‘Yes, Sir.’ The vehicle began to turn, heading off into the field on the right and that was when Ceri spotted the figures lifting up from behind cover at the sides of the road,
‘Trouble,’ she said into the microphone.
‘I see them,’ Taylor said. ‘Get your head down before they try something.’
Ceri could already see men raising bows, but what worried her was one of them picking up what looked like some sort of grenade launcher. She was not sure they had armour-piercing weapons, but she was also not giving them the option. They were barely fifty yards away from the squad of bandits and there was no way they were going to miss. Raising her arm over the lip of the hatch, she aimed it at the grenadier, focussed her power, and fired. An orange ball of light jetted out across the gap, hit the ground, and exploded into an enormous ball of flame. Then she dropped into the main hull of the vehicle, pulling the hatch shut behind her.
She heard Taylor’s voice. ‘Floor it!’ Suddenly Lily was there, catching her as she tumbled backwards, and they were bouncing across the field. ‘Kind of stupid, Doctor,’ she heard from Taylor, ‘but I can’t fault the effect.’
Ceri struggled into a sitting position, giving Lily a quick smile of gratitude. ‘They had some sort of grenade launcher. I didn’t want to risk it.’
There was a thump as they broke through a fence and then the ride smoothed out again. ‘They aren’t trying to follow,’ Taylor said. ‘I guess we’ll chalk that up as a successful engagement, but I’d appreciate it if you let us keep you safe. That’s our job.’
Ceri gave Lily a long-suffering look, getting a shrug in reply. ‘We’ve been through this, Sergeant,’ Ceri said. ‘We’re a team. We keep each other safe.’
‘I wouldn’t argue with someone who can throw fireballs like that around, Sarge,’ Shaw put in.
‘You didn’t use too much power, did you?’ Lily asked.
Ceri grinned. ‘Nah, just a small one.’
‘That was a small one?’ Shaw asked, the disbelief evident.
‘I didn’t have time to charge up a big one,’ Ceri replied. ‘Besides, I didn’t want to set light to our own tires.’
It took maybe another fifteen minutes before they made it to the outer gates of the compound. A fifteen foot chain-link fence surrounded it and, once through the guard post, they had to drive a hundred yards to reach the heavy, steel gates set into a prefabricated, concrete wall at least twenty-five feet in height. There were armoured turrets mounted on the wall, each of them with a pair of rotary cannon facing out into the surrounding land. Except for the one turret which was following them along the track.
When Ceri and Lily walked out through the large rear door of the Archmage they were faced by four soldiers carrying their assault rifles at the ready. It was not exactly an encouraging sight.
‘Doctor Brent?’ The speaker was a tall man wearing captain’s insignia standing just behind the cordon of troops.
‘That’s me,’ Ceri said.
The captain moved forward and his squad lowered their weapons, which was something of a relief. ‘Captain Tebbit.’ He offered her a hand and she took it; he had a firm grip. ‘Corporal Davis will take you over to the women’s barracks and get you settled. I assume you’ll be setting up this “magic post” of yours in the morning?’
Ceri nodded. ‘Working fresh is better. I understand you’ve set up a site for it?’
‘We got the specifications sent over and some of the engineers built it for you. As I understand it, there’s a concrete raft to hold it in place, but the bottom will be plunged into soil.’
Ceri smiled. ‘Better than the last one. That’s just rammed into the ground.’
‘Won’t someone walk off with it?’
‘Part of the enchantment is a grounding spell. Locks the post in place. They could take it, as long as they’re willing to pull up a ton or so of earth with it.’
Tebbit grunted. ‘Magic isn’t something I’m particularly familiar with.’ He glanced back at one of the squad. ‘Corporal, get the Doctor and her associate inside. I need to talk to Sergeant Taylor before he gets some rest.’
Now that Ceri looked more closely, she could see that Davis was a woman. It was not easy between the fatigues and a helmet which obscured her head and face fairly thoroughly. It was mostly the walk which gave her away. Then she slung her rifle and pulled off her helmet revealing short hair much like Ceri’s had been before she grew it out. Davis’ was just as black as Ceri’s, but she had more tanned skin and a pixyish face with a bright smile.
‘There aren’t too many girls here,’ Davis said. ‘We put you in the bunks down the end of the room. You’ll have a bit of privacy.’ She was leading them toward one of four low, blocky buildings with grilled windows. Most of the buildings were concrete, but these were wood and built off the ground. They reminded Ceri of old prisoner of war movies.
‘Is there a shower?’ Lily asked. ‘I’m starting to feel like my clothes are growing on me.’
Davis laughed. ‘They’re communal, but the water’s hot. I hope you’re not shy.’
Ceri and Lily looked at each other. ‘No,’ Ceri said. ‘That won’t be a problem.’
~~~
Dinner was served in the Officer’s Mess. It was something of a grand name for a concrete walled room with little in the way of decoration and a table which seated eight. Ceri would have preferred eating with their little squad of guardians, but Tebbit had insisted that the guests were treated to what little comfort the base could provide and it would have been impolite to decline.
There was one female lieutenant on the base, a technician. The three others under Tebbit were men, most of them fairly hardened to the life on a remote watch post in the middle of nowhere. The only one doing much talking was the Captain.
‘Do you see much of the people living in the town?’ Ceri asked as they worked their way through a four course meal.
‘They keep themselves to themselves,’ Tebbit said. ‘When this place was being built there were some attacks, I believe. Before my time. Since then they aren’t armed well enough to take on our defences and they know it. I understand you helped see off some of the locals on the way here?’
‘I get travel sick,’ Ceri said. She suspected he did not approve of where she had been when they were attacked. ‘Actually, that’s an understatement. I used to get severe anxiety attacks in road vehicles. The rough roads were bringing it back. I insisted on getting some air. As it turned out it was a good thing.’
‘They had some sort of grenade weapon,’ Lily added.
‘Probably from that shipment that was hijacked last year, Sir,’ Haversham, the female techy, suggested.
Tebbit grunted. ‘A supply convoy was attacked last winter. Seven men were killed and we never found out exactly who hit them. Looks like they were some of the Bremen natives.’ He stabbed at his vegetables with a fork. ‘We’ll put out a general warning and I’ll let Taylor know there could be more where that came from.’
‘Did our guide turn up?’ Ceri asked. Strauss had gone ahead since they did not really need him for the journey to Bremen. The idea was that he would run a reconnaissance mission into the outer regions of Hamburg and return for them.
‘He stopped off here for provisions on Monday,’ Tebbit replied. ‘He should be back here by tomorrow at the latest. Strauss is a little eccentric, but he’s reliable. When he says he’ll do something, he does it.’
Ceri nodded. ‘We only met briefly, but he seemed like he knew what he was doing. And he was the only guide they could get to take us east of here.’
Tebbit’s brows knitted. ‘We’ve been getting some odd stories from people going in that way. The sensitives… Haversham, you conducted the interviews…’
The lieutenant straightened in her chair, looking uncomfortable. ‘Practitioners and the like going in there have been suggesting that something is changing. Most of them weren’t able to give any detailed basis for the feeling, just an impression of things changing fo
r the worse. Two people did report a dream with similar imagery.’
‘There aren’t too many people who stay out there overnight,’ Tebbit explained, ‘so dreaming isn’t common. Go on Haversham.’
‘The details appeared different, probably based on the individual. One reported that he was standing on the edge of the Hamburg Pit, the ground opened up, and some sort of multi-tentacled monster rose out of the hole, but I know he was into Gothic horror novels. The other said that she dreamed she was being chased through some sort of labyrinth or castle. She was not sure what was chasing her, but she knew it was very old. It had been sleeping and it had woken hungry. The common thread seems to be something ancient waking up. Possibly that the thing is underground and will rise up.’
‘That isn’t ominous at all,’ Lily commented.
‘It’s likely that it’s just some memory surfacing from the war,’ Tebbit suggested. ‘The closer they get to the Pit, the more practitioners and sensitives tend to pick up all sorts of random thoughts and feelings. They say Hamburg is full of the ghosts of everyone who died there when the bomb went off.’
Ceri nodded. ‘I can’t say I’m looking forward to it.’
‘It’s driven people mad.’
‘No need to worry about that,’ Lily said sweetly. ‘We’d never be able to tell anyway.’
Bremen, May 17th
They had worked out a method of planting the posts which allowed Ceri to draw power through Lily without anyone noticing. It was simple enough; they lowered the post into the concrete collar the engineers had made, fingers touching. Lily had the little thrill of pleasure she felt as Ceri pulled energy through their bond. Succubi loved power and Lily loved the fact that Ceri could use her as a power sink. The runes inscribed down the sides of the post glowed briefly and it was done.
‘Will we notice anything when this line of yours powers up?’ Tebbit asked.
‘The runes may glow a little,’ Ceri replied. ‘Theoretically the thaumic energy is contained entirely within the tunnel, but there could be some leakage at these nodes.’
The captain nodded. ‘Strauss arrived a couple of hours ago. He’s eaten and he’s briefed Taylor. I believe they’re ready to move out when you are.’
Ceri held out her hand to him. ‘Thanks for your help, Captain.’
Tebbit gave her another firm handshake, nodding a goodbye, before the two women headed for the Archmage and its waiting back door.
Shaw was grinning at them as Lily hit the button on the inside wall which pulled up the hatch and sealed it. ‘Enjoy the Officer’s Mess, ladies?’
‘What did you guys have?’ Lily replied.
‘Bangers an’ mash.’
Lily frowned. ‘Gravy?’ Shaw nodded, grinning. ‘Lucky bastard. Sergeant, tell this nasty man to drive before I decide to not talk to him for the rest of the day.’
There was a chuckle from the vehicle captain’s bay up front. ‘Corporal, you heard the lady.’ Shaw was already moving.
Ceri turned to the man sitting in one of the troop chairs in the back. Strauss looked as though he had spent several days in rough country. He had tired eyes and there were smudges of dirt around his face. ‘Anything we should know about?’ Ceri asked taking one of the seats opposite just as they pulled away.
‘I’m not sure,’ Strauss admitted. ‘The one good thing is that the bandit groups who used to operate on the outskirts of Hamburg have moved out. You will not need to worry about coming across them on your way in.’
‘Sounds great,’ Lily said, ‘but the question would then be why?’
‘I’m not on speaking terms,’ the werewolf replied, ‘but there is something… beunruhigend… unsettling about the atmosphere in there. It smells wrong.’
‘What sort of scent?’ Ceri asked. A year of spending a couple of nights a week in fur had taught her a lot about scents.
‘It is hard to explain. The land up there, especially the ruins, have always smelled of death. It seems to me that that scent is stronger, or… more immediate. The ghosts are more active. Something is disturbing them.’
Ceri’s brow knitted. ‘Why now? Do you know when it began?’
‘It’s been building since Halloween, but the last month or two things have become far worse.’
‘The reports of bandit activity have increased over the last three months,’ Taylor supplied. ‘Analysis suggests groups from the Hamburg area have moved west creating tension with other groups. A couple of villages normally considered safe were raided.’
‘Zeven and Elsdorf were entirely wiped out,’ Strauss agreed.
‘How much ground do we have to cover before we’re walking?’ Lily asked.
‘Forty-five miles,’ Watts said from his navigation console. ‘If Shaw can follow the route I’ve set, we should be there mid-afternoon.’
‘I would suggest camping just outside the higher magic zone,’ Strauss said. ‘We might be able to get in and out before nightfall, but it would be safer to go in in the morning.’
‘That sounds like an excellent plan to me,’ Taylor said.
The Archmage ran over a bump and Ceri grabbed her seat, feeling her heart jump along with the vehicle. ‘I’m probably not going to want to go walking after this ride anyway.’
Twelve miles from Hamburg, Germany
They pulled the Archmage into a clearing in what would probably have been classed as a small forest, though the trees were low and scruffy. Strauss said they were a little south of what had been Beckdorf, though the town was entirely abandoned now due to bandit activity.
‘The bandits have cleared out, mostly,’ the werewolf said, ‘but we should mount a watch in case any have moved into the ruins.’
Taylor had agreed and started setting up a rota which had not included Ceri or Lily until they had glared at him. He had insisted on slotting them in early since they, along with Strauss, would be walking a fair distance in the morning. They could get behind that and there was work to be done before they settled down for the night.
‘Everything’s ready at this end.’ Cheryl’s voice was distant and rough with static over the radio-telephone connection. ‘Do you know when you’ll be ready at your end?’
Ceri glanced at Strauss. ‘Around midday?’ She got a nod from their guide. ‘Yeah, midday, roughly. We’ll put through a call before I activate the line.’
‘We’ll be ready. How are you two doing?’
Ceri grinned, even if Cheryl could not see it. ‘Fine. The guys are being a little over protective, but we’re getting on well. We’re camped outside the effect of the Rift. It’s pretty calm out here so we should get a good night’s sleep before going in tomorrow.’
‘All right. Sleep well and good luck tomorrow.’
‘See you soon, Boss.’ Ceri gave a nod to Watts who cut off the call. ‘Now all we have to do is get this thing working,’ she added.
‘You’ll do it, love,’ Lily said. It was not encouragement, as such, more a statement of fact. Lily had supreme confidence in Ceri’s abilities and saw no reason to doubt them. She just had to remind Ceri what she could do now and again. ‘Come on, Corporal Shaw’s cooking sausages for tea.’
May 18th
Ceri’s eyes snapped open and she was somewhat relieved to see the interior of the Archmage above her, dimly illuminated by a hint of sunlight coming in through the back hatch. The dream was fading rapidly, but there were still hints of it in her mind and they were not good. She shivered.
‘You had the same nightmare?’ Lily whispered.
The question brought one aspect of the dream back into stark clarity; they had been there together. ‘What do you remember?’
‘We were in a cave…’ Lily’s brows knitted as she tried to remember. ‘A cave or a corridor. Do you remember whether the walls were smooth?’
‘Concrete. They were concrete, but old. Water had got in and made stalactites from the ceiling. Man made, but underground.’
‘Right. It was dark, and you were there, and there was something el
se.’
‘I made a light!’ Ceri exclaimed. ‘You said something about it being too dark to see anything and I made a light, but…’
‘Whatever it was that was there it stayed in the shadows.
‘Yeah.’
They were silent for a few seconds before Lily said, ‘It didn’t feel like a dream, Ceri.’
Ceri had to admit that it was odd. The binding between them allowed the sharing of emotions, sensations, the state of the other partner. It had never before provided a mechanism for sharing dreams. ‘I don’t feel like sleeping anymore,’ she said, sitting up. Lily rose beside her, silently agreeing.
Expecting to find only Taylor, who had elected to take the dawn watch, awake, they were surprised to find the entire squad around the small fire they had built. Shaw was still in his sleeping bag, but he was awake and sitting up. Trevor was sat looking outward at the forest, dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt. She was busy rebuilding her assault rifle without looking, her body tense.
‘Coffee?’ Taylor asked, his voice soft, as soon as he spotted them emerging from the armoured car. He did not seem particularly surprised to see them. The only people missing were Watts, still in the vehicle at his post by the radio, and Strauss, who was nowhere to be seen.
Both of them took mugs of strong, dark, not particularly tasty coffee, feeling like they needed them. ‘Where’s Strauss?’ Ceri asked after she had taken a drink.
‘He got restless an hour or so ago,’ Taylor said. ‘Went wolf and then dashed off into the trees.’
‘Anyone else had bad dreams?’ Ceri asked. There was no reply, just some uncomfortable looks. ‘I’ll take that as a yes. Does anyone remember anything about them?’
‘Darkness,’ Trevor said, her voice soft, but carrying a hint of disquiet, ‘and a feeling like there was something there with me.’ She snapped the last part of her rifle into place, slotted a magazine, and worked the bolt to make it ready with a firmness which suggested she expected to use it. ‘Whatever it was, was not good.’
Ceri nodded. ‘We’ll head out as soon as Strauss gets back. I don’t know about you people, but I’d like to be a long way from here as soon as I possibly can be.’
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