by Jon F. Merz
Three soldiers walked past our hiding spot laughing about something. I felt Jack hold his breath, but he needn’t have worried. The soldiers didn’t even pause. We weren’t supposed to be there, and we were invisible, so of course, they didn’t register our presence.
I hoped there weren’t any combat veterans in the camp. People who have been under fire have an elevated sense of survival instinct. And Jack emanating as much fear as he was, I was slightly concerned that someone might pick up on it.
We needed to move again. I pointed our next objective and we stepped out from behind the supply crates. Ahead of us, a large tent stood to our right along the main thoroughfare out of camp and we sidled up next to it and paused.
I figured we had roughly a hundred meters to go before we got out of the camp. The temptation to simply run for it was strong but I knew that would create noise. I started to point out the next spot to move to when I heard an engine crank behind us.
We turned.
A ZSD like the one we’d seen earlier trundled through the camp and it was headed right toward us. On either side of the transport, two soldiers walked armed with Kalashnikovs.
If we hadn’t been wearing the Cloak, I would have been convinced they were out for us. I had to remind myself that they couldn’t see us.
The more immediate problem was where to move. The ZSD was coming right at us and if we stepped to either side, we’d bump into one of the two groups of soldiers.
The only other way out was to duck into the tent.
I dragged Jack in under the flaps and we stood there breathing hard while the ZSD went by with the soldiers.
“Jo Cha?”
I turned around. In the dim light of the tent, I made out a man sitting in a chair. He was blindfolded and bound with his hands behind him. He couldn’t see us, but he clearly knew someone was inside the tent with him.
Moreover, he spoke Nepali. He’d asked “Who’s there?”
What was a Nepali man doing in a Chinese army tent just outside of China itself? We were hundreds of miles from Nepal. He shouldn’t have been there.
“Jo Cha?”
Jack looked at me and shook his head. I knew what he was thinking. It was too risky. If we exposed ourselves, the man might go crazy and alert the entire camp to our presence. The best course of action was to leave the tent and focus on getting back on track.
But something gnawed at my insides. Some gut level instinct that made me want to talk to this guy and find out what the hell he was doing here.
“Eka mitra,” I found myself saying before reason could prevail. A friend.
He chuckled softly. “I have no friends.”
“Why are you here?”
“They caught me. I was almost home. Just a little bit more to travel.”
I frowned. Almost home? He was headed the wrong way. Unless…
“Where did you come from?”
The man’s head swung around to look at me. “You speak Nepali but you are not a native speaker. Who are you?”
“A friend,” I repeated.
He grunted. “One of them.”
“No. I’m not.”
“They’ll kill me for escaping. No one escapes. I should have stayed until I died there.”
“Where?”
“The Abyss.”
My frown deepened. Next to me, I could see Jack was shaking his head. This was all too dangerous as far as he was concerned.
“How far away?”
“Thirty kilometers. No more if I judged it right.”
“North?”
He nodded. “Hundreds of us there. Abducted. Slave labor but for what I have no idea.”
“Why do they call it the Abyss?”
“Because it is a bottomless hole that leads to the gates of Hell itself.”
Jack looked at me. This was getting weird. The longer we delayed, the bigger the risk.
I was about to say something when I felt movement behind us. Jack dragged me to the right just in time to see a Chinese army officer come through the flaps. He was holding a pistol in his right hand.
“So the time has come,” said the blindfolded man.
The Chinese officer grunted once, put the barrel of the pistol up to the man’s head and squeezed the trigger. The explosion sounded unnaturally loud in the tent and I winced.
The Nepali man slumped over dead.
The Chinese officer took a final glance and then grunted again before walking out of the tent.
It was quick and brutal. No hesitation, no promise of a second chance. Just a simple order carried out. Whatever the Abyss was, someone was taking no chances that its presence got leaked to the outside world.
“Lawson,” said Jack quietly. “We have to get out of here.”
“I know.” As much as I hated leaving the man’s body behind, I had no choice. But I resolved to find out what the Abyss was and do my best to see that its slave labor campaign came to an end as soon as possible.
14
We exited the tent and veered back onto our original path. The ZSDs were now parked elsewhere and there were no soldiers in our path so we crept out of the camp and tried to put as much distance as possible between us and them before I nudged Jack.
“Okay, we’re secure.”
We halted near a stand of tall grass and squatted down. My quadriceps were on fire and I could tell that Jack was suffering as well.
“I feel like I burned through that entire amount of blood we had earlier.”
“You and me both, pal,” I said. “That took a lot out of both of us. I’m grateful we made it through there intact. You did great.”
“Thanks. That was tougher than I expected it to be.”
“No one can really appreciate what it’s like until they actually do it.” I smirked. “Unless you get out in the field, you just don’t get what it’s like. As crazy as this venture is, some day you’ll look back on it and be glad it happened.”
Jack looked at me. “Dude, I’m already glad.”
I was surprised at how such a small sentiment like that could make my throat feel so tight. “You know, if I had a son, I would want him to be exactly like you.”
“For all intents and purposes, I am your son, Lawson.”
Damn.
I wiped away the bit of mist that had somehow managed to occupy my eyes and smiled. “All right, enough of this mushy crap. We’ve got someone to rescue.”
Jack laughed. “What’s the plan?”
The camp was roughly five hundred meters behind us. But we still couldn’t take the Cloak off. We needed cover and soon. If Jack was going to try and figure out where Xuan Xiang was keeping Talya, we were going to need some degree of isolation so he could work.
Ahead of us, the ground sloped upwards again. I was hoping that if we climbed up, there wouldn’t be yet another camp on the other side.
“Up and over that ridge,” I said. “Let’s see if we can get something done there.”
“Still thinking I can find out where she is?”
“If there’s a chance, then we need to take it.”
“All right,” said Jack.
We rose together and climbed the slope. On the other side of the ridge, the ground sloped down at a sharp angle filled with rocky outcroppings and deep ravines. Beyond that, the plain flattened further, but nothing stood out for miles in any direction. Even the highway wasn’t in view.
“Let’s get this off,” I said removing the Cloak.
Jack breathed a sigh of relief. “I never thought I’d be so happy to get rid of that thing. It was almost too warm underneath it.”
“Agreed, but at least it kept us protected.”
Jack glanced around. “What do you think?”
I spotted a larger boulder jutting out of the ground that offered us concealment in almost every direction except atop the ridge. “There. Let’s try that.”
We scrambled down the slope and wound up in the depression behind the boulder. It was shaped like a sugar bowl and we hunkered down
, taking stock of the situation.
Jack leaned back and closed his eyes. “I’m tired.”
“Makes two of us, but we’ve got stuff to do. How much time do you need?” I was trying not to pressure him too much, but the fact was we were on the clock and every second we wasted meant one less second that Talya might have.
Jack popped his eyes open. “I’m good to go.”
I smiled again. He kept surprising me. Doing what we were doing wasn’t something that he’d been trained for, but he was rising to the occasion marvelously. I was damned proud of him.
“Tell me what you need me to do.”
Jack frowned. “Lemme think for a second.” He closed his eyes and went silent for several moments. I didn’t know what he was doing. With Jack, sometimes it was almost better if I didn’t know. He specialized in things I’d never even dabbled in before. Nor did I have any desire to dabble in them. Magic and I weren’t really on speaking terms and the few times we’d crossed paths in the past hadn’t left me feeling warm and fuzzy toward it.
“Okay,” said Jack. “Lean back against that rock and shut your eyes.”
“You sure about this?”
“Hell no,” said Jack. “This is me winging it. But you’re the one who wanted to try, so that’s what we’re going to do. But you gotta trust me.”
“I trust you with my life, Jack.”
“That’s good,” said Jack. “Because if it goes wrong, you might end up dying.”
“Are you serious?”
Jack frowned and then cracked a grin. “Nah, just kidding. But you might get a helluva headache.”
“That, I can deal with.”
“Good, now shut up and do what I said.”
I leaned back against the rock and shut my eyes. I felt Jack move closer and place his hands on either of my temples.
“Here we go.”
Almost instantly, my mind clouded. A swirling mass of colors overwhelmed me and I felt warmth spreading throughout my head and down the back of my neck toward my lower spine. Then it came back up and did this for several seconds. I had the image of a bolt of energy surging back and forth along my spinal cord.
Then my head cleared and we were standing back in the condo in New York City, staring at Xuan Xiang’s disembodied face in a cloud of weird colors. I could hear everything he said again like we were back there all over again. Every word came back to me like I was playing a movie inside my mind.
I felt my anger grow inside me as Xuan Xiang talked about what he would do to Talya. I wanted to kill this guy once and for all. The day he had threatened to kill the woman I loved was the day he had signed his death warrant. I didn’t particularly give a damn if the Council approved of it or not. Come to that, if Niles didn’t approve, I really didn’t give a shit, either.
The scene inside my head downshifted and Xuan Xiang’s voice slowed to a drawl like he was moving through molasses. Every action, every sentence slowed to the point where it felt like time stood still. And then the scene reversed itself and replayed over and over again. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew I had to trust that Jack had a plan.
It felt weird placing myself so completely in someone else’s hands. I’d spent most of my operational life trusting myself above everyone else. I trusted my instincts; they’d kept me alive where others had failed me. For me to utterly give in to what Jack was attempting to do was a reflection of how much I loved Talya. I wouldn’t have done this for anyone but her.
And Jack.
The truth was I loved him like a son. I guess I’d always known that. I was the one who had killed his father years ago when he’d been found guilty of committing crimes against our race. Had I known I’d be orphaning Jack in the process, I might have requested another review of the case. Not that it probably would have mattered. Once the Council decided to send me, everything had been debated through and through.
Jack had turned out well all things considered. And that was an understatement. He’d graduated with honors from the Invoker school. He’d helped me a tremendous amount and yet, I still felt like I owed him more. I knew I was carrying guilt about killing his father. We’d never really talked about it. I wondered if he resented me for doing it. Jack had never given me any indication that he did, but then again, he was schooled in concealing his thoughts and feelings.
It was something we’d have to confront eventually. I just hoped talking about it didn’t stir up feelings that he’d been repressing. It would kill me if he started looking at me like I was a murderer.
Or worse, if he realized his love for me as a father figure was misplaced.
I turned my attention back to what was going on inside my skull. Xuan Xiang’s face still floated in front of me. And I could hear his drawn out words echoing throughout the corridors of my mind. They bounced around inside my head over and over again. Each time I heard him say Talya’s name, it made me more and more angry. How dare he speak her name. How dare he kidnap her and use her as a pawn between us.
When we’d last separated and gone our own ways, I thought we’d developed some sort of respect for each other. But I guess even with that, we knew that one day we’d have to come to grips with the fact that one of us had to die.
I had hoped, however, that it would be a day far off in our future. Eventually, the score would need to be settled. I guess I’d been naive in thinking we could do it without involving anyone else. But here we were and two of the people I loved most in the world were in the shit with me all the way up to their necks.
Some protector I was.
I frowned as Xuan Xiang’s face suddenly grew much closer to me. It seemed to zoom in and then zoom out. The effect was very much like being on a swing. This back and forth motion made me feel queasy, but I was determined to hold on until Jack got done doing whatever it was he was doing. Some day, I’d ask him to explain how this magic stuff worked. For the time being, I was just glad that it did work, because without it, I didn’t know if there was a chance we’d be able to find out Talya’s location.
We’d been pushing hard for nearly three days now. Ever since the scene in New York, Jack and I had been going without much rest. We had to locate Talya and then figure out a plan before my time ran out and Xuan Xiang killed her. I wasn’t so sure I could live knowing that Talya had died because I’d failed her. Certainly, if she did die, it would haunt me for the rest of my life. I also wondered what sort of precedent it would set for Jack. This was the first real operation he’d ever been on. If his career started with a failure, it wouldn’t be good.
It was bad enough that he was already going to be on the Council’s shit list because he was out here with me. He’d made his choice, though, so there wasn’t anything I could do about that. Hell, knowing the Council, they’d blame me for kidnapping him. That might even work to his advantage; I certainly didn’t have a problem with being called out by the Council.
The images in my head started to recede. The back and forth motion eased, which was good.
Finally, I felt a cool darkness settle over my consciousness as the last vestiges of Xuan Xiang evaporated from my mind.
“Lawson.”
Jack’s voice sounded pleasant and peaceful.
I opened my eyes and found him drenched in sweat. The exertion he’d put forth to do this must have been incredible. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.” He nodded a few times as if righting himself. “That was an experience.”
“But-?”
He smiled. “You were right. For a guy that doesn’t put much faith in magic, your intuition is pretty good.”
“How far?”
“Maybe fifty miles.”
That was a surprise. “We’re that close?”
“Yes. The images I saw weren’t good, however.”
“Tell me more about them later. We have a train to catch.”
15
“You’re insane, you know that, right?”
“I believe that’s been said once or twice before.” I
surveyed the scene before us and frowned. Jack was right, of course. And if we hadn’t had the Cloak of Despar to help us, there would have been no way we could have even thought about trying what we were going to try.
“Clearly any time it’s been said, it hasn’t stuck.” Jack shook his head and slid back down the shallow incline we were behind. “I’m just glad we have the ability to conceal ourselves.”
“The train’s already there,” I said. “Once we’re on that, we’ll be good to go for at least an hour or so.”
“And whereabouts are we going to hide? We can’t very well take up two seats and hope someone doesn’t try to sit there also. That doesn’t leave us with a lot of options. Or should I say, practical options?”
We were perched on a slight bluff overlooking the train station. It was crawling with military. The visa checkpoint was a slow crawl and even though the highway wound through it, they kept the vehicles and train depot separated by a whole lot of concertina wire and some pretty rough looking guards. Penetrating that type of environment would have been suicide without the Cloak. But even with the Cloak, it was still going to be hard as hell. Jack and I would have to move together just like how we’d snuck around earlier. It was exhausting stuff, but it had to be done. We needed to ride that train to reach Talya. Walking the distance would simply take us too long. And I wasn’t kidding myself: there was every likelihood that Xuan Xiang expected me to do some sort of rescue operation. Chances were good that he would have extra lookouts along the way. Hell, he might even have my mug plastered up inside the station.
“Maybe you should stay here.”
“The hell,” said Jack. “What am I going to do here? I won’t have any cover. Cripes, why don’t you just dump me with the soldiers if that’s the case.”
I smiled. I hadn’t been serious. I just wanted to see if his heart was still in the game. “We’re going to have to do the leapfrog thing again just like we did back at the camp and avoiding the ZSD.”
“Yeah, great.” Jack sighed. “Do me a favor: when this is all over, take me on a vacation where I can drink and look at hot chicks all day long, okay?”
