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dochermesCORONET III: Lightning's Only Happy When It Strikes
6/2022
I.
Five armed guards escorted Josef Jubilec from the lobby into the elevator and then out to a hallway on the fifty-first and top floor of the office building at 156 West 82nd Street. The men wore black slacks and light blue shirts with the logo CRAMER SECURITY over the left breast pocket, and each carried a .45 Colt revolver in a holster on a separate Sam Browne belt. The guards were all burly, intimidating men but even they seemed uneasy around one of the dreaded Blind Archers.
Josef was used to this reaction and had come to expect it. He wore a dark brown business suit of conservative cut, complete with a tan shirt and brown tie and co-ordinated vest. A lifetime spent drawing longbows had given him a massive chest and brawny arms which the suit could not conceal. Short sandy blond hair topped a bony face with bleak, dark blue eyes which gave away nothing of what he thought. The Blind Archers were raised from infancy to keep poker faces no matter what. Assassins were wise to keep their intentions secret.
They waited for a few seconds before an unmarked green metal door buzzed. One of the guards held the door open for Josef, who passed through without comment into a bare cubicle of white tile. Only a massive steel door broke the gleaming walls. None of the guards entered the cubicle, they all stepped back as the outer door closed and locked with a decisive click.
The Blind Archer stood motionless, patient as a born hunter. He could not spot any of the cameras that he knew must be scrutinizing him at that moment. Then the inner door opened silently and a huge bruiser in one of the security uniforms peered out at him. At a gesture from the guard, Josef squeezed past him into an old-fashioned office with many bookshelves, deep plush carpeting and substantial easy chairs. From behind a paper-strewn desk, an old man half rose politely and gestured for him to be seated.
Although the Alchemist looked to be in his well-preserved late sixties, closer study showed the thin dry skin of the face was covered with a maze of fine wrinkles. The receding snowy hair was still thick, even the bushy eyebrows were solid white, lowering over shrewd blue eyes. That tailored suit fit the wiry body perfectly. "Mr Jubilec. Knights of your Order of Tel Shai are not known for paying social calls on members of my community. You have some business proposition, perhaps?"
"I am here to offer information you should find useful," Josef replied. He had from his teen years been able to put any accent he wanted into his voice, and now he slightly mimicked a Sicilian tinge. "But first, understand I do not subscribe to the cliche about the enemy of my enemy being my friend."
"As world wars have shown, even bitter enemies can form alliances of convenience," the old man immediately responded. "Temporary alliances, of course."
"Exactly. There is no misunderstanding between us. Let me mention that one hundred and thirty miles north of where we sit are the Catskill Mountains. There, the Spinner of Webs is indeed spinning her webs and thinks she is secure..."
II.
Seated on a raised throne-like ebony chair, Olivia Wang gazed out at her Coronet team as they ate. The meal was Western style tonight, tender braised lamb shanks over polenta with cauliflower mash. The wine selected was an obvious Pinot Noir, and old Yau kept filling each member's glass as she judged ready. Watching her team, the Spinner of Webs felt vaguely irked that none of them had cultivated tastes enough to appreciate how well her chef had prepared supper. She would bet that they didn't even notice the ground porcine mushrooms. She might as well have ordered Burger King for these crude Americans.
But then, she wasn't employing them for social graces but for their rare extrahuman abilities. Indigo the Illusionist, picking disinterestly at the lamb, could make a crowd see anything from a raging fire to a swarm of hornets with perfectly convincing realism. Dave Woodley, known in professional thievery circles as the Flying Fool, had obtained the secrets of Trom gravity shield technology; she acknowledged that at least he had the grace to nod approvingly at her when he first began to eat. The tall blonde Amelia Mancuso had regained her appetite after a month of being depressed and listless. Seeing her dig in heartily to a second plate, Olivia realized that the violent action of the past three days had triggered some unexpected gleeful response in the witch. Her people the Calveron were known to be inclined toward rash and excessive emotional states.
Joining Coronet at the table for the first time was her bodyguard and driver, Quando. A wide Southern Chinese with the exaggerated biceps and pectorals of a bodybuilder, he had been moved to the team after the death of Repel at the hands of her enemies. His strange ability to harden his skin to rocklike texture had been caused by an experimental Alchemical serum she had tried on the boy. Quando's father had served Olivia Wang for three decades and the son had literally been raised by her.
For, although she certainly seemed no more than thirty at the most, the lovely woman with oblique cat-green eyes and straight glossy black hair, was more than one hundred years old. Alchemy extended her youth indefinitely as it had stretched the lifespan of her father, the original Spinner of Webs. She looked forward to a long and gratifying reign of her empire once she had regained full control of it.
"Coronet, hear me," she said and every head snapped up instantly alert and attentive. Despite their powers, they well knew what cruelties she was capable of. "This is the second time in three days we have had to relocate. Twice we have been attacked by the fools of the Kenneth Dred Foundation, meddling knights of Tel Shai that they are. I am offended at their audacity. They have also taken from me the services of Jorge Vargas, Repel."
She rose to her full height. That night, Olivia affected a silk gown of dark green with fine golden threads woven in esoteric symbols. The high collar and full sleeves added to her innate charisma. Sorcerers and Darthim, kingmakers and career mobsters had all instinctively watched their step in her presence. "It is true that we now hold six of them helpless prisoners. But do not feel their threat is even close to being over. Some of their most dangerous members are still out there and even now will be turning furious eyes toward us. There is the Australian woman who bears the Red Spectre. Sulak and Valera of the Melgarin. One of the Blind Archers. And worst of all, the Dire Wolf himself."
Amelia put a tinge of scorn into her comment, "We've done well enough against these KDF guys so far. If you ask me, they're not as tough as their reputations made me think."
"When all of them are safely captured, then and only then will it be time to boast," the Spinner of Webs said. "For the moment, we are secure beyond any chance of being attacked. My father started his slaves digging and connecting these tunnels back before the 20th Century dawned. We sit more than two hundred feet beneath the surface of Lookout Mountain in Shawnee, New York. Thousands of tons of granite, shale and dirt cover us and the entrances are concealed so well there is no chance they will be found, even if anyone knew where to look."
"That's good news," Woodley said, picking up his wine glass for its final sip. "I'm not in this because I like to fight. That's Quando's ego trip. If we can pull off our jobs without any complications, that's fine with me."
Seating herself again, Olivia Wang allowed a smile on her fine-curved lips but her green eyes remained serious and the contrast was unnerving. "Oh, Flying Fool, do not live up to your war name. Your job will be neither safe nor easy. The four of you will accompany me to Manhattan, to East 38th Street where our enemies make their headquarters. We will strike them down. They will not attack us unexpectedly a third time..."
As she spoke, a deep booming explosion thundered not far from them and they all felt the floor beneath their feet shudder. Gouts of dust spilled down from the ceiling. All five members of Coronet jumped to their feet, but it was Dave Woodley who muttered, "The irony is wonderful, chief."
III.
The Cold Ones served Olivia Wang with unshakeable loyalty because their very continued existence depended on her serum. They had been killed and immediately resucitated with the Alchemical potion before permanent brain damage could set in. They no longer needed to eat or drink, the potion itself kept them active. Whatever their tones had been in life, hair and skin faded to a dingy greyish white. Their bodies stayed slightly below room temperature, making them clammy and unpleasant to be near. In the off-white burlap tunics and baggy pants she issued them, they carried out any labors too hazardous or revolting for the other workers to be assigned. All the other men and women who served the Spinner of Webs in her worldwide rackets hated and feared the Cold Ones.
Here, in the stronghold beneath Lookout Mountain, dozens of the half-alive slaves toiled with little rest. At the beginning of the mile-long maze of tunnels, a round steel door seven feet across was locked with a crossbar and two of the Cold Ones stood by it in fifteen hour shifts without tiring or complaining. At intervals, the devices on their belts beeped and they answered to assure the monitor officer that all was well.
There was no warning that the door was about to be breached. The massive steel disc blew loose of its housing and crashed forward to the smooth stone floor with a screech of metal being ripped free against its will. The Cold Ones still had normal reflexes and both guards backstepped quickly away, snatching up their communicators. But they did not have the second available to call for help. Flashing through the opening to the outside world came a deep scarlet silhouette of a woman. It crackled and hissed as it swung through the air to sear cleanly through both Cold Ones, dropping their bodies into unequal halves that finally knew the rest of truth death.
The Red Spectre hovered weightlessly in mid-air for a second, turning its featureless oval of a head from side to side. Then it spun to plunge back into the body of its host and vanish again. Jocelyn Garimara was wearing the full KDF field suit, including the helmet which was sealed to her high collar to make the rig airtight. High between her shoulders was a small compressed air tank. Through the speaker in her helmet, she announced, "There you go! Get to work."
Charging into the tunnel came a stream of men in bright canary yellow hazmat suits, with elaborate respirators built into their headpieces. Their gloves and boots were of the same tough rubberized material. Many wore wide flat tanks across their backs, hoses running from the tanks to spray nozzles with pistol grips. Others were armed with more conventional Colt M16 assault rifles and holstered sidearms. They rushed through the opening in pairs, swinging their weapons from side to side, moving into the tunnel until fifty of them had stormed the stronghold.
Only when the last of the Spinner of Webs' troops had raced out of sight did Josef Jubilec appear. Like Jocelyn, he was wearing a KDF field suit with helmet sealed to its oxygen tank but he had also had a V-shaped leather quiver across his back and he held a yew longbow he had crafted himself. "Let them take the first wave of resistance," he said.
Turning to him, Jocelyn waved one hand in an annoyed gesture. "I suppose. But my Spectre is aching to blaze through this snakepit. I want to let her tear this place apart."
"Lightning's only happy when it strikes," Josef replied.
"And she is wild lightning incarnate. Yes. I can restrain her if I must." The Aboriginal woman squared narrow shoulders and drew herself up to begin striding forward. "Come on, this should be a battle like no other."
Josef notched an arrow with a killing barb to the string and they trotted forward at a double time pace they could keep up for hours. The tunnels seemed endless, branching off at intervals and with unexpected sharp twists and bends. Generations of slaves had labored to dig this maze. Olivia's father, the original Spinner of Webs, had utilized an Alchemical potion which temporarily softened stone so it could be worked like wet clay. Even so, it had been back-ruining work to create this labyrinth deep inside a mountain. Broad stripes of some phosphorescent paint high up on the walls gave plenty of light for them to see by. Frequent doors were marked by esoteric symbols etched into the wood, and there were many niches in the walls holding chest-high ceramic urns.
"God only knows what's in those things," Jocelyn muttered. "I wouldn't dare pry one open, probably some fumes that rot yer flesh right off the bone." She tugged her Link from her belt and tapped on its screen without breaking stride. "Give me a second. Our friends' Links have shut down of course but we can still locate the devices themselves. Blood hell, how long ARE these tunnels? Looks like half a kilometer to go, Josef."
"We all voted not to have tracker chips implanted under our skins," the Blind Archer responded. "Too much loss of privacy. Sable was the only one pushing for the idea."
"Yeah, well, it would sure be useful right now. Sounds like a serious disagreements up ahead."
In fact, shouting and screams and the din of automatic gunfire had begun a few seconds earlier. The echoing effect of the stone tunnels made it difficult to gauge how far away the fighting was. Both Josef and Jocelyn quickened their pace. Gusting around a bend, noxious yellow-green gas filled the tunnel and rushed over them to blot out sight for a second as it billowed past.
"Ack! Ack, even without smelling it, I can tell that stuff reeks," Jocelyn gagged. "Josef, you okay?"
"I think so. My suit's seals held, I can't feel any leakage. How about you?"
"Same here, old mate. But look at us. That left a residue on our suits. Ugh, it's all sticky. We'll have to be careful getting them off."
The Blind Archer pulled back on his longbow and then relaxed it, seeming satisfied that the weapon had not been damaged. "I gather that was one of the Alchemy potions that Olivia Wang's men are using. Without our suits, we'd likely to be dead right now."
"Come on, let's see what's going on," Jocelyn snapped as she took off at a run which she and her partner could maintain for hours. "What could have blown that cloud away so fast?"
"No idea. I hate this situation we've put ourselves in, Jocelyn."
"Oh, I agree," she replied. We have pitted two two deadly forces against each other in the hopes they'll be busy fighting each other so we can find our friends. But we've stirred up a storm of steel doing so."
IV.
Exiting the dining hall, the four members of Coronet passed through the suite of rooms where the Spinner of Webs had relocated her activities and were soon racing along the less luxurious series of rough-walled tunnels with locked doors spaced along either side. Three of them had innate gralic powers and could fight in the unremarkable civilian clothes they had on. Dave Woodley had snatched up the suitcase he always kept on hand. As he ran, the Flying Fool managed to open it and extract both his gunbelt and the straps which held his gravity shield. To fasten them on, he did have to slow to a walk and let the others get ahead of him.
Evidently the original Spinner of Webs had designed the tunnels to inconvenience any possible intruders. The bends and sharp twists were frequent, as were stretches where the tunnels narrowed so only one person could pass at a time. After a few minutes, numerous Cold Ones began emerging from the doors and hurrying past the four Coronet members.
The Flying Fool tapped controls on his left cuff and rose up a few inches to hover with his feet off the rough floor. Accelerating as he went, he glided along the corridors to quickly catch up with the other Coronet members.
"Wait, wait, slow down," Woodley urged his teammates. When they came to a halt and regarded him unhappily, he added, "Let those zombie guys meet the enemies first. They can take the first attack and we'll see what we're dealing with."
"You are not a brave man," scoffed Quando, raised clenched fists that had heavily calloused knuckles.
"Or maybe I'm just not stupid! Getting killed is easy, you can do it any time. Those stiffs are cannon fodder if you ask me. If they want to get killed right away, let them... and we'll see what kind of attackers we're facing."
"He's got a point," added Indigo, who was trying to catch his breath. At sixty and not in the best shape, the Illusionist had been struggling to keep up. A bad limp and a disinclination to put full weight on one leg hadn't helped. "Look out, here come some more of the Cold Ones, let them pass."
Two dozen of the grey-skinned men hurried past them, some holding pistols but many remaining bare-handed. Dave Woodley had risen up to float near the arched ceiling and he shuddered visibly. "Those guys give me the creeps big time. No matter what the chief says, I bet they'll start eating peoples' brains at some point."
A burst of gunfire and excited yelling reached them from further up the corridor, out of sight around a bend. Amelia Mancuso sniffed deeply and yelled, "What is that godawful stink? All of you, stay back. Breath of Borikut!" In immediate response to her Invocation, a near-hurricane gust roared from where she stood down the tunnel, howling wildly as it went.
"Jeez, how many different effects can you call up, anyway?" asked Woodley.
The Calveron turned an unbearably smug grin at her teammates. "There are three Adalarim and each of them has three lesser Spirits under their control. As long as I act in a way they approve, each will send a different manifestation. You men have no clue how powerful I really am. Come. Follow me."
"I'm not arguing," the Flying Fool muttered, drawing his Heckler and Koch and holding it with both hands. He did not descend, but remained up near the ceiling of the tunnel as the other Coronet members began marching quickly toward the area ahead which was now much quieter.
In the lead, Quando abruptly dropped into a ready stance. "Here they come!"
Swinging around in front of the beefy fighter, Amelia laughed out loud. "Leave them to me!" A second later, the first of the Spinner of Web's men appeared in sight, bizarre in their yellow hazmat suits and respirators. Before they could launch a fresh spray of the caustic Alchemical potion, the Calveron raised her hands and cried out, "Flames of Margoth!"
From nowhere, blindly bright and intolerably hot, yellow-white fire erupted in a gout which swept over the approaching men. Their screams were lost in the crackle of flames which made each man burst into fireballs and fall thrashing to the stone floor. The manifestation of the Adalara known as Margoth's presence swept on further, passing out of sight.
"Christ..." mumbled Dave Woodley as he lowered until he was standing on the floor again. "You cooked them alive."
Amelia turned her lovely, terrifying face toward her teammates and seemed delighted at seeing shock in their expressions. "Heh heh. I'm starting to realize why Humans have tried to wipe my people out for centuries. Not one of you is safe while a Calveron lives."
V.
The river of white-hot fire gave only a split-second of warning by its roar before it swept over Josef and Jocelyn. Instinctively, the Blind Archer bent forward and covered with his arms and body as much of his longbow as he could. They both gasped as agonizing heat struck them. But the KDF field suits, with doublen layers of Trom flexible armor, held up. They were not harmed.
"Bugger me dead!" yelled Jocelyn as she slid up the visor of her helmet. "That was gralic flame. I didn't think anything could hurt us like that when we're armored up but my skin is stinging like hell."
Josef seemed satisfied that his bow had sustained only minor damage and was still usable. He fitted his arrow to the string again. "It must be the Calveron woman, Amelia Mancuso. They use Invocation magick.."
In the next third of a second, so many actions took place simultaneously that an untrained observer would have been hopelessly confused.
Josef Jubilec was standing with his left arm extended and his right hand darting up to snatch a replacement arrow from the quiver on his back.
Amelia Mancuso was dropping to her hands and knees, then over onto her side. A thin wooden shaft three feet long was sticking out from the front and back of her neck. She had taken a breath upon seeing the KDF pair but had not been able to speak before the steel arrowhead had slid through her windpipe.
Indigo's heart missed two beats when he saw the same Blind Archer who had sent an arrow like that one through his leg twenty years earlier. It had passed just below the knee and his leg had never been the same since. Frightened beyond rational thought, forgetting his power of making people see whatever he chose, the Illusionist spun around and hobbled off back down the tunnels as fast as he possibly could. He was not even aware he was whimpering in terror.
Dave Woodley was in contrast paralyzed by shock and surprise. He had barely had time to realize that they were encountering intruders when Amelia was falling down dead with an arrow sticking out the back of her neck. The Flying Fool's criminal career had not entailed much violence and he gaped with bulging eyes at the sight.
It was Quando who reacted by hurtling headlong at the attackers, head down and fists clenched. A shimmer ran over his body and his exposed skin darkened and roughened until it resembled granite. The arrow which struck him directly over the heart rebounded harmlessly. A second shaft glanced off just as ineffectively and in another second, Quando would have reached Josef with his stone-hard fists ready to break bones.
But the tunnel flared up with intense scarlet light that cast new shadows. The Red Spectre had drifted up out of Jocelyn's body to intercept the Coronet member. Quando yelled, "You can't scare me!" and took a swing, then shrieked in agony as his fist passed entirely through the insubstantial apparition. His rocklike hide blackened and cracked, chips flying aside. The Chinese fighter crouched, stepping back and cradling his ruined hand in the elbow of his other arm.
Jocelyn Garimara was leaning up against the wall for support, since having the Red Spectre exit her body left her weakened and dizzy. Her voice remained sharp. "You have one chance to live. Take us to the prisoners now."
"Go to Hell.." began Quando but all defiance ebbed as the floating form hissed and crackled more intensely. His skin stung and his hair was standing up, he realized he was indeed very close to dying there and then. "All right, all right, call this demon off."
"My Spectre really wants to burn you into charcoal," Jocelyn said, "Better hurry up."
"What happened to the flying man?" demanded Josef.
"Bah. He has no stomach for a fight. Both he and that old man Indigo were as useless as I always thought they'd be." Quando made a disgusted spitting noise and started leading Josef and Jocelyn deeper into the stronghold.
The three of them ran around and hopped over many corpses in the next few minutes. The men of the Spinner of Webs empire were twisted, blackened husks that still had smoke rising from them. The bodies of the Cold Ones had been scalded and ravaged by the Alchemical fumes which had killed them.
Josef dropped back several feet as they followed Quando, arrow notched and ready to fly. This one was tipped with a bulb containing tear gas. The Blind Archer had seen regular steel barbs wouldn't hurt the stone-skinned man but he thought the tear gas had a chance of at least disorienting him.
Stopping where the tunnel had widened out into an open area twenty feet across, Quando slowed and swung around to face his enemies. "Wait. First, I want to be sure you won't kill me as soon as you see your partners. Give me your word as Tel Shai knights."
"You have information about this operation? About your boss?" asked Josef.
"Of course. I think we can negotiate a deal we can both agree to."
Jocelyn tapped the right ear pod on her helmet and her visor rose up into its internal track. The face revealed was furious. "Stop stalling, get us to the prisoners before my Spectre breaks loose. Lightning's only happy when it strikes."
"All right, all right," the mercenary said. He was quietly flexing his right hand as the damaged rocklike texture had begun to deal up the cracks. Quando pointed to an unmarked wooden door seemingly identical to dozens of others. "Your friends are in there. The last I saw, they hadn't been harmed."
Without a word, Josef turned sideways, chambered his right knee up to his chest and drove out a straight side with all his Kumundu technique behind it. The lock snapped and the door slammed inward with a crash. From the room beyond, a big man wearing only a sheet tied around his middle rushed out and was immediately seized with an armbar from the Blind Archer. Luckily, Josef recognized the man he had grabbed before doing any real damage. "Archie...?!"
"Oh, thank God it's you," said Archie McAllister as his arm was released. "And Jocelyn, too? Listen, we have to get everyone out of here. That Olivia Wang has been getting ready to cut us up for samples."
Hurrying into the room, Jocelyn found six folding canvas cots laid out in two rows, with the empty one being where Archie had been placed. She hurried to each of her teammates and let a sob of relief. "They ARE okay, Josef! Pulse and breathing are fine. We got here in time after all."
"What? How are you up and walking around?" demanded Quando. When everyone turned to stare at him, the Coronet member sputtered, "This man tried to escape and we fought. I know I gave him some good hits, he was unconscious on the floor. He should be so bruised he can hardly move, not running around like nothing happened."
"Beats me," Archie admitted. "But we can't worry about that now. Come on, let's carry everyone to whatever exit there is."
The Blind Archer stood over the immense bulk of the Melgar champion. "They did not give enough sedative to Galvan. I can see his lifeforce whirling. I think he will recover within a few minutes and he can help us."
"As for you...." Jocelyn hissed at Quando, making him shrink back, "You were straight with us this time. Your chances of surviving this battle are getting better. The fighting's not over. More of Policastrio's soldiers will have joined the first wave by now. Where will the Spinner of Webs be?"
"You're not going to like it," the Coronet fighter answered. "She'll be unleashing twenty kinds of Hell into these tunnels."
VI.
Although he was groggy at first, Galvan quickly got his bearings and steadied up. Like Sulak and Valera, he was one of the Melgarin granted superhuman strength and resilience by the Legacy of Malberon. Even the high dosage of Yellow Lotus would not have been able to keep him sedated longer, and chains would have been only a second's annoyance before he snapped them. Seeing that Jin and the others were still unconscious but alive, he agreed with his partners. "Let's get everyone out to the CORBY where we can regroup," he said, ripped one of the sheets into halves which he tied around his middle in a loincloth. "Then we can come back and tear this hellhole down."
Josef made their prisoner stay in the doorway while the others hastily wrapped sheets around the insensate KDF members. "You'll come with us to the exit," he warned, "We'll decide what to do with you then."
Still with skin at rocklike durability, the Coronet member mumbled agreement but, seeing that Jocelyn was preoccupied for the moment, he spun and sprinted away full tilt. Four steps were all he managed before a sharp explosion detonated between his shoulder blades and flung him face down to the tunnel floor. Black wisps of smoke rose from his body.
"Did you think I was only carrying ordinary arrows?" asked Josef, lowering his bow. "That's half an ounce of the D24 gel explosive."
Sticking her head out of behind him, Jocelyn asked, "Is he alive?"
"No. I just sensed his lifeforce flicker out." The Blind Archer shrugged visibly, which for him was a wildly melodramatic gesture.a
The KDF team moved out. Galvan had Timothy draped over one shoulder, with his Demrak Jin in the crook of his other arm. Archie carried Sable, while Josef fixed his strung bow across his back and lifted Unicorn in his arms. "They're started to stir. Ashley just mumbled something."
"I love our healing factor! It's the best. The Spinner would have to keep increasing the dosage and each time our guys would recover faster. Which reminds me of something." Jocelyn had taken the lead, ready to unleash her Red Spectre at the sight of either enemy troops. She glanced back over one shoulder at Archie McAllister. "What Quando said. He beat you senseless not an hour ago but there's not a mark on you. And you snapped of the Yellow Lotus somehow. What's up with that?"
"I dunno," the big mechanic answered. "I can't figure it out either. Maybe I'm developing some sort of new gralic power? How would that work?"
"It's possible," Jocelyn said without seeming pleased at the thought. "I mean, you've been exposed to gralic force for years. My Red Spectre at close range, Unicorn's horn, all the creatures you met on those Trom Girl adventures."
"I like it in any case," Archie said. "Maybe I won't catch the flu this winter."
VII.
The tunnels were ominously silent as the group hurried back toward the entrance. The rattle of automatic gunfire and shouting in the distance had stopped completely and the dozens of twisted or bloodied bodies they passed could not add any sound to the scene. No one barred their way. The acrid fumes of Alchemical vapors still stung their skin and made their eyes water but had abated enough to let them navigate safely.
As they reached the terminus where the circular steel door still gaped open where the Red Spectre had blasted through, Sable snapped back to full awareness. She had been on the Tagra tea regimen the longest, more than twenty years, and her recuperative powers were at their peak. Placed back on her feet, she took in the situation instantly. "Let's get everyone in the CORBY. Then you can brief me on what happened," she decided.
A meadow stretched hundred of yards across near the base of Lookout Mountain. Within sight was the sinister black shape of their CORBY as well as six of the Weatherley P-121 transport helicopters. Dark blue with white trim and markings, each had brought twenty of Policastro's soldiers here. As the KDF members raced toward their own stealthcopter, they saw the Policastro pilots watching them from inside those cockpits.
Jocelyn and Sable tapped in the access code into a keypad on the side of the fuselage and the hatches slid open. "Get us wheels up," said Sable, "Galvan, get up front with her." She then climbed into the rear compartment herself. The three KDF members who were still unconscious were stretched out on the metal floor while Sable and Archie seated themselves on the bench. The Trom impulse engine only needed two or three minutes for readiness. Under the circumstances, Jocelyn cut the preflight checks to a quick survey of the green and blue status lights before starting the rotors. This second CORBY had been hangared on Hawk Island off the northern coast of Maine. It was longer than the copter they normally used, able to carry eight passengers with a little crowding, and it
From the Policastro copters, two armed soldiers had started to approach them, obviously intent on asking them about the combat situation within the mountain. The CORBY rose smoothly straight up into the night sky, its rotors making no more noise than a light breeze would. It was gone from sight within seconds.
"Jocelyn, land us wherever you see a good spot," Sable said. "As long as we're out of their sight. Galvan, give me a rundown."
While the big Melgar recounted what had happened in the past twenty-four hours, Sable studied her teammates on the floor. Her enhanced perception could hear and time their heartbeats. She could smell trace levels of adrenalin and stress chemicals on their skins. She could see the movements of their eyeballs beneath closed lids. All this while taking in Galvan's report.
"Josef, Jocelyn, excellent work. If we gave medals, you'd each get one. I think our friends will be reviving in another ten minutes or less." The team leader exhaled and finally allowed her shoulders to lower and untense. She had passed out in the crash of their other CORBY the day before and had regained consciousness to find herself being evacuated from a vicious battle while wearing only a sheet tied around her torso. But two decades in the Midnight War had gotten her used to adjusting to such confusing situations.
Sliding open the hatch, she hopped down on to the dew-slick grass. From the storage compartment behind the side vanes, Sable started handing up knapsacks to Josef. "Here's Tim's. Ashley's. Jin's. And sorry, Archie, you don't have a travel bag but I think Galvan's spare shirt and jeans will fit you more or less."
Standing next to the idling CORBY with its overhead rotors slowly turning, Sable tossed aside the sheet. She tugged on the silk-thin bodysuit of the Trom armor, then put on the pants, boots and crewneck shirt. Finally she shrugged into the waist-length jacket. Her helmet was strapped to the back of her travel bag but she did not put it on yet. "That's better," she said. Nudity did not bother any of the team any more, they had been through too much together for modesty.
Archie and Galvan both disembarked to join her. Both were big men and would have struggled to get dressed inside the cramped interior space. Archie accepted a blue flannel shirt and jeans, "You don't mind me wearing these?"
"Of course not," Galvan laughed. "We are comrades in arms on a battlefield. Afraid I only brought one pair of hiking boots, though."
The remaining three KDF members rose quickly from a foggy daze to full clarity. As everyone filled each other in on what had been happening, talking over each other in their excitement, Timothy and Ashley pulled their own field suits on. Demrak Jin hurriedly laced on her tunic and pants of rough grey sharkhide, but her bone-bladed knife had been taken by the Spinner of Web's men. With a relieved cry, the Gelydra threw herself into Galvan's waiting arms. They embraced tightly, murmuring words of encouragement but had to finally disengage as Sable called everyone to attention.
Looking over teammates assembled by the stealthcopter, Sable allowed herself a weary smile. "All of us, alive and well. Ready for anything the Midnight War can throw at us. This has certainly hit a low point for our team so far but we're on the offensive now. I'll take the stick. Tim, you're in the co-pilot seat. Everyone else, secure yourselves in the rear. We're going back into that mountain. Whatever it takes, the threat posed by Olivia Wang and Samuel Policastro will end tonight!"
VIII.
Back at the entrance to the Spinner of Web's stronghold, the CORBY landed closer than before to the Policastro helicopters. Six of the armed soldiers hurried out of their craft to meet them. They were not wearing the rubberized hazmat suits but ordinary camouflage jumpsuits, each carrying an AK-47 and with a holstered sidearm as well.
In the pilot seat, Sable lowered her helmet down over her head and attached it to her high collar to make an airtight seal. "Archie, you're staying here for now. You don't have any protection against bullets or Alchemical poisons. I'm leaving the impulse engines running on low and the rotors turning at minimum for an immediate takeoff. Unicorn, up in the pilot seat, you have the stick."
"Okay, I'll stand by," Ashley said.
As she opened her hatch with a hiss of pressurized air leaving the cabin, Sable said, "Timothy, you're close enough to send your caspers in. Give us a quick recon."
Sitting on the bench in the rear compartment, Timothy Limbo held out both hands. Above the upturned palms, two barely visible tornadoes three inches high materialized and swirled for a second before whipping out through the open front hatch. He summoned two more of his friendly ghosts and sent them on their way as well. "I'll report what my boys 'see,' " he told Sable. "They don't like the vibes of that place."
The five KDF members were confronted by Policastro's soldiers as they disembarked. "We're going back in," Sable announced in a tone that gave no room for leeway.
One of the soldiers wore a white armband with some esoteric symbol on it, evidently showing he had higher rank than the others. "We were ordered to defer to you," he grumbled. "But there's been radio silence from the start. Something is jamming all signals."
"We saw fighting in there, but that's all we know ourselves." Sable had lowered the visor on her helmet and was talking through the speaker. "We can't promise what we'll do until we evaluate the situation. Two of my team are staying with our chopper and it's armed with 30mm chain guns in case any Web fighters come this way." Without further comment, she turned toward the opening and strode briskly toward it with her team right behind her.
Through their communications system, Timothy said, "My caspers are flying up and down the tunnels. It's bad, captain. So far they haven't shown me any living people at all, just dead bodies all over the place."
"It would be a shame if the two armies wiped each other out," Demrak Jin growled. "No one for us to slay."
Sable stepped through the smashed in steel door and headed down the tunnels again. "Weapons ready. The resonance shells are usually non-lethal, cracking a rib or breaking an arm, but a hit to the head will kill. That's justified under these circumstances."
"Understood," replied both Timothy and Unicorn. They were the two KDF members with the strongest reservations about taking life even in Midnight War battles, but having been taken prisoner had left them in a hardened sentiment.
As they wended around the gruesome bodies sprawled in clusters on the floor, the KDF team kept pausing as Timothy sent into caspers under doors to investigate each room they reached. Twenty minutes dragged by until finally he snapped his fingers in front of a door as his little manifestation came swirling excitedly back. "There's our stuff! Everything's in there."
"Allow me." Galvan seemed to merely press one palm against the rough wood surface but the door cracked into vertical halves and fell inward. They entered a brightly lit room with tables on which their confiscated suits and belongings had been laid out. Open tool chests and thick notebooks indicated that their gear was being studied.
"Look over in that corner," Tim pointed out. "Parts from the wrecked CORBY. I bet they thought they could reverse engineer the Trom tech."
"That Flying Fool guy. He's managed to make working replicas of the gravity shields. Imagine if Trom tech got into Olivia Wang's hands." Unicorn sounded sterner than she had ever had before.
"Everyone gather up your armor, your Links and dart guns," ordered Sable. "Make bundles you can tie over one shoulder and carry everything with us. Crooks wearing our literally bulletproof armor would be a threat to law enforcement everywhere."
Once the most vital equipment had been stowed into bundles made of the Trom armor, with the arms and legs tied into knots to act as improvised carrying bags, Sable directed her team to gather everything left into a single pile. "That's good. Josef, how many of your explosive arrowheads are you packing?"
"Three, captain."
"Okay, I want them on top of the pile. Everybody, back out of the room." With her team assembled in the tunnel again, Sable got them down twenty feet from the doorway. "Joss, can you detonate those arrowheads?"
"Gladly." The Red Spectre shot up from the slim woman's body and crackled like the living lightning into the room. They felt the explosion thump against their feet and the gout of black smoke rushing out the open door showed that their remaining gear had been destroyed. Jocelyn straightened up at the scarlet apparition dove back into her torso. "She enjoyed that. My Gammon is absolutely aching for some action."
"She may get her fill," Sable replled. "I doubt this is over yet."
VIII.
Back at the entrance to the Spinner of Web's stronghold, the CORBY landed closer than before to the Policastro helicopters. Six of the armed soldiers hurried out of their craft to meet them. They were not wearing the rubberized hazmat suits but ordinary camouflage jumpsuits, each carrying an AK-47 and with a holstered sidearm as well.
In the pilot seat, Sable lowered her helmet down over her head and attached it to her high collar to make an airtight seal. "Archie, you're staying here for now. You don't have any protection against bullets or Alchemical poisons. I'm leaving the impulse engines running on low and the rotors turning at minimum for an immediate takeoff. Unicorn, up in the pilot seat, you have the stick."
"Okay, I'll stand by," Ashley said.
As she opened her hatch with a hiss of pressurized air leaving the cabin, Sable said, "Timothy, you're close enough to send your caspers in. Give us a quick recon."
Sitting on the bench in the rear compartment, Timothy Limbo held out both hands. Above the upturned palms, two barely visible tornadoes three inches high materialized and swirled for a second before whipping out through the open front hatch. He summoned two more of his friendly ghosts and sent them on their way as well. "I'll report what my boys 'see,' " he told Sable. "They don't like the vibes of that place."
The five KDF members were confronted by Policastro's soldiers as they disembarked. "We're going back in," Sable announced in a tone that gave no room for leeway.
One of the soldiers wore a white armband with some esoteric symbol on it, evidently showing he had higher rank than the others. "We were ordered to defer to you," he grumbled. "But there's been radio silence from the start. Something is jamming all signals."
"We saw fighting in there, but that's all we know ourselves." Sable had lowered the visor on her helmet and was talking through the speaker. "We can't promise what we'll do until we evaluate the situation. Two of my team are staying with our chopper and it's armed with 30mm chain guns in case any Web fighters come this way." Without further comment, she turned toward the opening and strode briskly toward it with her team right behind her.
Through their communications system, Timothy said, "My caspers are flying up and down the tunnels. It's bad, captain. So far they haven't shown me any living people at all, just dead bodies all over the place."
"It would be a shame if the two armies wiped each other out," Demrak Jin growled. "No one for us to slay."
Sable stepped through the smashed in steel door and headed down the tunnels again. "Weapons ready. The resonance shells are usually non-lethal, cracking a rib or breaking an arm, but a hit to the head will kill. That's justified under these circumstances."
"Understood," replied both Timothy and Unicorn. They were the two KDF members with the strongest reservations about taking life even in Midnight War battles, but having been taken prisoner had left them in a hardened sentiment.
As they wended around the gruesome bodies sprawled in clusters on the floor, the KDF team kept pausing as Timothy sent into caspers under doors to investigate each room they reached. Twenty minutes dragged by until finally he snapped his fingers in front of a door as his little manifestation came swirling excitedly back. "There's our stuff! Everything's in there."
"Allow me." Galvan seemed to merely press one palm against the rough wood surface but the door cracked into vertical halves and fell inward. They entered a brightly lit room with tables on which their confiscated suits and belongings had been laid out. Open tool chests and thick notebooks indicated that their gear was being studied.
"Look over in that corner," Tim pointed out. "Parts from the wrecked CORBY. I bet they thought they could reverse engineer the Trom tech."
"That Flying Fool guy. He's managed to make working replicas of the gravity shields. Imagine if Trom tech got into Olivia Wang's hands." Unicorn sounded sterner than she had ever had before.
"Everyone gather up your armor, your Links and dart guns," ordered Sable. "Make bundles you can tie over one shoulder and carry everything with us. Crooks wearing our literally bulletproof armor would be a threat to law enforcement everywhere."
Once the most vital equipment had been stowed into bundles made of the Trom armor, with the arms and legs tied into knots to act as improvised carrying bags, Sable directed her team to gather everything left into a single pile. "That's good. Josef, how many of your explosive arrowheads are you packing?"
"Three, captain."
"Okay, I want them on top of the pile. Everybody, back out of the room." With her team assembled in the tunnel again, Sable got them down twenty feet from the doorway. "Joss, can you detonate those arrowheads?"
"Gladly." The Red Spectre shot up from the slim woman's body and crackled like the living lightning into the room. They felt the explosion thump against their feet and the gout of black smoke rushing out the open door showed that their remaining gear had been destroyed. Jocelyn straightened up at the scarlet apparition dove back into her torso. "She enjoyed that. My Gammon is absolutely aching for some action."
"She may get her fill," Sable replled. "I doubt this is over yet."
More than an hour crawled by as they searched rooms and stepped around dozens of bodies. So much Alchemical poison had been released into the air by both sides that even the tiniest rip in a hazmat suit proved fatal. Some of the corpses were twisted into contortions that showed how painful death had been. Many of the Cold Ones were ripped up by gunfire but most had succumbed to the clouds of vapor which had made these tunnels a deathtrap.
"I'm not sure even our suits would have protected us," Sable said finally as they paused in their morose search. "Joss, Josef, you got us out of here barely in time. "
"It was too close to suit me," the Blind Archer admitted. "I thought I was hardened to battlefields, but I'm starting to feel uneasy."
"I have no trouble admitting all this is making me sick to my stomach," added Timothy. "But I guess we have to see it through. Wait. One of my caspers is showing me something. Oh. Captain, just ahead around the next bend..."
"What is it?" asked Sable, with a sinking feeling she knew the answer.
"Yeah, it looks like the Spinner of Webs got caught in all the poison. Stung with her own venom, you could say."
They found the corpse without a mark on it, lying face up against a tunnel wall. Eyes closed, resplendent in a green silk dress that shimmered in the hellish light, it was a strange relief to view after seeing so many corroded and blistered dead men.
"Her lifeforce has gone out completely," Josef announced. "Dead for many ten, fifteen minutes."
Standing over the body of a former lover and longtime bitter foe, Lauren Sable Reilly did not speak for a moment. Her enhanced senses allowed her to inspect the corpse at a microscopic level. Finally, almost whispering, she said, "All is not what it seems."
IX.
IX.
Sable led her team at a full run back toward the entrance. One final time, they wended over and around dozens of grisly contorted corpses, and familiarity had not made the experience easier to bear. The stench of the lethal Alchemical vapors still stung their nostrils.
The last of Timothy's caspers swirled around his head before blinking out of existence like a soap bubble popping. "My boys haven't found any civilians anywhere," he casually said as if not running full tilt. "Seems like we were the only captive."
"Good," responded Sable. She raced out into the meadow where the sky was showing a faint hazy light to the East. It had been a long night. "Galvan, stay with me. Everyone else, get aboard and strap yourselves in. Tim, take the stick and do wheels up as soon as Galvan and I get in."
When within conversational range of the soldiers, Sable said, "Better get in there and see it for yourselves. Looks like there were no survivors. Tell your boss we'll be in touch." Ignoring the barrage of shouted questions, she sprinted toward the CORBY and dove through the open rear hatch with the giant Melgar right behind her. Even before the hatch clicked shut, the black stealth copter ascended straight up and was gone from sight within seconds.
Sable sat on the metal floor, leaning back against the bank of equipment drawers which took up the port wall. She yanked off her helmet and brushed back sweat-damp hair with her fingers. "Finally. Now I can explain what happened at the end. That body wasn't Olivia Wang."
"What?! Are you sure?" Unicorn blurted before adding, "I mean, of course you're sure, you've got eyes like an electron microscope. I'm just surprised."
"There were a dozen tiny scars around her eyes and nose," Sable said with sudden weariness in her tone. "The unaided Human eye could never spot them. Her skin pore distribution was all wrong. Her index fingers were a full centimeter longer. There were other clues but they all added up."
"Oh my God," breathed the Unicorn. "They found a woman who looked enough like the Spinner of Webs, then put her through months of plastic surgery and then killed her so they could leave her body behind? That's so twisted!"
"And now Policastro thinks Olivia is dead. If he's convinced, he won't be searching for her." Sable pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them. "That's give her some breathing space to catch her breath and plan her next move. She's a schemer, all right. She sure fooled me when we first met."
"Heading home?" asked Tim from the pilot seat.
"Yes. Bring us back to headquarters. On the way, everyone will go over what they saw and did tonight so we can assemble the full picture. Then I think we all need hot showers and lots of sleep. We've earned it."
"I could fall asleep right now, no problem," grumbled Unicorn. "But debriefing is important. I guess."
Seated next to the petite blonde, Jocelyn Garimara was leaning back with her eyes closed. "You know, I think I figured out why Archie recovered so fast from the Yellow Lotus and from the beating. Anyone want to hear my theory?"
"Are you kidding? Of course we want to know!"
"Right then. Here goes. We are under oath not to reveal to outsiders the secret of our Tagra diet. And even more, never to share Tagra with anyone, on penalty of expulsion from Tel Shai. The Teachers mean it. But Megan loved Archie so much that she broke that vow. My guess is that a few months before her death, Megan started adding tiny amounts of crushed Tagra leaves to his food or drink... I bet she mixed it in with his coffee. He wouldn't have noticed anything until enough accumulated in his body to cross a threshold. And then the healing factor kicked in. How does that sound?"
"It's would be just like Megan to do that," Unicorn said with her voice on the verge of breaking. "Oh God. Yes, I can see her doing that."
"I'll never get over losing her," Archie said. "And hearing this.. it makes sense. I started feeling peppy and healthier recently. I think she was sharing the Tagra with me, whether the Teachers would have expelled her or not."
Sable was staring wearily into space, taking a moment before she added, "With this possibility in mind, I guess officially we should search your house and confiscate any Tagra. Megan may have hidden a stash somewhere. But today and tomorrow, we're going to be busy recovering and debriefing and meeting with Policastro. You're not a KDF member, Archie. I'm afraid you'll be free the next forty-eight hours before we can catch up to you."
"Yeah," added Unicorn. "It would be a shame if you found the stash of Tagra leaves and stowed them away somewhere else. But I bet it would make Megan happy if she knew about it."
9/24/2022
6/2022
I.
Five armed guards escorted Josef Jubilec from the lobby into the elevator and then out to a hallway on the fifty-first and top floor of the office building at 156 West 82nd Street. The men wore black slacks and light blue shirts with the logo CRAMER SECURITY over the left breast pocket, and each carried a .45 Colt revolver in a holster on a separate Sam Browne belt. The guards were all burly, intimidating men but even they seemed uneasy around one of the dreaded Blind Archers.
Josef was used to this reaction and had come to expect it. He wore a dark brown business suit of conservative cut, complete with a tan shirt and brown tie and co-ordinated vest. A lifetime spent drawing longbows had given him a massive chest and brawny arms which the suit could not conceal. Short sandy blond hair topped a bony face with bleak, dark blue eyes which gave away nothing of what he thought. The Blind Archers were raised from infancy to keep poker faces no matter what. Assassins were wise to keep their intentions secret.
They waited for a few seconds before an unmarked green metal door buzzed. One of the guards held the door open for Josef, who passed through without comment into a bare cubicle of white tile. Only a massive steel door broke the gleaming walls. None of the guards entered the cubicle, they all stepped back as the outer door closed and locked with a decisive click.
The Blind Archer stood motionless, patient as a born hunter. He could not spot any of the cameras that he knew must be scrutinizing him at that moment. Then the inner door opened silently and a huge bruiser in one of the security uniforms peered out at him. At a gesture from the guard, Josef squeezed past him into an old-fashioned office with many bookshelves, deep plush carpeting and substantial easy chairs. From behind a paper-strewn desk, an old man half rose politely and gestured for him to be seated.
Although the Alchemist looked to be in his well-preserved late sixties, closer study showed the thin dry skin of the face was covered with a maze of fine wrinkles. The receding snowy hair was still thick, even the bushy eyebrows were solid white, lowering over shrewd blue eyes. That tailored suit fit the wiry body perfectly. "Mr Jubilec. Knights of your Order of Tel Shai are not known for paying social calls on members of my community. You have some business proposition, perhaps?"
"I am here to offer information you should find useful," Josef replied. He had from his teen years been able to put any accent he wanted into his voice, and now he slightly mimicked a Sicilian tinge. "But first, understand I do not subscribe to the cliche about the enemy of my enemy being my friend."
"As world wars have shown, even bitter enemies can form alliances of convenience," the old man immediately responded. "Temporary alliances, of course."
"Exactly. There is no misunderstanding between us. Let me mention that one hundred and thirty miles north of where we sit are the Catskill Mountains. There, the Spinner of Webs is indeed spinning her webs and thinks she is secure..."
II.
Seated on a raised throne-like ebony chair, Olivia Wang gazed out at her Coronet team as they ate. The meal was Western style tonight, tender braised lamb shanks over polenta with cauliflower mash. The wine selected was an obvious Pinot Noir, and old Yau kept filling each member's glass as she judged ready. Watching her team, the Spinner of Webs felt vaguely irked that none of them had cultivated tastes enough to appreciate how well her chef had prepared supper. She would bet that they didn't even notice the ground porcine mushrooms. She might as well have ordered Burger King for these crude Americans.
But then, she wasn't employing them for social graces but for their rare extrahuman abilities. Indigo the Illusionist, picking disinterestly at the lamb, could make a crowd see anything from a raging fire to a swarm of hornets with perfectly convincing realism. Dave Woodley, known in professional thievery circles as the Flying Fool, had obtained the secrets of Trom gravity shield technology; she acknowledged that at least he had the grace to nod approvingly at her when he first began to eat. The tall blonde Amelia Mancuso had regained her appetite after a month of being depressed and listless. Seeing her dig in heartily to a second plate, Olivia realized that the violent action of the past three days had triggered some unexpected gleeful response in the witch. Her people the Calveron were known to be inclined toward rash and excessive emotional states.
Joining Coronet at the table for the first time was her bodyguard and driver, Quando. A wide Southern Chinese with the exaggerated biceps and pectorals of a bodybuilder, he had been moved to the team after the death of Repel at the hands of her enemies. His strange ability to harden his skin to rocklike texture had been caused by an experimental Alchemical serum she had tried on the boy. Quando's father had served Olivia Wang for three decades and the son had literally been raised by her.
For, although she certainly seemed no more than thirty at the most, the lovely woman with oblique cat-green eyes and straight glossy black hair, was more than one hundred years old. Alchemy extended her youth indefinitely as it had stretched the lifespan of her father, the original Spinner of Webs. She looked forward to a long and gratifying reign of her empire once she had regained full control of it.
"Coronet, hear me," she said and every head snapped up instantly alert and attentive. Despite their powers, they well knew what cruelties she was capable of. "This is the second time in three days we have had to relocate. Twice we have been attacked by the fools of the Kenneth Dred Foundation, meddling knights of Tel Shai that they are. I am offended at their audacity. They have also taken from me the services of Jorge Vargas, Repel."
She rose to her full height. That night, Olivia affected a silk gown of dark green with fine golden threads woven in esoteric symbols. The high collar and full sleeves added to her innate charisma. Sorcerers and Darthim, kingmakers and career mobsters had all instinctively watched their step in her presence. "It is true that we now hold six of them helpless prisoners. But do not feel their threat is even close to being over. Some of their most dangerous members are still out there and even now will be turning furious eyes toward us. There is the Australian woman who bears the Red Spectre. Sulak and Valera of the Melgarin. One of the Blind Archers. And worst of all, the Dire Wolf himself."
Amelia put a tinge of scorn into her comment, "We've done well enough against these KDF guys so far. If you ask me, they're not as tough as their reputations made me think."
"When all of them are safely captured, then and only then will it be time to boast," the Spinner of Webs said. "For the moment, we are secure beyond any chance of being attacked. My father started his slaves digging and connecting these tunnels back before the 20th Century dawned. We sit more than two hundred feet beneath the surface of Lookout Mountain in Shawnee, New York. Thousands of tons of granite, shale and dirt cover us and the entrances are concealed so well there is no chance they will be found, even if anyone knew where to look."
"That's good news," Woodley said, picking up his wine glass for its final sip. "I'm not in this because I like to fight. That's Quando's ego trip. If we can pull off our jobs without any complications, that's fine with me."
Seating herself again, Olivia Wang allowed a smile on her fine-curved lips but her green eyes remained serious and the contrast was unnerving. "Oh, Flying Fool, do not live up to your war name. Your job will be neither safe nor easy. The four of you will accompany me to Manhattan, to East 38th Street where our enemies make their headquarters. We will strike them down. They will not attack us unexpectedly a third time..."
As she spoke, a deep booming explosion thundered not far from them and they all felt the floor beneath their feet shudder. Gouts of dust spilled down from the ceiling. All five members of Coronet jumped to their feet, but it was Dave Woodley who muttered, "The irony is wonderful, chief."
III.
The Cold Ones served Olivia Wang with unshakeable loyalty because their very continued existence depended on her serum. They had been killed and immediately resucitated with the Alchemical potion before permanent brain damage could set in. They no longer needed to eat or drink, the potion itself kept them active. Whatever their tones had been in life, hair and skin faded to a dingy greyish white. Their bodies stayed slightly below room temperature, making them clammy and unpleasant to be near. In the off-white burlap tunics and baggy pants she issued them, they carried out any labors too hazardous or revolting for the other workers to be assigned. All the other men and women who served the Spinner of Webs in her worldwide rackets hated and feared the Cold Ones.
Here, in the stronghold beneath Lookout Mountain, dozens of the half-alive slaves toiled with little rest. At the beginning of the mile-long maze of tunnels, a round steel door seven feet across was locked with a crossbar and two of the Cold Ones stood by it in fifteen hour shifts without tiring or complaining. At intervals, the devices on their belts beeped and they answered to assure the monitor officer that all was well.
There was no warning that the door was about to be breached. The massive steel disc blew loose of its housing and crashed forward to the smooth stone floor with a screech of metal being ripped free against its will. The Cold Ones still had normal reflexes and both guards backstepped quickly away, snatching up their communicators. But they did not have the second available to call for help. Flashing through the opening to the outside world came a deep scarlet silhouette of a woman. It crackled and hissed as it swung through the air to sear cleanly through both Cold Ones, dropping their bodies into unequal halves that finally knew the rest of truth death.
The Red Spectre hovered weightlessly in mid-air for a second, turning its featureless oval of a head from side to side. Then it spun to plunge back into the body of its host and vanish again. Jocelyn Garimara was wearing the full KDF field suit, including the helmet which was sealed to her high collar to make the rig airtight. High between her shoulders was a small compressed air tank. Through the speaker in her helmet, she announced, "There you go! Get to work."
Charging into the tunnel came a stream of men in bright canary yellow hazmat suits, with elaborate respirators built into their headpieces. Their gloves and boots were of the same tough rubberized material. Many wore wide flat tanks across their backs, hoses running from the tanks to spray nozzles with pistol grips. Others were armed with more conventional Colt M16 assault rifles and holstered sidearms. They rushed through the opening in pairs, swinging their weapons from side to side, moving into the tunnel until fifty of them had stormed the stronghold.
Only when the last of the Spinner of Webs' troops had raced out of sight did Josef Jubilec appear. Like Jocelyn, he was wearing a KDF field suit with helmet sealed to its oxygen tank but he had also had a V-shaped leather quiver across his back and he held a yew longbow he had crafted himself. "Let them take the first wave of resistance," he said.
Turning to him, Jocelyn waved one hand in an annoyed gesture. "I suppose. But my Spectre is aching to blaze through this snakepit. I want to let her tear this place apart."
"Lightning's only happy when it strikes," Josef replied.
"And she is wild lightning incarnate. Yes. I can restrain her if I must." The Aboriginal woman squared narrow shoulders and drew herself up to begin striding forward. "Come on, this should be a battle like no other."
Josef notched an arrow with a killing barb to the string and they trotted forward at a double time pace they could keep up for hours. The tunnels seemed endless, branching off at intervals and with unexpected sharp twists and bends. Generations of slaves had labored to dig this maze. Olivia's father, the original Spinner of Webs, had utilized an Alchemical potion which temporarily softened stone so it could be worked like wet clay. Even so, it had been back-ruining work to create this labyrinth deep inside a mountain. Broad stripes of some phosphorescent paint high up on the walls gave plenty of light for them to see by. Frequent doors were marked by esoteric symbols etched into the wood, and there were many niches in the walls holding chest-high ceramic urns.
"God only knows what's in those things," Jocelyn muttered. "I wouldn't dare pry one open, probably some fumes that rot yer flesh right off the bone." She tugged her Link from her belt and tapped on its screen without breaking stride. "Give me a second. Our friends' Links have shut down of course but we can still locate the devices themselves. Blood hell, how long ARE these tunnels? Looks like half a kilometer to go, Josef."
"We all voted not to have tracker chips implanted under our skins," the Blind Archer responded. "Too much loss of privacy. Sable was the only one pushing for the idea."
"Yeah, well, it would sure be useful right now. Sounds like a serious disagreements up ahead."
In fact, shouting and screams and the din of automatic gunfire had begun a few seconds earlier. The echoing effect of the stone tunnels made it difficult to gauge how far away the fighting was. Both Josef and Jocelyn quickened their pace. Gusting around a bend, noxious yellow-green gas filled the tunnel and rushed over them to blot out sight for a second as it billowed past.
"Ack! Ack, even without smelling it, I can tell that stuff reeks," Jocelyn gagged. "Josef, you okay?"
"I think so. My suit's seals held, I can't feel any leakage. How about you?"
"Same here, old mate. But look at us. That left a residue on our suits. Ugh, it's all sticky. We'll have to be careful getting them off."
The Blind Archer pulled back on his longbow and then relaxed it, seeming satisfied that the weapon had not been damaged. "I gather that was one of the Alchemy potions that Olivia Wang's men are using. Without our suits, we'd likely to be dead right now."
"Come on, let's see what's going on," Jocelyn snapped as she took off at a run which she and her partner could maintain for hours. "What could have blown that cloud away so fast?"
"No idea. I hate this situation we've put ourselves in, Jocelyn."
"Oh, I agree," she replied. We have pitted two two deadly forces against each other in the hopes they'll be busy fighting each other so we can find our friends. But we've stirred up a storm of steel doing so."
IV.
Exiting the dining hall, the four members of Coronet passed through the suite of rooms where the Spinner of Webs had relocated her activities and were soon racing along the less luxurious series of rough-walled tunnels with locked doors spaced along either side. Three of them had innate gralic powers and could fight in the unremarkable civilian clothes they had on. Dave Woodley had snatched up the suitcase he always kept on hand. As he ran, the Flying Fool managed to open it and extract both his gunbelt and the straps which held his gravity shield. To fasten them on, he did have to slow to a walk and let the others get ahead of him.
Evidently the original Spinner of Webs had designed the tunnels to inconvenience any possible intruders. The bends and sharp twists were frequent, as were stretches where the tunnels narrowed so only one person could pass at a time. After a few minutes, numerous Cold Ones began emerging from the doors and hurrying past the four Coronet members.
The Flying Fool tapped controls on his left cuff and rose up a few inches to hover with his feet off the rough floor. Accelerating as he went, he glided along the corridors to quickly catch up with the other Coronet members.
"Wait, wait, slow down," Woodley urged his teammates. When they came to a halt and regarded him unhappily, he added, "Let those zombie guys meet the enemies first. They can take the first attack and we'll see what we're dealing with."
"You are not a brave man," scoffed Quando, raised clenched fists that had heavily calloused knuckles.
"Or maybe I'm just not stupid! Getting killed is easy, you can do it any time. Those stiffs are cannon fodder if you ask me. If they want to get killed right away, let them... and we'll see what kind of attackers we're facing."
"He's got a point," added Indigo, who was trying to catch his breath. At sixty and not in the best shape, the Illusionist had been struggling to keep up. A bad limp and a disinclination to put full weight on one leg hadn't helped. "Look out, here come some more of the Cold Ones, let them pass."
Two dozen of the grey-skinned men hurried past them, some holding pistols but many remaining bare-handed. Dave Woodley had risen up to float near the arched ceiling and he shuddered visibly. "Those guys give me the creeps big time. No matter what the chief says, I bet they'll start eating peoples' brains at some point."
A burst of gunfire and excited yelling reached them from further up the corridor, out of sight around a bend. Amelia Mancuso sniffed deeply and yelled, "What is that godawful stink? All of you, stay back. Breath of Borikut!" In immediate response to her Invocation, a near-hurricane gust roared from where she stood down the tunnel, howling wildly as it went.
"Jeez, how many different effects can you call up, anyway?" asked Woodley.
The Calveron turned an unbearably smug grin at her teammates. "There are three Adalarim and each of them has three lesser Spirits under their control. As long as I act in a way they approve, each will send a different manifestation. You men have no clue how powerful I really am. Come. Follow me."
"I'm not arguing," the Flying Fool muttered, drawing his Heckler and Koch and holding it with both hands. He did not descend, but remained up near the ceiling of the tunnel as the other Coronet members began marching quickly toward the area ahead which was now much quieter.
In the lead, Quando abruptly dropped into a ready stance. "Here they come!"
Swinging around in front of the beefy fighter, Amelia laughed out loud. "Leave them to me!" A second later, the first of the Spinner of Web's men appeared in sight, bizarre in their yellow hazmat suits and respirators. Before they could launch a fresh spray of the caustic Alchemical potion, the Calveron raised her hands and cried out, "Flames of Margoth!"
From nowhere, blindly bright and intolerably hot, yellow-white fire erupted in a gout which swept over the approaching men. Their screams were lost in the crackle of flames which made each man burst into fireballs and fall thrashing to the stone floor. The manifestation of the Adalara known as Margoth's presence swept on further, passing out of sight.
"Christ..." mumbled Dave Woodley as he lowered until he was standing on the floor again. "You cooked them alive."
Amelia turned her lovely, terrifying face toward her teammates and seemed delighted at seeing shock in their expressions. "Heh heh. I'm starting to realize why Humans have tried to wipe my people out for centuries. Not one of you is safe while a Calveron lives."
V.
The river of white-hot fire gave only a split-second of warning by its roar before it swept over Josef and Jocelyn. Instinctively, the Blind Archer bent forward and covered with his arms and body as much of his longbow as he could. They both gasped as agonizing heat struck them. But the KDF field suits, with doublen layers of Trom flexible armor, held up. They were not harmed.
"Bugger me dead!" yelled Jocelyn as she slid up the visor of her helmet. "That was gralic flame. I didn't think anything could hurt us like that when we're armored up but my skin is stinging like hell."
Josef seemed satisfied that his bow had sustained only minor damage and was still usable. He fitted his arrow to the string again. "It must be the Calveron woman, Amelia Mancuso. They use Invocation magick.."
In the next third of a second, so many actions took place simultaneously that an untrained observer would have been hopelessly confused.
Josef Jubilec was standing with his left arm extended and his right hand darting up to snatch a replacement arrow from the quiver on his back.
Amelia Mancuso was dropping to her hands and knees, then over onto her side. A thin wooden shaft three feet long was sticking out from the front and back of her neck. She had taken a breath upon seeing the KDF pair but had not been able to speak before the steel arrowhead had slid through her windpipe.
Indigo's heart missed two beats when he saw the same Blind Archer who had sent an arrow like that one through his leg twenty years earlier. It had passed just below the knee and his leg had never been the same since. Frightened beyond rational thought, forgetting his power of making people see whatever he chose, the Illusionist spun around and hobbled off back down the tunnels as fast as he possibly could. He was not even aware he was whimpering in terror.
Dave Woodley was in contrast paralyzed by shock and surprise. He had barely had time to realize that they were encountering intruders when Amelia was falling down dead with an arrow sticking out the back of her neck. The Flying Fool's criminal career had not entailed much violence and he gaped with bulging eyes at the sight.
It was Quando who reacted by hurtling headlong at the attackers, head down and fists clenched. A shimmer ran over his body and his exposed skin darkened and roughened until it resembled granite. The arrow which struck him directly over the heart rebounded harmlessly. A second shaft glanced off just as ineffectively and in another second, Quando would have reached Josef with his stone-hard fists ready to break bones.
But the tunnel flared up with intense scarlet light that cast new shadows. The Red Spectre had drifted up out of Jocelyn's body to intercept the Coronet member. Quando yelled, "You can't scare me!" and took a swing, then shrieked in agony as his fist passed entirely through the insubstantial apparition. His rocklike hide blackened and cracked, chips flying aside. The Chinese fighter crouched, stepping back and cradling his ruined hand in the elbow of his other arm.
Jocelyn Garimara was leaning up against the wall for support, since having the Red Spectre exit her body left her weakened and dizzy. Her voice remained sharp. "You have one chance to live. Take us to the prisoners now."
"Go to Hell.." began Quando but all defiance ebbed as the floating form hissed and crackled more intensely. His skin stung and his hair was standing up, he realized he was indeed very close to dying there and then. "All right, all right, call this demon off."
"My Spectre really wants to burn you into charcoal," Jocelyn said, "Better hurry up."
"What happened to the flying man?" demanded Josef.
"Bah. He has no stomach for a fight. Both he and that old man Indigo were as useless as I always thought they'd be." Quando made a disgusted spitting noise and started leading Josef and Jocelyn deeper into the stronghold.
The three of them ran around and hopped over many corpses in the next few minutes. The men of the Spinner of Webs empire were twisted, blackened husks that still had smoke rising from them. The bodies of the Cold Ones had been scalded and ravaged by the Alchemical fumes which had killed them.
Josef dropped back several feet as they followed Quando, arrow notched and ready to fly. This one was tipped with a bulb containing tear gas. The Blind Archer had seen regular steel barbs wouldn't hurt the stone-skinned man but he thought the tear gas had a chance of at least disorienting him.
Stopping where the tunnel had widened out into an open area twenty feet across, Quando slowed and swung around to face his enemies. "Wait. First, I want to be sure you won't kill me as soon as you see your partners. Give me your word as Tel Shai knights."
"You have information about this operation? About your boss?" asked Josef.
"Of course. I think we can negotiate a deal we can both agree to."
Jocelyn tapped the right ear pod on her helmet and her visor rose up into its internal track. The face revealed was furious. "Stop stalling, get us to the prisoners before my Spectre breaks loose. Lightning's only happy when it strikes."
"All right, all right," the mercenary said. He was quietly flexing his right hand as the damaged rocklike texture had begun to deal up the cracks. Quando pointed to an unmarked wooden door seemingly identical to dozens of others. "Your friends are in there. The last I saw, they hadn't been harmed."
Without a word, Josef turned sideways, chambered his right knee up to his chest and drove out a straight side with all his Kumundu technique behind it. The lock snapped and the door slammed inward with a crash. From the room beyond, a big man wearing only a sheet tied around his middle rushed out and was immediately seized with an armbar from the Blind Archer. Luckily, Josef recognized the man he had grabbed before doing any real damage. "Archie...?!"
"Oh, thank God it's you," said Archie McAllister as his arm was released. "And Jocelyn, too? Listen, we have to get everyone out of here. That Olivia Wang has been getting ready to cut us up for samples."
Hurrying into the room, Jocelyn found six folding canvas cots laid out in two rows, with the empty one being where Archie had been placed. She hurried to each of her teammates and let a sob of relief. "They ARE okay, Josef! Pulse and breathing are fine. We got here in time after all."
"What? How are you up and walking around?" demanded Quando. When everyone turned to stare at him, the Coronet member sputtered, "This man tried to escape and we fought. I know I gave him some good hits, he was unconscious on the floor. He should be so bruised he can hardly move, not running around like nothing happened."
"Beats me," Archie admitted. "But we can't worry about that now. Come on, let's carry everyone to whatever exit there is."
The Blind Archer stood over the immense bulk of the Melgar champion. "They did not give enough sedative to Galvan. I can see his lifeforce whirling. I think he will recover within a few minutes and he can help us."
"As for you...." Jocelyn hissed at Quando, making him shrink back, "You were straight with us this time. Your chances of surviving this battle are getting better. The fighting's not over. More of Policastrio's soldiers will have joined the first wave by now. Where will the Spinner of Webs be?"
"You're not going to like it," the Coronet fighter answered. "She'll be unleashing twenty kinds of Hell into these tunnels."
VI.
Although he was groggy at first, Galvan quickly got his bearings and steadied up. Like Sulak and Valera, he was one of the Melgarin granted superhuman strength and resilience by the Legacy of Malberon. Even the high dosage of Yellow Lotus would not have been able to keep him sedated longer, and chains would have been only a second's annoyance before he snapped them. Seeing that Jin and the others were still unconscious but alive, he agreed with his partners. "Let's get everyone out to the CORBY where we can regroup," he said, ripped one of the sheets into halves which he tied around his middle in a loincloth. "Then we can come back and tear this hellhole down."
Josef made their prisoner stay in the doorway while the others hastily wrapped sheets around the insensate KDF members. "You'll come with us to the exit," he warned, "We'll decide what to do with you then."
Still with skin at rocklike durability, the Coronet member mumbled agreement but, seeing that Jocelyn was preoccupied for the moment, he spun and sprinted away full tilt. Four steps were all he managed before a sharp explosion detonated between his shoulder blades and flung him face down to the tunnel floor. Black wisps of smoke rose from his body.
"Did you think I was only carrying ordinary arrows?" asked Josef, lowering his bow. "That's half an ounce of the D24 gel explosive."
Sticking her head out of behind him, Jocelyn asked, "Is he alive?"
"No. I just sensed his lifeforce flicker out." The Blind Archer shrugged visibly, which for him was a wildly melodramatic gesture.a
The KDF team moved out. Galvan had Timothy draped over one shoulder, with his Demrak Jin in the crook of his other arm. Archie carried Sable, while Josef fixed his strung bow across his back and lifted Unicorn in his arms. "They're started to stir. Ashley just mumbled something."
"I love our healing factor! It's the best. The Spinner would have to keep increasing the dosage and each time our guys would recover faster. Which reminds me of something." Jocelyn had taken the lead, ready to unleash her Red Spectre at the sight of either enemy troops. She glanced back over one shoulder at Archie McAllister. "What Quando said. He beat you senseless not an hour ago but there's not a mark on you. And you snapped of the Yellow Lotus somehow. What's up with that?"
"I dunno," the big mechanic answered. "I can't figure it out either. Maybe I'm developing some sort of new gralic power? How would that work?"
"It's possible," Jocelyn said without seeming pleased at the thought. "I mean, you've been exposed to gralic force for years. My Red Spectre at close range, Unicorn's horn, all the creatures you met on those Trom Girl adventures."
"I like it in any case," Archie said. "Maybe I won't catch the flu this winter."
VII.
The tunnels were ominously silent as the group hurried back toward the entrance. The rattle of automatic gunfire and shouting in the distance had stopped completely and the dozens of twisted or bloodied bodies they passed could not add any sound to the scene. No one barred their way. The acrid fumes of Alchemical vapors still stung their skin and made their eyes water but had abated enough to let them navigate safely.
As they reached the terminus where the circular steel door still gaped open where the Red Spectre had blasted through, Sable snapped back to full awareness. She had been on the Tagra tea regimen the longest, more than twenty years, and her recuperative powers were at their peak. Placed back on her feet, she took in the situation instantly. "Let's get everyone in the CORBY. Then you can brief me on what happened," she decided.
A meadow stretched hundred of yards across near the base of Lookout Mountain. Within sight was the sinister black shape of their CORBY as well as six of the Weatherley P-121 transport helicopters. Dark blue with white trim and markings, each had brought twenty of Policastro's soldiers here. As the KDF members raced toward their own stealthcopter, they saw the Policastro pilots watching them from inside those cockpits.
Jocelyn and Sable tapped in the access code into a keypad on the side of the fuselage and the hatches slid open. "Get us wheels up," said Sable, "Galvan, get up front with her." She then climbed into the rear compartment herself. The three KDF members who were still unconscious were stretched out on the metal floor while Sable and Archie seated themselves on the bench. The Trom impulse engine only needed two or three minutes for readiness. Under the circumstances, Jocelyn cut the preflight checks to a quick survey of the green and blue status lights before starting the rotors. This second CORBY had been hangared on Hawk Island off the northern coast of Maine. It was longer than the copter they normally used, able to carry eight passengers with a little crowding, and it
From the Policastro copters, two armed soldiers had started to approach them, obviously intent on asking them about the combat situation within the mountain. The CORBY rose smoothly straight up into the night sky, its rotors making no more noise than a light breeze would. It was gone from sight within seconds.
"Jocelyn, land us wherever you see a good spot," Sable said. "As long as we're out of their sight. Galvan, give me a rundown."
While the big Melgar recounted what had happened in the past twenty-four hours, Sable studied her teammates on the floor. Her enhanced perception could hear and time their heartbeats. She could smell trace levels of adrenalin and stress chemicals on their skins. She could see the movements of their eyeballs beneath closed lids. All this while taking in Galvan's report.
"Josef, Jocelyn, excellent work. If we gave medals, you'd each get one. I think our friends will be reviving in another ten minutes or less." The team leader exhaled and finally allowed her shoulders to lower and untense. She had passed out in the crash of their other CORBY the day before and had regained consciousness to find herself being evacuated from a vicious battle while wearing only a sheet tied around her torso. But two decades in the Midnight War had gotten her used to adjusting to such confusing situations.
Sliding open the hatch, she hopped down on to the dew-slick grass. From the storage compartment behind the side vanes, Sable started handing up knapsacks to Josef. "Here's Tim's. Ashley's. Jin's. And sorry, Archie, you don't have a travel bag but I think Galvan's spare shirt and jeans will fit you more or less."
Standing next to the idling CORBY with its overhead rotors slowly turning, Sable tossed aside the sheet. She tugged on the silk-thin bodysuit of the Trom armor, then put on the pants, boots and crewneck shirt. Finally she shrugged into the waist-length jacket. Her helmet was strapped to the back of her travel bag but she did not put it on yet. "That's better," she said. Nudity did not bother any of the team any more, they had been through too much together for modesty.
Archie and Galvan both disembarked to join her. Both were big men and would have struggled to get dressed inside the cramped interior space. Archie accepted a blue flannel shirt and jeans, "You don't mind me wearing these?"
"Of course not," Galvan laughed. "We are comrades in arms on a battlefield. Afraid I only brought one pair of hiking boots, though."
The remaining three KDF members rose quickly from a foggy daze to full clarity. As everyone filled each other in on what had been happening, talking over each other in their excitement, Timothy and Ashley pulled their own field suits on. Demrak Jin hurriedly laced on her tunic and pants of rough grey sharkhide, but her bone-bladed knife had been taken by the Spinner of Web's men. With a relieved cry, the Gelydra threw herself into Galvan's waiting arms. They embraced tightly, murmuring words of encouragement but had to finally disengage as Sable called everyone to attention.
Looking over teammates assembled by the stealthcopter, Sable allowed herself a weary smile. "All of us, alive and well. Ready for anything the Midnight War can throw at us. This has certainly hit a low point for our team so far but we're on the offensive now. I'll take the stick. Tim, you're in the co-pilot seat. Everyone else, secure yourselves in the rear. We're going back into that mountain. Whatever it takes, the threat posed by Olivia Wang and Samuel Policastro will end tonight!"
VIII.
Back at the entrance to the Spinner of Web's stronghold, the CORBY landed closer than before to the Policastro helicopters. Six of the armed soldiers hurried out of their craft to meet them. They were not wearing the rubberized hazmat suits but ordinary camouflage jumpsuits, each carrying an AK-47 and with a holstered sidearm as well.
In the pilot seat, Sable lowered her helmet down over her head and attached it to her high collar to make an airtight seal. "Archie, you're staying here for now. You don't have any protection against bullets or Alchemical poisons. I'm leaving the impulse engines running on low and the rotors turning at minimum for an immediate takeoff. Unicorn, up in the pilot seat, you have the stick."
"Okay, I'll stand by," Ashley said.
As she opened her hatch with a hiss of pressurized air leaving the cabin, Sable said, "Timothy, you're close enough to send your caspers in. Give us a quick recon."
Sitting on the bench in the rear compartment, Timothy Limbo held out both hands. Above the upturned palms, two barely visible tornadoes three inches high materialized and swirled for a second before whipping out through the open front hatch. He summoned two more of his friendly ghosts and sent them on their way as well. "I'll report what my boys 'see,' " he told Sable. "They don't like the vibes of that place."
The five KDF members were confronted by Policastro's soldiers as they disembarked. "We're going back in," Sable announced in a tone that gave no room for leeway.
One of the soldiers wore a white armband with some esoteric symbol on it, evidently showing he had higher rank than the others. "We were ordered to defer to you," he grumbled. "But there's been radio silence from the start. Something is jamming all signals."
"We saw fighting in there, but that's all we know ourselves." Sable had lowered the visor on her helmet and was talking through the speaker. "We can't promise what we'll do until we evaluate the situation. Two of my team are staying with our chopper and it's armed with 30mm chain guns in case any Web fighters come this way." Without further comment, she turned toward the opening and strode briskly toward it with her team right behind her.
Through their communications system, Timothy said, "My caspers are flying up and down the tunnels. It's bad, captain. So far they haven't shown me any living people at all, just dead bodies all over the place."
"It would be a shame if the two armies wiped each other out," Demrak Jin growled. "No one for us to slay."
Sable stepped through the smashed in steel door and headed down the tunnels again. "Weapons ready. The resonance shells are usually non-lethal, cracking a rib or breaking an arm, but a hit to the head will kill. That's justified under these circumstances."
"Understood," replied both Timothy and Unicorn. They were the two KDF members with the strongest reservations about taking life even in Midnight War battles, but having been taken prisoner had left them in a hardened sentiment.
As they wended around the gruesome bodies sprawled in clusters on the floor, the KDF team kept pausing as Timothy sent into caspers under doors to investigate each room they reached. Twenty minutes dragged by until finally he snapped his fingers in front of a door as his little manifestation came swirling excitedly back. "There's our stuff! Everything's in there."
"Allow me." Galvan seemed to merely press one palm against the rough wood surface but the door cracked into vertical halves and fell inward. They entered a brightly lit room with tables on which their confiscated suits and belongings had been laid out. Open tool chests and thick notebooks indicated that their gear was being studied.
"Look over in that corner," Tim pointed out. "Parts from the wrecked CORBY. I bet they thought they could reverse engineer the Trom tech."
"That Flying Fool guy. He's managed to make working replicas of the gravity shields. Imagine if Trom tech got into Olivia Wang's hands." Unicorn sounded sterner than she had ever had before.
"Everyone gather up your armor, your Links and dart guns," ordered Sable. "Make bundles you can tie over one shoulder and carry everything with us. Crooks wearing our literally bulletproof armor would be a threat to law enforcement everywhere."
Once the most vital equipment had been stowed into bundles made of the Trom armor, with the arms and legs tied into knots to act as improvised carrying bags, Sable directed her team to gather everything left into a single pile. "That's good. Josef, how many of your explosive arrowheads are you packing?"
"Three, captain."
"Okay, I want them on top of the pile. Everybody, back out of the room." With her team assembled in the tunnel again, Sable got them down twenty feet from the doorway. "Joss, can you detonate those arrowheads?"
"Gladly." The Red Spectre shot up from the slim woman's body and crackled like the living lightning into the room. They felt the explosion thump against their feet and the gout of black smoke rushing out the open door showed that their remaining gear had been destroyed. Jocelyn straightened up at the scarlet apparition dove back into her torso. "She enjoyed that. My Gammon is absolutely aching for some action."
"She may get her fill," Sable replled. "I doubt this is over yet."
VIII.
Back at the entrance to the Spinner of Web's stronghold, the CORBY landed closer than before to the Policastro helicopters. Six of the armed soldiers hurried out of their craft to meet them. They were not wearing the rubberized hazmat suits but ordinary camouflage jumpsuits, each carrying an AK-47 and with a holstered sidearm as well.
In the pilot seat, Sable lowered her helmet down over her head and attached it to her high collar to make an airtight seal. "Archie, you're staying here for now. You don't have any protection against bullets or Alchemical poisons. I'm leaving the impulse engines running on low and the rotors turning at minimum for an immediate takeoff. Unicorn, up in the pilot seat, you have the stick."
"Okay, I'll stand by," Ashley said.
As she opened her hatch with a hiss of pressurized air leaving the cabin, Sable said, "Timothy, you're close enough to send your caspers in. Give us a quick recon."
Sitting on the bench in the rear compartment, Timothy Limbo held out both hands. Above the upturned palms, two barely visible tornadoes three inches high materialized and swirled for a second before whipping out through the open front hatch. He summoned two more of his friendly ghosts and sent them on their way as well. "I'll report what my boys 'see,' " he told Sable. "They don't like the vibes of that place."
The five KDF members were confronted by Policastro's soldiers as they disembarked. "We're going back in," Sable announced in a tone that gave no room for leeway.
One of the soldiers wore a white armband with some esoteric symbol on it, evidently showing he had higher rank than the others. "We were ordered to defer to you," he grumbled. "But there's been radio silence from the start. Something is jamming all signals."
"We saw fighting in there, but that's all we know ourselves." Sable had lowered the visor on her helmet and was talking through the speaker. "We can't promise what we'll do until we evaluate the situation. Two of my team are staying with our chopper and it's armed with 30mm chain guns in case any Web fighters come this way." Without further comment, she turned toward the opening and strode briskly toward it with her team right behind her.
Through their communications system, Timothy said, "My caspers are flying up and down the tunnels. It's bad, captain. So far they haven't shown me any living people at all, just dead bodies all over the place."
"It would be a shame if the two armies wiped each other out," Demrak Jin growled. "No one for us to slay."
Sable stepped through the smashed in steel door and headed down the tunnels again. "Weapons ready. The resonance shells are usually non-lethal, cracking a rib or breaking an arm, but a hit to the head will kill. That's justified under these circumstances."
"Understood," replied both Timothy and Unicorn. They were the two KDF members with the strongest reservations about taking life even in Midnight War battles, but having been taken prisoner had left them in a hardened sentiment.
As they wended around the gruesome bodies sprawled in clusters on the floor, the KDF team kept pausing as Timothy sent into caspers under doors to investigate each room they reached. Twenty minutes dragged by until finally he snapped his fingers in front of a door as his little manifestation came swirling excitedly back. "There's our stuff! Everything's in there."
"Allow me." Galvan seemed to merely press one palm against the rough wood surface but the door cracked into vertical halves and fell inward. They entered a brightly lit room with tables on which their confiscated suits and belongings had been laid out. Open tool chests and thick notebooks indicated that their gear was being studied.
"Look over in that corner," Tim pointed out. "Parts from the wrecked CORBY. I bet they thought they could reverse engineer the Trom tech."
"That Flying Fool guy. He's managed to make working replicas of the gravity shields. Imagine if Trom tech got into Olivia Wang's hands." Unicorn sounded sterner than she had ever had before.
"Everyone gather up your armor, your Links and dart guns," ordered Sable. "Make bundles you can tie over one shoulder and carry everything with us. Crooks wearing our literally bulletproof armor would be a threat to law enforcement everywhere."
Once the most vital equipment had been stowed into bundles made of the Trom armor, with the arms and legs tied into knots to act as improvised carrying bags, Sable directed her team to gather everything left into a single pile. "That's good. Josef, how many of your explosive arrowheads are you packing?"
"Three, captain."
"Okay, I want them on top of the pile. Everybody, back out of the room." With her team assembled in the tunnel again, Sable got them down twenty feet from the doorway. "Joss, can you detonate those arrowheads?"
"Gladly." The Red Spectre shot up from the slim woman's body and crackled like the living lightning into the room. They felt the explosion thump against their feet and the gout of black smoke rushing out the open door showed that their remaining gear had been destroyed. Jocelyn straightened up at the scarlet apparition dove back into her torso. "She enjoyed that. My Gammon is absolutely aching for some action."
"She may get her fill," Sable replled. "I doubt this is over yet."
More than an hour crawled by as they searched rooms and stepped around dozens of bodies. So much Alchemical poison had been released into the air by both sides that even the tiniest rip in a hazmat suit proved fatal. Some of the corpses were twisted into contortions that showed how painful death had been. Many of the Cold Ones were ripped up by gunfire but most had succumbed to the clouds of vapor which had made these tunnels a deathtrap.
"I'm not sure even our suits would have protected us," Sable said finally as they paused in their morose search. "Joss, Josef, you got us out of here barely in time. "
"It was too close to suit me," the Blind Archer admitted. "I thought I was hardened to battlefields, but I'm starting to feel uneasy."
"I have no trouble admitting all this is making me sick to my stomach," added Timothy. "But I guess we have to see it through. Wait. One of my caspers is showing me something. Oh. Captain, just ahead around the next bend..."
"What is it?" asked Sable, with a sinking feeling she knew the answer.
"Yeah, it looks like the Spinner of Webs got caught in all the poison. Stung with her own venom, you could say."
They found the corpse without a mark on it, lying face up against a tunnel wall. Eyes closed, resplendent in a green silk dress that shimmered in the hellish light, it was a strange relief to view after seeing so many corroded and blistered dead men.
"Her lifeforce has gone out completely," Josef announced. "Dead for many ten, fifteen minutes."
Standing over the body of a former lover and longtime bitter foe, Lauren Sable Reilly did not speak for a moment. Her enhanced senses allowed her to inspect the corpse at a microscopic level. Finally, almost whispering, she said, "All is not what it seems."
IX.
IX.
Sable led her team at a full run back toward the entrance. One final time, they wended over and around dozens of grisly contorted corpses, and familiarity had not made the experience easier to bear. The stench of the lethal Alchemical vapors still stung their nostrils.
The last of Timothy's caspers swirled around his head before blinking out of existence like a soap bubble popping. "My boys haven't found any civilians anywhere," he casually said as if not running full tilt. "Seems like we were the only captive."
"Good," responded Sable. She raced out into the meadow where the sky was showing a faint hazy light to the East. It had been a long night. "Galvan, stay with me. Everyone else, get aboard and strap yourselves in. Tim, take the stick and do wheels up as soon as Galvan and I get in."
When within conversational range of the soldiers, Sable said, "Better get in there and see it for yourselves. Looks like there were no survivors. Tell your boss we'll be in touch." Ignoring the barrage of shouted questions, she sprinted toward the CORBY and dove through the open rear hatch with the giant Melgar right behind her. Even before the hatch clicked shut, the black stealth copter ascended straight up and was gone from sight within seconds.
Sable sat on the metal floor, leaning back against the bank of equipment drawers which took up the port wall. She yanked off her helmet and brushed back sweat-damp hair with her fingers. "Finally. Now I can explain what happened at the end. That body wasn't Olivia Wang."
"What?! Are you sure?" Unicorn blurted before adding, "I mean, of course you're sure, you've got eyes like an electron microscope. I'm just surprised."
"There were a dozen tiny scars around her eyes and nose," Sable said with sudden weariness in her tone. "The unaided Human eye could never spot them. Her skin pore distribution was all wrong. Her index fingers were a full centimeter longer. There were other clues but they all added up."
"Oh my God," breathed the Unicorn. "They found a woman who looked enough like the Spinner of Webs, then put her through months of plastic surgery and then killed her so they could leave her body behind? That's so twisted!"
"And now Policastro thinks Olivia is dead. If he's convinced, he won't be searching for her." Sable pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them. "That's give her some breathing space to catch her breath and plan her next move. She's a schemer, all right. She sure fooled me when we first met."
"Heading home?" asked Tim from the pilot seat.
"Yes. Bring us back to headquarters. On the way, everyone will go over what they saw and did tonight so we can assemble the full picture. Then I think we all need hot showers and lots of sleep. We've earned it."
"I could fall asleep right now, no problem," grumbled Unicorn. "But debriefing is important. I guess."
Seated next to the petite blonde, Jocelyn Garimara was leaning back with her eyes closed. "You know, I think I figured out why Archie recovered so fast from the Yellow Lotus and from the beating. Anyone want to hear my theory?"
"Are you kidding? Of course we want to know!"
"Right then. Here goes. We are under oath not to reveal to outsiders the secret of our Tagra diet. And even more, never to share Tagra with anyone, on penalty of expulsion from Tel Shai. The Teachers mean it. But Megan loved Archie so much that she broke that vow. My guess is that a few months before her death, Megan started adding tiny amounts of crushed Tagra leaves to his food or drink... I bet she mixed it in with his coffee. He wouldn't have noticed anything until enough accumulated in his body to cross a threshold. And then the healing factor kicked in. How does that sound?"
"It's would be just like Megan to do that," Unicorn said with her voice on the verge of breaking. "Oh God. Yes, I can see her doing that."
"I'll never get over losing her," Archie said. "And hearing this.. it makes sense. I started feeling peppy and healthier recently. I think she was sharing the Tagra with me, whether the Teachers would have expelled her or not."
Sable was staring wearily into space, taking a moment before she added, "With this possibility in mind, I guess officially we should search your house and confiscate any Tagra. Megan may have hidden a stash somewhere. But today and tomorrow, we're going to be busy recovering and debriefing and meeting with Policastro. You're not a KDF member, Archie. I'm afraid you'll be free the next forty-eight hours before we can catch up to you."
"Yeah," added Unicorn. "It would be a shame if you found the stash of Tagra leaves and stowed them away somewhere else. But I bet it would make Megan happy if she knew about it."
9/24/2022
