Cuba? She felt overwhelmed.

  The big screens in the situation room were fantastic. Malena hadn’t really had the chance to study them before. The resolution was amazing and the detail was surreal. At first, she’d believed the map that covered the far wall was a projected image, a computer-generated simulation. As she got closer, however, she began to realize it was an actual live image of her planet. The cameras had to be in space, and they had to have fantastically high resolution.

  -4-

  The largest screen on the wall of the situation room displayed a satellite image. The southern half of Florida was at the top of the screen and the view reached down as far as Jamaica at the bottom edge. The night-shrouded Caribbean was the precisely correct shade of inky blue-black. The land masses were a vibrant green, each surrounded by a thin nimbus of sand-colored beaches. Tiny aircraft and ships glittered, their running lights visible on the dark ocean. The entire display was so clear and perfect Malena felt she could reach out and touch the islands and wet her fingertips on the water.

  There were overlays on top of the geographical images, of course. The screen could do more than just show raw satellite video of swirling clouds and city lights. Cut-outs popped up with data on various locations. Most of the action seemed to be centered around Cuba at the moment.

  Something Tanner said caught Malena’s attention. She tuned into the hushed conversation going on between Tanner and Burke.

  “All of them?” asked Burke.

  “Yes, as far as we can tell,” Tanner said. “It was a total loss. Are you getting anything in the way of distress calls?”

  Burke stood quietly for a moment as if listening to music no one else could hear. She stared at the big screen with eyes unfocussed. Tanner watched her expectantly. Then, she shook her head.

  “Nothing,” she said. “They must have lost their com agent, and it must have happened quickly. What about radio?”

  “Dead air. No landing beacons, either. The entire team appears to have been taken out all at once. They didn’t have a chance to turn around or to take any kind of evasive action.”

  Burke’s face was stone. Looking at her, Malena could tell she was upset, but she was doing her best not to show it. The chief lifted her nose higher as she drew in a deep breath. “I’ll brief the Director,” she said quietly.

  Burke headed up a short flight of steps to a catwalk that ran the length of the wall opposite the big display. She entered one of the rooms and picked up a phone. Malena realized it must be her office. There was a line of such rooms up there, all encircled by what appeared to be bulletproof glass.

  Malena turned to Tanner, who was looking at the big screen worriedly. She followed his gaze to Cuba. There were a number of yellow triangles there. She wasn’t sure what they represented. None of them were moving.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  He glanced at her as if he’d forgotten she was there. “No time for a briefing now,” he said. “The shit is hitting the fan, big-time.”

  “Just tell me what contacts are being displayed down around the Gulf of Batabano.”

  He glanced at her again, as if surprised she knew her way around a map.

  “Oh yeah,” he said. “Satellite intel—you know your geography, don’t you? Those are the last known contacts we had from our aircraft.”

  “Aircraft?”

  Tanner seemed agitated. “Look, I’ve got to go down to level B2. You aren’t cleared for that yet, not until we get the official bounce-back from Washington. You’ll have to stay here.”

  Tanner reached to touch her elbow, but she moved her arm deftly out of the way. He shrugged and walked to the nearest operator who was working his console intently. “Billy? Can you help me out with a new hire?”

  Billy was bald, chubby and busy. He didn’t look up from his screen when they walked up and stood behind his chair.

  “Give me a break, Tanner,” Billy said. “Not a good time for babysitting. You should know that.”

  “Billy, please take a moment to meet our new psi-agent, Malena Marin.”

  At that, Billy swiveled his chair around. His eyebrows arched high when he caught sight of Malena. Suddenly, his attitude changed.

  “Psi-agent? Why didn’t you say so? I’ll show her around.”

  Tanner gave him a slight smile. “Thanks.” Then he took off and trotted down the hall toward the elevators.

  Malena stood behind Billy as there were no extra chairs nearby. She stayed quiet for nearly a minute before she couldn’t stand it any longer.

  “What kind of aircraft did we lose contact with?” she asked.

  “Model RH-96 Helos—helicopters. RH-96 units are the silent types.”

  Malena nodded. She’d heard of them, but she’d been under the impression they were only prototypes. She was even more surprised there were so many yellow triangles.

  “How many did we lose? I count six dead contacts.”

  “Right,” Billy said. “Half a squadron. We don’t have many of those birds left.”

  He took a moment then to look at her, and jumped up. “Sorry,” he said, “I’ll get you a chair.”

  “That’s quite all right,” she said, but he was already wheeling a second chair over to his station.

  She sat down beside him and studied the screen. “What exactly happened?”

  “I wish I knew. Something big, I’d say. Something bad.”

  “Could it be the Cubans?”

  He shrugged. “They shouldn’t have that capability. This is something new. I don’t know what hit them, and I wish I did. It’s my job to figure things like this out. Hopefully before everything goes totally tits-up—oh, sorry.”

  “Forget it,” she said. “Let me see if I understand. We sent a squadron of stealth helos down to Cuba and they were all shot down somehow. What was the mission? Was it an extraction? That seems like a lot of firepower for a landing.”

  Billy looked at her strangely for a moment. “You haven’t been briefed, have you?”

  She shook her head.

  “I can’t answer that, then. It’s not my job. I don’t even know your clearance-level. Did they give you a fob yet?”

  She shook her head again. “Everyone is kind of busy.”

  Mumbling to himself, Billy worked at his console. A minute or so later he handed her a black oval of plastic and metal. “Here. That’s a temporary unit. Apply your thumb to the inner oval pad and hold it there until it lights up. Then it will be attuned to you.”

  Malena did as he had instructed. The tiny thing tingled when it lit up, and she pulled her thumb away. She felt a pang and frowned, looking at it. There was no needle.

  “You felt something?” Billy asked in surprise.

  “Yeah. Did this give me a shock?”

  “It better not have. What kind of psi-agent are you?”

  “A sensitive, they said.”

  “Ah, okay. You must be an extreme case. Almost no one can feel a fob.”

  She eyed the thing in her hand. “What kind of access will this thing give me?”

  “Not much. It will get you up to the lobby and around B1. At least you can go to the bathroom without an escort now.”

  “Thanks. Could you tell me anything more about what happened to the helicopters?”

  “I don’t know,” said Billy, shaking his head and looking up at the big screen again. “They shouldn’t have been able to detect them—but apparently we failed. They were taken out of the sky all at once, as if swatted down by a giant hand. Those triangles are the last known positions we have. We can’t pick up anything from them. We have to assume they’re all lost.”

  It occurred to Malena that she was a field agent, and these people who’d just been lost might have been on the same type of mission she was expected to go on. This thought caused a thrill to go through her. How long would it be until it was her turn to go on a deadly adventure?

  “Is this kind of work always so dangerous?”

  Billy snorted. “No. Not at all. But…this is such a weird case. This is a hot site—a big one. I mean, we investigate something someone dug up, you know? This time it’s different. Everyone wants in on this, and apparently someone got there first and decided to get piggy about it.”

  Malena nodded vaguely, only half-following the operator. What was a hot site? Everyone wanted in on this? Who else was seeking element-X?

  She was relieved to hear this was an unusual event. She’d begun to worry her huge salary wouldn’t be nearly as exciting if she died before she got to spend any of it. She’d also begun to understand why she’d been offered so much money.

  “What about the people aboard those helicopters? No rescue calls?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Are they under orders to avoid communication?”

  He glanced at her, giving her an odd look. “Our communications are untraceable. They would have called if they could.”

  Malena was surprised by this. Although she wasn’t an expert on the topic, she knew all radio transmissions were generally traceable even if they were in code. She opened her mouth to ask Billy more questions about it, but at that moment Tanner returned.

  “We need you, now,” he said to her. He turned around without waiting for a response and headed for the elevators.

  “Where are we going?”

  “B2,” he said over his shoulder. He was already working the security system on the elevator.

  “I didn’t think I was cleared to go down there yet.”

  “You are now. The Director isn’t happy. He gave Burke full authority to take emergency action. We’ve never lost an entire team before.”

  Malena felt the elevator shift under her feet the moment the doors swished shut behind them. It felt like it was going down much farther than a single floor before it came to a halt. She wondered what was down here so far below ground level on an island that was barely fifteen feet high to begin with. She suspected there was a lot of mud outside, pressing against her on every side. Just thinking about it gave her a claustrophobic feeling. How had they even dug a complex in such an environment? Why had they done it?

  The elevator made a familiar tone and rumbled to a stop. There was a delay of a second or two before the doors opened.

  When they did, Malena stared in surprise. They were in what appeared to be a hangar. The roof was far overhead, and domed slightly.

  “How can this be down here?” she asked.

  Tanner stepped out of the elevator, but she didn’t move.

  “Come on,” he said. “The tubes are hot.”

  “You’ve got to tell me what the hell is going on.”

  He stopped and reversed course, walking back to her. “Come on,” he said urgently under his breath. “The rest of the team is watching. Don’t let everyone know how green you are right off.”

  She stopped staring up at the impossible ceiling and now turned her attention to the people on the floor of the gigantic room. There were about twelve of them, and they were wearing what looked like flight suits. The suits were reflective, as if made of aluminum foil. Paired up, the people were working on one another, checking every fitting and reading gauges carefully.

  “Are we getting into a black helicopter?” she asked in a harsh whisper as they crossed the concrete floor.

  “No,” he said. “That approach failed. We aren’t going to try it again.”

  Tanner stopped at a military-looking crate that hung open. He reached down and pulled out two suits. He tossed one to Malena. She winced, but found it was light—almost like it was made of silk. It crinkled when she touched it.

  “What’s this?”

  “Put it on. Take your shoes off first. You can leave the rest of your clothing on, but put your personal stuff in the crate. It will be here when we get back.”

  “What if this doesn’t fit right?”

  “It will.”

  Reluctantly, she put her shoes into the crate and slipped one leg into the strange suit. It moved oddly, almost as if there were hands inside, rubbing against her. She recoiled and looked around behind her, thinking maybe Tanner had put a hand on her rear. There was no one there.

  “What the hell?” she said.

  Tanner laughed. “Feels funny, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, once the suit is on, it will stop adjusting itself. It’s just trying to fit itself to your shape.”

  “The suit adjusts itself?” she asked, but his attention had shifted. He clapped his hands and ordered the team to hustle.

  She stood there a moment, eyeing the strange fabric doubtfully. She got moving when she noticed that all the other people around her had no trouble with this clothing. That goaded her into giving it another try. She’d signed on as a field agent, and she didn’t want to embarrass herself in the first five minutes of her first op.

  Frowning fiercely, she pushed each arm into the jacket then gave a little whoop of surprise when it began to wrap itself up around her. It tickled and itched, and she wriggled in response. She saw Tanner watching with amusement, which ticked her off.

  “You could have warned me,” she said.

  “Wouldn’t have been half as much fun if I had.”

  Tanner pulled out something he called “a headset”. He passed it over to her. The headset looked like a circlet of jewels strung together by a thick, flexible wire. She took it and put it on her head so it went around her crown like a circlet. She twisted her lips at the touch of four sticky, jewel-like probes.

  “That’s an amp-set,” he said. “The probes will adhere to your skin like glue. Just let them do it. All the psi-agents wear these kits. It will take whatever abilities you have and magnify them.”

  “That’s great,” she said, adjusting the device.

  The amp-set did indeed squeeze down onto her head a fraction. Then it touched her temples and twin points behind her ears with four tiny, cold pads. She felt a tingling sensation.

  “There’s element-X in this thing, isn’t there?” she asked.

  Tanner nodded. “You’re a sensitive, all right. Is it making you sick?”

  She thought about it for a second, then shook her head.

  “Good,” he said. “It shouldn’t. The headset both amps up your sensitivity and dampens the sickening effect. You should be able to find X without feeling ill—unless we run into something really big.”

  “Okay,” she said, “I’ve suited up. I’ve followed orders. Now give me a break and tell me where we’re going and how. And don’t just say Cuba.”

  “We’re going up first—way up. Almost into orbit, about as high up as you can get without floating around.”

  Malena stared at him for a full second. Reading his expression, she realized he was serious.

  “This is crazy,” she said. “This is my first day on the job. Don’t you people usually do a training or something? An orientation?”

  “Sure,” he said, touching her headset and making adjustments on both their suits. “But today is special. Today, we have a hot site in play, and we’re going to get the X.”

  “The first team we sent appears to have been wiped out.”

  “We don’t know that,” he said quickly. “Being out of communication isn’t an automatic death sentence. Besides, that just gives us another reason to go. We’re on a rescue mission as well.”

  Malena didn’t want to play the part of the frightened analyst in over her head, but right now, that’s exactly what she was, and she knew it.

  “But why me? I’m an untrained novice.”

  “You’re the only sensitive we have left at this station. Every team has to have a sensitive to find the goods.”

  The rest of the team members were standing on a raised circular region of the floor. She hadn’t really paid attention to it before, but now that they were all standing there, she noticed how odd it looked. She was reminded of a small, crowded dance floor in the middle of the hangar.

  She lowered her voice and spoke only to Tanner now, who had closed the crate and beckoned for her to follow.

  “Won’t this team be wiped out like the other one?”

  “No. We’re going in very differently. We’re not flying in from the sea on helos. We’re dropping from orbit into the jungle, then walking in on foot.”

  A single thought screamed inside her head: Are you crazy?

  Tanner stepped up onto the strange, circular raised portion of the floor and looked back at her. The rest of the team chattered amongst themselves. They occasionally looked at her with various expressions: curiosity, eye-rolling disgust, even hostility. No one looked sympathetic.

  “Are you coming Marin? Or are you refusing an order and washing out, right here, right now?” Tanner demanded.

  Malena followed him, trying not to meet the staring eyes of the others. She felt embarrassed, fearful and lightheaded all at once. As she stepped onto the platform, she felt a shiver of excitement run up through her feet. She could tell this platform, whatever it was, had to be powered by element-X. Her proximity to such a potent device made her feel as if ripples were running through her body. Whatever this thing was, it was powerful.

  A moment later however, before she could really think about what was happening, darkness fell over her. The hangar vanished as if someone had turned out the lights and silenced the world. The last sensation she felt was that of her headset. The four probes that circled her head tingled against her scalp.

  She couldn’t hear or feel anything. The universe had become a great gray nothing. It was cold here in the void between one existence and another. She knew in that instant what it felt like to be a candle as a great hand came down and snuffed out her flame forever.

  -5-

  Malena came back to life again—or at least, that’s what it felt like—on a raised circular platform that was a twin to the one she’d left behind in the hangar. Or maybe it was the same platform, transferred to a new location along with everyone who stood on it. She couldn’t tell, and she wasn’t sure that it mattered. She figured there would be plenty of time for explanations later.