Portals of Infinity: Book Five: Demigods and Deities

by John Van Stry

  The next day we practiced doing team infiltrations. The way this worked was we'd form up in a line, each person with a hand on the back of the person in front of them. This way everyone knew were everyone else was, and would hopefully not shoot each other.

  We also practiced techniques for entering and clearing rooms.

  Suzona of course showed up wearing panties and a rather loose and sheer blouse, which showed off her assets rather nicely.

  "What?" She said looking around at the rest of us, "It is hot here, is it not? Why should I dress up?"

  We all looked at Nikki, and Nikki shrugged. "She has a point you know."

  Ten minutes later we were all in our underwear and T-shirts. It was hot, over a hundred in the shade and pretty damned humid as well.

  We spent all of that day, and most of the evening, practicing the techniques, Nikki was a pretty effective teacher, and she could be brutal when you messed up. So we learned rather quickly. The estate's staff avoided us almost scrupulously, except when they served us meals. I know Nikki had told them we had a 'job' up in Angola, so I suspected this was a clear case of 'you can't get in trouble for what you don't know.' I can't say that I blamed them either. I'm sure Cen was engaged in a lot of shady practices when he was here, and knowing too much was probably hazardous to one's health around him.

  The second day was a repeat of the first, except perhaps for the places Suzona was putting her hands on my body during drills. I got on her case about it a couple of times, but stopped as not only did it have no effect on her, but the others wouldn't stop laughing about it.

  "Okay, tomorrow we start practicing the assault," Nikki said. We were all lounging in the rather nice indoor swimming pool, cooling off and drinking more of Cen's beer.

  "Sounds good to me," I said and the others agreed.

  Nikki nodded, "Okay, let me go over the plan at a high level, then we can all go to bed and I'll hit the fine points in the morning."

  She did a basic walk through, we were going in as one six-man team, but would split into two three-man fire teams as we moved through the place. Once we recovered Cam, we'd signal the others, and move to our exit point, then move out and off of holy ground, so we could gate out of the sphere.

  Simple really.

  "Okay, I'm off to bed, night all!" Nikki said, and I watched a little amused as Gregory joined her. Joseph and Dezba had already paired up in the pool and so left together as well.

  Suzona smiled and came over to me as I leaned back against the side of the pool, standing in the shallow end.

  "Well, it looks like it is just you and me," Suzona said rather huskily.

  I smiled and looked her over, she was naked, we all were actually, and she was rather lovely to look upon, and that husky sultry voice of hers definitely had an effect, especially after a couple of beers.

  "But you don't even like me," I said smiling.

  "Oh that is not true, William. I think I like you quite a bit, and could even like you some more."

  "Yes, well, I don't like you," I grumbled and put my beer down.

  Suzona pouted, the expression was so perfect, I bet she had spent years perfecting it. "Oh, do not be so cruel. Yes, we did get off to a bad start; let me make it up to you."

  "You just want to jump my bones," I growled.

  Suzona smiled, not at all shyly, "I am doing you a favor, William, is it so much to ask for a little affection and fun in return?"

  I sighed and rolled my eyes, she had me there. "Fine, but I promise not to enjoy it."

  "Ooh, a challenge! I like challenges!" Suzona laughed.

  We got through three practice runs the next day when one of the servants came running out waving at us.

  "What, Marla?" Nikki asked as the woman came up panting.

  "There are men out front. They are from the police; they want to search the house. Botha is trying to stall them."

  Nikki swore. "Everyone, back to the house, grab your stuff, we're leaving."

  We all ran for the house, then up the back stairs.

  "Meet in the office, be quick!" I told them, and we all scrambled.

  I ran into the room I was sharing with Nikki, tossed the few things I had in the suitcase and closed it, while she did the same. I could hear people entering the house downstairs, and some rather loud arguing.

  When we got to the office, I closed and locked the door. The extra guns, magazines, and all of our ammo was here.

  "Grab all of it," I said and took an extra weapon and slung the strap around my neck. At least we'd attached all the silencers. I grabbed two of the ammo cans next, as did everyone else.

  "Joseph, open a portal to Circe's."

  He nodded and started to concentrate. Someone knocked on the door just as he got the gateway opened and everyone rushed through. I heard them trying the door, which was locked, but I went through next, followed by Nikki, then Joseph brought up the rear and the gate collapsed.

  "They see you?" I asked him.

  Joseph shook his head panting, then dropped his gear and turned into a rather large lion with a very black mane.

  "Damn, that was tough," He said panting.

  "Ooooh, lions this month is it?" Dezba said grinning.

  "What, you have a problem with lions?" Joseph said, turning his head to the side and looking over at her.

  Dezba just grinned and shook her head.

  I decided I didn't want to know, and looked around. We were in a room in the back of Circe's estate house; there was an altar here of course.

  "I think we should move outside, this is Circe's domain, and I really don't want to offend her," I said as I shifted into my own champion form.

  The rest nodded and we trooped outside after gathering up those things Joseph had dropped.

  "So now what?" Gregory asked.

  "I guess we go rescue my daughter," I said and looked around at the rest of them.

  Nikki nodded, "Might as well."

  Everyone else nodded and agreed.

  "Let me go talk to Circe," Joseph said. "I'll see if we can borrow a mule or a horse to carry the gear, and I'll see about dinner."

  "Sounds good." I said.

  # # # #

  We were in a gully, looking out at the building. It was sometime long after local midnight; Nikki said it was the best time for an assault, as people were at their most tired and unawares at this time of the night.

  We'd crawled up slowly, and taken our time once night had fallen, and now we were just taking a last look-see before we approached.

  "Remember, leave nothing behind," Nikki was telling everyone. "Stick the empty magazines back in your bag, don't leave any weapons behind, and if anyone dies, their body comes with us."

  A couple of us grumbled, but we'd gone over this already. Aryanna had made it clear, that nothing was to be left behind if we could avoid it. I think she would have even preferred brass catchers on the guns, but we didn't have any of those.

  Sireen's forces were busy attacking the city to the west, where Trespon's main temple was. The main attack wasn't supposed to start for another day yet, and as far as anyone from Trespon's side knew, this place was still secret. So they were counting more on obscurity than actual security.

  "Let's go," I said and we crawled up out of the gully as one, and started to move across the grass to the entryway we'd picked out. We were all in our champion forms, except for Joseph, whose champion form was currently that of a rather large lion. We were all garbed head to toe in black to make us harder to see, everyone was even wearing gloves and stocking caps. Nikki had hoped to get us some body armor, before we left Cenewyg's estate, but our sudden departure had foiled that idea.

  We crossed onto holy ground about twenty feet from our objective, whoever was here, they knew that we were here now, and it was definitely 'game on' from this point.

  I held my hand up, and we all formed up into our line, then Gregory kicked the door in and we shuffle-walked inside, as he joined the end of the line and we moved down the hallway.r />
  Alarms were raised as we moved, people were calling out "intruders!" and "attackers!" and somewhere, someone, was hitting a large gong. We didn't care, we moved down the hall like a caterpillar with machine guns. Every time someone popped out of a door, a short burst from my submachine gun dropped them, the silenced weapons making a soft noise that sounded more like somebody farting than the 'burping' noise I'd always heard it described as. We maintained our fire discipline, and we kept moving, never stopping.

  When we got to the first staircase, my team went up, and the other team continued on to the next one. There were probably twenty dead bodies on the floor downstairs, they may be priests, but a head shot from an MP5 did so much damage, that there was no healing any of them. They were dead before they even hit the floor.

  As we moved down the upstairs hallway, we had to clear each of the rooms, from here on, we did not know where we would find Cam, just that she was in this area someplace. The other team's job was to take care of any reinforcements, and come up the other stairway to this floor, helping us to secure it, once they got up here.

  It was a long hallway, and we were about halfway down it, when it sounded like the other team had started up the other staircase.

  "Clear!" Suzona said as we checked another room. This one had only one occupant in it, now dead of course. We weren't leaving anyone around to flank us.

  "Stop!" A man commanded and came out of one of the rooms. He was holding Cam, and he had a knife to her throat. "Another step and I will slay the child!"

  Suzona shot someone peeking out of a door way then, her MP5 making the quiet 'pfffft' sound as the gun clicked in her hands.

  "And stop using those vile weapons!" He called.

  I held my hand up to Suzona and Joseph, who lowered their weapons.

  "Good, now drop them!" He commanded.

  I raised both my hands; the MP5 fell and hung by the strap around my neck.

  "I said drop them, to the floor," he warned.

  "They're on straps, so we'll have to pull them over our heads," I growled at him.

  "Then do so, but carefully."

  I nodded and the three of us pulled them over our heads and slowly laid them on the ground, then stood back up.

  "You will all pay for this, and the Goddess Sireen will pay most harshly!" He said smiling. "Now, step back."

  "The Goddess has nothing to do with this," I told him as we slowly backed up. "I just want my daughter back. You stole her from me. So why don't you just give her back? Now, while you still have the chance?"

  "Trespon has great plans for this child, and he will...."

  He never finished the sentence as his head exploded. Nikki had popped out from the stairwell and put a well-placed shot in the back of his head, not unlike someone here had once done to me.

  I dove forward, using all of my speed and strength to catch Cam as the priest started to tumble to the floor face first. Then just wrapped my body around her and covered her there on the floor as a brief, but intense, firefight was waged in the hallway. As firefights went however, it was rather one sided.

  I looked around, my gun was where I had set it, but the others were armed and clearing out the last of the rooms. Cam was crying at this point, so I shifted out of my champion form and sitting cross-legged on the floor, I did my best to calm her. When she started to root, I bared a nipple.

  Dezba came out and smiled at me, "You make a great mom, you know that?"

  "Hush," I growled at her. "Unfortunately, with all the shifting, I'm dry."

  "Oh, there's a cantrip for that," She said and quickly taught it to me.

  "I forgot that you've had children," I told softly her, as Cam stopped fussing.

  "What's it like?" Suzona asked coming over to me and handing me the MP5 I'd dropped, which I slung over my back.

  "You've never had any children?" I said and looked at her.

  Suzona blushed and shook her head.

  "Try it, you just might like it," Dezba said smiling.

  "Yeah, but you're a woman, what about you?" She said looking at me.

  I smiled and looked down at Cam, "It was worth it." I said.

  "We need to get going," Nikki said coming up to us. "I think somebody is pretty pissed right now."

  We all nodded, we could feel it. Trespon was in a rage, we had just killed quite a large number of his priests after all.

  Dezba helped me to my feet. "You know what I'd like right now?" She said smiling.

  "I don't know, what?" Joseph replied smiling as well.

  "A fire, a nice big, warm, happy, fire."

  "Why, Dez, I think that's a wonderful idea," Joseph grinned, "and why lookie here! There are all sorts of wonderful things here to make one with!"

  I turned to Nikki, "We better get out of here before the wonder twins let loose."

  Nikki laughed, as did Suzona and Gregory. "Yes, lets."

  The four of us quickly made our way back to the gully, and then started up it, back to where our camp was located. The portal we'd come in from was a half day's further travel, Lionesnesc as best as I could tell, was a two week walk to the southeast of here.

  "I need to take a nap," I told them.

  Nikki nodded.

  "I'll keep watch," Suzona said, sitting besides me. I'd noticed she'd been watching me rather closely since we left.

  "What?" I said softly looking at her.

  "You know, you really are pretty cute like that," she whispered and I blushed.

  "I didn't think you liked women."

  "It makes me wonder what I'd look like as a man...," she said thoughtfully.

  "Well, we're not going anywhere for a few hours, and the mission's all but over. So why don't you find out?"

  She changed, and I sighed shaking my head, she looked like a Viking god.

  "What?" she said looking at me, surprised with her eyes wide open.

  "You still look hot. It figures," I laid down. "Wake me if anything important happens."

  "Don't worry, I will protect you," she said in a voice that was even deeper and sexier than before.

  Some people had all the luck.

  # # # #

  "Fel?" I asked. It was just me and him, in his bar.

  "Yes, she can travel."

  I nodded and sighed, "Thank you. I don't want to bring her here; I don't think Rachel would understand."

  "No, she probably wouldn't," Fel agreed. "Plus if the other gods discovered her here, there would probably be a war."

  "I don't think I want to take her through to Circe's either."

  "No, Circe would be forced to kill her."

  "What?!" I said shocked.

  "Remember how the rules are different in Circe's sphere?"

  I nodded mutely.

  "Because gods can fully manifest, bringing Cam there would cause major issues with the power structure, because of what she is. Circe would have no choice."

  "Well, I can't take her back to Earth," I said.

  "Obviously."

  "I'd like to take her to Darlene, but you said to avoid the other gods,"

  Fel nodded, "I did. Do not take her into any temples and do not let any priests touch her. If your wife Darlene understands that, and agrees to it, then there should be no problems."

  I nodded slowly, "But won't Aryanna want to see her?"

  "Aryanna wants the child to go to Stephanie when the time is right. She is willing to tolerate the child in her realm, as long as the child is not brought to her attention, or the attention of anyone else."

  "What about my sister?" I asked suspiciously.

  "She's related to you, as long as you make everything I told you clear, she will be okay, but only because Cam is her niece and she's related."

  I nodded, "There's a lot going on here I obviously don't understand."

  "Yes," Fel nodded.

  "Are there any other warnings that I need to know about? That you can tell me?"

  "Yes there are, but I can't tell you, William."

  I looked at
him and wanted to ask "why not."

  "Because I don't know what they are," Fel said to me, and there was nothing I could say to that.

  # # # #

  "So now what?" Nikki said when I woke up. Dezba and Joseph were both back with us; Joseph was back in his champion form, which looked even bigger now that I was a woman again. Off on the horizon I could see that there was a rather bright glow from where the monastery was now undoubtedly burning down.

  "I'm going to take her to Darlene," I said.

  "Who is Darlene?" Suzona asked in that very deep male voice.

  "A friend, a normal friend," I said.

  "Well, let me open up a gate back home, and we can go there."

  I started to nod, and then stopped. "We can't do that."

  "What? Why not?" Nikki demanded.

  "Aryanna doesn't want her in any of her temples."

  "It would only be for a minute," Nikki protested.

  "No."

  "Oh come on! How else are we going to get her there? Hell, you can even run out the back door, I'll have Dezba go and clear the way for you."

  "I said no." I said looking at Nikki and for once wishing she'd shut up.

  "Will! Come on! You know...."

  "Sergeant!" I barked, "You are out of line, sit down and SHUT UP!"

  Nikki's eyes went wide, and she stopped in mid sentence, and then stared at me, looking rather angry as she slowly sat down.

  The others all stared at me for a moment as well, not saying anything.

  "We can use the portals, but we can not set foot on holy ground. That's the rule, and before any of you ask, no I don't know why."

  "How about taking the portal through to Circe's?" Dezba asked.

  "No, Circe doesn't want the child there at all," Joseph said, saving me from that one.

  "Well, we can't go back the long way," Dezba said, "That's months of travel."

  "And a lot of obstacles, yes, I know." I sighed.

  "Let's head towards Lionesnesc," Nikki said looking at me angrily. "We need to get away from here, and the sooner we do, the better. Their will be troops looking for us by morning."