Revolution: Book Three of the Secret World Chronicle - eARC

by Mercedes Lackey

  “You need more distance than that! Like the next county! She can slice through an I-beam without losing speed!”

  John sprinted towards the door, stopping abruptly and turning to face her. She stood poised and ready, sword-tip resting on the ground. “Are you running, comrade? You should.”

  “Last chance to see reason an’ come in to talk this over. ’Fore this gets lethal for you, comrade.” John stood up, motioning plaintively towards her. “Y’can still come back, rejoin the CCCP. It isn’t too late for that.”

  “Natalya-chan is insufficiently committed. She will not do what must be done to end the Thulian menace.” Fei Li brought the sword up into guard position.

  John shook his head. “You’re wrong. I think you know it, deep down. But I can’t change your mind.” She charged, sword in a high guard. When she was within spitting distance, John released his carefully maintained control slightly, and loosed his fires. A wall of flame shot up in-between the two fighters. Fei Li skidded to a halt, pirouetting, and then actually vaulted over the flames. John ran to his right, snapping his wrist out; a gout of fire smashed into the ground in front of Fei Li, kicking up smoke and half-melted rock.

  “If’n ya think I won’t kill ya,” John shouted over his shoulder, “better think again. I’d just rather avoid it!” Two more blasts of flame; Fei Li deflected one with her blade, which began to glow red-hot.

  “She’s moving too fast for me to bounce her with geomancy,” Vickie said grimly. “And way too fast to bury her. Assuming she didn’t cut herself out if I did.”

  John, taking the initiative, stopped dead in his run, and turned toward Fei Li. He focused for a moment, then shot a concentrated stream of fire at the roof of the basement. Rubble poured out of the hole he gouged, directly in front of Fei Li. Her path was completely blocked, obstructed by the debris and crates.

  “We seem to be at an impasse, comrade,” Fei Li called. “What you call the Mexican Stand-off?”

  “Only because I want you to live, Comrade. Come in, an’ this’ll all be forgotten.” It might’ve been a half-lie, but even that was better than having to resort to killing someone who was supposed to have been an ally once. Normally, he would have burned her the moment it was apparent that she was trying to kill him. He’d killed plenty of other people that way, and with a lot less screwing around. But this wasn’t nearly that simple.

  “I believe that is not a possibility, American. Natalya is my pupil; she knows she cannot allow me to live if she has the means of making an end of me. I believe I will take advantage of the exit that you provided me.” Without another word, the General gracefully leaped, no running start, through the hole in the ceiling of the basement. An impossible jump.

  John stood dumbfounded for a moment, gathering his wits before he keyed his comm. “Lemme guess, Vic. She’s already gotten the hell outta Dodge, and the cavalry is just now arriving. Right?”

  “10-4.” Vickie sighed. “And now I think she’s figured out how I can track her, cause she’s gone blank on me.”

  “Hellfire an’ damnation. Guess we’ll have to salvage this somehow. Get one of your other cams on scene. We’re gonna need documentation for all of the intel on-site.”

  “Roger.”

  John scratched his head. This was a hell of a mess, and part of it was his doing, again. The clean-up team would be in here soon. Time to face up to the music.

  * * *

  The fifteen minutes it took for the cavalry to show up didn’t help to ease John’s tension. He had completed his mission, with regards to locating Fei Li, disabling the Blacksnake personnel, and securing the site. But People’s Blade had slipped away. He didn’t want to chase her, anyway; if he had, one of them would probably be dead, and John wasn’t so sure that he’d be the victor.

  Vickie alerted John when the back-up team arrived; he keyed his comm unit. “Way’s clear, Commissar. Twelve unconscious Blacksnake goons, one dead. All of their countermeasures and traps are deactivated; everything is ready to get swept up. Come on down.”

  “Remember, Commissar. Technically these rats weren’t violating any laws…” That was Vickie. Saviour’s reply was a grunt. It was Untermensch that replied.

  “This is why Soviette is giving them sleepy-shot and we are dumping them…elsewhere.” The way he chuckled made John think that the “elsewhere” was likely to be very unpleasant for the Blacksnake operatives when they woke up.

  The team worked their way down methodically, and finally Soviet Bear poked his nose around the door frame. “You are having tourists for us, Comrade Murdock?”

  “Two breathing, ayup. Come on in, Pavel.” John stood up, brushing dust off of his torn stealth suit. She got way too close with that sword. Hell, she was lethal enough barehanded. Bear whistled, and Jadwiga followed him in with her medical bag, examining them carefully.

  “Why is this one beink dead?” Oddly enough, that was Red Saviour; she was poking the dead merc with her foot. He hadn’t expected her to be concerned about collateral damage.

  “I was in a hurry, and they weren’t being friendly.” John automatically straightened up as the Commissar approached. “This little command center they have here has plenty of intel; they never had a chance to destroy any of the hard-copy or computer drives.”

  Saviour turned towards him as the two unconscious Blacksnake ops were carried out, leaving no one there but herself and Untermensch. “Report, Comrade.” She scowled. “I can be seeing you encountered Shen Xue.”

  “After liaising with my Overwatch, I breached the building following the approved plan, utilizing an ECHO jetpack, followed by parachuting to the roof. Upon entry into the building, I wasn’t confronted by any opposition until I reached the lower levels. I incapacitated ten roving and static guards, and neutralized several traps; standard fare, mostly early warning devices or trip-wired explosives.” John paused, shifting his weight. “When I reached the command post, I encountered the target and three more Blacksnake operators. A sensor deployed by Overwatch was unexpectedly detected, and I was engaged by the target and her guards. Once the guards were taken outta the picture, I tried to bring down Fei Li.”

  “But you failed.” Saviour’s scowl deepened.

  “Couldn’t be done without killin’ her outright, which I gauged wouldn’t have been acceptable.” John looked straight at the Commissar. “Attempting to pursue Fei Li would have resulted in either her death, or mine. It was a stalemate.”

  Saviour’s face darkened. “Is there something about ‘by any means neccessary’ that you did not understand, tovarisch?”

  He hesitated. “No, Commissar. I used my judgment on the scene, to the best of my ability.”

  Saviour’s eyes flashed dangerously, and her hands clenched at her side. And then she gave him the worst tongue-lashing he had ever had in his entire career. Never mind that at least half of it was in Russian; the venom in her tone more than made up for the fact that he couldn’t understand her.

  Finally even she ran out of words. “You are dismissed, Comrade Murdock,” she said in disgust. “I will be wanting report in triple on my desk within the hour. Do svedanya.”

  Without a word, John saluted, turned on his heel, and left. Coulda been worse. She could’ve shot me. Or called me by my full name.

  “He could be right in not killing People’s Blade, Commissar,” Untermensch said softly. “If it was truly a stalemate…Shen Xue is hardly a fool, and he would escape rather than continue to fight. Once outside this building, he would have not hesitated to use bystanders as shields.”

  Saviour waved off the comment, but as John glanced back at her, he thought perhaps she looked torn, as if having second thoughts.

  The collection team began boxing up and carting away all of the potential intelligence it could. Reams of paper in binders, computer hard drives, maps and communications gear. As Bear was clomping towards the doorway to the stairs, a glimmer caught his eye. It was one of the several cages that lined the far wall; it was covered in very s
trange symbols, none of which were familiar to him. “What strange sort of zoo is People’s Blade being to make?” He sniffled, then turned back to leave. “A decadent fetish, maybe.”

  * * *

  John Murdock completely vanished from the Seraphym’s awareness.

  It was not the “died” sort of vanishing. That wouldn’t actually be vanishing at all, more like “moved to another state of being.” No, this was…vanishing. As if something had made him disappear. Just as—

  A completely unaccustomed feeling overwhelmed her, because of the only other creature she knew that could vanish from her awareness in that manner.

  Shen Xue. If John was near Shen Xue, and Shen Xue had for any reason extended his powers to make John disappear, then John was in deadly peril.

  She panicked.

  She did not react as a mortal would, of course; she neither flew off wildly, nor froze. But a great wave of primal panic fear engulfed her, and although she did not cease the task she was on—the elimination of a Thulian cell and the rescue of another person who would become important—she was shaking to her very bones with reaction.

  And when John finally “reappeared” to her, it was all she could do to keep herself from racing to him. This was a delicate task, one that required tiny interventions in a long sequence, both to keep the prisoner alive and to aid ECHO personnel in finding him, and it was only when it was completed that she did give herself leave to fly to John.

  In fact, she did more than fly. She apported herself to just above the roof of his squat, and once she was sure he was alone there, she folded her wings and plunged down to him, relief at seeing him not only alive, but whole, making tears stream from her eyes.

  He saw her at the very last minute out of the corner of his eye and turned to her, face full of shock and astonishment. Impelled by instinct and impulse, she did not think. She flung herself at him and embraced him with everything she had, then, as he started to speak, again without thinking, she kissed him.

  To say this kiss was nothing like the embrace of Siblings was to say that the ocean was, perhaps, a bit damp. And yet…strangely…it was exactly like the embrace of Siblings. It was utterly, completely right in ways she could not codify, and at the moment, had no interest in thinking about. It was intimate in ways the Siblings never experienced for themselves.

  She did not want it to end. Ever.

  * * *

  After filling out his after action report in triplicate as requested, John had stripped out of his kit, then washed up and toweled off before he made his way back to his squat. Everything was fairly quiet in the neighborhood, and he hadn’t received any messages that required his urgent attention.

  It was only after he was back in his squat with all of the security reactivated that he felt safe enough to relax again. “What a helluva day.” Not wasting any time, he tied the top half of his issued coveralls around his waist, grabbed what was left of a six pack, and made his way to the roof. A light breeze was blowing, taking some of the edge off of the oppressive Atlanta heat as it radiated off of all of the concrete and asphalt. He hadn’t even had a chance to bring the first beer to his lips when he noticed a blur of motion out of the corner of his right eye. Reflexively, he dropped the beer and turned to face whatever it was. It was too fast, but some instinct inside of him told John that it wasn’t a threat. His mind processed everything in a flash; it was Sera, and she was clearly distressed. Her arms flew around him, gripping him tightly and desperately. He returned the embrace, again on automatic, before his words found him.

  “Sera? What’s—” before John could utter another word, he found himself occupied with the most passionate kiss he’d ever received. After another moment of being startled, John returned the kiss with just as much feeling. He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her in close. He was confused, excited, dumbstruck, and about a dozen other emotions all coming almost too fast for him to process. The kiss lingered on…and it was good. He didn’t want it to stop, not the kiss, and not at just the kiss. Hell, it had literally been years…but good judgment and caution won out against desire. Finally, but without a sense of urgency, he slowly pulled away, looking down into Sera’s eyes as they slowly opened; two molten orbs of amber awash in tears and light.

  “You were gone,” she said. “You were there, then you were gone. And I know it was Shen Xue.”

  John stared for a moment, then chuckled while he ran his hand through his hair. “You’re right. You were right ’bout her, too. She’s gone over to that rotten bastard Verd, completely.” He looked down at his feet before meeting her eyes again. “I was sent after her, to bring her in—or kill her. It almost came to that, but she escaped. She’s a helluva fighter, Sera; too dangerous for her own good.”

  “You don’t understand. It isn’t she. Fei Li is not there. It is Shen Xue. And the sword…it is celestial, John. It is like me. It can even hurt me. You, it would obliterate, if the full scope of its power were unleashed. You were in terrible, deadly danger!” Her arms tightened around him again.

  John grinned lopsidedly; a real grin, as opposed to the affected ones he sometimes wore. “Darlin’, we’re all in terrible, deadly danger, all the time. In peace an’ in war; doesn’t make much of a difference. I had a job that needed doin’.” He sobered then. “Had to protect all of the people that trust me; my comrades, my neighborhood…and you.”

  And then, suddenly, she went still. She blinked, and looked down, as if realizing only now what she was doing. Her arms loosened, and she took a single, small step away. The distance between them was only inches now, closer than he had ever allowed anyone. But could it be closed again?

  She looked up. “I have…enormous…feelings…for you, John Murdock,” she said. “This is a new thing. The Siblings do not themselves have such feelings. And yet, the Infinite is not saying it is not permitted…”

  John took a small step towards her, closing the distance between the two of them again. This is the part where I’m struck by a lightning bolt, or burst into flame, or explode or something…yeah, worth it. “I won’t pretend to know or believe in that…but I do know this.” He slowly—very slowly—allowed his hands to hold Sera by her shoulders. “Anyone that would say that this is wrong, well, they just couldn’t be right. So…is this all right? With you?”

  She blinked again, slowly, and a little smile creased those perfect lips. “Yes,” she said, simply, and lifted her chin a little, plainly waiting for him to kiss her.

  John pulled her close, still grinning while he leaned in for the kiss. She started to change, subtly, as he did so. Her hair started to dim, from fire, to a shining fall of hair, the wings began to fade. He stopped short, holding up a hand to her face. “No. You’re perfect the way y’are, darlin’.” As he caressed her face, it changed back to her true form where he touched, spreading until the changes had completely reverted.

  “I am not perfect, John,” she said, seriously. “Perfection is stagnation, and stagnation is death. I would not wish to be perfect. Even the Infinite does not seek perfection.”

  “Eye of the beholder, darlin’. Now, shaddup an’ kiss me.” He finished the sentence with a kiss deep enough to match her first one. In that moment, the world could have ended for John Murdock, and he would have not been more content.

  Kingdom

  Mercedes Lackey and Cody Martin

  Dominic Verdigris had gotten where he was because he was always one step ahead of the opposition.

  And now that he knew there was an opposition…that hadn’t changed.

  “I think I need a Moonbase, next,” Verdigris said.

  “A Moonbase, Dom?” Khanjar didn’t turn to face him; she was too busy taking in the sight through the viewport. A typhoon was fast approaching from the west, causing massive waves to crash against the rocks at the base of the mountain cliffs. This particular retreat of Verdigris’ was located on Isla de Serpiente, a volcanic island off of the coast of Peru. It was so named for the shape of the island, which resembled a co
iled snake; the active but stable volcano was located inside of the highest mountain at the ‘head’ of the snake right about where its ‘eye’ would be if seen in profile. It made for a very impressive view from the air.

  “Well, what else do I have left? The Russian submarine was just recently refurbished, but I don’t feel like taking a trip underwater any time soon. And this place doubles as an airship; at least this section, anyways. A Moonbase is the next big step; wouldn’t hurt just in case something cataclysmic happens to this wonderful blue marble of a world, besides.” He frowned a little. “And if I have to, it would be a good place to skip out in case the Kriegers…” He didn’t finish the sentence.

  Khanjar didn’t finish the sentence either. Just at the moment she didn’t want to ruffle any feathers by pointing out that if the Kriegers were as powerful as the Deva had shown Verd, the Moon wouldn’t be far enough to escape their clutches. When you were living on the edge of a volcano, it wasn’t a good idea to upset the master of the house. The prospect of Verdigris being out of moves wasn’t exactly a comfortable one for Khanjar, either. She didn’t think the Kriegers would have any use for her.

  “Would you care to see Harmony now?” she asked instead. “The shuttle from the mainland docked just ahead of the storm.”

  Dominick looked up from his desk, taken out of his moment of brooding. “Yes, yes. Have her come up immediately. You know what to do, my dear; keep on your toes.”

  Khanjar spoke briefly into the microphone pinned to her collar. Harmony would be escorted from her guest room to the office by no less than four guards, all of whom would be completely armored and helmeted. No nice bare skin for her to get so much as a finger on. Certainly, she was their ally. Certainly, so far as they were aware, when she was bought, she stayed bought. But it was Khanjar’s job to take no chances. She, by nature, suspected everyone and everything. It was one of the reasons that she had stayed alive this long and had become as rich as she had in Verdigris’ employ.