(Disclaimers in the prologue)
Sapphire hurried through the corridors of the complex with little heed to caution. Getting insulation to Steel was of more immediate concern than discovery. Lead followed her, his long strides nearly matching every two of her own.
He had spoken only once, softly and with the tenderness she had come to expect from this colossal specialist. "Sapphire, are you all right?" he had asked as they walked. Sapphire wished that he hadn't. She wasn't yet ready to answer that question, especially not to herself; not truthfully. She had slowed, raised a hand to her throat without volition and shaken her head helplessly. Lead hadn't pursued the response, but she had sensed his fury on her behalf.
Steel was exactly where she had left him. His shivering was less violent now; as though his body were seizing up, preventing even that much movement. Lead stalked past her to his friend's vulnerable form, ignoring the motionless Topaz on the other side of the room. He crouched down, lifted Nitro's jacket away and examined Steel's frost-covered skin.
When the image of Lead became blurred, Sapphire realised she was crying. Impatiently she blinked the tears away, using the back of her hand when willpower alone could not vanquish them. By the time she could see clearly again, Lead had laid his hands on Steel's shoulders and growled softly to himself as the cold spiked through his own torso.
A mumble left Steel's lips; the first coherent words Sapphire had heard him speak since the meeting behind the barrier.
"Leave ... me alone, Lead ... I'm ... perfectly all ... right!"
Sapphire didn't know whether to laugh at this predictable ingratitude or give in to the tears still burning the back of her throat. In the end, as Lead turned his head to look at her and smile his own relief, she managed a mixture of both.
~~~
This must be the most miserable place I've ever seen ...
Silver's thoughts wandered as he walked through the cold, grey passages of the complex. Intermittent light bulbs provided illumination, along with the dirt-tinted daylight which came through an occasional window. The desolate abandonment of the building touched him somehow and he shuddered with reaction. Beside him, Jet remained calm and focused. She was strong again now, thanks to the news of Steel's resurrection.
Nitro and Diamond halted up ahead as they reached an intersection and Silver willed his racing heart to be still. He swallowed his fear and glanced at his companion. Jet was frowning, looking about. Her disquiet did nothing to reassure him, and he pursed his lips with concern.
[Diamond.] Jet's words echoed in his own head, and presumably Nitro's, though she addressed her fellow empath. [Do you sense Transient taint?]
[There's a small background sensation ....] The shaven headed agent cocked his head to one side and reached with his senses. Silver held his breath, afraid to interrupt with the minutest sound. [No, you're right. There is something.] Diamond glanced at the team and made a decision. [We're too easy a target, all together. Nitro and I will go on to the machine. Jet, you and Silver take a detour, see what there is to see. We can stay in touch, and that way if anything happens to us, we won't all be taken together.]
Nitro pointed the way and led the empath with him. Silver turned to Jet and looked worriedly into her distracted eyes. [Alone at last,] he ventured half-heartedly. She managed a smile in response, before they continued on their way.
~~~
As the cold left him, so did his exhaustion. Every time he returned to normal following a freeze, it was like a rebirth, a renewal. Steel stepped away from Lead's healing hands and stretched, smiling as he realised that his partner's link was firmly in place once again. He sensed her vibrance and vitality in close proximity.
He had been less than himself without it.
Absently he rubbed his unclothed arm, looking down to see Nitro's jacket. He picked it up and shrugged it on, more out of decorum than the warmth it gave. Topaz's body lay to one side, and he remembered the touch which had chilled her. Finally he turned to the specialist, ready to catch up on the events which had taken place during his incapacitation. Lead was beaming at him, a familiar wide smile which degenerated into a throaty chuckle, then the specialist moved aside. Behind him, nearer than Steel had anticipated, stood Sapphire.
~~~
When he reached the corner from which he and Sapphire had observed the working chamber earlier, Nitro held up a warning hand. He smoothed himself against the wall and Diamond joined him, shoulder to shoulder. Being alone with an agent of the network felt strange after his years of transience. It had been different with both Steel and Sapphire; their shared experience had allowed an immediate bond after the heat had jogged his memories. The two agents had simply accepted him, partly thanks, Nitro mused, to the way he had shared his mind with Sapphire when signalling the Hub.
But Diamond was different, arriving straight from the Hub as he had. With Diamond, Nitro was suddenly reminded that he had been a traitor-figure to the organisation for a century. Awkwardness and insecurity threatened, but so close to a Transient being, he could not offer to break down the defences around his mind again to offer proof of his true allegiance.
His colleague was nothing but professional, though, giving no indication of mistrust or suspicion. Calming his errant thoughts, Nitro spoke mentally to describe the chamber. Diamond listened quietly, sneaking a single brief glance around the edge of the wall before pressing back into hiding.
[There is nobody in the doorway now,] he told Nitro.
Nobody there.
And yet the leader had been so adamant that he had to stay by the gateway.
[Check again,] he sent shakily. Perhaps the man was deeper within the room, assisting Mercury ...
"No need," came a voice from behind him. "I'm right here."
~~~
Steel's face paled when his eyes met hers, and he visibly blinked his disconcertion away. Sapphire almost shouted with the rush of outrage which accompanied this further injustice. The nightmare which was becoming distant but had not yet faded in her mind had been utterly harrowing; what nightmare had the Transients contrived for Steel? Both of them had been damaged, and they might not yet survive to measure the extent of their injuries.
The anger was lost as soon as it had arrived, when her partner's lips curled fractionally into a smile. Tentative, even for him, it was nonetheless a smile. Sometime soon, Sapphire realised, awash on a tide of instantaneous relief ... sometime soon she would feel the need to break down.
They stepped closer simultaneously, the old rhythm asserting itself as though it had never left. Perhaps it hadn't. Perhaps the days of isolation and loneliness were as much of a sham as the murderous memories. Discarding the thought as inconsequential, at least for the time being, Sapphire prepared to allow herself a single indulgent touch. Just one.
Then something shouted in her mind.
Her hand stalled before she made contact. Unable to spare a moment for any reconciliation, Sapphire answered her partner's confused expression.
"Diamond and Nitro are in trouble," she said.
Then she was running.
~~~
'In trouble.'
Silver chewed at his lip as Jet reached for further details, but none seemed to arrive. The empath's brow creased with tension as she strained to locate and communicate with her colleague, but all to no avail. Finally, impatient to discover the danger himself, Silver grasped Jet's arm and pulled her back the way they had wandered, retracing their steps. He could remember the route exactly, and it was better than running blind.
~~~
Where the idea had come from, he couldn't say, but Nitro reacted immediately. Positioning himself behind Diamond, he grasped the agent by a shoulder and opened himself fully to the Transient power, his height increasing once more and his eyes frosting with blue.
"There are more of them," he reported immediately to the man, who had stepped around them and wielded the travel box in ready hands. "Sapphire must have managed to contact them. Silver is here, and Lead, and Jet. I can't believe I managed to convince them I was on their side!" He barked a laugh, hoping it sounded more convincing than it felt. "A century of Transience, and they thought I had returned to them!"
That would do for now, Nitro considered. More and his desperation would be transparent.
The man's lips snarled upwards. "A good play, Nitro," he offered.
Nitro attempted to match the evil grin. "I thought so," he offered, airily. "Now how do we round up the others?"
"All in good time," came the reply. Nitro's eyes dropped helplessly to the man's fingers as they tightened around the lid of the box. "What has happened to Sapphire?"
"She went to another part of the building." Nitro frowned. "They split up to present a more difficult target." Diamond was so still that it was tempting to check he still breathed. "She was not happy about Steel," he added, remembering that the agent was dead, so far as his leader was concerned.
The man chuckled. "Not happy! Really, Nitro, you'll have to do better than that. I've been inside her mind, remember?" Diamond finally moved, shuddering at the comment. "You could do me rather a favour, actually," he continued.
"What's that?" Nitro asked, filled with terror he tried to hide.
"You could open your mind to me. Just for a moment. You see, I'm feeling lonely, what with our group getting a little on the sparse side. Let me see your mind, touch it for a while. I'd feel ever so much better."
Stalemate. He should have known that the leader wouldn't buy his story. Without any conscious effort, Nitro found himself shrinking back to his true form, letting go of the Transient taint, aware that it would be the last time he ever touched it. His hand slid off Diamond's shoulder and his eyes lost their unearthly glow.
It was all over.
In a moment, his mind's defences would be peeled away like onion skins. And there was nothing he could do about it.
~~~
Sapphire stopped at a junction and her two colleagues almost ran into the back of her. "Which way?" hissed Steel urgently, already focused on the plight of his would-be rescuers. He had been brought up to date as they moved, the exchange of information fluid and silent. Just like the old days.
The old days?
Sapphire supposed that all days occurring before that fateful assignment to the service station could now be considered 'old'. It was a new way of measuring time. Before the Transients, and after.
She cast about, listening for a clue, but sensed nothing. Trying an alternative tack, she reached for Jet. A torrent of news hit her, tinged with Jet's chagrin at not having offered it sooner.
[I'm with Silver. We split into pairs. Good job we did. Do you know where?] The rush of information was short and sharp. Sapphire returned her own ignorance. Cautious about communication with anyone other than a full-blown empath, she left Silver alone. And with a vague awareness of Jet's direction, she indicated to Lead and Steel to follow her.
~~~
His eyes had fallen shut in resignation and fear. For a moment nothing happened, although the anticipation of invasion was almost as painful. When Nitro's mind remained unbreached, he opened his eyes again to see only a small trace of Transient blue emanating from his leader and fury locking the man's jaw. Nitro cast a glance aside at Diamond and saw that the empath had drawn on his own power, effectively denying the Transient being. The agent shook with effort, pressure contorting his face.
Even so, thought Nitro, to make a barrier against the source of Transient power! How could Diamond do that?
~~~
As soon as he saw the Transient being confronting their two colleagues, Silver's hurried steps faltered. Jet drew to a more graceful stop alongside him and grasped his arm. Silver felt certain that the man must have heard their headlong approach, but for some reason he seemed distracted. The Transient stared over at Diamond and Nitro in rage, his hands clasping the deadly travel set, but he made no move to attack. When the Technician peered more closely, he saw that Diamond trembled with the exertion of keeping Transient power at bay.
[How the hell is he doing that?] came Jet's startled and unprovoked thought. [We lost Mercury because he couldn't do that!]
[Perhaps he's learned since then,] Silver suggested, one eye on the box-shaped weapon. [You taught him how to recognise the taint. Maybe he taught himself how to block it.]
[We have to disarm the leader,] Jet decided, discarding inconsequential theories for the moment.
Communications between them fell quiet as the small trace of blue in the man's eyes left him, and with a roar he brought up a hand and smashed Diamond across the neck. The empath crumpled to the floor and Silver winced. Nitro immediately crouched beside his colleague, laying an insistent hand on his shoulder to try to coax him back to consciousness.
When Silver's gaze returned to the man, he was shocked to see that the being had turned its furious gaze his way.
"Come over here, Silver. Jet." The Transient's voice sounded incongruous after the animal shout, but was no less dangerous. Unable to retreat for the box in the man's hands, Silver led Jet towards the floored Diamond. He cursed himself for his over-zealousness. Had he really believed he could compete with Transient beings?
~~~
Sapphire pulled up, half way down a passage. Steel's momentum made him pass her before he stopped himself and turned.
"Well? Where now? Are they still in danger?"
"Yes. All of them. Jet reached Diamond, but I can't sense her any more. They must all be together, wherever they are."
"Or whenever," Steel suggested darkly, thinking of the Triassic period. "But we can't stop now. We have a responsibility! Come on!"
~~~
Diamond was alive, but his neck was broken. Silver noted the unnatural angle of his friend's head with what verged on detachment. Jet had gasped at the injury, before the presence of the man with the box reminded her that even this was not the most pressing concern. Silver noted that she still held on to his arm and he was glad for it, unable to resist the ancient need within him for warmth and company. He was about to die, but he at least died with friends.
Tempting though it was to make his final sight before death Jet's smooth dark skin and elegantly cropped hair, Silver forced himself to turn to the Transient being. Jet was not so reconciled, and dropped her head on to his shoulder, shaking with the tension of holding herself ready for destruction. Time seemed to slow, though the mind could play tricks at moments such as these. It seemed that it took an age for the lid of the box to begin to lift. Even the blinking of their captor's eyes seemed sluggish, along with the furrowing of his brow as the man seemed to notice the change in the atmosphere ...
This was no mind trick! Time had slowed!
And suddenly, the sensation of wading through glue was replaced by a strange freedom as the drag was lifted. As if that were not enough to distract, from out of nowhere came a cannonball, thundering along the passage and straight into the Transient leader. The man was knocked sideways and the box left his grasp, falling to the floor and skidding along stone until it came to rest next to Diamond's prone body.
"Leave it!" Silver commanded as Nitro bent to retrieve it. The specialist left it for Silver, who pushed Jet away and pounced on the set. He had known it since seeing it in the leader's hands. It was his own duplication.
And what he had created, he could dispel. As Silver's slender fingers touched the box and lifted it from its resting place, the wood, metal and circuitry dissipated to nothing in the space of a thought, and the box was no more.
~~~
By the time Sapphire caught up with Lead, it was over. Silver had dealt with the weapon, Jet had fallen to her knees beside Diamond and the Transient leader had returned to his feet, the motion leaving a lingering smooth blur. Without a word, their enemy had retreated into the nearby chamber, the one with the gateway and, presumably, Mercury. Steel was helping Lead up, the broad specialist complaining about running into a block of concrete.
It took a moment to process the events, then she decided her priorities and joined Jet beside Diamond. After diagnosing her friend with a single sweeping gaze, her eye caught Jet's and they moved together to capture his head with their hands. It took only a moment before the conduit to power which they offered was snatched at by the unconscious agent, with the flailing desperation of a man in quicksand. Then Diamond was healing himself. Jet's emotions overcame her and she broke off, relying on Sapphire to finish the work. As she regulated the healing to prevent Diamond drawing too much power for safety, she noted with faint amusement and a self-deprecating jealousy that it was Silver's shoulder Jet sought.
~~~
Work had taken a back seat when Mercury had detected the voices outside. He heard his leader, and Nitro, but it was the shout of rage which had sent him scuttling to the furthest corner of the chamber. He drew on the power in readiness, not wanting to be reacquainted with the corridor of time but unwilling to lose his liberty as an alternative.
After a series of bangs and thumps, his leader walked hurriedly into the room, spun and waved at the doorway. A barrier sprang up before him, and Mercury used the distraction to pretend that his presence in the corner had been for the purpose of collecting a tool. Heading back to the gateway, he didn't look again at the man. The loss of the travel set had been immediately obvious and more than that Mercury neither needed nor wanted to know.
It was just as well that his work was all but complete.
~~~
As his associates all busied themselves with regrouping, Nitro swallowed his fear and followed the Transient being. Around the corner, as he had anticipated, it disappeared into the working chamber. He hadn't expected the barrier, however, and frowned as his mind began to ponder this new obstacle.
The odds were improved since his memories had returned. Then they had been three against four Transients. Now they were seven against two; six, given that Diamond would probably play little further part in this assignment. In addition, the enemy had now lost its main weapon; though their own most effective countermeasure had been used up when Steel had exhausted his super-frozen body.
Unfortunately, though they had the numbers, the two they faced were stronger and faster. Soon, their enemy may even be able to choose a different battlefield, from the dizzying prospect of anywhere and anytime. More realistically, soon agents of the network may not even be important enough to warrant Transient attention.
He returned to the small group to see Sapphire alone now in her healing. Lead shouted and he turned to see the comparatively slight Steel wrenching the specialist's arm back into its shoulder socket. Collision with the Transient leader had dislocated it.
Nitro tuned in on Jet's murmured conversation with Silver, learning that the Technician had simply undone his own work when holding his duplication. A small victory, but Nitro was thankful he would never again face that slim, deadly box. The fact that they could not use it against the Transients seemed insignificant, when compared with the way it no longer posed any danger to them.
Sapphire's voice caught his attention, and he looked her way to see Diamond's eyes opened and flickering around.
"I can't move him, and he's vulnerable here. Someone should take him back to the Hub. They can take Topaz, too." Her eyes were on Lead, who was still rubbing his shoulder with a pained expression.
"Me?" returned the giant. "I am not leaving! Sapphire, you need me here!"
"I need Diamond back at the Hub immediately, so his spine can heal. I need Topaz there so she is placed in a cell at the earliest opportunity. And there is only one person here who is strong enough to bring her to this place for teleport and insulated enough to resist the cold in her."
"But if Lead touches her, he'll warm her again, like Steel!" Silver pointed out.
Nitro shook his head at this misconception as Sapphire answered it. "Not unless he wants to, right Lead?"
"That's right, but I am still more useful here. Topaz can stay put; let Jet take Diamond back, or even you!"
Nitro's attention was caught by Steel, who was gazing at his partner with an unreadable expression. When he stepped beside Sapphire and looked to Lead, it was as though they had spent their lives presenting a united front.
"Sapphire is right," Steel said. "You've already kept this mission alive for us. You've certainly kept me alive for it! Your strength won't help us defeat them now." His shoulders went back and his gaze held steady. Nitro had seen this pose before and only ever once witnessed the recipient walk away the victor. It seemed that Lead was similarly experienced, because he nodded curtly and looked over at Nitro.
"Can you take me back to Topaz?" asked the specialist.
Nitro nodded readily. As he retreated, Steel's curt, commanding tone resounded behind him.
"Silver, let's you and I check this barrier out."
~~~~~~~
Continued in Chapter 16
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