The Crane War

by Graeme Rodaughan

  Anton dangled his assault rifle from his left hand and checked the Blue Dragon resting across his shoulders. It was securely positioned and ready to use at a moment’s notice. He ran his right hand over the fragmentation and 40mm grenades, and spare fifty round magazines of caseless ammunition, familiarizing himself with their exact positions. The caseless ammo for the rifle was mostly high-performance armor piercing explosive tipped rounds with every fifth bullet made of solid silver.

  Arthur had prepared a classic mix of ammunition for human and vampire opponents wearing body armor. Precisely the sort of forces likely to be defending the Panopticon. Anton wondered just how his grandfather knew so much about the fortress they were about to attack. Only so much could be explained by being involved in its construction. What were the other sources of his information for the many years of operation of the Panopticon? There would have been upgrades, technology renewals, changes of policy and process. How did he keep up to date?

  Anton glanced across at Arthur. He stood aside from the group; the Black Dragon strapped to the left-side of his waist. His only other weapon was a custom built, .50 caliber auto-pistol holstered down his right thigh with half a dozen spare magazines on a bandolier strapped diagonally across his chest. He watched the team with quiet eyes, his face an impassive mask. The loss of the escape route back through the caves wasn’t an accident. Sun Tzu had written about placing his troops into a killing field so they had no choice but to fight their way out. His grandfather had done the same thing. For whatever purpose he harbored within the secrets of his mind, he needed the Mirovar force team to help him steal the Panopticon. From the plan outlined by Arthur in the roadhouse diner, he needed multiple small teams. Two to kill the power stations, another to capture the nemesis tower and use it to destroy the fortress’ defenses, and a fourth to steal the Panopticon. With the Mirovar team at his disposal he finally had enough people to pull this mission off. But, it wasn’t just people, he’d been specifically waiting for the Mirovar force team, and what did that mean? Anton didn’t know.

  Anton didn’t care that his grandfather was keeping secrets. He must have his reasons and only someone completely ruthless could survive against the vampires for as long as he had. The goal was real enough and more than a hundred percent aligned with what Anton wanted to do. He would keep his eyes open, and his friends safe, but there could be no backing out now. They were committed, there were no alternatives left. His grandfather was their best bet for raiding the Panopticon fortress and surviving to tell the tale.

  Francis lifted his H&K 416 assault rifle, checked his grenade launcher was loaded, and commanded, “Okay, team, we’re ready to proceed.” He glanced at Arthur, and then down toward a faint crimson light in the distance. “You, know what’s next?”

  Arthur nodded, and ordered firmly, “Follow me.” He strode off, the team falling in behind him.

  Anton took a position immediately behind his grandfather. In the distance, the red light flickered for a second and then settled into a faint crimson glow. The team moved quickly forward toward the distant illumination, the smooth and level cave floor enabling easy passage.

  Peter appeared beside him, nudged him in the ribs and whispered, “What the hell is that diabolical red glow?”

  Anton grinned. “That’d be the gates of hell.”

  “Then Cerberus should be nearby?”

  “Boundaries are always guarded, aren’t they?”

  Peter nodded solemnly. “Always.”

  “Yeah, whatever it is, I guess it’d be unfriendly.”

  “It’s a mark fifteen, block one, eight-megawatt, stationary laser grid.” Arthur remarked dryly a yard in front of them. “Very unfriendly.”

  The detail of the grid resolved into view. With the benefit of the Order nightglasses, the lasers were completely visible, creating a lattice of thin red lines crossing each other in foot wide squares. The red grid covered the full extent of the cave from floor to ceiling and wall to wall.

  There was no way to pass through the grid.

  Anton frowned. “A laser grid?”

  Peter glanced to the side at Anton and offered. “Don’t accidentally fall into it.” He twirled his fingers around each other, and remarked, “Instant julienne. You’d be two hundred and forty pounds of steak tartare.”

  Li stepped up next to Arthur and asked him, “How do you know about them?”

  “One of my companies installed them. There’s a feature whereby they shut off intermittently on a random basis.”

  “Sounds like a bug,” Li offered.

  “No, it’s a feature,” Arthur insisted.

  “It’s a bug isn’t it?” Li asserted firmly.

  Arthur put his hands on his hips and stated, “Look, there’s lots of things that mostly work.”

  “Mostly work?” Li asked with a derisive snort.

  “My company was the installer,” Arthur explained. “We didn’t build the things. But it turns out, they have this useful feature.”

  “Bug,” Li insisted quietly.

  The team stood in a line across the cave, looking at the grid. It flickered for a moment a yard in front of them, and went out. A second later the grid switched back on again.

  Arthur remarked casually, “It’s simple really, we just wait for it to switch off then step through.”

  Jay asked, “It looked like it was out for a second or so, is it always like that?”

  “Mostly,” Arthur answered.

  Francis asked, “Why has this never been fixed?”

  “Deprioritization, bureaucracy and budgets,” Arthur remarked, a knowing smile curling his lips.

  “I knew it,” Li said. “It’s a defect and you’ve managed to get the vampires to ignore it for years.”

  “Okay, if you insist.”

  The crimson light flickered.

  “Now,” Arthur commanded decisively.

  Anton blurred forward, the team moving with him. He turned, backing away from the rest so that he could see everyone. They had all made it through safely.

  If that was the first test, it was simple to pass. Surely the rest of the way into the fortress would be harder. This was too easy to believe. He glanced at his grandfather, he seemed to know everything about how this fortress worked.

  Was there anything he didn’t know?

  * * *

  “If this was a typical mission,” Peter whispered, “we’d be up to our knees in Shadowstone troopers or vampire scum by now.”

  Anton replied quietly, “This isn’t a typical mission. This is what happens when we have enough information to have an advantage over the vampires. That’s why we have to push through to the end. We’ll never get another chance like this.”

  “Amen to that,” Peter whispered back, wiping perspiration from his brow with the palm of his hand. “How long before we get out of this sauna?”

  Anton shrugged his shoulders. The cave had run for another mile from the laser grid, and then opened up into an enormous cavern snaking for miles beneath the valley. In the middle of the cavern, a river of magma wended its way from one end of the gigantic chamber to the other. If the mission hadn’t been as serious as it was, Anton would’ve taken more time to stare in wonder at the sight of the molten rock slowly moving through the middle of the massive underground cavern.

  The team walked single file along the chamber wall, as distant from the glowing subterranean river as they could get. Giant circular fans had been installed in two rows in the cavern roof. They disappeared into the gloom at either end of the massive chamber. Anton surmised their spinning blades kept the air breathable despite the magma, allowing maintenance crews to descend to this level of the fortress.

  At both ends of the enormous cavern, at least two miles apart, colossal metallic structures emerged from the ceiling, reaching pale-gray-dusted walls of steel down to almost kiss the molten rock. At the bottom of each structure, pipes whipped back and forth like wild tentacles inches above the glowing magma.

  Arthur pointed t
oward the nearest complex arrangement of pipes slithering back and forth above the molten stone. “Heat reapers. They capture the heat, transfer it up to create steam to drive turbines that power the base. This one is the southern complex, the one in the distance is the northern complex. We named them ‘Kraken dash one,’ and ‘Kraken dash two,’ respectively.”

  Jay snarked, “So, you devoted your life to building shit for the vampires, huh?”

  Arthur put his left fist up in the time-honored signal to halt, turned and stared back along the line at Jay. “The vampires would have built it with or without my help. By being involved, I’ve ensured we have a way in and a way to destroy this facility. Would you prefer not to have that option? Would you prefer this fortress was impregnable? Might I suggest that you focus on the mission in front of us instead of sniping at me. I’m sure the vampires will demand your full attention before we are finished. Is that clear? Are we done?”

  Jay’s lip curled derisively, then he glanced at Francis. Francis frowned briefly and shook his head once. Jay glared at Arthur for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders, and offered casually, “Of course. Have it your way.”

  Arthur nodded once, and turned back to the center of the massive chamber. Facing away from the team, he pointed at a steel walkway that threaded a thin line hugging the ceiling between the two power stations. It branched off in the middle of the cavern, and reached across to the top of the near side wall before zig zagging down the rock face to the cavern floor. “That’s our path in. There’s a maintenance shaft reaching up to a water pumping station on the surface. It serves the power stations and the rest of the facility with fresh water from the underground river. It’s also directly attached to the main administration building.”

  “Come on!” Li said, “Where are the cameras?”

  Arthur turned again and looked back at her. “They’re up on the structures and the maintenance walkway and linked back to the Panopticon. The Panopticon is surveilling this whole area looking for intruders.”

  “What?” Francis demanded.

  “It’s not a problem - they can’t see us. The system has been programmed to make the members of this team invisible to the Panopticon within the perimeter of the Panopticon fortress.”

  “Just us, specifically?” Francis asked.

  “Yes.”

  “There were the personalized backpacks as well. How did you know it would be us?”

  “I had faith in you Francis to survive the corruption within the Order. I knew that sooner or later you would come here with your team.”

  Francis lifted his left hand and stroked his chin, and asked skeptically, “Faith, really?”

  “The Mirovar force team has always been destined to destroy this facility and steal the Panopticon. I am simply here to facilitate that outcome.”

  “Wait a second,” Li offered, stepping forward. “Why didn’t you extend the invisibility coverage to the rest of the world.”

  Arthur frowned seriously. “Too much risk of discovery. As a matter of course, the vampires would make contact with you. They’d note that you didn’t show up on the Panopticon feeds, then they would’ve come looking to find out why. Sooner or later they would have discovered this hole in their defenses. Today is the first time this gap is being exploited. I had to protect that vulnerability.” Arthur smiled. “I’ve been preparing for this moment longer than you’ve been alive.”

  Li looked at him, her eyes filled with suspicion, and inquired, “So, you left us hanging out in the wind so you could protect this pathway in?”

  “That’s okay Li,” Arthur stated with a sardonic nod before turning away from her. “Your lack of approval is noted. However, I don’t need your approval - just your participation.” He glanced back, his dark-blue eyes flashing. “Now, follow me. This won’t take long.” He approached the steel stairs of the maintenance walkway reaching up the wall to the ceiling of the cavern. A moment later he was mounting them. “Quickly now, we don’t want to leave an opportunity for the vampires to reinforce the fortress after the battle at the conclave hall. We have a small window of opportunity and we must seize it before it closes.”

  “And what if they have already reinforced the fortress?” Li asked.

  Arthur glanced back at her, his face an inscrutable mask. “Then our mission becomes much more difficult, but not impossible for those with the will to seize victory from the jaws of defeat.”

  He turned back and mounted the first stairs up the cavern wall.

  Anton glanced at Peter, and whispered, “What do you think? Have they reinforced the fortress?”

  Peter pursed his lips. “Given our luck lately, this place will be crawling with filth.”

  “Vampires, day guards, drones and assorted flunkies.”

  Peter nodded. “A target rich environment.”

  “Well, we won’t be bored.”

  “More the other way I think. I was disappointed not to find an extra pair of underwear in our personalized packs. I mean, what was your grandfather thinking?”

  Anton glanced at Peter. “Do you think it could be overconfidence?”

  “More like underestimating the pucker factor.”

  “Geez, that’d be serious … um, how much of a pucker factor are we talking about here?”

  “On a scale of one to ten, I figure a nine with a strong tendency to go to eleven.”

  Anton said earnestly, “Now, I don’t feel properly equipped.”

  Peter’s arched an eyebrow and wagged a finger at Anton. “You know what we could do?”

  “What?”

  “Steal them from the enemy.”

  Anton shrugged his shoulders and lifted his free hand. “They must have a laundry somewhere.”

  Peter stated deadpan. “Objective number one. Take over the laundry and secure an extra pair of underwear.”

  “Well, I’m glad we got that sorted.”

  “It’s good to have clear objectives.”

  “How else would we know if we succeeded or failed?”

  “Exactly.”

  Anton paused, craning his head back. “How many stairs do you think?”

  “A few thousand.”

  “That many, huh?”

  “That’s just in the cavern. The shaft up to the pumping station would double that.”

  “Well, that sucks.”

  Peter grinned. “Suck it up princess. You’re a light weight. I’m carting two-hundred and ninety pounds plus my equipment up there.”

  “Just goes to show, we should have looked at my idea to steal a nightfalcon and get in with a ‘security pass code.’ Arthur probably has a pass code we could have used. It’d be easier than all these stairs.”

  “You’re just work shy.”

  Anton snorted. “We’ll see about that.”

  Anton and Peter continued to banter quietly as the Mirovar force team scaled the maintenance walkway up the cavern wall. Anton estimated that in another ten minutes they’d be at the top of the cavern and ascending the shaft up to the pumping station.

  As to what would happen after they reached the base, it was anyone’s guess.

  * * *

  Anton followed his grandfather up the final flight of stairs into the pumping station.

  They halted in the stairwell at eye level with the floor. The station’s pale, polished concrete floor gleamed softly beneath industrial lights set in the high roof. The chamber was a hundred yards long and half that wide. The center of the station was dominated by four massive pumps thrumming with a low roar. Huge pipes ran from the pumps, turning at right angles into the floor, or punching out through the north and south walls toward the thirsty power stations.

  Li rose up from behind them and faced Anton. She pointed at her ear and shouted over the deafening noise of the pumps, “Shift to channel number four.”

  Anton tapped his earbud four times with his index finger and the industrial thunder of the pumps diminished to a background hum.

  “Okay,” Li asked quietly, her words picked
up and broadcast over the tactical network. “Is everyone on channel four?”

  The rest of the team waited deeper in the stairwell. They nodded, assented, or gave a thumbs up sign.

  Arthur looked back down at Francis and stated, “The pumping station is automated and should be clear of people but we’ll need to check.”

  Francis nodded. He signaled with his hand and ordered, “In pairs. Peter and Li, Anton and Chiara, Jay and myself. Arthur, watch the approaches.” He gestured to the pairs and sent them off into the station.

  Anton led Chiara out of the stairwell and across the polished concrete floor, his assault rifle ready to fire, his senses alive and ready to ramp at a moment’s notice. They passed enormous thrumming pumps ten yards across, massive pipes threading their way to and from the pumps. The pumping station was drawing water from deep underground and sending it to the power stations north and south of the base.

  He brushed his left hand against one of the pipes. The metal was neither hot nor cold, and vibrated faintly as great masses of water flowed within it. There was an enormous amount of water rushing through the pipes. He couldn’t help but ask what would happen to the power stations if the water supply was cut off? Nothing good for the vampires, he imagined.

  Anton stepped past the pump, sighting down his rifle into the far corner of the massive chamber. There was no movement, the station was empty. He turned and glanced back toward the stairwell. It was out of sight. The rest of the team were nowhere to be seen.

  Chiara was in front of him. She moved in close, her large brown eyes staring into his. She reached up around the back of his neck with her left hand.

  He leaned into her. His free hand snaking around her back, pulling her close, and lifting her off the floor. Their lips met in a long kiss. He held her tight, every inch of contact becoming a heady thrill racing through his veins.

  She leaned back, and he let her drop down to the concrete floor. Her brown eyes looked deep into his own and she whispered, “For luck.” She put her finger up and pressed it against his lips. She turned, breaking from his grip and jogged past the nearest pump and back to the stairwell. Anton followed closely behind her, the scent of her hair lingering like a warm summer evening.