“They’re close,” Julie said as she stepped off the helicopter. She raised her sunglasses for a minute and squinted against the flying dust.

  “I felt a teke using his powers somewhere close to here. A strong one. Has to be Daniels. They can’t have gotten far.”

  She turned to a man in uniform. “Sergeant, have them sweep the area with video cameras then bring the footage to me. None of you can be sure what you’re seeing.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The sergeant grabbed his walkie talkie and started issuing orders.

  “They can’t be moving fast,” Julie said. “Maybe we have a chance.”

  “Teri’s got to be slowing them down,” Greenly said.

  “You’re still assuming she was wounded in the first place,” Julie said.

  “And you’re still being paranoid,” Greenly said. “No one is that powerful.”

  “So people keep telling me,” Julie said. “Not even my partner believes me.”

  “Do you know how hard it was to get Whitchurch to authorize all this extra manpower? If I hadn’t backed you up we’d be out here by ourselves.”

  “Whitchurch. That useless fuck.” Julie shook her head. “And I appreciate it, Horace. Without your connections I’d be in trouble right now. You’ve got a way with people.”

  Greenly laughed. “Says the mentalist to the changeling.”

  Julie glanced at the helicopter. “They’ve spotted something.”

  The Apache pilot’s voice came over the radio. “Unidentified target on the hill below us. We can only see it on the video cameras.”

  “I see her.” Julie closed her eyes. “It’s a mentalist. Strong. Has to be Teri.”

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  She concentrated. “There’s someone with her. A teke, must be Daniels. He’s about to … damn! Tell them to open fire! Now!”

  A cracking burst of energy spat from the hill, engulfing the hovering helicopter. The walkie talkie squealed and died, and the rotors on the two grounded Chinooks slowed.

  “EMP!” someone shouted. “My equipment’s fried!” Soldiers deployed from the Chinooks, taking cover and firing their machine guns in short bursts toward the source of the enemy fire.

  “A teke with EMP?” Greenly said. “That’s one hell of a punch.”

  “Yeah,” Julie said. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  The Apache arced over the hill and exploded on the other side.

  “Get the mortar trained on that hill, now!” Julie yelled.

  Another burst of light shot from the hill. It struck a Chinook. A soldier leapt out as it exploded and screamed as the flames engulfed him.

  “Holy fuck!” Julie said. “What the hell kind of power is that? Nobody can do that!”

  “Apparently someone can,” Greenly said.

  “We have to … uuunngh!” Something crashed against her mind as the mentalist attacked.

  “Are you okay?” Greenly said.

  She gritted her teeth. “She’s strong. But … I … I don’t think it’s Teri.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.” She staggered. “It’s … alien, somehow. Foreign. I can’t … she’s too strong for me, Horace.”

  “I’m going to take her out,” Greenly said. His skin blurred, taking on a camouflage tone. His body elongated and his fingers grew into wicked claws as his spine curved. “I’ll try to flank them. If I can get close we have a chance.”

  “Don’t!” Julie said. “They can blast you from a distance. And we still don’t know where Teri and the others are.”

  “I don’t think we have much choice, if we’re going to get out of here alive,” Greenly said.

  The mentalist smashed into Julie’s mind again. “I think that ship has sailed,” she said.

  A series of thunder-like blasts rocked the area as beams of light speared down from the hill. One caught Greenly full on. He rolled backwards. More beams fell among the soldiers. Men screamed and dropped.

  Julie staggered toward a nearby clump of trees. She grabbed the mind of whoever was shooting at them, but as soon as she had it, the other mentalist hit her hard.

  I’m going to kill that bitch, whoever she is, Julie thought.

  “Horace! You okay?”

  He crawled up next to her and sank to the ground. His clothes were charred. “That hurt,” he said. “I think I’ll just stay here for a while.”

  “Oh, good,” Julie said. “We can die together.”

  She was struggling so hard she almost fell over when the other mentalist’s mind retreated. The bolts of energy stopped at the same time. A whisper of laughter trailed off in her mind.

  “They’re gone,” she said. “We’re alive.”

  Greenly raised an eyebrow. “The report on this one is going to be a bitch.”