by Jan Stryvant
"You know this is going to cause problems, don't you?" Roberta asked.
Sean sighed and nodded. "Yeah, but we're all agreed. It's time to send a message. A very loud and very violent message. They pushed too far, and now we're going to smack them down, hard, before they try to kill any more of us or give anyone else any ideas. That reminds me," Sean looked to the back of the plane, "Jo?"
"Yeah?"
"Go see Sawyer and tell him to pull all his assets out of Gradatim households."
"I'll go with her," Cali said with a smile, "Sawyer will listen to me if I advise him to do it."
"You sure you're okay, Cali?" Sean asked, concerned.
Cali smiled. "Yes, Husband. I'm fine. Your magic fixed everything."
Sean nodded and smiled.
"So by we, you mean the other lions?" Roxy asked, steering Sean back to the previous conversation.
Sean nodded. "Yeah, I suggested it, and they all liked the idea, a lot. I don't think anyone really understands how strong our connection is with our 'children'. Or just how much they mean to us. Hell, up until an hour ago, I didn't understand it. Killing so many of them," Sean shook his head and looked down at the floor, "we just can't allow that. We just can't."
The girls nodded and then sat there quietly as Sean pondered the ramifications of what he was about to do. The magic user community would all be in an uproar, that was for sure. No one had ever wiped out an entire council headquarters without warning before. Well, not in the blink of an eye, at least.
While Sean was cheating with his use of the recall stone, he could have just as easily had the device dropped out of an airplane or such. It really wouldn't be all that big, and it definitely would not look like a bomb.
Then there was the government. He was about to unleash a hell of a surprise on them, as well. Sean didn't doubt for a moment that the government would become involved, they'd simply have no choice. Thankfully, because he was using a recall stone, they at least wouldn't have any proof he'd done it. The last thing he wanted to do right now was end up in jail trying to explain how he'd vaporized all of Gradatim.
After they landed, it only took about an hour for Daelyn to build the two devices. Sean glued the beta stone to the bottom of one of them, just below the small container that would hold the blood. Then he got two silver tags from the machine that was now turning them out, and after turning off the encryption, he undid all the fail-safes and set his father's program to change everything it encountered as quickly as possible, though he limited the growth of the shield to ten inches. If his guess was correct, it would take about a tenth of a second for it to go critical.
He then glued the tags to the bottom of the tube that would hold the silver bar, just to be safe.
"So how does this work?" he asked her.
"You press the button on this remote," Daelyn handed him what looked like a car remote with the letter 'A' written on it in paint. "That starts a thirty-second timer. Then this valve opens, the blood hits the rock, and a ten-second timer starts."
"Is there any chance of the bar not falling onto the tag?"
Daelyn shook her head. "It's spring-loaded. I even put a safety on it that pops off when the valve opens, because I didn't want to take any chances on it going off when I load it."
"What I load it, you mean."
Sean blinked as his head rocked to the side; Daelyn had smacked him.
"When I load it, Lion-boy. This isn't something just anyone can mess around with. It has to be done just right if it's going to work, and that means I'm loading it. Besides," Daelyn grinned, "I want to see the test one blow up."
Sean rubbed the side of his head and nodded. He'd already learned that arguing with either Roxy or Daelyn when they were being militant was a lost cause. Especially since they always ganged up on him.
"Okay, get one of the helicopters, I want to fly north a ways to where no one will see this." Sean looked around. "Who's coming?"
Cali, Roxy, Jolene, Daelyn, Peg, and even Roberta immediately raised their hands.
The trip out to their 'test site' was a poignant one for Sean. He was about to change the rules of the game; the aftereffects of this would be felt for a long time to come, he was sure. But he didn't have a choice. Jolene and Cali had told him when they'd come back from Sawyer's that several of his contacts had heard the Gradatim conference call, and that they were calling for a new 'Night of the Silver Death'. Only this time, they weren't planning on stopping until every last lycan was dead. They wanted a war of extermination.
Well, if that was the game they wanted to play, then Sean and the lions could play it, too. Gradatim members around the world were going to be assassinated if they set foot out of their compounds. Artillery was being stolen or redirected. Twenty-four hours after this bomb went off, a lot more people were going to die. Sean would deliver their message for them: the Gradatim was about to be eliminated.
"That looks like a good spot!" Daelyn said to the pilot, who nodded and brought them in for a landing between two hills.
Daelyn got out, and Sean followed her. They both trotted over to a spot a hundred yards away from the helicopter so it wouldn't bother them with its idling rotor.
"This is pretty simple, really," Daelyn said. "I just fastened those bars you gave me to this device in the cap. I drilled a thin hole through them so I can hold them in place with a retaining pin." Sean watched as she put the bar in place, slipped a pin through the device to hold them there, checked the safety in the tube, then screwed the top down.
After that, she pressed a test button on the base of the unit, pulled the safety lock out of the tube, and looked at him.
"Let's go. There's a sixty-second timer that's now counting down. If the button is pressed before it runs out, nothing happens."
Sean nodded and, getting up, he grabbed Daelyn, who squawked as he threw her over his shoulder and ran as fast as he could to the helicopter.
"What the hell was that for!" Daelyn sputtered as he jumped inside and set her down.
"Pregnant wives near atomic weapons have that effect on me." Sean grinned as the helicopter took off.
"How far should I get away from this thing, Sean?" George, the pilot, asked.
"A mile."
"Does the remote have that kind of range?" Roxy asked Daelyn, who nodded.
Sean waited until the pilot had moved them away, then turned the helicopter to face back towards where they left the bomb.
"Okay, let's see what happens," Sean said and pushed the button.
"Nothing happened!" Cali said with a pout.
"It takes forty seconds," Daelyn whispered.
Roxy had been looking at her watch when Sean pressed the button and counted down the last few seconds.
"Five, four, three, two, one..."
There was a bright flash and a large fireball off in the distance.
"Damn, look at that shockwave!" the pilot said.
"Are we okay?"
"At this distance? Yeah, won't even feel a breeze."
"Okay, so we know it works," Roxy said. "Now what?"
"Now we land and put the big one together," Sean said. "And we move a lot farther away this time, in case something goes wrong."
Atticus was sitting at his desk writing up a report. Everyone was busy going over their jobs and whatever tasks they'd been doing, trying to figure out what was going to be impacted by the sudden loss of labor. Atticus' biggest problem was that they'd just killed off their entire security force.
He didn't mind the loss of the strike teams; they hadn't used them in almost a year, and even then it had been mostly minor stuff. Seeing as they couldn't use them against this Valens kid, they wouldn't be missed in the slightest.
But compound security, that was a different issue. While it was always overseen by a couple of magic users, now it would have to be done solely by his people. Atticus was already going over lists of the younger magic users, many of whom he had always thought could use a little more discipline and training in their
lives. Honestly, this could actually turn out for the best, especially once they had to send out the hunter teams to start killing the lycans now living in and around the city.
Suddenly there was a loud clang in the room as something landed on the floor.
Atticus looked up. Sitting on the floor next to his display case was a strange mechanical device. Jumping to his feet, he cast a shield spell and looked at it. It was lying on its side, a small pool of blood was forming on the carpet next to it, and it reminded him of an overgrown pen and pencil set for your desk, only it was made out of hastily welded together metal. A strange buzzing noise was coming from it. He was asking himself how it had gotten here when he spied the beta stone glued to it.
The beta stone that had been missing for weeks now.
He heard a loud metallic click just at that moment.
"Oh, shi—"
Atticus never finished the thought.
Vincent was sitting at a table across from Duncan; they were at a small bistro about halfway between Vincent's office and Duncan's house. Short of taking a helicopter, an option Vincent had actually considered, this was the best option if they wanted to meet as quickly as possible without drawing any undue attention.
"Duncan," Vincent said, after they'd made their orders and sat down, "I hate to be rude, but what the hell happened in Portland?"
Duncan shook his head. "I only found out about it this morning. After you called to suggest this meeting, I called Arthur Troy out in Reno."
"Who?" Vincent interrupted.
"Arthur Troy. He's the council leader in Reno; his niece is one of Sean Valens' wives. He's actually on very good terms with the young man and has dealt with him a number of times now."
"You couldn't tell me this earlier?"
Duncan shook his head. "No, it's none of the government's business." Duncan sighed then. "Or at least it wasn't. Anyway, as I was saying, after you called I called him because I had a suspicion that anything so important as to require an 'immediate' meeting most probably involved Mr. Valens."
"And what did he tell you?"
"That Gradatim launched an attack on a pub where Sean's wives had been eating lunch and took one of them hostage. Sean was extremely angry and said he was going to be launching an immediate attack on Gradatim. Thankfully he at least waited until our people were there, but Leonard, our council leader in Portland, told me it was rather nasty when I talked to him next. Mr. Valens personally killed the man responsible by ripping his arm off and beating him to death with it. There was also something of an explosion. Apparently Mr. Valens is employing helicopters and some form of guided bombs."
"He's what?" Vincent said, his eyes widening.
"Using modern weapons. You have to understand, Vincent, that Mr. Valens is a complete enigma to us. He's a very powerful magic user and has obvious pioneered methods of enchanting that, if three of my council leaders hadn't seen actual physical proof of, none of us would have believed possible.
"And then of course, there is this whole 'lion' business that has all our scholars scrambling through our archives and lore to learn more about."
Vincent's phone vibrated in his pocket. He'd told his secretary to hold all calls short of the President.
"One moment," Vincent said and, pulling out his phone, he put it to his ear.
"This better be important."
"Someone just set a nuke off outside Los Angeles," Carl's voice came over the phone.
"WHAT!" Vincent shouted.
"A small one. The President wants to see us. Now. Bring your friend."
"Why?"
"Because it went off exactly where the headquarters for the Gradatim used to be. Now there's nothing more than a smoking hole and a large blast radius. We're sending a helicopter to pick you up. I'll brief you on the way to the White House."
"What happened?" Duncan asked.
"Someone set off a nuke," Vincent said, "outside of Los Angeles. We've both been summoned by the President.
"Why would he want to see me?"
"Because it went off where the Gradatim used to be."
"Used to be?"
"I think our Mr. Valens may have just upped his game."
"I need to make some calls!"
"You can do it on the helicopter."
Vincent noticed that Duncan looked torn for a moment, but then he nodded. "You're right, I must go with you. This, this is not something any of us foresaw."
"You did What?" Arthur yelled in shock, staring at Sean, who was sitting across from him in his hybrid form, looking totally nonplussed.
"Wiped out Gradatim's headquarters. Nuked it. It's gone."
"How could you! What about the silence! What about..."
"Arthur," Sean growled, bringing him up short. "They murdered over a thousand lycans. We learned they were planning on another 'Night of the Silver Death' from our sources. All of Gradatim is going to be exterminated, all of them. This isn't up for discussion; it's been decided."
"But what about the silence!"
Sean shrugged. "What about it? No one seems too concerned over Gradatim blowing up a pub and killing a bunch of mundanes in the middle of Portland, for god's sake! Right now I have an army sitting outside Seattle. I'm about to take a second one into Sacramento and remove the Gradatim from there before pushing down to LA, so we can make sure to kill any who might have survived the blast. Apparently too many people have been mistaking our restraint for weakness. I suggest you tell them otherwise."
"Does this mean you're going to kill the local Gradatim chapter as well?" Arthur asked.
Sean sighed. "I'm going to offer them a day to change sides. They didn't have any lycans to kill, and one of my wives' sisters is married to their new head." Sean thought a moment. "If you're really that worried, I would suggest you deal with the Gradatim before we get there. Though you have to understand, anyone who murdered a lycan will still be put to death."
"I don't like this, Sean," Arthur warned.
"You think I do?" Sean said, glaring back at Arthur. "You think I want to spend the next few weeks killing people? Killing their families? Their wives? Their children? Fuck no, I don't want to do this at all."
"Then don't!"
"I Don't Have A Choice!" Sean said, almost biting off each of the words. "They forced my hand, and now I have my orders. I may be the one in charge here, the one who leads, Arthur, but I'm not the first of us! I can guarantee you, over the next few days, Gradatim councils are going to be slaughtered all over the world. And as much as it may pain me to say it, I'm alright with it! They want an extermination? Well, they got what they were asking for!"
Arthur didn't miss Sean's admission that even he answered to someone else. They'd all suspected it, and now Sean had laid it out in the open. He also didn't miss that Sean really wasn't looking forward to the carnage he was about to unleash in Washington and California, and then probably the rest of the country after that.
"Thank you for the warning, Sean. I need to make some phone calls, and I need to talk to the other Sapientia council heads, as well as our main leadership."
"Please inform Eruditio as well." Sean sighed, getting up, and Jolene, Cali, and Roxy got up as well.
"Of course." Arthur nodded and, standing up, he shook hands with Sean, who then turned and walked out the door, followed by his three wives.
"Wow, Boss," Dean said, looking at the closed door, "I guess you were right about not wanting to admit to backing him officially. This isn't going to be good."
Arthur shook his head and sighed. "No, no it's not. He vaporized a building! Killed hundreds, wounded hundreds more! Thank the gods Gradatim's headquarters were outside the city and on a private estate! I don't want to think about what the fallout would have been if this had been within the city limits, and that doesn't even begin to address what the other councils are going to say!"
Dean shrugged. "Good riddance to bad rubbish?"
"Oh, I don't think anyone is going to mourn the Gradatim; I'm sure you caught his subtle s
uggestion that we should get rid of them before he shows up. Once word of this gets out, I wouldn't be surprised if some of their chapters beg us to take their people in. But I'm talking about that explosion! That young man just vaporized a city block, over six hundred miles from here, and no one saw it coming. Hell, no one knows how he did it, either! If I'd thought for a moment that killing him would have gotten rid of that knowledge, we'd all be dead now, Dean."
Dean thought about that a moment and then nodded slowly. "I get it boss. But like he's said before, what one lion knows..."
"They all know," Arthur finished with a sigh. "And apparently they know a lot more about magic than we ever realized."
"Makes you wonder about that whole 'god' thing the other lycans are always telling us, doesn't it?"
"Boss," James said, coming into the room," Duncan's on the phone for you."
Arthur nodded and walked over to his desk. "I can just guess what he wants to talk about."
Sean walked up to the front porch of the Gradatim's main council house. He had a squad of wolves behind him with no obvious weapons showing. It was broad daylight, so he figured no one would try anything.
"Stop right there," a nervous-looking young man standing outside by the door said.
Sean stopped. "Please ask Richard Sorother to come down here. I wish to speak to him for a minute."
"And why would I do that?" the young man said a little angrily.
"Because if I have to go in there, it will mean killing you first, won't it?" Sean said with a sad look and a heavy sigh. "Look, you know I have the people and the power to kill you all. I'm not here today to look for a fight. I simply wish to talk for a minute. Then I will leave."
Sean watched as the young man turned to talk to the other young man on the porch, told him to wait, then ran inside the building. Five minutes later he came back out with Richard in tow.
"What do you want? You're not welcome here!" Richard said.
"I know your leaders ordered all the lycans killed, and I know that those of you who still had them did so. I also know they were planning a sequel to the 'Night of the Silver Death'," Sean said, looking at Richard, who flinched.
