by TR Cameron
The agent tapped her finger on the table. “How did the sword wind up broken?”
She shrugged. “That’s unclear. All I know is that it’s in several pieces and my parents were looking for them. I can only assume an opposing house either broke it or took advantage of the situation to scatter the parts as a way to make life difficult for my family.”
“How many do you have?” Cara asked.
“A couple, at least, with a line on a couple more. My parents apparently collected extra fragments, and a friend of Nylotte’s is working on finding out exactly what’s there and what’s still needed. He thinks we’re missing four plus the pommel.”
Tanyith entered the conversation abruptly. “But we have the location of two and have a fairly solid hope that we’ll be able to find the rest. The last one was in a cave on Oriceran.” He sounded more hopeful and positive than he had in weeks.
Diana nodded. “So, tell me about your enemies.”
Cali laughed. “Where do I begin? Up here, the Zatoras—a human crime syndicate—don’t particularly like us. Or anyone, for that matter. They recently attacked the leader of the magical council for no apparent reason. On the other side are the Atlanteans, who have a well-established gang, multiple street drugs that are in heavy demand, and try to kill me repeatedly by means of Atlantean ritual combat.”
Zeb growled his annoyance. “Fortunately, they’ve not proven adequate to that task. Far from it, really.”
She nodded. “Then we have the New Atlantis folks. The Malniets are the ones who were responsible for the Kraken and were behind the attack that forced my parents to flee. I have them wrapped up in a ritual challenge too, but it won’t solve the problem because the process moves too slowly. I’m looking for another option. Plus, I’ve been told I can’t trust any of the remaining seven noble houses either, although only one—Cormier—has taken any clear steps.”
Tanyith added, “Don’t forget the Empress.”
Cali chuckled. “Oh, and yeah, Empress Shenni claims to be my friend but her family betrayed mine. I don’t have even a smidgeon of trust for her in my heart.”
Cara shook her head. “We’re well acquainted with untrustworthy folks too. Sometimes, the only way to deal with them is to put them into the ground.”
Rath yelled, “Yippee Kai Yay,” and leapt upward. He was briefly visible above the bar before he plummeted out of sight again.
Both Cara and Diana laughed at his antics, and the latter explained, “He’s been a little cooped up at our base. He’s used to having an active social life. Maybe we should send him to hang out with your companion more often.”
The girl laughed. “Fyre would love that, I’m sure of it.”
Like someone had flipped a switch, the agent became businesslike. “Okay, with the time difference, we have five hours or so before nightfall in Paris. We should start to plan for this adventure.”
The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent studying floor plans, looking at the pictures Diana’s techs had managed to dig up, and watching a feed on a heavy-duty laptop Cara had brought. It was from the building’s security systems as they closed for the night. The agents had unpacked their bags and donned their tactical gear, which made them look like warriors. Even Rath had his smaller-sized version of the gear. Cali was amused to see that his weapon of choice seemed to be combat batons, very similar to her sticks.
We’re kindred spirits.
She and Tanyith had portaled to the bunker to equip and returned to find Diana deep in conversation with someone. Cara handed them comm units and after she’d snugged it into her ear, she heard the discussion. The lead agent asked, “What do you mean, they’re tagged?”
A woman’s voice, simultaneously businesslike and sarcastic, replied, “Tagged. You know. Wearing a tag. Honestly, why are you such a Luddite?”
“Right, Glam,” Diana countered, “you’re smarter than everyone. Let’s pretend you’ve already proven that yet again and get to the part where you explain what the hell you mean, shall we?”
Cali heard the amusement in both the voices on the channel and thought that if she was ever in charge of people, she’d want that kind of relationship with them. Cara leaned closer and whispered, “Glam is our head tech.”
“Right, boss, sure.” The sound of keyboarding was faintly audible behind the tech’s words. “So, the museum has impressive security systems but it appears they’re all keyed to ID tags. If you’re wearing one, the systems more or less ignore you. What this means is that there might be a number of people inside, but if we can’t see them on cameras, none of the other sensors will report them because of the tags.”
Diana frowned. “Can we spoof them?”
“Not without one to use as a template. Copying wouldn’t be tough, although you don’t have the right gear for it.”
The agent turned to face her. “So, do we need to be subtle here? Or is this basically a smash and grab?”
“It’s totally a smash and grab.”
She grinned. “Good, I like it simple.” Her eyes defocused as she spoke to the tech. “So, the plan is to get in, get what we need, and get out. In that case, the only reason to worry about the tags is that they might be hiding op forces, correct?”
“You got it, boss.”
“Okay. We can deal with that. Is your co-troublemaker ready to handle alarms and stuff?”
A male voice entered the conversation. “Hey. I resent that remark. I am the main troublemaker. She’s the co-troublemaker.”
Glam snorted. “Please, Deacon. You don’t even approach my level of proficiency.”
Diana rolled her eyes at Cali and replied, “Okay. Good. Talk to you from France.” She studied both Cali and Tanyith and said, “Nice gear but kind of basic. We probably have toys you could use.”
They exchanged glances and shook their heads. Cali replied, “At this point, we’d only be confused. I wouldn’t say no to the chance to train with you sometime, though. I’m fundamentally a fan of toys to use against criminals.”
The agents both chuckled. “Consider it done. You’re both invited— Fyre and Zeb too if he’s willing to leave the bar for a while. Does he actually live here?”
She laughed. “No, it only seems like it.”
“Good, then. Bring him along.” She turned to Cara. “Are you ready?” The other woman nodded. Diana called, “Rath, knock it off and get the rest of your gear on.” The troll raced to the basement, where the agents had left their equipment, with the Draksa nipping at his heels.
Cali shook her head. “This will be interesting.”
The woman laughed. “My friend, you have no idea. Every day with Rath is an adventure, and I can only assume your buddy Fyre will make him worse.”
Chapter Nineteen
The portal deposited them a few blocks away from their target, and the agents immediately led the way to the rooftops. Diana was in constant communication with the techs, and to judge by the conversation, the glasses she, Cara, and Rath wore were somehow computerized and displayed data. She was instantly envious and thought how handy such a tool would have been in the dark hospital.
Well, maybe when this is over, I can ask for one. Since they work for the government, they’re probably only a billion dollars each or something.
She crouched beside the others at the edge of the building and peered over an ornamental wall that ran around the perimeter. This part of Paris was beautiful, with glittering lights everywhere and a surprising number of people out on the streets. The area in front of the museum was grassy and separated from the sidewalk by a set of high hedges, which she thought would give them the opportunity to get over the street and down to ground level without being seen. Security personnel were in evidence, but they didn’t look particularly concerned about anything other than the conversations they were engaged in.
“It seems like a nice vacation spot,” she whispered to Tanyith. “You know, if vacations were possible for any of us.”
He nodded and laughed. “
Someday, maybe. Although you’ll probably have to spend all yours in New Atlantis.”
Cali groaned. “Which is so not a vacation paradise. What with the random attacks and the endless politicking, no thanks.”
Diana’s voice jerked them away from their conversation. “Wait, Deacon. I have eyes on some type of motion inside the building. It shows on thermal. Do you see it on the security system?”
His response came back almost instantly and sounded distinctly irritated. “No. And what’s worse, I don’t have it on the sensors or the cameras.”
“So. They’re hiding behind illusion and they have one of Glam’s all-powerful tags?”
“That would be my assessment.”
She was silent for a couple of moments, then said, “I only see one. But that doesn’t make much sense.”
“It could be that someone screwed their illusion up,” Cara suggested. “It might simply be dumb luck.”
Diana turned to face Cali. “This is almost certainly a trap. There are probably people in there with access to magic, at least. For all we know, there are others in cool suits that hide them from our thermals and with tags that keep them off the sensors positioned outside the range of the cameras. That’s not a reason for us not to go, but if you think there’s an option to reach your goal that might be safer, now’s the time to say so.”
The girl shook her head. “I need the pieces and this reinforces the likelihood that one is inside.”
“How do you think they knew we were coming tonight?” Tanyith asked. “Or are they camping out waiting for us?”
She shrugged. “They could have someone in the library, I guess, and heard me talking to Scoppic. But if it’s one of the Nine, they surely have the resources to have guarded it since the moment I came onto the scene. I don’t think there’s a way to be sure.”
“You should probably do a full security audit when you get home, though,” Cara added. “We can help. Rath is particularly good at that.” The troll nodded. He looked very serious in his earphones, body armor, goggles, and weapons, with a strange rectangular box on his back. The smile showed that it was still him beneath, however.
Diana had made final plans with the techs and finally fell silent. “Okay, last gear check.” She and Cara made sure the other’s straps were tightened before each checked to be sure their pistols and blades were ready to be drawn. The handle of a sword protruded over the leader’s shoulder and her second in command carried long daggers in thigh sheaths. Both had thinner than usual bulletproof vests with magazines for their weapons slotted into small pockets, a few of them with blue stripes on them. Potions and more magazines were located in other places as well.
Basically, they’re walking arsenals. Even Rath, with his batons and potions, looked entirely ready to rumble.
Tanyith leaned closer and whispered loudly, “We need better stuff.”
She laughed. “Right?”
Diana chuckled and added, “We can help you there. But now, it’s time to put your game faces on. Let’s get to it.”
The two agents went first and launched themselves high with bursts of magic to land cleanly on the grass in front of the museum. They paused and waited to see if the guards near the entrance would react, but the men continued to talk and smoke, oblivious to the action around them.
Tanyith followed, and he touched down cleanly as well. Fyre and Rath leapt off the building together and the Draksa spread his wings wide to glide across the distance. A set of mechanical wings snapped out of the box on the troll’s back, and he flew in formation with Fyre. Cali had volunteered to go last since her landings weren’t usually as clean as those who could use telekinesis to assist them. Diana had promised to assist but they’d all concurred it would be best if everyone else was in position first.
She blasted herself off the roof and the other woman’s magic wound around her and guided her cleanly to the ground. Cali shook her head. “Damn, I have to figure out how to do that for myself.” It was by far the least dramatic landing she’d ever managed. The two other women and the troll had already begun to advance toward the entrance, and she and her partners followed a few steps behind.
When they were close, Diana whispered, “Everyone, hold. Cara, you have the one on the left. The other’s mine.” Both women drew the pistols on their left hips, which Cali only belatedly realized were different than the ones in their shoulder holsters.
Simultaneous snapping sounds broke the quiet, and both guards fell. The agents ran forward and trussed them quickly with black zip-ties, tossed their weapons away, and hid their still forms between the greenery and the wide stone porch they’d stood on.
“What did you do to them?” Cali asked.
Cara grinned as she returned to their side. “Stun guns. Kind of like a taser but better.”
“Oh, damn, I need one of those.”
The agents laughed, and Rath said, “Where does he get all those wonderful toys?”
She turned to him and asked, “The Joker?”
He smiled and did a backflip. “I’m Batman.”
Diana sighed. “Save the movie quotes for later, Rath. We’ll go in the main doors here. Remember, there is a balcony above us. Fyre, Rath, that’s yours. When we change rooms, if there’s no access, you come down and head up again.” Both magical creatures nodded. “Tanyith, Cali, you’re our rear guard. We’ll advance two by two. If we get into a tussle, any newcomers from the back belong to you and any reinforcements from the front are ours. The techs say our target is most likely in the basement, so keep your eyes open while we move through but try not to get distracted. We go fast, and once we have it, we portal out. Got it?”
They both nodded and Cali said, “Thank you for this.”
The agent grinned. “Hell, we’re glad for the opportunity. It’s been too damn slow lately.”
Cara snorted. “Amen to that. So, let’s go kick ass, shall we?”
They advanced out of the entry chamber with its admissions desk in the center and arched accesses on both sides and stepped into the first room. The skeletons of smaller dinosaurs filled it to create an oval shape with a straight corridor down the middle and a curved path on either side. Deacon spoke calmly over the comms. “There are no visible enemies in this room. One guard is in the next and walking away from you.”
Rath fired a hook of some kind from a launcher attached to his forearm and was winched up to the balcony on the left, and Fyre flew up to the one on the opposite side. Even though everything appeared peaceful, a shiver of anticipation ran down her back.
“Clear up here,” the troll said.
Fyre sent confidence to her, and she announced, “Fyre says the same.”
“Forward, then,” Diana replied. Ahead of them was an entry into what seemed to be a room three times as long as the one they were in. The two on the balconies descended and they all crossed the threshold together. Cali gazed in appreciation at the huge Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that towered above her. The head was several times the size of the Draksa, and the rest of the body was equally impressive.
Cara announced, “Clear left,” from the side of the room she was on, and the young woman expected to hear the agents’ leader say the same.
Instead, she froze. “Illusions present. My detection bracelet is freezing.”
Cali had no idea what the second part of the statement meant but the first part was obvious. It became even more so when huge steel doors dropped to cut off their escape from the back.
“Cover—now,” Diana snapped, and everyone blurred into motion.
The reaction was not an instant too soon, as a ball of fire flashed through the space where they had stood and pounded against the far wall. It spent its force on the metal of the barrier and the marble of the walls but fortunately didn’t set anything alight
“What do we have?” Cara yelled,
Rath replied quickly. “Two here, heading in now.” Fyre roared and belched frost at a target on the upper level of the other side of the room.
&nbs
p; Diana said, “I see six thermals on ground level in this room. Two on your side, four over here.” She must have heard something Cali didn’t, because she responded authoritatively. “I don’t give a damn if they’ve cut access off from outside. Get back into the system and make sure the doors to our objective are clear.”
Cara darted out from her position on the left and charged toward the two at that side of the room. Cali located another taking aim at her and fired a force blast across the span between them to knock them down and out of sight. She raced to the left to support Cara, and her mouth dropped open in fear as one of the people the other woman had targeted launched a line of shadow that the agent made no attempt to dodge. Instinctively, she poured magic into her muscles. She knew she couldn’t get there in time to stop the bolt but hoped she could at least make sure a second didn’t follow.
When the bolt arrived, she was two feet behind Cara, close enough to hear a loud snap followed by a cracking sound. The impact didn’t stop the other woman, who ran forward and vaulted into a kick that pistoned the side of her foot into the magical’s jaw. The power of the blow combined with the momentum of her run shattered bone and hurled her target away. She landed perfectly in balance and delivered a spinning kick to the other one as Cali’s force bolt struck him. He spun wildly to impact with a tall column and fell bonelessly to the floor.
The agent grinned at her. “Nice one.”
Sounds of fighting to her right made her turn quickly, but the three enemies who were still up summoned a wall of force and fled deeper into the museum. Another sprawled awkwardly and looked severely injured.
Holy hell. One fight, and the body count is higher than in my whole life. These people don’t kid around.
Chapter Twenty
“Let’s get after them,” Diana ordered. “Cara, switch to the expensive stuff.” The second in command drew her pistol, ejected the magazine, and swapped it for one with blue stripes from her vest.