Sweat slid down Rustam’s brow. His shotgun teetered. He had no way of knowing if a shotgun blast would even harm Kline. His bodyguards had emptied their clips into the timeslinger, and yet none of their bullets had touched him. And now they were dead.
A scream came from the elevator shaft, followed by the loud thump of a body slamming into the elevator car.
Kline lifted his pistol. “The nukes! Now!”
Rustam threw up his arms. “Don’t keel me! I’ll get dem—don’ shoot.”
“Hurry!”
The Russian pulled a key from around his neck and waddled to his hand-carved desk. He fiddled with the lock, and then dropped the key. Panting, he spat a string of Russian curses and tried again. A false drawer slid out and folded down to reveal a wall safe. Rustam punched a number into the keypad. It failed.
The elevator groaned and rose toward ground level. Kline pushed his gun into Rustam’s ear. “Open it!”
He tried again. The mechanism hesitated—click—and the door swung open. Rustam carefully reached into the small safe. When his hand came back out two polished titanium spheres, each about the size of a baseball, rested in his palm. He handed them to Kline.
“Don’ shoot! Pleas–”
The elevator chimed. The doors to Rustam’s room burst open. Two Union Subdivision timeslingers had arrived—Sam Rhythm and Jessica Prentice. Kline fired two quick shots and dove for cover. He grabbed his datapad and entered his return code. The teleportation drive purred, and then illuminated. An emerald force field swirled up around Kline.
Sam returned fired as he charged into the room. Too late. His bullets passed through thin air right where Kline had been nanoseconds earlier. The XLS agent had vanished. Rustam scrambled for his shotgun, but Sam stomped on his outstretched fingers and grabbed him by the collar.
“What did he take?”
The arms dealer grimaced. “T-two spider nookes.”
Across the room, on the other side of the double doors, the elevator door slid shut. It rose toward ground level. Sam kicked the shotgun away from Rustam and pushed him up against the wall. Keeping one eye on the Russian, he walked back to Jessica. Tears welled up in his eyes.
“They were after two nuclear weapons. He’s calling them ‘spider nukes.’ Go back. Tell Colonel Taylor before it’s too late.”
“Sam, I’m not–”
He pulled her into a tight, desperate embrace and kissed her. Then, he whispered softly in her ear, “I love you.”
The elevator chimed.
“Get out of here, baby girl!”
“Sam!”
“Go!”
Sam entered her transfer code and shoved the datapad into her hands. The teleportation started immediately. She sobbed as the turquoise field engulfed her. Sam watched the energy dissipate before turning back to the double doors as mercenaries poured out of the elevator.
