The Storm

CHAPTER 54

THE ELEVATOR DOORS OPENED TO REVEAL THE TOP FLOOR of Marchetti’s pyramid and a luxurious foyer. Three of Jinn’s men were stationed there and they turned at the sound of the elevator’s ping.

It was a natural reaction. They had no reason to suspect any trouble. In fact, it looked to Kurt as if they were snapping to attention as the sound wave from the Pain Maker hit them and dropped them to their knees.

One let out a grunt, another stumbled backward and knocked over a table with a vase on it that smashed to the ground, the third man just fell straight down.

Kurt let go of the handle that powered the system as Paul, Gamay, Tautog and Varu bound the men in cuffs from the brig. The men looked dazed and confused.

“I feel your pain,” Kurt said. “Or at least I did about ten hours ago.”

The men were gagged with duct tape and stuffed in a janitor’s closet.

“This way,” Marchetti said, heading to the right. They made it to the corner, where the foyer intersected the hall. Poking his head around it, Kurt saw it was empty.

“Let’s go.”

Halfway down the hall they came to a large set of double doors. Marchetti went to a keypad. As he pressed in his code, the sound of shooting broke out far below them. Little pops that sounded like cap guns going off.

“Some of Jinn’s men must be resisting,” Gamay said.

Kurt nodded. “Hurry.”

Marchetti punched in the code as Paul and Tautog charged up the Pain Maker.

Kurt kicked the doors open and flipped the switch. There was no one there.

“Wrong room?” Gamay asked.

Kurt shut the machine off and stepped inside, looking around. The bed had been slept in. He smelled the scent of jasmine. The same perfume Zarrina had worn. Apparently she was closer to Jinn than they thought.

“Right room,” he said. “We just missed them.”

As he stormed back past Marchetti, he mumbled, “Might want to change your sheets.”

“Or burn the whole bed,” Marchetti said.

Kurt was moving down the hall as more gunfire rang out. The others were rushing to catch up with him.

“That explains why his men were snapping to attention,” Paul suggested. “They thought someone was coming back.”

“So where did they go?” Leilani asked.

“I can only think of one place,” Kurt said.

JINN STOOD IN AQUA-TERRA’S control room shocked by what had occurred. Zarrina, Otero and Matson surrounded him, along with the radar operator and another one of his men. The rest were scattered, perhaps ten or less now, fighting Marchetti’s crew and what looked like U.S. Marines.

“How? How is this possible?” he asked. “There are no patrol boats or helicopters here. Where did they come from?”

“We have video from the detention level,” Otero said, studying a laptop. “I hate to say this, but it’s Austin.”

“It can’t be,” Jinn said. “He’s dead. I’ve killed him twice.”

“Then he’s come back from the dead,” Otero said, turning the laptop toward Jinn. “Look.”

It was Austin. Jinn could not imagine how. It was as if Austin had appeared in his midst like a ghost. An appropriate thought as Jinn had been certain he’d been sent to perdition.

The shooting was growing closer. From the observation deck a few of Jinn’s men could be seen running toward Marchetti’s central park. They didn’t make it.

“We have to get out of here,” Zarrina said. “This battle is lost.”

Jinn studied the layout. They would never make it to the dry dock, where the flying boat was moored. Even if they did, a few well-placed bullets or the missiles he’d brought in would take them down.

“We can’t run,” he said.

“And we can’t win this fight,” Zarrina replied sharply. “There are only five of us.”

“Silence,” Jinn snapped.

He was trying to think, trying desperately to come up with a way to turn the tables. He looked to Otero. “Access the horde and energize the transmitter.”

Otero began tapping away on his laptop and then pushed it across the table to Jinn.

“You have access.”

“What are you going to do?” Matson asked.

Jinn ignored him. He began typing. Slowly at first, making sure he was in the right area of the system, and then faster.

Gunfire in the hall spurred him on.

He selected a command from the menu and hit enter.

The door to the room flew open and shots were exchanged, with shells ricocheting around the room.

Jinn took cover as Matson and the radar operator were cut down. A few seconds later Jinn’s other guard was killed as he tried to get off a shot.

“Give it up, Jinn!” Austin’s voice called out.

Jinn found himself behind an island in the center of the control room with many of the vital controls on its surface. Otero and Zarrina crowded in behind with him. “And if we do?”

“I’ll put you in chains, deliver you to the proper authorities.”

“You expect me to believe you won’t kill us?”

“Much as I’d like to,” Austin replied, “that’s not my choice to make. Don’t count on going back to Yemen, though. I’m thinking the World Court or some American military base.”

“I will not be put in such hands!” Jinn shouted.

“Then show yourself and let’s finish this man-to-man.”

Jinn could see Austin in a reflection. He was hidden around the corner of the steel bulkhead. Jinn had no shot. If he stood, Austin would cut him down. If he hid, Austin or some member of Austin’s team would soon flank his position.

“I have a better idea,” Jinn said. “I will now teach you a lesson about power and its proper use.”

He glanced at the laptop. A blinking green box on the screen told him his instructions had been sent and received. He could now take action.

He slipped the pistol from his holster, pressed the safety with his thumb until it clicked and held it tight to his chest.

“Time’s about up,” Austin informed him.

Jinn knew it was.

He placed the barrel of the pistol against the back of Otero’s skull and pulled the trigger. The muffled explosion blasted the computer programmer and what was left of his head out into the open space of the floor. Jinn’s second shot shattered the laptop, sending bits of plastic and microchips in all directions. He fired again just for good measure, destroying the laptop’s screen.

He tossed the weapon away. “I surrender,” he said, putting his hands up.

SHIELDED BY THE BULKHEAD, Kurt watched Jinn in the same reflection that Jinn had caught sight of him. Something didn’t add up. He’d seen Jinn pull the weapon and expected the man to go down swinging, but the bullet to Otero’s head and tossing the gun aside were suspicious actions to say the least.

Zarrina tossed out her weapon and put her hands up. She and Jinn stood slowly and Kurt leveled the M1 carbine at Jinn’s chest.

“You flinch, you die.”

Kurt stepped in the room. Paul and Tautog came in next. They fanned out.

Kurt sensed a trap. With his rifle still leveled at Jinn, he checked the dead men: Jinn’s guard, Matson, what was left of Otero and the radar operator.

He found nothing out of the ordinary, but the smug look remained on Jinn’s face. Like he’d just palmed a card or gotten away with something.

“What did you do?” Kurt whispered, waiting for a booby trap to spring or an explosion to go off. “What did you do?”

Jinn said nothing. Kurt noticed the shattered laptop. He realized that Jinn had just executed Otero, the programmer. The two things had to be connected.

Shouts drifted in through the open door from down below. They came from Tautog’s men on the zero deck.

“Something’s happening,” one of them called out. “The sea has come to life!”

Kurt stepped outside. Through the fog of the night he could see the water churning.

“Marchetti, get the lights on!”

Marchetti ran to the control panel and started throwing a bank of switches. All around the island, sections of the ocean lit up as Marchetti switched on floodlights both above and below water. Instantly, Kurt saw what was happening.

The water was stirring almost as if it was boiling over. The horde surrounding them had come to the surface and was surging toward the island.

“He’s called them in,” Marchetti whispered fearfully. “He’s called them home.”

Jinn began to laugh, a deep laugh that was sinister, sadistic and utterly filled with an egomaniac’s pride.

“You will now understand what I mean by power,” he said. “Unless you release me, the horde will consume you all.”