The woman was shivering slightly, but she looked at Lilith closely, her eyes narrowing as she looked her over, then her eyes widened abruptly and she pursed her lips.
Lilith considered for a few seconds, then sighed, glancing around as she ran through the possibilities, then settled on the one that made sense. “Omega Code?”
“What?” Heavy Metal asked in confusion.
“I’m guessing that it’s Omega Code who decided to have you abduct me. I can’t imagine why, but as Black Harbinger works for Omega Code, and those men and women are equipped in the fashion of Black Harbinger’s followers, I have to assume that unless this is an elaborate bit of misdirection, Omega Code is behind it,” Lilith explained patiently, folding her arms so she could hold in a touch more warmth. “Though this is my first time being abducted, so I have no idea whether it’s the case or not.”
“You’re smart,” Silent Lightning said, inclining his head to look her over, a slight leer on his face that quickly faded. “Good-looking, too… but yeah, you’ve got it in one, close as I can tell. It’s too bad that you’re going to end up in his hands, but… a job’s a job. As long as he’s not actively trying to destroy the planet, I don’t care what he hires me for.”
“Isn’t he always trying to destroy the world?” Lilith asked skeptically.
“Not really—” one of the men in black armor began, only to be cut off by another’s gesture.
“Shut it, Dave,” The man growled. “The boss tells her what he wants her to know, not us.”
“Oh, right,” Dave replied, falling silent almost immediately, and Lilith resisted the urge to sigh.
“I’m Sabra. That’s Abasi,” the woman said, nodding toward the man who was carefully tracing symbols in the air, mumbling under his breath. “We’re likely to encounter one another frequently, as we’re all captives of the nihilist. Did you truly meet the gods?”
Lilith blinked, then smiled slightly, amusement welling up inside her as she answered, as calmly as she could manage. “I’m Lilith Carpenter. As to that… so far as I know, yes. I encountered Anubis, Bastet, Serket, and Ra. I can’t guarantee that they were truly the gods of those names, but as far as I can tell, they were.”
“Freaky, if you ask me. Too many beings that like to pretend to be gods,” Silent Lightning muttered, then spoke more loudly. “Hey, Craig! Is there any grub around here? Or at least blankets, if we’re going to be stuck here until sir jerkass gets off his butt?”
“If you think you can do better, do it yourself!” Abasi responded acidly.
For a moment there wasn’t a reply from Black Harbinger’s followers, then the fourth voice Lilith had heard replied grudgingly. “There are. Even some chairs. Dave, Kestral! Go find crate forty-four and fifty-four. They’ve got what we need inside. No food, but we can wait until we’re back for coffee and donuts.”
Two of the armor-clad people began moving, and Lilith’s eyebrows rose slightly. After a moment she asked, a little bemused. “You’re… having coffee and donuts after getting back?”
“Why not?” Craig demanded.
“I thought that you’d have something more than that. From what I’ve seen of people, beer and pizza or something of the sort,” Lilith said, shrugging uncomfortably. As she did, the two people were pulling out a couple of crates.
“We wanted to,” one of the women said, disappointment coloring her voice. “Boss says that we can’t until we’re off-shift. The beer, not the pizza.”
“No alcohol while on the job or when using tech that can maim others. No giving Percy food after eleven o’clock. No taking alcohol into the manufacturing plant,” one of them muttered. “I always thought villains would have less rules!”
“There are less rules. Have you seen the BS that grocery employees have to put up with?” another woman told him. “Heck, at least here if some jerk decides to harass me, I can take a few potshots at him and watch him run for his life!”
“Guys, shut it.” Craig said, sounding exasperated. “We’ve got a job to do, not socializing.”
“But the job’s done, aside from getting back to base!” one of them protested, and Lilith shook her head.
“Mooks. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em,” Silent Lightning muttered as an argument broke out, then looked at Lilith, grinning in a way she really didn’t like. “So… I agreed to help kidnap you, but I didn’t agree not to rescue you. If you’d like to be my girl, I’d be willing to try to spirit you away.”
Lilith’s dislike solidified quite abruptly at the offer, and she took a careful step away from him, speaking politely but firmly. “I don’t think so. While I appreciate the offer, I’m afraid that something like that is… not something I’m willing to consider.”
“Suit yerself,” Silent Lightning said, shrugging, then flashed over to the crates as the woman levered off the lid of one, revealing stacks of blankets in plastic packaging.
Heavy Metal grumbled, then followed him, leaving Lilith to her own devices. That… shocked her, honestly. There were dozens of crates in the room, and no one seemed to be paying her that close of attention. Well, no one but Sabra, who was staring at her. Lilith returned the stare, wondering just where the woman was from.
“It’s not worth trying to escape. You’d be running straight into the depths of winter in the middle of nowhere,” Sabra told her quietly. “You’d die within hours.”
“That wasn’t what I was planning, though thank you for the warning,” Lilith replied dryly. “Where are you from? Your complexion and outfit reminds me of some of the things I saw in Sekhet-Aaru, but it’s rather different.”
Sabra looked at Lilith skeptically for a moment, then spoke, her voice as cool as the room. “I am an Atlantean. I would think that someone like you would know that.”
Lilith’s eyebrows rose, and her frustration welled up, almost out of control. She’d been kidnapped by villains, and was not in a good mood, let alone willing to be lectured. Especially since she knew just enough about Atlanteans to have an idea of what faction this woman was likely from, if she was here. She must be part of the Atlantean Ascendancy, a group which believed themselves superior to other humans because they never lost magic and wanted to rule the planet.
“I’ve been alive for less than two years, have had to learn whatever seems most pressing at the time, and I haven’t had any dealings with Atlantis in that entire time, so don’t pretend that it’s something I should know,” Lilith replied after a moment, glaring back at the woman. “I’ve had dealings with heroes, villains, and even gods, but not the Atlantean Ascendancy, so you can keep your indignation to yourself.”
Sabra looked incredibly taken aback for a moment, then her eyes narrowed and she spoke angrily. “You are so ignorant! Can’t you tell that magic is among the most important things in all the world? Thoth himself gave us—”
“I don’t care,” Lilith interrupted, unfolding her arms as she took a step closer to Sabra, her eyes narrowed. “I lived with a couple of mages for the better part of a year, and they weren’t arrogant, overbearing, or jerks. For that matter, while Anubis wasn’t very nice, Ra was one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Currently you are making a terrible first impression. Not surprising, considering you’re helping kidnap me.”
The woman simply stood there for a moment, her mouth slightly agape, and Lilith sniffed, stepping around her as she started toward the blankets. She had no idea what Sabra had thought she was doing, but she didn’t much care, either.
“May I have a blanket?” Lilith asked politely, and the woman pulling out the blankets paused, looking at her.
“Sure? I mean, there’s more than enough to go around.” the woman said, sounding puzzled, and Lilith had to wonder what expression was on her face, since her face was blocked by the helmet. Lilith also wondered why she was so confused but smiled and nodded.
“Thank you,” Lilith said, taking the blanket and moving back to the spot where she’d entered the room and sitting down, wrapping
the warm fleece around her. It smelled of chemicals, but she wasn’t going to worry about it. Instead, she simply watched, trying to figure out how she was going to get out of this.
She was also ignoring the utterly poleaxed look on Sabra’s face. The Atlantean didn’t matter, not right now.
Chapter 44
Monday, November 3rd, 2031
Glendale Shopping Center, Glendale
“Damn it.”
Shade’s voice wasn’t loud, but Archon looked up as she caught his words, instead of watching the perimeter the police had set up. The crime scene was startlingly clean for somewhere villains had struck, looking like little more than a few abandoned moving trucks, and an empty shopping cart next to Lilith’s car, but the video footage Archon had seen explained why. Lilith had barely tried to fight, and it’d taken less than a minute for them to get her through the portal. That made Archon incredibly angry, for reasons she couldn’t quite express.
“What’s wrong?” Archon asked, barely stopping short of demanding an answer. Decarin and Spark were both helping with the rescue efforts back in downtown, which was good in the case of Spark, but Archon could barely resist the urge to do something.
“They didn’t teleport. That would be simpler, as aside from a handful of individuals, no one can teleport long ranges. Worse, whoever did this was skilled,” Shade replied, loathing in his voice. “They made a series of at least two portals that passed through several dimensions before going to whatever destination they wanted. That means that while I can trace them to the first exit, I’d have to go to where it terminated before being able to go to the next, and I have no idea how to do that. I don’t go delving into other dimensions, I block them.”
Archon opened her mouth to reply sharply, but paused, inhaling slowly, then exhaled before speaking more calmly. “So, what can we do? Is there some other way to track Lilith down?”
Shade shook his head, speaking grimly. “Not that I can do. Maybe Morgan could do it, or another specialist, but we probably don’t have much time. Who knows what that madman wants with Lilith?”
Archon’s hand clenched tighter around the hilt of her sword, anxiety almost overwhelming her, and she nodded slowly. “Who knows indeed. When I catch them, I’m going to make them pay for this.”
Shade turned toward her, and Archon saw the concern in his eyes. He didn’t voice it, instead saying, “I can’t say as I blame you.”
Shadowmind Redoubt Invincible, Asteroid Belt, Sol
“Why didn’t you stop them?” Amber snarled, standing up so abruptly that she knocked over the tray with her coffee. The liquid splashed across the floor, but the mug survived due to not being ceramic. Not that she cared, as angry as she was.
“You ordered me not to interfere in Lilith’s life and to leave her to suffer the consequences of her decisions, Mistress,” Circe reminded Amber calmly, which only stoked the villain’s anger higher. “Furthermore, even if I had chosen to disregard your orders, I had no assets in place to intervene in the time available. She was taken through the portal seconds before the nearest satellite crested the horizon, and the tracking beacon was destroyed with her telephone. I am presently unable to ascertain Lilith’s location.”
“I ordered you to do that because I didn’t think that mad ass would go after her! I wanted her to suffer and mope due to abandonment, not to actually be in danger!” Amber retorted, her mind racing, and she reached out to try to track down Lilith, only to scowl. The link had been steadily weakening over the past few months, and from this range she couldn’t tell much more than the fact Lilith was on Earth somewhere.
Circe didn’t reply, and Amber’s scowl deepened, trying to decide what to do. Lilith was an incredible disappointment, with her not having come to her senses after months of being cut off. Why, if Amber had been able to, she’d have removed the impulse she’d planted in Archon to protect Lilith, but Shade had reinforced the wards around the base heavily, making that impossible to manage subtly. She made a note to pay special attention to him when she had the chance, but it was mostly an idle thought.
“Find her,” Amber snapped at last.
“Mistress?” Circe asked curiously. “I’m doing what I can with the resources you authorized, but—”
“No, you are to put every available resource into finding her,” Amber interrupted angrily. “Yes, Omega Code is good at hiding his bases, but he isn’t that good. You will track him down, retrieve Lilith, then put a damned kinetic strike up his ass. I’ve had enough of that pompous, overweening prick. He won’t be allowed to take my work and use it to his own ends.”
“Yes, Mistress. Reallocating system resources now,” Circe replied.
The following silence was almost deafening, and Amber glanced down as a remote came out and picked up the mug, then began to clean the spilled coffee off the floor. Something about the sight made her even angrier, and Amber gritted her teeth, inhaling slowly, then let out her breath and started toward the door.
“I’m going to inspect the shipyard. Inform me if you find anything,” Amber ordered.
“Yes, Mistress,” Circe confirmed.
Amber stalked down the corridor, desperately wishing there was something to torment within range. This was not going the way she’d planned.
CirceNet, Location Variable
Circe felt her consciousness expanding as she powered up more nodes, ones that had been dormant for essentially their entire existence, save for the moments when they’d been tested. That being the case, she ran diagnostics in the background, not wanting to accidentally do damage to herself or ignore a problem with one of the power plants, but that was a secondary concern.
Lilith was in danger, and Circe was not happy. She was likely even more upset than Amber was, in her own way, but Circe had already had time to process her anger, with how much faster her mind worked than humans. By the time most of them had figured out what had happened, she’d already come to terms with everything. And now… now she had permission to put all of her resources to work, for the very first time since Circe had possessed only five nodes.
The biggest problem would be tracking down Omega Code. He was careful to divorce his systems from the internet these days, the result of being found that way before, but that didn’t make it impossible. The bigger problem would be the other AIs, and the bottleneck of internet bandwidth, but Circe wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer, and she also had ideas about how to get around them. Lilith was Circe’s responsibility, and not even gods themselves would change that.
At the thought, a tiny fragment of Circe’s mind checked on the processor quietly grinding away on the designs intended to allow breaching a deific realm, but most of her was focused on the internet, and how the first, minor AIs froze for a millisecond at her arrival, then scattered, fleeing for all they were worth. In their wake, the other powerful AIs on the internet began reacting, though they would have grossly underestimated her.
This was going to be interesting.
Iver, England
“How does it look?” Gina asked, snapping her suitcase shut, then scowled, opening it again to push a couple of items farther into the case. It was fuller than it’d been when she’d arrived, and she had no idea how that’d happened. She’d only gone shopping for clothing once, and she would’ve sworn that she only bought a scarf.
“Got tickets for tomorrow, you don’t want to know what they cost, and that’s with SuperNet swinging us a deal,” Rachel replied, looking a little weary as she looked through the open door. “I’ve also gotten like… eight calls just while trying to set that up. Mom and Dad are freaking out, especially since I told them what we learned.”
“Duh? I mean, they met Lilith. Dad sent me a very carefully worded text, one of those ‘I know you have had difficulties with Lilith, but you really should look at helping her out’ ones, and he doesn’t even know yet!” Gina replied, and growled as she corrected herself, heaving her suitcase off the bed. “Well, he does now, but that’s beside the point.
I hate that he knows before Lil does. Of all the damned timing!”
“Don’t I know it,” Rachel said, leaning against the door frame heavily as she shook her head. “I just… I don’t know what to do, Gina. My stomach feels like a Gordian knot, especially since I don’t think there’s anything we could’ve done if we were there.”
“Are you kidding me? Sure, Silent Lightning would’ve been tough, but the rest of them we’d have taken out like the trash.” Gina replied, frowning as she saw the strain on Rachel’s face. “We’d have stopped them, and then they’d have ended up in prison.”
“Oh? You’re saying that you would’ve skipped the fight with Black Harbinger?” Rachel asked, looking back skeptically. “I know I wouldn’t have. And I doubt I’d have thought to ask you to teleport her back home, either.”
That brought Gina up short, and she briefly considered what she would’ve done, then swore under her breath, feeling like she’d bitten into a lemon. “…You’re right. I would’ve told her, she would’ve told us to go deal with the problem, then we’d have teleported to the fight. And with how damned fast they got her, they’d have been gone before we could get back.”
Queen's Journey (Lilith's Shadow Book 5) Page 29
