It struck him again, how chaotic this was, yet weirdly synchronized. Normally, Revik planned everything down to the most minute detail. This op was pretty much happening on the fly, with plans being made in real time, as it unfolded.
He couldn’t quite wrap his head around what Revik himself was doing...not until the tiled floor began to shake under his feet, nearly throwing him into Revik’s back. The low, deep-feeling concussions grew more intense, not less, as the seconds passed. They started coming closer together, too, leaving shorter gaps between shakes. One of the more violent ones knocked framed art off the wall behind the security desk, and set off a distant fire alarm.
After another, long-feeling pause, an even heavier rumble shook the tile under Jon’s feet.
Louder than the others, it shook the walls, hard, blurring Jon’s vision.
For the first time, he lost his balance for real, falling into a potted tree. He let go of the gun with one hand to steady himself on the wall beside one of the elevators, still aiming the Glock in the direction of the security station as smoke began streaming from under the stairway access door. Jon could feel the screams now.
Well, he assumed he could feel them and not hear them, since the seers and humans he could see looked far away to him, trapped inside that concrete set of landings.
Revik had taken the time to melt the door locks on all of relevant floors, too. Most of those floors seemed to be under them still.
“Fuckers,” Jon heard Jorag mutter under his breath from his other side. “Serves them right. Hope they rot in the filth of the Dreng when they reach the other side...”
Revik gave him a swift, borderline censoring look.
He didn’t speak, though.
With his glowing eyes, Revik looked ghost-like, almost unreal.
He still throbbed with excess light; the Dreng hadn’t yet managed to find or cut off his source, whatever it was.
Jon saw more smoke start to pour through the cracks around the staircase door and shifted his eyes nervously around the giant, three-story lobby. Even if Revik succeeded in cutting off the other teams, Jon hoped Wreg and the others were almost done. Something was coming. He could feel it all over his light.
They’d already broken themselves back into the two teams, like Revik instructed. Jon felt himself being assigned to the first of those, along with Revik, Wreg, Jorag, Maygar, Jax, Neela and Chinja. The second team, led by Loki, included Torek, Illeg, Mika, Poresh, Garend, Raddi and Pagoj, along with Oli, who’d insisted on coming with them as well.
Jon watched the second team as they continued to jack open the doors, and wondered if he’d ever see them again, once they reached the bottom.
Both Wreg and Loki had their respective elevator doors locked open now. With the help of the others in their teams, they began attaching heavy metal hooks to the side of the walls, embedding them there with what looked and sounded like a high-powered nail gun.
“Structure’s holding...” Balidor reported through the link. “We count sixty dead...a number got through on sub-five. They’re looking for a way around now...”
“Have they breached any of the elevators?” Wreg asked on the same link, peering down through the opening he’d created in the doors, his gun held out in front of him, pointed into the darkness. “We’re using shafts four and six for descent...that’s counting from the stairwell, south side of the building...”
“So far, no elevators jacked,” Balidor said at once. “We’re not seeing any secondary power sources attached to those, either. We’ll keep an eye out for any movement in either direction, but we have reason to believe they can see you, even if they haven’t penetrated the shield. Look for flyers, if you can, but I wouldn’t tarry there long...”
Tarry, Jon thought.
Every now and then Balidor still sounded like he came from a different historical period, maybe a different continent. Then again, he did. On both counts.
“What’s the progress of the group on the street?” Revik said. “The tanks you mentioned?”
“Twenty minutes out,” Tenzi answered.
“Any news on Surli?” Revik said. “Tarsi?”
A brief pause sent the links into silence.
“No,” Balidor said then. “We’ve got Ullysa working on that. Argo’s with her.”
“Understood,” Revik said. “Let me know when you’ve got more on the construct below the sixth sub-basement level. And any exits. I need progress on that...before we walk into it blind. If they slip out of here, and out of range of our nukes, it’ll all be for nothing...”
“Of course, sir,” Vikram said. “Right now, we can’t see past––”
“Two minutes,” Revik said, cutting them off. “We’re leaving now. If we lose contact down there, I want you to start the evacuation...” Revik’s eyes swiveled to the pried open elevator doors. “Where are you with it Wreg? Loki? Are you making me a liar?”
“No, sir,” Wreg said at once. “Never, sir. Ready now,” he added.
“Ready, sir,” Loki affirmed.
“Send your first people down,” Revik said. “Chain of command splits now...”
Loki nodded, turning to Torek and Oli and motioning sharply with his hands.
Chinja and Neela were already halfway into harnesses. Jon watched Chinja shove her arm into the last loop, right before she yanked on a nylon rope, testing its link to the metal lock on her belt. She nodded to Neela, who had already backed towards the open shaft. Jon watched Neela disappear through the opening, right before Jax tossed the excess rope attached to Chinja’s harness down the same deep black shaft opening.
Revik grabbed Jon’s arm then, startling him.
“Are you ready for this?” he said.
Jon nodded, almost before he understood the question, but Revik had already averted that mesmerizing, pale-green, sparkling gaze, looking at the others.
“Team one. Wreg and Maygar next...then Jon and I. Jax and Jorag, you bring up the rear.”
Everyone on both teams was already shoving themselves into harnesses.
Jon pulled his own harness out of the small backpack he wore, holstering the gun briefly to get it out of the way so he could pull the nylon straps around his legs and shoulders. He locked up the front with shaking fingers, grabbing the rope Wreg handed to him right before the giant seer gave him a wan smile, squeezing his fingers briefly before he disappeared into the opening after Neela and Chinja. Jon watched him go, a sick feeling in his stomach as he realized Wreg could end up like Garensche before they reached the bottom.
At the thought, he glanced at Loki’s group, right as Oli and Deklan disappeared through the opening. Swallowing, he sent up a wish to see them again, too.
He caught a look from Loki after he did it. The seer sent him a pulse of warmth, shocking in its intensity, as well as the emotion Jon felt behind it.
Walk with the gods, brother Jon...I would see you again, in this world or the next.
Jon didn’t have long to think about that, either.
Revik caught hold of his shoulders, positioning him next to the elevator shaft with strong, uncompromising hands. He steered him into place, then tapped him sharply on the chest.
“Go,” he said. “I’m right behind you.”
Jon didn’t think.
He jumped, gripping the ropes in both gloved hands.
IMMEDIATELY, EVERYTHING PLUNGED into darkness.
Jon held onto the shield, seeing through sparks of his aleimi.
Most of what he saw at first came from Maygar and Revik. He glimpsed two different areas of the elevator’s shaft, flickering behind his eyes as his light fought to adjust. The cord ran out fast, even with Jon guiding it with his hands. He used his feet to balance against the walls a few times on the way down, but mostly he followed the structures in his light, which told him more or less as he passed by each dark elevator door.
He could smell smoke.
Once he’d fallen a few floors below lobby level, smoke caused him to cough, worsening as he
passed the next set of doors. Nothing but silence and more darkness greeted him below, but he saw dark ropes hanging near him in the dark, and a few times, kicked off a little harder to avoid running into them, or worse, getting stuck on one or tangled in his limbs.
Pain met his light when he felt Wreg’s.
For a few seconds, Jon felt like Alice falling through the rabbit hole as he fought to get his equilibrium.
We can see you, brother, Wreg sent. Just keep doing what you’re doing...we’ll let you know when you get close...
Wreg sounded nervous though, and Jon felt the nervous flicker in his light.
Looking up, he saw the faint light from the open shaft. It looked very far away now. He could hear a second rope next to him, and realized he could see Revik’s shadow periodically blocking that light. The other man seemed to be coming down a lot faster than he was, and Jon touched the crank at the edge of his belt, adjusting the small lever there minutely.
Immediately, he began to fall faster.
As he did, a grinding sound erupted around him.
Lights flickered, then died once more.
“More generators!” Jax shouted down. His voice echoed down the shaft, loud, but somehow more than anything emphasizing how far away he was from the rest of them.
Got it, Revik sent back.
His mind felt stripped of emotion once more, fully focused. Jon could feel Revik still gaining on him, despite how fast the rope disappeared through his own gloved fingers.
Give me a minute to pinpoint the connection... Revik muttered.
Hurry, boss, Jax urged. Hurry...before they get the elevators up...
Jon felt something, a kind of breaking feeling, as if from far away.
I think I got it, Revik sent.
A groaning sound erupted though, nearly cutting off his words. The lights flickered again, and that time, Jon was looking up. He saw Revik’s body, his sharp, green-lit eyes staring down at him. Revik was moving so fast it was difficult to focus on his face at all.
Jax, Revik sent. You and Jorag better come. Now. Something’s blocking me from that second power source...
Revik sent it calmly, matter-of-fact, but Jon felt his heart jerk sideways in his chest. His hands shook now, where they held the rope, but he felt the steadying pulse of Wreg’s light, coming from somewhere down below.
One minute, Wreg told him. Boss, we’ve got company headed our way down here. They might be trying to box us in...
It won’t matter, Revik said. Not unless––
But another voice cut him off.
It came through loud, echoing through the shaft. Tangible. Almost physical with the punch it gave to the center of Jon’s chest.
“Not unless what, big guy?” the mocking voice said.
Cass’s words reverberated down the very ropes Jon gripped in his hands.
He found himself fumbling for his gun holster, even as he fell, feeling a panic break out in his chest, a thrumming in his veins that brought his breath faster, until he was nearly hyperventilating. Jon stared up at where he could now see Jax jumping down over the rim of the elevator shaft, even as another coil of rope fell through the chute towards him and Revik. Jon had to give the seers credit for the accuracy of their throws, which looked like it would miss both Revik and Jon’s own ropes and bodies entirely. Even so, the idea of the four of them falling through the same space at the same time made him nervous.
He knew he was avoiding though.
He didn’t want to think about what she could...or would...do.
“You seem awfully motivated, sexy man...” Cass said to Revik, the grin still prominent in her voice. “What did you mean just then, though? It doesn’t matter unless what...?”
Jon was still reacting to the familiarity of the voice, or her accent, second-guessing what he’d heard, trying to get at his gun, when Cass’s mocking words came through louder, as if from speakers embedded in the very walls.
“...Not unless they have their own telekinetic seer?” she finished with a laugh. The laugh bounced off the walls, deafening, causing Jon to blink back up at Jax and Jorag, willing them to come down faster. “...Is that what you were thinking, big guy?”
Revik aimed his thoughts at the rest of them.
Just get to the bottom. Follow what I told you before. Ignore her... he sent.
A second voice joined the first, that one decidedly more masculine.
Jon found he recognized that voice, too, although he hadn’t heard it since he’d left that cell in the Caucasus Mountains with Revik and Cass.
“I don’t think it’s going to be so easy this time, Revi’...” Terian said, his voice holding a faint regret. “Although I do, as always, admire your optimism...”
Before Jon could wrap his mind around what either of them meant, his fall stopped with a sudden, violent jerk.
He let out a pained gasped, briefly sure he was dead...then his feet rested on something hard. Muscular hands were on him, gripping him tightly, turning him around. In front of him, Chinja unbuckled the harness around his chest, working quickly to get the ropes away from him, along with the greased metal buckles on one side. Jon just stood there, letting the one pair of hands hold him, knowing it was Wreg, even as Chinja worked to get off the ropes.
He still stood there, fighting to control his heartbeat, when Revik landed a few yards away, coming to rest on a metal beam about five feet above the platform where Jon now stood.
Unlike Jon himself, Revik seemed to plan his own landing, and now he moved quickly, unhooking the rope from the winch and eye at his belt, even as Neela helped him, yanking the harness down over his shoulders and down his legs. Within seconds, he’d moved into the alcove at the far side of the wall. Jon saw him touch his headset.
“All in,” he said to Jorag and Jax. “They’re up there...you need to commit.”
“Boss...” Jorag sent.
“We’ll catch you,” Revik assured him.
Neither Jax nor Jorag felt that sure, Jon noticed.
Neither said anything more, though.
Jon peered up through the dim light of the shaft along with the rest of them, feeling his hands curl into fists, maybe because he didn’t know what else to do with them. He found himself overly aware of Wreg again, but he couldn’t let himself think about that, either. Jon could see Jax and Jorag dangling now, their falls already speeding up. The opening stood too high up for Jon to see the people in it, but Wreg yanked Jon back by the arm, forcing him to join the others under the nearest metal outcropping. Less than a second after he’d done it, a shot rang out from above, bouncing off the sides of the shaft.
Jon felt his heart start to slam against his ribs.
The sickness in his gut worsened. Gods. He didn’t want to stand there and watch Jorag and Jax die. He’d never felt so helpless as he huddled with the rest of them, Wreg’s arm still around his chest, holding him back.
But the other shots didn’t come.
Jon could feel some kind of commotion at the top of the shaft.
Then distant explosions, sounding strangely hollow down the shaft.
The guns, Wreg told him from behind. Nenz just got their guns. He’ll go after the actual soldiers now, before they can––
Before he could finish, Revik cut him off.
“Fuck,” Revik cursed aloud. He switched to the headset. “That bitch is shielding them. Drop! Now! Before they yank up the lines...they’re trying to get you alive!”
Even as he said it, Jon saw both of Jax and Jorag’s bodies jerk to a stop in midair.
There was a pause while Jorag and Jax struggled with their belts, looking like fish caught at the end of a line. Limbs flailing, they seemed to be fighting with the locks at their belts, even as their limbs pinwheeled. Their trajectories got messed up in the seconds that passed, and now they slammed into one another and the walls in midair, too, making hollow clanking noises when the sound of their metal winches collided with the walls of the shaft.
Next to him, Jon heard
Wreg curse under his breath in that Asian language that wasn’t Mandarin, that Allie once guessed to be Mongolian.
Just then, Jorag dropped free of the ropes.
His legs and arms windmilled even more wildly in the air, but he fell straight down, even as Revik moved sharply to the side, holding out a hand, maybe to focus his concentration. The light green in his irises flared, enough that Jon flinched.
Right then, Jon felt a slam against their shield, the first real one he’d felt since the op started, and a lot heavier than anything he’d felt on the airfield that morning. He managed to hold on to the shell around Revik, but let out a surprised gasp, even as pain exploded in his head. It felt as if someone had just hit him in the temple with a mallet. Maybe a mallet covered in razors. Jon did his best to compensate but he could still feel someone trying to worm their way in.
He could feel them messing with him, too, trying to get him to react, trying to get at pieces of his mind through his emotions, even as Balidor’s presence abruptly overwhelmed his, along with Maygar’s...and then Ullysa’s and Tenzi’s.
Impressive, Jon-boy, Cass murmured in his mind. ...I have to say, that’s very impressive indeed for a little half-worm like you. I guess it’s true that you’ve got a little seer in you.. I think you’ve just given your pal Terian a hard-on...
In the background, Jon heard Terian laugh.
It’s true, he told Jon cheerfully. Gods, I do so want to fuck you, Jon, my friend...I miss your blow jobs like you wouldn’t believe...
The seer’s words seemed to echo off the walls inside Jon’s skull, sharpening the pain to unbearable. Jon gasped, gripping his forehead as he watched Revik.
“Hurry up,” he managed. “Fuck, hurry up...”
Another hand grabbed his arm, and some of the pain lessened.
When Jon turned his head that time, he found Maygar looking at him, his brown eyes glowing in faint yellow-tinted rings in his face.
Jon hadn’t seen Maygar’s eyes glow very often, even during the training sessions in San Francisco, and never had he seen them so close up. He found himself staring, unable to look away for a few beats as he lost himself in those gold-green flickers and sparks. It couldn’t have been long, though, given that Jorag hadn’t even reached them yet.
Allie's War Season Four Page 40
