Polished

by P. S. Power

  The trick to tracking the incoming transports wasn’t nearly as hard as it might have been. His partner of the moment, Dareg Canton, for all he looked young and a bit too handsome for real work, had a link with him that allowed them to track things from satellites hovering above them in space. More to the point, he could use the little flat sheet of stone he pulled from his pocket to control the things, so brought three of them to bear for that purpose.

  He was also decently polite, so didn’t complain when Richard suggested that they set up to watch the vehicles pass them from the ground. A thing that they were able to do by flying down the coast a good way and, cleverly, hiding in the bushes along the side of the road.

  Holding up a single hand, he got the man next to him to wait, instead of showing himself as the blue and green craft, much like the one that Countess Printer had shown up in, rushed past them, moving nearly a hundred miles per hour. The other man had something in his hand, which, when Richard looked over, wasn’t a weapon at all. It was his handheld.

  “You got video of that?” The term was probably wrong, but there was a nod at the words. Then he brought up a replay, as the craft moved out of sight, about a mile away.

  “Yes… Let me… Here. What can you tell from this?”

  There was a slightly too polite sound to the words, as if there wasn’t going to really be any new information that they didn't have. Which was probably true enough. They had Cin Mableton on information gathering and satellite imagery. Having eyes on the target was just old habit for him, so he did it. Not because he didn't trust the other sources, simply due to the fact that for most of his life doing anything else was nearly impossible. The best he’d had before working with Cindy was pictures and very rarely, some film.

  Still, he watched the scene play out again, being the same thing he’d just seen with his own eyes. After a moment, something clicked.

  “Right… Look here.” A single finger pointed at the lead vehicle first. “They have two craft, but put almost everyone in the lead. From the size they can carry six people that way, at least large ones like this. Two up front in the cab, with four in the back. In the second one we have one man driving and another riding in the back. You can just see a bit of tarp or blanket back here, meaning that’s probably where Georges is being kept. Most likely tied up under that. Hopefully alive.” He had been the last that Rich had been told. Then, it was clear to him that Cindy would lie if she thought she had a good reason for it. Her information was good most of the time, on a level that made her invaluable.

  That didn’t mean she wasn’t a hard gal, who had a real edge to her. Worse, that was largely invisible, until you got to know her. She was attractive and seemed almost frail. That wasn’t the reality. Even without powers, the lady was clearly hard on a level that most men couldn’t make themselves believe.

  So, if she had a reason for them to take these men along with the body of their target, she’d do it and never even feel bad about the idea.

  Nodding, Dareg took a slow, rather deep, breath.

  “I understand. So when Denis takes them, he needs to know that. I would have had him focusing on the lead Tam-craft, not realizing that, myself. The biggest danger is going to be the man riding with Georges. He probably has orders to kill the man directly, if anything happens. Can your friend influence all of them at one time? I wasn’t that clear on it.”

  That part was a thing that Richard actually knew, having worked with the man before.

  “Yes. He’ll want line of sight on it, though he can technically do it without that, if he knows the target well enough. In this case he really won’t though, so he’ll need to be able to see what’s going on. We could try to block the road or something. It will need to look real. I’m betting that those things they’re in can off-road with no problem. They have the clearance for it.” The craft truly did. They hovered over the Earth by nearly two feet.

  They didn't really need roads, given that.

  Dareg nodded at the idea.

  “That’s correct. Perhaps a pile of stones or a tree in the way? That or other craft. It will need to be done in a way that will slow them while in view of Denis Thompkins… We’ll need to think on that. I can’t come up with even a single thing that would actually look correct, without setting off any alarms. Do we follow them or…”

  There was some merit to the idea, but Richard shook his head. They really did have good tracking on the kidnappers. Better than he and Canton would be able to do if they were flying along behind them.

  “We need to get back. Call this in first, with what we found and our idea. Lydia is doing a fine job, but she isn’t really experienced with this sort of thing.” He faked a wince at the words, as if he were being mean, instead of letting the boy with him know a simple truth.

  Lydia simply wasn’t a military commander. Not as of yet. Then, they weren’t on a military mission.

  There was a smile from the big fellow then. His lanky form stretching upward as he stood from where he’d been hunched down behind the bush.

  “That was clear when Ambassador Mableton set the task. I can’t say that I understood the reason for it exactly. Still, she’s done a fine bit of work so far. This kind of task… Well, no one is ever truly prepared for this kind of thing, are they? I wouldn’t know what to do either. If it were me, I’d have simply gotten Baron Havar and Aunt Tiera to go in and attack them. If we could have found them in time. Then Georges the servant would probably have been killed to prevent us taking him back. Let me call this in to her.”

  It was Tim Baker that the other man called up but he asked after Line Walker Lydia, and reported everything they’d been speaking about to her, without suggesting they do anything in particular. When that was done, they started back. Lifting into the air, with Richard suggesting they not rise too high.

  “We don’t want to be seen by the kidnappers when we pass them. Call it… A hundred feet up? About a mile to the right of them.” There were trees on that side, which would be just tall enough to hide them as they passed.

  The trip back was faster than the one out, since they knew what they were looking for. Still, Richard had to admit that he would have gotten them lost, if it had been up to him. There were landmarks, but those were mainly bends in the road and small, low hills. Rocks in a few places. Canton used those without comment to have them back inside ten minutes. They’d flown a good bit faster than the speed of sound to do it, Richard had to think. The trees had actually blurred as they’d moved along. Still, there was no tell-tale sonic boom from their passing and he hadn’t died, even if it had felt a bit like that might happen a few times.

  As they settled, Dareg doing it first, near the clutch of people close to the old mill, Lydia held her right hand up, almost even with her face.

  “We’re going to wait for them to camp for the night. That will mean we need to be stealthy and mobile but won’t have to block the road. Unless one of you has something better than that?” It was a real question but sounded adult enough. Like a good boss who was willing to take advice, if it was a better plan than she had to start with.

  Richard shook his head though.

  “Not really. Blocking the road is more certain, but the cover of night is fine as well for that. How are we getting Denis and Kerry close enough? I want to practice the take down first, if we have the time. They’re in two sections, like we reported. The cars are a bit like what Countess Printer has. We can use your car for that, Countess?”

  The idea of practicing first got half the men and women there to look at him like he was an idiot. Interestingly, Baron Havar and King Richard both simply nodded at the idea. The taller man looked very serious about what was being said.

  “That’s a prudent idea, Mr. Drake. Do we have a second Tam-craft to use for that?”

  Interestingly, Tor, Tim, Tiera and Clemance all worked at their necks, pulling out small tiles with what seemed to be identical glowing sigils on the fronts. Clem won, setting his up first. It was nearly identical t
o the ones that the kidnappers were using.

  Lydia took over then, since liking the idea of practicing first or not, she went with the plan instantly.

  “I want various set ups for this then. Let’s set up the most likely scenario first. They pull over and get out, to set up a camp. Drivers, I want you to try and beat Denis. Kerry, the man guarding the target will try to kill him, if he can. Um…” She looked around, then waved a single hand. “Printer Guards will be doing most of that. Clem and… Dare, I want you in as drivers. Use anything you can to try and stop Denis from putting you to sleep.” She looked over at the others then, almost slyly. “Dareg is a line walker, so might be able to beat your powers, Den. That probably won’t be the case with the real driver, but we need to assume that they might have weird magics in place. Even if they don’t know it, which would mean that Cindy wouldn’t be able to tell us about it first. King Richard and Countess Printer, you’re the protectors for Denis and Kerry.”

  The rest of the people were set into place quickly enough. As it turned out, by the fourth time they ran the scenario, Dare wasn’t able to beat Den totally. He did manage to stay awake as the others all laid on the ground though. Once he got into the second car to drive off, only to find himself floating away from the driver’s seat, thanks to Kerry. She held her left hand out, to indicate that, while using her other hand to pick up Cindy, who was hidden in the back of the second vehicle.

  Then, being mean, Lydia moved over to her, whispered something and then reset the whole thing.

  This time with Cin in the passenger’s seat of the second vehicle. All of the guards had weapons out and at the first sign of anything happening at all, started to shoot blindly, using invisible forces to knock the world around, as Denis ducked and covered. That allowed the drivers to recover enough to get inside the vehicles and take off.

  True, that had them abandoning most of their own people, but they had the package with them, which could be their orders. It took three more practice rounds before Tiera and Timon hit on the idea of standing back and turning the vehicles and other magics off. That left Cindy and Dareg naked but everyone was pleased enough with that result. It didn’t affect what either Denis or Kerry could do at all.

  Lydia clapped.

  “Change of plans then. Tim and Tiera will go in with Denis and Kerry. Richard and Holly are both on duty for all of them. If it goes sideways after all of this, lay down cover fire and then run away. Now, we need to go over how to use the shackles while Den keeps everyone down.”

  That was harder than it sounded like. Richard watched the whole thing, finally speaking to Denis softly.

  “On the next one, I want you to drop the sleep field after the first guard is shackled.” It was just to make it harder on the people doing the work. Clemance and Lydia, for this portion of things.

  That got interesting, since the guards on the ground had shields. That meant most weapons didn't work against them when they realized they could move again and one of them, a red-haired woman, used that to point a hidden knife at Cindy’s throat. She had to get up and run to where the woman had been floated away, but being Georges the prisoner, she wouldn’t have a shield on at all.

  It allowed the man to be stabbed in the throat six or seven times before anyone else got there to stop the attack from taking place. It was Baron Havar that managed it, grabbing the guard and taking the blade from her hand efficiently enough, without harming her. It was a very martial arts looking movement from the big man. Efficient and so well practiced that it seemed to be like something from a movie.

  Then, Dareg had mentioned that his plan would have been to get Tiera and Ruel Havar to go in with him. Not Timon or Tor Baker. Not anyone from the IPB. Given what they were seeing it was probably due to those two having some real skills, when it came to fighting.

  He moved over to Lydia, smiling.

  “We need to have a backup plan, in case something like that happens. We don’t get a lot more time, the next run, we should go over what will most likely happen.” He whispered the words, since they were kind of an order. The stakes were high, but he didn't want to undermine the woman in front of the others. She was in charge, even if it was mainly an exercise, as far as he could tell.

  She set that up, letting it play out perfectly. Ending with the guardsmen and drivers being subdued easily. Then the plan would be to load them onto Noram Three, which was the name of Countier Thomson’s space ship. A thing which was currently resting on a string. Around the young man’s neck. It was incredible to think of for a moment.

  Then, since it was getting late, they moved to the area that was probably going to be close to where the kidnappers planned to stop for the night, and hid. At true dark, Cindy nodded and grinned, speaking loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “They’re about a quarter mile down the road. About two hundred feet off to the side, in a stand of trees. Here, let me pass a map of that…”

  The image hit Rich as well, showing as if it were hand drawn, on fairly old-fashioned parchment paper. From the sudden jumping about a third of the people were doing, they all got to see it. Dareg Canton brought up a map on his handheld, which was more modern looking, but showed the same thing. That had several others doing the same thing.

  Lydia looked at it and pointed.

  “Den, Kerry and that group will come in from the um… West. The rest of us will be on the north and east. We need to close on three sides. Like a triangle, so we don’t leave an escape route down the road.”

  Everyone listened to the orders, and then moved into various vehicles, so that they could get into place silently. Richard didn’t really have a job for the whole thing, he noticed. Then, oddly enough, neither did Tor Baker or Dareg Canton. They all flew in using their shields, which was interesting, since it was getting fairly dark out. They did it low to the ground as well, not moving all that fast, so that they didn't accidently hit any trees.

  The actual takedown went almost flawlessly. Watching it was very much like the last practice that they’d had, though the cars were further apart by about fifty feet. That didn’t stop Denis from making everyone sleep, though. The hard part came when the shackles needed to be put on. Den couldn’t hit the people then, which meant that one of the people that Clemance was trying to put the heavy chains on managed to get up and run. They didn’t try for anything fancy, either, the medium tall man just heading deeper into the tree line.

  Pointing, Richard grunted. He, no doubt rudely, pointed a single finger at the fleeing back. It was easier than running after him first thing, which was, he realized, not actually needed for the time being. Rich wasn’t Argos or even Impulse when it came to sprinting. It was clear that the man running away was a lot slower that way, however.

  Still, he took time to use his words, since that was what polite people did.

  “That one is ours then. Can either of you turn the magics off for him? I bet that will make this more fun, if you can.” Otherwise they were going to have a potentially interesting chase, since the man might well have a shield on, or other flying gear or even a craft. If that was the case, they might end up chasing him into outer space. Which wasn’t, of course, likely. If the men had that kind of option, they’d have used it, first thing.

  Tor simply nodded, seeming focused and a bit tense. It showed on his face in that his eyes tightened, fractionally.

  “I have that. I can do it from here.” His voice was bland sounding. Probably due to whatever focus or concentration his powers needed to work.

  Dareg took off then, moving on foot. Faster than Richard was even able to track in the dim light. He did the same, running on foot for a bit, then realizing that flying close to the ground would be a good bit faster. It worked, so after a moment, still running, or at least trying to, he rose four inches into the air and pushed forward into a speed that made the dim world around him blur. It was an interesting effect, if a bit hard to see where he was going.

  Which meant he didn't see the tree he impacted with a
t nearly a hundred miles per hour. That, the power of the raw impact shook him, but the shield he had on appeared to actually work, since he was still alive and almost as if by magic, the kidnapper they were pursuing was just to the left of that particular tree, meaning he collided with the man as soon as he spun off, hurling in that direction quickly in an attempt to keep going.

  The other man screamed a bit, after that. Still conscious, but with several broken bones.

  Dareg found them a few moments later thanks to the moaning, screaming and carrying on. The tall man looked at the downed foe and nodded after a moment. If he was able to work out how accidently the man had been taken down, he was kind enough not to rat Rich out. Not first thing at least. Then, almost mechanically, the tall young seeming white fellow started to work on various pockets the kidnapper had, pulling out several weapons, with a certain amount of care.

  His voice was low, which meant straining to hear him over the pained moaning coming from the downed kidnapper.

  “Mainly knives and a bludgeon. No magics of note on him. They have them as a group, so… My bet is that this one was hired on for the mission, instead of working directly for Holder as a sworn man. Which smacks of political concern, instead of simple expediency.” Those words came in English, which the downed man wouldn’t know, at a bet. It gave them a secret way of communicating, more or less.

  Continuing on, Dareg Canton shook his head, slowly.

  “A sworn man is given a sort of limited protection when following orders. As long as they are doing what their master told them to do directly, to the best of their ability, they are personally held harmless in it. Mercenaries and hired men do not enjoy that state, so being caught kidnapping the man of even a former countess will have these villains put to death, more likely than not. They were clearly not counting on anyone caring all that much about retrieving their victim.” The tall young man made a soft, rather considering, sound. “It seems they were wrong.”

  They both moved to carry the bellowing fellow back. That made it sound like they were killing him, which wasn’t the truth. Rich, at least, was trying to go as gently as possible. Dareg wasn’t exactly slamming the man around, either. They managed to hold him by either arm and move him along with a smooth and even flow. It meant being close enough to the man to smell the alcohol on his breath. Then, Richard knew that one. A lot of criminals took drugs or drank before committing their crimes. It was stupid, since doing that kind of thing made it far more likely you would make a mistake. Not that it was the case this time. These men would have been caught regardless of how disciplined and ready they were.