“Yes!” I yelled back. “Too fucking late now!”

  He rolled his eyes, then stuck his fingers in his ears. It was going to be a very, very long night.

  Ajui had met Luiz, and they’d collected the ‘copter, flown it to bushland on the other side of the lake, and were now waiting. I paid a brief visit to their temporary camp—got a bit of a shock when I saw Luiz until I realised she was still in heavy disguise, a black wig covering her usual short blonde hair, with coloured contacts, false nose and cheekbones altering her face to the point where her own mother wouldn’t have known her. She was the best on our team at this, and with the amount of undercover she’d done, she had to be.

  “You look horrible,” I said.

  “Good,” she replied, grinning. “How’s our boy?”

  “Let’s see. He’s cold, he’s tired, needs a drink and a piss, and he’s having to sit all hunched up on wet brick. Oh, and he’s going deaf.”

  “Poor sod. You had a lucky escape,” she said to Ajui.

  “I’d have done it,” he snapped. “I ain’t no pussy.”

  “There’s no room for pussies, I swear. To swing ‘em or do anything else with them.”

  “Keep it clean, Langse,” Luiz told me as Ajui rolled his eyes. “You tell him...we’re with him here,” she said, touching her chest over her heart.

  “Tell him yourself in a few hours, Luiz.” I wasn’t bearing any final messages back to Jesi. He didn’t need that.

  An hour before dawn, Jesi ate some chocolate, drank some water, and started stretching and trying to warm up cold, stiffened muscles. Parido, who had been keeping an eye on preparations in the chamber over our heads, appeared and told us the Exalted were entering the chamber, and that Luiz was in the air. “I can only see six guards in the chamber itself,” he reported. “But there are more down below.”

  “Go take a look, Nev,” Jesi ordered, so I did, manifesting alongside Parido high in the huge chamber, close to one of the ornately painted walls. The Exalted—all elderly men, all dressed in heavy white robes—were in the middle of the room, chanting. One of them, who seemed to be like their high priest or something, waved incense and muttered some mystical fiddlefaddle. It went on for a long time, until the priest raised his hands to the ceiling and shouted in a language I didn’t know. That was the signal.

  There were twelve beds—couches really, with a bunch of medical equipment standing ready by each one—arranged in a circle, the feet pointing to the centre of the chamber. The Exalted went over to them and lay down. Four red-robed attendants as well as a doctor apiece, waited on each of them, while several other masked servants rushed between them with trays. The attendants fussed for a long time, placing pillows and so on, and then the doctors took over. Each one of the Exalted had a drip placed in their skinny right arms, and then the attendants all moved back against the wall. It was eerily like watching a state execution and shivers ran up my nonexistent spine at the sight of it all. Everyone was clearly waiting for a deadline to pass, and then, as a gong was rung quietly, the doctors pressed buttons on their equipment. The drugs, I guessed.

  I looked up as a noise came from overhead, a heavy mechanical noise, grinding and sliding. The dome was opening., like a pupil on an eye, from the centre. Through it, I could just see the faint gold and pink of dawn—it was already light outside. It was time.

  “Ten minutes,” Parido said. “Gonlimi needs to move.”

  Jesi was ready to go. Through the tunnel’s service hatch, a silenced pistol shot to the heart of a passing guard a few metres away at the entrance to the structure, and then he was in. Down steps, through two doors, another guard to deal with. The last door, just a simple thing, like you get on hotel rooms, was locked. He shot it out, and burst through. Four more guards—shot two in the head, and the other two in the chest. He hadn’t even needed to use the grenades.

  It was a plain, empty room, the only occupants the now dead guards, and in the middle of it, four civilians, dressed in simple white robes, sitting at a round table. In front of each was an old book on a support. The guys hadn’t moved at all—they’d sat frozen as Jesi executed the guards, and now stared at him as they expected to be killed too.

  “You need to stop this,” Jesi said. “You’re being used to destroy the world.”

  “It’s true,” I said, stepping out from behind him.

  At first there was no reaction at all, as if they hadn’t understood a word either of us had said. Then one of them found his courage. “Who the hell are you?” he blustered, getting to his feet.

  “Not important—but my friend here, is a spirit.” I passed my hand through Jesi to prove it, which shocked them plenty. One thing to be aware of spirits, another to have one in the same room as you, talking to you. “I know what you think you’re doing, but you’re going to cause a catastrophe.”

  In the silence that followed that statement, I heard explosions close by, and some more distant, more thuds than actual sound. “Fresiz and Tinun,” Parido said, coming into view beside me. “And the fireworks at the shore.” The Bridges looked about ready to faint, seeing him pop up. “Hi,” he said to them. “You need to get out of here, gentlemen.”

  “We have to recite the words,” the braver of the four—a younger man with red hair—snapped at Parido, which took more guts than he probably realised. He sounded desperate. “We have to go through with this.”

  Jesi went over and leaned on the table across from him, his gun pointed in a meaningful way. “No, you don’t. In fact, you can’t because if you try, I’ll stop you. Parido, how long?”

  There was a window of danger lasting six minutes. “Five minutes,” he said. “Keep them in sight until it’s over.”

  “Upstairs?” Jesi barked, keeping his eyes—and his pistol—trained on the four men, and especially on Carrot-top.

  “Tinu’s tossing grenades into the chamber. The doctors and attendants have fled, and the Exalted are dying,” Parido added, sounding extremely pleased with that information.

  “No!” Carrot-top shouted. “We have to go through with this,” he begged the others. “Please!”

  “You don’t understand,” I said. “Once you breach the spirit world, there’s no going back. And the spirits will be lost, blown into space. Humanity will be at an end, forever.”

  “I don’t believe you!” he yelled, his face going as red as his hair. He grabbed the book in front of him, and when Jesi reached across to stop him, he backed away, up against the wall, clutching the book to his chest. “I have to do this for Frieve!”

  “Who the hell is Frieve?” I asked Parido.

  “His wife. Who’s dying. The Exalted told him they could cure her with the power they got from this. They lied,” he said, lifting his voice and looking at the man.

  “You don’t know that! It’s my only chance, and I’m going to take it!” Holding the book out in front of him, he began to recite from it, his voice shaking but perfectly clear, saying words I couldn’t understand, harsh and old-sounding. The others began to move away from the table, back to the other side of the room. He was being isolated, but he didn’t care.

  “Stop him!” Parido ordered.

  Jesi drew a bead. “This is your final warning.”

  But the guy didn’t even look at him, kept right on chanting, and Parido was panicking. “Just do it, Gonlimi!”

  Jesi fired. The guy fell like a pole-axed cow, the book tumbling out of his limp hands, the gunshot deafening in the confined space. No one said a thing, or moved. Jesi kept his gun trained on the fallen man, his eyes hooded, his expression blank. Shooting civilians wasn’t what we’d signed up to do. Especially not civilians who were just trying to save their dying wives.

  I turned to the other Bridges who were staring at their colleague, faces pale and eyes huge and horrified. “Anyone else feeling brave?” I snarled. A rapid shaking of heads. “Good. If any of you go anywhere near those books or say a single word for the next....”

  “Forty seconds,” Parido murmured.

  “You’re dead.”

  Jesi turned and pointed his gun at them. Over by the wall, the guy was stirring, moaning. At least he wasn’t dead. I was glad for Jesi’s sake, but he’d taken a hell of a risk going for a non-fatal shot.

  “Clear,” Parido finally announced. There was a collective exhale from the three standing men.

  Jesi straightened up and brought his weapon to rest position. “Right. We need to get them out of here. The tunnel still sealed?”

  “Yes, and there are guards swarming all over the other side of the barrier,” Parido reported, after flicking in and out so fast, I doubted Jesi noticed he’d left the room at all. “The seal can only be opened from this side.”

  “That’s something,” Jesi muttered. “Right, gentlemen, I hope you can swim, because that’s the only way you’re getting out.”

  “What about him?” I asked, pointing at the injured man.

  “Guess I’ll just have to carry him.”

  I thought about arguing with him, but knew it was a waste of time. Jesi had just risked the entire world to save one knuckle-headed son of a bitch. He wasn’t going to leave him to bleed out just because it might get Jesi killed.

  He picked the guy up—turned out he was shot in the left shoulder, a bad but not fatal wound—and threw him over his shoulder with a grunt. “Okay—out that door, then right. Nev, you be point, Parido, I need to know what’s happening outside.”

  The three uninjured paranormals were terrified now they realised that they were going to face the wrath of, if not their masters, then their masters’ guards and servants. Jesi snarled and bullied, forced them ahead of him, while he carried the injured guy in a fireman’s lift out and up the stairs.

  “Three guards on the other side,” I said when we reached the top. I used my arms to indicate their positions behind the door.

  I thought Jesi would drop the guy while he attended to the enemy, but no. The man still over his shoulder, Jesi kicked the door open, then with perfect precision, shot the three guards, pop pop pop, without even breaking into a sweat. Nothing was moving in the chamber now. The attendants had fled, the ones who weren’t down already. The grenades had done some damage, killed or injured three people to our left. There were a couple of small fires, and the place was starting to fill up with smoke. I could see the Exalted, all unconscious, the poison still pumping into their veins. Good riddance, I thought.

  “Nice work, officer,” I said as he loaded a fresh clip.

  “Thanks.” Jesi grunted and shifted his burden. Carrot-top was no lightweight.

  “Hurry,” Parido snapped. “The seal’s been breached, and the guards are on their way. We need to get up top. Fresiz is coming in to pick you up. The rest of you will have to swim.”

  We were at the edge of the chamber, about a quarter of the way up. “This way,” Parido said, pointing to our right. “Up those stairs.”

  There was a door at the top of a long, narrow wrought iron staircase, taking us to where the dome began to curve inwards. Once we got there, we’d be safe. They’d be safe, I meant.

  Jesi urged everyone up, single file, while he took the rear. The door was locked, and he had to waste precious bullets and time blasting it open, but finally he was through and into the open air. Steps down to a wide platform, purpose unknown, but it would make a fine ‘copter landing spot—now where the fuck was the ‘copter?

  On the shore, fireworks were still being fired off, and I could hear music and chanting. I doubted anyone there not connected to the Exalted realised anything strange had happened at all. Jesi laid his rescued man down, and turned to the others. “Can you all swim? Then strip,” he ordered, pointing his gun at them, because he didn’t have time to argue. “Shoes too. Now go!”

  He shoved them down the stone stairs to the side which took them almost to the water, and then used the threat of his gun again to make them jump in. He watched anxiously until the three of them had made it, and then, after a bit of gasping and spitting, they began to strike out for shore. They were safe—well, kinda. They’d have to look out for themselves.

  But Jesi and the redhead were far from safe, and now there was gunfire inside the chamber. Fuck. Jesi got his guy back up over his shoulder and readied his machine pistol. “I could really do with Luiz now,” he said, giving me a strained grin.

  I flashed off to find her. She was coming back in for another pass over the dome. “It’s over, but we need to pick Jes up!” I yelled. “And one wounded.”

  “Shit! Have we got room?”

  “I don’t know, but you pick up Jes or I’ll make your life a living hell!”

  “Yessir, sir,” she said, then dived in.

  Jesi was holding off the guards at the door. The only thing working in his favour was that they couldn’t get up the stair in large numbers, but there were other ways to get outside the dome, and there was a boat speeding across the water which couldn’t be a good thing.

  “Luiz, hurry the hell up!” I screamed, as Jesi fired another burst into the endless stream of apparently suicidal guards.

  And there she was, the ‘copter coming in low and fast, too fast I thought, but no, she’d judged it right and as it touched down, Ajui threw the door open. “Hurry!” he yelled.

  Jesi pelted for the ‘copter, keeping low, slowed up by the weight of his passenger. He threw the guy into the ‘copter just as more guards pounded up the stairs, and threw himself in with a grunt as they began to fire. Luiz was taking off before he was fully inside, and racing away across the lake.

  “We made it!” I crowed.

  “Told you,” she said. “Ajui, all secure back there?” He’d twisted around in his seat, trying to deal with the civilian. He didn’t answer. “Ajui?”

  “Jesi’s hit,” he said, his face stricken. “You gotta get him to a hospital!”

  “Fuck!” Luiz yelled. “First aid box under your seat. Get a dressing on it. Where’s he hit?”

  Jesi was holding his gut, his face grey and sweating, his breath coming in little gasps of pain. “Belly,” I snapped, frustrated at my helplessness here. “Ajui, get a dressing on him!”

  “I’m trying, I’m trying! Fuck! It’s empty!” He tossed the useless thing aside, and looked at Luiz.

  “What? Shit!” Luiz swore. “Use your shirt, anything! I’m gonna bring her in to land.”

  Ajui tore off his shirt and then turned around in his seat again to stuff it against the bloody hole in Jesi’s middle—exit wound, half hidden by his sweater. Jesi opened his eyes a slit to look at me, but he wasn’t really there. Beside him, the redhead was whimpering. “Can it,” I snarled at him. This was his fucking fault. The guy cringed back, his hand jammed against his own injury. I hoped it really hurt.

  Ajui was doing his best, but it was like trying to hold back a breach in a dam wall with a toothpick. By the time Luiz had brought the ‘copter in to land, and left her seat to try and help, blood was soaking Jesi’s trousers and the ‘copter floor. Ajui’s shirt was a sopping red mess against Jesi’s gut.

  Luiz was already out of her seat and trying to get the makeshift dressing into a better position, but it was hopeless. “We gotta get him to a hospital!” Ajui yelled.

  “Too late,” I whispered, holding out my hand to the one reaching out to me—and I grasped it. “Hello, love,” I said, grinning.

  “Fancy meeting like this,” Jesi said, as he kissed me. He kissed me, and I could feel it. Lord, I could feel it!

  “We’re gonna need more room.” I tugged him out of the ‘copter and onto the dirt clear of it. “Over here, Luiz!”

  She hadn’t realised Jesi had died, and I had to call again. Her face, when she saw the two of us standing there, holding each other, was very funny. “Oh!” She banged her head on the door rame, sitting up so fast.

  She scrambled out of the ‘copter, Ajui behind her. “You lucky punk,” Ajui said to Jesi, wiping his hands against his trousers. He and Luiz were covered in Jesi’s blood.

  “Not usually what you say about the recently deceased,” Jesi said, grinning like a fool. “But yes.” I squeezed him tight, planning on never letting him go again. Didn’t know how this reincarnation business worked, but I would make it work for us.

  Luiz wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I guess...congratulations. I’m...gonna miss you though.” She swallowed. “I...uh...we did it, I guess.”

  “We did. Saved the world, and found each other. I’d say that was a perfect mission,” I said.

  “Not quite,” Parido said in a dry voice. “Fresiz, you’re forgetting you have a very much alive and panicking passenger sitting next to a perfectly disgusting corpse, and Ajui has to be got away from here too.”

  That changed the mood in a second. “You’re right—the mission’s not over,” Luiz said, suddenly pulling her gun and drawing a bead on Ajui—but he’d read her mind, and was already pointing his own pistol at her. “There’s a death warrant out on you, mister.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you said. From where I’m standing, you won’t fire in time to save your own skin.”

  I stepped closer. “Luiz...can’t you...?”

  She didn’t look at me as she answered, keeping her eyes firmly on Ajui. “Nev, he’s a wanted and dangerous criminal.”

  “Who just saved the world,” Jesi said. “Please. In my memory.”

  “Aw, Jes.” She lowered her gun, and after a slight hesitation, so did Ajui. “This once and this once only, Ajui. Next time we meet, you’re dead.”

  He curled his lip nastily at her. “There won’t be a next time, girlie.” They exchanged sneers, and then he waved his hand at the ‘copter. “So what are you gonna do with the body and the civilian?”

  She held up a finger to tell him to wait there, and then dived back into the ‘copter, emerging with the guy staggering behind her, clutching his shoulder. She made him take off his robe—under it, he was just wearing ordinary clothes—and then sit. She used her knife to cut the robe into wide strips, then quickly bound them in a pad against his injury. He was looking kinda sick by the time she was done. “Can you walk?”

  He stared up at her. “A bit. It hurts.”