Cloak Games: Last Judge

by Jonathan Moeller

  Very soon now, either I was going to kill Nicholas…or he was going to kill me and take the Sky Hammer weapon.

  And he was probably going to use it to do something horrible.

  “Hey,” said Russell. “You guys kind of smell like onion rings. You didn’t bring any, did you?”

  Hailey closed her eyes and let out a groan. “For God’s sake!”

  Chapter 6: A Casual Chat

  We returned to Nicholas’s warehouse base an hour later.

  “You should give that rod to Connor right away,” said Morelli.

  “Nope,” I said. “The first thing I’m going to do is change clothes. By which I mean I’m going to put on actual clothes that cover everything they’re supposed to cover. Then I’m getting some sleep.”

  Morelli’s frown deepened.

  “Fine, fine,” I said. “I’ll change clothes, and then I’ll give Nicholas the rod.”

  “I don’t know why you’d bother,” said Morelli as Murdo parked the van. The warehouse door slid closed behind us. “No doubt Connor would enjoy the chance to see you in that outfit, and you would enjoy the chance to argue at interminable length with him.” Morelli sounded more exasperated than anything else.

  “Nicholas has a girlfriend,” snapped Hailey.

  “Certainly,” said Morelli with indifference.

  “You know, I’ve never been involved in a terrorist organization before,” said Russell. “Does everyone in terrorist organizations always squabble like high school students? Because this sounds just like high school.”

  Morelli actually laughed at that.

  Hailey glared at them both, snarled, and then unbuckled her seat belt. She climbed over Russell, threw open the van door, and stalked away without another word.

  “I don’t think she likes me very much,” said Russell.

  “She doesn’t like anyone,” I said, unbuckling my own seat belt. “I’m going to go change and give this stupid thing to Nicholas. Rory?”

  Murdo nodded. He knew what I meant. He would stay close to Russell and make sure the Rebels didn’t try anything. Morelli got out of the van and walked away, and I stood up and slid to the side door.

  “Nadia?” said Murdo, his voice quiet.

  “Yeah?” I said, glancing back at him.

  He smiled a little, which eased the hard edges of his face, made him look a little less thuggish. “You do look nice.”

  My mouth went dry at that.

  Unsettling, but in a good way.

  “Thanks,” I said, for lack of anything else to say, and then I got out of the van.

  I went to one of the prefab cubicles and changed into my usual jeans, sweater, pea coat, and running shoes. The uniform might have looked good on me, but it was nice to wear something that didn’t feel like a sausage casing.

  Even if I had enjoyed the hungry way that Murdo had been looking at me.

  I shook my head, pushed the thought away, and went in search of Nicholas. He had claimed the largest room for himself, turning it into sort of a computer room and command center when he wasn’t meeting with Natalya Karst at Venomhold. I headed towards it and slowed as I heard voices.

  It sounded like Nicholas and Corbisher were having an argument.

  No, not quite an argument. A discussion.

  Regardless, it was something they wouldn’t want me to overhear…which meant that I wanted to hear it.

  I cast the Cloak spell, walked to the end of the hall, and eased into the room.

  Nicholas had set up two long tables, filling them with his usual mix of computer towers and large monitors. Right now, the monitors displayed various news reports of the High Queen’s Royal Progress through the United States, focusing on her recent visit to Washington DC. I saw video clips of Congress and the President (I could never remember the name of the current president) greet the High Queen on the steps of the Capitol with the Skythrone hovering overhead.

  Nicholas sat in an office chair, his coat off, his tie undone, and he looked mildly amused. Corbisher paced back and forth before him.

  “The timing is absolutely critical on this,” Corbisher said. “Absolutely critical.”

  “Not necessarily,” said Nicholas. “Whether it happens this year or next year is irrelevant to the bigger picture.”

  I eased past Corbisher and stood at the other end of the table.

  “The Knight is getting impatient,” said Corbisher.

  “Natalya Karst has been playing this game for longer than both of us have been alive,” said Nicholas. “She knows how to take the long view. Another year won’t make any difference. And it may even strengthen our position. The Atlantic would work, yes, it would work very well. But the Pacific might serve our purposes even better. The Chinese have most of their heavy industry in the cities along the coast, to say nothing of the vulnerability of Japan.”

  Why the hell were they talking about oceans?

  “But the longer we wait, the greater our risks,” said Corbisher. “The frost giants might try something or the dwarves of Nerzuramaxis might act. Neither one of them is happy about the buildup of forces in Venomhold. And someone in the High Queen’s government might realize what we’re doing. Many of them will remember Shane’s insurgency.”

  “That was always a risk,” said Nicholas, “but it is a minimal one. If the High Queen could have cracked down on us without unacceptable political cost, she would have done so by now.” His blue eyes glittered. “But you’re worrying about potentialities, Martin. We might have the weapon in our possession by tomorrow night. And then we shall change human history forever.”

  “Potentialities?” said Corbisher. “Fine. Let’s worry about something actual. The minute Nadia Moran returns with Shane’s key, you should kill her at once.”

  I grinned my mirthless grin behind my Cloak spell.

  “At this point, that is too dangerous,” said Nicholas. “And we will need her help yet.”

  “No, we don’t,” said Corbisher. “Not once we have the key.”

  “There’s no way of knowing what we’ll find inside Last Judge Mountain,” said Nicholas. “You know the sort of things the US government was doing in the last few years before the Conquest. We might encounter defenses we’ve never seen before. And you’ll recall our previous attempts to breach the outer defenses of Last Judge.”

  Corbisher shuddered, shook his head, and grimaced. “The fact remains that the woman is a liability and a dangerous one. Moran’s harassment of our supply dumps over the last year has easily lost us between thirty and forty million dollars worth of munitions.”

  Forty million dollars?

  Jeez. I had been more effective than I had thought. And how much money did these people have?

  “She is a potential liability, yes,” said Nicholas. “But consider. Could we have gotten into Chicago and out again without her help? Could we have breached the Royal Bank without her skills? We are on the cusp of victory, Martin, and we have gotten there by using her abilities to our benefit. This is total war, and we cannot turn away such a useful tool as Nadia Moran, no matter how dangerous she is to us.”

  “Fine,” said Corbisher. “I don’t dispute that. But you know the minute that we take possession of the Sky Hammer she’s going to turn on us. I know you think you can handle her…”

  “I can handle her,” said Nicholas.

  “But she’s been fighting us with one hand tied behind her back,” said Corbisher. “In hindsight, she’s been trying to protect her obnoxious shit of a brother…”

  “Really?” said Nicholas. “I found Mr. Moran’s confidence quite charming. Perhaps we can yet recruit him to the Revolution.”

  Corbisher gave him an incredulous look, then kept talking. “But the minute we have the Sky Hammer, the gloves come off. She’s going to do her very best to kill us, and she might be able to win. I thought there was no way she could fight Lorenz and Vastarion at the same time, but she mowed right through them.”

  “You thought?” said Nicholas, raising his
eyebrows. “Why, Martin. That implies you had advanced knowledge that Lorenz hired Vastarion and went after Miss Moran in direct defiance of my very specific orders to leave her alone. What a troubling thought.”

  I had the satisfaction of seeing Corbisher stutter. I had no doubt that Corbisher had known that Lorenz had planned to come after Russell, and Nicholas seemed to know as well.

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” said Corbisher. “I’m only saying that we should kill Moran now. If not, then we need to have a plan in place to handle her once we have the Sky Hammer. Because she is going to go berserk the minute she’s clear of the Forerunner’s deal with Morvilind.”

  “Yes, Morvilind,” murmured Nicholas. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? That she’s his shadow agent? Who else could have taught her such ruthlessness? It’s like she’s a little clone of him.”

  I didn’t like that comparison at all.

  “If you would stop thinking with your goddamn genitals for a moment,” said Corbisher, and Nicholas gave him a sharp look, “you would realize how dangerous that woman is. I’m going to be blunt, Nicholas. You think you can control her and seduce her, and the fact that you used to sleep with her is making you underestimate her. I don’t underestimate her, and you need to have her killed, now.”

  Nicholas smiled. “I don’t underestimate her. And nothing she does will change the outcome. She could walk up and shoot me in the head, and it wouldn’t change a thing.”

  “There are other ways to stop our plans,” said Corbisher.

  “Yes,” said Nicholas, his voice hardening. “But she won’t. She’s going to help us claim the Sky Hammer, and once we have it, I will deal with her. I will give her the chance to join us, Martin, but if she doesn’t, she’s not leaving Last Judge Mountain alive.”

  “At the very least, we need to get her brother under control,” said Corbisher. “If we can secure him, we’ll have all the leverage we need to control her.”

  “No, we won’t,” said Nicholas. “If we threaten her brother, that will remove the last restraint on her. Lorenz thought to control her through her brother and look how that turned out. For that matter, she’s been smart enough to make sure she or Murdo are with him at all time.” He sighed. “I had high hopes for Murdo, but it seems that Miss Moran has subverted him.”

  “She’s obviously screwing him,” said Corbisher. “You’ve seen them look at each other.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “We need to get her brother under control,” said Corbisher. “I still think you’re wrong. If we cut out the little bastard’s smart tongue and send it to her, that will…”

  Right. I wasn’t going to lose my temper, but I had heard enough.

  “You want to take a swing at my brother, asshole?” I said, dropping my Cloak spell and stepping around the table.

  I had the enormous satisfaction of seeing Corbisher nearly jump out of his skin.

  He whirled, banged his hip on Nicholas’s table, and almost fell over. I stalked right up into his face, and he stumbled back.

  “Go on,” I said. “Go on and try it. See what happens. Lorenz thought he could do it, and looked what happened to him. You try anything like that, and you’ll wish that bloodrat had gnawed off the rest of your goddamn ugly stupid face.”

  Corbisher turned red beneath his scars. “Nicholas.”

  “Yeah, go tattle to teacher,” I said.

  Nicholas had not flinched. In fact, he looked highly amused.

  “Martin,” he said. “Please give Miss Moran and me a moment alone. Go get in touch with Turner. We’ll need two helicopters tomorrow.”

  Corbisher took a step back, glaring at me. “This isn’t done.”

  “It sure isn’t, Marty,” I said.

  Corbisher whirled and stalked out of the room with what remained of his dignity.

  Nicholas and I looked at each other.

  “Did you really have to scare poor Martin like that?” said Nicholas.

  “Poor Martin was threatening my family,” I said. “Poor Martin is lucky I didn’t improve his ugly stupid face by blasting a hole through it.”

  “Mmm.” Nicholas leaned back in his chair. “Were you successful?”

  I handed him the rod. “Here.”

  “Thank you,” said Nicholas. He took the rod, gazed at it for a moment, and then looked at me. “Were there any complications?”

  “No,” I said. “We got in and out without any problems. Morelli’s malware crashed the camera server, so that should have wiped the recordings. The Duke will probably have Homeland Security and the Inquisition launch an investigation once he realizes the rod is gone. They’ll find the hacked records and some people might remember two waitresses acting oddly, but they won’t be able to track it back to us. Or you.”

  “Good,” said Nicholas. “Very well done.” He tapped the rod against his palm. “In another few days, it won’t matter at all, but still well done.”

  “It won’t matter?” I said.

  “Be back here at 6 AM tomorrow,” said Nicholas. He smiled. “It’s time to finish our deal. With this rod, the way into Last Judge Mountain is clear. Tomorrow, we’re going for the Sky Hammer itself.”

  “Yeah,” I said, my mouth going dry.

  Tomorrow, then. Tomorrow, we were going to kill each other.

  We stared at each other.

  “Hey,” I said. “Question.”

  Nicholas inclined his head.

  “In the display case holding that rod,” I said, “Duke Orothor had a picture of Jeremy Shane shaking hands with the High Queen. What was that all about? I thought he was fighting to overthrow her.”

  “He was,” said Nicholas, “right up until he was assassinated. But it will not surprise you to learn that the High Queen has a consistent policy of suborning or subverting human leaders whenever possible. Consider how she has trained the human population to revere her. Suborning Shane to her cause would have been a victory.” Nicholas shrugged. “One can hardly blame Shane for concealing his true intentions. It’s not as if I can walk down the Las Vegas Strip shouting at tourists about the tyranny of the Elven nobles and the High Queen.”

  “That would be fun to watch,” I said.

  Nicholas smiled briefly. “For you, maybe.”

  We stared at each other for a while longer.

  “It’s exciting, isn’t it?” said Nicholas.

  “Exciting,” I said. “That’s a funny word. Can mean a lot of different things. Getting shot in the chest is exciting in a certain way.”

  “We’re about to change the world,” said Nicholas. “When we have the Sky Hammer tomorrow, Kat…we’re going to change the future. We’re going to free mankind of the Elves once and for all.”

  “Tomorrow,” I said, meeting his gaze, “I’m going to kill you.”

  Nicholas smiled. “No, you’re not. You think you are, but you’re not.”

  “I hate to admit it, but Corbisher’s right,” I said. “You really should kill me now.” I wondered if he would try. If he did, if he tried to kill me personally or ordered one of his goons to do it, that would constitute breaking the deal.

  “No,” said Nicholas. “No, Kat. I’m going to change the world, but I need your help to do it first. Then we can kill each other.”

  “The Sky Hammer,” I said. “What is it?”

  “Ah.” Nicholas tapped the rod against his palm. “You’ll find out tomorrow.”

  “Won’t that be fun,” I muttered.

  “And then I’ll kill you,” said Nicholas. “You’ve known it was coming for some time now. You’ll help me with the third and final theft, and then you’ll try to kill me, and I’ll kill you.” He shook his head. “But it doesn’t have to be that way.”

  I snorted. “Is this the part where you try to recruit me? We’ve already had that talk. Remember? The night you thought it would be funny to screw Hailey on my bed.”

  “You are focused on such trivialities,” said Nicholas. “You don’t even like Hailey.”
r />   “That’s not the point.” I took a deep breath to control my anger and irritation and fear. “She thinks the world of you, and you humiliated her just to annoy me. Not even a good reason. Just to annoy me, and there are lots of ways you can do that.”

  “Trivialities,” said Nicholas. “We’re discussing the fate of the world, and you worry about such minor things.”

  “Yeah, like all the people you’re going to kill,” I said.

  Nicholas leaned forward, his face suddenly intense. “But that’s why I’m doing this. For people. For the human race.”

  I snorted. “Sure you are.”

  “How many human beings are there on this planet right now?” said Nicholas.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Three, three and a half billion.”

  “How many of them do you know personally?” said Nicholas. “A few thousand, most likely. You only really care about Russell and Murdo and maybe a few other people.” He stood up, and I took a cautious step back, but Nicholas kept talking. “But what we’re doing now has the potential to better the lives of every single human being on Earth.”

  “You’re fooling yourself,” I said. “Maybe you’ll overthrow the High Queen, maybe you won’t. But you’ll get a lot of people killed for nothing, and then the Dark Ones will devour Earth. You think they’re helping you out of the benevolence of their little black hearts? No. We’re just food to them. You’re only useful food that’s dumb enough to help them. That’s all.”

  To my surprise, Nichols smiled. “The Dark Ones are like you and Corbisher.”

  “There had better be a hell of a good explanation behind that metaphor.”

  “Corbisher sees only the risk in our deal with you,” said Nicholas. “A real risk, yes. Your petty harassment over the last year has caused us a great deal of logistical trouble. But the risk is balanced with real benefits. We are about to take possession of the Sky Hammer, and that would not have been possible without your help.”

  Without your help…

  I remembered what Russell had said, about how the cost of his cure spells might become too steep, and what I should do if that ever happened.

  “Corbisher lets his fear rule his thinking,” said Nicholas. He gestured with the rod, almost like a conductor in front of a symphony. “He would eliminate you as a threat. He doesn’t see that the potential gains are worth the risk.”