Collision: Book Four in the Secret World Chronicle - eARC

by Mercedes Lackey

  “Cellar doors. External access to the school cellar, probably used for bringing in coal for the furnace and boiler.”

  “Whew, you smell that?” John almost gagged, the scent was so strong.

  “I don’t get smell-o-vision, sport,” Vickie quipped as Sera shook her head.

  “Smells like burnt cinnamon and ass. That’s being kind.” He glanced over to Sera. “Definitely Kriegers, right?”

  “I believe they have a particular scent that humans find faintly distasteful, yes,” Sera replied, before Vickie could. “I am never aware of it, as my fire always purifies any air that reaches my nose.” But she bent down and reached for the handle of the door nearest her.

  John stopped her short. “Hey, lemme go first. I’m wearin’ nanoweave an’ the vest to boot. Plus, I’ve got my sidearm. If we need to go loud, it’ll work out better that way. Gettin’ baked to death or asphyxiated doesn’t really strike me as a great way to go, kay?” He grinned lopsidedly to soften the rebuke.

  “As you will,” Sera said, stepping aside. Baby steps, Murdock. Take it slow, like you would with a wounded animal.

  “You know it would help if you let me unlock it first. Although the sight of you heaving the door handle off would be highly amusing.”

  “An’ here I thought that you were on top of it an’ had unlocked it while we were walkin’ up. Gotta catch up, Teen Witch.”

  “It’s a mechanical lock, Brainiac. Electronic I can do almost instantly, if I know the lock. Mechanical takes time.” He thought he could hear her muttering under her breath; his ultra-sensitive hearing definitely picked up small sounds of metal moving, then the sound of something larger sliding. “There. Unlocked and unbolted. Have at.”

  “Makin’ entry.” John unholstered his 1911, doing a quick press check to make sure a round was chambered. Satisfied, he nodded to Sera, then lifted the left door of the entrance. He stepped through the threshold, moving down into the darkness. His eyes adjusted instantly due to his enhancements; there wasn’t any illumination, initially, save for the low sunlight streaming in—which didn’t actually help, as it illuminated everything in the entrance and made it hard to see what was still in shadow. The room was full of garbage mostly; piles of unidentifiable papers spilling out of disintegrated boxes and assorted trash, a few scattered and decaying desks. It was easy to see where the boiler and furnace had once been; it looked as if they must have been hauled out for salvage, leaving behind cut-off pipes that probably led to the restrooms and the steam radiators. John was surprised some enterprising soul hadn’t gotten down here and started hauling out those copper pipes; they were worth a lot as far as scrap metal went. There were several Civil Defense posters adorning the walls; only the metal ones were vaguely readable past the rust and grime. The nearest end of the room had what appeared to be a collapsed stairwell, choked with rubble. On the far end, however, was a single metal door, with a painted sign that he could barely make out as saying “SHELTER.” He hadn’t seen any obvious booby traps or intrusion detection devices; since Vickie hadn’t said anything, he could only assume that there weren’t any. Or, at least, any that either of them could detect. That uncertainty wasn’t the most pleasant of feelings.

  “That’s our only way down. Stay behind me. If’n we have to move out in a hurry, we’ll both start burnin’ an’ go for the surface. Sound good to you, Sera?”

  “As you will,” she repeated. John frowned a little. This was getting monotonous. Waiting for her to be ready to interact with him like a normal human being and not this current…funk that she was in was all well and good, but they were on the job right now.

  “T’hell with that. We’re partners on this, Sera. If’n you get a better idea ’bout something, I want you to voice your opinion. It could mean the difference between life an’ death for us. I’m not always right, y’know. Okay?”

  He glanced back. She just shrugged. “I have no knowledge.”

  “Well I do. There is a lot more void behind that door then there should be. Dammit, I knew I should have kept a piece of Krieger armor with me to help me ID stuff; there’s also something alive in there but I can’t tell how many or what, without getting eyes in there.” John’s HUD lit up; a spectral outline of the space beyond swam into his vision, a projection from Vic. There was something room-shaped beyond the door, then what looked like a corridor, then another, much larger space. “That’s what I have and everything from that corridor on is NOT on the original plans.”

  “Someone’s been expanding. Can’t imagine that the foundations for this joint were all that great in the first place. If’n the Kriegers have been diggin’ under ’em, no tellin’ how they are now.”

  “It’s Germans, bonehead. They’ll have reinforced anything they put in, and I’m assuming it’s them. Shit coming down is going to be the last of your worries. Every bit of everything Krieger I’ve seen defines the word ‘overbuilt.’”

  “Whatever. If it is Kriegers, then that’ll hold. Whoever it is, they’ve gone to a little trouble to stay hidden, an’ that means they’ve got to deal with us now. Be ready with your tricks, in any case.”

  “Victrix…” Sera began.

  “Roger, Sera?”

  “Can you count the number of feet on the ground, and divide by two? That will give you the number of Thulians.” Sera glanced at John—for his approval? He grinned, nodding. She’s usin’ her noggin, alright. Baby steps.

  “Brilliant, yes I can even pick up armor, just takes a little longer. Stand by.”

  There was a pause. John thought he could hear faint noises on the other side of that door, but not what those noises were. That door must have been pretty damned thick to futz with his hearing. This might have been a genuine fallout shelter, not one of the “feelgood” models that wasn’t going to do squat in the event of a nearby bomb. Something with filters on the air supply, and a real blast-door. Wonder which muckity-muck lived nearby back then, that this shelter got upgraded? he thought inconsequentially. That, or the Kriegers have been doing some interior decorating.

  On the door itself however…there was an extremely faint sound of metal sliding on metal.

  “OK. Door unlocked. I read seven sets of jackboots on the ground…” Vix began.

  “Affirmative, seven JBTs inside—”

  He was cut off by the wail of what was unmistakably a small child in distress. He and Sera shared a single alarmed glance before they both started moving. In one motion John threw the heavy door aside, his pistol already out and looking for a target. Sera manifested both her fire sword and spear, and followed right behind him, darting to his right as soon as there was room.

  In front of them were the seven Kriegers. Along with a dozen more, all in trooper armor standing on catwalks…off the ground. And a single mechanical wolf at the far end of the room, apparently digging to expand the shelter. The child, undoubtedly one of the neighborhood kids, was on his knees on the floor, one of the unarmored Kriegers pointing a gun at his head. Everyone in the room turned to look at the pair, including the wolf.

  “…and smaller sign, a dozen troopers and something big. Mia fasz?!”

  The Krieger pointing the gun at the child’s head grimaced and then tensed, looking back at his target. John and Sera moved almost simultaneously. John fired three quick rounds, all striking the Krieger with the ray gun in the upper neck and head, dropping the invader cold. He started moving forward, firing at the next threat nearest to the child. But Sera was moving too, diving with wings half-spread, to cover the child with her body.

  “Get the boy clear!” John had already holstered his pistol. Time to quit screwing around. He ignited both of his arms, sheathing them in flame. Wherever he pointed, flame followed, alighting whatever it touched. He made especially sure that he was avoiding the area in the center with Sera and the child.

  With her left arm, Sera had scooped the child up; her right still held her fire-sword, and since she was on her knees in mid-turn, she lopped a rushing Krieger off at the thi
gh as she pivoted. As soon as she was facing the door, she pushed off like a sprinter, wailing child bundled under her left arm like a parcel.

  John brought up the rear; the Kriegers had started collecting themselves. Those that weren’t dead or dying shot back; energy-gun fire for the most part, but one blast that went wild could only have been from a trooper arm cannon. He ran after Sera and the child, stopping at corners to send a few more blasts of flame to dissuade pursuit. The Kriegers were getting a little more cautious as they kept losing people. Finally they broke through the cellar door to the surface, the sunlight almost blinding after the near complete darkness. Both he and Sera turned, ready.

  “John! Take him!” Sera cried out, simultaneously throwing the poor kid right at him. John grabbed the boy in his left arm, already knowing what Sera meant to do.

  “Together! Now!”

  John, shifting so that the child was further away from the entrance, concentrated for a split second, collecting fire on his right arm. Sera planted herself right in the side of the entrance and turned into a living torch, setting the entire entrance afire, while she swung at the supports with her sword.

  It was as if she was able to read his mind. The instant he was ready to blast, she jumped clear. With a small grunt of effort he loosed the concentrated plasma right at the point that she had weakened. The fire drove the Thulians back into the basement, keeping them from piling out into the open. They were learning. Fire equals Bad.

  “Jump clear, you two!”

  The blast, in addition to driving the Kriegers back into the ground where they belonged, finished the job of collapsing the entrance. Sera extinguished her shielding fire, snatched the wailing child out of John’s arms and took to the air, leaving John to scramble backwards towards the fence. His speed was the only thing that saved him. He was within two steps of it when the ground heaved and shook; he turned, grabbing for the fence with one hand, to see the entire mound of rubble that had been the High School cave inward. Vix had collapsed the first floor and the basement supports, bringing it all down on the Kriegers.

  Sera set down outside the fence, putting the child down on his feet. She took his chin in her hand and looked him straight in the eyes.

  “Run,” she ordered, forcefully.

  The boy took off running, moving so fast John would have suspected meta-power if he didn’t have first-hand experience at how quickly a motivated child could move.

  “Vic,” John breathed, sharing a nod with Sera that they were both okay. “I’m hopin’ you’ve scrambled the cavalry by this point. This ain’t as small of a problem as we initially thought.”

  “Az Isten faszat,” she said, with feeling. “No lie. Yes, I have.”

  A very faint smile crossed Sera’s face, and vanished as quickly as it had come.

  John grinned, chuckling. “What’s ticklin’ ya, angel?”

  “Nothing. Not really. Just Victrix’s use of invective is—colorful—if—unlikely—”

  Behind them, John heard the sound of bricks grating on each other. Then the ceramic chinks as they tumbled down the pile. Slowly, and with a growing sense of dread, he stepped out from behind the fence, facing the rubble where the school used to be.

  “Yebany v’ rot!” That one he knew from hanging out with Pavel. She’d switched to Russian. The pile of bricks was moving.

  “Hey, Vic…ETA on that backup?”

  “Not soon enough!”

  “That’s what I figured.” John ignited both of his hands, settling into an easy stance; light on his feet, ready to move. He looked over to Sera. “Well, you wanted me to push my limits, right? I’m thinkin’ we’re ’bout to find out what they are. You ready for this?”

  She lofted back over the fence—half-flight, half-jump—landed beside him, lit up like a torch again, and nodded grimly.

  The ground continued to tremble, shifting debris and rubble almost rhythmically. Without any warning all of the vibration stopped. Three tense seconds later the collapsed area where the school had been erupted in a fountain of bricks, dust, and pieces of rebar. As the dust cleared John and Sera saw the top half of the mechanical wolf exposed through a hole in the ground. It wriggled frantically in place before dislodging itself, dragging its lower half out of the ground. All twelve of the armored troopers followed it out of the hole, spreading out in a semicircle in front of the two CCCPers.

  There was a steady stream of whispered curses in his ear. Some of it he recognized as Russian, from listening to Untermensch as he worked on the Urals.

  “Your crystal ball sayin’ we’re screwed, blued, an’ tattooed?”

  “Eight-ball doesn’t work that way. Let’s just say I do not care for the odds. But we’ve seen worse.”

  “Hey!” John shouted to the armored troopers, still ponderously moving into position. “Y’all pissed off that Unteroffizer Affenschwanz couldn’t get his rocks off today by wasting a kid? The Master Race that easy to bend over a barrel?”

  “Perfection. Pure poetry. Where’d you learn German?”

  “I didn’t. But I have been hangin’ out with Red far too much.”

  The Kriegers didn’t respond as positively as Vickie had. John could barely make out some guttural shouts that were undoubtedly curses. He was not making any fans among the Kriegers, which suited him just fine. This was going to be a fight, that much was for damn sure. Both he and Sera were on open ground; any scant cover they might’ve had could easily be evaporated by the weapons the troopers carried. Not to mention they had the inevitable risk of getting flanked by that damned mechanical wolf.

  John and Sera did have a couple of advantages, though; John’s speed and Sera’s flight. Split the enemy’s attention, whittle them down, and he and Sera had a chance. Sounds great in theory, genius. But can you pull it off without getting schwacked?

  Sera’s wings were half-spread, and trembling. Clearly she wanted to be in the air, and from the look of her anxious expression, she wished it had been five minutes ago.

  Wait for it…

  John could feel something building, a sort of tension. He knew what to do, and he felt that Sera was ready for it too. The Kriegers were working up a full head of steam, and were going to try to make the first move. John had already keyed his enhancements. He envisioned exactly how it would go, what play he would make, where Sera would fly, who they would target first. It was all very clear to John; he’d used visualization techniques before missions in the past, but it had never had this sort of clarity. Maybe it was the enhancements, or the adrenaline, but he felt keyed up, ready for the perfect moment…

  Now! The first Krieger on the far right had begun to raise his arm cannon. Sera vaulted into the air while John kicked hard against the ground and began sprinting for the Krieger. The shot from the arm cannon harmlessly obliterated the spot where Sera had been.

  Sera had to close; she didn’t have anything she could use at a distance, aside from throwing her spears. But close she did, fearlessly, recklessly, he would have said; despite all of that her speed saved her. She came down behind the two Kriegers on the far left; since these were the ones in armor, she couldn’t just cut off a leg the way she had the unarmored schmuck back in the cellar. And in fact, she didn’t use the sword at all; she grabbed the head of the one nearest her in both hands, and suddenly the fire around her went from yellow to blue-hot. She let go, and the Krieger dropped to the ground, thrashing, helmet looking like an ice-sculpture that had just started to melt. Then she leapt straight up again, wings beating furiously.

  John didn’t waste any time with his first Krieger. He sent a quick blast of fire at the trooper’s visor, blinding him momentarily. With his enhanced speed, he had crossed the distance and stopped behind the Nazi before he could react. John charged his fires for a moment, then sent three concentrated blasts into the armor; two at the knees to bring it down, and a final one at the base of the helmet, killing the trooper who fell forward with a final spasm.

  He turned, to see that Sera was hovering just above
another left-hand Krieger, as if she was daring him to shoot her. Before he could shout, or even move, he heard the whine of an arm-cannon ramping up. That was when Sera dropped right out of the sky, fiery sword manifested, bringing all her weight and the momentum of the drop down on the sword.

  She didn’t just slice off the end of the arm-cannon; it was more like taking a hot knife through a thick chunk of chocolate, melting as much as cutting. But it was relatively fast, too fast for the Krieger to react, and as soon as the end of the cannon dropped with a clunk to his feet, she was up in the air again, and just out of lethal distance when the cannon backfired into the Krieger’s armor, shredding the right-hand side of his suit, and him inside it.

  John grinned, turning back to face the next Krieger on his side of the fight. She’s good when she puts her mind to it. There’d be time for back slapping later, though; right now he had some killing to do. Vickie was keeping some of the Kriegers occupied by opening up holes underneath them, or thrusting up piles of dirt and concrete. As long as she could keep doing that, she would be keeping part of the horde off him and Sera. He snapped off another charged up blast at the nearest Krieger, hitting the ground beneath its feet; the concrete super-heated in an instant, exploding and toppling the trooper. John continued blasted away, covering the trooper with fire, head to toe, weakening the armor. Before the Krieger could right itself, John ran to its side, scooping up a jagged length of rebar on the way. Sliding to a stop next to the downed armor he brought the makeshift spear down as hard as he could, right through the Krieger’s visor. He gave it a final twist, and the suit shuddered once, then lay still.

  John looked up to see the nearest Kriegers visibly shaken. Obviously he couldn’t see their expressions, but their body-language told him all he needed to know. They’d thought they would be shooting fish in a barrel, and the joke was on them. They didn’t have a lot of time to think about it; Vic was continually putting them off balance. John glanced to his left; Sera met his gaze in the same instant. They both seemed to already know what to do. John immediately started sprinting with everything he had towards the third Krieger on the left. Sera arced up and to the right, then plummeted straight down towards the first Krieger on the right-hand side, one that, in the same moment, got shaken to his knees by Vic. Sera’s feet hitting his shoulder blades put him face-down into the dirt, and she crouched on his back and flared blue-white again.