Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(10)

"I wish I could destroy this site," Ilya interrupted with a snarl.

"Let me do it," I shrugged.

"You can do this?" Ilya wasn't buying it. He muttered something in Russian, and it made me mad. He thought I was delusional for thinking I could destroy the thing.

At that moment, I almost let him see what I might do. I reined in that impulse and did it the safe and effective way.

I turned the whole thing into sand, computers and missiles included.

Yes, they'd called me a witch the last time. I knew they were right-in a way.

This time, nothing could be farther from the truth.

"What the f*ck?" Nick muttered as computer consoles became white sand that puddled about his ankles, much like a dry sand castle pounded by a shovel.

"So much for my delusions, huh?" I snapped at Ilya, before transporting everybody, prisoners and Baikov's body included, to Matt Michael's office in Silver Spring.

*

"What the hell?" Matt Michaels stood and stared as all of us appeared in his office. "Auggie, I'm assuming you can get yourself home from here?" I gave him a look that said I was pissed.

"Laci," I added, "I can leave you here with Auggie, or I can take you to Seattle. Your choice."

"I'll, uh, stay here," she quavered.

I didn't blame her-if I'd been at the mercy of someone else who'd just done all the things I had, I'd be shaky, too.

"Corinne, stay here," Auggie demanded.

"Now see, I'm this close to telling you to f*ck off," I said, holding a thumb and forefinger half an inch apart. "Bye."

I disappeared.

No, I didn't go back to my suite in the side of a mountain outside Seattle. At least not right away. I wanted a sunny beach somewhere, and I found it in Australia.

*

Notes-Colonel Hunter

"I don't know what the hell just happened," I said, drinking coffee from the cup one of Matt Michael's assistants brought to me. "She knew, somehow, and she went, only she took all of us with her. I still can't explain how she did that. Baikov was with three men disguised as Ukrainian rebels inside a bunker. They were about to fire missiles into Crimea. They had enough firepower to cause a lot of damage."

"So Ukraine would be blamed for starting a war while leaving the country ripe for a Russian invasion, after which the country would be taken over and added back into Russia with no qualms or quibbles from anyone else. Right?"

"It seems that way," I muttered. "I have no idea what Rafe said to her, but it set her off. She turned the whole bunker, computers and missiles included, to sand. I saw it. Still don't believe it, but that's what happened."

"Sand? Interesting choice," Matt leaned back in his chair. The leather squeaked softly as he shifted his body into a more comfortable position.

"You're taking this surprisingly well," I observed.

"Do you need something stronger to drink?" Matt lifted a bottle of bourbon from a desk drawer and offered it to me.

"Hell, add it to the coffee," I held out my cup.

*

Ilya

"What did you say to her?" Dr. Shaw asked quietly. We waited in a room down the hall from Director Michael's office, where there were chairs, sofas, a coffee machine and a small refrigerator filled with soft drinks.

Leo Shaw sat beside me, sipping coffee and watching everyone else-after calming Laci Hunter.

"I said-in Russian-that she was delusional if she thought she could destroy that bunker. It was built of concrete and steel walls, ten feet thick. It would even survive the blast of the missiles it housed, if they were aimed back at it. I had no idea what she was prepared to do. I understand that my words made her angry. I should have kept my mouth shut, instead."

"We haven't touched on all the changes that may have occurred with her," Shaw said. "It's obvious she understood what you said. Has that happened before?"

"No. She couldn't understand what I said before."

"Then this is certainly different. I'll update her file."

*

Corinne

After a while, I transported myself back to Seattle and paid the check at the restaurant. I got an order of the mushroom ravioli to go, along with a replacement order of what everybody else had, too, before leaving all of it in the fridge inside Rafe's suite.

I was about to choose my own suite, and he could live alone if he wanted. Actually, the suite I wanted didn't exist, yet. I took care of that. When I was finished, it was built into the outside rock wall of the mountain, past the last suite of rooms, which belonged to Maye. It was larger, more comfortable, better furnished, had a huge kitchen and pantry and not a single bug in it.

Any bugs that Auggie thought to put in it wouldn't work, either. I made sure of that. I'd handed Baikov to Ilya on a plate and he saw fit to insult me without asking questions. I shouldn't have been that angry, but I was.

I figured they'd get a flight back later that night or early in the morning; I didn't care which. Who knows how many people in Crimea might have died, and Ilya called me delusional.

"Fuck," I muttered aloud. Yeah, I'd probably overreacted, but his words had hit me wrong. I realized I was tired and out of sorts, so I grabbed a sunlamp from storage, turned it on and sat beside it until I fell asleep.