Free Guardians of the Portals by Nya Rawlyns Page A

either dead or in hand. He had no doubt that the older man had given himself up in place of the woman making her way toward the two buildings across the road.
    ****
    J ake lay bleeding on the ground with a gut wound that looked worse than it was. He was sure the bullet had passed straight through. All they needed to do was get the bleeding under control, though nobody moved to make it so. They all hung back, weapons pointed at his head. He was a dead man if he so much as twitched. After what seemed like an eternity, Knutr puffed his way through the safety door and approached his captive cautiously.
    Knutr waved a man wearing a white lab coat forward and pointed to his captive. “Tend to him, then bring him to the examination room.”
    Jake breathed a sigh of relief. Knutr could have had him shot. That the capo seemed willing to tend to his wound indicated that he hadn’t run out of cards to play. He surely didn’t hold a good hand, but it was all he had. He needed to hang on just a little longer for Caitlin to make her escape.
    The medic slipped a needle in his arm. The last thing he heard was Knutr asking one of his men where ‘the woman’ had got to.
    “Gone, Sir. Found some tracks and broken limbs off toward the reservoir. We’ve called in the dogs and sent two squads out to track her.”
    “Good, make sure you have her by...”
    ****
    T rey set up shields and waited until the two squads were well past his position. He’d made a quick dash along a hiking trail, veering off to the left and right erratically, just as a human would do when rushing through dense woods in the dark. He swiped at bushes and low hanging limbs to recreate a scene of chaotic and frantic flight, leaving boot marks on the soft dirt. The woman was as tall as he though she massed only half his not inconsiderable bulk. He doubted, in the dark, the pursuers would know the difference.
    He trotted quickly across the road and skidded around the corner of the first building. Satisfied he hadn’t been noticed, he risked a peek toward the access road as a truck with holding pens for dogs approached at speed and turned into the drive to GFI. If the woman had left a discrete piece of clothing or anything that could be used for scent, it wouldn’t take long for them to figure out the subterfuge. If they took a dual scent off the older man, it would take time to sort it out. He’d need that time to find the woman. She likely did not enter the first building if she were smart. He couldn’t risk her making the poor choice and having him go off on a fool’s search wasting valuable time.
    Trey assumed she would have used one of the rear entrances. He touched each of the push bars in turn seeking an energy signature. The one on the far end still retained residual heat. He muttered, “Damn it, woman.”
    He pulsed an energy wave at the card reader and cracked the door open. Other than enhanced vision, he had few tracking abilities. Two of his brothers excelled at that and he’d always been jealous of that ability for it brought honor and approval from Gunnarr. His special ‘gift’—as Eirik called it—did not manifest until long after he’d thrown his lot in with the Althings. He doubted his father even knew that he carried the ability to fashion Portals from time-space. It was a secret few knew outside the closed-mouth circle of scientists who guarded him and their research with a blood oath to the death.
    He’d need to work a search pattern. If she were moving he’d be screwed for he’d likely miss her unless she made some fatal mistake. The way she’d floated past him, on gossamer wings, as he’d hovered within the shields, made him think of a fairy, light as air. He shook his head at the fanciful notion. His lack of focus disturbed him at some level, as did the niggling feeling, like butterflies in his gut. He decided to work from the top down, using the stairwell to ascend quickly to the fourth floor. He thanked the gods that neither