“You’re the one driving,” Brinkley pointed out. “Any mistake is on you.”
“Fine,” he sighed loudly. “I’m turning around and heading back to the main road.”
“That sounds like a—”
When he didn’t finish his sentence, Falconi glanced over. “A what?”
“Why would... Stop the car.”
“What?”
“Stop the freaking car!” Brinkley yelled.
Falconi mumbled something before applying the brakes and pulling over.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s a solar farm.”
Falconi stared at him. “So?”
“So, how many solar farms have you seen since we got here? Besides, with all this heat, they’re not as efficient. So why would there be a farm sitting here in the middle of nowhere?”
“Beats me.”
“For a power source that isn’t on the city grid,” Brinkley reasoned. “My instincts tell me this is what we’ve been looking for, Derek. So follow this and see where it goes.”
A few minutes later, they came upon the sizable building.
“That’s it,” Brinkley enthused. “Cut your lights and pull over. We don’t want to get any closer and risk tipping them off.”
Falconi complied. “Okay, now what?”
“Now we give the team our coordinates and tell them to get here on the double. I want to strike while we still have the element of surprise.”
“Makes sense,” Falconi replied. Taking out his cell phone, he sent two text messages. One was to their Ghost Town team. The second was to provide Palacios with their coordinates.
“Why’d you send two messages?” Brinkley inquired after he’d finished.
“This is too important to leave anything to chance. If only one person gets it, what happens if it takes them a while to check messages, or overlook it? This way, I can be certain the message is received, and the team is mobilizing.”
“We’re back in business, Derek,” Brinkley said gleefully. “Now, we’ll have Silent Night back under our control, and we can resume our auction as planned.”
Brinkley leaned back in his chair, a smug look planted on his face. “And no one has to know how close to going off the rails this whole enterprise came, right?”
Derek nodded. “As you said, everything is unfolding just as it should be.”
Poking her head into Coulter’s bedroom, Marena found him asleep, so she closed the door and headed for the lab.
An hour later, she was sitting at her desk doing some calculations when she got a weird feeling. Right afterward, the lights went out. When they didn’t immediately go back on, she felt around on the desk for her cell phone.
“How is this possible? The lab has a separate generator.”
Finding the flashlight app on her phone, Marena turned it on. She walked over and flipped the light switch on the wall off and on. Next, she walked down the hallway and noticed that the lights were on in the rest of the house.
“Great,” she muttered. “I must have tripped a circuit breaker or something.”
Flustered, she went looking for the circuit breaker box. Unable to get the power restored, Marena headed outside to check out the backup generator.
Not seeing the problem, Marena turned to go back inside when she spotted a man dressed in all black going across the lawn, carrying something over his shoulders. She stared in shock. When she saw the difficulty he was having, followed by movement, she realized it was a body and took off running to intercept them.
Using her body as a weapon, Marena dove onto the man, knocking him off balance. When he fell, she realized Coulter was the one tied up. She quickly yanked the gag off his mouth.
“Marena, run,” he yelled.
She smelled the metallic scent of blood. “Coulter, you’re bleeding.” Marena’s gazed traveled over him to figure out the origin. Then, while trying to untie his hands, a man yanked Marena around her waist, lifting her off the ground.
“Get your hands off of her,” Coulter roared.
“This doesn’t concern you,” he said in a muffled voice. “Just let us take him, and we’ll let you live.”
Marena struggled to free herself. “I don’t think so,” she responded before kicking him repeatedly in his shin and following up with an elbow to the stomach.
Her assailant dropped her before doubling over in pain. Seizing the opportunity, she spun around and delivered a knee to his solar plexus.
He let out a strangled sound as the wind was knocked out of him before crumpling to the ground.
“Watch out,” Coulter warned.
She turned around, but not fast enough to keep from being hit in the face. The blow made her stagger backward. The aggressor used the opportunity to try and take Marena to the ground. She evaded him, but not his punch to her middle section. Taking a moment, Marena was able to muster up enough strength to deliver a roundhouse kick, but he grabbed hold of her foot and started pulling it away from her body to throw her off balance.
“Rena, flex and clinch,” Coulter called out.
Flexing her toes, she countered by pulling him toward her so that she could clinch up and deliver a blow to his head. She followed up with a flurry of elbow strikes until he went down.
Rushing over to Coulter, Marena tried again to free his hands, but they were bound with a zip tie. She was breathing heavily from the exertion.
“Just help me up. I’ve got these.”
Helping him to his feet, she watched him try to break free, but he didn’t have the strength.
“Wait, I’ve got it,” she said, trying to assist him with the momentum needed to snap the tie.
Two other men were advancing on their position.
“They’re coming,” he warned.
Turning around, Marena placed Coulter behind her.
“Rena, I can—”
“You’re in no shape to fight,” she cut him off. “You’re the one they’re after, Colt. I need you to try and get back to the house while I distract them.”
“I’m not leaving you here to fight them off by yourself.” He tried again to break the restraint but failed. He let out a roar of frustration.
Dodging the first attacker, Marena hit the carotid artery in his neck, rendering him unconscious in seconds. He collapsed to the ground in a heap.
When his counterpart lunged for Marena, she placed her arms on the inside of his grasp. Next, she guided his upper body away from her and then applied a lot of pressure to the weak point between two of his ribs. Howling in pain, he dropped to his knees.
A car pulled up, and several men jumped out and ran toward them.
“No, don’t engage them,” Coulter called out. “Let’s go.”
Holding on to Coulter’s arm, she ran with him back to the entry door. Before they reached it, Terry rushed past them with a high-powered assault rifle and laid down covering fire. Once they were clear, Terry took out the attackers, but the driver got away.
Terry kept the car in his scope sight until it faded from view.
“Dad, help me!” Marena screamed from inside the house. “It’s Coulter.”
Terry bolted through the door. “Where are you?” he yelled.
“In the hallway.”
He slung the rifle over his shoulder and ran. He found Marena hunched over, taking almost all of Coulter’s body weight. He got on the other side and lifted Coulter upright. Working together, the two of them helped Coulter get to the lab.
“You’re cut,” she said after removing his shirt and assessing his injuries. “You’ve lost a lot of blood, and this will require stitches.”
“What about you? Your lip is swollen.
“I’ll live,” she replied, keeping her anger in check. Unfortunately, the effort was too great. “What were you thinking risking your life, Coulter? You should’ve just gone back to the house as I asked.”
“If you think I would leave you out there to take on those men while I slinked back to the house with my tail between my legs, you’re crazy. I wasn’t about to allow them to hurt you or risk you ending up dead.”
“The goal was for you not to end up dead,” she argued. “I had the situation under control, Coulter.”
“I don’t care how it looked. The odds were not in your favor, Marena—and you know that.”
“We agreed before that you would listen to me and not risk your life—”
“You are my life, Marena!” he roared. “So don’t ever ask me to walk away and not try to protect you from harm. Not as long as I draw breath.”
“Okay, you two. Let’s calm down,” Terry interjected. “You are both safe, and the immediate threat has been eliminated for now. That’s all that matters.”
“You’re right, Dad,” Marena concurred. “But they’ll be back.”
“Then we’d better get ready.”
Coulter opened his mouth to speak but then stopped. A weird look crossed his face before he glanced up at Marena.
She leaned in. “Colt? What’s wrong?”
Without warning, he slumped over on the examination table. He would have pitched forward onto the floor if Marena hadn’t been standing before him with her body keeping his stationary.
“Coulter? Can you hear me?” She laid him down and grabbed a stethoscope to check his heartbeat. “Dad, can you hand me that pressure cuff?”
Terry hurried to get it.
“Would you mind?”
He nodded and wrapped it around Coulter’s arm and, using the second hand on his watch, took his blood pressure.
“It’s ninety over sixty.”
“That’s way too low,” she replied. “And he’s having heart palpitations.”
Marena retook his vitals ten minutes later.
“They haven’t improved.” She retrieved the case Dr. Cutty had given her and took out the last vial.
“What’s that?”
“It’s the medication Frank gave me,” she said while preparing to give Coulter the shot. “It’s not a cure, but it will help alleviate some of his symptoms.”
After she injected it into his arm, they waited for it to start working.
Terry glanced at his daughter.
“That looks like more than just worry,” he noted. “What’s wrong, honey?”
“That was the last dose, Dad. If anything happens to him between now and when I’m finished creating the antidote, I won’t be able to slow down the poison.”
He walked around the table and hugged his daughter. “Have faith, Marena. Just take this one step at a time.”
Just then, Lucas flew into the door with his gun drawn. When he spotted his family, he relaxed and holstered his weapon.
“Luke,” Marena cried. She rushed over and hugged her brother. “I’m glad to see you.”
“Glad to see you, too,” he replied, returning the hug. He tilted his head toward the door. “What’s with all the dead people littering the front lawn?”
“They tried to take Coulter. We stopped them,” Terry said matter-of-factly before coming over and hugging his son. He slapped him on the back. “Probably Brinkley’s men.”
“Ah.” Lucas sat his backpack on the table. He retrieved a canister from one of the zipper pockets and handed it to his sister.
“As promised.”
“This couldn’t be better timing,” she replied. “Coulter isn’t doing so great.”
“Then you’d better get moving.” Lucas squeezed her shoulder.
“We’ll be outside clearing away the debris,” her father said. “Call us if you need anything or something changes.”
“I will,” she agreed and got to work.
Lucas tried waking his sister up by calling her name from across the room. When that didn’t work, he came over and shook her.
“Marena? Marena, come on, wake up.”
Marena turned her face in the opposite direction with a loud groan, her head still lying on her arms.
“Five more minutes.”
“Come on, sis. It’s Coulter. He needs you. Right now.”
The last word relayed a sense of urgency that eventually sliced through the sleep-induced fog in Marena’s brain. She opened her eyes and bolted upright. Her head spun from the effort. Marena rubbed her hands over her face before glancing around, trying to get her bearings. “How long have I been out?”
“Beats me. I just popped my head in to check on you a few minutes ago. You were passed out, so I went to see Coulter,” her brother replied. “Rena, he’s not doing so well.”
Marena jumped off her chair so fast she stumbled. Catching herself, she ran to his bedroom. The bed was empty. Before she could look around, she heard Coulter retching in the bathroom. She found him draped over the toilet bowl. Blood was everywhere. “Oh my God, Coulter.”