Of this I had no doubt. Noted that the three guys in suspended animation had bobbed a little closer to the floor. Meaning, I was pretty sure, that Kozlow was the one controlling that. My music changed to “Give Thanks and Praises” by the Bad Brains.
This helped my mind give me a big nudge. Cliff thought he was all that and an extra-large bag of chips. LaRue and Reid were pretty damn full of themselves, too. Stephanie was in a class by herself in terms of hubris. Lowe and Kellogg, may they rest in eternal damnation, had been impressed with themselves as well. Casey was a supercilious bitch.
Meaning Kozlow was surrounded by people who were busy congratulating themselves about how awesome they were. He’d been in prison in Israel before he’d been released. With help from Mahin and a bunch of other people. Because he wasn’t able to escape on his own. Took a wild one that the others weren’t big on letting him forget that. Took another wild one and assumed that Cliff was spending his time ranting and preening and not giving his loyal soldiers any feelings of being necessary or important.
“I agree with Russell,” I said conversationally as I did the lean and sit on the edge of the desk thing, meaning I looked casual but I was still on my feet and could push off with my butt if necessary. “I mean, whatever you’re doing with my friends is pretty impressive. I’m sure G-Company would have uses for it.”
“Yeah? It’s not as easy to do as it looks,” he said rather proudly.
Nerida snorted. “It’s nothing. You can’t even kill anyone with what you can do.”
Rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you’re not impressed with anything unless it’s you doing it.” Smiled at Kozlow, who snorted a laugh. “And just because something can’t kill doesn’t mean it’s not awesome.” This earned me a Happy Puppy look. “However, I honestly have no idea what you’ve done to them, and I’ve seen a lot of things.”
“It’s a form of suspended animation,” he shared proudly. “They’re surrounded by an electromagnetic field that essentially freezes them. They aren’t dead, though,” he added quickly, presumably in case that would make me unhappy with him. Which it would, so he was clearly smarter than Nerida. Not that this was a high bar.
“How can you control it and talk to me at the same time?” Ensured I sounded impressed.
“It’s my talent,” he said, almost shyly. “I have limited control of electromagnetic fields, and I can create them, too.” He nodded at all the equipment. “Me being up here makes sense because I can draw power from the equipment.”
“Wow, a lot of power?”
He shrugged. “Enough for what we need. That’s why it’s not difficult for me to have them suspended.”
“How did you know they’d come here? What made you realize one of us might come up here?” Made sure to sound like I thought it was all Kozlow’s idea.
“It seemed logical,” he said. “And that way we’d have prisoners if needed.”
“Because they’re bait,” Nerida said, in an Aha! Voice.
“No kidding.” Turned and stared at her. “Bait for whom? Besides me, I mean?”
She seemed thrown. “Uh, for . . . whoever else is looking for them.” She tried to stare back. She wasn’t very good at it. Lots of blinking.
“I’m the only one. Whee. You’ve caught me. Sort of.” Sniffed at her in my best Mean Girl impersonation, then turned back to Kozlow. “I sincerely don’t know how you can stand being up here with just her to talk to.”
He grimaced. “You get used to it.”
“Do you? Wow, I wouldn’t think that would be possible. So, is she up here merely to have buckets of water sloshing about in the worst place in this building for water to be, or is she doing something more than threatening Christopher, like helping with building access and escape and whatnot?”
“That’s it,” Kozlow said with a resigned sigh. “They made me carry in all the water, too, because they can’t trust her not to spray it everywhere.”
“No control? That’s an issue for this kind of skill.”
“Russell’s ‘suspended animation’ field isn’t strong enough to hold your precious Christopher,” Nerida sneered. “If it wasn’t for me, he’d have escaped already.”
“Huh. Good to know.”
Unlike Kozlow, Nerida wasn’t holding anything that looked like a kill switch. She was also perfectly placed and really quite close to me. I didn’t even have to move from where I was because I was braced against the desk.
“Don’t you want to know why I’m not worried that you have your gun out?” Nerida taunted.
“Oh my, yes. Breathless with anticipation here.”
She smirked. “Because, unlike Russell, I’m faster than you are. I only have to think about the water and it’ll flow up his body and fry him.”
Nodded and looked at Kozlow. “That’s a scary thing, alright. Is she doing anything else? I mean that seriously. Is this literally all she’s good for?”
“Yeah, and don’t let her fool you. She’s not as fast as she thinks she is,” he said, glaring at Nerida.
She shot him a simpering sneer in return. Perfect. He was focused on her, she was focused him, and this was the expression I always thought of whenever Nerida was on my mind.
So I shot her through the head.
But I put two in her heart as she was going down because, I, too, believed in the double-tap.
CHAPTER 80
TURNED THE GUN ON KOZLOW. Hyperspeed being what it was, I had the gun pointed between his eyes before he’d done more than have his jaw drop open.
“Feel free to give me a reason.”
“Ah, I have a kill switch,” he said in a rather panicked and hopeful tone.
“Which is why you’re not dead at this precise time. What does the kill switch go to?”
“The circuit board. It’s not actually getting current right now.”
“So, Russell, you need to ask yourself how much you want to destroy this building.”
“I don’t want to die. So if it’s the building or me . . .”
“We’ll ponder that. Dudes, are you still there or did you all get captured or something?” Kept eye contact with Kozlow.
“We’re here,” Jeff said, sounding annoyed. “Siler insisted on us letting you do your thing.”
“Is that a complaining tone I hear? Why so serious and bitter? One more Crazy Eight down, one in my sights. I’m not seeing the downside to this at the moment.”
“He wanted to be heroic,” Siler said. “I felt that getting out of this in the easiest way possible was the better choice.”
“Super-duper. Three things. One: Most of you get Christopher out of that ridiculous deathtrap he’s in.”
“Ah, I have the kill switch,” Kozlow said in the way one does when trying to remind a superior of something key.
“And if you use it, you die. Any questions?”
“No,” Kozlow said. He carefully turned the kill switch off and put it on the desk.
“Now, was that so hard? I knew you were smarter than Nerida. The second thing is that I want you, Russell, to explain to me how his team is using and controlling Cliff’s floater gates or whatever you guys call them.”
“He calls it fast transport. It works a lot like your floater gates.”
“Why not use the term floater gate, then?”
“Honestly?”