David was already moving.
#
Superhuman speed or not, the shooting had already started by the time David reached the front entrance. His people had thrown couches, benches and the lobby’s two vending machines together into a rough barricade to give them cover.
It shouldn’t have stopped bullets, especially not the high-velocity rounds the enemy’s assault rifles were spitting at the Omicron team. With Hellet in their midst, however, any barrier could become impenetrable.
To David’s eyes, the whole pile of gear glowed with the blue light of the ONSET Agent’s magic. The spell rippled as each bullet hit it, weakening momentarily in a way that it shouldn’t have for regular rounds.
“Silver bullets,” she gasped out at him as he dropped down next to her. “I can still hold it with the physical barrier for support, but the bastards have silver bullets.”
“They knew who they were coming up against,” he said grimly. Silver disrupted magic and supernatural abilities in general.
“Gear seems otherwise mundane, but yeah,” Hellet agreed.
Any further conversation was interrupted by Stone rising up above the barricade and opening fire with his machine gun. His torso and arms transformed to granite, he slowly turned as he walked his fire across the attackers.
They scattered under his fire but resumed their own suppressive salvos as soon as Stone ran out of bullets.
David stuck his head and gun over the edge, studying the situation. The attackers didn’t have much in terms of cover, but they were using the parked vehicles and decorative concrete terraces to their best advantage as they advanced in teams.
He opened fire almost casually, walking his bullets across a squad as they tried to advance forward. As the AP troopers joined in, four of the armored mercs went down before the rest retreated.
Two of the ones who’d gone down, however, managed to drag themselves back to cover. The armor they were wearing was damned effective.
“Everyone is here,” Hellet said grimly, nodding along the lines. Elfin Warriors and Anti-Paranormals alike were reduced to hiding behind the bulwark and taking potshots with sidearms. “We can’t spare anyone to get the rifles, so we’re completely outgunned.”
Shaking his head, David rose again, focusing his fire on another attempt to move forward. Three of the troopers went down, and those didn’t get back up.
“Corporal,” he shouted to the closest AP team leader. “I’ll hold this section. You pull your team back and go get the damned rifles.”
“Sir!”
“Cover them!” David ordered to the rest of the troopers, emptying the last half of his magazine at the closest concentration of the attackers.
None of the AP troopers were dead so far, but seven of them had been pulled back from the barricade to a rough and ready first aid station. That left David with thirty troopers, plus eight Elfin Warriors and his three ONSET Agents, to stand off an enemy force of equal numbers and superior equipment.
If they weren’t in public, he’d have had a dozen more options—Hellet wasn’t an unusually strong Mage, but she could have driven the enemy from cover with a slew of fireballs. Or David and the Elfin Warriors could have leaned on their own superhuman abilities to launch a counter-assault.
None of that could be done subtly, and he could hear the rotors of approaching news helicopters. He had to hope that his own aircraft were shortly behind them, as the limits of what he could do in the public eye could easily turn this into a disaster.
Then his precognition flared brightly and he realized that wasn’t a news helicopter he could hear.
“Hellet, full shield now!”
They might not have been working together for long, but they’d been busy weeks. Hellet responded to his order instantly, detaching her shield from the barricade it had been supporting to create a distended dome that protected the entire ad-hoc defensive position.
A moment later, the closing helicopter gunships opened fire, missiles and heavy cannon shells hammering the concrete roof and slamming shrapnel and projectiles into the magical defense. David felt as much as saw Hellet cringe away from each impact, but her shield held under the hail of fire.
Then the gunships passed over—and he heard the skylights above the conference hall shatter as another fusillade of fire slammed into the main structure of the building. A heart-wrenching moment later, he knew he’d dramatically underestimated the threat against the Conclave.
“This is Pendragon DKL-17,” a new voice echoed on his radio. “We have aerial bogies bombarding your zone. Closing to engagement range—do we hit the air or the ground, sir?”
More gunfire was echoing as the attackers began to rise as one, automatic fire echoing as they charged forward.
“Take the choppers,” David ordered harshly, reloading his pistol. “We’ll handle the ground.”
With a gunship in the air and most of the public fled, the time for discretion was over—and the time to end the fight now had arrived.
He jumped the barricade, intentionally drawing fire as he charged into the face of the assault. He emptied his pistol in moments, the caseless pistol firing almost as fast as he could pull the trigger. By the time it clicked empty and he drew his sword, he knew the Elfin Warriors had followed him over the barricade.
None of them were his equal, but two Mages, a werewolf and five Empowered, plus Stone and Hellet, made for more than enough backup.
The attackers may have brought silver bullets, but they weren’t ready for that counterattack.
Chapter 10
Leaving the pursuit of the scattered and fleeing survivors of the assault to Stone and the Elfin Warriors, David slowly picked his way back through the debris that had been the front entrance to the conference center. The building was probably still stable, though he could also see where more missiles and cannon fire had been walked across the roof.
“David, this is Charles,” a thickly accented voice announced in his ear. “Ai know ye dinnae want to hear it, but you’ve picked up a lot of local attention. Fire trucks, ambulances, the works, lad.”
It was easy to forget, just hearing Charles’s voice with its thick Irish accent, that Charles was a thirty-foot-long dragon. He was also one of Omicron’s best-kept secrets, as well as one of their better hackers.
“I’m not surprised,” David replied. “Did we get the bastards?”
“Satellite recon confirms DKL-17’s reported kills,” Charles told him. “We’re not sure where the bastards came from, but they’re gone now.”
“Understood. We’ll interface and deal with the locals,” David confirmed. “I’m going to check in on the Elfin. This is a complete mess.”
“Ye’ve a gift for understatement, Commander.”
Shaking his head at the dragon, he gestured for Hellet to join him.
“How are you holding up, Kate?” he asked.
“Migraine,” she admitted with a wince. “I’ll live. What do you need?”
The sound of sirens reached them as she spoke, answering her question for him.
“I need you to run interference with Seattle police while I talk to the Elfin and see if this nightmare has blown up any chance of a deal,” he said grimly. “Where’s Pell?”
“Here,” the last member of his team announced.
“I don’t suppose you took anyone alive?” David asked.
“When a BMW punches someone, they don’t get back up,” the squat pilot replied. “Um. We owe one of the Lords a new BMW.”
Pell could literally make any machine do anything. His gift did not, however, guarantee the machine returning to anything resembling its original shape afterward. If he’d convinced a BMW to turn into a Transformer, it was useless scrap now.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” David promised. “Stick with Kate,” he ordered. “Locals inbound—you know the drill.”
“We’re Federal agents running security for a government conference,” Hellet told him crisply. “We have jurisdiction but will gladl
y accept their assistance.”
“What a fucking mess,” Pell snapped.
“You at least get to deal with the cops,” David reminded the other man. “I have to go talk to the Conclave.”
#
The inside of the conference hall was as bad as he’d feared. The skylights had been shattered, chunks of glass shrapnel scattered through the entire meeting hall like invisible arrows. The concrete between the skylights had collapsed, crushing the entire stage where the speakers had been standing. A perfectly circular section of powdered debris in the middle of the concrete slab suggested whoever had been speaking at the time had lived, but others hadn’t.
Gunfire had tracked over the seating area, with chairs and circular tables shattered by high-velocity bullets and small explosions. There hadn’t been enough time to even begin clearing away the debris, but several of the Lords were moving through the debris or already crouched over the wounded, power rippling off them in tangible waves to David’s Sight as they put their magic into the age-old battle against death.
“What the hell happened?” Lord Hugo Lachappelle demanded, spotting David and charging toward him like an enraged bull. “You were supposed to be protecting us!”
“And six AP soldiers were killed and another dozen wounded doing so,” David snapped back. “But given that the Elfin gave us no reason to expect someone would come after you with helicopter gunships, we weren’t prepared for that level of assault.
“And three of our men were killed by Elfin,” he said grimly. “Your people betrayed us, cost us time that could have made all the difference. This is an unmitigated disaster, but do not lay all the blame on us, Lord Lachappelle.”
“Breathe, Hugo,” Langley interrupted, him and Riley arriving like the cavalry. “Commander White did everything in his power.”
“And Amanda is still dead,” Lachappelle snapped. “And William. And Alicia. And Conner, my Second, if you’ve forgotten him in the count of dead Lords!”
David winced.
“Three Lords killed?” he said quietly.
“Four,” Riley said bitterly. “Amanda Rainier. William Kenner. Alicia Morehouse. Ryan Manderley. Kenner’s Second died with him; the missile hit right between them. Conner was killed by cannon fire. Two other Seconds died covering their Lords, and we have wounded.”
“Once you’re done treating your own, we have wounded as well if the Lords with those skills are willing to assist,” David requested.
“I can help,” Langley promised, but before they could move further, angry shouts interrupted them.
“What the hell happened, Omicron?” one of the Lords demanded, echoing Lachappelle. “If this is how you honor your promises, I spit on your damned deal. I call for a vote!”
“A vote!” another took up the cry—and then another.
“I’ll do what I can,” Langley murmured to David, then stepped back and turned to face his compatriots.
“Please!” he shouted. “First Lord Manderley is dead. We are in no position to hold a formal vote, and we should know better than to vote in the midst of this tragedy!
“We disrespect our dead if we cast aside the possibility of agreement with Omicron while standing over their bodies! Would you truly decide these matters now? Today? When our time would be better spent healing our injured and seeing to the families of those we’ve lost?”
“A vote!” someone shouted, but it wasn’t taken up by a chorus this time.
“I call for us to prorogue this session of Conclave for one week,” Langley told his compatriots. “In one week, with better presence of mind and the time to absorb today’s events, if we would still vote with no further discussion, then let us vote. But let us take the time to heal our wounded and mourn our dead!”
“Aye!”
“Aye!”
The chorus took up approval now, but David heard Riley’s sigh of relief after the Elfin Lord shouted his own agreement.
“We will pass out the new location through the usual channels,” Langley told the rest of the Conclave. “We will meet in a week.”
The sound of mixed conversations resumed across the room, most of the cries of pain silent now as the healing Lords made their rounds. Langley waited for several moments, then turned back to David.
“This is a disaster,” he said flatly.
“You’ve bought time, nothing more,” Lachappelle told him, his tone equally flat. He inclined his head to David. “I do not deny you did your best, Commander White, but this incident raises dire concerns about your agency and your superiors. Such an attack should have been foreseen and you equipped to stop it.
“I question the value of Omicron’s information networks,” he continued, quoting David’s earlier words back at him. “But we shall see what mime otorno, mime seler say in the end.”
With that, the Lord stalked away, and Langley sighed.
“Are you still with me, at least, Riley?” he asked.
“If anything, this only shows how much more we need each other,” Riley said gruffly.
“Agreed.” Langley shook his head as he met David’s eyes. “I’ll do what I can, Commander, but in all honesty…we’ve lost a lot of votes today. While we’ve said no such thing, the Conclave will expect Omicron to come to the next meeting with answers as to what happened here today.
“Without such answers—without justice for our dead—I fear the Committee may need to come up with some far more serious concessions to earn the Conclave’s allegiance.”
#
Leaving the Elfin behind, David found his two Agents having blocked off a uniformed Seattle Police Department officer just outside the door. The tall auburn-haired woman looked frustrated, and Hellet was clearly trying to calm her down.
“Are you in charge here?” she demanded as David approached them. “I’m Lieutenant Terri Church of the SPD; I need to know what’s going on here. I have SWAT on standby in response to gunfire, and now your people here are telling me this situation is out of my jurisdiction!”
“Lieutenant Church,” David said calmly. “The situation is out of your jurisdiction. This was a confidential government conference with a special armed security detail. Federal agents will take custody of all involved bodies, weapons and other evidence.”
“Someone just launched a major assault in my city, including goddamn attack choppers, and you’re telling me that this isn’t my jurisdiction?”
She wasn’t, quite, frothing at the mouth with rage.
“Lieutenant Church,” he said slowly, hoping to calm her down, “this is the worst terrorist act in the United States since 9/11—targeted on an event that no one was even supposed to know was happening. Even if this wasn’t a government function, this attack would be our jurisdiction. As it was our event, it is most definitely our jurisdiction.
“The situation is under control,” he assured her. “The event attendees will be evacuating shortly, and I have additional Federal personnel inbound to take over the crime scene investigation. If your people can establish a perimeter to keep civilians from interfering with our operations, it would be appreciated.”
“And that’s all I get, is it?” she snapped.
“I’ll make sure relevant portions of the investigation are forwarded to the SPD,” David promised. “But the results of this investigation are likely to be highly classified. I can’t promise more.”
Church clearly wanted to say more but finally spit out a “Fine!” and stalked away.
“Thank you, sir,” Hellet murmured. “I sympathize with her, but…”
“We have a job to do, and handholding the Seattle Police Department would get in the way,” David said flatly. Tapping on his earpiece, he linked back to the ONSET Campus.
“Leitz, do we have an ETA on crime scene personnel?” he asked.
“At least two hours,” the analyst replied apologetically. “We’re pulling a team from the Campus itself; we don’t have anyone closer who isn’t already tied up.”
“We’ll hold tight unt
il they arrive,” David told her. “We need to know who launched this attack. Without answers, we may lose the deal with the Elfin.”
Leitz was silent for a moment.
“I’ll let the Major know,” she finally said.
“Thank you.”
“Sir, Stone’s back,” Hellet told him.
The big Empowered picked his way through the debris toward the door, his machine gun slung over his shoulder and the troopers he’d taken with him trailing in his wake. The soldiers looked pissed, but Stone simply looked tired.
“They had an escape plan,” he told David in his oddly pitched voice. “They let us chase them into one of the office buildings, but they had vehicles waiting in the parking garage. It wouldn’t have taken their entire attack force, but it was more than enough to cover a dozen of them getting away from us.”
“A backup to a backup,” David said bitterly. “No live prisoners at all?”
“We are apparently a little too effective,” Hellet observed. “The cleanup team will tell us what they find, but there’s at least thirty dead guys out front, and Pell crushed another ten in the parking garage. Even dead, they should tell us something.”
“White, got a minute?” Riley asked, and David turned his best glare on the Elfin Lord.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“A minute of your time,” Riley repeated, glancing around the shattered lobby. “In something resembling privacy.”
#
“What do you want?” David demanded as the two men ducked inside a side room and shut the door behind them. “I’ve got some time right now, but the follow-up to this whole disaster is about to eat my life.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Riley said grimly. “Langley wasn’t yanking at loose ends, David. Your people are going to need to move and move fast on this file. The Lords have never been attacked in Conclave. Never.
“They’re not going to get calmer over a week. If we don’t present them with a perpetrator, someone they’ll accept as being the prime mover behind the whole attack, they’re going to vote against the deal.”
ONSET: My Enemy's Enemy Page 7
