by Jan Stryvant
"That reminds me, can anyone lend me a phone, I need to call Chad."
Peg passed hers to him; it took him a minute to remember Chad's number. He wasn't surprised when Chad answered on the second ring.
"Peg?"
"No, I lost another phone." Sean sighed.
"Ah, you know, the strangest thing happened last night."
"Oh? What?"
"The Vestis wiped out the Grads, and while they were off doing that, the Ascendants wiped out the Vestis."
Sean shook his head. "What?"
"Yup. Tonight we're going to pay the Ascendance a little visit and relieve them of their lycans."
"Damn. Oh, you can lay off the women and children, if you haven't decided to already and just weren't going to tell me."
"Good, saves me from having to lie to you."
"Any other problems up there? Or are you almost done?"
"We've got three Asian groups, or more correctly, one Chinese, one general Asian, and one Indian. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to deal with them yet. I'm thinking I'm going to pick off all the minor councils first while I get more intelligence on them."
"Talk to Sapientia and Eruditio, I'm sure they'll help."
"Sapientia already is. In fact, they're going to present my terms to the Ascendance later tonight."
"Really?"
"Yeah, John got a bunch of really gruesome footage of what they did to the Vestis. They didn't just kill the men, they killed everyone. If they don't hand our people over, I'm going to send it to the Vesti's national HQ."
"Whatever works, I guess." Sean sighed.
"Yeah, John's pretty upset about it, and after seeing some of the pictures, I can understand why. For all that I hate the Vestis, I'll happily send those pictures to them at the slightest provocation."
"That bad?"
"John still hasn't left his bed."
"You check on him?"
"Yeah, one of the wolf gals took a liking to him and has been trying to bed him for the last week, and last I peeked in on them, him and her are still pretty tightly wrapped around each other."
"Make sure she knows she has to ask before she bites."
"Oh, I'm sure she'll ask him."
"Not just him, me. Though in this case, I'll let you decide for me."
"Why's that?" Chad asked.
"Why's what?"
"Why does she need your permission?"
"Eh, one of the rules the lions set down centuries ago was 'no biting' the mundanes. It's a pretty serious crime, and you can end up dead for it."
"Well, now I know why Steven was so defensive when you asked him." Chad chuckled.
"We're on our way to Fresno now. Probably get there tonight."
"You got through Sacratomato and San Stinko already?"
"The folks in Sac had already quit the Grads. After what we did to them in the hills, the extermination order didn't sit well with them. SF was a slaughterhouse." Sean sighed. "I just hope ten years from now I don't have some kid telling me that 'I killed his father, prepare to die'."
"Inconceivable!"
"Dude, not funny. I'm just hoping the rest change their allegiance or something, so we can just say that they're gone and not have to do this too many more times. Call me when you figure out how to deal with the rest of that mess up there."
"Okay, later."
Sean hung up the phone and passed it back to Peg.
"Does this mean you're not going to punish the rest of them?" Peg asked.
"Ask me when we're leaving LA. Those that killed the lycans, they'll still have to pay. But hopefully after Fresno, there won't be any mass slaughters for a while."
Meetings, Bloody Meetings
"I'd like to thank everyone for attending," Duncan said over the voice server. Conference calls weren't as good as meeting face to face, but they could be called at the drop of a hat. Thanks to modern technology and the internet, they could be a lot more easily managed, as well as more secure, than what they'd used in the old days.
"Arthur, why don't you start for us?"
Arthur noticed on the screen that his name was highlighted.
"Sean left this morning for Sacramento. He gave the local Gradatim chapter until today to change alliances or be wiped out. Thankfully, they changed."
"He did?" Duncan asked. "Why?"
"He told me it was because their new leader is his brother-in-law, and he didn't want to upset his wife by killing her sister."
"And what's your take? You know him better than any of the rest of us."
"He's angry, but I'm not sure how much of this is being led by him. He said, and I quote, 'I may be the one in charge here, the one who leads, but I'm not the first of us.' The idea of killing the women and children didn't seem to sit very well with him."
"Well, I just got off the phone with Pierre in Paris, and he told me ten Gradatim compounds across northern and southern Europe were attacked last night. Everyone was killed, no one was spared. Some looked to be the work of lycans, but that's all we know; some of them may very well have been one of the other councils.
"All of their remaining councils have been bleeding members as they're forsaking the Gradatim and trying to get taken in by someone else. Pierre's ordered strikes on several of the smaller Gradatim councils, hoping that by taking them over and removing their leadership, the rank and file will survive."
"What happened in Sacramento and Fresno?" Arthur asked. "I haven't seen any messages yet."
"The Sacramento chapter of the Gradatim quit on Thursday," Walter Clark said. "I just got back from there, they had a wedding today. Their new council leader got married, and he was still a bit upset at Sean for showing up this morning. I gathered from some of the others that they had words, Gary stood his ground, and Sean honored his separation."
"Well that's good news at least."
"Duncan?" Bryce from San Francisco spoke up.
Duncan flagged him to speak. "Yes, Bryce?"
"I just got word about ten minutes ago, I sent someone over to check when you sent out the meeting notice. Sean hit the Gradatim here today, and he hit them hard. We're still trying to find out what happened, but word is a 'lion' came in with a 'huge army' and killed every man in the place, as well as some of the senior women. I'm guessing the body count there has to be well over a hundred."
"Duncan?"
Duncan looked down and noticed Sam Clark, who ran the Fresno council, wanted to speak.
"Yes, Sam?"
"The Vestibulum down here hit the Gradatim last night, same as up in Seattle. It was pretty messy, from the looks of things. We're in pretty tight with the local wolf pack; our lycan staff hooked up with them pretty quickly, so we're not in any danger. But," Sam sighed, "a lot of the Vestibulum lycans, well the ones that were left anyway, were sent south this morning."
"South?"
"I think they mean to take Los Angeles."
"Vincent?" Duncan asked the Los Angeles council head.
"I know. Sam called me an hour ago. I'm doing what I can, but we never really had a large security force down here. My guess is the Vestibulum is either going to settle scores with the Ascendance, or with us."
"Or both." Duncan sighed.
Duncan saw Arthur's request to speak. "Yes, Arthur?"
"I'll call Sean and ask for his help."
"Is that wise?"
"It's part of the agreement I negotiated with him back when all of this started. That if we were attacked by another council, using lycans, they'd help protect us."
"If we're seen siding with the lycans in Los Angeles, after what they did here," Vincent said, "we'll risk being seen as condoning it."
"Everyone already thinks we're behind this," Arthur said with a sigh.
Duncan heard several surprised exclamations over the channel at that, before everyone's self-discipline reasserted itself.
"Gradatim certainly did," Duncan said. "I've seen the reports on the rumors out there. The Ascendance knows we favor Mr. Valens, and the Vestibulum
think we're just riding his coattails back into power..."
There were a few snickers then.
"Which I don't think I'll bother denying. But I do think it's in our best interest to encourage the remaining Gradatim councils, wherever they may be in this country, to change their allegiance. Maybe we can cut down on the bloodshed.
"Now, let's go down the list, and the rest of you can tell me what's going on in your cities and towns."
Duncan listened as each of the council heads took their turn. The Gradatim had been hit in both Miami and Montreal, and the Vestibulum were the suspects in both of those attacks. Bad blood had existed between the two since the Gradatim had been started, probably because most of the people who'd founded the Gradatim had come from the Vestibulum after a major internal power struggle.
When the last council leader reported that so far everything in Boston had been quiet, Duncan picked up the reins again.
"Two more things. First, I talked to Perkins, the head of Eruditio in Vancouver. They're coming down off the fence to back Mr. Valens. He wouldn't say why, beyond that what happened with the Gradatim was a part of it. Second, I was called to the White House yesterday. The government is now quite aware of what Mr. Valens is up to, and while they don't appear to approve of his methods, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the United States government weigh in on this issue and dictate terms to the councils on the matter of lycan rights and slavery."
"Does that mean they're going to violate the York Treaty?" Bryce asked.
"Violate it? No, I don't think so. Reinterpret it? Definitely. Gentlemen, we need to realize we no longer have the upper hand, and thanks to the rather shortsighted leadership of the Vestibulum, we've very much put ourselves in a poor bargaining position. I will be making this case to the other national council heads Thursday when we meet to discuss the future."
"I can just imagine what Todd Adams over at the Vestibulum is going to say about that!" Arthur said with a snort.
"Facts are facts, and if I have to rub his nose in them, I will," Duncan replied. "When was the last time a council member was summoned to the White House?"
"I...you know, I don't think it's ever happened before."
"No, it hasn't. They always came to us. Not the other way around. So Arthur, call up Mr. Valens, enlist his help, and make damn sure he understands we will ally with him publicly if he asks for it.
"If push comes to shove, gentlemen, the last thing we want is for the lycans to side with the government against us. If we can't have them on our side, I'd at least like them to be unaligned in any future conflicts. One of the things I'm going to drive home to the other three major councils, as well as the minor ones, is that the lycans hate the Vestibulum, but they don't hate us at all. In fact, they seem to like us, considering we already have an agreement with them.
"Any questions?"
Duncan waited a moment, then smiled to himself. "Fine. Good day, Gentlemen, and don't hesitate to contact me if there are any further problems."
#
"What have you got for me?" Vincent Kensington asked Carl as they walked down the hallway to their meeting.
"Well, Adams questioned the cook and showed him the picture of Valens. Turns out he did see Valens leave the pub ten to fifteen minutes before the shooting started. Apparently he didn't want someone to see him."
"So he was trying to avoid a confrontation."
"Apparently," Carl said, agreeing with him. "We did find one camera that had a partial view of the Gradatim compound. The quality sucks, and it's only partially in the frame, but several large explosions were recorded, and then a couple of helicopters coming and going. That's all we got."
"Anything else?"
"The dead guy from Reno was definitely a lycan. One of the guys who got shot in the head was the Gradatim's second in command up there. The rest of the dead and wounded in the pub were mundanes."
"I'm going to threaten to seize all of the Gradatim's holdings in Oregon," Alistair piped up, "to cover the costs of the medical care for the wounded and survivors benefits for the dead."
"Don't threaten," Kensington said, "do it. I'll talk to Duncan later today and let him know we're going to penalize them for breaking the silence and killing all those mundanes. I've taken another look at the reports that came out of Reno back in March. We need to remind them that interfering with the lives of our citizens will carry penalties."
"Got it." Alistair nodded.
"Well, let's see what they want from us today." Kensington sighed and led them into the conference room, where they quickly took their seats. They were the last to arrive.
"I want to thank you all for coming today, Gentlemen. I know it's a Saturday and you'd all rather be with your families, but the President has become concerned with this whole 'Valens' situation." the Secretary of Homeland Security said, looking at the small group gathered in the room.
"How so, Ma'am?" Kensington asked. There were three other people in the room besides Carl and Alistair, who had come with him. Carl was now the government's leading expert on lycans. Alistair was the one in charge of tracking what the magic users were up to. They both worked for him, of course.
The other three were Peter Cohen, who was the head of the US Marshal's office, Tom Matthews from the NSA, whom Kensington knew had only been read in on all of this yesterday, and George Walker, the current head of the CIA.
"He's not comfortable with the idea of a twenty-one-year-old man who apparently has the ability to 'call in personal nuclear strikes' just freely wandering around. He likes it even less when that young man is apparently engaged in a very violent war," George said.
The Secretary sighed. "He wasn't that vehement, George, but he's definitely unhappy with the situation. I showed him your report, Vincent, on the fight up on Interstate 80, and Tom has pulled out several suspicious pictures and phone calls in the last twenty-four hours."
"Yes, Ma'am. So what does he want us to do?" Peter Cohen asked.
"That's what we're here to discuss today. As I see it, our options are:" the secretary started to count off on her fingers, "one, do nothing. Two, make contact with him. Three, bring him in for questioning. Four, arrest him for terrorism. Five, assassinate him."
"I'm not sure we have the legal powers necessary for an assassination," Kensington said a little uneasily.
"I'm sure we can get a FISA court to agree with us on this one," George said.
"I'd also like to say that I'm not comfortable with George being here," Kensington said. "The CIA's charter specifically prevents it from being involved in domestic affairs."
The Secretary shook her head. "George is here only in an advisory position, because he's one of the few people in D.C. with the knowledge and experience dealing with magic users, even if it is outside of the country. Also, as the magic users are considered a separate entity from the US, due to treaty, that prohibition doesn't exactly apply."
"But the lycans aren't covered under the treaty," Kensington pointed out. "They're citizens. Mr. Valens is registered to vote, has a social security number, pays taxes, and even has a selective service card. The President has even said he's seeking to separate them from the Treaty of York." Kensington turned to George. "I'm not trying to get in your face here, George, but if this ever comes up for closed-door hearings, let's not give anybody any more reasons to attack us than they'll already have."
George nodded, and the Secretary just sighed.
"About point number five," Carl spoke up, "that needs to come right off the table."
"And why's that, Mr. Mince?" the Secretary said a little frostily.
"Call me Carl, please," Carl smiled, ignoring the tone of her response. "As to why, well, assuming we even could kill Valens, it'll only piss him off. And while I don't think he'd nuke us, I do suspect there would be some uncomfortable lessons involved."
"Are you saying you don't think the United States government can kill a twenty-one-year-old man?" George spoke up.
Carl shook his head. "N
o Sir. I'm saying I don't think we can kill a werelion. I'm also saying that I don't think it would be advisable to try."
"Vincent?" The Secretary turned to look at Kensington.
"Ma'am, I don't know a damn thing about lions, Carl's our only expert. Even the mages don't seem to know all that much."
"George?" she asked, looking at him next. Kensington didn't miss that George appeared to be here in a lot more than just an 'advisory' position. George had better access to the President than he did, and he started to wonder just what dog George had in this fight.
George shook his head. "The only people I found who really seem to know anything about them were the dwarves, and when I asked them, they told me they consider lions to be honored and welcome guests in their halls. Everyone else just says they're myths."
"And why is that?"
"Because they're gods," Carl supplied.
"Really, Carl?" the Secretary asked, looking at him.
"The lycans believe it, the dwarves have a lot of respect for them, and most of the magic users who've been scoffing at it seem to be ending up dead." Carl shrugged. "They claim they created all the lycan races, and they claim that what one of them knows, all of them know. In less than three months, Mr. Valens has amassed a considerable fortune, engaged in magical practices that any mage will tell you are impossible, and put together an army of well over a thousand people. All in plain sight, yet no one saw it. We're even hearing rumors that he came back from the dead."
The Secretary sighed and shook her head. "Okay, option five is off the table. Alistair, what's going on in the magic user community?"
"In short, a realignment of power. For the last several hundred years, the group in power was the Vestibulum. They edged the Sapientia out around the time of the American Revolution. But in the last few months, Sapientia has been reclaiming their position."
"Is that due to Mr. Valens' revolt?"
Alistair nodded. "That appears to be the case. We have a few contacts within some of the councils, low-ranked members, so we can keep an ear on their gossip. Mr. Valens has been the subject of quite a few rumors now. I'm starting to suspect a lot more battles than we know about have taken place under their 'silence'."
