Christina Dodd - Chains of Ice

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Leslie Gelbman, Kara Welsh, and Claire Zion, my appreciation for your constant support, and more appreciation to NALs brilliant art department led by Anthony Ramondo for the unique covers. As always, I value the work of the publicity department with my special people, Craig Burke and Jodi Rosoff. My thanks to the production department, and, of course, a special thank-you to the spectacular Penguin sales department.

Chapter 1

Five years ago
In the Andes
Chile, South America

Im not the psychic in this group, but this looks like a trap to me. John Powell walked into the cave carved into the base of the retreating glacier. His breath hung white on the frigid air, and he had to duck to avoid the low stone lintel constructed to hold back the ice. He glimpsed the prehistoric paintings on the walls, showing bloodied intruders pierced by spears, crushed by boulders, and swept away by a raging river.

Not good signs.

It smells like a trap to me. Kim Sun Hee walked at his side.

He glanced down at the diminutive Korean. Is it the Others?

What do you think the Others smell like? Fire and brimstone? she mocked him gently.

Yes? He listened to the creaks and moans of the man-made stone cave as the glacier pressed against its walls and ceiling. He flicked glances ahead, behind, and around the group before them, alert for the slightest sign that they needed to escape now.

As he always did, Gary White led the way, forging ahead. Amina Berhane walked on his rightshe exuded an ambient light that illuminated more of the shadowy passage than their flashlights and headgear. Max Novak walked on his leftget Max close to treasure, and the gold and gems called to him. Sophie Moore and Bataar Lohar walked one step behind them.

Then there were Sun Hee and John, lagging ten feet back from the rest of the Chosen, acting as the rear guard.

There isnt an Others smell. Theyre peoplethey smell like people. If I could get close to them, Id ID themshe lowered her voicebut I never get close. It always seems like theyre scooping up the Abandoned Ones while were having grand adventures.

Was that a complaint? John suspected it was. These people, Gary and his six compatriots, were the most powerful group of Chosen in the world today. The Gypsy Travel Agency sent them to carry out feats suited to Spielbergs best action-adventure films. The way they lived was dangerous, exhilarating, and made them the rock stars of the Chosen Ones.

But they never seemed to get to perform their modest and important mission statement: rescuing discarded infants before they could be taken and their special gifts used by the devils henchmen.

Sun Hee turned her head from side to side, sweeping the area for scents. Yesterday some people, I dont know who, were walking near the entrance and came a little way inside. But last nights wind and snow have confused the smells. Still, I dont think we need to be concerned with an ambush.

John scrutinized the symbols cut into the slabs of stone that made up the wall, the way the ceiling arched overhead, thenlike some amusement park optical illusioncurled downward to a vanishing point. At least not from any living being, he said.

Youre worried. She glanced at his bare right hand, her brown eyes shadowed.

He looked, too. In this dim passage, his fingernails glowed with a faint blue light. He flexed his hands, containing the power inside. Yeah.

Hey, back there, dont be such chickens, Gary called. Max says were almost there. His voice echoed along the long, dark tunnel and came back amplified, enlarged.

Pebbles fell from the ceiling in showers.

Shit, John muttered. Not so loud.

Ill be as loud as I like, Gary shouted.

Again, the amplified voice. Again, the rain of pebbles, but more this time. Something immense thumped behind them, shaking the floor, rattling Johns confidence. He turned. Sun Hee shone her flashlight over the huge stone that now blocked their way out. Not totally; it was possible to climb over it and back to the outside world, but the easy way had vanished.

Gary would be delightedand that was the trouble with Gary. John respected him; he really did. Because Gary was older, in his early forties, and charismatic as all hell. Gary had joined the Chosen Ones when he had been a brilliant, handsome, fit eighteen-year-old. Hed been elected the leaderof courseand stayed at the top for the required seven years.

Traditionally, after one term, most of the Chosen opted to become part of the real world againbankers and ranchers and tour guides, people who knew more than they should about the battle between good and evil but who no longer served on the front lines.

Not Gary. He had stayed to command a second team, then a third, and now he directed this group. In the last two years, John had seen Gary fly an airplane, discover a previously unsuspected Mayan ruin in Guatemala, trek across the Sahara Desert, and rescue a kitten for a grateful old lady. The man was impressive.

But no challenge was big enough for Gary, no victory decisive enough. If he thought the mission was too easy, he looked for ways to make it harder.

Before John had joined the Chosen, hed been part of the military. You didnt go looking for death; that wasnt the way it was done. You prayed it didnt come looking for you.

Oh, he didnt say anything. But lately, hed been wondering if it was smart to follow an adrenaline junkie. Worse, he suspected Gary knew of his doubtsthe man was, after all, a mind readerand John feared those doubts drove Gary to new heights of daring.

Arent your hands cold? Sun Hee whispered and tucked her gloved hands into her armpits.

I grew up in the Russian mountains and Siberia. About his origins he was brief. None of the Chosen Ones knew their birth parents, but most of them didnt have a background like his.

Frankly, most children didnt survive a background like his.

Are you okay back there, Sun Hee? Gary called.

She smiled, flattered, as they all were, by his attention. Yes, Gary.

The big guys not making you afraid with all his worrying?

No. John is cautious, but always for good reason.

John appreciated the sentiment. Yet, at the same time, he almost wished she hadnt said it. Six feet tall, fit, with a head of black hair and compelling hazel eyes, Gary attracted women, all women. Amina was sleeping with him now, but it was Johns impression that Gary had gone through every female who worked at the Gypsy Travel Agency, every female Chosen hed ever had on his team, and had plans for every female not yet screwed.

Sun Hee was one of those still-untouched females. John didnt need to get into a pissing match because Sun Hee had spoken admiringly of him, and he really didnt want Gary to feel pressure to seduce Sun Hee sooner rather than later.

Yet he said nothing when Gary called, Come on up and join us reckless ones. Its more fun than hanging around with that dour Russian.

John wasnt Russian. He hadnt lived in Russia since he was seventeen, when he walked south through the Ural Mountains, then west to the Black Sea and across to Turkey. Hed paid his way with work. Hed earned his ID, a passport, and an American visa with a service done for the right officialthe only time hed traded his power for a favor. If there was any truth in kismet, he should have suffered a turn of bad luck for misusing his gift. But in fact, he had never regretted what hed done. Hed wanted out, and hed gone about it the best way he knew how, and kismet had remained uninterested... or perhaps it simply was biding its time.

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