by TR Cameron
That would provide their enemies the first indication action was underway, and now events would happen quickly. They shifted into a jog, which meant Grentham almost had to run to keep up and arrived at the fence without a problem. A device arced through the air over his head, tossed from behind by one of the mercenaries, and struck the barrier’s metal surface. The electrified fence shorted out with a bang like a firework exploding. Two mercenaries were there instantly with bolt cutters, snipping a rectangular door for them to pass through. Lights mounted on the building illuminated as they moved through in single file. Grentham snapped, “Alarm status?”
The infomancer’s voice came back across the line. “No problems. I have all communication from the facility locked down. No messages in or out.”
“Good work. Keep it up.” Gunfire erupted from the building, and everyone dropped to the ground except Grentham, who waved a hand to summon a force shield in front of him. They’d expected this too, and he focused his mind to widen the protection and make it tall enough to handle volleys from the top floor if they came. The mercenaries arranged themselves into a line at his back, and one stepped up next to him with a wand attached to a small computer held in his hands. The dwarf walked at a steady pace toward the building, moving laterally to avoid traps the man beside him searched out. Grenades from those following set off those they couldn’t escape.
The force shield intercepted bullets that would otherwise have shredded them as they moved deliberately toward their target. He’d feared machine guns but had predicted that level of overkill would be unlikely. The defenders had automatic rifles at best, based on the sound the weapons made and the timing of the pauses for reloading. They appeared to be firing out of gun ports though, which meant his people had no way to counterattack until they got close enough that the angle would be prohibitive for those inside. By the time they arrived there, Grentham was starting to ache from the burden of holding up the shield. Each bullet strike drained a little of his energy, and after a while, each impact felt like a bee sting on his body. Now that they’d reached the side of the building, it was time to choose their attack vector.
The mercenary in charge made the decision. “We’re already loud, so we might as well go in the front. Defenses will probably be weaker there than in the garage.” Grentham wasn’t sure he agreed but also wasn’t interested in arguing the point. He followed the man and patted the pocket of his black leather jacket, confirming the presence of a healing potion and a smaller energy potion. The first would be enough to heal almost any damage he’d take, and the second would give him an essential boost if he ran low. His bodyguards, always nearby, knew to administer them if he was incapacitated.
They marched up to the building’s front entrance. It had an effective security airlock, with easily bypassed glass doors on the outside, but a small vestibule with a heavy metal gate blocking passage beyond it. Fortunately, they’d come prepared for that. Grentham created another force shield to protect them from the defenders in the lobby while two of the mercenaries wrapped sections of the bars with thermal cord. They looked away, the incendiary burned through the metal, and the real fight began.
Chapter Thirteen
As the mercenaries pushed back the smaller number of defenders in the lobby with a barrage of gunfire, Grentham barked, “Krista, are you in?” The plan had been for their infomancer to move on to hacking the security system after taking out their communication systems.
The woman’s voice sounded annoyed, likely with herself rather than with him. “No. They have magic protection on it. You should probably watch out for other magical defenses.”
He muttered a curse and pointed at a door marked “stairs” that led to a fire escape route. Two of his six mercenaries ran ahead and planted a small charge on the lock, which detonated a moment later and caused the barrier to swing free. He followed them up a couple of steps, then danced backward as they clattered down toward him, falling under a hail of bullets. He waited for them to crawl off the stairs, saw no bleeding to worry about, and summoned his force shield again to lead the way. When the defenders discovered their rounds weren’t getting through his protection, they tried a grenade. He flicked his fingers and sent it flying back before it covered half the distance between them. It exploded with light and sound that didn’t affect his people at all. He charged forward as his foes stumbled in retreat.
Grentham led his team out onto the second floor, but rifle fire from all directions forced him to crouch and scurry to the side. He ducked under his shield in the corner, easily protecting himself from the onslaught, and watched as the mercenaries advanced. They sought cover immediately, and most of them found some, only one of them dropping bonelessly after a bullet struck him in the head. Return fire came from all around until the mercenary leader growled, “Right flank, go.” The trio on that side flicked their rifles to full auto and charged behind a fusillade of bullets.
The defenders sailed grenades out at all of them. He sent several of the explosives flying away but couldn’t protect the threesome that had advanced from his right. This time the enemy had selected fragmentation canisters, and shrapnel flew as they detonated to drop that trio to the sound of screams of pain.
Grentham cursed and stood, taking advantage of the distraction to advance. Their foes were firing from the mouths of hallways that doubtless led back to offices and the like. He reached out with a line of force to grab a file cabinet resting along the far wall and hurled it into the hallway the fallen mercenaries had been targeting. He dashed forward in the confusion that ensued and followed it up with a lightning attack that sent forks of electricity sizzling through the opening. When he dropped the spell, four defenders were down and immobile, their body armor smoking.
Shooting sounded from the other hallway, reassuring him that his crew was doing their job. He wrapped himself in a personal force shield positioned about an inch away from his skin and walked through the offices, opening each door and checking to be sure no defenders hid inside. Reports came over the radio as the mercenaries cleared the bottom floor, taking casualties but making progress. When he was comfortable the second level was secure, he went out and collected his guards, who he’d tasked with defending the stairwell, and the trio headed up to the third floor together.
The radio signaled that the mercenaries had shifted into collection mode. They’d be stealing anything that wasn’t nailed down and more importantly to him, breaking open computers to get at hard drives. However, what he craved was most likely to be upstairs. He wanted the business secrets, the things that would allow him to compromise all their operations if they tried to continue. To make them realize it would be better to call it a day, knowing how vulnerable they were. If they want to try to make a go of it afterward, I’m more than happy to slap them down. He stopped first at the server room. His guards blew a hole in the door to permit access, and he connected a small black box to the equipment rack with several ethernet cables. He asked, “You in?”
The infomancer responded a moment later. “Yeah. I have it now.”
“What do you see?”
He hadn’t destroyed the internal security cameras because he’d figured they might be of use, although he’d hoped that they’d have this intelligence earlier on. She replied, “Looks like all the defenders are down. I’m unlocking things now.” Faint clicks sounded from down the hall as the doors unlatched.
He nodded. “Very good. Copy everything you can.” He pointed at his guards. “You two, wire this place to blow.” He turned and headed toward the offices. A pair of them shared this floor, one for each of the company’s principals. He was a little miffed at the fact they were both larger than his space and put that on the list of things to consider later. He entered the right-hand office and stood in the doorway with his fists on his hips. “If I was a hidden safe, where would I be?”
A shiver ran down his spine, giving him enough warning to dive to the side as a ball of fire slammed into the place he’d occupied and set the drywall a
flame. He rolled up to his feet, wondering in the back of his brain if his force shield would’ve been adequate to defend against the attack while he sought its source. A wizard stood in the far corner of the room, where he’d doubtless been hiding behind a veil. The wand pointed at him, and another ball of fire shot out, but this time he was prepared for it. He summoned a second force shield and angled it before him, deflecting the ball up and away rather than trying to block it. It hit the drop ceiling and lit that on fire as well. Grentham charged the other magical, figuring that like most wizards he knew, his foe’s preference would be to fight from a distance instead of close up. Personally, either option worked for him.
The mage tried lightning next, and the attack’s power crackled through his shield. His teeth clenched against the stinging pain—he hated lightning with a passion, at least on the receiving end—and kept moving forward. He wasn’t sure what his enemy expected, but from the way his eyes widened the moment before the dwarf crashed into him, it wasn’t someone ramming into him. Grentham had the angle and the strength, and he blasted upward at the last second, his strong leg muscles propelling his shoulder up into the wizard’s sternum.
The man slammed back into the wall with a loud crack, then stumbled forward. Somehow he managed to hold on to his wand and swiped it across in a frantic defense. The beam of shadow it emitted slammed into Grentham and burned through his shield in an instant. His shout was as much in anger as in pain as it savaged his right leg. He went down on one knee and growled, “Enough of this shit.” Reaching out with a line of force, he grabbed the heavy mahogany desk that was the room’s dominant item. He made a whipping motion, and it flew across the intervening space to slam into the wizard. The man rebounded off the tall windows that filled one wall, confirming they were thick bulletproof glass. See, it’s good that we didn’t try to come in that way. This time the mage dropped his wand and crumpled, ending the fight.
Grentham tapped his comm. “Okay, people. Five minutes and we’re out.” The magical would probably have had the means to communicate with the building’s owners, and if so, reinforcements would be on the way. Plus, there was the not-so-small matter of the fire spreading along the wall and ceiling.
Grentham downed the healing potion and grimaced as the missing flesh in his leg re-grew. “Damn, that itches,” he muttered and staggered to his feet. He used force magic to punch holes in the walls at one-foot intervals until he revealed the location of the safe he knew had to be there. Fortunately, the fire hadn’t yet reached it. Even better, the lock was electronic. He attached another device, and his infomancer overrode the code and popped open the door.
Physical files sat inside, kept company by a stash of currency and a transparent bag full of gems. He grabbed everything he could and headed for the exit. He linked up with the mercenaries along the way, and once they got back outside, Grentham ordered his guard to blow the computer room. It detonated with a loud explosion, and he spent the next three minutes creating and launching fireballs into the building to ensure all of it was aflame. Once convinced that no amount of fire trucks could save it, he followed the others in a jog to their vehicles. Objective four complete. All in all, not a bad night’s work.
Chapter Fourteen
Goryo had timed his action to coincide with the efforts of the people from the security company. He’d left behind a pair of transmitting devices, one in the SUV that picked him up at the airport and the other in the garage that housed the vehicle he’d borrowed. They’d provided enough information to reveal that they were making a move tonight, so he planned his for the same time, figuring that two simultaneous attacks would sow additional discord and confusion.
His role in Ely was a simple one: raise the mental stakes for the casino owners, and cause them to worry. That worry would push them into hiring more security, a service that would doubtless be compromised by his employer’s people. He didn’t care about that part but had nonetheless figured out the ramifications of the bigger picture shortly after receiving the message seeking to hire him. Goryo worked for the highest bidder. He had no particular concern over plans or goals unless he could either profit from them by investments based on insider knowledge, such as when he eliminated the CEO of a major corporation and sent their stock tumbling, or when it might endanger him at an unacceptably high level. He stayed away from operations involving the organizations he’d associated with in his early career, as several criminal enterprises would take it poorly if he acted against them. Since he frequently used them for supply and other assistance, to oppose those groups would be a foolish choice indeed.
The assignment hadn’t specified how he was to accomplish his task, an arrangement Goryo preferred. Without a specific goal other than wreaking havoc and causing trouble, he had the opportunity to select his target. The prior operation suggested that his employer prioritized moving against those with families. It was logical; endangered adults were more or less commonplace, but endangering those who had not yet reached adulthood was universally more threatening. He had never married or had children, and such things did not touch him. However, he understood in the abstract that others felt strong emotions around those issues, and was more than willing to take advantage of the opportunities that vulnerability offered.
Aside from the Atlanteans, who he rejected for the moment based on the prior failed action and his awareness of the security company’s plans for the evening, only two other families had children in vulnerable positions. Most of them kept their progeny in the underground city where he couldn’t get at them, or at the very least would be incredibly obvious during the attempt. However, the adopted girl from the Mist Elf casino was frequently seen aboveground, as was the entire family that ran the Deep Woods casino. More elves, this time the forest kind—Wood Elves, they called them. He didn’t have much knowledge about that particular branch of magicals. It was enough to know where to find them, and his research had revealed an unfortunate—for them—predictability to their movements.
His raid on the pawnshop provided the primary tool he planned to use for the attack. In addition to his standard gear, which consisted of a sword on his back and pistols strapped to his thighs, the magical weapon he’d retrieved was a pair of batons that screwed together into a large staff. Each end discharged magic when it struck. One delivered a force blast that could knock a target away, and the other sparked with lightning. While he could’ve found non-magical options to accomplish both those things, the magical ones offered an advantage. In his experience, magic defenses performed better against technology than they did against opposing magic. Since he’d probably have to fight through a decent amount of security, he needed every edge he could get.
He’d stolen one other item from the pawnshop, a small metal disc currently secured to his belt to be his escape route if his plans went awry. It would spill out a line of force as long as necessary to reach the ground, according to his research. He hoped not to have to rely on it but believed in backup options. And carrying a rope that would extend fifteen stories down would have been pretty obvious. He’d purchased the other magic item, the one he planned to use when events in the city came to a head. It was waiting for him at the house he’d rented on the outskirts of town through an untraceable third party.
He kept an ear to the ground for rumors of magical items and paid well for people to tell him what they heard. He’d assembled a relatively extensive list of purely magic objects and others that blended magic and technology. Sometimes, he contrived to have them delivered to the place where he was working, where he would then steal them to avoid any paper trail. Other times, he simply bought the items or took them from whoever had them and brought them along to the job himself. A couple more from his list were currently in Ely, one of them an extremely volatile device he’d played no role in bringing to the city, but that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to leave without collecting against future need.
His watch vibrated as the moment arrived. The self-driving van he’d rented for the evening roll
ed ahead at his command and dropped him off at the rear bottom floor of the hotel portion of the Deep Woods casino. He slid out the back, a dark figure in black boots, tactical pants, and a t-shirt with a grey windbreaker thrown over his shoulder to cover the sword’s pommel. Hidden beneath it all was custom form-fitting body armor. He strode quickly to an unremarkable door to the hotel. His recon had shown that the Deep Woods used electronic locks on external doors, and he could always buy a tool to break through those if money wasn’t an object. The fee for his involvement in Magic City had ensured it wouldn’t be.
He placed a rectangular block box on top of the keypad and was rewarded a moment later with a click as the latch disengaged. He swept through into a service stairwell. Ahead of him, a long hallway led to kitchens, storage, and probably eventually to the casino itself, with other hallways branching off in both directions. This staircase was for the serving crew to access the banquet rooms on the second, third, and fourth levels of the hotel with ease and without being seen. He walked unhurriedly up the stairs, his senses alert for any potential security alarm, especially for security cameras. He nodded as he passed a pair of tuxedoed elves, who looked young even for their kind. His research indicated the hotel was hosting multiple banquets that evening, including a wedding party of several hundred people. The activity had been one more thing that made this particular night a good one for his maneuver since it would be easier to hide among a larger crowd. The real challenge would come once he reached the fifteenth floor.
After the fourth level, the style of the stairway changed, becoming narrower and more utilitarian. The building’s blueprints had shown it as a fire escape, and that’s what it seemed to be. He’d chosen this route because it limited the likelihood of running into anyone and would likely be lightly monitored by security. Still, it was part of a casino, so dome cameras were positioned at intervals starting at the fifth floor, where the activity from the banquet levels wouldn’t be a distraction.
