Black Gate: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4 Read Free

faded as the sun set over the Rockies.
    “Clear, Katherine. You’re up.” Her team leader, Frank’s, voice cut through her thoughts. The man was all business, and she counted on that. They all did. It kept them alive.
    “I’m coming in. North door.” Two teams had been sent into the house, one to clear the main floors, and her team, to clear the tunnels below before she entered the house. This fortress was built into the side of a mountain at high altitude and the entire team had memorized the layout. Six special ops teams surrounded the home, invisible in the pine trees and shrubs that littered the sides of the nearby mountain slopes. She couldn’t see them, but she knew they were there, ready to move if her team needed backup. The snipers had taken down most of the guards before she or her boys had gotten close to the house. She didn’t know how many people the two teams had been forced to battle inside the house, and she didn’t want to know. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered.
    The raw power emanating from this place was too powerful to ignore. Based on the number of armed guards and surveillance equipment surrounding the house, the cult members knew exactly what they were hiding. They’d put up a hell of a fight, with the Casper Project team ordered to take them alive for questioning. But as Katherine had listened to the assualtassault, it had quickly become apparent that the cult members were under orders to commit suicide rather than be taken alive. The artifact’s energy was too dangerous to leave in the hands of the asshole who had set up shop here. Official word was that the house was occupied by a cult loyal to its leader, the owner of the home, a man they referred to as The Dragon. Who knew what kind of alien weapon they were hiding, but its influence had woken Katherine from a dead sleep hundreds of miles away.
    WhateverwasWhatever was hidden here was too dangerous to allow them to maintain control of it. She’d been the one to demand they come here and take the artifact. Finding alien artifacts, weapons, and things that reeked of power was her job. It was the reason the Rear Admiral had recruited her in the first place. When she’d told him about this place, he’d listened. Thank God. Because if he hadn’t, she would have come alone to face this cult and their ‘Dragon’. She suspected the cult leader was an alien himself, but he’d eluded capture and was, even now, probably gathering reinforcements and preparing to return.
    “I’m inside.” Katherine stepped through the door her boys had left open for her and blinked to allow her eyes to adjust to the dim interior of the home. She shivered as heated air passed by her exposed face, reminding her of how cold she’d been crouched and waiting on the ground outside. It was nearly summer, but this high up there was still snow on the ground under the cover of shade, and warm days quickly turned into freezing-cold nights.
    Katherine welcomed the approaching thunderstorm, but wouldn’t be able to use it for long. As soon as she entered the caves beneath the house, its power would be much harder to reach if she needed it. But if she had to, she could. And thank God for that.
    Survival in this world was all about power. Who had it.
    Who didn’t.
    Power she had in spades. Leashed. Managed. Disciplined. She had final say on this mission. On nearly every mission. She saw things no one else saw. Felt things no one else felt. She was the most valued asset the Rear Admiral possessed. And so he kept her out of every room until her boys cleared it. She was the loaded stick of dynamite that never got lit.
    She hadn’t fully understood, not until Chicago. She wasn’t military. Wasn’t a spy. She was something else, and that “else” tested the limits of her control more every day. It clawed up her spine like Crampons climbing a glacier. Pain she could deal with, but the rest? The dark power that had woken her and led her to this place, that filled