Free Doomsday Exam [BUREAU 13 Book Two] by Nick Pollotta Page A

and faster, until a howling hurricane formed above the indomitable barrier.
    Reaching out of the darkness, Mrs. Cunningham's translucent hand rotated a dial and lowered the volume on the rumbling speakers to a more bearable level. I couldn't begin to imagine what it was like out there at ground zero.
    On the monitor, screaming tornadoes formed to skip along the churning water, grabbing anything that came near and dismembering the being by sheer centrifugal force. More than once they succeeded, and the tumultuous sea was starting to get a tad disgusting with floundering limbs and bobbing heads. But even disassembled, the prisoners were still trying to reach freedom. Then the sky darkened ominously.
    "Go get'em, gang!” George cheered, snapping a salute.
    As if in response, sheet lightning blasted into the churning ocean, electrifying the noxious brew nigh incandescent. Coronas of static discharge danced among the wave crests and it became difficult to see through the primordial barrage. But occasionally a glowing inhuman skeleton could be spotted as something got a gigawatt of nature's best smack in the kisser. Oh, that had to hurt .
    Without warning, a heavy rain began to descend on the monsters, the sheer volume distorting the picture. A torrential downpour, it must have added a million gallons to the battle zone. Yet the wing of warehouses did not swamp or overflow.
    Outside the thick shutters, I heard a convoy of tanks rumble past our building. Reinforcements on their way to form our next line of defense.
    Suddenly, the temperature visibly dropped, and the monitor took on a bluish tiny as the rain became snow. Then hail the size of your fist hit with sufficient force to punch holes through the unkillables. The lightning ceased, but the wintry winds maintained and a bitter cold engulfed the waterlogged leviathans. In seconds, the ocean became slush with chunks of frozen monsters bobbing about like ugly icebergs. Steadily, the thick mush congealed into a single, seamless glacier whose frosty interior was dotted with motionless blots. In gradual stages, the winds died away and a deadly arctic calm settled upon the polar landscape. Once more the abominations were trapped.
    An aged head turned in my direction, her face half cast from the glow of the monitor. “Think this will work?” Mrs. Cunningham asked hopefully.
    "No,” Mindy replied somberly, a hand nervously twisting the grip of her sword. “It will not."
    As I pushed the volume switch for more sound, it was possible to hear a scratchy crunching, munching sound. The view dollied in for a tight zoom, and I could see that deep underneath the ice were countless figures moving slowly towards the warehouses. Damnation, the clever bastards were trying to eat their way to freedom!
    Instinctively, I seized the Magnum on my belt. Rats! That's what we needed, a couple million trained rats to eat the monsters. Indestructible did not mean indigestible. It was a last-ditch attack my team had actually used once against the Artichoke of Doom. My only regret had been the lack of a decent hollandaise sauce, or a chilled Zinfandel.
    If the ice fell, only a single Elemental defense remained to try. The picture on the monitor receded to the original viewpoint. In astonishing speed, the glacier melted and the water began to bubble and steam. Gouts of greenish fire vomited from below and many howling beasts were sent hurling into the sky, their hindquarters trailing smoke. The land rose to form a crater, replacing the water with sticky boiling mud, then red-hot molten lava from the center of the Earth. Lambent flames danced across the yellow-hot magma as it belched superheated poison gas. I could imagine the stench of sulfur and brimstone mixing freely with the stink of roasted meat and burnt hair. Probably worse than New Jersey in the summer. Well, maybe not that bad. The television nearly went blank as the searing plasma flow reached white heat levels and continued to accelerate until