Alpha Class - Discovery: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Etheric Academy Book 3)

by N. D. Roberts

  He clapped Craig on the back and moved on to Ron and Aleksi. He found himself enjoying the role of coordinating the group. He’d had no interest in leading day-to-day, but he felt more than alive in the heat of the battle—he felt awake. This was where he belonged. “What is the app telling you?” he asked Ron and Aleksi, sliding down the wall to sit between them.

  “Here, jump in, but don’t touch anything.” Ron spoke without looking up and kept typing. Maxim took his tablet out to receive the update. “The satellite is showing multiple bands of enemy troops moving in,” Ron told him, “as well as activity from the tanks, but the Pod will take care of them. We can defend this side of the castle, and the Black Eagles will cover the others.”

  Aleksi chipped in, “We should make it difficult for them. See how the bridge has dammed the river?”

  “Uh huh,” Maxim said, zooming in on the screen to see where the buildup of churning water was threatening to flood the embankment. “I see. You want to blow the embankment and flood the open area between us and the enemy.”

  Aleksi nodded. “The mini-missiles should do it.”

  Maxim jumped up and went to Mischa and Halli. “Did you get all that?”

  “Hells yeah!” Halli whooped, turning her missile launcher toward the embankment.

  “We got it,” Mischa declared.

  They heard Jean calling from below. “Everything okay up there?”

  “Yes!” Maxim replied, peering over. “But you have incoming from the other side of the inlet. We will do our best to slow them down for you.”

  Jean grinned, her teeth shining in the dark. “You’re doing a great job, kids. I'm giving you all an A for this class. Pizza for everyone when we get home!”

  They whooped and hollered, and Jean laughed and join in with the eight teenagers dancing around on a castle in the middle of a war.

  United Kingdom, North Wales, Conwy Castle Courtyard

  Jean applied her size sevens and all her enhanced strength to the gates, firing through the solid oak even as it buckled and slammed open under her determined boot.

  Jean looked at the carnage all around her as the gates wobbled to a standstill. She had taken enough of them out with her first volley of shots to make the rest take notice. She let the ones trying to leave get away.

  The others she finished as quickly as possible, aware that the kids were watching from the parapet above. She heard them talking between the reports of her pistols, and grinned at the awe in their voices.

  The carnage continued as she danced her way through the British soldiers, killing them at a speed they struggled to comprehend. Those who saw her flaked out, shaken to the core by the all-out destruction she caused with a cold smile on her face.

  She punctuated her shots with a blistering tirade. “Come to MY Gott Verdammt castle, and attack MY Gott Verdammt people?” she screamed as they fell. “My FAMILY? Payback’s a bitch, you scurvy-ridden pie lovers—and so am I!”

  Jean was lost in the flow of combat, guided only by muscle memory and raw instinct as the enemy died all around her. A few kept their wits long enough to shoot at her, but she was gone before their rounds left the chamber.

  Through the sound of her final shot echoing from the walls behind her, she heard Maxim shout for Craig and Mischa to man the guns. She did a one-eighty, following the streams of projectiles that whizzed over her head toward the rail bridge the Heritage people had given her so much crap about preserving during the planning of this facility.

  She clocked the soldiers moving toward her from under the bridge. The kids hadn’t done enough damage. She brought her pistols up again and fired six times, taking out the supports completely to ensure that not even one of the approaching enemy soldiers would make it out alive.

  The bridge collapsed with a soft boom, and she smiled to herself. She’d hated that bridge anyway.

  She satisfied herself that the kids were okay after a quick check. If anything, they were running that defense system like pros. She was damn proud of them all for thriving under the pressure. She knew without a doubt that they were going to do great things when they grew up. Or really stupid ones, she amended. She still wasn’t sure about Craig yet.

  Guardians James and Donal had taken the Black Eagles to defend the north and west side, where the castle was abutted by the town in which the facility’s employees lived with their families. “Everything okay over there?” she asked, sending to the Black Eagles’ comm.

  “Nothing on this side, Jean,” James reported.

  Donal had similar news. “No movement from the tanks, ma’am.”

  Jean grimaced. “They think this is the weak side, the idiots.” She looked up at the battlements, calling to the kids again just as a pair of the mini-missiles launched with a shrieking hiss.

  “Whoo!”

  She heard them celebrating. “What did you hit?” she yelled.

  Tina poked her head over and shouted down, “The embankment on the inlet. It’s created a flood plain between the enemy and the castle, but it won’t hold them for long.”

  It didn’t hold them at all.

  Scores of soldiers came pouring out of the woodland and splashed toward her location, front lines already firing wildly. She was extremely glad for her helmet when a stray round ricocheted off the side of it. The kids let rip with the guns again, the projectiles and random mini-missiles barely making the battle-hardened soldiers pause for thought.

  Still they came on, and more came out of the water behind them. She heard a sharp whine, the prelude to a massive explosion in the middle of the soldiers, as Aleksi and Ron activated the laser cannon and razed the ground beneath them.

  Dirt rained down, peppered with helmets, rifles, and other—wetter—things.

  Jean yelled and raised her guns once more, throwing herself into her work with gusto.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  United Kingdom, North Wales, Passenger Pod Over River Conwy

  John glanced back at Hugh and the children, who had fallen asleep in their father’s arms. “You okay?”

  Hugh nodded. “I’m fine.” His haggard expression and the dark circles under his eyes contradicted his words, though. “I just want to get to Laura. I want it to be over, that’s all.”

  John admired the man’s strength. “It’ll be over soon,” he told him. “We’ll take you all up to the Meredith Reynolds. You’ll be safe there.”

  The EI cut in as the Pod turned at the mouth of the river, “John, there is a situation at the castle.”

  He turned back to the console. “Hold our position and bring it up on the viewscreen.”

  Hugh slid his arms out from under Leo and Lexi and joined John at the console as the Pod halted in midair.

  John sucked in a breath when the image appeared. The ground around the castle was lit up with gunfire and small explosions. The bridge lay in the river. He was about to call Jean when the laser beam struck the ground on the southeast side of the castle, scattering soldiers in its wake. “Way to go, kids!” he cheered.

  “Kids?” Hugh asked

  John’s chest swelled with pride. “Yeah, my cousin’s kid and her classmates. They’re the ones firing that freaking cool laser. I wondered what they were building when I called this afternoon.”

  Hugh was astonished into silence.

  The bright beam threw the battle below into sharp relief. John made out the kids on the parapet wall firing on the scores of soldiers approaching the castle. “Where’s Jean?”

  “Allow me,” the EI said, zooming in on the outside of the castle below the east barbican where John’s love slew the enemy in droves.

  “That’s my Jean,” he said fondly.

  Hugh looked askance at him, lamenting, “What kind of people did my wife get us involved with? Do you all love killing this much?”

  John rounded on him. “Who said anything about enjoying killing? What you are seeing is professional pride in a job well done. Every single one of those soldiers is heading for the place with your wife inside
, and Jean is standing between her and every single one of them. A bit of gratitude would be nice.” He maneuvered the Pod to hover over the spot where Jean was fighting for the lives of the people evacuating the castle.

  Hugh spoke apologetically. “I’m sorry, but this is difficult. Nothing like this ever happened around here before TQB arrived.”

  John tapped a few commands into the console, then locked it and walked to the side door. “I’ve programmed the Pod to take you three straight to the Meredith Reynolds. Don’t touch anything. You’ll be there shortly, and someone will meet you.”

  Hugh was taken aback. “What about you?”

  John opened the side hatch and put his war face on. “I’ll be down there,” he said, and jumped out of the Pod, enjoying the shocked expression on Hugh’s face as the hatch closed behind him. He touched his comm as he dropped to the ground and opened a channel to Jean. “I’m inbound, babe. Start the evacuation. The Llewellyns are safe.”

  “About time!” Jean replied. “I’m getting bored down here. They just keep throwing themselves in front of me to die.”

  He hit the ground with his JD Specials at the ready, bending at the knees to minimize the jarring shock to his spine.

  His ears were filled with the resounding thunder of the guns and the whine of the laser cannon, and his vision was filled with Jean in her glory backlit by falling trails of burning debris as Bethany Anne’s prototype Pod pucked the continuous artillery fire from the tanks out of the sky.

  “Nice superhero landing,” she shouted to him over the din. “Glad you could make it. I thought you’d lost your invitation.”

  He straightened and shot a soldier coming up the bank as he ran toward her. He held out a hand and bowed as he shot another soldier who had gotten too close. “I wouldn’t want to miss out on a shindig like this,” he replied. “Wanna dance, babe?”

  She shot three soldiers in quick succession. “How can I refuse an offer like that?” she deadpanned.

  “We have the best date nights.” He grinned at her.

  They stood back-to-back, turning a deadly circle. The soldiers who mobbed the low slope between the barbican wall and the riverbank died as fast as they came, and eventually they stopped coming completely.

  They were almost clear when a helicopter flew in from across the river, followed by two more.

  “James and Donal will take care of it,” Jean said. “The EI says the evacuation is complete. It’s just you, me, and the kids left in the castle. Can you finish up these last few without me? I need to get up to the kids and get our tech dismantled so we can leave.”

  “Sure thing, babe,” John agreed.

  As she turned to leave, the weapons on the battlements ceased firing. “THE KIDS!” she screamed.

  They ran for the battlements at breakneck pace, shooting soldiers as they went.

  United Kingdom, North Wales, Battlements, East Barbican

  Maxim loaded the last battery of mini-missiles into the launcher for Mischa to fire. “As soon as these are done, strip it and pack it. Like Jean said, we can’t leave any TQB tech behind for them to find.

  Craig was playing around while he hammered a stand of trees into matchsticks where he saw movement. “Pew pew!”

  “Craig, take it seriously!” Tina yelled over the noise.

  “Come on!” he yelled back. “This is the coolest thing I’ve done in my life, and I’ve been on the moon!”

  “You were on the moon for all of two minutes!” Halli snarked. “Just concentrate, Craig. This isn’t the time for jokes.”

  Maxim’s tablet vibrated in his hand as he received a notification. “Everyone, keep it together. The evacuation was successful, so we are almost done here.”

  They were getting ready to wind down their defense when the helicopters flew in. The first two headed straight for the Black Eagles and were shot down by the Guardians. The third veered away at the last second, a lucky reprieve that would not last long.

  “It’s headed straight for us!” Craig cried.

  “Shoot it down!” Mischa screamed as it zoomed toward them. A puck came screaming toward the helicopter, intercepting it moments before it reached the tower—but it was too late.

  Four dark shadows swung out on ropes from the open door of the spiraling helicopter and landed on the crenellations at the top of King’s tower.

  “They’re after the weapons,” Maxim growled, starting toward the tower as the invaders rappelled down the tower wall on the far side of the parapet.

  “They won’t get them,” Craig snarled, all levity gone from his voice.

  “We will fight them. There are more of us than there are of them,” Maxim declared as the assailants reached the bottom and turned toward them, pistols at the ready.

  “Do not move,” the leader of the men commanded. “If you attempt to rush us, these men, whose teammates you murdered in cold blood, will shoot you full of tranquilizer. I wanted to make it silver after the disrespect you little brats showed to those men, but my bosses had better ideas. Luckily I keep a backup weapon. The first round is lead, but the next is going to hurt a lot more. Are we clear?”

  They did a double-take at the man’s knowledge of the UnknownWorld.

  Maxim glowered at him, a low growl beginning in his throat that was picked up by Craig, Halli, and the twins. They moved as one to surround and protect Tina, Ron and Aleksi, who were crouched by the projectile guns.

  “Leave, now,” Maxim said coldly, his eyes gleaming yellow. “If you do not listen to this good advice, I cannot be held responsible for what happens to you.”

  The man sighed and gestured to one of the men, who shot Maxim with a dart, triggering an instant change to his wolf form. He bounded on four legs toward the man, snarling. The other Wechselbalg kids released their inner wolves and flowed over the parapet toward the four men with their own teeth bared.

  The men fired over and over, hitting the wolves with dart after dart filled with tranquilizers. The twins went down after the first couple of hits, their wolves being the lightest and smallest of the five. Halli was next after four darts got her in quick succession, leaving Craig and Maxim. The men turned their attention to Maxim, peppering him with darts, and as he went down he saw Craig fighting the drugs valiantly. He sprang toward the leader, going for the man’s throat when the gun went off and Craig flew backwards.

  Maxim’s eyes drifted shut as the drugs pulled him under.

  ***

  Jean bounded up the narrow stairs to the parapet three at a time, John right behind her as she burst out of the door and saw the men standing over the kids. They raced across the parapet as a man spoke.

  “I’m out of tranqs, Agent Broadbent,” one of the soldiers said.

  “Well, just get the ones we know are werewolves. We have to come out of this with something. Sykes, Dawson, give him a hand to get some clothes on them. Good lads.”

  The soldiers advanced toward the unconscious children, looking at Tina with cold expressions as they bent to grab the clothes Maxim and the others had shed when they changed and began to quickly dress them. They jumped back quickly when Tina came at them. She was the only one of the students still standing. She had a wrench in one hand and a lit welding torch in the other and screamed at them, “Get away from them! Just you wait until Uncle John gets here! He’s going to kick your asses so hard your great grandkids’ great grandkids will have to sit carefully!”

  The leader sighed, stepping closer. “You are a tiresome child,” he told her. “Give up, you have lost. Our men will not have died in vain.” He swung his arm up to pistol-whip her into silence.

  John was there before his arm had completed its upward arc. He shot Broadbent, blowing a fist-sized hole in the side of his ribcage, his next shots dropping the other three before Broadbent had hit the floor.

  He rushed over to Tina, cupping her face and looking into her eyes. “Are you okay?” She broke into sobs and clung to him tightly. He stroked her hair and murmured gently, “It’s okay, Teeny.
They’re dead, they can’t hurt you.”

  “We killed them!”

  Jean shook her head. “If you mean the bridge, that was all me.”

  Tina sighed with relief.

  Jean called Bethany Anne’s Pod down for pickup as she rushed to tend to the students. She examined the gash Aleksi had opened on his head when a stray tranquilizer dart knocked him out, and gave Ron a wad of cloth to hold over his bleeding nose.

  John released Tina and knelt to check the pulses of the sedated Wechselbalg kids, making sure each was steady before moving on to the next.

  Craig was covered in blood, but John could find no entry or exit wound. He saw a burn hole in Craig’s ragged trousers that he’d missed on his first look. It looked like it had been caused by a bullet, and further inspection revealed a barely healed bullet wound in the boy’s leg. John called to Jean, “Craig’s been shot in the thigh. It’s healing, but we need to get him in the Pod first and get him checked over. I’ll bring the others.”

  Jean picked Craig up and went to wait for the Pod.

  Tina clung to John, clearly in shock.

  “I’m so proud of you, Tina,” he told her as the Pod descended. “Proud of you all. None of this should have happened, and you kept a cool head throughout. Your mom will be proud, too.”

  “I was so scared when he pointed his gun in my face!” she exclaimed, bursting into tears again now the danger had passed and her brain began to process the events of the long night.

  “Hey, it’s all right,” John said, enveloping her in a comforting embrace. “I bet he was scared of you, too. What on Earth were you thinking of, taking on men with guns?”

  Tina frowned. “That they weren’t taking my friends, or our weapons.”

  John smiled. “You’re a pocket rocket, just like your mom.” He laughed as a thought struck him. “Hey, Tina?” When she looked up at him, he put on an expression of mock horror for her. “How about we don’t tell your mom about that part right away. Lead with something less likely to shorten my lifespan instead, okay?”

  Tina looked skeptical. “What’s she going to do? You’re, like, three times her size!”