The Project 05 - The Tesla Secret

CHAPTER ONE

    It was what he didn't hear that woke him.
    Nick Carter listened. No insects. No frogs. No rustlings in the trees, no familiar sounds of the night. It was cool in the cabin after the heat of day. The clean scent of California cedars and damp earth drifted through the open windows.
    Selena Connor slept next to him. He touched her on the shoulder and she came awake. His voice was soft in her ear.
    "Get dressed. Something's wrong."
    Nick pushed off the sheet. He placed his feet on the hard wooden floor and picked up the .45 on the nightstand.
    Selena slipped naked out of bed. Her clothes were on a chair near the front bedroom window. Wranglers, a green tank top, underwear. She stayed away from the window, skipped the underwear, pulled on the jeans and the top. She slipped her feet into a pair of Nikes and slipped her Glock from its holster.
    Nick stepped into his pants. He heard a tiny scraping sound of metal against metal outside the window, a familiar click as the lever released. Adrenaline flooded his body, a rush of raw energy.
    "Selena, Grenade!" he shouted.
    He threw his forearm across his face and ran straight through the screen door that led onto the deck, Selena behind him. He leapt off the deck, stumbled and fell and rolled to his feet again. Pain shot up his spine. The explosion of the grenade rocked the cabin.
    The cedars were thirty exposed yards away. They ran across the gap and reached the concealing shadows of the grove. Nick looked back at his cabin. Bright flames lit the bedroom. The fire was already crawling up the outside wall toward the green metal roof.
    Incendiary, he thought. An incendiary grenade. Shit. He took deep breaths and calmed himself.
    "How many?" Selena asked. Her voice was low, tense.
    "Probably more than one." He watched the flames spreading. "We have to take them down. I'll circle right and come out near the front. You go left. Watch for me."
    She nodded.
    He touched her arm. "Don't get hurt."
    He moved away. Selena watched him go. Her heart thumped against her ribs. She began moving though the trees, her pistol held in both hands down at her side.
    The flames roared through the dry wood of the cabin. Red and orange and yellow embers soared into the night sky. Small explosions sounded from inside the burning building. The noise covered Nick's movement through the cedars. He pushed branches aside and lifted his bare feet and set them down with careful precision, feeling the uneven ground. He stayed away from the edge of the grove and circled the flames.
    He heard them talking before he saw them, two white men dressed in black. They had Uzis.
    "They might of got out." The first man said. He was about six feet tall, lean. Ex-military, Nick thought, the way he's standing with that weapon . The second man was short, stocky.
    "From that? Are you kidding?"
    He waved at the building. The cabin was engulfed in flame. The framework began to appear as the inferno consumed the walls and interior.
    Nick raised his pistol and listened.
    "He shouted before it went off," the tall one said.
    "Yeah, well. He can shout all the way to hell. They're fried. Let's get out of here."
    "Hey, look over there. A cat." The tall one pointed.
    A big, orange cat sat at the edge of the clearing, curious, watching the flames. Nick recognized him.
    Burps.
    The cat was always around when they showed up. Nick owed him. He'd saved their lives a year before.
    "Watch this," the man said. "Cat food." He raised his Uzi.
    Nick put two rounds in the center of the tall man's back. He went down hard. The next two shots hit the short man in the chest and knocked him backward onto the ground.
    Burps ran into the woods. Now we're even, buddy. Nick watched and waited. The bodies didn't move. He looked right and left, saw nothing. No one. He walked out into the open.
    Selena's pistol barked in the woods, three hard, flat echoes. A third man fell out into the clearing, dressed in black like the others. Selena stepped from the trees. Nick went over to the man, scanning the shadows. He kicked another Uzi out of reach. Blood bubbled on the man's lips.
    Nick knelt down. "Who sent you?"
    The man looked up, his face contorted with fear. He coughed blood. He tried to speak and coughed again, a sudden gusher of bright red that spilled out over the brown earth. His chest stopped moving.
    Selena walked over and stared down at the man she'd killed. Don't think about it. Deal with it later. She was getting good at tucking her