by John Corwin
"Not planning on it."
Bella stepped closer to the border of black and gray. A thin pedestal sprang from the floor in front of her. She yelped and jumped back a foot, pressing a hand to her chest. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the device. "It's an access card reader," she said, and pulled the administrator's card from within her outfit.
"What if his card fails and triggers an alarm?" Stacey asked.
"We're running out of time," Elyssa said, unable to stop looking at the timer as it reached zero.
As if right on cue, a text message from Christian appeared on the screen. Obsidian Arch is cycling on. Kassus and at least thirty mages are on the way back. I think they figured out this is a diversion. If you're still at their HQ you need to get out now!
"No choice," Elyssa said. "Just do it."
"I agree," Bella said. "I feel distinctly inadequate for the technological side of this heist."
"I do feel a bit out of place," Stacey said with a sour look. "We've stolen more magical artifacts from museums than I can bloody count, but stealing something from a ruddy computer is more work than I thought it would be."
"We should have asked Adam to come," Bella said in a dejected tone. "But we were so eager to prove ourselves, I guess we just let pride get in the way."
Elyssa furrowed her brow. "Don't you dare tell the boys that, Bella, or I'll let Cutsauce pee on your bed. And you know how bad hellhound urine stinks."
Bella threw up her hands in a defensive gesture. "Don't be silly! I would never let Harry or any of them know we needed them for something."
Stacey laughed. "I say we go for it. If it fails, we run like bloody hell. If it works, we come out of this looking like superstars."
"Agreed," Bella said, looking to Elyssa. "Well, what do you say?"
"We're out of time and an army of angry battles mages might march in here at any minute." Elyssa felt a slow grin creep over her face. "Let's do this."
Bella took out the card and swiped it.
Chapter 24
Elyssa
An alarm rang the instant the card touched the reader.
"Bloody hell!" Stacey yelled.
"Madre de dios!" Bella said, stamping her foot.
Elyssa flung a few choice expletives at the infernal device. If that didn't bring Kassus and crew running back at top speed, nothing would.
A crystalline structure with a touchscreen terminal popped from the floor, and the ringing noise abruptly stopped.
Welcome, Administrator Minh Wan.
"It—it worked?" Stacey said, staring incredulously at the screen. "But the alarm—"
"Maybe it was just a warning noise about the terminal popping from the floor," Bella said with a shrug. She looked up at Elyssa. "Let's break this puppy open."
Elyssa didn't waste a moment, laying her arcphone atop the touchscreen interface and running Adam's program.
The program went back through its same routine, until it began the search for secure transport. The search time ticked away in the upper corner of the screen, a nerve-wracking reminder of imminent discovery.
Starting search *secure transport*…results found. Accessing…
"Please work," Elyssa said as the timer hit the four minute mark, every second pressing harder against her chest like lead weights.
Success! Copying results to file. Please wait.
They cheered, high-fiving each other like a bunch of adolescent boys who'd just blown something up.
Elyssa's supernatural hearing picked up a ding from the levitator shaft. Her eyes went wide. "The lift is active!"
"How are we going to get out of here?" Stacey said.
"Take a picture of the node," Elyssa said, unable to do it with her phone since Adam's script was still copying files.
Bella snapped the picture. "I sent it to Meghan."
The sound of doors sliding shut echoed from up the levitator shaft. The sound of angry voices followed a second later.
"Ah, the blasted wedge," Stacey said, looking at the rod holding the levitator doors open. She blurred across the room and snatched it.
Elyssa looked at the display on her phone.
Copy complete. Erasing access logs…please be patient.
They didn't have time for this.
A portal sprang open next to Bella. Meghan stood in the mansion on the other side of the gateway.
"Get through," Elyssa said, motioning the other two women.
Process complete.
She snatched the phone from the node. "How do I make this thing go back down?" she asked frantically as the sound of the levitator thumping to a halt reached her ears. She heard a man yelling orders from within the lift.
Bella tossed the access card through the portal. Elyssa swiped it across the reader. The levitator dinged. The doors started to slide open. The terminal and card reader dropped into the floor. Elyssa dove through the portal. It winked off behind her.
"What happened?" Meghan asked, scanning them with her wand as if expecting to find serious injuries.
Elyssa's heart hammered against her chest. She took several deep breaths to calm herself. "I think we just pulled off a caper."
Bella whooped.
"We're bloody fabulous!" Stacey said, and the three women drew Meghan into a group hug.
After their brief celebration, Elyssa took out her phone, and called Justin.
"Are you okay, babe?" Justin asked, relief audible in his voice.
"Of course," Elyssa said. "Everything went according to plan." She winked at the others while they covered their mouths to keep from bursting into laughter.
"Oh, man, thank goodness," he said, as if she'd never faced a danger in her life.
Elyssa couldn't help but grin as her heart swelled with affection. He was so adorable when he worried about her. "It was pretty easy," she lied. "Are you guys okay?"
"I guess we're not as smooth as you," he said with a sigh. "We barely survived."
Elyssa went cold, her smile vanishing. The other women seemed to catch onto the sudden change in mood. She put the phone on speaker so the muffle spell wouldn't obstruct them from hearing.
"Now, don't freak out, because we made it out with all our arms and legs intact," Justin said.
"But not our sanity!" Shelton said loudly in the background.
"You're on speaker," Elyssa said. "Tell us what happened."
Justin summed up his activities with a tale that left the women exchanging concerned looks.
"Y-you saw women singing stone into an arch?" Elyssa said.
"I think we saw the people who actually created the arch system," Justin said. "I don't even think Mr. Gray knows who they are."
"Were they in our reality?" Elyssa asked.
"I don't think so," he replied. "I remember seeing two moons, so I'm pretty sure it was another realm." He blew out a breath. "We ended up back at my old house, and scared the crap out of some guy eating pizza."
"That would explain why the arch wasn't working earlier," Bella said.
Stacey arched an eyebrow. "Not to mention the screaming man with the pizza."
"Where are you now?" Elyssa asked Justin.
"We've been sitting in a coffee shop in Atlanta waiting to hear from you so we could use the omniarch to come back."
"Oh," Elyssa said, feeling a bit foolish for not thinking of that immediately and getting his story face-to-face. "Send me a picture, and we'll open the portal."
"Yeah, let us find someplace private," he said with a chuckle. "Don't want to make everyone in the coffee shop crap themselves."
"Why do men love to talk about people soiling their pants?" Stacey said with a sigh.
"Are you kidding me?" Justin said. "Anything to do with poop is funny."
"True," sounded a chorus of male voices through the speaker.
The women exchanged hopeless looks.
Justin
I led the guys to an alley, took a picture, and sent it to Elyssa. I had the jitters from too much caffeine and knotted nerves
, unable to stop worrying about Elyssa while we'd waited. A portal opened a few seconds later, and we stepped from the alley in Atlanta back into the mansion in the Queens Gate pocket dimension. The first thing I did was give Elyssa a big hug and a kiss. I noticed the other guys doing the same thing with their significant others. We might have ended up in another dimension for all eternity, or been drained of light and turned into shadow people by the cherubs at the Grand Nexus. I felt lucky to be back home with the girl I loved in my arms.
I told her as much.
"I probably exaggerated how easy our mission was," Elyssa said in a sheepish tone.
"Hey, now, don't tell him how hard it was," Stacey said with a smirk as Ryland regarded her with a wolfish grin.
"Can I see your phone?" Adam asked Elyssa.
She handed it to him. He flicked through the screens. "Sweet, my search strings found a few things. I just hope it got the information we need."
We filed upstairs to the war room, and gathered inside. Adam copied the information to his arctablet and projected it above the table. As he scrolled through the data, I watched, trying to read everything. He stopped, mulling over what looked like invoices.
"This might be a problem," he said. "There are three separate invoices for secure transport trucks, all scheduled for the same date."
"Decoys," Shelton said.
Adam nodded.
"How are we going to know which is the right one?" I asked.
"Hang on," Adam said.
Shelton peered over his other shoulder. "Hey, what's that?"
Adam zoomed in on a map, and frowned. "Looks like a route."
"It's definitely a route," Shelton said, tracing a finger along it. "But if they're running decoys, where are the fake routes?" He closed the invoice file and looked at others, flipping through older invoices for transportation runs by Darkwater.
"They've been moving a lot of supers," Adam said. "I knew this work was outsourced, but this often?"
"Wait. Here are two more current route plans," Shelton said, opening a document with the same date as the other route. "Two trucks are going Kobol Prison."
"Kobol Prison?" Ryland said. "That place ain't been used in decades."
"Where is it?" I asked.
"It's out near Thunder Rock." Ryland shrugged. "They stopped using it because it was too close to the interdiction zone. Nobody wanted to work so close to a cursed granite quarry."
"Who could blame them?" I said with a shudder.
"I don't like this," Shelton said. "You remember how my dad had me rounding up political enemies?"
"Yeah," I said.
"What if they're doing the same thing now?"
We exchanged uneasy glances.
"Hey, I think I got it," Adam said, bringing up the three transportation routes side-by-side. "This," he said, stabbing a finger at the first one, "originates from that house you tracked the Conroys to. The others originate at the Grotto way station."
"They must be bringing prisoners in via arch," Elyssa said, tapping her chin and quirking her lips. "Unless they're rounding up supers in the Grotto and bringing them out. Seems if they were doing that to political prisoners it could be a little too visible."
"Let's forget these other mystery transports for now," I said. "The one coming from the Conroy house must be the one is carrying my mom. Let's concentrate on it and worry about Kobol Prison later."
"The one presumably carrying your mother isn't going to Kobol at least," Adam said. "It's going to an industrial warehouse owned by Darkwater."
"Now, why would Darkwater own a warehouse?" Shelton said, eyebrow rising. "That isn't the kind of business they run."
"Might be a special place they prepared to hold Justin's mom," Elyssa said.
"It would be better than having to relocate her every time they change houses," Bella added.
Shelton nodded. "Makes sense."
"We still need to nab her during transport," Adam said. "I don't have faith in our abilities to break open an astral prison."
The truth was, neither did I. "They're moving her tomorrow," I said. "Can we come up with a plan on short notice?"
"Bingo!" Adam said, startling me. "The person whose blood will be used to seal the truck is none other than Kassus himself."
"Talk about adding another difficulty level," Shelton grumbled. "You know he won't follow procedure and set aside a vial of his blood in case of emergency.
"I'd bet he won't be with the transport either," Ryland said. "He's the kind of man who uses people like cannon fodder."
"We'll get his blood somehow," I said. Even if I have to storm Darkwater myself.
The transport was moving out at noon the next day. That didn't leave a lot of time for planning. Thankfully, we had no shortage of individuals with dubious pasts. I found myself listening more than talking as they took turns tossing out ideas and either writing them down as possibilities or nixing them.
There were so many variables. What if Jeremiah Conroy or my sister went with the transport? Then we'd have a boss fight on our hands. The routing documents indicated the convoy would consist, at minimum, of two escorts, one in front, the other in back. That didn't mean Darkwater wouldn't bring more. We had to hope they were confident in the secrecy of their mission and the invulnerability of the transport truck.
Slowly but surely, a plan formed with enough flexibility to account for extenuating circumstances and unforeseen variables.
I called Thomas Borathen and asked for his help, though not in the way I'd first envisioned. He agreed, even going so far as to say it was a very sound decision. I almost blushed.
"What did he say?" Elyssa said.
"He's in."
"Sweet," Adam said. "I think this plan might actually work."
"Even I think it might work," Shelton said. "We make a damned fine team, if I do say so myself."
We examined the plan backward and forward, looking for weaknesses. The ones we found had no easy solutions, only contingencies we'd have to rely on. By the time we gave the stamp of approval to the final product, I wanted to crawl under the table and sleep.
"How do you feel about the plan?" I asked Elyssa as we walked upstairs to bed.
She offered me a smile. "It has a good chance to work, especially if we don't have to worry about the Conroys."
Later, I lay in bed, but of course I couldn't sleep. So much had happened today. We'd been to the Grand Nexus, crossed into another realm, possibly seen the arch builders, and disrupted one man's pizza night. If Mr. Gray didn't know who the builders were, the logical conclusion I drew was that the Seraphim also didn't know anything about them. Would these beings represent a future threat or were they just explorers?
I thought about my mom. I wondered how Ivy was doing. I felt my stomach tighten at the thought of Kassus and his men hunting for us. I thought back to the time Shelton, Stacey, Elyssa, and I had infiltrated Maximus's Atlanta lair and rescued my father. I'd been so new to my abilities then. Elyssa had almost died in my arms. Every time we found ourselves in another situation like this, it made me realize that our last day could be heartbeats away. I might lose Elyssa or a friend.
Accepting the mantle of leader was something I hadn't done easily. Thomas Borathen's words about my natural ability to lead made me feel reasonably better. But it seemed different to lead personal friends into a deadly conflict as opposed to leading a large army of people I didn't know.
I felt Elyssa's strong arms wrap around me. Felt her soft lips kiss mine. "Go to sleep, baby," she said, drawing me against her. "Everything will be all right."
I squeezed her back, relishing the feel of her curves against me. I kissed her deeper, ran my hand up her back and gripped a handful of her hair. I felt her lips smile as we kissed.
"I think I know how to help us sleep," I said in what I hoped was a seductive voice.
She nibbled my ear. "Just what the doctor ordered."
It wasn't hard to sleep after that, even knowing tomorrow we might die.
<
br /> Chapter 25
"The mailman cometh," Ryland told me on the phone.
"Does he have company?" I asked.
"Four dogs, two in front, two chasing."
Shelton must have seen the tension on my face as I disconnected the call. "Confirmed?" he said.
"Yes." My body trembled and I had trouble focusing.
Shelton snapped his fingers in front of my face. "Hey, set your timer."
I jerked, and flicked on the timer. Twenty minutes to go. I sent out a group text. Confirmed and en route.
We were thirty miles north of Atlanta near a wealthy subdivision in an area filled with farms, rednecks, and pockets of steep terrain. The road wound through a heavily wooded area, up a steep hill. On the left of the road, a steep slope descended into a cow pasture. On the right, a rock face climbed thirty feet to a small plateau.
My phone buzzed with a text from Adam. Detour signs in place ahead. Traffic rerouted.
Fifteen minutes to go.
Bella appeared from downslope. "Everything is ready."
Shelton looked over the map. "Everyone else is in place. Let's do this."
Ten minutes left.
I crossed the road, manifesting demonic claws as I did. At the rocky cliff, I leapt high, dug my claws into worn grooves in the stone, and climbed. When I reached the top, I turned to see Shelton and Bella duck behind an illusionary blind in the horse pasture. I lowered myself to my stomach. Took deep calming breaths to focus myself on the task ahead. Mom depended on me.
Convoy passed, said a text from Meghan. Tight escort. Detour signs are in place.
Five more minutes.
"This will be fun," Stacy purred next to me.
I stifled a yelp. "Holy butt nuggets! I didn't even hear you."
She smiled. "Still my little lamb at times. So adorable."
"This is not the time to scare the crap out of me," I said.
We both turned our heads at the same time as a truck engine rumbled in the distance. The wooded terrain hid the road past the bend before this stretch, so we waited, ears cocked as the bellow of a straining diesel engine grew closer and closer.
A black SUV nosed around the turn with another close behind it. The tractor trailer maintained a twenty-foot gap between the front escorts. I peeked over the lip of the ledge and saw the white slashes we'd marked on the road below. I took position, waiting for the last SUV to cross that mark. Stacey braced her back against a boulder and waited for my cue.
