The only thing he was certain of was that they were not his teammates.

Barnes willed his right arm into the firing tube. He fired at the form to the right. The bolt of power hit. The white glowed red, absorbing the strike, then returned to its original color and continued coming.

Barnes fired once again at the form to the left with the same negligible effect. He didn’t wait to try a third shot. He jumped to the point his team had used as the emergency rally point. Arriving, he prepared to jump once more when the forms appeared above him.

He paused, mesmerized as the two merged into one, becoming a white parachute that floated down on top of his avatar, enveloping it.

Belatedly, Barnes tried to jump, but nothing happened.

12

Valika spun about, pistol clearing holster as she moved.

“That won’t do you any good,” Raisor said.

Valika could see through his form, to the other side of the chamber. Slowly she put the gun back.

“Who are you?” Cesar had not moved at the sudden apparition.

They were in the Aura operations center, Cesar in his chair, Valika behind him, and Souris hooked to her computer, projecting the field that allowed Raisor to take his form.

“They told you who I am.” Raisor’s voice had an echo to it, as if coming through a speaker. He was looking at his hands, as if seeing them for the first time, slowly rotating them in front of his face.

“They told me a name,” Cesar said. “Perhaps I should ask what are you?”

“First, I want an answer,” Raisor said. “Where is HAARP located?”

“I thought you were American,” Cesar said. “You told Valika you were CIA. Surely you know about HAARP.”

“I am-was-CIA, but I never heard of HAARP.”

“Tell him the location,” Cesar ordered Souris.

Her voice echoed out of a speaker on top of the computer she was facing. “ Alaska. In the middle of the Wrangell Range.”

Raisor walked right through a chair until he was opposite Cesar. “How is HAARP different than Aura?”

“It has greater power but is fixed in place,” Souris said. “Aura is smaller and transportable but has less power. Aura also is directional.”

“Why should we trust you?” Cesar asked, signaling for Souris to be quiet.

Valika wasn’t sure what exactly Souris was seeing. Although the American scientist’s eyes were open, they had a vacant stare.

“You don’t have to trust me,” Raisor said. “We just need to work together. I can give you information you need. For example, the Americans know some of the men on their Special Forces team are alive, and they know where they are being held. At your villa. In the basement.”

“How are you aware of that?” Cesar demanded.

“Call your villa,” Raisor said. “Have them check the bodies in the freezer. You’ll discover that they’ve been removed from the meat hooks and covered. One of the American Psychic Warriors did that.”

“ ‘Psychic Warrior’?” Cesar repeated. He signaled for Valika to make the call. She left the room.

Souris answered. “The program is called Bright Gate and headquartered in Colorado. A program that sends avatars into the virtual plane-like we’ve done here with Aura-but also allows those avatars to re-form on the real plane at a distant site.”

“Why did you not tell me about this?” Cesar demanded of Souris.

“It was only in the first phases when I left the States,” Souris answered. “I was not aware that it had gone operational.”

“If you could get the master computer from Bright Gate,” Raisor said, “and use it in conjunction with what you’ve developed here, you would have the same capability.” He indicated his form and then reached out and put his hand through a chair. “This is just an apparition with no substance. With Bright Gate I would have a real form here that could affect the physical world around me.”

Cesar reached into a drawer of the desk and pulled out a cigar. He cut the tip off and lit it as he considered what he had just been told. Valika came back and simply nodded once.

“What do you want out of this?” Cesar finally asked.

“I want my body back,” Raisor said. “They cut me off, separating my connection with Bright Gate.”

“Who is ‘they’?” Cesar asked.

“My government.”

“Why did they do that?” Cesar asked.

“I was betrayed.”

“Why?” Cesar pressed.

“I wanted to have revenge on the person who betrayed my sister.”

Cesar could understand family loyalty coming before all else. “Why was your sister betrayed?”

“She was investigating HAARP. Someone didn’t want her to do that.”

“What are your capabilities right now?”

“I can travel anywhere in the world on the virtual plane.”

“You don’t need Aura to support you?”

“No. I only need Aura’s power to appear like this-to come into the real plane as an image. And if I was to accomplish something other than watch, I would need its power.”

Cesar pointed the tip of the cigar at his scientist. “ Souris says that with Aura’s power she could enter a computer system. See it from the inside. Can you do that?”

Raisor nodded. “Yes.”

“Could you manipulate the computer, change the programs, the data?”

“With Bright Gate I could. I imagine I could with Aura’s power.”

“Good.” Cesar stood. “Then I have a job for you. To test your loyalty. Then I will help you in turn.”

Dalton wiped embryonic fluid off his face and tossed the towel into a basket. Jackson and Barnes were doing the same, both of them shivering, the aftereffect of the isolation tube freezing still clinging to their bones.

“Report.” Kirtley was standing in front of the control console, arms folded on his chest.

“We found seven of the men still alive,” Dalton said. “At the villa. In the basement.”

“I want you to come up with a floor plan diagram,” Kirtley said. “And a complete report for forwarding.”

“Forwarding to who?” Dalton demanded.

“Task Force Six is going to help us mount a rescue mission.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Dalton said.

“It doesn’t matter what you think,” Kirtley said. “Just do it.”

“There’s something going on,” Dalton said. “We sensed a presence at the villa. On the virtual plane.”

“What kind of presence?”

“I don’t know,” Dalton said.

“The Russian SD-8 program is shut down,” Kirtley said.

“It wasn’t like Chyort,” Dalton said. “Something, or someone, different.”

“Write up your report.” Kirtley turned and walked away.

Dr. Hammond was behind the console. As soon as Kirtley was gone, she came around and stepped in front of Barnes. “What are you doing?”

“What?”

“Where did you go? I tracked you splitting off from the others.”

Dalton stepped between them. “Does Kirtley know?”

She shook her head. “No. What are you up to?”

“We’re looking for our teammates,” Dalton said.

Hammond ’s eyes shifted to the door where Kirtley had gone and then back. “And did you find anything?”

They all turned to Barnes. “No-” He paused. “But just before I jumped to come back, I also picked up a virtual presence, something-I don’t know what it was. Something happened-” He shook his head, confused.

“There’s more going on than we’re being told,” Dalton said.

“Or than anybody knows,” Jackson added.

“Kirtley asked me what happened to my predecessor,” Hammond said. “Why would he do that? Dr. Jenkins died in an accident.”

“No, he didn’t.” Dalton had everyone’s attention. “Raisor told me he killed Jenkins because he cut off the power to Raisor’s sister’s team. Do you know why Jenkins did that?” he asked Hammond.

“I never met the man. When I got here to replace him, I was told the cutoff occurred because there was a programming glitch in Sybyl that had been corrected. That it was just a tragic mistake.”