It had been a half hour since he was first informed of the incident by the time Adam got to the Stock Exchange Central Building, and just under an hour since the first set of bombs blew apart the left half of the building. The Stock Exchange Central Building was the real financial hub for Magid as sales that would influence the public’s perception of the economy took place thousands of times a minute. Business empires rose and fell by the judgment of the bidders on the market floor. Now many of those bidders were dead on that very floor, trapped under the rubble along with survivors after the bombing crumbled the trading center of the complex. Investors sat at home anticipating the loss of their revenues in spite of the attack, a greater cause of concern than the devastation that the attack itself was having on the people nearby.
A perimeter had been established around two city blocks from the stock exchange. Upon his arrival, Adam didn’t bother to stop and identify himself to the police barricade before running through to the scene. Ahead he saw the building itself, half sunken in with smoke still rising into the sky. All around it, police had set up a barrier where they stood watch and discussed what their next course of action would be. Some of them saw Adam running in, recognizing him right away and going to greet him as he caught his breath.
“Your Majesty, you shouldn’t be here,” said a tall policeman. “It’s not safe for you.”
“I assure you it’s far safer for me than for any of you,” he retorted. “Fill me in on what you know.”
They escorted Adam to the barrier’s edge where the commanding officer, Commander Ritter, was reviewing plans with other officers. He stopped as Adam approached him and shook hands with the king.
“I appreciate you being here, sir,” said Commander Ritter.
“It’s a king’s duty to protect his country,” said Adam. “What do you know?”
“The first bombings occurring just as the exchange was opening, a little less than an hour ago,” the commander explained. “The bombs targeted the trading floor but left many of the offices in the right section of the building intact, as you can see there. Witnesses fleeing the scene also reported gunmen inside shooting into the air and taking people hostage. We’ve got eyes in nearby buildings keeping watch on things and it looks like the gunmen have taken the hostages to one of the large conference rooms on the fourth floor.” He pointed up to a set of windows on the top floor of the building. “They’re keeping well away from the windows, and we don’t have a clear line of sight with any of the gunmen.”
“Any idea of who they are?”
“No, but they seem to be some sort of anti-business fringe group. Witnesses say they were shouting about ‘bringing down the corporate titans and the establishment that supports them’.”
“Wonderful,” Adam groaned. “Have they made demands?”
“No, they’ve been locked up in that room since the bombing.”
“What are your options then?” asked Adam.
“We’ll have to go in. We can get a team on the roof to go down and one from the ground to go up. The two together could surprise them, but it’s a risky move. The chance that the hostages will be hurt in the crossfire is high, not to mention my men. We don’t know how well armed they are. It’s possible they have better weapons than we do, and they may have more explosives in reserve as well.”
“Let me go in,” Adam said. “Their weapons won’t do any permanent damage to me, and using the elemental powers of Magid I could probably restrain them all before they even let out a shot.”
“I don’t doubt your skills, sir, but it’s still a risky move.”
“I understand that, but while we sit here and debate, things may be getting worse inside, not to mention across the city. I’m sure you’re aware of the other bomb that went off in the banking district.”
“I am,” said Commander Ritter. “I’ve dispatched some of my men and emergency relief there.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more bombs waiting to be detonated out there,” Adam said. “We need to get in there, save the hostages, and get information out of those men.”
“The whole thing still sounds too risky to me.”
“Please trust me, Commander. It will do a lot for the image of the government if this mess is contained quickly and with little loss of life. Let me handle things from here while you divert your resources to securing other potential target buildings and helping the injured.”
Commander Ritter furrowed his brow and hit the wooden barrier with the back of his fist. “I realize things may be in favor of your plan, but the whole thing still doesn’t sit right with me. We have protocols to follow and if something went wrong—”
“If that’s the issue then let me make this easier. I’m ordering you and your men to tend to the emergencies in other parts of the city while I handle things here. Whatever happens will be on me. Is that understand, Commander?”
Reluctant, Commander Ritter nodded. “Yes, sir. Can I at least request that one squad of my men remain here as back up as a precaution?”
“Fine,” Adam said, already moving through the dividers of the blockade. “Just keep a safe distance until I give the OK.”
Adam ran up the steps to the elaborate stone entryway of the building. Architecturally it reminded him of a federal building rather than a commercial building, but he had seen in many cultures that the two were often much intertwined. He kept an eye on the windows on the fourth floor where the gunmen were stationed. He couldn’t see anyone in the windows and he doubted they could see him, which would allow him to make an unnoticed entrance into the building. It struck him as odd that they would not have someone keeping an eye on the growing police force, especially since they were surrounded inside. Based on his experiences, this meant one of two things: they were either hiding some kind of surprise that would give them the edge over police should a raid be attempted or they were already expecting to die for their cause. In either case the group was a very real risk to the police, but not to Adam.
The interior of the building was still as death. A grand foyer greeted visitors and opened up to two paths, the left which led to the trading floor and the right which went to offices and the greater business side of the financial market. As Adam stared down the left hall he could see where the ceiling had collapsed and a pile of rubble now blocked the way into the trading floor. Just as with the bank headquarters, he expected that there would still be people trapped in the rubble there. With any luck he would be able to put an end to the whole situation right now and get to work with helping all those who were hurt. He turned down the right hallway and found a set of stairs, taking caution as he climbed up to the fourth floor.
Making his way through the building, Adam was reminded of his days with the Khazaki. Together with them he had led many raids on criminal organizations throughout the city of Khanka. They were organized and experienced little to no loss of life each time they went into a raid. It had given Adam plenty of experience that would help him now, but he still had to remember that now he was going in alone. With the Khazaki, there was always a coordinated plan and that helped them with their captures each time. Adam would have to pull off that same efficiency by himself, which as a Legend he expected he could do. Taking the remaining police squad with him may have given him more help, but he didn’t know their tactics nor they his. Without a solid level of connection found between teammates, whether policemen or soldiers, missions could not succeed. It was far better, Adam decided, to handle things on his own.
As he reached the top of the stairs, Adam could hear a heated discussion going on farther down the hall. He paused, thinking that they might have heard him coming. They continued to talk amongst themselves, but the urgency in their voice seemed to be more directed at their overall situation rather than Adam’s advance. With great stealth, Adam crept down the hall, following the voices to where the gunmen were hiding. He stopped just short of the door of what seemed like some kind of meeting room with enough space to hold a fifty person gathering,
or a group of terrorists and their hostages.
Inside the room, he could now hear them talking about the withdrawing police force outside. They hadn’t seen Adam enter the building after all. Adam pulled out the sword from the sash on his waist and unsheathed it half way with a slow pull. He used the reflective surface of the metal to peek around the corner into the room. From his vantage point he spotted at least five gunmen, all tall, well-built men in some kind of tactical armor. Their guns were automatic assault rifles, a variety that were not native to Magid and only existed in a few of the more technologically advanced civilizations of the Other Universe. How they had been smuggled onto the planet was an important question, but it was one he would have to deal with after all of them had been neutralized.
Moving the sword, he next spotted the hostages. There were eight or so of them sitting around a support pole in the middle of the room. They were all tied together in a single group and each of them looked afraid for his or her life. The gunmen were spread out and some of them were close to the hostages, so whatever Adam was going to do he would need to be precise and clean about it to avoid unwanted injuries. His breath was steady and controlled as he anticipated his next move. He inched closer to the door frame, sword still half drawn, waiting for just the right moment to act.
Outside the room’s windows, the sun rose above a building across the street which had previously obscured it. At once the full morning light filled the room and spilled out the open door into the hallway. One of the gunmen raised his hand to his forehead to block out the light, but seconds later he found that the light had grown too intense for even his hand to shield. All of the other gunmen noticed this too, but by then it was too late. The sunlight was caught off Adam’s sword, which he reflected back and using the elemental power of light at his disposal he magnified it tenfold. The room was filled with blinding light in an instant and all of the gunmen cried out in shock, shouting to each other to get away from the windows. They thought it was a trick by the police, but their mistake only moved them closer to the door where Adam was waiting to pounce on them.
Adam moved into the doorframe and jammed the tip of his sword into the floor. The flat carpet of the room beneath the gunmen split open as stiff steel ropes shot out from under them. With a twist of Adam’s hand, the ropes encircled the gunmen from their legs to their shoulders, binding them and forcing them to drop their weapons as they were held in place. The intense light in the room faded away and Adam pulled his sword from the floor and sheathed it. The entire assault took less than ten seconds.
The hostages were still trying to grasp what had happened as Adam walked across the room to free them. As they realized that the gunmen had been neutralized and that the King of Magid had arrived, the hostages knew that things were going to be alright. An older woman appeared to be so relieved that she broke down crying. Adam put his hand on her shoulder as she smiled through her tears to thank him.
“It’s alright, ma’am,” he said. “You’re safe now.”
He drew his sword again to cut the ropes that bound the hostages. Once they were free, he could interrogate the gunmen and find out if there were more of them in the city. At this point they were caught, and if they knew anything about him or his past interrogation techniques with the Khazaki, they would answer his questions without hesitation. In a short time, everything would be resolved and he could focus on getting things back in order. He was thankful that things had proceeded so smoothly and that nothing worse had happened. Still, it was that smoothness that bothered him.
This group had coordinated a series of attacks across the capital city of the country, crippling crucial economic centers and complicating police involvement in restoring order. It was a sizable task that would have taken months of planning, but in the end they were captured without much trouble. Granted they were up against a deity capable of manipulating the elements, but for such a thought out attack it would have been foolish not to take that into consideration. Something was not right.
Adam finished cutting the hostages loose and stood back up to turn his attention to the gunmen. He turned his back on the hostages and took a step forward just as the first volley of bullets burst through the walls of the room. Adam had no time to react as he felt a spray of bullets pierce through his body, contorting it as he screamed in pain. It was enough to bring him down and he hit the floor hard as his blood poured out of him in a steady flow. He cursed, realizing too late his mistake, and slipped into darkness.
It didn’t take long for Adam’s body to recover, a few minutes at most. His immortal body healed itself at a fast rate, but more extensive wounds took longer. While a single shot to the head could be remedied in thirty seconds, being battered by a hail of gunfire took longer for his body to eject the metal shards that were lodged inside of him and heal itself. He knew when he hit the floor that he would recover in a short time, but his last thoughts were of how helpless he would be for the others in the room.
Adam lifted himself up, his arms weak and shaking from the loss of blood that would take a bit more time to be replenished. He managed to get to his feet and looked around the room at the carnage. The bodies of the hostages lay sprawled out on the floor close to the pole where they had just been untied from. Had they stayed down, they might have fared better against the surprise attack. So too were the gunmen dead, unable to escape as they were trapped in the metal coils Adam had tied around them. They now hung limp in the traps while blood dripped and pooled onto the carpet below them. The walls on the far ends of the room were now almost nonexistent, having been blown to pieces as gunfire cut through them from behind. It was a scene from a war zone.
There was a faint groan behind Adam. He turned and saw the old woman who was among the hostages reaching up to him from the floor. She had been slow to rise and was shot only a few times. Though she still had serious injuries, there was a chance to help her. Adam crouched down to take her hand and try to get her on her feet to be taken out of the building. A high pitched scream cut through the room and from the corner of his eye he saw a massive white object fall through the ceiling tiles above. Before he could turn he was struck in the chest with enough force to throw him a few feet back and beat the breath out of his lungs.
He looked back up to see the hulking figure hunched over the old woman on the floor. It was some kind of machine like he had never seen before. It stood taller than a man and had a thin central frame like a human, but that was where its similarities ended. The machine stood on two long hind legs that bent backwards with an extended ankle like those of a bird and on each foot were long metal claws along with a sickle-like blade positioned above them. Its chest plate and hips were joined by a slim black coil, and the chest sprouted two thick arms that ended with more of the sharp claws. Atop the chest plate was another black coil ending in a birdlike head which featured a single red glowing eye. It was a curious sight to see, and aside from the deadly blades on its hands and feet it seemed like a bizarre statue.
The mechanical creature stared at the old woman with its entrancing red eye. She stared back, ignoring the pain of her injuries as the sight of the horrific machine above her chilled her soul. Before Adam got to his feet, the machine used its foot to flip the woman onto her back. She yelped and groaned as that same foot came down on her abdomen to pin her to the floor. A short scream was all she could muster before the sickle blade on the monster’s foot came down and impaled her heart.
Adam shouted as he lunged at the machine, drawing his sword midstride. The thing turned its eye to Adam and swung its arm around to deflect the sword as Adam brought it down. It spun on one foot and used the other to deliver a deft kick to Adam’s chest. Once more Adam was sent flying to the ground, rolling to a stop and gasping for breath. He coughed up a small amount of blood and felt the sting of the machine’s claws on his chest.
As his wounds closed up, Adam got back to his feet and thrust his hand out to control the metal beams in the floor. The carpet broke open again and the metal w
ithin the building’s frame came up to bind the mechanical monster as it had the gunmen. Adam found it was too late, as the menace had jumped up with impressive agility and reached the ceiling from whence it came in an effortless leap. He watched the thing land on the supports, staring back at him with the soulless empty stare of its glowing eye. In a flash it was gone, disappearing somewhere into the roof. Adam prepared to give chase, but the sounds of shouting and footsteps rushing up the stairs gave him pause.
He turned in time to see the police squad that had been left in reserve appear in the door frame with guns drawn and riot shields raised to protect themselves. They expected a shootout following the explosive gunfire that had filled the room minutes earlier. Instead they found the warzone that Adam had regained consciousness to and Adam himself as he stood alone in the room, the only apparent survivor. Stunned, the officers lowered their weapons and took in the scene. Adam didn’t blame them for their shocked looks. He knew exactly how everything seemed, and just maybe how things were meant to have been seen all along: the gunmen and hostages had all been killed and he was the only one left to be blamed.
Chapter 6
Taking Blame
In her guestroom, Dee sat and waited. The palace had been put under an emergency lockdown in the wake of the morning attacks, and while she had still not expected to be leaving with the Creator just yet anyway, the bombings would almost certainly influence the Creator’s decision to leave that day. His intentions, as he had outlined to Dee, were to take care of the last remaining problems surrounding the murder of The Baggins and then leave with Dee once things were stable enough for Adam. The bombings had created a wrinkle in that plan that was no good for any of them. While Dee was somewhat happy at the thought of getting to stay in the palace a little while longer, the greater implications were much worse for the whole. From the reports that were coming in to the palace, two major buildings had been bombed and the number of confirmed dead was over 60 and the number injured was in the hundreds after the first hour of work investigating the ruined scenes. Those numbers were certain to continue climbing as the afternoon rolled on.
Fallout (Tales of the Other Universe Book 2) Page 6
