The Inscribed Angle

by Andrew Bardsley

  The three were travelling through the air to the shore line, where they had a large ship docked. Jen, who had been monitoring information flows from the back-seat, suddenly spoke up. “We have some people tailing us, they’re keeping their distance at the moment though.”

  Freya glanced in her rear-view mirror, “What do you want me to do?”

  Jen thought for a moment. “There’s a good chance they are probably paparazzi, so I wouldn’t be concerned. Still, it might be best to lose them anyway.”

  Freya said with a smile, “It will be my pleasure.”

  As Racheal grimaced, the vehicle shot to ground level and swept in between the buildings at high speed. As soon as the tailing vehicle was out of sight, Freya engaged a magical stealth inscription and disappeared. The rest of the ride was at break neck speed to the ship.

  As they approached the ship, Freya had chartered, Racheal sucked in her breath with anticipation. “It certainly is big Freya! It has four floors on top, and two pools. You seem to have gone all out.”

  Jen said in a serous voice, “It’s all about the biggest and the best at this level of society. We need to show we can spend the money to bait the trap.”

  As Freya had been getting to know her recently, she had been shocked by Jen’s quick change of personality from the fun-loving blond to a cold and ruthless agent. Freya had been in a lot of life threating situations and had developed an instinctual radar for dangerous situations, and when Jen was not bringing the fun-loving blond, this radar was giving her warnings. The magical vehicle landed on the ship’s back deck and was then lowered into the garage of the ship. The garage was spacious with enough room for a collection of vehicles. Several men and women came forward to help the three women out of the vehicle. They all were dressed as stewards or stewardesses but were all part of Freya’s security force.

  The activity on the boat was hectic, as tonight would be the first event of many, to establish Freya in the upper echelon of the super-rich of the world. Invitations had gone out to the rich and famous, to celebrate on the ship with a party. Freya had internally cringed at the expense spent on throwing the party. The food and drink had been sourced from all over the world, and the entertainment was one of this year's top performers. The three women entered the top deck where the main stage of the entertainment would be happening. Jen looked on the venue like a general before the battle field with an expression of eager excitement. Out of the three of them only Freya was dreading all the attention.

  As the three left to get ready, Jen said to Freya, “Remember you need to be late tonight, the party must be in full swing before you arrive. I’ll let you know when to make an entrance, by messaging you.”

  Later that night, Freya found that she had got ready too early, and now was sitting and waiting in her massive cabin. In her expensive but elegant black and dark blue dress, she had got sick of waiting. Freya was practicing some magical inscriptions as she had time. Under her dress her own magical inscriptions were glowing with power, in preparation for any unforeseen occurrence. Jen knocked on her door and entered the cabin.

  Jen looked her up and down before saying in a semi-serious voice, “Ready to enter the fray of battle. Remember, just be yourself, and if you hear anything, we’ll talk about it after the party.”

  Freya’s first impression was that the party was an assault on her senses. People were milling around on the top decks of the ship, moving around and being loud. Some of the women in the party were dressed in fantastic clothing, that seemed to exaggerate different aspects of their bodies. The time and money that had been spent on the dresses tonight alone must be keeping the fashion industry going. All of the clothing was full of magical inscriptions, making it seem that the dresses were almost alive. The men seemed to fall into two categories, smartly dressed in formal attire, or foppishly, like peacocks showing the colour of their attire of to the world.

  As Freya, entered the upper deck, she started to mingle and greet her guests. A lot of people wanted to have an image taken with her by the imager who was roaming throughout the crowd. Her conversations seem to flow in one of several directions: some of the more serious men and women wanting to arrange opportunities to develop business relationships, to which Freya was happy to oblige by having an assistant take the details for her; some of the more frivolous just wanted to be seen with her, they seemed to be racking up images with everybody they could find; other seemed to just want to talk about themselves, that they had brought this and that and met these important people; the final group were confident self-assertive people who seemed to be above the crowd and looked down upon the people considered ‘little’ in their eyes.

  Freya seemed to be judged and was being measured by the last class of people. The seemed to consider themselves lions on the hunt for a gazelle on the plains. Some of them seemed to hunt in prides while others were lone hunters. Mid way through the night, Freya found herself attached to a group of smartly dressed men and women. They were talking about an event in history, when a small lone country had tried to hold out against large more powerful enemy countries.

  An attractive and intelligent woman said to Freya, “What are your thoughts, dear? Should the smaller country tried to get better terms by surrendering or should they have fought to the end and got worst terms, when they had to surrender?”

  Freya considered carefully the way to answer the question, realising there was more to the question than just a simple historic interest. “Does it really matter? Once you surrender, you’re at the mercy of other power, who will always take what they want. In my view you are best to plan to avoid such non-winnable situations.”

  The woman nodded and said, “If it were only so in life, one cannot always control their destiny though.”

  While Freya was engaged in this conversation, Jen was like a whirl wind of flirting energy, moving from group to group, charming people in a simple way. As she was using her nature and not magical inscriptions, a lot of people were defenceless. She seemed to be forever asking simple questions, that seemed to have no aim, and then not always seeming to listen to the answer. It seemed that many men, in an attempt to catch the beautiful woman's attention, would let slip bits of information to impress their own importance on Jen.

  Racheal on the other hand was a complete graceful presence. She seemed to know a lot of the movie star guests and was able to act as a go between for the celebrities and the corporate class. She enabled many of the introductions, in which both sides seemed to appreciate her efforts. Many conversations that she was on the edge on were enlightening about the gossip of what was happening in the high society.

  As the evening wore on, Freya started to notice that the forever circling predators eventually found prey that were incapacitated by the alcohol on offer. The weaker, seemed to be fair game, with even their supposed friends not stopping the compromising situations emerging. Freya noticed that Jen was now attracting some of the largest predators. She was so good at seeming to be an injured gazelle, ready to be taken, that Freya had to retrain herself from interfering. As Freya got sick of the party, she left to her own cabin.

  --

  The next morning Freya, Racheal and Jen met in a secure meeting room to discuss the previous night. Freya’s security team had done a thorough search of the entire ship and had found many magical inscriptions placed down which had not been there before, some of them surveillance but some of them more malicious in nature. They had also had to ask some of the guests to leave, politely but firmly, as they were using some of the cabins. Now the ship was free and clean of any leftover influence of the wealthy party goers, it was time for them to share what they had learned.

  Freya was still slightly concerned about Jen. While she had proved previously that she could take care of herself, it looked as if she may have bit off more than she could chew when Freya left her the previous night. “Are you ok Jen? Nothing bad happened to you last night after I left did it?”

  Jen looked amused by the comment, but said, “
No, it was the others you should be worried about. My only problem was that I wasn’t able to drink all night, as I need to stay as sharp as possible.”

  Racheal looked surprised. “You were always drinking; all the men were plying you with this and that drink.”

  Jen, smirked. “I'm glad it looked like that to you” She winked at Racheal. “Anyway, we need to collect and correlate all the information we gathered.”

  Jen and several assistants, then led the discussions and interviews, extracting every detail from Freya and Racheal, of the night's events. Evenly seemingly unimportantly bits of information, and certain guest’s reactions to different situations interested them. After that process, the security team went into seclusion, to analyse and draw conclusions from the information. In the meantime, both Freya and Racheal had another socialite event to attend. Following their invitations her party, they had received many more to various events from various wealthy socialites as a reply in kind.

  Freya and Racheal prepared for a gala event tonight at the museum. This was one of the biggest events on the calendar year for anyone who was anyone. It was not so much that people were interested in the museum, but instead an opportunity for extravagant show of wealth. Each year had a different theme for the dress code, this year it was ancient religions. Freya’s costume had been chosen, by the intelligence service, for maximum effect. She was going dressed as an ancient powerful magical goddess that brought destructions down on her enemies. The dress she would be wearing had been hand-made in white and lighter shades of blue. All over the dress were false magical inscriptions in a magical language so ancient that nobody would recognise it. Racheal was going a goddess of kindness and love in warm shades of red, and Jen as the goddess of plenty and a good harvest in a daring combination of dark greens and golden yellow.

  The gala had a late start, but all the guess would be arriving hours early this time, as the most important part of the evening was showing off their wealthy costumes. This was a harrowing process to Freya. She found herself slowly making her way up a long red carpet, being asked to take this stance or another pose, and being asked many questions about her costume. Lucky, she had the overenthusiastic designer with her, who was able to fill in all the details. Once she had finished her gauntlet, she was able to watch some of the other guess. Freya saw many elegant women, with beautiful gowns, and some of the others, where the gowns were just beyond ridiculous. Some seemed to have been led down the path where they made fools of themselves. Of course, the fashion articles would spare nobody ridicule, if they stepped over some invisible line from good taste to bad taste.

  The rest of the night was as the party before, where people mixed and mingled, playing games with each other. Some of the same prey and predators were there as the previous night. Freya had felt safer in the mountains with the wolves. Several times her protection inscriptions activated, warding off some glamour or something that would change her mental process. It seemed that the rich and powerful would stop at nothing to affect her.

  For the next few weeks Freya was at this and that event where similar battles went on. Jen was ecstatic with all the information they were gathering. She was giving regular updates to Freya and Jack, that was mapping out the oppositions plans. It seen that they were gaining forces and allies for a full scale conflicted.

  One day while Freya was hosting a party for weekend out at sea, in the middle of nowhere Jen privately ordered the ship to stop with pretending it had engine trouble. The guess did not seem to notice or care except some of the higher up corporation types, who seemed to be showing some pleasure, while casting some glances toward the distant horizon.

  Within a short time, several fast-moving craft were seen on the radar approaching the ship. Before they were in sight of the passengers on the ship, the captain announced over the ship’s loud-speakers that they would be using their weapons to produce a light display on the port side. As the party goers watched with Freya and Jen; spheres and beams of magical energies were shot into the sky. Unknown to them were the crafts that had been shot down with magical mortar fire. When the display had finished, the guests who had been eagerly watching the horizon seemed to have lost some of their arrogance, they had shown before.

  Chapter 11 Not the Normal Battle Plan

  The end of Freya’s self-inflicted socializing or what she considered as torture, was over. Jack and Jen now had enough information to fully analyse the Longrow Corporation’s plan of attack. This had been gained bit by bit, mostly by the three women, but with the help of other spies and informants. The conclusion was that they were out to fight a war of attrition on all possible fronts. Not only would there be open combat, but the legal economical system of the world would be used against the Eos corporation. Longrow Corporation had bribed and blackmailed many into being reluctant allies in the up and coming fight.

  Jack was finishing his summary of the analysis and making the final conclusions, “So, to conclude, this is going to be a long drawn out fight for survival. There is a ninety percent chance that we will eventually prevail, but at a massive loss. Not only us, but the economics of the countries in the conflict areas.”

  Freya was silent for a while, considering her options before speaking. “Is there any way we can avoid the conflict?” Jack and Jen soberly shook their heads and Jack said, “No, the top level of the Longrow Corporation is determined. If they were not the driving force behind this, then the whole effort would disappear, but that would be impossible given how well they are protected.”

  Freya said in all seriousness, “Hmmm. Is there any way to metaphorically to cut the head of this snake then?”

  Jack thought for a moment, “Starting today and for a few weeks they’re meeting together at one of their private islands for the final planning. The magical power of their defence is the most powerful available. It would be suicide for even a large force to try attack them. This is how the magical world works, where the powerful are safe and confident behind their barriers, while the combat is fought by others. There is no way to get to them and destroy them confidently. If we could, this would all be over, and not only this war but all future conflicts, as nobody is safe. This would cause the powerful to stop and think about their own personal safety before playing with other people's lives.”

  As the others in her security force started to move into the detailed planning stage for the up and coming long conflict, Freya excused herself from the meeting. She wanted to consider what to do by herself. “This all comes down to me.” Freya thought. “I may not have started this, but it was my birth and life that put all this into the world's destiny.”

  Quickly she decided to take the ultimate gamble, betting everything on her own individual power and strength. Freya went quickly to her workshop and gathered up all the equipment she would need with stacks of high energy magical storage crystals filled to the brim of power. Once she was ready dressed fully in black combat clothing, she crossed to the garage and entered her powerful sturdy vehicle, full of her own combat inscriptions. Soon Freya was flying out of the safety of her own building, across the city and over the ocean.

  It took a few hours of flying time for Freya to get within a hundred kilometres of the island where the Longrow Corporation were collectively gathered. She was driving her vehicle in stealth mode, with her body producing a powerful shield of magical energy around the craft. The fast craft was skimming the top of the waves as she flew dangerously close to the sea at its maximum speed. Suddenly, her magical sensory inscriptions started to detect incoming threats from the direction of the island. Freya started evasive manoeuvres and managed to doge the first plasma sphere as it sizzled past her harmlessly landing in the ocean, but soon a massive fire wall appeared in front of her craft. The was no way to avoid it, so Freya shot straight into the raging fire. As she rushed in, she took all the power from the stealth, and put it into the craft’s shields. The vehicle’s shield was quickly depleted, as the energy of the magical fire ate away at their power. Freya started t
o increase the energy into her own powerful shield around the vehicle, which enabled her to burst through the fire wall.

  As the skies started to clear of direct magical attacks, Freya detected several high-powered magical fighting craft moving in to intercept her. Freya pulled up into the air at a steep angle, while she instructed the craft’s auto pilot, that was now linked to the latest crystal computation system. As some point in the climb, she abandoned her vehicle and flew by herself wrapped in a personal stealth shield. Her craft started to mimic her combat flighting ability, leading the fast craft on a wild goose chase. Freya few straight down in to the sea, like a bird diving for fish. When she was under the water, she started to use a water elemental pillar inscription on her body propel her towards the island. The magic parted the water in streamline film on a molecular level, enabling her to reach high velocities.

  After several minutes at full power, she reached the outer magical shield around the island. This was the first and most powerful defence shield. If she could not break through this, all her effort so far would be in vain. Even from her position she could sense the incredible power the shield was giving off. Using the sensory magical inscriptions Freya estimated that the power level of the shield was on par with that required to provide for an entire country. The cost of maintaining this shield would be immensely costly. Again, in stealth mode, Freya moved from the water to the air and flew to the top of the magical shield. Under her black outfit, the inscriptions on her body faded, to be replaced by only two magical inscriptions. One directed magical energy into the shield and the other allowed Freya to channel her full power and any magical energy in crystals she had with her.

  Freya placed all the power available to her into the attempt to break the magical field. The blast of magical energy was over in a millisecond, but the effect lasted much longer. The two large inscriptions on Freya body flared so brightly they instantly burnt holes in Freya’s clothing where the inscriptions had been. To any outside observer, all they would see was a new sun burning in the sky. Which for a small instant appeared brighter than the real sun at noon. The other magical shields flashed with a purple light as the energy channelled into it overloaded its magical inscription circuitry. Around the circumference of the island thousands of explosions of magical inscriptions signalled the complete destruction of the shield.