“Let me guess. You’re Sergeant Major Jimmy Dalton?”
“I don’t think you’re guessing,” Dalton said. “Where’s General Eichen?”
“General Eichen’s dead. So I don’t think you’re going to be able to report to him.”
“How?”
“Helicopter crash in Alaska.”
“Accident?”
“I doubt it.”
Dalton had doubted it too as soon as he’d heard it. “What did he discover about HAARP?”
“You don’t need to know that.”
“And now?”
“Now you report to me. There are only a few of us. Eichen would have disseminated information you sent him to the rest of the group. Now I’ll have to.”
“And what do I call you?” Dalton asked.
“Are you familiar with the Greek classics?”
“Not particularly.”
“Too bad, Sergeant Major. You can call me Mentor.”
“Well, Mentor, do you have anything further for me on who exactly it is I’m supposed to be watching out for?”
“No.”
“So this is a one-way conversation?”
“Yes.”