“Stop!” I shouted, running beside him. “That’s an order!”

  He looked over now, his moist eyes meeting mine. “I am following orders,” he said.

  I could barely hear him through the reinforced glass, but he was referring to our talk months earlier. For an instant, I saw the two of us walking around the compound that fall morning. “If there ever comes a point where you want out,” I’d said, “you need to tell me. You’re not a prisoner here.”

  I’d finished with, “Consider that an order.”

  “Olaf!” I tried, but he shook his head and stared straight ahead.

  He was using what free will remained in his nonliving brain and taking his out.

  Dante, who couldn’t see me from his angle, just the big truck barreling toward him, released the blast door and swung it out. The conduit was still clear, but the enclosure beyond was filling with gas, marching Defilers, and the shadow of at least one ship creature that had squeezed through the field.

  Takara ran up behind me, flames ringing her irises. “The fire!” she shouted.

  Eyeing the distance to the blast door, I swore. I brought my MP88 around, then paused. Olaf’s helmeted head nodded for me to do it. I covered the driver side in a blast of napalm, walling him off. I dropped back to coat the dump box, then found an extra speed to come up on the passenger side and bathe it in more fire. I pulled back as the blazing truck shot through the blast door and into the conduit.

  “C’mon,” Takara said.

  Olaf and I had switched spots, and now I was responsible for ensuring he reached the target.

  Takara and I ran down the conduit, already taking aim. Jana followed. Olaf, who specialized in vehicles, drove the truck deftly, avoiding Defilers where he could, smashing them with the truck’s blunt front end where he couldn’t. By the time they fixed on him, he was roaring past, the truck’s flames burning off their deadly rounds and gases. But he was drawing the attention of the slugs and ship creatures.

  “Take left, I’ll take right!” I shouted to Takara.

  I sighted on a tentacle and squeezed, blowing it apart with a lumina round. Takara picked off two more. Under Jana’s direction, we intercepted a swarm of tendrils, severing them with precision fire. By the time Olaf was halfway across the enclosure, I knew the gas had to be seeping inside, but he was engineered to heal. He was the only one besides me I would have trusted to make this run.

  Jana shouted right before a thick tubercle stretched down from a ship. I ruptured it with a short blast. The truck’s flames faded into the far mist, and Olaf’s voice came on my radio for the last time.

  “I see the target ahead,” he said. “Go, get to safety.”

  The next sound through the radio was a sustained burst of gunfire. I pictured Olaf shooting his MP88 out the window one-handed, clearing the final stretch to his target. I exhausted the rest of my own lumina mag, covering the space above his truck. By the time I finished, his radio had gone silent.

  “Let’s go,” Jana radioed, already backing away.

  I followed her and Takara down the length of the conduit, barely aware that my cheeks were damp.

  We passed through the blast door at the same moment the C-4 detonated. As Takara and I wheeled to swing the door closed, a diamond-like flare appeared through the fog. Then a massive wall of fire was storming toward us. With a roar, I shoved the door. The instant it locked closed, a prodigious force met the other side, straining to overcome twenty tons of steel. The entire facility rocked.

  Jana’s eyes took on a familiar precognitive glaze. “It’s going to collapse,” she said. “All of it.”

  “Evacuate!” I called.

  The order spread until everyone was shouting it. As the others took off, I racked my MP88 across my back and seized Yoofi, who was still weakened. Dante lifted his teammate who’d been nailed with the toxic rounds, while others helped the injured. The rending of metal sounded, and the roof of the causeway caved in behind us.

  I broadcast the evacuation order over the radio as I ran, not waiting for responses.

  Taking flight, Takara sped ahead. By the time we reached the far blast door, she had it open. We burst into Section 3, nearly running into Croft and the rest of the team, who looked like they’d just finished putting down the last of Fein’s force. Before we could say anything, the facility shook again.

  This time, the ceiling overhead collapsed, smothering us in absolute blackness.

  35

  A gleam of light took shape through the darkness. It spread into a shimmering dome, illuminating my teammates. We’d all crouched to the floor, anticipating the crushing force. At the center of the dome stood Prof Croft, staff upraised, teeth clenched from the effort to hold his protection against tons of earth and debris. As the dome shuddered and shrank, he waved us closer with his sword hand.

  Still carrying Yoofi, I shouted, “Everyone in!”

  Takara, Sarah, Rusty, and the members of Gaia and Magnum, as well as Purdy’s team all knelt around Croft as if worshiping a deity. I joined them, my eyes on the shrinking dome. Before long, its ceiling was close enough for me to stand and touch. Croft grunted, gathering his breath.

  Then, in a booming voice, “Respingere!”

  Light detonated from the dome, blowing the collapse skyward.

  “Forza dura!” he shouted.

  A force broke from his down-thrust blade, and the container he’d shielded us in rocketed upward. With Rusty stringing off swear words, we broke through the debris raining back down. As the last of it pelted us, our jostling ride came to a sudden stop, and the protection broke apart in a brilliant eruption of light.

  I straightened slowly and set Yoofi down. We were in a crater, destruction on all sides. But when I saw stars glimmering above, I knew that we’d made it out, that we were going to be all right.

  Croft swayed beside me as he slotted his sword back into his staff.

  I clasped his shoulder to steady him and squeezed. “Way to go, man. Huge.”

  He nodded and snorted weakly. “I’ll have some stories to tell when I get back to New York.”

  Not knowing how long the crater would hold, I had Takara and the members of Magnum begin flying people out. Fire rimmed Takara’s irises, while thrusters fired from the beast suits. I handed injured teammates up to them, and they took off. Before long, the crater was clear. I bounded up the side solo, picking my spots carefully, and joined my teammates who’d gathered well beyond the rim.

  Where the Hangar had once stood was a basin surrounded by ruins. I tried to radio Purdy’s man to see what had happened to the air support, but somewhere between the collapse and the escape, our commo had gone down.

  “So, is that it?” Rusty asked, looking around. “Did we close the wormhole?”

  I listened for a moment. “Do you hear that?”

  His eyebrows furrowed down. “Hear what?”

  “The nothingness,” Takara said.

  I started to nod, but now something was entering my lupine hearing. A fleet of helos, distant but coming in fast.

  “It’s a force like the one in Amazonas,” Jana said.

  “Courtesy of Linda Fein,” I muttered. She was still Centurion’s CEO.

  I didn’t hear a bomber this time, but we’d used up our ammo inside the Hangar, and Yoofi and Croft were spent. We had nothing.

  I pointed up the road. “Back to the trees.”

  But the attack helos were already sweeping into view. They hovered in a wide perimeter, their bodies bristling with guns and missiles. Spotlights hit us from all sides.

  “LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND SURRENDER. WE’RE LOCKED ONTO YOUR POSITION. IF YOU DON’T COMPLY, WE’LL DEPLOY LETHAL FORCE.”

  “This shit again?” Dante said.

  Yeah, only there would be no capture and incarceration this time. We knew too much. Hell, we knew everything. The second we laid down our weapons, we’d be dead. Before I could decide on a course of action, my hearing picked up a ripping sound. One of the helos erupted into a ball of fire.

  More missiles ripped through the sky, slamming into the others.

  I pivoted in a slow circle, staring as the helos crashed into the fields around us, secondary explosions going off like a Fourth of July display.

  “Ho-lee shit!” Rusty cried.

  “Purdy’s team?” Sarah asked.

  “No,” I said, grinning. Two fighter jets came in low, tearing through the smoke of the destroyed helos. I saluted them as they banked in opposite directions. Both tipped their wings as they roared away. “U.S. military.”

  A new fleet of helos arrived shortly: two attack, two carriers, and two medical.

  They touched down beyond what remained of the Hangar’s lot. From the lead one, a familiar figure stepped out and hustled toward us through the rotor wash.

  “Any injured?” Reginald Purdy shouted from his stoop.

  I signaled for Magnum and Gaia to have their casualties taken to the medical helo, where medics were already coming out, ready to assist. The rest of us walked toward Purdy, meeting him at the edge of the lot. We all watched him, awaiting his assessment. He peered past us at the ruins and nodded.

  “DAWA’s gone quiet.”

  None of us reacted. DAWA had gone quiet before.

  “And in here?” I asked, tapping my temple. “What’s it telling you?”

  “That’s quiet, too,” the seer said, moving his kerchief across a growing smile. “Now let’s get you guys the hell out of here.”

  The helos took us to a joint reserve base on the outskirts of Houston, where we all underwent decontamination and medical checkups. When we’d been cleared, Purdy had the members of Legion meet in a conference room for a full debriefing. By that point, Prof Croft was on his way home to respond to an alert.

  “Can I say something to the team?” I asked before Purdy started.

  “Of course.” He patted my back and yielded the front of the room.

  I stood and faced my teammates. Sarah, Rusty, Takara, and Yoofi looked back at me, but there was one missing.

  “Tonight, Olaf Kowalski made the ultimate sacrifice,” I said. “For his teammates, for humanity. He died years ago while serving as a Centurion soldier, but he was brought back. Now we know why. His destiny wasn’t to be a soldier, but a savior. We should never forget that about him.”

  “Damn straight,” Rusty said.

  “Amen, brother,” Yoofi whispered.

  “Let’s give him a minute of silence,” I said.

  Purdy joined us as we bowed heads. In the enormous quiet, sniffles sounded. I thought of the first time I’d met him, a mindless mercenary, to the missions we’d fought, his humanity becoming increasingly apparent, to his closing act. When we finished, I drew a finger beneath both eyes before looking up.

  “I couldn’t be prouder of you guys,” I said. “I love you all.”

  I nodded to tell Purdy the room was his. He began by congratulating us on the mission.

  “And not just for tonight, but for your work in South Florida. Sarah’s insights into the alien makeup led to the discovery and isolation of a protein. That protein proved to be the cure. Your patients, including the young man, Shayne, are expected to make a full recovery. The Chocasukee send their deepest thanks.”

  We all applauded Sarah, who broke into a rare smile.

  Purdy then explained how the U.S. military had gotten involved. In his mysterious way, he alluded to contacts he’d cultivated in government and defense over the years. When it became clear that Linda Fein was behind the dark project, he sent the info to the “right people,” he called them, the ones who had authority over military contractors, including Centurion, and would act quickly.

  “I was freed, obviously,” he said, “Linda Fein is in custody, and Centurion will be under multiple levels of investigation. Director Beam has already agreed to cooperate in exchange for clemency.”

  “What happens to Legion?” Sarah asked.

  “Centurion United will take a massive hit from this. Fein’s number two is slated to become interim CEO. An astute fellow, he sees the writing on the wall. He’s already talking about ending pilot programs and getting back to what he considers the company’s core competency: private defense contracting. With more oversight, of course. As of midnight tonight, Legion will cease to exist.”

  Yoofi looked around, incredulous. “We are out of a job?”

  “Geez,” Rusty muttered. “All we did was save the entire freaking planet.”

  “It was necessary,” Purdy said. “My position as Program Developer will end, too. And once my role in the downfall of Centurion becomes clear, I’m going to be a very unpopular person. Indeed, one indication of tonight’s success is that life for the rest of the world will go on very much as it has.”

  Sarah’s brow furrowed. “The databases we’ve built? The biobases?”

  “Centurion properties,” Purdy said.

  “And our contracts?” Takara asked coldly.

  “They’ll void at midnight. Rest assured, I’m working out severance packages while I still have some influence. They don’t approach what you’ve given in service, nothing could, but by any other measure, they’re generous. You’ll have the financial freedom to decide where you want to go from here.”

  “So, that’s it, then?” Rusty asked.

  “Not quite,” Purdy said. “The base has prepared a late dinner for you in a banquet room across the hall. Our last supper, I suppose.” He opened an arm toward the door. I nodded for my teammates to go ahead.

  As they got up and filed out, I approached Purdy.

  “You’re probably wondering about your cure,” he said.

  “There never was a cure.”

  He started to reach for his pocket kerchief, then folded his hands at his chest. “Not a permanent one, no,” he said. “The short-term reversions to human were as far as biogen could go. They tried but couldn’t overcome the magic that makes you the Blue Wolf. No science could, they decided.”

  “You lied to me,” I growled.

  “I needed you, Captain. Humanity needed you.”

  “Did you lie about the treatment for my wife, too?”

  “No. In fact, I’m arranging for Dr. Moreno’s involvement in her care to continue.”

  I glowered down at him, not knowing whether to believe him or not. At this point, I didn’t care. Our collaboration was over.

  “Just tell me where she is.”

  “Of course. I’ll have someone drive you to the doctor’s home.”

  He made a call and walked me outside. We stood several meters apart. It had begun to drizzle, and my rapid breaths cycled the humid night air. A black SUV pulled up, much like the one that had taken me to meet the team on my first day with Legion. I glanced at my watch: a minute past midnight. Legion was officially shuttered.

  Purdy opened the back door.

  “I am sorry, Captain,” he said as I got in.

  “You got what you wanted, and the world’s better off.”

  I closed the door before he could reply and told the driver to go.

  36

  The doctor’s home was on a tree-lined cul-de-sac in the nice Spring Branch neighborhood of Houston. A late middle-aged woman with kind eyes and a dark complexion met me at the front door.

  “You must be Jason,” she said. “I’m Darshini.”

  “Thanks for taking her under your care. How’s she doing?”

  “She spent the day resting, but she is up now,” she said as she showed me inside. “She’s been waiting for you.” At the back of the house, light glowed from a partially open door. “In there,” she whispered with a smile.

  I nodded my thanks and approached the door, heart pounding. Through the opening, I could see her. She was sitting in a semi recliner, wrapped in a night robe and reading a book. A pink turban hat covered her head.

  I stood and watched for a moment, waves of love and fear clashing inside me.

  As Daniela turned the page, she glanced up, then stopped and looked again. The small concentration line between her eyebrows melted. I pushed the door open and stepped inside the guest room.

  “Hey, sweetie,” I said.

  “Jason?”

  The hologram that hid my wolf’s head was on, gloves covered my talons, and long sleeves my blue hair, but she’d never seen this seven-foot, four-hundred-pound version of me. She’d never heard my voice without a modulator smoothing out the gravel. Recognition grew in her eyes, regardless.

  “It’s me,” I confirmed.

  Tears gathered as she pushed herself up and opened her arms. I closed the distance in two strides, lifted her, and turned with her several times, the side of my head pressed to hers. I’d never wanted to hold someone more badly. Through her robe, I felt the pump delivering a chemical drip into her bloodstream. I set her back down in the chair gently and knelt in front of her, my face even with hers.

  “How are you doing?” I asked.

  “Much better now.” She smiled and gave me a quizzical look. “But maybe I should be asking you that.”

  “The condition I told you about?” I said. “There was a part I left out, but I think you always knew that.” I gestured to my body, but before I could prepare her for what I’d truly become, she held up a hand.

  “There’s something you should see too.”

  She removed her turban hat. The honey-blond hair was gone, freshly shaved. “Darshini said it would fall out eventually,” she explained. “And in ugly clumps. So we decided to do the deed on my terms.” She watched me carefully. “What do you think?”

  I cupped the sides of her face, tilted her head forward, and kissed her smooth crown. “I think you’re beautiful.”

  “So you’re cool being married to a bald chick?” she joked.

  “I married you, not your hair.” I lingered above her, inhaling her soft, vulnerable scent, then released her and sat back on my heels. “Now I need to know if you’re going to be cool with something.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The old woman in Waristan who marked me, who changed me, had certain … abilities. With them, she bound me to something called the Gurgi Kabud. The Blue Wolf. What you’re about to see is wild and scary, but I want you to know that it’s still me, and that I would never, ever hurt you. All right?”