by John Corwin
I huffed. "And the answer is no," I said. "Shouldn't even bother asking him. It's not like he helped rescue my mom." I knew I was being unfair. He'd left the decision in my hands and I'd decided the political consequences would be too severe, opting only for auxiliary help.
Lips pressed tight, she raised an eyebrow at me. "He said yes." I could tell from the tension in her voice she wasn't happy with me right then.
"Oh," I said.
She sighed and shook her head. "He had to reposition assets thanks to the Synod moving their own troops into my father's territory, but he agreed to provide us with his best special ops squad to resolve the situation."
"Whoa, why didn't you mention this earlier?" Shelton said.
"I just got the text from him a few seconds ago," she said. "He told me Alysea is too valuable to let die, and that, so long as the operation could be done in a way to minimize exposure, he would provide support."
"Does he know about the cupids?" Adam asked.
"No, but we'll have to tell him," Elyssa said. She gave me a cross look. "Happy?"
I looked away. "Yes."
"I'm happy you're happy," she said in a tone indicating she was anything but. "This opens up several options, including the one Justin mentioned earlier about simply knocking them all unconscious. We have other crowd-control options that might work, depending on what sort of defenses Kassus's people have."
"I'd like to know what his people are doing with the cherubs," Adam said.
I wanted to know the answers to a lot of things, but right then, nothing else mattered but blood. "Let's get these Templars here," I said, trying to ignore Elyssa's baleful glare. "If we set up a trap and nail them with Lancers all at once, maybe we can do this thing."
I dismissed the meeting. Elyssa stormed from the room. I followed her up to the bedroom, and shut the door. "Why are you so mad?" I asked.
"My father hasn't helped?" she said in a rhetorical tone. "Really? After providing a pilot and a slider to retrieve the trailer? After providing a place to keep your mother? After providing the car you and I used in the operation? After leaving the decision for his intervention in your hands?"
"I didn't mean it like that," I said. "He just wouldn't get involved—"
"And he had a very good reason for not showing his hand," Elyssa said. "You can't just plow into everything, heedless of consequences, Justin. Sometimes you have to use tact and tactics."
"Fine," I said, throwing up my hands. "I'm sorry I insulted your father. That wasn't my intention."
She sank onto the bed, tears welling in her eyes. I looked at her, completely confused. Why was she having such an overreaction? I thought back to what I'd said, but aside from some whining, I couldn't think of anything to bring Elyssa to tears. As usual, seeing her cry made me feel like a complete villain. I sat beside her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and hugging her.
"I'm sorry, baby. I was a complete ass. Please forgive me."
She turned and buried her face in my shoulder. "It's not you," she said. "It's everything going on with the Synod and the Templars." Elyssa looked up at me, her face beautiful despite the red blotches from crying. "They tried to murder my father, Justin. They tried to kill you and everyone in a leadership position. What are they going to do next? How can we stop them if they try?" She drew in a shuddering breath. "I don't know what to do."
Her reaction suddenly made sense. I knew exactly where she was coming from. She felt powerless to stop the Synod from killing her father and other people she cared about. It was one thing to fight an army, but another thing entirely to stop one man or a group of them on a suicide mission. If Ivy hadn't warned us, there would have been so much blood spilled that day, including my own.
I kissed her on the forehead. "I understand. If we can get my mom out of that box, she'll be one more layer of protection." I hated referring to my mom like that, but it was true.
"Then that's what we have to do," Elyssa said. "Save your mom so we can save everyone else."
"How do you think we should do it?" I asked.
She wiped tears from her face. "I think your plan could work. It's simple, straightforward, and not as complicated as most of the stuff you come up with."
"It's just stupid simple," I said, offering her a grin. "You can say it."
She laughed, her hands absentmindedly picking a piece of lint from my shirt and flicking it away. "Those plans are usually the best." She surprised me with a kiss. "You always know how to cheer me up."
I wished I knew exactly what I'd said to clear the air, but just smiled as if I had everything covered. "I like seeing you smile."
She took out her phone and dialed. "Let's get this party started."
Chapter 30
Twenty-five Templars outfitted with Lancers and bearing satchels full of other crowd-control items stepped through the portal and into the main cavern outside the El Dorado control room. Thanks to our omniarch, they'd arrived a little over an hour after Elyssa's request.
I'd called ahead and spoken with Cinder to make sure the coast remained clear before coming, even though we opened the portal farther back into the main cave for easy insertion and escape should that become necessary.
"We'll set up the perimeter," said the leader of the elite Templar squad, a man named Hutchins.
The group of dark-clad Templars dispersed, placing what looked like rocks in a loose circle around the area where the Darkwater people had stood the last time.
"Those are stun mines," Elyssa explained. "We can trigger them to blind and disorient a group. Once they go off, we'll knock them out with Lancer darts and secure them."
"This is the kind of equipment I'm talking about," I said, feeling immeasurably better about our success. We spent the next thirty minutes watching the men set up. Shelton and the others remained on standby, but I didn't think we'd need their help with the pros on our team. Once everything was set up, Hutchins and his men hid behind other boulders and debris they'd moved into strategic positions and waited. Elyssa and I picked our own hiding spot with a good view. We both had Lancers equipped and ready. I figured with this many people firing darts, we stood a good chance of hitting most of the people Kassus brought through.
The dragons, for their part, merely watched, their huge heads swiveling around the cavern as the men worked, apparently unconcerned so long as nobody tried to violate the boundary of their giant coiled bodies.
The wait dragged on and on.
"What's taking Kassus so long?" I asked Elyssa.
She leaned back against the rock. "Tackling two leviathan dragons isn't an easy task. I'm sure he's taking his time with preparations."
I sighed and sat down, trying to calm my anxiety. My mind kept playing through scenarios, each one ending with me drawing Kassus's blood with a small brass-enclosed vial Meghan had given me. It didn't have a needle. All I had to do was put it against the man's bare skin, activate it with a button, and it would draw and store blood.
Time slogged forward. I thought about my mom and how weak she was becoming. I thought about letting her feed off me the minute I burst inside and rescued her. I wondered how Kassus planned to get past the dragons. Would he use brute force, or try something sneaky like the camouflaged man earlier? He seemed like a violent person, but I knew he wasn't stupid. Nobody earned a reputation like his by being a fool.
Finally, I heard a faint hum from the control room. A light flashed three times from a position near the door.
They're here.
My stomach twisted. My shoulder muscles pinched. This was it.
Go time.
The Darkwater people filed in, each one bearing large satchels. I strained my eyes to pick out the features of each one, but didn't see Kassus's bald head in the mix. The black-robed people unpacked machine guns and began setting them up on tripods in a line across the front. I noted they all stood within the perimeter of stun mines.
"Are those nom weapons?" I asked Elyssa.
She peered out at them, he
r eyes darting from one weapon to the next. "Looks like it," she whispered back.
"What do they expect to accomplish with those?"
"I need to see the ammo, but even I can't make out the details from here." She took out a pair of black binoculars and gazed through them for a moment. When she slid back behind the barrier, she looked concerned. "Those bullets are tipped with diamond fiber," she said. "I don't think I've seen anything like it before."
"What does that mean?"
Her eyes looked lost in concentration for a moment, and snapped wide. "The dragons are magic resistant, but if you think about what they are, they're like aether sponges. Maybe it has to do with their relationship to aether. But diamond fiber repels magic, and ordinary bullets use scientific properties to work. Kassus must think this ammo will penetrate their scales."
"But the bullets are so small," I said. "Even if they do punch through scales, how could they hurt something that size?"
She shook her head slowly. "I don't know. It'd be like mosquito bites. But if enough mosquitos bite you, it's seriously annoying and painful."
"So their brilliant plan is to piss the giant dragons off," I said. "We won't need to do anything. They're gonna get themselves killed."
"There's something we're missing," she said. "Even if they provoke the dragons, what do they hope to gain?"
"I still don't see Kassus," I said, using her binoculars to survey the invaders. "What if he doesn't show?"
Her forehead pinched. "We can't let them go through with their plan."
"But we'll give away our advantage." I dropped back behind cover. "Kassus will know that someone else is aware of this place."
We both watched in silence as the men finished setting up. A dark figure appeared from the shadows, nearly giving me a heart attack.
"Target is not present," Hutchins said. "What are your orders?"
Elyssa looked from me and back to the man. "We apprehend them as planned."
"No," I said. "Just wait. Maybe Kassus will show up. Maybe he's on the way right now."
Hutchins's eyes narrowed. "We need to act now before they start firing."
"Please, wait," I said, gripping Elyssa's hand. "Just a little longer."
Hutchins turned to me. "I respect what you've done, Slade. I saw you in action the day the Synod tried to assassinate Commander Borathen and the others. You're quick, decisive, and from what I've heard, you've earned the respect of those you work with." His lips pressed together for an instant. "But this is a tightly controlled operation. Cadet Borathen and I have the experience and the knowledge necessary for success. I understand the primary target isn't here, and if Elyssa tells us to stand down, we will. But given what's at stake"—he nodded his head toward the nursery—"I don't see it as an option to let these people potentially destroy what could be a valuable asset to us in the future."
"There might not be a future if we don't capture Kassus," I said. "My mother can help us now when we need it the most."
He nodded. "I understand."
"Justin, we can't let the battle mages attack," Elyssa said. "We'll find another way to capture Kassus."
I clenched my fists, trying to keep my anger down. How could Elyssa do this to me? To my mom? Didn't she see what was at stake?
Hutchins's gaze intensified as he seemed to notice something in the front of the room.
I followed his gaze to see a blue-tinged bubble surrounding the Darkwater people. The muzzles of the machine guns poked through it.
"A shield to block magic attacks," he said. "The bullets and machine guns can go through it, but the mines can't," he said. "They're not powerful enough to punch through."
"We waited too long," Elyssa said. Her troubled eyes met mine. "Now we'll be lucky if we can do anything to stop them."
Her words stung me even if she said them without malice. I still didn't believe attacking these men was the right thing to do. Not because I didn't want to protect the leyworms or the babies, but because Kassus was the whole reason we set up this operation. It seemed short-sighted to go through with it otherwise because we'd lose the element of surprise. With Kassus and his men, that might be the only thing preventing us from ending up dead. Elyssa might have the right to give the commands, but I couldn't be afraid to let her know I disagreed.
"Stand down," I said. "We wait for Kassus."
Elyssa arched an eyebrow. "Since when are you authorized to give commands to these men?"
"Maybe I'm not," I said. "But I called together this operation. I came up with the plan. Maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but Kassus is the goal, not protecting the leyworms or the nursery." I motioned my head toward the monsters. "Do you really think machine guns and fancy bullets are going to kill them? The minute they open fire, the leyworms will slaughter them."
"I don't—" Elyssa began.
I interrupted her. "Answer me this: If we go ahead with the operation while they have a shield up, what are the odds of achieving our goals?" I glanced at Hutchins.
"Substantially reduced," he said. "The mines will only faze those at the outer edges. Those in the center will be more protected. Some of the mines were moved by the Darkwater people when they cleared out the place to set their guns, which will also result in reduced impact."
"Do you agree?" I asked Elyssa.
She looked at me as if puzzled by my behavior. "Yes."
"Then we stand down and wait."
Hutchins looked to Elyssa.
She regarded me for a long moment before nodding. "Stand down."
I turned back toward the Darkwater men in the front as they made final preparations, loading the machine guns with bullet belts. One of them set up another tripod that looked a lot like a mortar launcher while another opened a case and removed a rocket launcher. A few choice curses escaped my lips. Kassus obviously believed in all or nothing. I didn't know if a hail of bullets could kill the leyworms, or possibly the cupids, but the man was an evil son of a bitch for taking this path.
I scanned the cavern and decided on a different plan. "Hutchins, see the cluster of stalactites above the attackers?"
"We call them OPFOR," he said. "Opposing force."
"Whatever," I said, waving away his jargon. "Can you get a charge up there?"
He regarded it for a moment. Nodded. "We have a flying carpet we could use. The ceiling is high enough the OPFORs won't see us."
"Do it," I said. "If they open fire, we'll bring down the roof on their heads."
"Yes, sir," he said, not even bothering to check with Elyssa, and vanished into the shadows.
"We're going to have a talk after this," Elyssa said.
I realized I wasn't angry with her for her earlier decision. I also realized I wasn't particularly concerned if she was mad at me now. There was something about taking responsibility for all these lives that weighed heavily on my shoulders in some ways, while lightening the burden in others. Maybe I'd gone a little cold, or maybe I'd just accepted that a natural part of leadership was accepting loss.
I simply nodded in reply to her statement. Even though the stalactites above the Darkwater people were barely visible from the floor, I couldn't actually see the roof of the cave. My supernatural night vision wouldn't reach that far. I thought I noticed a shadowy shape moving far above, but couldn't be sure.
"How will you feel about killing those people?" Elyssa said.
My head turned sharply toward her, surprised by the question. The answer came to me without thinking about it. "Probably sick to my stomach," I said, especially considering how gruesome it would be. "But Kassus might think it was an accident with their explosive weapons instead of an outright attack."
She nodded. "I wasn't accusing you of anything. I wanted you to think this through as opposed to a non-lethal strike."
"Considering the circumstances now, I don't think non-lethal is a possibility." I spared another glance above, anxious to know the explosives were ready. "If we fail to incapacitate them, we'll have a full-scale battle
on our hands with Templars versus battle mages." In my head, it sounded geek-tastic, at least if it were on a movie screen. In real life, it would be messy as hell.
"I agree," Elyssa said. "But only because we waited."
"I thought we were going to talk about this later," I said without turning my gaze from the ceiling.
She made a very unladylike growl. "Yes, we are."
Somehow, I managed not to gulp.
Hutchins appeared. "Charges are set. We have two options. One will blow off the entire group of stalactites, in effect increasing the odds of killing nearly all OPFORs. The second option will only bring down a few select stalactites and offer incapacitation with minimal deaths. My man also arranged the charges to match the explosion signature of a mortar launcher so it won't look as if a third party engineered it."
He read my mind. It was obvious why Hutchins was on special ops. "Excellent. We'll need to wait until they start firing."
"Just tell me if you want lethal or non-lethal."
"We'll try non-lethal first. Maybe that will send them packing for the day and bring Kassus back to do the job right."
"Yes, sir," he said.
I was beginning to like being in charge.
Someone with Darkwater shouted orders. I glanced at them to see people manning the machine guns. The mortar and rocket launchers were out of sight. I wasn't sure if they planned to use them for the first salvo or not.
"Aim!" shouted the Darkwater person.
A dozen machineguns swiveled toward the leyworms.
"Fire!"
The cavern exploded with noise. Tracers lanced through the air as bullets whizzed past. The dragons bellowed. Twisted. Gigantor loosed a terrific scream of pain.
A shock of white light exploded in the cavern, blinding me temporarily. "Stop!" cried a voice so loud it rang in my ears.
The guns stopped firing. I blinked my eyes, waiting for the bright afterimages to fade. When they finally readjusted, I looked to the front to see Darkwater people rubbing their eyes, looking dazed and confused. The shield had vanished, and the machine guns hung limp, smoke rising from the ends of the barrels.
