The Crane War

by Graeme Rodaughan

  As he delved deeper into the bowels of the Earth, there was a conundrum that bothered him. Anton Slayne was not meant to be part of this mission, and yet he’d recently placed a fresh kit bag with Anton’s name on it at the first way station. How did he know to do that? It was a right bother not to know all the details of his own plan.

  Or even most of the details. Despite his ignorance, he forged forward into the cave.

  He would do what must be done.

  Chapter Five

  “The small mountain range due east of the proposed site of the Panopticon fortress has been deemed a Class B safety environment due to the assessed risk of rockfalls and cave collapses. The area has been re-classified as a natural reserve to provide a barrier to any approach. Access will be restricted to fire roads and [REDACTED].

  Assessment conducted by subcontractor ‘Geophysical Safety Pty Ltd,’ registered at [REDACTED].”

  - Shadowstone Site Geophysical Assessment Report H-14301 - Rev B.

  [DEFECT ID]: K-000129456

  [PROJECT]: Panopticon Security System - External Barriers

  [STATE]: Open

  [PRIORITY]: Low

  [SEVERITY]: Low

  [SYSTEM]: Mark 15, Block I, ‘Dragon’s Teeth,’ 8MW Stationary Laser Grid

  [LOCATION]: [REDACTED]

  [ISSUE SUMMARY]: Grid randomly fluctuates generating outages lasting from 1 to 2 seconds.

  [DATE LAST CHANGED]: [REDACTED]

  [CHANGE NOTES]: Priority and Severity fields reduced from high to low as the issue is cosmetic only. Deprioritize all maintenance tasks on this grid to lowest available level.

  - Extract from a Shadowstone Technical Directorate defect report

  * * *

  Utah, The Caves, September 11th, 08:05

  A distant rumble grew then crashed like heavy thunder back at the cave entrance.

  Francis turned back toward the echoes, his headlight slashing across the rock wall as he pivoted to the right “What the hell was that?”

  “A rockfall,” Arthur remarked in matter-of-fact tones from deeper within the cave. “These hills are notorious for them.”

  “Wait,” Francis said. “Jay, run back and check the entrance.”

  Jay, who was playing the role of rear-guard turned in an instant, blurring back through the darkness. The light from his headlamp disappearing a moment later.

  Everyone stood waiting for Jay to return, taking sips of water from bottles and talking in low tones. Arthur called out from the front of the line, “Is this really necessary?”

  “I believe so,” Francis answered.

  “It’ll just be some rocks rolling down the outside of the mountain, it happens all the time.”

  “Do we still have a way out?” Francis asked.

  “Well, it’d be extraordinary bad luck if we don’t,” Arthur declared. “I’ve mapped these caves exhaustively over the last two decades. There is only one entrance in and we used it.”

  Francis offered, “I don’t believe luck is a factor -”

  “And nor should you.”

  “Around you,” Francis finished.

  “Do you think I planned this,” Arthur asked incredulously.

  “I wouldn’t put it past you,” Francis asserted.

  “Do you really think I had an avalanche waiting for the day the Mirovar force team would be in this cave? Really Francis, you might be developing a touch of paranoia.”

  “In the games you play, the paranoid are the ones who survive.”

  The walls were painted with reflected light as the others tracked the discussion occurring in the darkness between Arthur and Francis.

  “Survival, that’s a bonus,” Arthur declared.

  “With your plans - always,” Francis agreed with a derisive note.

  “Hey, I get people through.”

  “You almost got Juliette killed.”

  “Oh, Francis. C’mon, that’s ancient history.”

  “Not to me it’s not.”

  Arthur paused for a moment. “Look, I’m fully aware of your loss. We all feel it, but can we agree to put it aside for now.”

  “This is not about Juliette; this is about how you operate.”

  “It’s a little late to be having second thoughts, Francis. We’re committed now.”

  “Yes, we are. How convenient is that?”

  The silence stretched between the two men, and the lights around them grew still. A light emerged from the gloom and Jay slid to a halt at the back of the line. He swept his right hand through a flat arc. “It’s blocked. There’s no way out.”

  Francis and the rest of the team pivoted to the front, their lights illuminating the sole figure of Arthur standing a dozen feet in front of the team.

  Arthur squinted into the glare, shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands wide. “Well, like I said. Damnably bad luck.” There was a long moment of silence, then he added. “Of course, everything has a silver lining. I know the way out.”

  “Yes, you do.” Francis conceded. He pulled his right hand down his face and came to a painful decision. “So be it. I relinquish this team to your care.”

  Arthur stared at him for a long moment, and then said, “I accept.”

  “Don’t make me regret it.”

  “I won’t,” Arthur replied, turning deeper into the cave. He signaled the team forward with a flick of his raised hand.

  Francis turned away, pushing past Anton to the back of the line. “Jay,” he called out, “I’m joining you to watch our back.”

  There was no escape except through the Panopticon fortress. They couldn’t back out now or abort the mission. It was do or die. The rockfall must have been engineered by Arthur. He’d ensured they had to go into a battle that only he had the tactical and situational knowledge to get them through.

  Relinquishing command was the only way that Francis could give the team the best chance of survival.

  It wasn’t a choice, the team had to come first.

  * * *

  Peter slowed his pace, crowding Li as she advanced behind him.

  He murmured in a low voice, just loud enough for her to hear and no one else, “You’ve got excellent hearing. Did you hear a double-tap just before the rockfall?”

  Li thought back to what had happened. Yes, there was a pair of reports immediately before the rockfall that blocked their escape path. She nodded reflexively, even though Peter was facing forward and couldn’t see her. She replied quietly, “Yes. For sure.”

  He whispered back over his broad shoulder, “Shaped charges. No accident.”

  Peter picked up his pace again. Li falling in behind him. The avalanche that had blocked the entrance into the cave system was deliberate. Arthur Slayne was lying to them. She tensed. What was his true goal? It couldn’t be good if he couldn’t tell them about it.

  A sudden intuition made her stumble. She caught herself before she fell, her left hand pushing against the gray rock of the cave wall, propping herself back upright. The other voice in her vision. The one who’d been talking with Anton before he fell. The one in the main server room of the Panopticon. It was Slayne, and now he was leading them into the very place where her vision could come true.

  An ice-cold river ran through her veins. It was all she could do to stop herself screaming out in desperate warning.

  Chiara appeared at her shoulder, her gentle hand catching her beneath her right elbow. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Sure … sure, sure,” Li whispered hoarsely. Her left hand flew to her mouth, sliding down and pulling on her bottom lip.

  Chiara asked, “Are you really okay? You don’t look it.”

  Li nodded, no longer trusting herself to speak. She stepped forward, breaking away from Chiara, whose hand fell away.

  Whatever was happening - none of it was good.

  She looked forward into the gloom beyond the reach of their headlamps. A faint sound of rushing water impinged on her hearing. There must be an underground river ahead, but a river to where? The
power stations? A way into the Panopticon fortress? No doubt - it was where Slayne was leading them, but was he leading them to victory or death?

  A cold fear gripped her.

  Peter was silent in his knowledge that the avalanche was a deliberate act by Slayne. The old man had cut off their sole path of escape to ensure they would follow him into the fortress. Should she scream out the truth? What difference would it make? Slayne knew more about these caves than anyone else.

  Li kept her mouth shut in bitter silence. If the one person who knew the way out of hell was the devil - then best follow the devil.

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She steadied her stride, watching her foot placement amongst the rough stones of the cave floor. She glanced forward and back. The team surrounded her; Slayne leading, followed by Anton and then Peter. She followed after Peter, and was trailed by Chiara, Francis and Jay. It was not lost on her that the team had self-organized around placing their sole surviving loremaster at the center of their defenses.

  What was she now, warrior or loremaster?

  Was it possible to be both or would she have to choose?

  She followed in Peter’s wake, the shadows dancing like fell wraiths on the cold stone of the cave walls. Li had no answers but she was willing to do whatever was needed to find out. Her faith in Juliette and her father’s legacies carried her forward with a lighter step and the shadows on the walls retreated before her advancing cone of light.

  The sound of rushing water continued to grow in front of her, just how big was this underground river? Slayne slowed his long strides, and the rest of the team fanned out behind him. He stepped to the wall and pulled back a long, camouflage-colored tarpaulin, revealing a row of military boxes stacked against the cave wall.

  “What’s this?” Francis asked.

  Slayne offered, “What we’ll need to traverse the river and fight on the other side.”

  “Excellent,” Peter said. He opened one of the boxes and pulled out a kit bag. “Look Li, this one has your name on it.”

  Li caught the bag, and unzipped it. She pulled out a camouflage jacket and checked the size. “It’s a perfect fit for me.” She looked across at Slayne and asked, “How did you know?”

  Slayne shrugged. “It’s all part of the plan.”

  Li stuffed the jacket back into the waterproof pack and zipped it close.

  Anton pointed at the rushing waters of the subterranean river. “We’re swimming in there?”

  Peter turned and arched an eyebrow. “’Fraid of a little water, are we?”

  Anton frowned, and shook his head slightly. “I’ve …”

  “Enough, boy,” Slayne said brusquely. “You’ll be too busy running along the bottom and dodging rocks to worry about drowning. Now strip down for the swim.”

  Anton opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again, and started dragging off his gear and clothes.

  Li glanced from Anton to his grandfather and back again. They’d only just met and Anton was following him around like a lost puppy. What the hell was going on between them? Whatever it was, Li was sure the risk of drowning would be the least of Anton’s problems by the end of the day.

  Peter, Jay and Francis had opened the boxes, passing out soft waterproofed bags, and modified Order nightglasses designed to work underwater.

  Five minutes later, stripped down to her underwear, the Green Dragon strapped across her back, her nightglass goggles and re-breather unit in place, and carrying a pre-packed bundle of equipment for the other end of the river, Li slipped into the water.

  The river was surprisingly warm. There must be a strong geothermal source nearby if the water was this warm this far from the power stations.

  The Ramp epigenetic density packing of muscle and bone made her substantially heavier than water. Li sank a handful of yards to the bottom of the river without effort. Peter was striding away a dozen feet in front of her, and Chiara was sinking to the bottom a short distance behind her. A tiny LED light on the goggles cut through the darkness with a cone of illumination. The night vision capabilities of the goggles did the rest of the work. She could see perfectly; the water was almost crystal clear.

  Li set out after Peter. She’d be damned if she let her friends walk into a trap. She’d keep her eyes open and watch the elder Slayne like a hawk. He was filled with deception, and there was no obvious way to unravel his plans. The Green Dragon rested against the smooth skin of her back. If need be, the Green and Black Dragons would fight. If it had been her decision, the whole team would be long gone from here. But it wasn’t her decision, and there was no way she would allow those she loved to enter danger without her at their side to share it.

  They would live or die together - there was no other way.

  She jogged forward in Peter’s wake, her heart filled with staunch conviction.

  * * *

  The nightfalcon’s twin turbines roared, the helicopter descending smoothly into the Panopticon fortress’ underground hanger.

  A pair of troop-carrying nightfalcons followed it down into the subterranean chamber, landing as a pair behind the lead helicopter.

  The facility had been designed with vampires in mind. A klaxon sounded a sharp ululation. The hanger doors rolled back into place with a barely detectable whirr, obscuring the sunlight and leaving the hanger safely lit with electric lights.

  The klaxon silenced. A praetorian pulled the helicopter’s waist door open and leaped down onto the concrete floor of the huge underground chamber. General Clayton Maze glanced at the gold wristwatch on his wrist. It was just before ten in the morning. They had arrived in good time. He waited for the rest of his troop to exit the craft. It was his privilege to be last to leave and last to enter a potential war zone. He adjusted his dark-blue suit and his personal katana strapped at his waist before stepping from the craft to the hanger floor. He strode to a position in front of his troops. The praetorians had already organized themselves into four squads of four beside the lead nightfalcon, their M249 light machine guns held at parade rest.

  Shouted commands rang out over the declining whine of slowing turbines. The other two helicopters disgorged their loads; forty-eight fully equipped day guards forming into two lines behind the sixteen praetorians.

  A welcoming committee advanced from his right, led by the facility commander, a senior member of Shadowstone named Regina Cormack. A stout woman, she was flanked by a quartet of functionaries and assistants, and trailed by two squads of praetorians permanently assigned to the fortress. She was dressed in a dark-gray business suit with her security badge worn prominently from a black lanyard around her neck. With pale-blue eyes beneath a head of iron-gray hair maintained in a tight bun, she regarded Clayton with a firm gaze. “Welcome to the facility, Sir. What are your orders?”

  Clayton turned to face the woman, and ordered in clipped tones. “Commander Cormack, set the base to Orange alert, an attack is imminent.”

  “Sir?” she queried, a frown creasing her forehead. “Our threat analysis is clear.”

  Clayton smiled coldly. “Be that as it may, our enemies marshal against us. Unlock your weapons, set all alerts, and steel your men for the defense of this facility.”

  “Yes, Sir,” she replied. “Sir, if an attack is imminent, may I suggest a red alert.”

  Maze stared at her coldly, “No you may not. I will not signal our enemies that we are waiting for them by putting the base into visible lockdown. Now take me to the command and control center. I will need to refactor the disposition of your forces to take into account the presence of my troops.”

  The commander stiffened, her pulse pounding in her temples. She stated with cold formality, “Yes, Sir. This way, Sir.” She turned around, guiding him to a large subterranean corridor heading north into the depths of the facility.

  Clayton smiled grimly. Humans, they were so transparent. He glanced around the hanger before following the disgruntled commander to the command and control center, his gaze passing over a
lone figure dressed in gray coveralls pushing a cleaner’s maintenance cart along the far wall.

  He took no notice of the maintenance man - he was nothing more than a sack of blood employed in a drudge’s job by Shadowstone. Clayton had the safety of the Panopticon in his hands, and his quest for primacy amongst the generals demanded he protect the Panopticon at all costs.

  It was a duty he would discharge in full.

  He owed his liege lord, Cornelius Crane nothing less.

  * * *

  At the age of fifteen, Dwayne Washington had been rescued from vampires. He’d spent the rest of his life in the service of the Order of Thoth.

  Dwayne had never forgotten the night his life had been saved by a hooded protector. He and his best friends had been playing basketball in the grounds of their high school. His closest friend Benny’s uncle was the school’s caretaker, and he always left the lights on over the outdoor basketball court to allow Dwayne and his friends to play after school.

  The sun had set at least an hour before, and Dwayne was lining up a shot from the free throw line. They were running a competition to see who could get the most goals in a row. Benny was in the lead with six, and Dwayne was preparing to throw an equalizer.

  He bounced the ball three times and picked it up ready to throw. Something moved on the edge of his vision as he looped the ball forward to the goal ring. The ball landed on the ring, rolled around the rim, and teetered on the edge. He leaned to the right, willing the ball to fall in.

  The ball started to tip in. A figure blurred from the shadows surrounding the court, leaped inhumanly high, grasping the ball from above and dragging it away from the goal.

  She landed and whirled, her pale skin shining under the fluorescent lights, her red hair a long tangle over bare shoulders and faded denim. She laughed, a high cold sound that sent an icy shiver running up Dwayne’s back.