Now, Rock thought. I should shoot Sol now and end this all for good.
He aimed his wand, but somehow he couldn’t make himself fire on the wounded man. “That was just a warning shot, Sol. Because you saved my life once years ago in Lake Tahoe and I owe you. I won’t miss again.”
“Owe me.” Sol laughed again. “You’ve always been naïve, Rock. I’m the one who was responsible for you taking the spill and nearly drowning in the first place. To cover my tracks so no one would know that I’d stolen your trick.
“I let you suffer as long as I could and only changed my mind about killing you at the last second. And that was only because you hadn’t finished Outlandish Marauders yet. That was a good call. Without that, where would my career be today?
“That trick is what convinced Archibald Random to fund my show. So I could perform the first illusion I stole from you.
“Now, however, I think you’ve finally outworn your usefulness.” Sol signaled the goon behind him.
The goon raised a rocket launcher to his shoulder. Rock reacted by pointing his wand.
Ty and Will were silently sneaking up behind Sol’s craft. At the last second, the RIOT goon heard something. He spun around and fired at Ty’s craft.
Ty returned fire, hitting the goon directly in the forehead just before Ty’s hovercraft caught fire and went down. The thug dropped the launcher and fell forward, dead.
Sol grabbed the launcher. Rock pulled a handful of heavy-duty flash powder from his pocket and threw it onto the craft. “Get us out of here! Now!” he yelled to Zach. “We have to help Ty and Will.”
Zach was already on it. Within seconds they zoomed around Sol’s craft toward Ty and Will’s now-fallen hovercraft.
The night was dark and the hovercraft was camouflaged. To the crowd it probably looked as if Rock and Zach had simply disappeared in a burst of magic.
The gunfire and flash powder scared the herd. The cattle lowed and stampeded away from the area.
As Sol tried to figure out how to operate his hovercraft, Rock searched the area around the fallen hovercraft. Ty appeared, holding a fire extinguisher. Will was beside him.
Rock let out a breath of relief. “We’re coming to pick you up.”
Ty waved him on and spoke to him via their headgear. “No way. Leave this to us. Get out of here. Get to the gates and perform the reveal. We have to stop this madness. That’s an order, dude.”
* * *
Lani arrived at the front gate with a battalion of soldiers and camo dudes and began issuing orders. How in the world was she going to operate the lights and the lasers and do the reveal without Rock and the others?
“Over there!” One of the camo dudes pointed to an alien leaning against the guard shack.
“Jake!” Lani ran toward him. “Oh, thank goodness.” She turned back over her shoulder and shouted to the camo dudes, “We have our alien. We can do the reveal. Get the engineers and the stage crew in place. The crowd’s approaching. Hurry!”
The need for secrecy had forced Rock to use Area 51 personnel for his crew. His regular stage crew couldn’t be kept under tight enough wraps. She hoped these Dreamland guys could perform magic.
Jake stood.
Lani paused in front of him. “Are you okay?” Her voice shook involuntarily. One of the young magicians had survived. That was something. She may have lost Rock, but she still had a chance at getting her son back alive. She had a shot at making a hero out of Rock and she was damned well going to take it.
She never should have wasted these last two years. She should have been with Rock. They should have been a family. She couldn’t undo all that, but she could ensure his memory and his magic lived on. And she could thwart RIOT. She had to.
Jake was nodding. “I’m fine.”
Lani looked around, afraid to ask. “Where are the others? We lost contact. What happened to Will and Zach?”
“Rock called for them to bring their hovercrafts to him and Ty so they took off into the middle of that raging herd.”
Lani felt so happy that for a second she couldn’t speak and her eyes misted over. Damn feminine emotions. She pushed them aside. If Rock was still out there, he’d find a way to make it back to her. For now she had a job to do. “You know the old saying—the show must go on. In this case, right now. Before the NUFOs swarm us and breach the barrier. Can you perform?”
Jake grinned. “On with the show.”
“Excellent,” she said. “Prepare for your stage entrance. It’s time for our prestige.”
* * *
Unfortunately, Sol quickly figured out how to drive the hovercraft and his was bigger, faster, and more maneuverable than the two smaller previously remote-controlled crafts. Zach pushed their hover vehicle to the limit, but Sol was quickly gaining on them.
The crowd, too, had managed to breach the herd and close the gap. The NUFOs were now hot on their tail, so close that Rock didn’t dare fire his wand gun for fear of hitting an innocent bystander or making an instant side of beef.
Rock and Zach may have been able to go stealth and sneak away, but Sol insisted on showing alien theatrics and bathing both vehicles in light.
Rock looked over his shoulder. “Sol wants the NUFOs to catch us.”
Though for the life of him, Rock couldn’t figure out why. In the excited state they were in, they’d tear Sol as the alien king apart and ask questions later. But Sol didn’t appear to care. He radiated anger and wrath. It was blinding him.
Rock pulled up his sleeve, wound up like a pitcher on the mound, and hurled a ball of fire at Sol. It was good theatrics, but completely harmless.
The leaders of the NUFO crowd fell back for a second, but not Sol. He retaliated by blinding them with the hovercraft lights and trying to ram them.
Zach anticipated his move and hovered up another few feet just out of range. He punched the air. “Yes! That bastard forgets we can move in three dimensions. He should play more video games.”
“We need crowd control.” Rock didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before. He called Britt and gave her an order to try to manipulate the crowd and get them to back off from the area. Lie. Tell them a horror story. Scare them. Whatever it took.
Sol came at them again with the rocket launcher trained on them.
Rock had to act. “Hold steady. Let Sol come within jumping distance of us.”
“Too bad Jake’s not here. Your command would have been a lot easier to execute. That guy could jump the English Channel.” Zach raised an eyebrow. “Your jumping distance or mine, boss?”
“Mine. And what we could really use is that jet pack I sent back. Seems I’m not as good at predicting what we needed for this mission as MI6’s Q. At the very least, I could use a few of Jake’s tips.”
Sol’s craft was closing on them.
“No time now.” Rock stared at Sol’s craft. Damn, if he hit that rocket launcher wrong, it was going to hurt like hell.
“Pump with your arms and jump like you mean it,” Zach said, grinning as he reversed, flying toward the RIOT-controlled craft. “I think that’s all Jake would tell you. That’s the sum of the advice he gave me. For my part, hit the bad dude when you land and get rid of that fucking rocket launcher.”
Rock made some mental calculations and bent his knees. Just a few seconds now. “Once I jump, make a run for the gates. Find Jake and start the reveal without me.” Rock cleared his throat. “If I don’t make it back, finish the show without me. And tell Lani she’s always been my magic.”
Rock watched as the gap between crafts closed. Fifteen feet. Twelve. He’d always sucked at the long jump. Ten feet. Eight.
He saw the whites of Sol’s eyes. Sol pointed the rocket launcher directly at Rock.
Rock swung his arms and jumped.
* * *
“Now!” Lani screamed and gave the signal to the sound engineers and the guys in charge of the light show. Where is Will when we need him?
The NUFO crowd, mixed with several dozen he
ad of cattle, was surging toward them, screaming in a mad mixture of English and purported alien and blasting across loudspeakers. Behind Lani, the camo dudes had made a barricade across the road and ringed the immediate perimeter of Area 51. They were no match for the crowd, though. None.
Megawatts’ worth of pulsating light, the kind of lights and laser displays you’d see at the best Vegas shows, like Rock’s, came to life, illuminating the stage that Daniel had designed to look realistically like a large starship. At the same time, strains of popular music blasted from loudspeakers.
Lani burst on stage in a blaze of flash powder and light, dressed in skintight spandex. “Ladies and gentlemen, alien watchers and scientists, NUFO conventiongoers and camo dudes, welcome to the grand prestige of Rock Powers’s most magnificent, ambitious, astounding illusion yet.
“David Copperfield disappeared the Statue of Liberty. But has any magician ever appeared an alien ship? Given us such convincing aliens? Manifested hovercrafts? Fooled such a savvy crowd?
“I give you tonight’s show—Outlandish Marauders!”
* * *
Rock missed Sol by that much as he hit the deck of the hovercraft just as the lights and music of the show lit up the gates of Area 51.
Sol swung the rocket launcher at Rock like a club. Rock ducked out of the way. Shit, he had to get that thing away from Sol before he did some serious damage with it. He reached for the nearest thing handy to use as a weapon—a fire extinguisher.
Rock meant to swing it, but Sol went on the offensive, stabbing and jabbing with the rocket launcher, which had been modified with a lethal-looking knife at the end like a bayonet.
Rock used the extinguisher as a shield, backing up to avoid being impaled. Until he ran out of hovercraft and found himself literally against the wall. Sol grinned and aimed the pointy end of the rocket launcher at Rock’s gut.
A gut wound was no way for a world-class magician to meet his end. But there was no way Rock was abandoning ship without neutralizing Sol and his dark magic.
Rock glanced at the meager weapon in his hands. What was he thinking? Use the force, Rock. The force you have in your hand, idiot. Rock pulled the extinguisher pin, and aimed at Sol’s eyes, and fired.
Sol screamed and fell back, hitting the hovercraft controls and sending them at warp speed toward the stage as he dropped the launcher and pawed at his eyes.
The forward surge nearly sent Rock backward over the edge of the ship. Counteracting his momentum, he threw himself at Sol, grabbed the launcher, and tossed it overboard.
Sol roared and took a swing at Rock, with his bloodshot, foamy eyes blazing with hatred and killing rage. He connected with Rock’s jaw, sending his head snapping around.
“Shit!” Rock yelled as he took Sol by his alien-costume shirt collar and smacked him with a right hook.
Sol staggered back, dazed, and wobbly on his feet.
Yeah, take that!
Rock had never been a fighter, but he was damn proud of that blow. Though his fist smarted. Rock shook his hand out, made a fist again, cocked his arm, and prepared to wallop Sol again as Sol seemed to come out of his dazed state.
Sol roared and cocked his arm, ready to take another swing. His eyes blazed with fury. He was foaming at the mouth—literally. And it wasn’t from the fire extinguisher.
What the hell?
Sol gasped and fell to his knees. His body contorted and he began to spasm as foam poured out of his mouth and dripped down his neck.
Rock stared in horror, imagining an alien would soon pop out of him. He swallowed his revulsion and kneeled to help him. Which is when Rock looked down and saw that his spy ring had popped open.
Oh, shit! That single dose of poison …
“Rock! Rock, slow up before you crash the stage.”
Rock looked up to see Will and Ty pulling up beside him on their partially toasted hovercraft.
“Turns out it was just superficial damage,” Ty said as he climbed aboard. “Nothing a little space-rated duct tape couldn’t fix.”
Rock barely heard him as he watched Sol twitch in his final death throes.
“How are you doing, dude?” Ty took over the helm and the driving. Someone had to. Rock and Sol had been on unofficial autopilot. Which was taking them on a collision course with the stage.
Ty flicked a glance at Sol on the floor as Sol’s eyes went blank, the life went out of him, and his body went still. “Nice work.”
Rock felt pale. He’d never killed anyone before.
Ty glanced at Rock’s hand. “Ah, the spy ring. Excellent. The chief is always right. Good thing he told you to take it along. See, the Agency doesn’t just invent junk gadgets for no reason.”
Rock flipped the secret compartment closed.
“Better dispose of the evidence.” Ty held his hand out for the ring.
Rock slid it off and dropped it into Ty’s hand without comment.
Ty put it into his pocket just as his cell phone buzzed. He grabbed it and read a text, then he broke into a huge grin. “They just rescued Stone and Nanny. Both are safe now.”
Rock teared up. He was just so damned happy and relieved. He wiped his hand across his eyes as Ty gave him a one-armed hug.
“Okay, magic boy,” Ty said. “It’s time for the big Bond finish to this mission.”
Rock stared at him with a blank look.
Ty shook his head. “We’re really going to have to bring you up to speed on the spy stuff. That’s where Bond gets the girl, idiot. And then gets a little action. You look like you could use some.”
Ty nodded toward the hovercraft next to them that Will was patiently piloting. “Hop on over there with Will and let me take care of the mess here. You two go finish the illusion. Your audience is calling for you.”
It wasn’t until that moment that Rock realized the crowd was no longer screaming out alien messages for We come in peace, but his name.
Well, hell, who am I to pass up a big Bond finish? Rock slapped Ty on the back and stepped into Will’s craft. “Take us to the stage.”
They arrived to hover above the stage just as Smokz was levitating and Jake leaped on stage in his alien gear with his alien moves and revealed himself as an ordinary parkour expert magician.
Lani looked up to see Rock hovering above her. “And here he is, alien watchers, the grand master of the illusion, Rock Powers.”
As the crowd went wild, Rock nodded toward the hovercraft, and mimed what he wanted her to do. He took a bow from the craft. Held up his arms and bowed his head. Then, on cue, let loose the last of his flash powder, and leaned down and pulled Lani up into the craft. The smoke cleared in a flash and the audience gasped.
Yeah, Rock still had it. To the crowd it appeared as if he’d materialized her there. Not only that, but Lani had quick-changed into a replica of that wedding dress costume, the one she’d disappeared in two years ago.
“Stone and Nanny are safe,” he said. “It’s over. They got them out.”
She let out a cry of joy and nearly collapsed with relief. He caught her in his arms as tears appeared in her eyes.
She stared into his eyes and cupped his face in her hands. “I always meant to come back.”
“Good,” Rock said. “Because I was never going to stop looking for you.”
Then he pulled her into a kiss that made the audience sigh.
STINGER
Nanny really is a wonder, Emmett thought as he watched Rock—his head of the newly formed NCS Department of Counter Magic and Cover Illusions—take his son in his arms for the first time. Lani hung over Rock’s shoulder, beaming with love and pride, and out-and-out joy.
And Nanny, well, that big, burly guy and former Navy SEAL, just stood off to the side smiling, too. Emmett made a note to give him a commendation.
The Agency really is just one big, happy family.
That was a mission well done. Rock’s reveal had stopped the NUFOs cold from forcing their way onto Area 51 property. Tate and Tal apprehended a top-le
vel RIOT agent who’d escaped from the plane before it blew up and had been sent in to steal top-secret plans. The RIOT bastard was the queen of diamonds. Not a bad catch. The bastard was being interrogated in a CIA facility even as Emmett watched the happy family scene before him unfold.
They’d foiled RIOT’s attempt to steal a hovercraft. And now that Rock was no longer any use to RIOT, his baby son and wife were safe.
Only Random had slipped through their fingers again. That slippery bastard. Emmett would get him one day.
Speaking of him, Emmett wasn’t happy with Random’s impersonation of him. How had Random managed to fool the Area 51 staff? Emmett’s own voice was really much deeper and commanding. At least his agents had followed his orders.
Emmett knew what this meant—he had to develop a top-secret identifying mark or tic known only to those in his command. Something small, like a mole that moved around and only CIA personnel knew where it would appear. Like the code word of the day.
The only other loose end, or maybe he should say, loose cannon, was Tate’s ex wife, Malene, the Agency’s cover life artist. She was fit to be tied that Tate had prevailed and prevented her from designing those alien costumes. She’d cornered Emmett and let him know in no uncertain terms what she felt about the situation and how she was just as senior as Tate. Tate should not, repeat, should not be able to dictate what projects she did and did not work on.
It was going to be hell placating her.
Read on for an excerpt from
Gina Robinson’s next novel
LOVE ANOTHER DAY
Coming soon from St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Tate sat in Dulles International Airport, outside the security check, waiting for his ex-wife, Mal, to arrive. They were traveling together to Cheltenham, England, as mathematics professor Tate Stevens, PhD, and his trusty graduate student and research assistant sidekick, Mallie Green.
What the hell had Emmett been thinking assigning her as his cover life artist for this mission? And insisting she go into the field with him—lunacy. First of all, Tate worked alone. He certainly didn’t need Mal, or any woman for that matter, tagging along to scare Sophia off. It was going to be dicey enough convincing her he was falling in love with her so he could bring her in. He didn’t want to give her any reason to bolt.