The Amplifier Protocol (Amplifier 0) Page 2

  Steps away from Tek5, I shifted the sorcerer from across my shoulders. The telekinetic grabbed his arm, hauling him up into the helicopter.

  I followed, getting the sorcerer settled in a seat and belting him in as quickly as I could without hurting him.

  Calhoun and the pilot stayed on the roof, guarding our backs.

  “Took you long enough, Socks,” Nul5 shouted from the pilot’s seat. His hands were flying over the controls, double-checking everything. A sensible precaution, since some sort of betrayal was apparently in the process of unfolding.

  Tek5 laughed wickedly, flush with energy and magic as she tugged on a headset.

  I ignored them both.

  The sorcerer’s fingers ghosted my cheek.

  I met his dark-eyed gaze.

  Tek5 caught the exchange. A deep frown instantly replaced her former playfulness.

  The sorcerer held a headset in his other hand, having already put on another pair. I took it from him and put it on.

  “Socks?” The sorcerer’s tone was weary but amused, even through the headset speakers. He touched my face again. “Is that your name, amplifier? I’m Kader Azar. I would have you know me.”

  “I have no name, Sorcerer Azar. I am simply a designation. Amp5. As you well know.”

  He dropped his hand, but not before I’d felt a spark of his anger.

  Calhoun shouted something outside the copter, but his words were obscured by the headset and the steady thump of the blades overhead. I twisted around to take in the scene on the roof.

  The shapeshifters had fallen back, carrying their wounded and swarming the exit.

  It wasn’t a strategic retreat.

  A dark-scaled, double-horned, red-eyed demon was in the process of clawing its way over the edge of the roof. I had never seen such a massive creature before, not called forth from our or any other dimension. And the Five had confronted many demons, both in training and on mission. Just its head, neck, and shoulders were the size of a compact car.

  Keeping my gaze on the demon, I double-checked the harness holding the sorcerer, Azar, in his seat. Then I sought out and quickly located the fallen members of my team. One was sprawled out in the open, dead — Hannigan, X4. One was running for the helicopter, exposed — Flynn, X2. Jackson, X3, had managed to make it across the roof on her own, and was now grouped with Calhoun and the pilot.

  One of them was hunkered down behind the twisted ventilation unit that Tek5 had tossed across the roof, vulnerable. Sasha Piper, X5.

  I yanked off the headset, moving for the side door.

  Tek5 grabbed my arm, screaming, “We’re going!”

  “Yes,” I said. “You are.”

  “You’re coming with us! The package is all that matters.”

  “Find out what’s going on with Cla5 and Tel5, would you?” I didn’t like being cut off from the telepath and clairvoyant. Something had happened — something severe enough that Tel5 hadn’t reestablished contact yet. And the telepath had been backed by a clairvoyant, who should have seen whatever hit them at least a few moments before it actually happened.

  But I had to focus on the situation immediately in front of me first. My extraction team couldn’t stand against what I was assuming was some sort of greater demon. Though using that Christian classification as a reference wasn’t terribly accurate, it was a convenient shortcut. Demons were pulled or summoned into the earth’s dimension. They didn’t come from hell, at least according to the years of study we had all dedicated to them. The Collective limited our access to information in many ways, though, so what I knew about demons might have been only what they wanted me to know.

  But one of the facts that had always been made clear to me was that I’d been created and honed — even separate from the Five — to stand against the kind of creature making its way onto the roof.

  Disbelief flitted over Tek5’s face. She tightened her grip on me, snarling over her shoulder to Nul5 in the pilot’s seat. “Go! Go!”

  The helicopter lifted. I twisted my arm from Tek5’s firm grasp, jumping for the open door.

  “Socks!” Nul5 shouted behind me.

  I dropped to the roof, rolling to quickly gain my feet. Calhoun, Flynn, Jackson, and the pilot instantly flanked me. A raw wound was slashed across Jackson’s forehead and cheek, likely from the breaching of the exterior door. Flynn’s right arm was hanging limp. But their magical armor had taken the brunt of the shapeshifters’ assault. Calhoun and the pilot appeared unharmed.

  Across the roof, Sasha Piper had extracted herself from the shapeshifters but was now trapped behind the huge vent that Tek5 had flung across the roof. The demon was between her and the exit.

  Three sorcerers, including two weapons specialists and a demolitions expert. The pilot, who was a witch by the tenor of his magic, but likely also a technician. Plus me. And not one of us was prepped to face a demon like the creature that had just found its footing and was straightening up to a full height of easily six meters.

  Behind us, the helicopter began to circle overhead. I ignored it, but it drew the demon’s attention.

  Following my lead without any need for direction, what was left of my team darted forward with me. I paused by X4, kneeling beside him. He was dead. Two efficient shots to the side of his head. I took his gun and extra ammo, glancing over at Calhoun for the briefest of moments.

  Hannigan’s betrayal was unexpected. Unprecedented. So who else had he been working for? I might not have been able to pick up emotions without direct skin contact, but Tel5 should have been able to root out even a hint of betrayal with a stray thought.

  I passed my hands over the body, quickly emptying its multitude of pockets. I collected a pile of spelled coins and rune-marked stones, passing them to the others to distribute between them. Then I found what I was looking for.

  A gold-plated magical artifact. Something that appeared to have once been a brooch. The pin had been removed and a compartment added to the back. I clicked it open, dispelling a sealing spell without effort. The tiny clipping of yellow hair housed within the compartment blew away as the helicopter circled a second time.

  Tel5 had yellow hair. Though not much of it. All of the Five were ordered to keep our hair short enough to stay out of our eyes.

  A clipping of hair.

  Yet another impossibility.

  The betrayal ran deeper than Tom Hannigan, then.

  Calhoun hissed something over my head. I didn’t catch his words but his pissed tone was obvious, indicating that he’d put together the depth of the disloyalty himself.

  I tucked the brooch into my pocket, adding it to the to-do list for after I got what remained of my team off the roof and back to base. I straightened, first checking, then raising and firmly pressing X4’s purloined automatic weapon into my shoulder. I was a fair shot, but it wasn’t in any way a talent. Unfortunately, simply touching the demon wasn’t going to be an effective way to take the creature down. Its magic was incompatible with my own. Incompatible with anything in this dimension.

  The magic of whoever had summoned the demon could be thwarted, though. It could be nullified. Unfortunately, the two best means to uncover that summoner’s location were currently out of contact — Cla5 and Tel5. Nul5 would have been a third option, but he was piloting the helicopter, distracting the dimensional interloper tearing up the concrete of the roof with its massively clawed hind feet. That put him nowhere near enough to nullify any magic that might have been tethering the creature.

  Figuring out what a greater demon was doing on a rooftop in LA in broad daylight wasn’t a mystery I was going to be able to solve. Primarily because it wasn’t my job to figure such things out. I was an infiltration and extraction specialist. A soldier in a private magical army. I was given objectives. I didn’t solve puzzles. And asking questions wasn’t encouraged by the Collective.

  I had already achieved my primary objective, getting the package onto the helicopter. But the demon, and possibly the summoner, had become another obstac
le to overcome in order to fully complete the mission.

  First, though, I had the rest of my team to collect.

  I darted sharply left, crossing directly in front of the demon toward Sasha Piper. The team moved with me.

  I couldn’t see any shapeshifters, and they appeared to have taken their fallen as they’d exited the roof. Their loyalty was ensured through pack bonds that gave them an advantage against almost any invading force. Except for the Five.

  The Five had been uniquely bred and trained from infancy to overcome anything we faced. Together. But if all else failed, the Collective could and would place me alone against any being, any organization, that threatened them. I was their ultimate weapon. In theory.

  Even after twenty-one years, that was all I’d figured out regarding my existence. My purpose. But none of it was pertinent to the current situation.

  The helicopter circled a third time, completely breaking protocol. Neither Tek5 nor Nul5 could cast any magic while surrounded by electronics, but their tactic of buzzing the roof was annoying the demon and buying me time.

  I hunkered down behind the vent beside Piper, stripping off my remaining glove while eyeing the helicopter.

  Azar was standing at the open side door, gazing down at the roof. Watching me, not the demon. Tek5 had allowed the sorcerer to unbelt himself, even as drained as he was after I’d channeled the last licks of his magic. That was ill advised. Though I could understand why the telekinetic would have caved if Azar had started throwing his weight around. None of the Five could say no to a member of the Collective. No matter the demand. Not without repercussions.

  “Report,” Calhoun barked.

  “Broken leg,” Sasha Piper said. “Ribs possibly fractured. Healing. Slowly.”

  I offered her my hands, palms up. She met my gaze grimly. Then she nodded, grasping onto me. I blasted her with my amplification. I didn’t have time to be gentle.

  The green of Sasha’s shapeshifter magic flooded her eyes. She grunted, clenching her jaw and straining her neck to suppress a howl of pain. Amplifying someone wasn’t usually a painful process. But forcing someone’s magic to heal them quickly? That hurt.

  And my empathy ensured that I felt the reflection of that pain. I could dampen that sense, though I couldn’t suppress it completely. And I could do so even less effectively while using my primary power.

  Sasha’s hands went limp in mine. She slumped sideways. I let her go, glancing at the others. “She’ll need a minute.”

  They nodded. That wasn’t news to them. Each of them had been subjected to my not-so-gentle touch at some point in the time we had worked together.

  Screams drew our attention back to the demon. It had caught a shapeshifter that must have been in hiding, and was currently in the process of playing with him. Or her. I couldn’t distinguish gender from this far away.

  “Jesus,” Becca Jackson muttered. “I thought they’d all gotten off the roof.”

  Sasha woke with a jerk. For a moment, her face rippled as her wolf — amplified by me — tried to tear through her skin. She got herself under control with a gasp, though she pinned me with her blazing green eyes.

  With the exception of power I’d just boosted, I didn’t normally see magic in color.

  “We need to move,” Calhoun barked. “While the copter distracts the demon, we make for the exit.” He glanced over at the pilot. “Sorry, I don’t know your name.”

  “Sherwood, sir. Bill Sherwood.”

  “Sherwood, your armor isn’t up for this fight. Hang back. If you can break for the exit, you do so.” Calhoun glanced at the rest of us in turn. “X5 front, Amp5 between me and X3. X2, you take rear.”

  The others nodded in unison. Sasha made it to her feet. She and Flynn reorganized and exchanged ammo, guns, and the spells I’d taken off X4, sharing resources. Flynn was moving his arm again, stiffly.

  “No,” I said.

  “No?” Calhoun echoed, completely thrown.

  “We can’t leave a demon to rampage through LA.”

  “Not our problem, Amp5.”

  I didn’t bother debating with him. Staying low, I shifted to the side of the ruined ventilation unit so I could get eyes on the demon. Quickly analyzing the way it moved, the way it perceived its surroundings.

  Looking for vulnerabilities.

  Finding none.

  Calhoun was watching me. He was tense, getting angry. I didn’t need to touch him to understand what he was feeling. And I was on unstable ground myself. I should have been on the helicopter. I should have been overseeing the process of dropping the package at the rendezvous point, then heading back to base. I should have placed those other objectives over my team.

  Instead, I was about to take on a greater demon to get the people who’d fought at my side for years off the roof as safely as possible. The witch psychologist on the Collective’s payroll, a low-level empath herself, would no doubt blame my empathic abilities in her report.

  Assuming I made it off the roof alive.

  “If I fall, reconnoiter at Tel5 and Cla5’s last known position.” I passed the weapon and ammo I’d taken from Hannigan’s corpse to the pilot, Sherwood. He took it without comment. Jackson stepped closer, murmuring a quick orientation of the weapon to the pilot. The wound across her face had crusted over.

  Now that I’d gotten a closer look at the immense creature on the roof, as well as the way the dark energy that coated its black-scaled hide reflected the sunlight, I knew the automatic weapon in my hands was useless. It might even backfire on me. “Calhoun,” I said. “Judging by the feedback that took me and Nul5 down, I assume Cla5 and Tel5 have been compromised as well. I want you to track them down, eliminate any threats. Then return to base.”

  “They’re not our concern,” Calhoun said caustically. “You are. You’re the asset here.”

  I reached over my head, straightening from my low crouch as I pulled my double-edged blades from the sheaths built into my flexible armor between my shoulder blades. Each sword was eighteen inches of steel with a nonreflective black coating, twenty-five inches overall length. Just the right size and weight for simultaneous wielding — assuming you had trained your whole life to fight with twin blades. As I had.

  The magic stored in the three raw diamonds embedded in each hilt ignited at my touch, instantly tying the weapons to me, to my magic. They were an extension of my arms now, sharpened by my own power. At least until I wore through the spells, used them up.

  Calhoun, Flynn, and Jackson flanked me. Sasha Piper was behind us, with Sherwood hanging farther back. The commanding officer would back me and follow my orders, even if he disagreed.

  We crossed from our hiding spot, darting to the center of the roof, giving us the largest cleared area to work within.

  The demon homed in on us, spinning back from the edge of the roof and stretching to its full height. It pinned its blazing red eyes on me, as if I had its summoner’s sigil tattooed on my forehead.

  The helicopter circled once more. I raised my blade, pointing it to my far right, directing it away. It swerved in response. I could practically hear the argument taking place between Nul5 and Tek5, even though I suspected it was the sorcerer Azar who’d kept them on site. Watching me and my team. Nul5 and Tek5 would have stuck to protocol.

  If I hadn’t actually been carrying him, feeling his magic, I might have concluded that Azar had summoned the demon himself. As some sort of test.

  Testing me.

  I didn’t like having such ideas. I didn’t like pontificating on the motivations of those who directed every last thing I did. Everything I ate. Everything I wore. Everyone I killed.

  Exacerbating that strange uncertainty was the odd and unsettling feeling of not being mind-connected to the other four. Empty in my head while on the field. But I was trained to act solo. With or without my team.

  The demon hunkered down, taking the team in — and once more eyeing me specifically. It was easily still four meters tall on all fours. Its skin was thi
ckly scaled, with spurs of bone jutting up along its spine. Its tail almost doubled its body length, tapering to a single thick spike. It flexed the twelve-inch claws of its front feet, three claws per hand. Curling each individual talon as if anticipating striking at us.

  As if it was not only sentient, but capable of acting of its own volition.

  Except demons were always following orders. Just like me. Tied to this dimension, tied to their summoners, usually through an object of power. Called forth to wreak bloody havoc by their handlers.

  Just like me.

  Setting up the summoning of such a creature would have taken days of preparation. And a blood sacrifice. Possibly a human sacrifice. A greater demon didn’t simply wander into our dimension uninvited. Doorways had to be opened — usually with dire consequences.

  And demons didn’t like being controlled. They consumed their summoners the second their hold slipped.

  By the way the shapeshifters had fled, they weren’t the ones controlling the demon on the roof. And now that I was thinking about it, thinking everything through in order to determine my next move, what did a group of rogue shifters want with a member of the Collective in the first place? How would they even get their claws on a sorcerer of power?

  “Form a net,” Calhoun barked. “We’ll take its legs —”

  “No,” I said. “The demon is mine. Think it through. Look at the magic coating it. How is it standing in the sun?”

  “Shielded,” Flynn said.

  Piper lifted her face, sniffing the air. “Black magic. Witch.”

  “I don’t give a shit who the summoner is,” Calhoun snarled. His magic was coiled tightly around him. Magic that made him the most accurate shot in the group. Magic that eliminated most of the backfires that usually occurred when those of the magical persuasion attempted to use mundane weapons against their own kind. “We’re not retreating without you.”

  I shouldn’t have slept with Calhoun the previous night. I shouldn’t have wordlessly crawled into his bed. But away from the compound, I’d felt … buoyant. Up to that point, I’d never had sex with anyone but Nul5, who could obviously nullify my magic. Touching Mark Calhoun didn’t dampen me, though. He didn’t smother my other senses. And he certainly hadn’t minded getting a power boost before a mission.