Michael asked, “Do you believe what she says about him having a way to get back in?”
Talbott shook his head. “I believe he told her that. And that he thinks he can get back in. But I don’t see how. This place is possibly the most secure private compound on Earth right now. You two have spent a ridiculous amount of money on every conceivable security measure. Besides the small army of armed guards and dogs patrolling inside and out, you have cameras placed throughout the woods for a mile in every direction. There are microphones, motion, and heat sensors everywhere. We have our own radar system monitoring the skies in a ten-mile radius. There are automated surveillance drones moving in random patterns across the entire top of the mountain, equipped with every type of sensor available. I know where everything is and I couldn’t sneak in here myself. If you wanted, we could probably tell you how many rabbits, squirrels, and bears live here on the mountain. Two, by the way. Two bears.”
Richard nodded thoughtfully. “So maybe we’ll get lucky and catch him sneaking in. He’ll have to try something when he figures out we’ve caught Jenni.”
Talbott grimaced. “I’m praying the agents find him before he figures that out. If he does have other bombs planted, he may set them off the moment he learns she’s lost to him.”
*****
Agent McCoy’s phone buzzed on the dashboard in front of him. They’d just resumed searching their sector after catching four hours’ sleep and a shower in a nearby hotel. The local number on the phone wasn’t one he recognized.
“Hello?” he answered the call.
“Hi. Hello. Um, this is Martha. We spoke yesterday?”
McCoy rolled his eyes and put the call on speaker so his partner could hear. He mouthed dog lady before speaking aloud. “Yes ma’am. I remember you. How can we help you?”
“I think there’s a meth lab in the neighborhood! In a vacant house one block over from mine.”
“What makes you think that?” he asked, trying to keep his voice friendly and interested. He was already regretting giving the woman his card.
“No one is supposed to be there. But there was a light on last night. And I saw a shadow. Someone was pacing back and forth. I couldn’t see inside because someone put something on the windows.” She paused and took a deep breath before continuing. “I watch the news! I know those meth labs explode all the time. A big cloud of drugs getting everyone in the neighborhood addicted to meth, just like that! You need to get in there and stop them!”
Both men in the car had perked up at the mention of somebody in a vacant house. McCoy barely heard the rest of her hysterics. “Martha, can you tell me the address?”
“What? Oh, no. I’m afraid I didn’t look at the house number. It’s two doors down from James and Jeanette’s house. On the right side. Oh, my. You don’t know James and Jeanette, do you? Okay. Go to the corner of Henry and Naylor. Face… east. I think it’s east. Third house on the right.” She paused again. “I… I could show you. If you stop by my place and pick me up.”
“Thank you Martha, but that won’t be necessary. We can find it. We appreciate you letting us know. Now please, stay in your house and keep this to yourself. You can’t say anything to anyone. Never know which of your neighbors might be in cahoots with the bad guys.”
McCoy’s partner had to cover his mouth with both hands to stifle the laugh that threatened to escape. McCoy winked at him, making it worse.
“Oh, okay. Of course. I’ll stay right here. Thank you. You be sure and let me know what you-” McCoy ended the call before she finished her sentence.
He immediately picked up a radio and informed his command of the report. It was the best lead they’d found so far. The agent in charge listened, then began to reassign nearby units to positions surrounding the house. When everyone was in place, they’d begin to close a net around it.
*****
Matt paced back and forth across the living room. He was juggling a lot of concerns and he found that pacing cleared his mind and helped him think.
“A fucking world event! Just when I’m launching my attacks to massacre the players and NPCs in every city, the assholes at Jupiter somehow turn it into an event! Getting all the players together and ready to defend against my armies.” He spat on the carpeted floor. “How did they know?”
He’d just exited the game after hearing reports from the drow that several of the cities had successfully fought off their attacks. Alexander and his people had frustratingly massacred the small army sent after them and even turned around and attacked a drow stronghold. The one belonging to his ‘master.’ The old drow wizard was furious that the Elysians were coming for him and Matt had deemed it wisest to be offline for a while. The wizard couldn’t torture or kill an avatar that wasn’t online.
“Goddamned Greystones! I spent more than a year building up that avatar, making deals with the dark forces and eventually the drow. Building my influence as the Dark One. Recruiting morons to do what I told them. Wasted time!!” He kicked a nearby wall, his foot smashing through the drywall.
He picked up his phone and turned it on. As soon as the screen was loaded, he sent a message to his mole. “In-game plans a bust. Proceed with instructions. Take the tower down.”
*****
Alexander and the raid party got to their feet as the corpse, and the stench, faded from the chamber. As they formed up, he noted the absence of several orcs and minotaurs. His gut clenched a bit and he shook his head. It was growing more difficult for him to think of them as just NPCs and shake off the guilt for getting them killed.
Jules poked him from behind, causing him to jump slightly. “Get out of your head. We’re doing just fine.”
He gave her a half smile. “I know. Thanks. Let’s get this over with.”
The replenished line of tanks moved forward across the chamber to the hole in the center. The raid party gathered around in a half-circle at the edge. A few of them braved looking down into the darkness of the shaft.
“We’ll have about ten seconds to step on once it gets here. Don’t get left behind,” Sasha warned everyone.
When the platform arrived, every raid member stepped forward onto the disc. They had to push close to the center to make sure there was room for everyone. A moment later, the disc began to drop.
There were exclamations from several of the NPCs, who had never been on an elevator. The sensation of their stomachs rising into their chests as the platform dropped was new to them. Even some of the players reached out to others to steady themselves. The fall was much faster than a normal elevator, and the platform had no walls. The stone of the shaft rushed past them as they fell. Most of the party instinctively pushed closer together in the center, avoiding the walls.
After nearly a minute, their rate of descent began to slow. “Get ready. They’re probably waiting for us,” Sasha called out. A moment later, they burst from the ceiling of a huge cavern and began to fall through open air. The sensation and the visuals were disconcerting, to say the least. A few of the raiders dropped to one knee and placed a hand on the disc to steady themselves.
Brick shouted, “Wheeeeee!”
Within seconds of emerging into the cavern, the ground below lit up with spells. Defenders formed a thick ring around the spot where the platform would come to rest. Spells and projectiles rushed upward at the raiders even as the platform dropped. Fortunately for them, many of their attackers didn’t allow for the drop, and most of the attacks soared over their heads as they fell. One of the minotaurs was struck by a shit-weasel and fell backward, grunting as the thing ate its way into his gut. A dragon quickly steadied him, then reached in and seized the thing, crushing the life from it.
Sasha healed the minotaur even as she called out, “They have us surrounded! We need to break free and group them up! On my mark, we’re all going to rush to my side. Tanks, get in front of me. Blast us a path through! We’re not going to wait for this thing to stop. So be ready to jump!”
The platform continued to slow as
it approached ground level, meaning more and more of the attackers’ spells were hitting home. A moment later, with the platform maybe ten feet above the floor, Sasha shouted, “Now!”
Lugs and the tanks activated their Shield Rush abilities, shooting forward into the crowd of casters and archers in front of them. The others leapt off right behind them, following in a tight group as the tanks blasted through several ranks of the enemy. The moment they were through, the tanks turned and formed a shield wall with a gap in the middle. Their people dashed through, some of them staggering from wounds taken as they descended. The moment Helga, who brought up the rear, was past the tanks, they closed ranks. The entire raid began to backstep as the mass of enemies that had surrounded the elevator tried to move to flank them.
The commander of this particular force had made a mistake. They chose almost all ranged attackers with very few melee, thinking that the crossfire they established by surrounding the platform would allow them to annihilate the invaders before they even reached the ground. And now, with the sheer volume of spells and projectiles flying toward the tanks, any melee who tried to approach would be committing suicide. Unlike the armies of the light, the ranged DPS of the dark forces wouldn’t blink at killing their own.
The raiders continued to back up slowly, the tanks in a near half-circle to protect their people from the casters who were hurrying toward the left and right sides. Sasha looked behind them, seeing that the nearest wall was still a hundred yards away.
“Alexander! Fitz! We need some walls! We won’t make it that far!” She pointed to the wall behind them.
The mages both obliged, raising a fifteen-foot high wall to their left and to their right. Then Alexander began making a back wall to connect the two while Fitz created a shorter waist-high wall along the front side. The tanks immediately moved behind the protection and set their shields atop the wall, creating a barrier tall enough to protect all those behind it.
In half a minute, they had a mini-stronghold inside which they could take a breather. The space was about ten yards square. Room enough for the forty-odd remaining raiders. The healers brought the wounded back up to full health, then took a seat to recover as much mana and stamina as they could.
Spells and bolts impacted the stone walls and the tank’s shields as more than a hundred ranged attackers threw all they had against the defenses. A few lobbed fireballs in an arc over top of the tanks’ shields, but their aim was off. The spells continued beyond the back wall to splash down harmlessly on the stone floor.
Sasha stuck her head out and cast Thorn Trap on a tightly grouped bunch of about twenty casters. Alexander quickly hit it with Wizard’s Fire and the casters began to scream and thrash, causing the thorns to push deep into their flesh. They were nearly all drow, as hobgoblin and orc mages were rare. Nimble and nearly immortal, the drow focused on their mental attributes rather than physical. As a result, their health bars were short compared to humans. As the DoT from the flames kept them from casting, it also reduced their health considerably.
The core group, minus Brick, who was manning the shield wall, gathered in the center of the space along with Molgo, Del, Fitz, and the most senior of the remaining orcs.
Sasha spoke loud enough to be heard over the crashing impacts on their shelter. “We need a way to wipe these guys out. With minimal risk to ourselves.”
“I could liquefy the stone under some of them, trap them in the stone,” Alexander volunteered.
Sasha nodded once at him. “That has worked well in the past. But how big an area can you cover?”
“Not large enough to get them all. Not unless they were bunched up tight.”
Fitz added, “And the drow are not stupid. Those may be just novices or acolytes out there. But it won’t take them long to realize what you’ve done and do the same to us in here.”
Max volunteered, “We could just snipe at them from in here until they’re all dead. I didn’t see a lot of healers out there. Open us some slots in the walls and let us do our thing.”
Sasha shook her head. “We’ll do that, but it’s not fast enough by itself. Can you feel that? It’s already getting warm in here from the spells heating the stone.”
Brick shouted, “Errr… guys? Whatever ye’re plannin’, ye might want ta get to it! We got more beasties comin’!”
He motioned toward the stronghold, far on the other side of the elevator platform. It was built of stone, with high walls and a massive double-doored gate that looked large enough for a giant to step through. The gates were open now and a short column of trolls were shuffling out. There were eight of them, walking two by two almost in step. Each of them carried a club larger than Lugs in one hand and a spear in the other.
“They be slow, but they’ll not be stopped easy. We got mebbe three minutes ‘til they arrive.”
“Alexander, if they stay in formation, or even just grouped that close, save your earth magic for them. Wait ‘til they’re within spitting distance, then sink them. They might disrupt the casters some,” Sasha ordered.
Beatrix, who was small enough to stand on the wall behind the shields and peek between them to attack, was using her water magic to create a water globe around the heads of one caster at a time, suffocating them. She called from her position. “If you can get us access to a water source, Misty and I can murder these fools!” she shouted enthusiastically. “Get that sweet, sweet XP!”
Sasha looked at Alexander, who sent his Earth Sense below them. He found a stream about twenty feet down. Just a small water flow, not really enough to qualify as a stream. Still, he used Earth Mover to open a shaft about a foot wide so that Beatrix would have access.
She closed her eyes and pushed her hands out toward the shaft. Water began to gurgle down below, then rise up. As soon as it cleared the shaft, she turned and pushed the stream toward the enemy directly in front of them. Misty moved forward and prepared to cast.
Beatrix wielded the stream like one of her arms, slapping across the line of casters, soaking them all. She used her other hand, wiggling her fingers at the enemy, to create globes of water around half a dozen heads. Misty popped her head up long enough to cast Arctic Blast in a cone that reached out and froze the water on the enemies’ bodies. For the six that had water around their heads, it became a solid chunk of ice. The others were simply encased in a thin layer of ice that slowed or interrupted their casting.
Max and Lainey and the other ranged DPS took their chance. They popped out from behind the tanks and fired as rapidly as they could at the disabled line in front of them. As they whittled down the casters’ health, Beatrix splashed the exterior of their shelter with water, cooling the heated stone and easing things a bit for those inside.
Sasha recast her Thorn Trap on the group she’d hit initially. The new vines caught fire, increasing the damage being done to the casters trapped there. Alexander joined in with the DPS, casting Magic Bolts at the faces of as many casters as possible, interrupting their spells and forcing them to take precious seconds to recover. The dragons grouped near the back of the shelter, waiting to be asked for help.
Alexander looked around his limited range of view. A score of the casters were soon going to burn to death inside Sasha’s thorns. Their health bars were already nearly empty. The frozen group directly in front was another dozen or so. The DPS was focused on them and they would be dead in half a minute or less. That was nearly a third of the force arrayed against them, not counting the trolls. Which were still approaching, but too far away yet.
He smiled when he saw that Fibble had hopped up on the wall next to Beatrix and was shouting, “Pew!” with each shot he flung toward the enemy. He walked up to Beatrix and tapped her shoulder. When she turned, he handed her a soul gem from his bag. “Recharge Fibble when he runs out.” She nodded and went back to suffocating drow.
He turned back to the trolls, which were nearing his casting range. Which meant they were also nearing the group of frozen drow. Alexander had an idea. “Stop firing on the
front group. Shift fire to the left!”
His people all reacted quickly, shifting fire to a group of thirty or more casters to the left of the icy drow mages. Alexander waited until the first of the troll ranks reached the back of that group. They clearly had no intention of stopping and simply stomped right over the helpless drow. Alexander quickly cast Wizard’s Fire on the one on the left, causing it to scream in a surprisingly high pitch as its face began to boil. He quickly cast Levitate on the other of the front-rank trolls, lifting it just a few inches from the ground. With a movement of his hand, he pushed the floating troll to one side, using it to crush more of the frozen drow. When he’d mowed down the last of them, he reversed his hand motion and tossed the troll into the second rank of the column.
As soon as it struck, he released the spell and let it drop to the stone. Then he used his Earth Mover to turn the stone under the front several trolls to soft mud. The heavy creatures immediately began to sink. Alexander let them go until they were nearly waist-high, then solidified the stone.
Roars of frustration and fear erupted from the front four trolls. The one with the burning face had lost its eyes and was laying about with its club. It crushed every drow within reach and did some damage to its brethren as well. Confused and annoyed, the other three who were trapped quickly got tired of the abuse and teamed up to beat the blinded troll to a pulp.
Meanwhile, the rest of the column, having seen those ahead of them sink into the stone, had split up and moved left and right to go around them. Two in each direction. One of the back-rank trolls paused to try to pull a comrade free from the stone. He gave up after dislocating the arm he held. Picking up his club, he moved after his still-upright cousin.
Alexander grinned. He’d managed to disable four of the trolls, then get one killed and another injured. But he had four more to go.
The trolls who had moved to his right were once again advancing. After seeing their fellow casters get crushed, the mages in their way wisely moved aside. But Alexander wasn’t going to let it be that easy. He cast Levitate on one of the drow and flung it into the face of the lead troll. It swatted away the attack, then lifted the offending drow and crushed it between massive hands.
World At War Page 31
