Chapter Fourteen

Daz left Charlie in care of the doctors and, oddly, Philip Drake, with a final assist by Thor, who had again calmed Charlie. Daz knew Drake would keep his family safe. He hadn’t expected Drake to get along with Charlie. When Daz left, the two of them were sitting together in the medical facility, drawing superhero costumes together. Thor had been curled at Charlie’s feet.

Daz went to the supply room to load up. Normally, he’d gather F-Team to go with him but most of them were out helping with storm recovery. Time was something he didn’t have. Beth thought the backlash from Renee taking her enemy over the edge of the cliff might have incapacitated him too. Every second lost in capturing him meant time the telepath could use to recover.

And, anyway, going in alone might be for the best. If Lamoreux could attack through a cat’s memories, he might be able to turn the team against itself. One person with the right weapons was the only way to take out this guy. One person with the right approach that attacked his weakness.

Time to level up.

If there was one thing he’d learned about psychics, it was that they needed intense concentration to be effective. That meant step one was to distract and disrupt Lamoreux, just like he’d distracted the guards in Turkey by planting the grenades.

Daz grabbed two flash-crash grenades that would stun and sometimes disable from a long range. He could go with a regular M84 flash-bang model but the flash-crash was more powerful. The only difference was the flash-crash grenades might toss out metal fragments and injure his quarry. Daz didn’t care. He didn’t have to worry about hostages getting in the way.

He did have to worry about animal attacks, given how the intruder had used the bear yesterday. He grabbed a circular gadget. The LRAD. What Alec had jokingly called the sound machine. Long Range Acoustic Devices were already used to keep animals off certain installations and to deal with crowds by making it too unpleasant to be near the sonic disruption. This one might mess up his opponent and keep him from manipulating any animals or people nearby.

One of the vans was already pre-rigged to hold the LRAD on its roof. Daz clipped the grenades on his belt, slung his specially fitted M1 Carbine over his back, holstered his Glock at his waist, and headed out to the parking lot to hook in the LRAD to the van.

Drake came outside just as Daz was finished and ready to go.

“You got his address?” Daz asked.

Drake handed over the slip of paper. “He could be gone already.”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

“I could come with you.”

That was a serious offer. Drake was relentless in a fight. But, no. “You’re needed here. With Beth out of commission and Alec needed to help her, you’re the last, best line of defense for everyone.”

Drake nodded.

“Any change?” Daz asked.

“With Beth? She’s growing stronger. With Renee? No. She’s still…out.”

All the more reason to take this asshole down immediately. “Charlie?”

“He fell asleep with the dogs curled around him. Beth said it’s because of the exhaustion from dealing with all the psychic feedback.”

“That’s better than a meltdown, at least. Does Beth still want to wait hours to go in and help Renee?”

“She’ll go in as soon as she can. You know that.”

For a split second, Drake transformed. His voice dropped an octave. His eyes narrowed and his posture changed from relaxed to battle ready.

“If you don’t get him, I will,” Drake said.

“I know.”

An eye-blink later, and Drake was back to the man who’d just been playing with Charlie. The monster still lurked inside him, Daz thought. But Drake was their monster now.

They looked at each other for a minute in complete understanding before Drake went back inside. Daz stowed most of his gear, punched Lamoreux’s address into the GPS and headed out.

This asshole lived just over the other side of the hill from Renee. No wonder he’d been able to spy on her and Charlie and send Odin out to lure Charlie away. But this time, that closeness would cost him.

Several times during the drive, Daz reminded himself that he wanted to take Lamoreux alive. They needed to see if he tracked back to Rasputin and if there were any other agents in the area. But he wanted to pound him into dust. Charlie’s screams for his mother echoed in Daz’s mind, over and over.

Daz slowed as he shifted gear to get up the steep hill that led to Renee’s house. He turned on the side street that led to Lamoreux’s address and spotted what he was looking for: an old dirt road that led to the neighborhood watering hole. Daz drove in as far as he could through the storm debris and parked. He jumped up to the roof of the van, tilted the LRAD in the right direction and set it on remote. This put him a few hundred feet from Lamoreux’s property.

Daz put on the infrared goggles, grabbed his weapons and headed out through the woods. He was just below the cliff that Charlie had almost fallen down. His goggles spotted a few small animals and then a larger one inside a house.

There, right where he should be, a lone human figure. Daz crept closer. The person inside Lamoreux’s house was lying on a bed. Daz checked the time. It had only been ninety minutes since the mental attack at the Institute. Maybe his quarry was still down too, like Renee. Or maybe he was exerting energy to keep her down and out. Either way, that was good news for Daz, as a distracted enemy was a weaker enemy.

But he couldn’t count on that. Step by step, he drew closer, until he was at the edge of the target’s yard.

“Come for more abuse, servant of the fire demon?”

Fuck. Daz set his jaw. Lamoreux was apparently awake enough to use his telepathy. Fuck stealth. He walked into the yard, out in the open, his hand on one of the flash-crash grenades.

“Stop.”

To his horror, Daz froze.

“Our saint put some controls inside your head during your captivity. They are coming in useful, as he foresaw they would. Now toss aside those grenades.”

Rasputin still had a hold on him. Blind fury obscured Daz’s vision. To his continued horror, his hand obeyed a mind not his own and tossed aside the grenades.

“Good. Come into the house. You being here saves me time. It’ll give me a chance to reinforce those commands. After that, things will be much simpler.”

Level up, Daz thought. It was his only mental thought as his body, controlled by Lamoreux, walked through the open screen door and into the house. Daz set his modified M1 on the couch.

Level up, level up, level up. Keep that thought uppermost, don’t let him in further.

Lamoreux came out to greet him. No wonder no one had suspected him. Guy was about ordinary height, ordinary weight and ordinary brown hair.

Level up, level up.

Lamoreux drew closer and studied him. “Charlie looks like you. And he’s more resistant to mental tampering, like you. I expected to be able to get your son to come with me easily after a week. Instead, he’s become more difficult at school with each passing day.”

“So you took time off to regroup.” Renee had mentioned Charlie’s regular teacher was out with a supposed broken leg.

“I have patience. My saint has foreseen my eventual victory.”

“How the hell did you get involved in all this?” Daz ground out the words between his teeth. “You’re not Russian.”

“No, but my mother was. She was one of the saint’s emissaries to America. Once she saw how powerful I’d become, she took me back to him for training.”

Lamoreux’s eyes began to glow. Just like Rasputin’s eyes. And, once again, Daz was helpless. But he couldn’t fail, not this time. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to the guy, would you?”

Weird, to have this conversation half out loud, half telepathic. He wouldn’t have to talk out loud to Beth. She’d just hear him.

He wondered if Lamoreux was weaker than he was letting on.

Level up, level up.

“I would happen to be related to the guy, yes. And, like my saint, I recover quickly. I can’t say the same for Charlie’s mother, however. We’re still connected and I have the upper hand.” Lamoreux grinned.

“Fuck you.”

“You shouldn’t be so worried about Charlie. I’ll take good care of him. Maybe you and Renee can even stick around. You might be valuable in keeping him calm. Once my control over the three of you is complete, of course.”

Lamoreux raised his hand. Fire glowed in his palm. Daz tried to step back, to get away from that glow, but he was frozen in place. It was happening again. He was helpless to get away, helpless to save the people he cared about.

Level up, level up, level up.

He twitched his hand, to make it seem involuntary. His captor didn’t notice, probably too focused on burning Daz’s shoulder, reinforcing the wound made by Rasputin.

Good. Daz twitched his wrist again. It responded again. Now. It had to be now.

Daz slammed his wrists together, activating the LRAD remote button on his wrist.

A shriek cut through the air.

The sounds made Daz’s ears throb but he expected that. He’d endure.

Lamoreux couldn’t. He put his hands his ears. Yes, concentrate on your telepathy through that, you bastard. The telepath’s vise grip on Daz’s mind slipped. He clenched his fist. Yes, he could move a little now. He drew back his hand and punched Lamoreux, a solid uppercut across the jaw. Lamoreux fell to his knees.

That broke the telepathic hold on Daz’s mind. He grabbed the M1 and shot Lamoreux point blank in the chest with the tranqs.

Lamoreux stared at Daz. For a second, Daz wondered if the tranqs would be enough. He chambered another set. Lamoreux’s eyes stopped glowing.

“You’re nothing special, you’re ordinary, you’re…”

“I’m Batman, asshole,” Daz said over the siren’s whine.

Lamoreux’s mental voice faded out. He collapsed in a heap on the rug. For good measure, Daz pumped the second round of tranqs in him. If he could heal like Rasputin, he might recover from the drugs fast. I’m not taking any chances.

Daz clicked off the LRAD and secured his captive.

He curled the comm link around his ear and tapped it for the first time. “Target secure.”

“Roger that,” Drake answered.

“Dad! Mom’s awake! She’s okay,” Charlie cut in. “You got him. You saved her.”

About time, Daz thought.