Olivia grinned and continued walking backward toward the ladder. "You're forgetting something, Colonel. I've lived on this world, and I've been bonded in a Pure Blood household. I also have telepathic abilities. She already knows, and she's not happy at all. What she did to Grundfest's thugs will be child's play compared to this."
North stood, speechless. Olivia reached the ladder and turned to Annara. "Let me go up first and then you follow with our new buddy," she said between her teeth. "Okay?"
"Okay." Annara hid her concern behind a scowl and twisted Tennant's arm again for show, or so it appeared to Olivia.
She made double time on the climb upward, reaching the top in half the time it took to descend. Running through the command center, she headed straight toward the exit and dashed up the passageway. Once outside, she took a deep breath and cleared her mind.
Concentrating hard, she focused her thoughts, imagining herself as a transmitter broadcasting a message.
Valori? Can you hear me? Are you all right? We need your help.
I am near. What do you need me to do?
Olivia clapped her hands with joy. I'm glad to know you're okay. We need a show of force to put the fear of God into Colonel North. I told him you had implanted a suggestion in his mind, and you'd make him do something he wouldn't want to do. I hope you can manage it.
It will be difficult if he remains underground. I will draw him out of his command bunker first.
Annara and their hostage appeared at the command center door. Olivia noticed Annara had sheathed her knife and was no longer twisting the corporal's arm. Instead, it appeared they were holding hands. "Shall we get in the transport?" she asked.
"Good idea." Olivia looked askance as Annara helped Corporal Tennant into the vehicle in a polite fashion. The good-looking soldier cooperated without a hint of trying to escape. Could it be instant Stockholm Syndrome? She lowered her voice. "I see our hostage is cooperative. However did you manage it?"
Annara winked. "He told me on the ladder he respected my position, and he said I was an awesome warrior, and he found me very attractive. He wanted to know if I had bonded with anyone. If not, he asked if we could we go out on a... date? Date. Yes, I think it's the word he used."
"I think a date is exactly what he asked for." Olivia laughed. She followed Annara into the vehicle and closed the door behind them. Corporal Tennant grinned as Annara sat next to him on the bench.
"Did you make contact with Valori?" Annara asked, taking the corporal's hand in hers.
Olivia smiled at the two and nodded. "I did. She's going to do something to draw them out of the bunker. I told her about—"
A low roar interrupted her. Olivia crossed to the far side of the vehicle and stared in disbelief. "The ground in the distance is moving. It's rolling and growing like a wave—like a tsunami... It's coming this way!"
Annara left the Corporal and ran over to look. "It's not the ground—it's the locusts – they’re moving and piling on top of one another." She frowned. "Brace yourselves!" she yelled above the din of clanking metal.
The tsunami of nanobots grew to an enormous height, a coruscating smear of colors like an oil slick glinting on its surface. Everything in its path was swept aside or crushed under its weight. A reek like hot metal filled the air. The transport rattled and shook violently for a few seconds, ending up leaning to one side at a slight angle as the ground beneath them shifted. They were fortunate to suffer nothing more than a few minor bumps and bruises. Olivia estimated the pile of nanobots to be the height of a skyscraper by the time it came to a halt within mere yards of their vehicle.
"What just happened?" Corporal Tennant's big brown eyes glistened with fear and his thin face was pale. Annara helped him to his feet.
Olivia extricated herself from under a bench seat where she toppled. "Valori happened. Let's get out and see if we can put this contraption to rights again."
They exited the tilted transport just as the command center door swung open. A concerned-looking Colonel North, accompanied by several of his personnel appeared, staring in shock at the new nanobot structure.
"It's good of you to come out and talk to me, Colonel," Valori's disembodied voice said. "Now, if you would be so kind as to release my friends and fellow kinsmen, we'll be on our way."
"You know I can't do that," North called out, searching the horizon for the invisible priestess. "I explained our position to you before. I'm under orders. Since you wouldn't cooperate, and you told the others not to cooperate as well, we had to take more aggressive measures."
"Yes, the drugs."
Valori's all-encompassing voice sounded like a bored nanny speaking with a toddler. Olivia spun about, searching for hints of where she might be located, but she spied none.
"Interesting how humans from Earth have developed a vaccine against some forms of telepathy," Valori said. "You surprised us, Colonel. Unfortunately, you haven't developed anything against telekinesis, have you?"
North's eyes widened. "Tele—what?"
A twisting tentacle of metal budded from the nanobot structure and grabbed North by the collar of his jumpsuit. His soldiers shouted but could do nothing but stand and point, their expressions at once helpless and horrified. The tentacle yanked their commanding office a hundred feet into the air, dangling him like a fish on a line.
"Telekinesis," Valori explained, "Moving objects through the power of the mind. Like this." The tentacle swung back and forth in a wild arc. The colonel flailed about like a ragdoll. "Now do you understand?"
"Yes, yes, I understand!" North shouted. "Put me down, please."
"Not until my people are released. Give the order, Colonel."
"Bring the hostages out here now—on the double," he commanded. His personnel obeyed without
