Arcane Ops

by T. R. Cameron

  Hank had lost track of Anik early in the battle, but the demolitions expert had assured him he was fine over their shared channel. The other man’s fighting preferences were substantially less direct than his own, and he imagined that he’d found cover and simply waited for an opportunity to unleash trouble. Me, on the other hand? Covert is totally not my style. They’d landed in a gaggle of witches and wizards and he had eliminated the first few with bullets and the others with fists and feet, his magical reservoir surging with each contact. He’d taken a couple of blasts of magic but his vest had absorbed them, much to the shocked dismay of the casters. Now, he marched purposefully through the lanes created by the crates in search of criminals in need of his particular brand of justice.

  He found a trio of witches and they raised their wands together as soon as they saw him. To their surprise, he barreled forward into their blasts. His vest consuming all of them and he landed a punch in the face of the woman closest to him and head-butted the person beside her. The third released a wash of fire and it was absorbed with the sound of cracking deflectors. He drew on the power he’d built up, increased his speed so her next attack missed, and pounded into her at a run. She catapulted into a set of crates, her momentum enough to break most of her bones and topple the tower. He turned his attention to the one he’d disoriented with his forehead strike and tapped her with a gentle punch that shocked her into unconsciousness. The dots on his display were diminishing, which was good. All those for allies were in motion, which was even better.

  Bullets thudded into him from both sides, and he jerked his head up and scowled at two gunmen who had laid in wait and apparently, used the magicals as bait. Heh. I wonder if they knew they were the cheese in the trap? One of the rounds burned into his right shoulder and another caught him in the back of the left leg, and he lurched to the side and out of their firing line. The discomfort from the projectiles his vest had stopped was barely noticeable. While he took a moment to expend a trace of his magic to stem the blood flow and dull the pain, he didn’t have time to dig the bullets out. He drew his Glock and his Ruger and stepped out again with the weapons extended at arms’ length at either side, hoping they’d been too stupid to move. His wish was answered, and he emptied both weapons at them before they could react to his sudden reappearance. He shook his head as he changed the magazine in his pistol and stowed the revolver. Thank all that is holy that we don’t have mandatory military service, or these people might actually be dangerous.

  A fleeing human ran up beside him, saw who he was, and shrieked. Hank pistoned a side punch into his face and added a little magic into it, and the man’s scream was cut off abruptly and he dropped like a stone. Morons. The agent strode forward in search of the next person who wanted to make the mistake of attacking him.

  Cara dragged in a breath and realized that she was alone and suddenly surrounded. Her rifle was empty, and the five people who circled her all held wands. The daggers crowed with joy in her mind and urged her to set them loose. Who am I to argue? She grinned, drew them from the sheaths on her thighs, and surged into motion. The magicals cast spells that her vest sucked up and the deflectors cracked with a single loud pop when they were all consumed by the initial barrage. By then, she had broken out of the center and was already attacking the first of the enemy. Demon, in her left hand as always, stabbed the arm the woman raised in defense. Angel, in her right, snuck through to stab the inside elbow of her wand arm. The witch screamed as the agent spun away to the next person in line. She slipped past him, continued to spin until she was on the far side of the man, and brought her right arm around the back of his neck. Before he could react, she hurled him forward and into the path of the cone of fire the quickest witch had launched at her a second before.

  He shouted in pain and stumbled blindly as the flames washed over him. She faced the third one—a witch again—as she grinned and fired a bolt of lightning. Cara laughed as her vest grounded it, then hissed in anger when shadow tentacles erupted from the woman’s other arm. Why always artifacts, and why always tentacles? While she didn’t have Diana’s almost obsessive dislike of the tactic, she wasn’t a fan, either. Fortunately, her daggers were well able to slice through them, and she closed the distance and punched the woman in the mouth to deliver her brand of electrical charge with a snap of the shock gloves.

  Angel screamed a warning in her mind, and Cara fell instinctively, ducked under the burning cone that sought her, and rolled away behind an obstacle as the witch tracked it along her path. Okay, two left, plus the wounded one. She moved rapidly to the far side of the tower, careful to avoid notice. The dots on her map didn’t move, aside from the staggering wizard, which suggested that they continued to look for her. She crept behind the flame-throwing woman and, with a twinge at the unfairness of it, hurled Demon. He struck in the middle of her back and she screamed and went down. Cara clenched her fist, and the dagger dragged out of her target’s body and returned to her hand, increasing the volume and frequency of her hoarse shouts.

  She saw the final member of the group and launched fire darts at him. He recoiled and dropped his wand, and she lunged forward to punch both him and the burned man into unconsciousness. She turned, ran into the smoke, and sheathed the daggers before she shoved a new magazine into her rifle as she headed toward several dots that had gathered together and now moved in the direction of the exit.

  Sarah had received a mental message from Iressa—the first that hadn’t required her to leave her physical form to pay homage to the woman—moments before the chaos below had begun. She’d tried to portal out immediately but had found her magic blocked. Irritated, she’d cast a few fireballs into the fray from the staircase to ensure that it was only that particular spell that was affected before she retreated into her office to watch the battle. Part of her brain screamed in frustration, but another part took the invasion in stride. She laughed at herself at the passing wish that Marcus, the walking arsenal, was still around to help her. The witch honestly wasn’t afraid. Fear had been left behind during her escape from the World in Between. But she had a dark feeling about this new development as if the fate she’d believed in for so long was revealed to be only a dream and this was what things were like when awake.

  Her superior had checked in after the first few minutes, and she’d let the woman know about the blocked portal. Sarah had spent the time since then keeping an eye on the battle and preparing for it to reach her. She kept her wand in her hand, made sure her backup was in easy reach at the small of her back, and put on the armor her patron had provided her. It was leather and chainmail, with a few light impact plates here and there. It also had a number of magic deflectors attached, borrowing an idea from the enemy.

  Their leader, Sheen, emerged from the smoke and violence below to stand at the bottom of the stairs and look up. With a muttered oath, Sarah yanked her head away from the window and moved to stand behind the door and peer through the peephole. The woman seemed to consider the risks involved with ascending the staircase as she remained where she was and shook her head. Her lips moved but it was impossible to make out what she was saying. Suddenly, she elevated and her arc launched her directly toward the door the witch hid behind.

  She backpedaled into the room as the woman pounded into the door. It held, thanks to the wards and defenses she’d added to it. In truth, she probably would have let her foe climb the stairs without contest rather than open it. Hopefully, she hurt herself. It took only a half-minute before the door finally catapulted off its hinges to slam into the back wall of the office. The enemy stood silhouetted in the doorway, and she summoned a line of fire and trained it on her. Sheen blocked it with a fire shield, and Sarah cursed. Then, Iressa’s voice whispered good news in her mind, and she grinned. She deactivated her attack and readied her defense, but the other woman chose to speak.

  “How about you come quietly?” She sounds tired.

  Rather than respond, she cast a spell at the desk in front of her to transform it into
a projectile that rocketed toward her enemy. Sheen responded with a force blast to redirect it and another aimed at her that was absorbed by her deflectors. In the moment of distraction it brought, she conjured a portal at her feet and fell through to safety.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “What the actual fuck!” Diana’s shout was involuntary and heartfelt. She managed to control her anger and yelled, “Rambo, get outside and make sure our secret weapon is okay. The damn witch portaled out of here. Glam, do we know where she went?” One break. One break is all I need. Come on, fate.

  The tech answered in seconds. “She’s in her apartment—rushing around by the looks of it.”

  The agent reviewed the portal locations she knew and shook her head in frustration. Nothing was close. “How long by chopper to get there?”

  “Minutes.”

  “Okay, I’m headed to the roof. Bring it in and have them lower a line.”

  She looked up through a hole that existed in the drywall that was once the ceiling of the room and saw the metal roof of the structure far above. “ʼCopter ETA?”

  “Thirty seconds.”

  So they’re not overhead. Good. She extended her hands and fired flame at the metal to burn through it in an instant. Her force magic enabled her to half-leap and half-fly up and out of the hole to land cleanly on the surface before she ran to its highest point. The running lights of the aircraft were visible as it raced toward her. “Croft, I’m going after Sarah. Finish this here.”

  “Affirmative.”

  Rath’s voice came over the line. “Secret weapon had to defend self. Is fine now.”

  Okay, then, it’s only me and you, bitch. The rope spilled out of the chopper as it passed low over the roof, and Diana grabbed it and held on. It hauled her up and away and swung her in a wide pendulum motion as it reoriented toward the downtown building that housed her enemy’s apartment. The flight was equal parts frightening and exhilarating, but both feelings were at a remove, her entire being focused on bringing an end to Sarah before she could escape again.

  Kayleigh sounded angry. “She’s clearly packing stuff, boss. She plans to run.”

  “She won’t have the opportunity. Tell Nylotte she needs to get close enough to block that.”

  Rath replied, “She’s on her way. Asks if you need help.”

  She bared her teeth in a grin. “Hell no. There’s no chance she’ll get away from me again.”

  The pilot’s voice was crackly as it joined the comms channel. “Roof landing?”

  Diana thought it through. It was certainly the most reasonable and rational means of entry. Land, tie off, and rappel down to come in through a window. Okay, screw reasonable. We’ll do it the fun way. “No, here’s what I want you to do.”

  The building came up fast. Kayleigh had already summoned police and fire in case there was fallout from the fight and had ordered the doorman to quietly evacuate the floors under Sarah’s. The National Guard soldier on the aircraft had adjusted the rope length, and Diana managed to get her boot wedged in the loop at the bottom in the few minutes of flight that had brought them to this moment. The tech warned her that the woman seemed almost done packing, but the agent had received word from Nylotte that she was in place moments before. The witch couldn’t go anywhere unless it was on foot. I would love to fight her in the elevator. That would be amazing. How about it, fate, two-for-two?

  “Final approach,” announced the pilot, and the helicopter surged with a burst of speed, tilted, and suddenly stopped. The maneuver swung her smoothly toward the windows of Sarah’s living room. The idea had come from watching the video of the woman almost throwing a chair through them, and once it had taken hold, Diana knew it was the only way to do it. She extended a hand and directed blasts of force ahead of her to shatter the window before she reached it. In the next second, she leapt from the rope to slide cleanly into the chamber and hurdled over the coffee table that was pushed away from where it belonged in the middle of the couches.

  “Sarah, we didn’t get to finish our conversation,” she yelled. “Maybe you’d like to now.”

  There was no reply, and Kayleigh chuckled. “Yeah, she tried to portal but it didn’t work. She looks seriously angry.”

  “Oh, is your escape plan not working?” the agent continued. “How sad. Will you come out, or do I have to come in there to get you?”

  The witch emerged from the hallway with a wand in each hand and as intense an expression as Diana had ever seen stretched over her face. Truly, at this moment, she looked every bit as insane as they’d joked she was. Her voice was harsh and almost hoarse as she snarled, “You are nothing. I will enjoy killing you and I will revel in killing everyone you’ve ever known, starting with your blonde girlfriend the idiot Dreven failed to eliminate.”

  Diana shook her head. “We’re past threats, aren’t we?”

  “That’s not a threat. It’s a promise. A vow. A damned fact.”

  A memory of her battle with Fury came to mind. She said, “I’d offer you one more chance to end this peacefully, but I know you wouldn’t take it.”

  “Die, bitch.” Sarah flicked both wands at her, and Diana summoned shields of fire to absorb the shadow bolts that hurtled toward her. Her foe crossed the room toward the kitchen, perhaps trying to angle toward the door, but she remained in step with her and simply focused on maintaining her defenses until the woman made a mistake. When the tentacles erupted from her arm, the agent was ready and summoned a force blade to slash them away and turned it into an attack, hurling the object at the witch. The second set of tentacles that emerged from her adversary’s other arm were a complete surprise and had already wound around her legs before she fully processed their appearance.

  She snatched Fury’s hilt, drew the blade smoothly, and sliced the weapon through them, but more appeared and she was hard-pressed to keep up with them. Shadow bolts filled the spaces between, and Diana fell into a rotation of blocks and swipes. She managed to avoid damage but found no openings to counter. The sword coached her and helped her to make the right movements, and she felt confident she could maintain the stalemate. The other woman’s face was locked in a superior, crazed grin. Diana had an instant in which she realized she was being played before the couch careened into her from the side—summoned while she was distracted by the shadow attacks—and she reeled into the kitchen area from the impact and fell. Her sword skittered away.

  She scrambled to her feet in time to thrust more incoming objects aside with her own force blasts. The sense of having taken all she was willing to take from the witch swamped her, suffused her, and filled each and every cell to bursting. Icicles exploded from her extended fist, but the woman’s deflectors absorbed them before they cracked with a familiar snap as they were consumed. She sent a wave of force at her adversary, which pushed the tentacles away and hurled her against the undamaged window, which held and bounced her back into the room. The witch climbed to her feet and blood seeped from a small cut on the side of her head. Sarah snarled. “Lucky shot. It’ll be your last.”

  Rather than bother to reply, she turned the woman’s tactic against her, caught objects with her telekinesis, and flung them at her. Her shadow tentacles deflected most of them and the rest fell to her wands, but Diana was now the one in control. The hail of cutlery she launched at the woman was particularly pleasing, and a paring knife snuck through to stab her in the shoulder. The witch yanked it out with a growl and threw it back at her, but the agent had found her bearings. She threw several large objects and forced the other woman to move sideways. Only a little further.

  Sarah rallied and managed another eruption of tentacles, but her opponent was ready. She held her hand out and Fury responded to spiral across the room and into her grasp. The serpentine attackers were severed quickly. The next wave met the same fate, as did the shadow bolts before a smug look sidled onto the witch’s her face again, which doubtless heralded some clever idea that had occurred to her. However, it also indicated a moment of distractio
n. Diana extended her telekinesis and dragged the woman’s leading foot forward to upset her balance. She saw the look of fear as the force punch that followed thumped into her chest and in the next second, Sarah soared backward out the window. Tentacles reached frantically to grab at anything to stop her fall, but the agent strode to the opening and shredded them. The enemy witch plummeted with a long, terrified shriek that only ceased when she impacted with the blockaded street below. Finally.

  Diana turned and sheathed Fury. Kayleigh said, “Damn. Nice fight, boss. I thought she had you.”

  She laughed. “For a minute there, I did too. But I think she was crazy enough that it compromised her ability to fight. Which was probably good for all of us.”

  “True that.”

  “How do things stand at the warehouse?”

  There was a definite tone of satisfaction in the tech’s voice. “All enemies have been captured or killed, as near as we can tell. A few made it out to be stunned. The team is on the way back to base.”

  The agent turned, looked out the window at the headquarters building a couple of blocks away, and pictured her team returning in victory. Finally, the Remembrance was destroyed. “I’ll be right there.” She tried to open a portal and discovered she couldn’t. With a sigh, she headed to the door to find Nylotte and tell her that she could stop blocking. “Okay, correction, I’ll be there soon.”