upward like a spectre.
Conrad trained his M16. “Those bastards die.”
“Not yet,” Hank cautioned. “If you miss, they get us. They get us, they get out of here with dark XM. Ergo, end of world. So let’s pick our shots carefully.”
At that moment, the short guy—Chen—took out his phone and began tapping intently on it. His face glowed in blue and green.
“He’s making a call?” Conrad said. “Can he even do that down here? What do you think, pizza delivery or instructions from Dr. Evil?”
“No, he’s opening the Ingress app,” Hank said, pulling out his Nexus.
“More games?”
“This ain’t no game, Conrad. Take cover. When he resonates that thing, it could go bad.”
“How bad?”
“I don’t understand how or why it works, but I do understand what’s about to happen,” Hank explained. “We’re in an Anomaly.”
“A what?”
“A transdimensional vortex where exotic matter meets chaotic matter. In nature they’re kept apart. Think of it as dry ice hitting water. Look.”
Conrad watched as a glowing shield enveloped Chen and Smith at the edge of the black lake.
“You’re seeing something that’s usually visible only to scientific instruments like the Ingress scanner,” Hank told him, like this freak show was some great honor.
Chen deployed a resonator. The dark XM lava pool erupted. Dark matter rose into the air, grasping to take living form. Order and disorder tore at each other. For a brief instant, large tentacles of chaotic matter lashed out everywhere, while lightning blasted from the resonator.
Small clusters of XM drifted from the portal and burst in the air, leaving glowing flecks of plasma on the rotunda and wall. A flying drop sizzled past Hank, who watched as the spattered substance disappeared, leaving a smudge of gold.
So the dark XM creates the gold. We found the philosopher’s stone.
“Get ready for a fight, Conrad. They’re about to find out that we’re here.”
CHAPTER 16
B efore Conrad could hear Hank’s last word, a shockwave rocked the caverns. Conrad ducked for cover as the great XM pool erupted, its limbs of dark energy writhing. Exotic goo whipped out from the chaos, splattering him across the face. He expected it to burn like acid, but it didn’t. It simply tingled. Then he felt something like a pebble in his mouth and spit it out into his hand.
It was a tooth.
It had fallen out. He felt another spasm in his gums, and now a second tooth fell out, dropping loosely to the ground.
What’s happening to me?
“Hank!” Conrad shouted.
Hank was busy firing on Smith’s extremo-ware goons, who had now spotted them. He trained his sights on Chen, who was trying to deploy another resonator. The bullet was lost in the eruption of energy.
Hank!
Conrad pulled out his phone and peered into the camera. He started as he looked at himself on the screen. His right eye was no longer blue. The iris had dispersed into a galaxy-like spiral of red specks.
Something was horribly wrong, he knew with a stab of shock. And yet he could still see himself in the mirror through both eyes.
The phone shattered from a gunshot to his left. Conrad turned to see several figures running through a gateway. He hadn’t noticed it before. Even in the lambent, strobing light, he recognized Colonel Zawas and his handful of surviving troops.
Conrad fired off a round from his M16, taking one down. Two others fired back at him, raking the wall of stone over his head. The other Egyptians turned their attention to the SE mercs below.
It had just turned into a three-way furball. Total bedlam.
Antoine Smith methodically fired bursts of lethality throughout the stygian cavern. Chen deployed another resonator, adding to the cosmic chaos. Tentacles of energy whipped, lightning flashed and metal rained throughout the chamber. Hank deployed his shield, but it was too late. Conrad saw Hank’s body get splattered with glowing bits of chaos like a fluorescent leopard. When he turned to
Conrad trained his M16. “Those bastards die.”
“Not yet,” Hank cautioned. “If you miss, they get us. They get us, they get out of here with dark XM. Ergo, end of world. So let’s pick our shots carefully.”
At that moment, the short guy—Chen—took out his phone and began tapping intently on it. His face glowed in blue and green.
“He’s making a call?” Conrad said. “Can he even do that down here? What do you think, pizza delivery or instructions from Dr. Evil?”
“No, he’s opening the Ingress app,” Hank said, pulling out his Nexus.
“More games?”
“This ain’t no game, Conrad. Take cover. When he resonates that thing, it could go bad.”
“How bad?”
“I don’t understand how or why it works, but I do understand what’s about to happen,” Hank explained. “We’re in an Anomaly.”
“A what?”
“A transdimensional vortex where exotic matter meets chaotic matter. In nature they’re kept apart. Think of it as dry ice hitting water. Look.”
Conrad watched as a glowing shield enveloped Chen and Smith at the edge of the black lake.
“You’re seeing something that’s usually visible only to scientific instruments like the Ingress scanner,” Hank told him, like this freak show was some great honor.
Chen deployed a resonator. The dark XM lava pool erupted. Dark matter rose into the air, grasping to take living form. Order and disorder tore at each other. For a brief instant, large tentacles of chaotic matter lashed out everywhere, while lightning blasted from the resonator.
Small clusters of XM drifted from the portal and burst in the air, leaving glowing flecks of plasma on the rotunda and wall. A flying drop sizzled past Hank, who watched as the spattered substance disappeared, leaving a smudge of gold.
So the dark XM creates the gold. We found the philosopher’s stone.
“Get ready for a fight, Conrad. They’re about to find out that we’re here.”
CHAPTER 16
B efore Conrad could hear Hank’s last word, a shockwave rocked the caverns. Conrad ducked for cover as the great XM pool erupted, its limbs of dark energy writhing. Exotic goo whipped out from the chaos, splattering him across the face. He expected it to burn like acid, but it didn’t. It simply tingled. Then he felt something like a pebble in his mouth and spit it out into his hand.
It was a tooth.
It had fallen out. He felt another spasm in his gums, and now a second tooth fell out, dropping loosely to the ground.
What’s happening to me?
“Hank!” Conrad shouted.
Hank was busy firing on Smith’s extremo-ware goons, who had now spotted them. He trained his sights on Chen, who was trying to deploy another resonator. The bullet was lost in the eruption of energy.
Hank!
Conrad pulled out his phone and peered into the camera. He started as he looked at himself on the screen. His right eye was no longer blue. The iris had dispersed into a galaxy-like spiral of red specks.
Something was horribly wrong, he knew with a stab of shock. And yet he could still see himself in the mirror through both eyes.
The phone shattered from a gunshot to his left. Conrad turned to see several figures running through a gateway. He hadn’t noticed it before. Even in the lambent, strobing light, he recognized Colonel Zawas and his handful of surviving troops.
Conrad fired off a round from his M16, taking one down. Two others fired back at him, raking the wall of stone over his head. The other Egyptians turned their attention to the SE mercs below.
It had just turned into a three-way furball. Total bedlam.
Antoine Smith methodically fired bursts of lethality throughout the stygian cavern. Chen deployed another resonator, adding to the cosmic chaos. Tentacles of energy whipped, lightning flashed and metal rained throughout the chamber. Hank deployed his shield, but it was too late. Conrad saw Hank’s body get splattered with glowing bits of chaos like a fluorescent leopard. When he turned to
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