Page 7 of Polestar (The Global Paranormal Security Agency #3)
SEVEN
A na’s breath shuddered as she popped her earpiece in place before embarking on the freighter.
She moved aboard the ship, both hands grasping her phone, carefully positioned close to her midsection so she wouldn’t accidentally touch anything.
That would come later.
Magnus, her ever-present shadow, moved silently several paces behind.
She still found it difficult to grasp just how such a large man could move with such stealth.
Equally, while she couldn’t comprehend her instinctual acceptance of his nearness consciously, she willfully accepted it.
Regardless of her comfort level, her fingers still drifted over the reassuring presence of her taser tucked safely away should she need it. The ship had been checked, but it was always a possibility that someone could hide if they knew the nooks and crannies well enough.
She glanced over her shoulder.
Magnus’ gaze swept the deck of the ship, assessing. Fierce, determined concentration.
Anyone looking to tangle with that man was on a mission of serious self-harm, or had lost their reason.
Forcing her attention back to the task at hand, she switched on her recorder and began her own method of investigation.
Balance. Focus. Feel.
Speaking in a voice low enough for the earpiece to pick up her voice, yet quiet enough that most humans couldn’t pick out the words, she made her way across and through the ship, documenting everything she observed.
Physically and psychically.
She welcomed the familiar haze.
Aware of her surroundings yet lost in the mental images and sensations bombarding her, she struggled at first to just let them flow around and through her.
Her breath came fast under the onslaught. Every muscle in her body fought against it, tense and rigid. Until she repeatedly reminded herself to surrender.
At the top of the metal stairs leading down into the hold, she hesitated.
Revulsion rippled through her.
That self-preservative part of her was screaming not to descend.
That way led to too much pain.
What sane person would willfully inflict the torrential pain of others on themselves?
Her breath hitched.
But isn’t that why Antony left you in the first place?
Because you no longer operated like a sane person?
He died believing that.
“Agent Ortega? Are you alright?” Magnus’ voice was muffled in her current state.
Magnus.
“Ana?” His voice broke the spell.
She blinked. “Yes, I’m fine.”
She descended the stairs. It was several degrees colder below deck and growing colder the deeper she went.
The temperature change was both natural and supernatural.
“A few of the victims died down here,” she murmured, moving ever closer to the holding crate.
The GPSA team hadn’t found any digital trackers, documents, or maps left behind. The crew must have disposed of them into the ocean or taken them with them when they escaped.
Otherwise abandoned, the ship had drifted with its cargo.
It was that information that they needed.
The departure point and destination point.
Balance. Focus. Feel.
First, she had to document what she could register below decks.
She drew another deep breath and allowed her instinct to guide her. Moving along one corridor, she followed it until it opened up to the main hold and kept going until she stood before the steel containers.
In her mind’s eye, she could see all of them, victims and crewmen alike, in various states, dependent on what their strongest emotions were at the time they were in this place.
A suffocating jumble. Still, she opened herself up as wide as possible, flowing through it all until something tugged at her.
The energetic signature of shifters, not the signatures of the human cargo.
Focusing on those, she moved toward another area where rusty splotches stained the floor.
Pain.
She tensed as her protective barrier slammed into place, blocking everything out.
“Dammit!”
I need better control.
She drew a breath. Held it and tried again.
But all she could sense now, was the distinct polar bear shifter signature that she identified with Magnus now that she knew what he was.
“I need more space. Wait here,” she said, and moved away from him, crossing the stained floor to the other wall.
But it didn’t make any sense. The signature was stronger here, where it should have been weaker when she moved away from Magnus.
Save them.
Antony.
Ana froze, swallowing a sob of frustration.
How can I do my job if my guilt over Antony’s accident keeps interfering?
She straightened her shoulders, determined to ignore the echo of Antony’s voice from her nightmares.
Moving further away from Magnus, she tried to grasp the faint tethers of energy that had drawn her here to begin with.
Still rife with polar bear shifter energy, she followed it anyway. Maybe it wasn’t Magnus she was picking up on after all, since it led away from him.
Curious, she followed the energy trail. Which led her to another section of the ship.
A vast room containing the ship’s engine, with pipes and machinery jutting out of it in what seemed like controlled chaos to Ana.
The signature that guided her here lost its direction and seemed to surround her now. Unable to pinpoint where to go next, she resigned herself to placing a hand on the steel railing between herself and the engine.
But not just yet.
Realizing she’d forgotten to talk through her path, she quickly recapped where she was.
“Energy signature similar to Agent Bjornson’s led me to the engine room from the cargo hold.
I’m going to make first physical contact here.
” She finally placed her hand on the rail and continued to move forward as she searched through the images of crewmen that had been here until she found the person associated with the signature.
The vision of a young man, similar in build to Bjornson, crouched along this rail, injured.
She followed it to the end, where a bank of steel paneled controls faced her.
Save them.
An overpowering sense of urgency surged through her. She dropped her phone into her pocket and placed both hands on the massive control box. Moving around the side of the control panels, she saw a gap between it and the wall, close to floor level.
The urgency increased, and she found a section with a missing panel.
“Here,” she shouted to Bjornson as she got down on her hands and knees. “There’s something here.”
Unable to see into the darkness of the cramped space, she reached out a hand, seeking whatever hid in the box.
She hadn’t expected her hand to land on what felt like a foot. A cold human foot.
Startled, she cried out and fell back.
Bjornson appeared beside her. “Are you alright?”
“There’s someone in there. I don’t know if they’re alive or not.”
He left her to peer into the space, pulling out his phone to aim its light into the darkness.
“Shit. We’ve got a body hidden inside the engine room’s control panels,” he spoke into his earpiece. “Vital status undetermined.”
As soon as the shock of finding a human body rather than an object passed, Ana approached and replaced her hand on the foot, trying to sense their spirit. “I think they’re still alive. Yes! He’s alive, but barely.”
Within minutes, an emergency response team arrived and got to work extracting the survivor.
Now they just had to determine who this man—polar bear shifter—was, and why he was there.
M agnus anxiously stood aside while the medical team worked to free the man hidden inside the engine room’s control panel.
“Magnus, he’s a shifter.” Ana’s voice was quiet.
He looked down into her upturned face, tight with concern. “A polar bear shifter, like you.”
The blood drained from his face. If that were the case, why hadn’t he recognized the scent right away? And what the hell was one of his kind doing aboard this ship? Who was he?
Magnus crouched next to the opening again while the crew worked to remove the steel framing of the box surrounding the pipes and wires to determine how to extract the man safely.
He inhaled, scenting.
Yes, now he could pick out the distinct, faint scent familiar to him, but it wasn’t right. Familiar yet distorted. It was… other. Someone he knew. Polar bear, yes, but tainted.
Finally, after cutting through the steel paneling, the team lifted it off, allowing the light to wash over the hidden man.
The side panel came away, and the man rolled free, unconscious.
“Fuck.” Magnus barked, chest tight, as he shoved team members aside to get a closer look at the man’s face. “Aksel Matochkin.”
As gently as he could, he lifted him off the floor and carried him to the awaiting gurney so the medics could work on him right away.
He backed off to give them space, listening as they assessed.
“We need to get him to GPSA Medics,” he said to Ana.
She nodded and pulled her phone from her pocket to make the call.
By the time the medical team could safely bring their patient out of the ship and transferred to the docks, the GPSA medical staff were already landing via a nearby helipad to take him into custody.
Magnus helped load Aksel into the helicopter, identifying him as one of his clansmen.
His instinct was to accompany him to see to his care and find out how the hell he was on this ship.
But that would have to wait. Answers would have to wait. For now, Magnus had to trust the GPSA medical team to do their jobs while he did his.
He and Ana still had work to do aboard the ship.