Val blinked. "That's... remarkable."
Julia's hand, however, gripped Val's tightly. He could taste her sudden pang of anxiety. "You guys wouldn't be going to all this trouble... not unless things just got very serious.
Dirk nodded. "It's no longer any kind of game, Julia. After my report, things got extremely serious, extremely fast."
Val felt a cold chill with those words.
"What does that even mean?" Yin asked in a hushed voice, as if sensing the gravity of what Dirk was about to reveal.
And Val suppressed a quick flinch as his phone vibrated.
Shit.
Things were more serious than even Dirk knew. He turned to Julia. "I'm going to take this real quick? I'll be right back." She frowned but nodded, and Val zipped up the stairs before Dirk could pin him with a word.
Heart hammering, Val answered the still vibrating phone.
"It's been a long time, son."
And just like that, Val was a bright-eyed private again, saluting before the Colonel. Having survived advanced training with flying colors, earning more than a little bit of resentment which a few rounds of Semper Fu and a few beers afterwards put to rest, Val and a handful who enjoyed training with similar intensity had become fast friends. And it was from Johnny Aces, a soldier that fought just as hard and dirty as he did, that Val learned just who Yancey was. That beyond the colonel's badass reputation he carried like a badge, he had a penchant for picking the best of the best trainees in multiple divisions, particularly the Special Forces.
Val felt just like that kid again, being addressed by a man he respected so fiercely, who his fellow brothers-in-arms all but worshiped like a higher power. Because for them, he was. And in all the chaos and hell that followed, he alone had never abandoned his boys.
"Sir. It's... damn, it's good to hear from you, sir."
An almost grandfatherly chuckle. Which immediately put Val on high alert.
"Well that's mighty kind of you, son. And here I thought you had gotten all used to the posh life at home and had forgotten all about your brothers and sisters doing their little part for the good of all."
"Never, sir," Val whispered with fierce intensity.
He could almost imagine his commander's maverick smile. "Did you like the back pay, son? I always thought we could have done more for you than we had. And I find any excuse to make sure at least a few of my boys are taken care of in the manner they deserve."
Alarm bells were definitely blaring.
"Do you know what I always admired most about you, son?"
Val swallowed. "No, sir."
"You always got the job done. Come hell or high water, no matter what it took... you always got it done."
Val felt a chill come over him, trembling with an intensity he hadn't felt in ages. Fierce and proud and ready to fight or die for the man on the other end of that phone.
"I stand ready, sir," was all he said.
"Excellent!" A strange tapping came over the phone. "Then I know you'll serve under Captain Striker honorably and well! Between you and me, I think he's secretly envious he never got the chance to serve under me, but I told him flat out you're the best thing since sliced bread. Now that's all old Yancey had to say before they wheel me out here with forced retirement soon enough! You take care, son, and enjoy your bonus pay, you hear me?"
Val swallowed. "Yes, sir!" he said, preparing himself but still hissing in discomfort from the high pitched whistle shrilling from his phone. A sound that seemed to bother him far more than others in his old unit. Once they would have made jokes. Now the weight of all they had done after those calls would have left them with nothing but hard smiles.
"You still there, son?" Yancey. His voice hard as steel. The jovial grandfather figure no longer.
"Yes, sir."
"Good. I'll make this short and sweet. We're compromised."
Val swallowed, utterly silent.
"It goes deep, soldier. The head of your new unit, the head of this whole Jordian operation which they've code named Exultius, that no one officially knows shit about. Do you know who it's run by, son? A serpent. A goddamned serpent who just has to whisper a suggestion and people will follow it as if he's God or the Devil, and those red eyes of his he thinks I can't see behind his contacts sure as hell ain't the eyes of God. You get me, boy?"
And Val shook with something he swore was not fear, remembering all too well the blazing eyes of the man sneering at his father with such contempt, protected by technology Val had never seen before, wielding a blade that belonged in the bloody movies, sure as hell not in his house, a blade he was utterly certain could cut through a foot of steel as easily as air.
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Goddamned bastard isn't even military! But somehow he oozed himself into the president's inner circle, some fucking informal capacity, and I swear, Val, just three months ago, the president was ready to declare war on China and Russia both! Brand new upgrades to all our missile bases, of all things. Christ almighty, son, it was bad."
Val swallowed, heart pounding.
"And then all of a sudden, it stopped. The madness cycling throughout the world stopped so quick it was almost scary. Russia, China, India, and the US; hell, all the Middle East as well, suddenly coming to the negotiating table and working out trade and mutual defense agreements like we hadn't all been a heartbeat from going to hell in a handbasket. Do you get what I'm saying, soldier?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Because sure as shit, the moment you pop up with two hundred captive kids in a ruined warehouse is when it all stopped. And suddenly that man is made the head of the very unit Dirk serves under. Now you might not think that so strange, save that the former head had killed himself just the day before."
Val frowned.
"Just after being seen talking to good ol' Redeye. Things looked as calm as roses on the tapes and next thing you know, a guy with four kids and the happiest damn marriage I've ever seen, just a couple short months away from a sweet pension, is crashing into base traffic. From the top of the roof he had done a running sprint from."
"Well, shit," Val whispered, not knowing what else to say.
"Precisely, son." Yancey's voice grew hard as ice. "His name is Felix Mordare. You have one fucking job, soldier, and I expect you to carry it out. Under no circumstances is any threat to the safety and security of the United States of America to be allowed to breathe our sweet air for a moment longer than is needed to put him into the ground. Do you understand, son?"
Ears ringing with pain, all Val could feel was a fierce sense of duty roaring through his veins. "Yes, sir!"
"Good. Damn good to hear that, son." Val blinked, never having heard such genuine relief in his ultimate commander's voice before. "He has a blind spot. Electronic surveillance. For some reason, he doesn't take it seriously. Pure madness. It's like he doesn't even believe it exists. And the way he can talk himself out of any situation, no matter how the evidence looks, maybe for him it doesn't."
Val frowned. "Sir?"
"He's dangerous. For fuck's sake, stay under his radar. Sure as shit don't confront him or let him catch you staring at him. There's a reason why I'm the one telling you all this, do you get it, boy?"
And Val did. Chilled to the bone. Yancey was an ace at playing people, could act the good-natured senior soldier too connected to retire, too harmless to bother with anything serious. He could play that role to the hilt, and Val knew Dirk must be the real deal when he had made it clear he knew who and what Yancey really was.
And a doddering old fool was someone that some mind-lord or whatever the hell this Felix Mordare was wouldn't bother fucking with.
And Val was suddenly getting the distinct impression that the man had fucked with a lot of people's heads.
"I think maybe I do understand, sir. Maybe I understand exactly what you're saying."
"Good. You've always done me proud, son. Now go defend your country."
And the piercing electronic wail stopped a
s abruptly as it had begun, the phone dead.
Val took a deep breath and headed back downstairs, shaking away distraction as his eyes caught motion, catching Christine Petrovsky's suddenly wide gaze. He swallowed. She really was stunning, he thought. She looked far more like Julia's sister than her mother, and perceptive as he was, he saw absolutely no trace of a surgeon's knife upon her features.
His mind raced over all the Colonel had told him, preparing himself for the role he would soon have to embrace. Even if it broke their party and earned him sworn enemies, if Chris and Dirk caught wind of it. Even if it killed him. The entire fucking country and its nuclear arsenal. Manipulated by a man who could squeeze the will of others to his bidding.
Christine blinked, giving Val the strangest of looks, slowly turning around without saying a word. She was utterly unreadable to him, but his gut twisted. Why had she reacted like that?
He shook his head. Too much going on. One thing at a time. First, touch base with Dirk. Second, get a loose sense of their mission timetable. And only then ask for details regarding the structure of their operation, all the players, his now formal role in their group the perfect pretext. And finally, he would do what his mentor expected of him, no matter the cost.
23
"Val, where did you dash off to? That must have been some phone call."
Dirk's smile was friendly, but his eyes were hard. He was no fool. He had understood what the call had meant instantly.
"Yes," Val said, flashing a rueful smile. "Yancey himself. He wanted to let me know he was damn proud of me, which surprised the crap out of me to hear, since I royally fucked up the last mission so bad I was covered in burns and discharged." Chris winced sympathetically at that. "He then made it clear that things might be different working under you than they had been under him, but that he had heard good things about you, and knew you ran a tight ship." Val saluted as Dirk's gaze grew thoughtful. "I guess this is for real, then. Sorry if I let you down at all before, sir."
"No worries, Val," Dirk smiled, seemingly quite pleased with Yancey's praise, even if he wouldn't admit it. "You got fire in your soul. I saw that firsthand, and glad as the dickens I am for it. A little bit of discipline, and you'll be the sharpest blade in our arsenal."
"Yes sir," Val said, saluting again.
"At ease, Val. We're meeting with friends, off the clock. Besides, I think it's good for us to have a certain amount of flexibility while training and adventuring, and I'm a big believer in give and take. You have a brilliant flash of insight, by all means, roll with it." He locked gazes with Val. "But when I give a direct order, I expect you to follow it."
Val nodded. "Will do, Captain."
His CO smiled. "Then call me Dirk whenever we meet offline, unless I say otherwise. Understood?"
Val grinned. "Sounds good, Dirk."
Val caught sight of Yin, gazing raptly at them both.
"You guys are both such badasses. I think I understand now why girls fall for guys in uniforms." Her eyes were all over Dirk, not quite as bulky as Chris, but Val could sense the coiled power and deadly grace of his every movement, rock hard muscle pulling tight the sleeves of his uniform in ways no other captain could brag about.
Val grinned at her admiration, the way Dirk tried to smile it off, but when her hand squeezed Dirk's own, his smile only grew. Val frowned then. "Where is Julia?"
Dirk shrugged. "I'm not sure. Her mother just stopped by. I assume it's a mother-daughter thing. And now I think it's time I gave you a quick debriefing."
Val blinked. "Sir?"
"His boss is coming over here!" Yin squealed. "Isn't it exciting? It's the dwarves! After Dirk prepped his report, his boss told him to get the gang together, it's time we all met in the flesh. This is big, Val, so very big!"
Dirk sighed. "Basically, yes, as Yin put it. You were supposed to let me say it in my own way, Yin, but no harm done. Anyway, Professor Mordare, a presidential appointee even if his role is only quasi-formal, made it clear that it's time we all met in person. Discovery of that lost colony of dwarves seems to have kicked things up a notch. As to why? Your guess is as good as mine."
Val blinked as Dirk's words finally hit him, feeling a strange sense of horror, though he couldn't exactly say why. "The dwarves... you told them?"
Dirk frowned. "Of course, Val, why the hell wouldn't I? Standard procedure, reporting after each cyber delve." He flashed a bemused smile. "Don't worry, soldier. I gave you full credit and a half for saving our bacon and taking on that wizard, and Julia for mastering a spell that probably saved our lives."
Chris nodded. "You two were something else! And after we got that notice about rescuing the dwarves, we all leveled up again! And it may sound crazy, but we've all decided to save up our points, to see if such a thing is even possible!"
Val blinked. "Why is that?"
"Just to see if we even could, of course. But seriously, I got the feeling big things are in store for us, and it's like well, my gut's just telling me to be ready."
Dirk nodded. "We've all felt it. Something big is coming, and Mordare's arrival is just the icing on the cake."
Val's smile was genuine. "That's pretty exciting, I can't wait to see how you guys develop! I didn't even know you could do that."
Yin nodded happily. "I leveled, and I'm halfway to the next rank now! I so thought I knew what I'd invest it in, but for some reason I just feel this wonderful sense of anticipation, like I just got to wait and hold on for what's coming our way. Isn't it the oddest feeling, Dirk?"
Dirk chuckled. "That it is, Yin." Curious eyes turned to Val. "How about yourself?"
Val frowned, closing his eyes, stilling his mounting panic, knowing he had to play along. "Pretty close," he said with some surprise, actually able to see his shimmering blue bar as if he were still in the game. Had he been able to do that before? "Surprisingly close. I'm right on it."
Yin whistled. "I can't wait to see what a Val level is like!"
Val nodded. "I should pick a direction, shouldn't I? Warrior mage, I guess."
"You'll be kickass, putting points into spells or stats, no doubt." Yin agreed.
Val took a sip of his wine for cover. "So, when's our boss expected?"
"Nervous?" Dirk smiled. "Don't be. As long as we're in the game, exploring and interacting with the environment, he gives us absolute free rein. Most of his focus is on the other companies under his command. The incident with the dwarves is the most excited I've heard him since we first spoke."
Val frowned at this. "We have whole companies making the jump? I gotta ask, Dirk, why is our company hardly the size of a squad, and only three of us formally serving?"
Dirk flashed a maverick grin. "We are a very special company, Val. Most of it is hush-hush. I know that only a couple platoons' worth can actually port in. Most of them are training under the mercenary or mech-warrior skill paths, and even after months of dedicated training, very few of them have hit third level. Almost everyone is first or second, and the rest of the company is support."
"We think they're trying to master the basic mech-warrior training tactics and back-engineer their technology," Chris explained. "They're soldiers figuring out the best way to incorporate new tech and hardware into our own forces. We're focused more on maximizing personal development. Since our group has a knack for surviving hairy situations and coming out all the stronger for it, our boss basically says, 'have at it.'"
Dirk nodded. "Chris has the gist of it. We'll be expected to train those with aptitude in the arcane arts at some point in the future, with an instructor's bonus on top of our base pay. That's one reason why I push everyone to learn skills and magic by dint of sweat and hard work, so we can better teach others, not wasting precious stat growth on quick and easy insta-learned skills."
Chris nodded. "Though Julia's insta-mastered spell sure saved our bacon back there."
"Especially since practicing it the old-fashioned way nearly got us killed," Yin said.
Dirk chuckled. "An
d I'm not arguing with either of you on that score." His hip began to buzz, and he pulled out a sleek jet black phone much like the one gifted to Val. "Striker," he said. He turned to Val. "No, sir, he's in civvies. Yes, sir. Yes, understood sir." He slipped the phone back into his pocket. "Val, you live close to here, correct?"
Val nodded.
"Very good. Doctor Mordare just left the base, and he expects to see us all at our best." He smiled at Yin's elegant dress, classy and sensual all at once, a look heightened by just a touch of lipstick, eyeliner, and a pink bow for her silky dark hair. Yin blushed and smiled at his frank appraisal. "For the most part, I think we all look top notch. But the doctor personally requested that the three of us present ourselves in uniform. I don't suppose you have your dress uniform stored at your home?"
Val blinked, slowly nodding. "Yes, of course, though it's missing a stripe."
Dirk grinned. "No problem, Val. If you wouldn't mind swinging by and kitting up? The doctor understands if you're a few minutes late, since he's making the request last minute, but he's a major stickler for chain of command. He may trust me to run our missions completely on my own initiative, but I've never once dared crossing him or bucking him on anything." He chuckled softly. "Hell, I'm feeling the tension myself. Save for a brief ten-minute exchange when first he took command of our unit, he's only ever contacted me by phone. We don't even use email, only a courier to pick up our sealed, written notes."
Chris gave a solemn nod. "And no courier's ever dared to pry open our packets. Dr. Mordare doesn't trust computer security, and even if he's not formally in the service, he's one cat you don't mess with, ever."
"And we're not going to start now on my account," Val assured. "I know this is a damn sweet gig we're running, let's not rock the boat now, right?"
Dirk gave an approving nod. "I see you know how this game is played. Crossing the doctor is a very, very bad idea. He has clout. But that clout can work for you as well as against you. You just might backdoor yourself into lieutenant if you play your cards right in our regiment, Val."
Endless Online: Oblivion's Price: A LitRPG Adventure - Book 3 Page 36
