Gunz

by William Stacey

  "I don't see any civilians," Elizabeth said.

  "No," said Huck. "This camp is only for the military. They didn't know what to make of you, but Alex convinced them you were a government contractor and needed to be kept with the military—thank God, because we'd never have found you in time. The army needs to get organized, but that'll take time. Most of the brigade group is still arriving. Within another day, there'll be almost five thousand soldiers protecting the AQZ, the quarantine zone."

  "How big is this … AQZ?" Elizabeth asked.

  "Everything north of the Kiskatinaw River," said Cassie. "They're evacuating everybody they can. The army and the province are flying most of the smaller communities out."

  "Nothing's going north," said Sharon Chan bitterly. "After they hit us at the Magic Kingdom then sacked Fort St. John, the entire northern part of the province is now a no-fly zone. From what I've heard, that includes UAVs as well. No one wants to start a war with the dark elves."

  Elizabeth stopped in place and stared at her in disbelief. "They've already started the war. We need to fight back."

  Cassie gripped her elbow and motioned her along toward one of the modular tents. Two young men stood outside of it. "We know. That's why we busted you out."

  The two men outside the tent were Tops and Masters. Tops nodded at the women then lifted the tent flap. He smiled at Elizabeth. "Nice to see you up and about again, Gunz."

  "Thank Cassie." She ducked through the open flap into the dim tent. The others followed her.

  It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but then she saw the tent was filled with people, all sitting about on cots, watching her. A deep, gruff bark greeted her, and a moment later, Clyde ran over and began to wind himself around her like a snake, eager for attention. As she scratched Clyde's rump, she saw Paco nearby, sitting on a cot beside Leela, smoking a cigarette. Both nodded in greeting at her. Helena sat nearby with her hands clenched between her legs. Cory Ward nodded in greeting, as did Corinna. There were over a dozen people inside the tent. Then Swamp Thing was looming over her, his face all teeth. He caught Elizabeth up in a too-tight bear hug, lifting her off the ground. "My magical lioness, I told these others that no elf-bitch could defeat you."

  "Put me down," she wheezed at Swamp Thing.

  Tops popped his head through the tent opening. "Captain's back."

  A moment later, Alex strode into the tent, Lee Costner beside him. Both men were breathing heavily. "Lee and I had to make a break for it," Alex said. "The orderlies were about to sedate him."

  "I might have laid it on a bit too thickly in the hospital," Lee said.

  "Those orderlies are in good shape. They almost ran us down." When Alex saw Elizabeth, his smile widened. "Worth being chased to bust you out, Gunz."

  "Why?" she asked, her confusion growing. "I don't understand any of this. What's happened?"

  Then a shape moved away from the rear of the tent and into the light. Kargin Ice-Hand, his face grave, stepped forward. "Lizbeth-Chambers," he said, almost in a whisper, unable to meet her eyes. "It is with profound shame that I have to tell you what I told them—Horlastia and the queen are going to slaughter all of your people. She's going to cull your race."

  "What?" she said, staring at him, feeling a chill run down her spine.

  "It is the end of your world. And it's all my people's fault."

  44

  Elizabeth's surprise at seeing Kargin awake again was tempered by her confusion. "What do you mean, the end of the world?"

  "Sit," said Alex, dropping down onto one of the cots and patting the material beside him. Green army cots and nothing else filled the tent, obviously sleeping quarters. As Elizabeth joined Alex, the others pulled the cots about, creating a space around Kargin.

  "Why do I feel like I'm part of a plot?" Elizabeth asked.

  "Because you kind of are," said Cassie, plopping down on an adjacent cot. The tight canvas squeaked slightly under her weight. "Welcome to the resistance."

  Lee bumped into Tops in his rush to sit next to Cassie, something Cassie clearly pretended she hadn't noticed, but the slight smile on her lips said differently. These two have history, Elizabeth realized, and it's more than just having grown up in Hudson's Hope together. Lee was young, fit, and handsome, with short light-brown hair and an easy, confident smile. Cassie had never said anything about a "Lee" during the past year at the Magic Kingdom, but when had Elizabeth ever asked? And what kind of friend doesn't even ask about old flames?

  I'm bad at friends.

  As the others settled in, Elizabeth considered them. The last of the Task Force Devil operators—Swamp Thing, Masters, Tops, and Ward—all looked eager for a fight. Even Sharon Chan, the sole surviving task force pilot, seemed ready to go. Paco and Leela looked scared but confident, but Cassie had probably healed Leela of her fatigue last night after healing Elizabeth. Maybe she healed everybody. That would be just like her to run herself ragged worrying about everyone else. Elizabeth watched Cassie critically, noting the vague, distant stare in her red-rimmed eyes. She said she slept for a couple of hours, but I wonder… She turned her attention to the others. Corinna, Alex, and Huck also had a desperate cast to their eyes, but only Helena looked as if she wanted to throw up. The former head of Operation Rubicon's science department sat quietly near the back, wringing her hands between her legs. What's got all sixteen of them so spooked?

  "Somebody needs to fill me in," said Elizabeth. "You're starting to scare me."

  "Not enough," said Kargin sadly. "Not nearly enough."

  "Here's the thing, Elizabeth," said Alex. "Less than half of Recce Squadron made it back. As a unit, it no longer exists, and it'll be weeks yet until it can be reconstituted. For now, we're on our own—a handful of survivors among the chaos, and it's all chaos right now. The UN Security Council has convinced the government to declare this place—and all the other alien incursion sites around the world—as quarantine zones. The military is going to secure the area and keep everyone away while the UN tries to figure out how to communicate with the dark elves."

  "Communicate? They've attacked us. They're not interested in talking."

  "That may be so," continued Alex, "but the main effort of the government right now is the safety of the refugees and keeping people away from the AQZ. Besides, the dark elves have stopped attacking and have pulled back to Fort St. John. No one is going to authorize an attack against aliens, not when they're leaving us alone."

  She shook her head. "This is a mistake. You're in the army. Talk to them."

  "Nobody is interested in anything a criminal has to say. If Gus—Major Ryker—were still alive, he might be able to convince someone of the threat, but I can't even get a minute with the brigade commander."

  "You have to try."

  He sighed, shaking his head. "I did. Earlier this morning—after I heard what Kargin had to say. I made it as far as the brigade commander's Chief of Staff, who very clearly told me that he had no idea why I was out of cells and on temporary duty with Recce Squadron, but if I didn’t get out of his sight, I'd find myself behind bars again."

  "That's crazy."

  "Not to him. Recce Squadron has been gutted, and somehow I'm involved. If I push, I'll be back in the detention barracks in Edmonton by nightfall—and I can't be out of the fight, not right now."

  "I don't understand," said Elizabeth. She glanced at Kargin. He looked away quickly. "Why are you even all here?"

  "The army insisted we stay together in this tent," said Corinna. "Something about interviewing us, or quarantining us, or … shit, I don't know. I'm RCMP, not military. But they stuck us here then seemed to … forget about us. I'm not sure the army knows what's going on."

  "They don't," said Alex. "There are no standard operating procedures for something like this. Things are … messy right now, and the people in charge—like the Chief of Staff—hate confusion. When these types become stressed, they fall back on following orders. The prime minister has ordered the brigade group to establish a
quarantine zone, so the army is going to keep everyone from crossing the river. Because most of us are military or Task Force Devil civilian contractors—and we've lied and said that includes Paco, Leela, and Corinna—the chain of command has decided to segregate us until they can work out what to do with us."

  "This makes no sense," said Elizabeth weakly. She stared at Kargin. "They wouldn't just leave a—no offense, Kargin—an alien alone."

  Kargin snorted. "None taken, Lizbeth-Chambers, but your people think I'm part of this Devil Team. It seems you do have dwarves in this world, albeit not of my race. They don't think I'm an alien. They think I'm short. Things would be different, I suspect, had Tlathia survived."

  "The Recce Squadron's A-Echelon transported him with the other wounded," said Alex. "He's right. They think he's just a human dwarf."

  "When I woke some hours ago, I was in a tent with other wounded manlings—sorry, humans. But I recognized that one." Kargin pointed at Swamp Thing.

  Swamp Thing grunted. "I was checking on Aaron—who's gonna be fine, by the way. When Kargin latched onto me, I figured the best thing to do was bring him to see the captain and the others."

  "And thank God for that, because otherwise we'd have been blindsided," said Alex.

  "Blindsided by what?" She looked from him to Kargin.

  The dwarf sighed and wrung his large hands. "I'm … we're sorry. This is our fault, the fault of my people, and—to my shame—my own father. There … are no adequate words."

  Anguish twisted his normally powerful voice. She stood up, placed her hands on his huge shoulders, and looked down, waiting until he looked her in the eye. "Whatever it is, just tell me, Kargin."

  He nodded. "Magic infuses most living creatures on Faerum, Lizbeth-Chambers. Its essence, what you call mana, is plentiful on my world, even among the insects. But we dwarves are different. We're mundane, non-magical. We cannot cast magic or work spells—but we do have one gift the other races don't: we can create magical items, siphon mana from other creatures and harness it into wonderful objects, weapons… even machines. We call those who create these items technomancers, and they are the most highly regarded of all our artificers."

  "Objects like your crowns?"

  "Indeed, but weapons as well, such as my fighting axes—even Witch-Bane, the spear that toad Ulfir Dunwalker carries, is dwarf-crafted.

  "But even with our technology and magical weapons, we were always at a disadvantage during the war with the fae seelie. My people are … were gifted warriors, but when your enemy can cast fireballs and turn invisible… Our losses were staggering. We needed help—a special weapon." Kargin looked away.

  "What did you do?" Elizabeth asked softly.

  "Something we never should have. Our greatest technomancer was my father, Kulm Ice-Hand. You remember I said we could siphon mana from other creatures and harness it into our inventions?"

  Elizabeth nodded.

  "My father theorized that he could alter that technology so that a machine could … could draw more than just mana. He created a machine that could siphon life force then store that stolen energy. He never would have dared create such a horrific weapon had we not been so desperate, but we … we were losing, and to lose a war with the fae seelie is to face the end of everything. He named his invention the Culling Machine, because it culled life force. But even then, he never intended to use it, merely to threaten its use to bring about a peace."

  "You lost it, didn't you, this machine?"

  "When Queen Tuatha de Talinor's spies learned of it, she sealed a bargain with a power we never thought would enter the war: the dragon Bale-Fire. Bale-Fire's involvement changed everything in a single night of fire and death. Before we even realized the threat, the dragon attacked our home city, destroying our automated defenses, just as the fae seelie mounted an assault on the walls. They overran the city and captured the Culling Machine and my father. With the use of a grimworm, the queen forced him to help her. They erected towers along the locations of ley lines. Once the towers were built, the queen commanded my father to use the machine against his own people. In hours, the war was over."

  "My God," whispered Elizabeth, the magnitude of his words horrifying. "Your people?"

  "Culled, the survivors enslaved."

  "You're talking about genocide."

  "Survivors?" asked Alex. "I don't mean to sound cruel, but if this machine truly is a genocide device…"

  Kargin sighed. "The machine emits a Culling Wave that is specifically tuned to an individual race, ignoring all others. It transmits this wave through the intersection of ley lines known as a Nexus Star. Your city, this Fort St. John, was built upon such an intersection. This is why the dark elves attacked so ruthlessly."

  "We had no idea, no warning," said Corinna softly. "They just appeared … killing everyone."

  "Aye," answered the dwarf. "They needed to drive you from the location of the Nexus Star so they could transport the Culling Machine to it and tune it without interference."

  "Are all the other invasion sites … Nexus Stars?" asked Elizabeth.

  "No, there is only one such intersection on any world. It is your poor misfortune that it is here. This is why Maelhrandia broke through the gateway here. A Nexus Star is like a beacon through the Red Ether. At any rate, the other invasion sites are built upon other key ley line intersections, just not as powerful as the one here. In the other sites, the fae seelie have erected towers that will amplify the Culling Wave, extending its range across your world. But the towers also create null-zones around them. Anyone within those null-zones, say two hundred of your kilometers, will be safe from the Culling Wave."

  "Safe?" asked Alex.

  "Only for a short while, until the queen's armies can enslave them. The fae seelie are fond of slaves."

  "Why?" asked Elizabeth. "Why do such an evil thing?"

  "Power and long life," said Kargin sadly. "We dwarves were always few, in truth only hundreds of thousands in all of Faerum. But the life forces of those thousands have prolonged the queen's life for decades now. We dwarves are remarkably long-lived, but Queen Tuatha de Talinor has not aged a day since slaughtering my people. Imagine what she could do with the life force of billions of humans. With that much power, she might even share it with the rest of her evil daughters. I imagine such slaughter pleases their foul spider-mother deity."

  "This is … horrifying," said Elizabeth, staring about at the others.

  "It is, indeed," agreed Kargin. "Unthinkable, unacceptable, unforgivable. That's why Tlathia and I stole the Shatkur Orb—to stop the queen. My father created three orbs. One creates the Culling Wave, and another—kept secure within the queen's fortress—stores the stolen life force for her. The two orbs create a closed feedback loop—are you familiar with this term?"

  "I am … I think, but that's only two orbs. Why three?"

  "A design spare. Always have a spare, my father used to say."

  "You're offtrack, Kargin," said Alex gently.

  "Apologies. Without both orbs, the queen's plans would have failed. Horlastia needed to recover the second orb."

  "So that's why she and her army kept on the attack after so many losses," said Elizabeth, now understanding why the boggarts, trolls, and flying mages kept coming. "The farther we pulled back, the more we drove her on."

  "And now she doesn't need to fight anymore," said Kargin sadly.

  "Exactly," said Cassie. "But the army thinks it's because of their MDA."

  Something still bothered Elizabeth. "But … if Horlastia needed the orb to power the machine, and you had it, why didn't you just destroy it?"

  "We couldn't. Even Tlathia wasn't powerful enough. My father wasn't just a great technomancer; he was a genius, a legend among my people. The orbs are like batteries, but they store all forms of energy, not only mana but also physical energy—for example, a hammer blow. Anything we did to the orb would only have made it more powerful. But there was one chance… Do you remember we told you that we sought the ancient on
es' help to hide the orb?"

  "Yes."

  "That was only partially true. We suspected, and my father confirmed as much before he died, that these ancient masters of magic might even have the power to destroy the orbs."

  "So there's … nothing we can do?"

  "Not so, Lizbeth-Chambers—only the orbs are nearly indestructible. The machine is not."

  "That's why you're here," said Alex. "Why we're all here."

  "How long do we have?"

  "A day, maybe two, no longer than that," said Kargin. "Tlathia and I scouted the Culling Machine already, and Horlastia's gnomes were surprisingly effective at reassembling it here."

  "A day? This is crazy." Elizabeth stared at Alex. "We need to bomb Fort St. John and all the other sites as well."

  Alex sighed. "Nobody is going to listen."

  She turned and stared at Helena. "You're part of Operation Rubicon, the head of the science department. They'll listen to you."

  She shook her head. "Here, I'm just one more refugee. In time … maybe I could convince some people of the danger, maybe not. But…"

  "But we have no time," said Alex.

  "Your friend is correct," said Kargin. "You must act now."

  "How?" she asked in a small voice.

  "Us," said Alex. The others nodded, even Corinna and Helena.

  "We've been talking about it for a couple of hours now," said Cassie. "Once we got over our horror, once we accepted the dark elves just might be that evil, we came to the same conclusion. We have to fight."

  Elizabeth wiped her hands across her face, turning about to stare at everyone, all of them watching her.

  "We need to do something," said Alex.

  "Right now," said Paco.

  "We need you, my magic lioness," said Swamp Thing.

  Tops and Ward nodded.

  Elizabeth stood up and stumbled back, her thoughts in turmoil, until she reached the canvas wall of the tent. All right, Mary Elizabeth Chambers, she admonished herself, think this through. If Kargin's wrong and we attack, we might die for nothing. We might make things worse. If he's right and we do nothing, everyone dies—including my family. She saw the grinning dark-elf mage holding the angry insect near her flesh, heard the mocking tone in Horlastia's voice as she threatened Elizabeth with her sword. It's all true, she realized. They are that evil.