“Then I gather this meeting should move quickly,” Gentry said. “You will accompany me back to City Hall. To the President’s office.”
“Why?”
“All in good time, Mr. Shepherd.”
“Gonna need an explanation,” Kane said. “I’m not just gonna go in blind. You know me better than that, Gentry.”
“Agreed,” Gentry said. “I know you require incentive.” He looked past Kane, his grin broadening. “Ah. I do believe I’ve found it.”
It all happened too quickly. Gentry shoved Krieg aside, sending the doctor tumbling over a nearby slab and into the floor, a corpse falling on top of him. Kane shouted, turned to stop Hoyle and the others from firing. Gentry growled something in Icelandic, a gust of wind sending Kane at the others. He smashed into Chris and two went flying into Hoyle’s group, all of them landing in heap. Kane heard Tabitha scream, saw her fly past him and into Gentry’s arms. She fought against him, shoved him back. She tried to fling a spear at him, but he swatted her arm away and grabbed her by the throat. Kane was on his feet in a flash, barreling down at Gentry, his teeth grit as he reached out to tear the commissioner apart. Gentry had the Ruger out, the barrel pressed against Tabitha’s temple. She went still, her eyes wide. Kane stopped in his tracks. There were six floor tiles between him and Gentry.
Six feet.
“Maybe you’ll make it, Mr. Shepherd,” Gentry said, pressing the Ruger harder against Tabitha’s temple. She whimpered, her eyes locked on Kane. “Is it worth it? Is her life worth finding out whether or not you’re faster than a bullet?”
“This is you and me, you slippery shit,” Kane said. “Let her go.”
Gentry tightened his grip on Tabitha’s arm, glancing down at the satchel she carried.
“And I have your Grimoires? My, what a productive day.”
“Lucky you,” Kane muttered.
Gentry started to speak, then stopped. He blinked, looking down at Tabitha. He took his hand off her arm and placed it on her stomach. It glowed a soft white, a breeze blowing Tabitha’s shirt slightly. Gentry looked up at Kane, smiling again.
“I believe congratulations are in order,” he said. “And I believe this may change my plans slightly. I may not need you after all, Mr. Shepherd.” He cocked his head to the side. “Or maybe I do. Of course, there is only one way to find out. Næturferð!”
Kane held his arms up to block the gale force winds as Gentry and Tabitha were swept up into the air. They disappeared, the wind surging out the door. The room went still just as quickly as it had been a cyclone. Kane stared at the spot where Gentry and Tabitha had been standing, his blood pounding in his ears.
Chapter Twenty
Kane stared at the spot where Gentry and Tabitha had been only a moment before. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. His body was tense, his fists clenched, his fingernails digging into his palms, wetness seeping slowing between his fingers as he clenched harder. Harder. He had to feel pain. He had to feel the sting.
He had to feel.
He could hear Hoyle shouting orders to his men, could hear Chris saying something. Their voices were soft, mumbles against the sound of his heartbeat in his ears, blood coursing through his veins. Kane’s teeth were grit together, his eyes locked on the empty spot in front of him as Krieg got to his feet and came close to him. He said something. Waved his hand in front of Kane’s face.
Gentry had taken her. Had taken Tabitha.
Had taken his child.
His child.
Kane blinked. A father. He was going to be a father.
No, Goddammit, he thought, screaming in his mind. I’m going to be a father. I GOING TO BE A FATHER!
“Kane!!”
Kane blinked, snapped out of his fugue state as Krieg gripped his shoulders and shook him, yelling his name.
“I’m going to be a father,” Kane said, the words coming out, his voice strong, full of anger. Determination. That was what he felt. He looked at Krieg. “I’m going to be a father.”
Krieg’s eyes were wide as he stepped back, his mouth open in shock.
“Oh,” he said. “Oh, my Lord.” He looked away, shaking his head as he covered his mouth. Kane heard Chris walk up to him, saw the kid out of the corner of his eye.
“She’s pregnant?” he said.
Kane nodded. “Yeah.”
“No,” Krieg said, looking back at them. “No, there’s something you need to hear, Mr. Shepherd.”
Kane’s eyes hardened again as he stared at Krieg.
“Let’s hear it.”
“Commissioner Gentry is planning something…spectacular was the word he used. Something involving you.”
“I gathered that.”
Krieg shook his head again, waving off Kane’s comment.
“No, listen: it’s not enough for him. He’s gone completely mad. He doesn’t just want to kill you. He wants to break you. Tear you down.”
Kane stared at Krieg.
“Doc, I’m not trying to be rude, but you’re a little late to the party with that one.”
“No, Mr. Shepherd, you don’t understand,” Krieg said, shaking his head. “There’s a purpose behind it. He’s obsessed with the idea of taking everything from you. Killing anyone you’re close to. He wants you to be completely alone when he finally decides to come for you. No where to go. No one to help you. Nothing left.”
Kane breathed out slowly.
Tabitha. Gentry was going to kill Tabitha and the baby.
Rage filled Kane, white hot, his body trembling from the desire to kill Gentry, see the bastard’s blood on the floor. His breathing went deep, the knot in his stomach moving to his chest, burning with hellish fury. He hadn’t felt it since the Wendigo curse he’d carried in South Carolina. For a brief, unforgivable moment, he wished he still carried the beast inside him.
Kane spun on his heel and started out of the morgue. Chris and Krieg followed behind as he passed by Hoyle and his men. Hoyle had helped Wil to her feet.
“Where you goin’, white man?” she called to him.
“To get Tabitha back,” Kane barked over his shoulder. “Chris, Hoyle, get with Cybil. Lock this place down.”
“Kane,” Wil called from behind him. Kane ignored her.
“There are still Special Forces troops out in the city,” Chris said. “Just because Chesterfield’s dead doesn’t mean they won’t carry out their orders.”
Kane nodded as Wil called his name again.
“Hoyle, make sure there’s a perimeter set up around the station,” he said. “Take in any refugees who need help. You see Special Forces, kill them on sight. No prisoners.”
“Jesus,” Hoyle muttered.
Kane made it to the elevator and stepped inside. Wil appeared next to him, smashed the button to close the door before the others could join them.
“Kane Shepherd, you stubborn, pissed-off peckerwood!” she snarled at him, putting her face close to his. “You gonna ride in this death box with me, and you gonna listen to every fuckin’ word gonna come outta my mouth!”
Kane went back at her.
“Back off,” he shouted. “I’ve got this, and I don’t need your help.”
“You need all the help you can get, you overzealous sonofabitch!” Wil stood her ground, her eyes locked on Kane’s. “You know as well as I do: that wind-tossin’ bastard ain’t gonna kill your lovergirl. Him need you to come after her. That’s how him gonna trap you! Now cool off your fires ‘fore you burn somethin’ don’t grow back!”
Kane stopped himself for arguing. He leaned back against the elevator wall as the car began to rise. Wil was right. He couldn’t go in hotheaded. Gentry laid a trap, and Tabitha was bait. He had to be smart about it.
“That’s better,” Wil said with a grunt not unlike Antonia Boudreaux’s. She crossed her arms in front of her.
“We’re short on time,” Kane said. “Gentry knows I’m going to come after Tabitha.”
“And him know that you got the temperament of a gri
zzly bear,” Wil said. “Which mean you go in blastin’ fireballs all over the place, you gonna set yourself up to fail. He only got one target: you.”
“But I don’t have a choice,” Kane said. “City Hall is a fortress.”
“Oh, don’ get me wrong,” Wil said. “You gonna go in the front door. But you ain’t gonna go alone. You can’t. That ain’t gonna do your girl or your baby no good.”
The elevator stopped, the doors opening. Kane stepped out, stopped, and looked around the area. The main floor was alive, people bustling about, everyone working to clean up and detain the last of Danwood’s Templars and dirty cops. Police officers from Cybil’s army worked with Chris and Hoyle’s revolutionaries to help the wounded to desks that had been turned into makeshift exam tables. Magicians healed the wounded officers and the like while others gathered up the guns from the fallen and the prisoners. A small group in the furthest corner had the weapons spread out, checking them for defects and taking stock of ammunition.
“This is it,” Wil said. “This is the war, Kane Shepherd.”
Cybil walked by, stopping in front of them.
“You’re not wrong,” she said to Wil. “Cybil Lewis.”
“Wilhelmina Devereaux,” Wil said, giving Cybil a slight nod. “You call me Wil. Easier than that mouthful my mama give me.”
Cybil gave Wil a curt nod and turned her attention to Kane.
“Wil is telling the truth,” she said. “This is now open war, Kane. And we’ve got casualties. But we’ve also got momentum. We aren’t the only fight in the city. Hoyle and Chris have put word out that we’re assembling. We need a plan of attack.”
“Gentry took Tabitha,” Kane said.
Cybil nodded.
“Understood. We’ll get her back.” She turned and called to a few officers. “I want everyone gathered here for an assembly in ten minutes. We’re going to City Hall.”
“Ma’am,” the men said. They gave her a salute and hurried off to relay the message.
“Gentry is mine,” Kane said.
Cybil looked at Kane.
“I’m not arguing with you,” she said. “From what I’ve been told, you’re the only one here who stands a chance with him. And you’re also the only one he’s interested in. There’s a lot more going on in that building than what concerns you directly. But there’s a plan in place.” Her eyes narrowed as the elevator doors opened again. Kane looked over his shoulder as Chris and Hoyle stepped off, followed by the three officers. “And I do not have time for hotheads who can’t follow orders.”
Chris held his hands up.
“Hey, we won, right?”
Kane rounded on him.
“You got people killed,” Kane said through grit teeth, his nose almost touching Chris’s. “You get that? People are dead because of you!”
Chris went back at him.
“I did what I thought I needed to do! I didn’t think they’d have fucking machine guns set up!”
“That’s the problem,” Kane snapped. “You didn’t think! If you’d have waited an hour, we could’ve done the same thing without killing off half of our people!”
Chris’s eyes widened. Kane could see the realization on the newsie’s face.
“I…I don’t know what say,” Chris stammered. “I just wanted to help end this.”
Kane glared at him. He felt his anger back off slightly. Chris wasn’t trying to kill him. Chris hadn’t taken Tabitha. It wasn’t Chris who started the whole thing weeks ago. Months.
Years.
Kane breathed out slowly, stood tall. He moved close to Chris, got in his face as he growled.
“Cybil is in charge. You will do what she says without question. No more cowboy bullshit from you.”
Chris nodded.
“Right,” he said. “No problem.”
“I mean it,” Kane said. “That bastard has the mother of my child.” He couldn’t shake his fury. His body shook with rage. He stepped back, Cybil, Hoyle, Wil, and Chris watching him.
“Kane,” Cybil said. “Honey, I’m all over this. We will get her back.”
Kane wiped his mouth with a shaking hand, looking away at the people working around him. He saw City Hall through the broken front skylights, it’s spire high in the sky as an airship lumber past.
“I hope so,” he said, turning back to them. “Because I’m going to kill anyone who gets in my way. Anyone.”
Kane heard Cybil’s voice in his mind as he watched the front steps of City Hall from the rooftop. Wil had teleported them to the vantage point. He was to wait until the signal to enter the building. He looked up at the skyscraper, every nerve on end fighting his instinct to go in and blast everything in sight.
“We’ve taken back the police department,” Cybil said. “But we’re not done. Listen.”
Kane listened again. The noise in the distance was telltale. Gunfire. An explosion. Screams and shouts. A building burned. He could smell the smoke drifting over on the breeze. Airships had pulled back from Hidden Valley to provide support, but skirmishes were quickly spreading all over the city. Protests going out of control. No. Rioting. No.
War.
“The Revolution has started. It isn’t just us. It’s everyone that the Oligarchy oppressed. The People. We’re going out into that war. We’re going to be part of that fight.”
Standing on top of that building, his mind spinning with Cybil’s words, his heart hurting at the thought of what that evil son of a bitch Gentry might be doing to Tabitha, it was then that Kane realized how blind he’d been. How narrow-minded of him to think that Hidden Valley was the sole victim of the Oligarchy, of the oppression from the wealth and the powerful in New Chicago. In the Northern Union. How many other Hidden Valleys were there? How many cities were being torn apart from the inside out? New York? Boston? Detroit?
Only one mattered to Kane. Only the city where his friends were in danger, were caught up in this fight.
Only one war.
“Aspectu aethereo.”
The world went to black and white. Kane focused his hearing and his Ethereal Sight on City Hall. He wanted to search the building, look through the walls, find Tabitha’s aura. Not yet. There would be time. He scanned down, saw the legion of troops on patrol in front of the building. More surrounded the building, each door guarded by two.
Gentry knew Kane was coming. More likely, he was expecting it.
Kane saw Chris and his group of Magicians hiding in the alleyways and in the shadows. He heard Wil behind him.
“That damn fool in place?”
“Yes,” Kane said. He focused on Chris. “Remember that there’s a plan in place, will you?”
“Yeah, I got it,” Chris said, annoyed. “You got a good visual?”
“Yes I do,” Kane said. “Three groups?”
“Back, left, and right,” Chris said. “Cybil and Hoyle will make their approach on my mark.”
“I don’ like this,” Wil said. “That evil-ass Magic Man up to something twisted.”
“I agree,” Kane said over his shoulder. “But he’s not leaving us much choice, either.”
“Hmph,” Wil grunted. “We got plenty of choices. One bein’ kill’em all and let your God sort ‘em. Got enough power in them flyin’ beasts to take down that castle. Not likely we’d get out alive with your girl in tow, anyway. Them flyin’ hellbringers’d have that building on the ground in seconds.”
Kane didn’t look at her as he spoke.
“I know you hate sneaking around, but we don’t know what kind of artillery they have down there. Besides, the airships won’t attack. They might be too many important people inside the building. They’ll send in ground troops, though. That could be a problem.”
“That man a coward,” Wil said. “He liable to kill her anyhow.” She grumbled under her breath. “Damned fool-ass white people.”
“Gentry isn’t going to kill her,” Kane said. “He wants to torment me. It’s no fun to him unless he can string it out. It’s a game for him.
We go in, wipe out his troops, and I go up alone.”
“You a damn fool just for that.”
Kane shook his head.
“If I come with someone else, it’s someone else he can kill. I’m not willing to risk that.”
Kane scanned the building. He saw Tabitha’s aura in the topmost office overlooking the city. He made to zoom his sight in, try to make sure she was okay, see more than just the blob of an aura glowing behind the concrete and steel.
“Just got the signal from Cybil,” Chris said in Kane’s hearing. “We’re a go.”
Kane looked away from Tabitha’s aura and focused on the small group of soldiers at the rear entrance of the building.
“Five at the rear,” he said. “First group move in.”
Chris nodded and motioned his group forward. Three of them emerged from the dark. The troops spun to fire, but the Magicians were quicker. They spread out, blasts aimed. The soldiers took aim, bunched up. Chris sent a bolt of lightning at the water at their feet. The soldiers jarred and jumped, collapsed in a pile as the metal armor suits began to melt together.
“Rear group down,” Chris said, looking up in Kane’s direction and giving him a thumbs up.
“Groups two and three at the same time,” Kane said. “Move up. Rear group split and flank.”
Kane inhaled slowly, let the breath out. It was time.
“Give the signal.”
Chris motioned to his people, then raised his hands to the sky as Kane killed his spell. His sight went to normal. A bolt a lightning crossed the sky. He looked down, saw the streets begin to fill with Revolutionaries and Police officers. Hundreds of uniforms, hundreds of civilians, all marching on City Hall. Cybil was at the forefront, Hoyle walking next to her.
Kane turned to Wilhelmina and nodded.
“It’s time.”
She nodded back, put her hand on his shoulder. He felt the world whip around him like a tornado, then the street under his boots. He saw the army marching toward him. Officers had their guns out, civilians were armed with both firearms and melee weapons. Clubs, baseball bats, planks of wood, rebar, whatever they could get their hands on. Kane fell into step with Cybil. Wil didn’t appear next to him. He saw a green flash from inside the building.
Gaslit Revolution Page 29
