Alien Diplomacy

was glaring at Bryce. They were looking at each other, not me. I probably wasn’t going to get a better chance. I’d pay the price later, but right now called for pulling out all the stops. I focused and forced myself to rev up to what I’d been at when things were going sideways during Operation Confusion.
    Cartwright had shared how this group planned to destroy my husband and likely my child too. They wanted to destroy all of my friends and family, everyone I cared about. And they wanted to hurt Jeff and Jamie in ways that would ensure they died in agony, ripped apart by their own powers, because they loved me.
    It took no time for me to focus on the one thing I knew would bring the adrenal rush faster than anything else: rage. I saw red and knew it was time to channel Wolverine’s patented Berserker Rage.
    I grabbed Leslie’s wrist and focused all my strength as I bent and twisted. I pulled my neck free as her wrist snapped. It broke off in my hands.
    She screamed while I landed on the floor. I threw the hand at her and ran. Bryce just missed me. I was at the speed I’d been when I’d been kicking butt and having the Poofs eating bad guys underground in Paris. Maybe I just did my best work under the earth and pissed off beyond belief.
    Naomi and Abigail grabbed the others, and I grabbed them as their shield flickered out. I dragged them behind me as I slammed through walls, pulling them with me. I risked a look behind. The girls seemed attached and okay. But the supersoldiers were following us, weird weapons blazing, slashing, or whatever some of them actually did.
    It was interesting. I had complete control when I was revved up to this level. The fire alarms were still blaring, and that meant no elevators would be working, or if they were, they were ferrying passengers from the higher floors. The garbage chute might work, but it was iffy. That left the stairs. I had to figure the Gower girls had used up all their reserves, meaning they’d all be moving athuman speeds, but my job was to stall so they’d have time to get away.
    I dumped them in front of the stairwell door. “Get out of here and get some help! That’s an order.”
    With that I turned around and launched myself at the supersoldiers heading for my friends.



CHAPTER 86
    I HIT THE FIRST ONE, grabbed an extremity of some kind, and used the momentum to swing myself onto the next in line. Did this a couple of times and ended up on the sorta-shoulders of one of them.
    I grabbed its head portion and twisted. It was hard; I really had to put my back into it. But I felt it start to give.
    “Don’t let it out!” Marling shouted. “They’re only controllable while they’re in the suits!”
    Oh, really? Interesting. I didn’t stop pulling and twisting, however. It felt the way I imagined riding the mechanical bull would, only a lot more stressful, and with no drunks cheering me on.
    “Stop!” Bryce screamed. “They’ll kill us if they’re out.”
    “You and Leslie aren’t really alive,” I shared while I ducked low to avoid a shot from one of the other supersoldiers.
    “They’re as alive as you are,” Marling said as I finally got the lid off one really hard-to-open can. Naturally the smell was horrendous. I didn’t stop to sniff the roses, therefore.
    Instead I threw the helmet portion at Marling and hit him, knocking him to the ground, I assumed because I was working faster and throwing more strongly than he’d been prepared for.
    The superbeing inside the metal shell was trying to get out. I didn’t have a lot of time and fewer options. But from what our latest set of genius loons had said, these things likely had Mephistopheles’ DNA in them. I opened the clutch and grabbed the hairspray. I didn’t bother with spraying, just ripped off the top and dumped the whole bottle in.
    I jumped off as the thing started screaming in a way that was so far from human I could barely recognize it as real. But real it was.
    It flailed around, slamming into two others. It was still able to use its weapons, and it did, against its brethren. They, in turn, fought back. I couldn’t tell if Marling was controlling them or not, then saw that I’d hit him in the head with the helmet, and he was knocked out. Nice to know he was still human, to use the term loosely.
    I ran and grabbed the remote before Bryce or Leslie could reach it. It was like they were moving in slow motion, which meant I was revved to my highest level. I had the remote, which