Fire Serpent

by David J Normoyle

  “To be honest, given everything that has been happened, I expected you sooner.”

  “I told you I wasn’t coming back.”

  Jo shrugged. “You had some stuff to deal with; I never doubted you’d return.” She glanced across at me. “Maybe the break was the right thing for you. You look well,” Jo said. “Tanned. Muscled. Have you been hiding out in a gym?”

  I smiled. “Indeed. One with a great tanning saloon.”

  “You also look more mature. Which is good. We need you.”

  “He’s all tanned and shapely so he’ll look tasty when he’s strung up as dragon bait,” Persia said.

  “Don’t listen to her,” Jo said. “We have a good plan. Your personal connection to Duffy will help draw him out, and your sentinel powers should allow you to escape after. You’ll be in danger of course, but—”

  “You don’t have to explain,” I said, interrupting. “I volunteered.” I was happy to avoid being told the details of the plan as long as possible. I trusted that Jo would do her best to make sure I had a chance to escape after. Stopping Duffy was going to be my priority, not worrying about the dangers. “Jo, what you were doing in the prison, learning about how Kressan’s machines work, is that really going to be useful?”

  “I’m almost sure of it.” Jo smoothly accelerated out of a turn, then switched to the outer lane. We were coming up upon Verge Tower. “I’ve already learned plenty. Wouldn’t you like to know why titanium is the element that protects against Brimstone, and not any other metal.”

  “Would I understand it if you told me?”

  “I think so. You’d first have to read some of the papers Kressan has written. And before that, you’d have to—”

  “Would understanding about titanium help me in a fight against Duffy? Or against one of the Sentinel Order?” Reading scientific papers would only give me was a headache.

  “No, probably not.” She glanced across at me. “Though some of what I’ve learnt might help in safely removing that ugly thing draped around your neck.”

  I fingered the barbed-wire necklace. Jo had never liked Jerome. “Something has to be done about this. But not just yet.”

  “I know what you have in mind,” Persia said. “And it’s absolutely not going to happen.”

  I twisted around toward back of the van. “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t play dumb,” Persia said.

  I turned back to face forward and addressed Jo. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”

  Instead of answering, Jo parked the van. “It’s time to get ready for the mission.” She cut off the engine, then climbed between the two front seats and into the back.

  I followed Jo. Behind the driver seat, running the length of the van, was a bench with black leather cushioning. Opposite that, on the other side of a narrow aisle, various pieces of expensive looking electronics were stacked on a fitted desk. The desk also ran the full length of the van.

  “Did you rob this van from the FBI?” I asked, sitting down beside Jo on the bench.

  Jo pulled a crate from underneath the desk. She took out a small black box with a thin cable attached to it and showed it to me. “Your radio. You clip the box part to the inside of your T-shirt—it holds the microphone—and you bring the cable up the back of your neck and attach it to the top of your ear. That’s the transmitter. On the top of the box is a switch and a small LED. When the LED is red, radio is on, otherwise off.” She switched it on and handed it across.

  “This is an upgrade since last time, Jo. Remember that app with the smartphone you set up last time. We had to keep saying ‘Ok google, Talk’ to open a channel. And finished by saying ‘EndTalk’.” I clipped the black box to the inside of my T-shirt, then adjusted it until it was sitting comfortably.

  “Let me help you with that.” Jo pushed my head to the side, then she ran the cable up the back of my neck. “Of course I remember the Talk app. I’m still proud of that. Not bad for an impromptu solution.” Jo snapped the earpiece into place. “We have better equipment since Sulle started helping us.”

  “Sulle? Richard Sulle?” I asked incredulously. “Surely he’s not involved in this. He’s a snake in the grass.”

  “Open the back,” a voice said through the earpiece.

  I started, looking down at the red LED. “Who else is on this radio channel?”

  Persia reached across for a handle and opened the back door. Richard Sulle climbed in and sat down beside Persia. He then leaned forward so he was looking past the two women and straight at me.

  He grinned. “Nice to meet you again, Rune. I’m glad that you remember me. Richard Snake-in-the-Grass at your service.”

  Chapter 11

  Thursday 17:35

  Richard Sulle, as always, was tanned and well-dressed, and, as always, his smile of polished white teeth had me picturing a great white shark about to bite. He tapped the small red LED visible just inside his breast pocket. “We’ve established that the radios work at least.”

  I turned to Jo. “What’s going on here? He’s an enemy.”

  “How quickly people forget,” Sulle said with the shake of his head. “I helped you, remember, Rune? When you didn’t even know what form your multani took, I led you to a room of weapons, and in a crisis you chose two short swords to defend yourself.”

  “You had your man stab me,” I said. “I hardly call that help.”

  “You recovered from the wound as I knew you would. You later manifested your fireswords and have done great things with them since.” He smiled. “Great, or perhaps terrible things.”

  Considering that just after Sulle had me stabbed, I had caused Duffy the magic bloody dragon to come into being, describing my actions as terrible fit better. “You also built the shade prison in conjunction with Harriet Ashley, then reneged on your deal with her, handing it over to the Sentinel Order.”

  “You think I had a choice?” Sulle asked, his voice rising. “You think I wanted shades locked up without trial, tortured like they were in that place under Colonel Lowndes’s control? I’m a shade myself.”

  I wasn’t buying Sulle’s seeming sincerity for a moment. “Why did you betray your own kind then?” Ashley had told me Sulle was a fire sorcerer, though I’d never seen him using his powers.

  “The Sentinel Order has tentacles in the upper reaches of the government and business community both in Lusteer and nationally. They were able to exert enormous pressure and I did the only thing I thought I could. Live to fight another day.”

  “Let others fight while you hide, you mean,” I said. “I didn’t see you when we retook the prison. Good people died that day.”

  “We have to chose our battles,” Sulle said. “If I had come out against the Order last year, I likely wouldn’t be able to help you against Duffy today.”

  I looked across at Jo, still scarcely able to believe that anyone could trust Sulle’s glib smiles and slick words.

  “Ashley accepted that Richard did what he had to,” Jo said. “We have no choice; we need him. He can get us into Verge Tower, and it’s his weapon that will finish Duffy.” She reached across and switched on two monitors, then opened up a laptop. The laptop, like everything else on the desk, was strapped down so it didn’t fall down when the van was in motion.

  “What weapon?” I asked

  “Have you thought about how to kill something as big and powerful as Duffy?” Sulle asked me.

  “One bite at a time,” I suggested. I’d pictured confronting Duffy, and I’d imagined him dead at my feet. My mind had skipped over the little bit in between where the dragon had to be defeated.

  “It would have to be a titanium weapon,” Sulle said. “But a massive one. So, the first problem is how to wield this massive weapon, right?”

  “A missile of some type,” I suggested.

  “Missiles aren’t made from titanium,” Sulle said. “And designing and constructing a missile in a few months is beyond even my capabilities. No, I settled on an idea much more
ancient. I had a large ballista built, capable of firing a titanium spear twelve feet long and six inches thick. But Duffy is extremely mobile and not as stupid as we would wish. How can we get him within range of the ballista?”

  “To skip to the end of the story,” Jo said, her fingers flying over the keys of the laptop, “Sulle installed the ballista on a helicopter, and Rune, it’s your job to get the dragon onto the roof, so we can shoot him with it.” She pressed the enter key twice, and the monitor screens in front of her were no longer blank. Instead, in black and white, one showed a hallway; the other, a small foyer. Jo pressed the enter key twice more, and the feed changed to show other locations. “I’ll be able to track your progress from inside the van and advise you on the best route.”

  “You can access all the cameras inside the building?” I asked.

  “Of course she will. Verge Tower is still mine,” Sulle said, his eyes flashing, and for the first time, I saw genuine emotion in him. “I might have left temporarily, but I haven’t relinquished control of the place. For the purpose of this mission, I have given Jo Collier backdoor access to all the security footage, plus the ability to open and close the electronic doors.”

  “Haven’t we nattered enough?” Persia pulled a pair of black backpacks from underneath the desk. From the first one she drew a loaded crossbow, a small compact weapon similar to the one she’d shot me with the day before.

  “Well, no, we haven’t,” Sulle said. “I came to inform you about a problem.”

  Persia’s hand, reaching into the bag again, stilled. “What do you mean a problem?”

  “Flavini told me that you had everything ready,” Jo said, frowning.

  “This plan only spring into motion yesterday,” Sulle said. “Everything has been rushed.”

  “The day before yesterday we didn’t know Rune was going to arrive and volunteer,” Jo said. “And we have no idea when Duffy will hold another reception like this one again.”

  “And I told Flavini that I might be able to have the helicopter ready by this evening,” Sulle said.

  “And now?” Jo asked.

  “It’s still a might.”

  “That’s good enough for me.” Persia retrieved a second crossbow and placed both on the bench beside her. She then pulled a contraption of leather straps from the backpack—I tried and failed to figure out what it could be—and began to untangle it.

  “It’s not as simple as that. If we mess one attempt up, we might not get another,” Sulle said.

  “We should be able to get Rune into position without raising any alarms,” Jo said, indicating the monitors. “If the helicopter can’t fly tonight, then we should be able to extract him without any harm done.”

  “Why are you still here wasting time?” Persia asked Sulle. “Instead, you should be busting your ass getting everything ready.”

  “I don’t personally fuel the helicopter or tighten the bolts on the ballista.” Sulle stood and opened the back of the van. “But I’ll check on progress.”

  “Keep your radio on,” Jo said. “Keep us updated.”

  “Of course. I’ll want to hear all the nice things Rune has to say about me,” Sulle said, and he exited the van.

  Persia stood and strapped the leather contraption around her waist. Only then did I realized what it was: a weapons belt. Two large holsters draped down from either hip, and Persia tightened the bottom of them around her thighs. She sat back down on the bench and began to take metal arrows from the bag and slot them into place around the back of the weapons belt.

  “You are going inside with me then?” Even wielding crossbows loaded with titanium arrows, I was worried that Persia would be more hindrance than help against shades. I’d end up needing to save her, or worse, being unable to save her.

  “I didn’t spend countless hours in that training room you saw so I could sit inside a van while the action is happening,” Persia said.

  “Even so, what can you do against shades and sentinels?” I asked.

  Persia picked up a crossbow from the bench and pressed the loaded arrow against my temple. “You tell me. What can I do?”

  “I never said I had a problem with the idea.”

  “Any particular reason you want to be alone?” Persia asked.

  “Of course not.” I frowned, wondering what she thought I was hiding.

  “Good.” Persia holstered the crossbow, then put the second one in the other holster. Next to come out of the seemingly bottomless bag was a black coat. She stood, her short height meaning she didn’t need to crouch, then she put on the coat, its length covering up the weapons belt. “Let’s go then.” She kicked the empty bag back under the desk, then pulled out a second backpack. She picked that up, opened the back of the van, looked both ways, then hurried toward Verge Tower.

  I climbed out after her.

  “Rune, wait!” Jo called out. “Before you go, I want to mention something.”

  “What is it?” With twilight fast approaching, shadows were thickening and my view of the fast-walking Persia was already being obscured by darkness. “You better be quick.” I poked my head back inside.

  “Is your radio on?” Jo asked.

  I glanced down and saw that the red LED was on. “I can shut it off.”

  Jo hesitated before making a decision. “No, never mind. It can wait. Go, go.”

  “Are you sure?” First Persia thought I was hiding something, then Jo actually was. “Is it important?”

  “It can wait. Go.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and, with Persia no longer visible, decided I shouldn’t delay any longer. I gave Jo a nod and shut the van. I jogged after Persia, keeping close to the walls where the shadows were deepest.

  “Take the last left before reaching Verge Plaza, then, after a hundred yards, turn right down a small alleyway.” Jo’s voice came through the earpiece. “That’ll bring you to a side entrance mainly used for deliveries.”

  A few moments later, I spotted Persia taking the specified left. I slowed to a walk and crossed the road behind her. Her long coat did a decent job of hiding the weapons belt, though the bulky bag strapped to her back looked out of place.

  “What’s in the backpack?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

  “Some essentials. Ropes, flashlight, grappling gun, netgun.”

  “A netgun with titanium netting?”

  “Of course. What good would it be otherwise?”

  I had been captured by such a net, and I could remember how large the loaded netguns were. No wonder the backpack was so bulky. It was a wonder that Persia's movements didn’t betray the weight she carried.

  “Where did you get all those advanced titanium weapons?”

  “They were stolen from the Order’s supplies. Could we just concentrate on the mission and save the chit chat?”

  She increased the speed of her walking, and I allowed myself to drift back. I wasn’t sure how much Persia and I would need each other over the course of the night, but I doubted we would work well together when I could barely get a civil word from her. Not that I could blame her. Because of me, she had spent the last eight months nursing the husk of her husband. How did one forgive something like that?

  Persia turned down an alleyway, then re-emerged a moment later, almost crashing into me. “Wait, stay back,” she warned in a whisper, then she hunkered down and peeked around the corner.

  “What’s going on?” Jo asked through the earpiece.

  “We aren’t the only ones who decided this entrance is a weak spot,” Persia said. “Others are here ahead of us.”

  “Who could they be?” Jo asked.

  Persia checked around the corner once more. “It’s too dark to tell from here, and too dangerous to get close.”

  “There’s another way in,” Jo said. “You’ll just have to loop round to the other side of the skyscraper.”

  I leaned back and looked up. The building in front of me was three stories high, topped with a flat roof. “Shouldn’t we learn who they are f
irst?”

  “It’s not worth the danger of being discovered,” Jo said.

  “No danger.” I jumped onto the windowsill of the nearest window and grabbed hold of the upper lip.

  “We don’t know that they haven’t put anyone on the roof,” Persia whispered urgently.

  I ignored her; I crouched, then exploded upward, grabbing hold of the first floor window sill above, then swung my feet upward so I could hook one of them onto the edge of the same sill. I pulled myself up, then leaped again. What would be crazy acrobatics to an ordinary human was smooth and effortless to a sentinel. Within seconds, my hands were gripping the edge of the roof. I scanned the roof, and upon assuring myself that Persia’s fears were baseless, I climbed up. I hurried across to the far end. Once there, I lowered myself onto my belly and snaked up to the edge.

  With darkness arriving ever faster, the street below was a jumble of shadows that it took me a while for my eyes to adjust to and for my brain to make sense of. Gradually, I made out the two SUVs and a small truck between them, then began to note individual figures as they moved back and forth. Still, I wasn’t getting closer to figuring out who these people were until a man stepped through the light of a streetlamp. I recognized the barrel chested torso first, then a glimpse of his face confirmed his identity.

  It was Holliday.

  Chapter 12

  Thursday 18:25

  I descended from the roof Persia and, following Jo’s instructions, took the long way round in getting to the other end of Verge Tower, wanting to avoid any further surprises. The alleyway leading up to this second entrance had been deserted. Jo had checked the CCTV footage, and no one was inside waiting for us. She buzzed the door open.

  I grabbed the door handle, then I hesitated.

  Persia looked one way, then the other. “What is it?” she asked. “What’s the problem?”

  “Are we sure about this?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Now you get cold feet?”

  I asked what had been on my mind as we’d silently navigated the empty streets doing a wide loop around Verge Tower. “What are Holliday and the Sentinel Order doing here? They seem to be intending to break in at the exact same time and place we are.” Holliday had mentioned to me that events in Lusteer were heating up and that he would be coming here soon.