by Ramy Vance
Abby hid her disappointment from Creon as best she could. She was used to throwing up a smokescreen to distract from her sulking. Pa had always told her she was the sullenest child he’d ever seen. Sullen and stubborn. Attributes Abby had learned to cherish.
Creon must have noticed the silence in the room because he cleared his throat awkwardly to cover it. “At any rate, we’ll have to get you all set up. Come on over here. We can get your credentials and everything processed. Then you can let your creativity run wild.”
Abby trudged over to Creon’s desk. It shouldn’t be too bad. Even if she had to spend all of her time in Research and Development. Abby had a lot of ideas floating around inside her head.
This facility was the ideal place to turn those ideas into realities.
Chapter Eleven
Myrddin and Roy sat in the War Room. The wizard was drinking tea, blowing steam from the rim of his cup while Roy leaned over a holographic projection of the Dark Gate, which had opened up in Utah, chewing on a cigar that hung limply from his lips.
Neither spoke for some time, Roy still staring as he hoped to receive a message from the map. He got nothing, though. He switched the map off and kicked the chair next to him.
Myrddin glanced up from his tea. “Something wrong?”
Roy righted the chair he’d kicked over and plopped onto it, hanging his head as he placed his cigar on the rim of the holotable. “I got nothing. Absolutely nothing,” Roy grumbled. “Two Dark Gates open in the same state, only a few miles apart from each other. Nowhere else in the country.”
Myrddin’s eyes glinted from behind the steam. “Yes, go on.”
“You’d think they’d have something in common. But nothing. Absolutely nothing. I can’t see one thing that Abby’s farm and the Zion National Park have in common, other than that they’re both in Utah. That makes no sense. If it were going to be an invasion, why the hell would the Dark One pick somewhere out in the middle of nowhere? Or a hiking trail?”
Myrddin waved his hand, and the holomap came to life again. “Those are good questions. But we have found through the last few years that the Dark One’s strategies are often far beyond what we are expecting. I’m assuming you read the report sent by the Mundanes?”
Roy grabbed his cigar and chewed on it again. “Which one? That kid Suzuki sends a new one out every five hours or something.”
“Hardly. The squad is meticulous and thorough, something you could learn to incorporate into your team.”
“I’ll ask him for notes if I ever meet him. Did you bring him up just to hand me a passive-aggressive insult?”
“No. Merely to call attention to the point of the Mundanes’ reports. They discovered how the Dark One was influencing the minds of his captives, where the bulk of his army had come from. A sophisticated form of mind control. Something far beyond what we’d seen before. All that is to say, whatever the Dark One is planning, it will most likely look like nothing we’ve ever come across.”
Roy crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Great. Not only is the Dark One relentless, but he’s also got a creative bent,” Roy complained. “Could it get any better?”
The door of the War Room slid open, and Anabelle marched in, her eyes red with fury. She had barely crossed the threshold when she shouted, “All right, you both have some explaining to do, and I expect you to start really fucking quick!”
Roy jumped at the sound of Anabelle’s voice, fear flickering briefly across his face. “Whoa, who gave you clearance to come—”
Anabelle raised her hand. “You did, you idiot,” she spat. “And not another word from you. Not a peep. I know you don’t have the answers.” She sat in front of Myrddin, leaned forward, and locked eyes with the wizard. “You have the answers. So, start talking.”
Myrddin took a measured sip from his tea. He studied Anabelle with the focus one would expect from a warrior engaged in a duel. “It would behoove you to be a tad more specific in your inquiry,” he said softly.
If there was one thing Anabelle hated, it was people putting on airs. She’d seen it millions of times over the last hundred or so years. Back a person into the corner, and they start speaking with fake accents or magically expanded vocabularies. It was a petty tactic, and it drove her crazy.
Anabelle inhaled deeply. She’d also learned the only way to deal with such people was to play their game. Shouting and revealing how pissed she was would work with Roy. Myrddin would simply sweep her under the rug as he’d done before.
Using all of her self-control, Anabelle spoke slowly and deliberately, maintaining the same regulated cadence as though she were at a job interview. “Most of the troops you sent me with were woefully undertrained. The equipment you sent was faulty as well. If I hadn’t been there, they would have all been dead now.”
“Lucky for them that their commander was there. Glad to see you aren’t the type of leader who abandons their post.”
Anabelle tried to understand the meaning behind Myrddin’s words. The wizard often spoke in riddles, barely saying anything of import while still expecting others to work it out. “So, what was that? Some kind of test?”
Myrddin smiled pleasantly. “No casualties. Not even a scratch. An entire orc platoon eradicated. No, it was not a test. But if it had been, you would have passed with flying colors, and I would be very proud of you.” He pointed to the holomap and magicked his teacup away. “The recruits were trained specifically with their exoskeletons. The malfunctioning of the equipment was due to an EMP pulse generated by the Dark Gate, a variable we had not foreseen. We are working on the suits to ensure that nothing like that happens again. I apologize for placing you in danger.”
Anabelle had already had her response prepared, but at Myrddin’s apology, she choked on it. He had never apologized for anything before. Was this another trap?
“Uh, it’s okay,” Anabelle replied, her tone deflated.
Even Roy was staring at Myrddin in confusion.
Myrddin waved at the holomap, and the view changed, now revealing a closeup of the Dark Gate. “Our working relationship has been strained for far too long, Ms. Chase. You were right about your field qualifications. With that in mind, I’d like to offer you a more specific role in our fight against the Dark One.”
Anabelle was interested. It still felt like a trap, though. “All right, I’ll bite. What are you thinking?”
“Sending soldiers who are not on par with your skills is dangerous for you and for them. Instead, I’d like to place you in charge of training a new squad to tackle any Special Ops missions suited to your talents.”
Anabelle stood, anger flushing her cheeks. She knew what Myrddin was up to. Stick her in some barracks and put her on drill sergeant duty. “If you think you’re going to keep me off of the field, you have—”
Myrddin raised his hand. “Quite the contrary. I would like you to train a group of field agents to accompany you on missions. One of the last living Travelers must have something to offer a young pupil.”
Heat crawled up to Anabelle's throat. Even if Myrddin wasn’t trying to trick her, he still wasn’t pulling his punches. She didn’t enjoy thinking about what had happened to the rest of the Travelers. Nor did she want their legacy to fade away.
Roy sat up, finally taking an interest in the conversation. “Honestly, that’s not a bad idea. Even if you aren’t training new Travelers, you have more theoretical knowledge than anyone else here,” he admitted. “You could probably rustle up some good recruits. Get them ready for a fight like only you can.”
Myrddin nodded as he stroked his long, white beard. “True. You would be an ideal leader of the S.W.A.M.R.R.T.”
Anabelle covered her mouth and tried to stifle her laugh before erupting in insolent guffaws. “What the hell does that stand for?”
Myrddin’s cheeks turned the lightest shade of pink. “Special Weapons and Magic Rapid Response Team,” he murmured.
Anabelle slapped her knee, still laughing loudly. “Oh, man,
I’ve heard bad names before, but that is awful. Aren’t you a wizard? Isn’t naming things, like, one of your hobbies or something? The acronym doesn’t even spell anything.”
Roy, who was obviously stifling his own laughter, said, “How about you come up with something better?”
“All right. K.T.D.O. Rolls right off the tongue.”
Roy nodded as he considered the name. “What does it stand for?”
Anabelle shrugged as if she’d already lost interest in the conversation. “Kill the Dark One,” she offered. “That’s what we’re trying to do, right?”
Roy stood and shook his head. “No, no, that’s not going to work. We got to have something with, you know, a little more snap. Something that catches you. You hear it, and you think, goddamn, I don’t wanna fuck with that.”
Myrddin rubbed his brow as he sighed. “Our realms are fighting for their very survival, and you two have this much energy to care about a name? Perhaps our efforts should be concentrated on something a bit more important.”
Myrddin pointed at the holomap, which had changed again. A hadron collider schematic filled the screen. “Our agents on the gnome world have informed us that the Dark One has gotten his hands on a hadron collider.”
Anabelle had seen news reports about the hadron collider over the last few years. It hadn’t interested her much. Theoretical physics had never been one of her hobbies. She was surprised to hear Myrddin mention it, though. Physics was typically a nonmagical endeavor.
“So, what’s the big deal?” she asked.
The image on the holomap changed, this time revealing a large facility with a collider. Elves, humans, and gnomes walked along scaffolding erected around the collider. “We have one as well,” Myrddin said. “It is a tool we use for slipping between realms with nonmagical folk.”
“Why would the Dark One need a collider? Most of his forces use magic, don’t they?”
Myrddin nodded as he waved away the holomap. “True. Many of his followers have the ability to use magic. But we have noticed the Dark One has a tendency to rely on technology instead of magic. Perhaps it is because we find it harder to track. It has surprised us multiple times.”
Anabelle stood, stalked over to the holomap, and leaned against it. “That makes this easy enough, doesn’t it?” she asked. “We just need to find where his collider is, blow it up, and I’ll buy the first round of drinks. Except for Roy’s. He’s got to pay for his own.”
Roy looked wounded. “Wait, why just me?”
“Because you have unnecessarily expensive taste. Trust me, I’ve paid $2,000 on bottle service before. You’d be an expensive date.”
Myrddin cleared his throat until Roy and Anabelle were silent. The holomap blinked on, displaying a galaxy. Thousands of bright lights flickered. Planets and stars. “Each of those lights is a potential place the collider could be. And that’s all we have to go off at the moment.”
Anabelle studied the map. Now that she could see the possibilities laid out before her, the mission seemed much more daunting. “All right, what are we doing then? Checking out each one?”
Myrddin shook his head as he removed a speck of dirt from his suit. “No, that would be impractical. We are going to deal with these Dark Gates as they arrive while we wait for our spies to deliver more intel. That will give you time to assemble and train a team as well.”
He handed Anabelle a dossier. She took the datapad and scrolled through the list. There were hundreds of candidates to consider. This was going to be a bigger pain in the ass than she had expected. “All right, I’ll get on it,” said Anabelle at last.
Abby was hooked up to a VR simulator. A heavy VR headset rested on her head, and her body was covered in electrodes. A screen behind her displayed what she saw.
Creon walked back and forth, monitoring the video, then Abby’s vitals and back again.
Abby held a set of controllers, which she used to guide Gertrude as it flew through the glass halls of the research and development facility. Abby was taking it slow, trying to get the hang of how the drone handled when it wasn’t automated.
The invention was extremely new. Abby had only suggested it to Creon a few hours ago. After they had brainstormed for a little bit, they got to drawing schematics and wondering what they could throw together, whether or not it would be practical.
Abby had never worked alongside someone so smart before. Not that her family wasn’t. They were just smart in a different way. If Abby was honest with herself, she’d never met anyone who was the kind of smart Creon was.
The goblin only seemed to think in terms of technology. He helped Abby move from daydreaming to planning to construction in the amount of time it had taken her to write down the idea for her drones. It was exhilarating to get a glimpse of what working for Myrddin was going to be like.
Abby guided her drone around a corner, then pulled back suddenly. An elf was walking into the hallway. This would be a perfect chance to try one of the upgrades Creon had suggested. A stealth mode.
A button somewhere on Abby’s controller would activate the stealth mode, but she was having a hard time finding it. She pulled off her headset, located the button, and tapped it.
She placed the headset back on her head and checked for the icon indicating stealth mode had been activated. She peeked through the wall first to make sure the elf was still in the hallway, then guided the drone around the corner.
The elf was scowling at the datapad in her hand and shaking her head. And there was one way to find out what had annoyed her. Get closer.
Abby maneuvered the drone forward, hoping her tweaks to the stealth mode had muffled Gertrude’s exhaust.
The drone hovered closer. The elf didn’t seem to notice.
But suddenly, she whipped around, her eyes bright with anger. Her hands shone as though they had caught fire, and she brought them down onto Gertrude.
Abby’s display went black, and she jerked off her headset. “Someone attacked Gertrude,” Abby shouted. “Where is she?”
Creon pulled up the GPS system they had attached to Gertrude and pointed to the floor where the drone had blacked out.
Abby didn’t wait for instructions from Creon. She studied the map, ran to the floating platform, and leapt onto it. As the platform ascended, she counted the floors until she reached the right one, rode the platform to the main doors, and jumped off.
The only thing Abby was concerned about was the damage to her drone. Gertrude was the first one she’d built, the culmination of months and months of hard work, a physical manifestation of her own faith in herself. And now it could be reduced to a piece of scrap metal.
Abby ran down the hallway, familiar now from the feed she’d gotten from Gertrude. She turned the corner in time to see the elf crouched over the drone.
“Whoa, now hold on,” Abby shouted as she sprinted to her fallen drone.
As Abby raced toward Gertrude, the elf stood and watched her, recognition flashing in her eyes. “Is this thing yours?” the elf asked.
Abby knelt beside Gertrude and began poking around the exposed wires. “Yes, it is, and I’d take it kindly if you didn’t go ripping my drones apart,” she hissed.
“And I’d take it kindly if you would refrain from spying on me.”
Abby blushed and brushed her hair from her eyes. “I wasn’t spying. Just testing out my drone. Didn’t mean to invade any privacy.”
The elf crouched beside Abby. “Hey, you…you’re the girl from the field. The one with the white cane. The one Myrddin brought in, right?”
Abby jumped to her feet and backed away from the elf. “Why’s it of interest to you?”
Anabelle turned and opened the door across from her. She entered the room and beckoned Myrddin and Roy, who followed her back into the passage where she waved at Abby.
“Ahh, my human recruit is finally here,” Anabelle said with a devilish grin.
Chapter Twelve
“SWARMMT? That is a stupid name.”
Abby
and Anabelle were in the changing room designated for the obstacle course. They were sitting near the lockers, talking quietly while the other potential recruits prepped themselves.
Anabelle pulled her hair back into a ponytail, removed her earrings, and placed them in her locker. “Exactly!” she exclaimed. “That’s what I was saying. Terrible name. Utterly terrible.”
Abby giggled as she scrolled through the different options of her watch that controlled her drones. “We could be called something like, I dunno know, KTDOF,” Abby offered. “Kill the Dark One First. Straight and to the point.”
Anabelle leaned over and pinched Abby’s cheek, making the girl giggle again and blush for reasons she didn’t quite understand. “Thought there was a reason I liked you. Other than the murderous rage in your eyes. I like that too. I’d drop the ‘First,’ though. Otherwise, great name. Myrddin won’t go for a swear word in the name, but if I had to pick one, yours wins, hands down.”
Abby focused on her watch again. “Thanks,” she said awkwardly.
Abby and the elf had spent some time with each other the night before, after Anabelle had announced she wanted Abby on her team. Anabelle had explained the situation, and Abby had agreed as soon as she understood she’d be out on the field.
But getting Abby field-ready still required a lot of foot- and paperwork. The first step was completing an obstacle course. All new recruits were expected to pass an obstacle course tailored specifically to the kind of field operative they were training to be.
Recruits from Middang3ard VR, espionage teams, and Dragon Riders all had separate requirements they were expected to fulfill. Abby wasn’t certain what the obstacle course would entail, and she was worried she wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Anabelle had been nothing short of encouraging to Abby. It helped a little bit. But Abby was very aware that Anabelle didn’t have to complete the same course at all. Nobody was going to help her out with this, and she still had no idea what she was doing.