A Montague & Strong Short Story Collection (Montague & Strong Case Files)

by Orlando A. Sanchez

  I looked around at the devastation as we walked out of the castle and into Battery Park. A string of Spanish curses followed us out as Ramirez started giving orders to his men. A black Phantom glided silently up the street and stopped at the corner.

  “I’m just going to say that none of this was my fault.” I turned back to view the devastation Gren had wreaked on the park. “Maybe I should tell him it was a troll?”

  “I doubt it will make a difference.” Monty dialed a number on his phone and looked at me. “Roselli’s? You may want to inform Piero about Flat Earth before he calls you.”

  I groaned. “Fine. Besides, I’m starving.” Robert opened the door of the Phantom. “I never got to enjoy dinner at Masa.”

  “Well, never let it be said your dates are boring,” Monty said with the hint of a smile. “When is the next one? There’s still much of the city left intact, you know.”

  “Such humor and wit.” I jumped in the car. “I don’t know how you manage to contain yourself.”

  “It’s not easy,” he said, getting in after me. “Roselli’s, Robert.”

  “Yes, sir.” Robert slid in behind the wheel and pulled away. “We may have to take a few detours. The city seems to have been under attack this evening. Many of the main streets are closed for construction.”

  Monty sat back. “Understood,” he said and glanced at me. “Take the safest route. Avoid the damage. Simon has had an eventful evening and would prefer some peace and quiet.”

  “I’m never going to live this down, am I?” I asked as Robert raised the partition with a tip of his hat. “Do you think this will blow over?”

  “Are you asking if this date night will fade into memory?”

  “Yes—exactly that.”

  “Well, it depends.” Monty rubbed his chin. “The Dark Council has a destroyed high-profile neutral zone. The Consortium will certainly remember your involvement with their troll assassin. Piero and the vampire community won’t forget the devastation of Flat Earth—it was a hot spot for them.”

  “Forget I asked.”

  “Not to mention Ramirez, the NYTF, and the city now have a major reconstruction plan underway due to your evening of frivolity.”

  “So, no—it won’t fade away,” I asked, knowing the answer. “And there was no frivolity, none.”

  Monty closed his eyes and shook his head slowly, the hint of a smile still on his lips. “I think it’s safe to say this date will be with you for quite some time.”

  THE END

  The War Mage

  by

  Orlando Sanchez

  A Montague & Strong Story

  “Once you are so unfortunate as to be drawn into a war, no price is too great to pay for an early and victorious peace.”

  -Churchill

  ONE

  “YOU WANT THIS war to end, Tristan? This mission will get you one step closer to that.”

  “According to the rumors, this is suicide.” I sipped my Earl Grey as I weighed our options. “How many stranded on Ellis?”

  “Two battalions we can’t get to and one hundred of your mages who can’t cast on that godforsaken island,” Commander Zava answered. “We can’t get into the city while the Black Heart is active.”

  Commander Zava, leader of the Free Forces, was a bear of a man. He towered over the table, his giant hands gripping the sides. Lines of weariness crisscrossed his face, giving him a haggard appearance.

  “Air strike?” I offered.

  “Air strikes—or any other method, including teleports—have been neutralized,” he growled. “I don’t need to tell you what happened to the aborted teleports.”

  I winced and shook my head. “No need.”

  Zava sighed, rubbing his face. One of his assistants placed a steaming cup of coffee on one of the smaller tables behind us.

  We stood in a small rune-covered room of a bunker complex designated Bravo. It was located several miles from the forward base of Fort Wadsworth. Desks were on one side and a large table dominated the center of the space. On the table were maps and diagrams of the city and the surrounding islands. The runes that covered every surface were to prevent eavesdropping of any kind.

  Zava handed me a sheet of paper and I looked down at the call signs written on it.

  “These names are ridiculous, Henry. ‘Banshee’? Really? I don’t know whether to be offended or amused.”

  “Apparently, Tristan Montague, Golden Circle battle mage extraordinaire, is known throughout the land. Something to do with buildings exploding around you.”

  “This is a war. Do you expect me to be gentle?”

  “Gentle? Do you even know the meaning of the word?”

  I glared at him. “My methods may be unorthodox, but they are effective.”

  “Be that as it may, call signs come from above my pay grade. Operational security and all that. The entire team will use them.”

  “But Banshee?”

  “Your swords do that” —he waved his hand around—“they do that screaming thing, right?”

  “They wail. It’s why they’re called the Sorrows.”

  “Sure, they wail and wherever you go you leave a trail of death and destruction.”

  “I’m a battle mage. It’s what I trained to be. Last I checked we were fighting supernatural enemies bent on wiping out humanity. Would you like me to negotiate terms with them over tea?”

  “Well, the name makes sense. Wailing swords and lots of death equals Banshee. Besides, no one knows who Banshee is and this op is as black as they come. Be thankful they didn’t go with the first choice.”

  “Which was?”

  “The Wailing Mage.”

  I stared at him and he shrugged.

  “I can’t believe you said that with a straight face. Banshees are really known for keening, not wailing. There’s a difference, you know.”

  “Wail, keen…no one is going to hear anything over the destruction, trust me. Bottom line, no real names.”

  “Where’s the rest of my tribus?”

  A tribus or tribus-bellum was an operational battle unit of three mages, each with distinct roles. It consisted of a battle mage, a defensive mage, and a healer.

  “White Phoenix is sending a healer, and the Stone Citadel is sending over defense. They should arrive in the conference room in” —he looked at his watch—“five minutes.”

  I nodded. The White Phoenix sect was famous for its healing mages. I had history with the Stone Citadel. A few years back, several of their mages had been captured. I’d organized an unsanctioned rescue that cost lives.

  The Citadel held me responsible, unofficially. What they neglected to admit at the inquiry was that their mages had disobeyed orders and deviated from the agreed upon plan of attack. They had risked an entire battalion of mages by being caught by the enemy.

  Ever since then, our sects only spoke when necessary and avoided each other as much as possible. Stone Citadel mages were some of the best defensive magic-users in the war so it would be good to have one in the tribus.

  “Good choices. How did you get the Citadel to agree to send you one of theirs?”

  “When they asked who led the tribus, I told them it was being led by Banshee.”

  “Was that an attempt at humor?”

  “Like I said, everyone knows you and no one wants to be next to Tristan Montague in a battle. I think it’s the concern about crushing debris.”

  “Hilarious. Tell me what insanity we’re facing.”

  “A team needs to infiltrate and disable the ley-lines to the Black Heart from the inside—on Keyes Island.”

  “Disrupt ley-lines. Has command gone completely mental? Can’t be done.”

  “We found a way to re-route them for short periods of time. Dangerous and extremely risky.”

  “The word you’re looking for is suicidal.”

  “We have a team situated farther inland on the ley-line to allow you a small window of access on Keyes.”

  I glanced down to where he pointe
d at the map sitting on the table. It was a small island situated a few miles south from Ellis Island. Keyes Island was a deathtrap in the best of conditions. It held one large fort-like structure, long abandoned, and was aptly named Oblivion.

  “If Oblivion vents while we’re on the island, this will be a short mission indeed.”

  “Ley-line vents work on thresholds. The team giving you the staggered window will bleed off enough of the runic energy to prevent a major vent.”

  “If they miss one of those windows…”

  “They won’t.”

  “What’s waiting for us inside?”

  “Ley-line vents are basically a rectangular box with staggered floors to shunt the energy outward from the line.”

  “You have no idea, do you?”

  Zava shook his head. “We tried to drop a team inside. No one made it past the roof. The entrance was protected by a runic lock.”

  “You’d need a mage to unlock the roof access. Anyone else would trigger the defenses.”

  “So we learned, the messy way. From our scans, we were able to determine that once past the roof, it’s a straight shot to the lower level. I can’t, however, tell you what’s on the way down.”

  “Wonderful, we’re going in blind.”

  It was considered impossible to set foot on the island, whether supernatural or normal, and survive for long. The runic backwash from the venting was fatal to most. No one was supposed to be able to re-route ley-line energy to create defensive shields.

  Except that someone or something had done just that. An artifact named the Black Heart—a quantum runic stone—sat in the center of the city surrounded by an impenetrable shield. The defenses for the Black Heart originated on Keyes Island.

  “If we manage to disrupt the ley-lines, how long does that disable Ellis?”

  Ellis Island—the entire island—was configured with runes. It had recently been converted to a mage detention site due to its becoming a null zone. Every magic-user steered clear of it. The ley-lines that powered the defenses of the Black Heart also fed the runes on the island.

  “If done correctly, eight hours before the backflow overwhelms the inhibiting runes and blasts them to nothing during the venting.”

  “You expect to exfiltrate two battalions and one hundred mages in eight hours?”

  “I know,” Commander Zava said, looking away. He was tired and it showed. “The exfiltration is not the priority.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “If I give you the ley-line window, can you get on Keyes?”

  “With a solid tribus, odds are fifty-fifty. The traps and failsafes make the entire island deadly.”

  “You’ll have two more, in addition to your tribus.” The commander looked around to one of his assistants. “Make sure they’re in the conference room.”

  The assistant stepped out of the room quietly.

  “Henry, I only need a tribus-bellum,” I said, trying to keep my composure. “We operate as a triad. We don’t need two more of anything. They’ll only get in the way or get everyone killed.”

  “I know—you’re war mages. Tough as nails and nearly impossible to kill.”

  I nodded. “That would be accurate. This is why we don’t need another two—”

  “I buried what was left of the last tribus a week ago, Tristan.”

  He let the words sink in for a moment. They had the desired effect.

  “Bloody hell,” I muttered under my breath. “Who?”

  “Fitzgerald, Brown, and Jenkins. Rumor has it Jenkins panicked and rushed in ahead and alone, got everyone killed. You battle mages seem like an unstable group.”

  “He was always a bit reckless, but I’ve never known him to disregard combat codes of conduct.”

  “Whatever is on Keyes Island made him disregard everything. He rushed ahead and triggered some of the failsafes. He went down first and fast. The other two followed a few seconds later.”

  “And we’re not sending a larger force because…?”

  “They would be detected and erased. We tried that first. Threw everything at Keyes…lost them all. A surgical strike is the best option.”

  “They were a solid team,” I said. “One of the best.”

  “Not solid enough,” Zava replied. “You go with five or you don’t go at all. Brass is looking at unleashing the Revelation Protocol on both islands.”

  “That would kill everyone on Ellis—it would erase the island.”

  “It’s Ellis or the entire city. That’s the choice we’re looking at if you fail,” he said quietly. “I know you have friends on Ellis and, frankly, this mission is screwed six ways to Sunday. No shame in saying no and walking way. You don’t need to sacrifice your life.”

  “Walking away isn’t an option. Who are my defense and healer?”

  He shuffled some papers until he found what he was looking for. “Andrews is your healer and Gibbons is support.”

  “And the other two?”

  “A pair of brothers, fighters from”—he shuffled his papers again— “says here they’re from the region of Tibet, whatever that means. In any case, the older brother doesn’t speak much English but seems to understand it, and the younger brother is quite fluent. They are both quite lethal and come highly recommended.”

  “Sorry, did you say Gibbons?”

  “Is there an issue?” Zava asked. “I was told he’s the best defensive mage we could get. They call him Gibraltar.”

  “No issue,” I said. “He just holds me responsible for the death of his brother. There’s also the small matter of his vowing to remove me from the face of the earth. Other than that, it should be fine.”

  “Shit, Tristan, I can’t get anyone else. We’re running out of time.”

  “We’ll make it work,” I said, holding up a hand. “He can kill me after we get everyone off Ellis and destroy the Black Heart.”

  “I never mentioned destroying the Black Heart.”

  “We are destroying it, though, right? Tell me this is a seek-and-destroy mission.”

  He shook his head and looked around to make sure we were alone. “The exfil is a distraction. The real goal is to remove and retrieve the artifact. That being said, an Omega Free Force Squad will be ready to move in once you drop the defenses on Keyes and disable Ellis. The main attack force lands on Ellis in three days.”

  “Retrieve? Not destroy?”

  “Brass wants it under their control.”

  “Do you know what it is?”

  “The artifact?” More paper shuffling as he found his notes. “It’s a quantum disruptor created to facilitate temporal transit.”

  “Do you even know what that means?”

  He shook his head. “No, except that the higher ups want it out of the city and used by our side.”

  “Are you serious? They didn’t brief you on this?”

  “I know all I need to know, Tristan. It’s dangerous and giving the supernaturals an advantage over the Free Forces. Do I need to know more?”

  “A quantum runic stone is a rune made solid. It’s an extremely difficult and rare process. The Black Heart being a temporal stone means it bends time.”

  “Bends time?”

  “This stone allows the supernatural armies to time-skip three seconds anywhen—forwards, backwards, and most impressively, sideways in time. Ziller would be giddy with that stone.”

  “Sideways? What the hell does that mean?”

  “It can create a parallel instance, a place where time stops flowing. That’s why it’s so dangerous. I know of only one other runic stone in existence.”

  “Who has that one?”

  “No one. It sits in the center of a time loop inaccessible to anyone. The last mage who tried to extract it was gone for a millennium. He returned insane. It was sealed away after that.”

  “And Command thinks they can harness that?”

  “They can’t, but it won’t stop them from trying. It needs to be destroyed, Henry. Or at the very least disabled
and contained.”

  “They think they can control it. Orders are to bring it back intact. Retrieval is the priority. According to the brass it’s what’s preventing the city defenses from being breached.”

  “And Ellis Island? Expendable?”

  “My instructions are to save them if I can, but not lose sight of the priority. The Omega Free Force is to facilitate evac and take the island. For that to happen the defenses need to be down on Keyes.”

  “The artifact is the priority. Bloody magnanimous, your bosses,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s comforting to know I can trust them if this goes bollocks up.”

  “You can’t, but you knew that. You have three days before they erase Ellis Island and go for the artifact with force,” Zava said. “I don’t need to tell you what a bloodbath that will be.”

  “No, you don’t. Let’s get my team.”

  TWO

  WE ARRIVED AT a larger conference room where the rest of the team was assembled around the large table. A large topographical map covered half of it. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a detailed schematic of Keyes Island with Oblivion in the center. Next to it sat a map of the city. Times Square was circled in red.

  I noticed Andrews and Gibbons right away. The other two men looked related, with slight Asian features. An air of quiet menace hung about them. They were of average height and both wore black combat gear. Andrews and Gibbons wore mage armor similar to my own. Mage armor was normal combat gear, but it was covered in runic defenses. I didn’t expect to run into enemy magic-users, but one could never be too prepared.

  “Andrews and Gibbons,” Zava said, pointing. “This is Kano, known as the Fan, and his brother, Noh, who goes by Stick. In fact, from here on out you’ll be using your call signs. Especially over any kind of communications.”

  Both brothers gave me a slight bow. I narrowed my eyes at them—not in an attempt to intimidate, but rather in an effort to read their magical signatures. It was one of the ways to determine the magical level of those I faced.

  I saw they had some magical ability but the energy signature I read was diffuse and distinctly not that of a mage.