Earthshaker

Chapter 10

Chapter 10The shower of dirt and rock rattled against the door from inside Time-Out. I kept it coming through the widening crack in the wall in an ever stronger stream, hoping as I did so that Aggie wouldn't get hurt in the process. I hadn't heard her cry out, so maybe that was a good sign; she would've had plenty of warning when the dirt started trickling, plenty of time to move out of the path of the bombardment.

Or, maybe, the fact that she hadn't cried out wasn't a good sign at all.

As I kept up the pressure, Briar and Duke bought me some time. I heard them through the haze of my concentration.

"Now, look," said Duke. "I think we can make a deal here. How many gold bars will it take to make everything right?"

"I'll smash your head in with a gold bar!" said Holloway. "Now shut up and get away from the f*****g door!"

"What's the harm here?" said Duke. "We're just having a look around. Your facility is most impressive, my good man."

"Are you blind?" said Holloway. "Do you not see the six angels of destruction over here waiting to tear you to shreds?"

"You think they're your personal death squad?" said Briar. "When you say 'jump,' they say 'how high?' I don't know. I'm thinking maybe they'd be as interested as we are in finding out what happened to Aggie Regal."

"Aggie doesn't matter!" said Holloway. "She never did! These women are true believers, and they can't be swayed."

As the drama continued, I felt the door buckle toward me. The sustained pounding was finally taking a toll, wearing down the structural weaknesses. I sensed fractures spreading through the metal, jagged spider-web tracery fanning out and overlapping, stamping break-points like fingerprints at the nodes of greatest intersection.

The door was just about to give. I edged away from the middle, where the fractures were concentrated, and kept pouring on the juice. The breakthrough would come any minute now.

Unfortunately, Holloway's groupies weren't planning to give me the minute I needed.

"Get them!" As soon as Holloway said it, I heard the sound of running feet getting closer.

"Time's up, Gaia!" said Briar. "Here they come!"

Just then, a blast of strong, cold wind slammed into me, pinning me against the door. One of the nymphs or goddesses was shooting off her powers—Saraesa, maybe? I'd planned her trip to Galapagos three years ago.

The wind rattled my concentration but didn't break it. I reached deeper and pulled harder, widening the crack in the wall and adding mass and force to the column of rock and dirt. Any second now...

"Stand down!" Briar said it in his most commanding voice. "I'm a police officer!" I could imagine him flashing his badge, as if that would do any good.

Almost there.

"Ladies! Do not come any closer!" This time, it was Duke. "This object I've just pulled out of my pocket is a stick of unstable dynamite. It will likely explode on contact if it hits you!"

Suddenly, there were gunshots. Two of them. Had to be from Holloway's twin pistols. I heard Briar shouting, "Get down! Shots fired!"

Then, someone turned a firehose on me. The same thing, practically: a powerful jet of water from one of my ex-friends—a water nymph, a naiad, no doubt. The jet caught me hard in the hip and wouldn't let up, kept trying to bowl me over.

But I wouldn't go down easily. Not with Aggie possibly so close. Not with the door about to burst.

The water intensified, and so did the wind. I heard the sounds of a struggle, but I didn't dare turn to see. Not even after another pair of gunshots.

Come on...

The door stubbornly held on. The bulging red surface was one big network of fissures, but it wouldn't give. And the water and wind torture was wearing me down fast.

Then, someone threw in a tongue of fire. It splashed against the wall, barely missing me, charring the paint. Burning the hairs on my arm. Triggering an adrenaline rush.

Crying out, I cranked my power off the scale, felt the shower of earth plow into the door with the greatest force yet. Suddenly, a tiny chip of rock penetrated the metal and shot past me...and I knew. Finally, it was time for the big breakthrough.

I ducked back out of the way just as the door exploded into the corridor. The column of earth rushed through with a roar.

Spinning, I held on to the flume of dirt and rock with my mind, just barely. Dug into the torrent as it punched past and split it into four waves. Shunted each in a different direction, toward the enemy.

A hovering blonde nymph, the one with the fire power, went down first. I caught her square in the chest with a wave, driving her back into a wall.

The dark-haired naiad with the water power fell next. Then, a red-head conjuring thorny vines from thin air.

But my fourth wave missed its target, Holloway. He squeezed off two gunshots in my direction as he darted away...both wide.

Another gust of icy wind crashed into me, and I zeroed in on the source—a floating nymph with silver hair and glowing silver eyes. I flung a wave of earth at her, and she repelled it. Grimacing with effort, arms outstretched, she deflected it with a wall of wind...at least until I sent in another wave to bash her from behind.

I was just turning to choose my next target when a bullet slashed past, grazing my hip. Howling in pain, I swung around with a fresh wave of earth, just in time to see I didn't need to use it on Holloway. Briar clobbered him with a left uppercut to the head, dropping him on the spot.

That left two opponents still standing. Duke took care of one of them, a redhead in an emerald gown. When she generated a sphere of blinding light between her hands, Duke pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and calmly put them on. Then reached into his other pocket and pulled out a can of spray paint. It was black, and when he sprayed it on her hands, the light went dark.

The last of the bunch raised her hands to do something, who knows what...then turned and ran when I pitched a wave of earth at her. She didn't come back, and I didn't go after her. Bigger fish to fry, my whole reason for being there.

Fight over, I yanked my mind out of the torrent. All that animated dirt and rock crashed to the floor at once.

Then, without another moment's delay, I whipped around to face the red door. Crouching, I squeezed through the hole I'd punched through it and stepped into the room. Stepped into Time-Out.