The lights of the city had faded behind them, and though there were a spattering of households and squatter settlements in the area, the majority of the mountainous zone was covered by tropical rainforest. Lincoln was afraid there would be no way for the Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) team to make it up the mountain in the Northern Range in time to stop the abductors from transporting Audrianna to a second location.
Out of sheer habit, as a former Marine, Lincoln glanced down at the controls. But the helicopter they maneuvered towards the scene had the basic flying equipment a cockpit would need to function. There were no thermal imaging sensors for navigation purposes.
Shit, man! It's a Beetle with a rotor blade and a tail fin stuck on it.
Lincoln grew irritated that he was basically flying blind with a 360-degree blind spot. He looked down at his smart phone; Audrianna's location on his GPS signaling app had gone dead. The direction had been at 0:200 when it vanished, the direction of the explosion. Lincoln cursed, slamming his palm on his fist. He squeezed Mat's shoulder. "Balls to the wall, Coyote!"
Mat jammed the pedal and eased the cyclic control stick to his right, flying towards the fire that burned the dark-green forest at full speed.
* * *
"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep." the ringing in Viktor's ears sounded like the emergency testing transmission on a television. He couldn't hear anything else.
He squeezed his eyelids tightly closed.
Dr. Eli…
Viktor's eyes popped open. Dr. Eli, he thought savagely. His eyes filled with unimaginable rage. His veins burned with hatred. Viktor gripped his weapon in his hand. He wanted to beat the old man within an inch of his life.
Viktor felt a harsh nudge to the side of his head, where he lay on the floor in his dimensional enclosure. He looked up at Xin. Viktor's vision was still hazy from being blown back by the impact of the blast. Xin nudged him again with the tip of his shoe.
"Hey." Xin's indifferent features looked down at him from what was, to him, a great height. Almost mocking, he said, "We'd like out."
To Viktor it was pantomime. Unsure of his sight, hearing shot, Viktor shoved himself off the floor of the dimensional chamber he had created earlier for their entrance onto the scene. He had instantly pulled all his acquaintances into the chamber with the detonation of the bomb.
Viktor flexed his arm. Pointing Hell's Embrace with authority, he fired a strong white blast at the black apse structure. The walls dispelled into black smoke until they disappeared completely, revealing the white room his wife had been in once more.