“We have to get going.” The holographic image of Steele’s torso and head flicked for a moment. “I haven’t finished the interrogations, but we’ve picked up a hoverplane on our radar.”

“Didn’t you search for trackers?” Casimer berated Steele.

Steele’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “Yes, I did. And our shields are up. But there’s always a possibility that Doctor Wright has invented a stronger signal into something we don’t know about.”

“Did you at least get any useful information?”

“Not yet.”

Before Casimer could respond with anything more than a scowl, Steele turned his head toward some disturbance behind him.

“Sir, we need you!” a voice called from someone Casimer couldn’t see.

“I have to go.” Steele looked so stern, Casimer didn’t even protest as the vid-call link was cut and Steele’s image dissolved into thin air.

Casimer breathed deeply, trying to quell his boiling rage. Turning to his office’s only other occupant, he couldn’t help pounding his desk while growling, “Nothing’s going right, Beck!”

“Steele has done well, all things considered, sir,” Beck said. “We wouldn’t have anything right now if it weren’t for his quick actions.”

Casimer reluctantly acknowledged the truth of Beck’s words.

“But this does leave us in a precarious position,” Beck continued. “It seems Vusal already knows about Crofton’s involvement in the attack on Doctor Wright. They’re not doing anything yet, but we don’t know how long that will last. We have to assume Crofton’s support of you, and the extent of your coup, will be revealed sooner than planned.”

Franklin Wright was supposed to be the price for the backing of an experienced army from That Woman. Without that guarantee, Crofton was their strongest ally. Crofton’s Prime Minister was an old school chum of Casimer’s and was the first to pledge help for his cause. After promises of vast territories and resources, of course.

“You should think about moving the timeline up,” Beck advised.

Casimer gave a sharp nod. “Speed up the preparations. I have to call…her.” Casimer grimaced. “I don’t know yet what she will want now that Franklin is gone. But we need her army. Let me know when my territory is ready to defect to Crofton. Call Steele.Tell him to get everyone here as quickly as possible. Also, keep Commander General Cynbel and his son. It’s unlikely they’ll break easily, but at the very least they will be valuable hostages. Get rid of the rest.”

Harold glanced at his men. They were ready. Their rescue attempt should be happening any moment now.

There was a buzz from the guards around them and throughout the cave. Cries of “hovercraft!” “move!” and “watch out!” echoed along the stone walls.

Harold tensed, not sure what to expect next.

Steele came running around a corner just as the shimmery force field around them turned blurry and started to shift. Steele’s look of confusion was the last thing Harold saw before the electric wall moved to create a crooked path for the prisoners, as well as trap Steele and his men inside the cave.

“What is going on?” Steele’s angry voice rang out from behind the blurry wall of white-hot electricity.

Someone was either foolish enough to try and touch it, or they got pushed into its path. Either way, their screams told everyone to steer clear of the blurry, wavy walls, now acting as their shield.

“Let’s move!” Harold helped to carry one of their dead comrade’s bodies.

Their group didn’t hobble far before several of the rescue team found them.

“We’ve got you, commander general.” Samuel came up to help support Harold.

Before Harold could say or ask anything, the blurry force field started to pulse and waver.

“That can’t be good,” Conan said through a split lip.

“Move as fast as you can!” Harold barked. “Get out of this cave!”

Passing by the still bodies of their enemies lying scattered across the ground, they made their way to the cave entrance, their force field shield going more haywire with every step. By the time they were in fresh air and sunshine, there were sparks flying everywhere.

“That’s the last of us!” Samuel shouted to someone above the cave entrance.

“Thank goodness.” Lark sounded exhausted. She was holding onto something on top of the rocks. “Hurry and get everyone on the hovercraft. I can’t keep this up much longer!” She grunted.

“What is going on? Why is she here?” Harold hissed.

“No time, sir.” Samuel dragged him toward the hovercraft.

Sweat poured down Lark’s temples. She stood on top of the large cave entrance where their attackers had set up a row of small black solar panels to soak up the sunshine. Controlling all this electric energy from one of the solar power conductors was taking way more out of her than she had hoped. It should have been scorching to the touch, but Lark just felt a calming warmth.

The roof she, Shamira, and another Spur Corps member stood on was about three meters above the ground and roughly ten meters wide, with rock walls reaching for the sky at their backs and to their left.

Lark’s bodyguards dumped the bodies of some attackers over the side. Lark was thankful they were covering her back so she could focus on her task. She wanted to give the rest of them cover as long as possible so they could safely board their escape vehicles. Her own was waiting above their heads, ropes dangling at the ready for a speedy ascent.

Terrible pain ate at Larkspur from the inside out. She was getting lightheaded. Her skin felt like it was crawling and tightening at the same time. Very unnerving.

Just a little longer.

She watched the last of their team disappearing into the surrounding forest. There were several small hovercrafts rising above the trees all around them. Lark glanced to her side, having the itchy feeling she was being watched. But the enhanced vision she was starting to get used to was gone. As the energy in her hand started to waver, she turned back to the conductor in front of her.

“Everything is becoming too unstable.” She coughed up blood, watching it bloom on the ground in front of her with a detached feeling.

“Lark!” Shamira jumped forward, worry lacing her voice.

Lark barely registered spitting out more blood before she lost all control and a tremendous explosion beneath their feet knocked her into blackness.

When the main cave opening was blocked off with a blurry force field, Steele ordered everyone to grab what they could and evacuate, then ran to the alcove he had been using as an office and bedroom.

What sort of weapon can manipulate force fields to this degree?

He had never heard of anything like this. Rummaging through a bag, he pulled out a pale cloak, threw it around his shoulders, grabbed his emergency pack, and made his way to a small back exit. Anything with an active electrical current was going haywire. Sparks flew from the lighting orbs lining the cave walls. He threw his VPhone away when it began throwing off sparks.

When he emerged from the back of the cave, he saw a small hovercraft waiting near the cave entrance about a hundred yards away. He left his pack under a bush and activated the camouflage function of his cloak as he started toward the front of the cave.

Going slowly to make sure his cloak was still working properly, Steele got about twenty yards away from the cave entrance when his group of hostages came stumbling out into the fresh air. He froze.

“That’s the last of us!” One of the men on the ground called up to the cave roof.

Steele looked up to see three figures grouped on top of the cave entrance. Two females and a male.

“Thank goodness!” The dark-haired woman nearly gasped from exhaustion. She was holding onto one of their power conductors. Was she the one causing this mess?

Steele quietly scaled the rocky side of the cave, poking his camouflaged head over the side to get a better look at the trio.

What in the world?

What was that around the dark-haired woman’s hands? Blue electricity writhed around her arms. Her exposed skin looked to be rippling as it faded from opaque black to pale skin with veins bulging, and back to a shimmery, scaly opaque black again.

As if she sensed him staring at her, the woman glanced his way just as he reached for his laser gun. Not daring to breathe, he froze, unable to tear his gaze away from her face. A sapphire blue right eye and metallic silver left eye seemed lit from within, creating a mesmerizing, unearthly glow.

His head pounded and his heart raced. Why? He didn’t know her, did he?

Voices muffled in hazy memories. Feelings of purpose, of love. Blinding pain nearly caused Steele to let go of his perch and fall three meters to the hard ground. Grunting softly, he clambered up onto the cave roof, still a good ten yards away from the others.

“Lark!”

The name pulled at something inside him. Steele looked up just in time to see the red-haired woman and her male companion jump forward to grab hold of the dark-haired enigma.

Feeling an intense need to help her, Steele almost threw off his camouflage cloak when a huge wave of that blue electricity flew from the woman’s hands and licked its way into the ground. A large explosion from the cave rocked everyone.

Steele was knocked backward, and a new spasm of agony kept him sprawled on his rocky hideout. He could only watch as the man and red-haired woman gathered themselves together, carrying Steele’s unconscious dark-haired woman to the waiting harnesses that lifted them into the hovercraft.

“Wait,” he gasped, hand stretching out toward the disappearing vehicle.

He lay still, panting, letting his wits come back to him, until he realized the vibrations and rumblings beneath him were cave-ins. He scrambled to get his sore body clear of the cave, pulled himself together, and rounded up the stragglers of his group to send them in search of other survivors. If they couldn’t manage to get back into the cave, they would have a lot of equipment and supplies to replace.

He spent the next few hours rescuing people and retrieving bodies from the ruined network of cave tunnels, organizing lists, and deciding what he was—and wasn’t—going to tell Casimer.