Earthshaker

Chapter 9

Chapter 9The clock was ticking as Phaola led us from the bedroom. I was sure Holloway's bunch had been watching us on camera, so I knew we had a limited amount of time until they came after us.

The coming after us part didn't worry me much; if anything, I was itching for a fight with those people. But I didn't want to risk losing Aggie in a lockdown. I was close to finding her, I knew it, and I didn't want them to snatch her away.

So we didn't bother with stealth at that point. Didn't tiptoe or try to keep up our undercover sham. We didn't talk, but that was just because of the tension.

We followed Phaola through a labyrinth of white-walled corridors lined with windowless doors. Each door had an electronic key card scanner mounted on the frame at doorknob level.

Eventually, we came to a door that was different from all the rest. We turned a corner into one last short spur of hallway, and there at the end was a red door. Fire engine red. Glossy as a candy apple in the fluorescent light.

A black letter "X" had been spray-painted on the door at eye level. You could see where the paint had run from the arms and legs of the "X."

"Time-Out." Phaola stepped to one side and gestured at the door.

I pushed forward and tried the handle, but it wouldn't budge. "We need a key card."

"Don't look at me." Phaola looked down the corridor behind us. She was waiting for Divinities' cavalry to show up, just like the rest of us. "Holloway's the only one with a swipe card for Time-Out."

I threw my shoulder against the red door, but it was rock solid. No give. Briar helped with a second try, but the result was the same.

Heart thundering in my chest, I stepped back. Reached out with my mind and powers, fishing for a way in. The good news was, I was underground, surrounded by the source of my strength. Surrounded by earth.

In fact, I sensed good, responsive earth around three walls of the Time-Out room behind the door. Lots of controllable potential energy there, waiting to be released. Waiting for the go-ahead to break through and break down the door.

The bad news was, the walls were thick, and I wasn't in direct contact with them. I was going to have to work hard to make this happen.

"I can do this." Spreading my hands against the surface of the door, I pushed past the worry and focused all my will on commanding the earth. Reaching through the door and the room and the reinforced concrete walls, sliding my mind into the dirt and rock beyond.

My eyes were closed, but I could see the patterns of stress like rainbow-colored ripples pulsating on the walls. Constantly shifting and flowing, revealing the zones of greatest stability...and greatest weakness. I focused on those.

And I pulled. With all my heart, I pulled, but all I felt was the slightest stutter of the hard-packed earth.

Grunting from the effort, I threw myself against the door and tried harder. Tugged with all my might. Then doubled that, crying out. Briar reached for me, and I screamed at him to get away.

Then doubled the effort again. Sweat pouring down my face and back and sides. Tripled the effort. Clawing at the door.

Finally, I felt a wall begin to crack. A tiny fissure crawled over the concrete and slowly widened. Almost there.

The crack opened wider. Grains of dirt squeezed through and trickled to the floor. A little further.

Then, suddenly, my concentration flickered. My attention was drawn back to the hallway around me. People were shouting.

"Stop what you're doing!" I recognized Holloway's voice. "Step away from the door immediately."

Keeping a tenuous link to the widening crack, I turned my head and opened my eyes. What I saw there sent a shiver through me, but it wasn't a shiver of fear.

Holloway, still masked and top-hatted, had a semi-automatic pistol in each hand. One pointed at me, the other at Briar.

And Holloway wasn't alone. Six of the women from his stable surrounded him, some with feet on the floor, some hovering in mid-air. They were nymphs and goddesses, all gifted with one set of talents or another. Ready and waiting to unleash them on us.

They made me shiver when I saw them. Shiver with the fresh inspiration I needed.

Throwing all my attention and power back through the door, I wrenched at the crack in the wall. Split it wide open like I was tearing apart a rag with my hands.

And a stream of dirt and rock leaped across the room, slamming against the door like a battering ram.