by Siegel, Alex
"You mentioned that project several times," Ipo said, "but you never gave us any details."
"I don't have many details. Bethany and Leanna are going to fix the universe somehow, and they have God's full support."
"God mentioned the 'entire Society.' Do you think the entire Gray Spear Society is going to Chicago?"
"It seems likely," Marina said. "The Lord doesn't exaggerate. We may get to meet all seven legates." She paused as the gravity of that statement sunk in. "Regardless, we'll clearly be foot soldiers in whatever happens. We'll just follow orders, and the honor of the San Francisco team is riding on our performance. Don't embarrass me."
"Yes, ma'am," her legionnaires responded.
"Can you tell us more about Aaron's team?" Katie said.
"The headquarters is in a secret bunker on top of the hotel," Marina said.
"Not underneath?"
"Aaron was trying to be clever, but he was a little too clever. He's had problems with security. The legionnaires are Smythe, Norbert, Tawni, and Sheryl. Smythe has an amazing gift for healing."
"He fixed my knee," Hanley said.
"That was nothing," Marina said. "He once repaired the heart of the President of the United States. Smythe used only his bare hands and didn't spill a drop of blood. He and his girlfriend practically raised a man from the dead a year ago."
Her team appeared appropriately impressed.
She went on, "Tawni's gift is almost as cool. She uses shadows as a deadly weapon. I'd watch out for her. Her mean streak is almost as wide as mine."
The airplane began to descend at a steep angle. Everybody faced forward and buckled their seatbelts.
Marina couldn't see anything but clouds for a while. Finally, the jet emerged into open air, but the world below was still white. A thick blanket of snow covered everything. This weather will be a problem, she thought.
They were landing at the Lawrence Timmerman Airport, a county airport to the west of Milwaukee. From the air, Marina saw two runways and a collection of buildings with white roofs.
The jet touched down lightly. It had trouble stopping on the snowy runway, but the pilot handled the difficult conditions expertly. After a few scary skids, he brought the aircraft under control and taxied over to a terminal building.
The pilot stepped out of the cockpit and opened the hatch. "We're here!"
Marina felt a blast of frigid air. She and her legionnaires gathered near the hatch and looked outside. She had expected a winter storm, but the conditions were even worse than she had imagined. The snow was several feet thick in the places where it hadn't been cleared. Wind whipped it around and made the entire world white.
"What kind of frozen version of Hell is this?" Ipo said.
None of them were dressed for the Wisconsin blizzard. They had light jackets appropriate for a cool day in San Francisco.
"We just have to run," Marina said. "We won't freeze to death before we get to the terminal. Gather up our stuff."
The men grabbed the bags while the airport staff brought over a staircase. The staff was wearing bright orange parkas, snow pants, heavy mittens, and full ski masks.
"Ready... go!" Marina said.
The whole team ran outside. She slipped on ice and almost fell on her face, but her natural agility saved her. The freezing air felt like a sharp knife against her skin. Katie actually did fall, and when she stood up, the front of her body was covered with wet snow.
They made it into the terminal. Shivering, Marina took a moment to gather her wits.
Her team had dismay on their faces, so she put on an expression of confidence. It was time to act like a leader.
No civilians were nearby. She took out her phone and called Aaron.
He answered immediately, "Hey! I was hoping you'd call. Where are you?"
"You know I'm coming?" Marina said.
"I heard the whole damn Society is coming. Wesley keeps asking about you in particular. He has a huge secret to reveal to us."
"Oh. That's not good. My team and I just landed in Milwaukee. We'll drive down there as quick as we can."
"Be careful," Aaron said. "You'll be dodging soldiers and cannibals. The Army has barricades everywhere. They're under strict orders to contain the crisis by any means necessary."
"Wonderful. What's your status?"
"I'm in the middle of an unbelievable shit storm, but I don't have time to debrief you now. It can wait 'til you get here. Oh, by the way, Ethel is in Washington, DC. She went to save the President, and Tawni is with her."
"Save him from what?" she said.
"He was kidnapped by fake secret service agents. You didn't hear?"
"I've been busy."
"Me, too," he said. "Hurry! I love you."
"I love you, too." Marina put away her phone and looked at her team. "We need transportation."
"And warm clothes, ma'am!" Katie said. She was wet and shivering.
"Yes," Marina said. "We'll take cabs to the nearest rental car place and get a van. We'll hit a department store on the way to Chicago for a quick shopping trip. I don't want to take any long detours. Sorry, Katie, but you'll have to use God's breath to warm up until then. We have the advantage that I used to live here, and I know the territory very well. I should be able to find back roads that will get us around the Army. Let's go."
She walked off at a quick trot, and her team followed.
* * *
Iris looked up at her private jet. Built in the year 2000, the Boeing 717 had started life as an ordinary commercial aircraft. She had purchased it slightly used from a bankrupt airline. The aluminum skin was still the same, but the guts had been replaced since then. She had spent many millions on upgrades giving the plane performance characteristics more like a fighter jet. It could get in and out of tight spots in a hurry, and that feature had saved her life more than once.
Iris normally maintained a very low profile, but the big jet had been necessary for her business. She travelled frequently to clandestine locations in the dead of night. She needed reliable transportation available at all hours and pilots who never asked questions. Sometimes, she had to secretly move large quantities of men and equipment around the world. The Warriors of Dagda had come to California in her jet.
Iris and Laurence climbed a steep flight of stairs and entered the aircraft. She poked her head into the cockpit where two men sat. They were short and slender, and they were dressed as civilians even though they had a military background.
"Milwaukee," Iris said, "and hurry!"
"Yes, ma'am," her pilots said.
She and Laurence went to the cabin. It was an open space, designed for cargo as well as people, but two seats were currently installed. Slots in the metal floor allowed up to a hundred seats to be locked into place.
The two of them sat and buckled their seatbelts as the engines spun up.
* * *
Yang looked out the window of the van. He had lived in many parts of the world, but in all his travels, he had never seen a winter like this one. It was a brutal arctic wasteland. Some snowdrifts were higher than the houses. The highway had been cleared, but some of the side roads were completely lost in the snow. He didn't know how people were surviving under such difficult conditions. Just getting to the grocery store would be an adventure.
Marina was driving the van. Normally, she let one of her legionnaires take the wheel, but she had the most experience with snow. She was going a little too fast for Yang's comfort, and they were passing other cars on the left and right. Her face was locked in an expression of total focus.
The team had stopped at a camping and hiking supply store earlier. They had loaded up on coats, boots, mittens, hats, thermal underwear, and anything else that looked useful. Marina had made her people run through the store, and they were winded by the end of the shopping spree.
Now they were back on the highway and headed south. Yang didn't know the area, but he could tell Marina was avoiding the interstates. She seemed to have a sneaky route
in mind.
He was getting more nervous with each mile. The more he heard about the situation in Chicago, the worse it sounded. God wouldn't summon the entire Gray Spear Society unless a true war was about to be fought. Yang had fought in other wars and had no romantic delusions. A lot of people were about to die.
He took out his phone and called Jia. He couldn't stop himself.
"Yang!" she said. "I was waiting for you to call. Are you OK?"
Yang kept his voice down. He was sitting next to Ipo, and Hanley and Katie were right behind Yang.
"I'm fine," Yang said. "It's very cold here, but we have warm clothes."
"All of us are worried. It's weird not having any legionnaires around. Did you know the President was kidnapped?"
"I heard. We'll be home soon, I hope. Tell everybody to stay safe until then. How is Olivia doing?"
"The poor girl is spooked," Jia said. "She lost her real father, and now you're gone."
"Let me talk to her."
Yang looked around. Ipo frowned but didn't comment. Hanley and Katie were making a point of not paying attention, but they could overhear the call. Hanley's gift allowed him to hear both sides of the conversation.
"Hello?" Olivia said in her sweet little voice.
"It's me," Yang said gently. "I just wanted you to know I'm all right, and I'm coming back soon. We just have some business in Chicago we have to deal with. I'll tell you all about it when I get home."
"I heard about the cannibals."
"Don't worry. The five of us can handle anything. We have Marina with us, and I don't have to tell you how tough she is. Just do your homework and try not to worry. I'll always be there for you. Give the phone back to Jia."
After a moment, Jia said, "Be safe. I love you."
"I love you, too. Bye." He hung up.
The van was quiet for a moment. The only sounds were the purr of the engine and the tires crunching through snow.
"You shouldn't lie to that girl," Marina said.
"I lied, ma'am?" Yang said.
"You don't know if you're coming home. None of us do. All we know is God needed a thousand legionnaires for this fight. I don't think that's ever happened before, not in the fifteen-hundred-year history of the Society. We don't even know what we'll be fighting. The Society itself could be destroyed."
"I was just trying to make Olivia feel better, ma'am."
Marina sighed deeply. "OK. No more phone calls. The Rosemont Tower Hotel is only forty miles away, and I expect this road trip is about to get interesting."
* * *
Iris's airplane touched down at the General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee.
She immediately closed her eyes and sent her consciousness out into the world. She was searching for a specific set of eyes. They were the color of jade and full of anger. They were the eyes of somebody who killed without hesitation.
Iris couldn't find those eyes. She cried out in frustration.
"Ma'am?" Laurence said.
She looked over at him. He was still wearing the police uniform he had used to rescue her.
"The target has already moved out of my range," Iris said. "We were too slow."
"That's very unfortunate. What are we going to do?"
She looked out the window as the airplane taxied towards a hanger. She had expected a snowstorm, but "snow-apocalypse" was a better description. Snowdrifts were the size of hills. So much snow was being blown around, she couldn't see across the airport. Where the snow had been plowed, she saw treacherous patches of ice. She shivered.
Iris had to make a decision. Going out and searching for the enemy seemed like a mistake for a couple of reasons. First, she hated cold weather, and the idea of wandering around in that frozen hell made her queasy. She didn't even know which direction to go. The woman with green eyes could've gone north, south, or west. Iris needed to get within thirty miles of her target, and that would take a considerable amount of luck.
The second reason was Erika. She called herself the "Queen of the Pythagoreans," but it was a title she had granted to herself. She was the most powerful Pythagorean in the Western Hemisphere and notoriously vindictive. People who crossed her didn't last long. The only thing that stood between Erika and total domination was the Gray Spear Society.
Erika was running a massive operation in the Chicago area. Iris didn't know the details, but she had heard it was the most ambitious project ever attempted by the Pythagoreans. Erika would not take kindly to Iris showing up uninvited. The Pythagoreans weren't above sabotaging each other, and Erika would automatically assume the worst.
There was a good chance the Society team from San Francisco had been sent to Chicago because of Erika's operation. Iris thought about warning the queen but then decided not to. Iris didn't owe Erika any special favors and had little to gain by helping her. If she failed and died, it would open up opportunities for the rest of the Pythagoreans. Everybody else would move up one slot in the pecking order. At a personal level, Iris certainly wouldn't mind seeing that arrogant bitch suffer. If Erika succeeded in Chicago, she would gain additional powers and become truly unbearable.
"The enemy was driving a van," Iris said, "and I saw what it looked like. It's parked in front of the executive terminal in San Francisco. They rushed off without even bothering to pack. Clearly, they don't intend to stay away from home for long. I'm certain they'll come back within a few days if not sooner, and we'll be waiting for them."
"That's a very reasonable plan, ma'am. It doesn't expose us to undue risks. Erika..." He had an anxious expression.
"My thoughts exactly."
Iris stood up and went to the cockpit.
"We'll be in the hanger in a moment," the pilot said.
"Turn around. We're going back to San Francisco."
"But..."
"You heard me," she said.
"Yes, ma'am."
Iris glanced out the window, and the horrible weather made her shudder again. She was very glad she didn't have to go out into that mess.
She went back and sat in her seat.
Chapter Twelve
Marina saw a barricade ahead and slowed down. An Army truck was parked directly across the road. Four heavily armed soldiers were standing in front of the truck, and they looked miserable in their puffy winter gear. Marina certainly couldn't ram the truck, and tall piles of ice and snow prevented her from going around. The soldiers were also a problem. She didn't want to gun down innocents just to get past a road block.
"Damn it!" she said. "I was hoping they would forget about this road."
She was on North Sutton Road also known as Highway 59. It had just one lane in each direction and barely qualified as a highway. Only locals used it. The area was a mixture of farms and suburban developments on the extreme periphery of the Chicago metropolitan area. Marina could hardly believe the Army was out so far.
She made a U-turn and headed north.
"You're going to try another way, ma'am?" Ipo said.
"No. I just want to get out of sight of those soldiers. We'll go around on foot."
Marina glanced in the rearview mirror and saw horrified expressions on the faces of her team, but nobody complained out loud.
She parked in a nice spot behind a snow drift. She turned off the engine, but nobody hurried to leave the warm van. The sound of an icy wind warned them of what was waiting outside.
"The trick is to keep moving," Marina said. "If you slow down, you get cold, but you don't want to get sweaty either. The moisture will freeze on your skin. Maintain a steady, comfortable pace."
"You actually lived here?" Katie said.
"Yes, but I've never seen a storm like this. I have to believe God is doing it on purpose. Maybe He's trying to slow down the enemy and buy a little extra time for the twins. Regardless, we're under orders and can't just give up because the weather is unpleasant. Let's go."
Marina made sure her coat was zipped up all the way. She pulled her ski cap down over her ears and put on
her mittens. She was already wearing thermal underwear and snow boots.
She opened the door. A blast of freezing air made her wish for even more protection. She stepped out into snow that went up to her thighs. After living in California for a year, where the weather was always perfect, she wasn't sure she could handle this adventure.
Her legionnaires also got out and muttered about snow and cold.
"We won't take all of our equipment," Marina said. "It's too heavy. The snow will be enough of a challenge. Go through the bags and pick out what seems necessary."
They sorted through the gear until everybody had just one light bag to carry. When the team was set, they headed east towards a housing development.
Marina's nose was soon stinging from the cold. Snow crept into her boots and made her socks damp. She was already miserable.
Why are you doing this, God? she thought.
There was no response. Apparently, the Lord was too busy to talk to her.
Marina eventually found a rhythm that allowed her to make steady progress through the thick, heavy snow. Buried sticks and rocks tripped her a few times, but she brushed off the snow and kept going. Feeling sorry for herself wouldn't improve the weather.
The Spears reached a row of small, single-story houses. The streets had been plowed but not recently. It would take a brave driver or a robust vehicle to get through. At least the streets were easier to walk on than the surrounding land. The team picked up speed and headed south. Their breath created white clouds in the freezing air.
Marina was in the lead and made sure to maintain a comfortable pace. Overheating was as much of a danger as hypothermia under these conditions. The team's heavy clothing trapped heat and sweat which could lead to premature exhaustion. The journey was a marathon, not a sprint.
She caught glimpses through frosted windows of people in their homes, but nobody was out on the streets. Even though it was the middle of the day, the neighborhood was dead silent. Some doors and windows were boarded up, and she guessed it was because of the cannibals. Chicago was a city under siege.
