Stranger souls s-26

by Jak Koke

  pulled McFaren's limp body into a near corner. In the astral, it seemed as though McFaren and Lethe were still working to close the hole they'd made in the ward that protected the research lab. Ryan didn't understand exactly what they were doing astrally, but he knew they needed to be delicate to prevent an explosion by the ward's powerful mana.

  "I hope you're out of the way," came Dhin's voice, " 'cause here I go."

  A deafening roar filled the room as a barrage of rounds from the rotary autocannon plowed through the window, blowing it to shards in seconds. The miniguns started to answer, but only one or two sputtered before there was no sound from the hall.

  Ryan used his mirror to get a scan of the hallway, but all he could see was a haze of smoke and debris. Limp and fallen bodies, their black and crimson military armor pitted with bleeding holes. There was some movement, shadows in the haze, but nothing he could make out distinctly.

  "They're either dead or retreating," Dhin said. "Get in! Now!"

  Ryan pulled a smoke grenade and tossed it into the hall, adding to the already low visibility. At the same time, Axler moved to the decimated window, grappling hook in hand. She swung and tossed it through the helo's open door. It caught on the support for one of the seats.

  "Perfect," she said. "Let's go. Grind, you first."

  Dhin took the bird up and slightly away as Grind scrambled up the rope. No problems so far. Next was McFaren's limp body. Axler tied the rope around the mage's waist and chest in a makeshift harness to keep him balanced. Grind pulled him up.

  Two down, two to go.

  Jane came on-line, "I placed a smartframe in the Fire Department's host. They think the building's on fire. That means you'll have company soon. It should distract security."

  Guns fired through the smoke as Axler climbed the rope. One round caught her thigh, the wound opening up like a red flower. Ryan watched her wince and flinch on the line, falling for a split-second before catching herself again. In obvious pain, she pulled herself toward the hovering helo.

  Seeing Axler get hit slotted Ryan off. Energy rushed into

  him as he turned toward the hallway. He couldn't see his attackers in the physical world, but he felt their astral presence. He drew from the power of the Dragon Heart as he sent a telekinetic strike out toward them, lifting their bodies into the air. Slamming them into the walls. He struck one, then another until there were six unconscious elves lying in the smoke.

  Sirens sounded as if from a great distance. Ryan turned to see two rescue helicopters swooping down next to Dhin's craft. Wanting to see if they could help with the evacuation.

  "-can you hear me, Ryan?"

  "What?"

  "I've been yelling at you." It was Axler's voice. "I'm up. You're the last one. Move! Now, before they get the helo targeted with a missile or something."

  Ryan shook his head. He hadn't heard anything. He'd been focused on revenge. The Dragon Heart must be affecting me.

  He turned and grabbed the rope.

  Lethe appeared next to him in astral space. "Tell them to move the helo!" "What?"

  "The ward is going to blow."

  Ryan subvocalized, "Dhin, go! Pull up and out. Now! The building's going to explode."

  The insane scream of the helo's rotors increased in pitch as it lifted up and away. It pulled Ryan with it, a dangling spider on a narrow thread. He hung on and watched the hallway. He could see a few figures in astral space. More elves in combat armor.

  A flash of blue light lit up the sky as the ward exploded. It was shaped in a perfect toroid-a donut of magical power. The front wave caught the unsuspecting elves and obliterated them. Their expanding bodies blew out their armor, their clothes, their skin and muscles. It ripped out walls, blew furniture out through the shattered windows.

  Ryan watched the expanding wave in the astral, barreling toward him like a wall of roiling white silk. He ducked his head into his chest to protect his eyes from the hail of broken body armor, atomized flesh, and needles of mana. But the wave dissipated as it rolled outward so that by the time it swept past Ryan, its strength was only enough to cause a

  ripple of intense pain. He grit his teeth and held on, swinging beneath the rising helo, hoping Dhin was good enough to weave between the whirling blades of the rescue choppers.

  When the rope had steadied, and the Hughes Airstar was clear in the splotchy charcoal sky, Ryan pulled himself up the rope and into the helo. He fell into a seat with a heavy sigh, and Axler closed the hatch. Then they were gone into the night.

  Surprisingly, there were no missile attacks and no immediate pursuit. Probably due to the confusion with the fire emergency teams. Lethe monitored the astral while Dhin monitored the radar with Grind's help. Ryan helped Axler patch up her leg. He also tried using the Dragon Heart to heal her like it healed him, but he didn't really know the magic of healing others. That wasn't one of his abilities.

  McFaren's meat body remained slumped. Lethe said the mage had died in the blast, his astral form tangled in the fabric of the ward when it had collapsed. Axler didn't want to believe it was true.

  Lethe ought to know, Ryan thought. But even if McFaren's astral form had somehow survived, the mage would have to get back to his body soon. Otherwise, his spirit would wander forever.

  Jane had been monitoring the Tir border near La Grande so that their crossing back into Salish-Shidhe territory would be perfectly timed and seamless. But the border had tightened all around, and she finally recommended setting the 'copter down in the ash beds just west of John Day. It was a sparsely populated section of the Tir, and they should be safe for a day or so until the border loosened a bit.

  The flight to the ash canyon near John Day took several hours. The sun was just coming up as they descended, the helo's wind sending up a fine mist of the loose volcanic ash around them. Turning the sunlight a deep red and burned orange. Ryan felt the fatigue hit as the helicopter's runners touched the flat bottom of the narrow canyon where they would hide out.

  He had succeeded. He had the Dragon Heart now. All he needed to do, according to Dunkelzahn, was find the mage Harlequin and deliver the Heart to Thayla at the metaplanar site of the Great Ghost Dance. His fatigue hung on him like

  wet clothes. He was too tired to think about the rest of the mission right now.

  Besides, why the frag should he give up the Dragon Heart? He was much more powerful with it than without. Much stronger. If he just kept it, he could use it to combat Dunkelzahn's enemies. It didn't make any sense to give it away. It was a part of him now.

  I'll keep it, he decided. It was willed to me by Dunkelzahn, and it's mine.

  40

  Lethe saw something in Ryan Mercury. The man's aura had changed, shifted somehow since he'd made contact with the Dragon Heart. He was stronger than before, faster and more capable of fulfilling the task of getting it to Thayla. Lethe tried to imagine the glorious music of Thayla's song. He tried to feel the penetrating warmth of her light.

  He failed. His memory could not compare to his experience of her.

  Lethe used the static nudge he'd used before to get the attention of Ryan, who was helping Axler throw camouflage netting over the helicopter. The human focused for a minute and said, "Lethe?"

  "I'd like to talk about how you plan to get the Dragon Heart to Thayla," Lethe said.

  Ryan's aura darkened momentarily. "Give it a rest," he said. "I've just been through major drek. I don't want to think about it right now."

  Lethe paid no heed. "There's no time for that. Now that we have the Dragon Heart, we must deliver it."

  "There's plenty of time for all that," Ryan said irritably. "I told you I don't want to talk about it right now."

  The cloudiness Lethe saw in Ryan's aura was the same sign of deception he'd noticed before. It had raised his suspicions then too, but what else could he have done but hope his perception was flawed in some way and that Ryan Mercury was truly the right one for this task? After all, Dunkelzahn himself had chosen this human
.

  "Besides," Ryan said, "we don't even know how to get it to the metaplanes. That involves a powerful magical ritual known only to a few mages. We would need to find one of them, and I don't have any idea where to start."

  Lethe saw that the darkness in Ryan's aura was growing. He was lying for some reason. "How long do you want to wait?"

  The hint of a smile touched Ryan's physical mask, showing as a wash of dark red across his aura. "Just until things settle down."

  At that moment it occurred to Lethe that Ryan meant to keep the Dragon Heart. He was addicted to its power.

  Ryan was still talking. "I need to find a mage to look into the situation."

  But Lethe wasn't listening. The realization that this shortsighted human would jeopardize the fate of the whole world for a brief taste of paltry power was maddening. "You can't keep the Dragon Heart," he said. "It was not meant for you."

  Ryan took a step back, surprised. "I don't intend to keep it."

  Lethe scrutinized Ryan's aura as he spoke. The human was not only lying, but actually stating the opposite of what he meant. There was no doubt now. Ryan was not planning to complete Dunkelzahn's mission.

  "You don't understand what you are doing," Lethe said. "I won't allow it."

  "I don't see how you can stop me," Ryan said. "The Heart is mine, and I don't think even you can hurt me now."

  Lethe ignored the threat. "Personal power is meaningless. You must understand that your petty desires may help destroy the world."

  "Slot off!" Ryan focused his power and pushed Lethe away. Perhaps his power was greater.

  "I will not give up," Lethe said. And with that he was gone, blasting across the astral landscape. He went high, to the very rim of the manasphere, coming back down thousands of kilometers from Ryan in the physical world. His whole journey passed in the exercise of a thought.

  It took longer to locate Nadja Daviar once he was in the Washington sprawl. But time was relative. It was still morning when he came across the elf in a highly secure mansion. He moved past the astral watchers and into her new office.

  Three others were in the office with her-two ork security guards and a human of Asian background who was conversing with Nadja. The orks were guarding her, and as Lethe examined their astral bodies, he realized that none of them would have the ability to translate for him. Reluctantly, he decided to possess one of them. This time he would be more careful to exit the body before it died. But he had to speak with Nadja and saw no other way to do so.

  He moved his spirit into the body of one of the orks, trying to be as gentle as possible with the spirit of the metahuman. The body jerked slightly as he took control quickly. "Excuse me, Nadja," he said, using the ork's voice. "It is Lethe, and I'm reluctantly using this guard's body because it is imperative that I speak with you now."

  The other guard drew a weapon.

  "Lethe?"

  "Yes, it is urgent, and I don't have much time. I don't want to accidentally destroy this body as I did the last."

  Abruptly, Nadja turned toward her guest. "I'm sorry for this interruption, Rai'kun-sama. It was not anticipated or expected. However, I must speak with this spirit. Will you excuse me for a few moments? We will continue the discussion of your claim at that time."

  The man stood and bowed to her. She returned the bow precisely.

  When he had stepped out and closed the door, Nadja turned to Lethe. "What do you want?"

  "Ryan Mercury has failed," he said. "We succeeded in getting the Dragon Heart, but he has succumbed to a desire for its power. He has decided to keep the item and has given up on his mission."

  Nadja sank into her chair at the words. Stunned.

  "You are the only one who might be able to persuade him to carry out Dunkelzahn's instructions," Lethe went on. "To complete his mission."

  "Me?"

  "He loves you."

  She nodded, but said nothing. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before pushing to her feet. "Okay, Lethe," she said. "I will intervene. Something happened to Ryan in Aztlan. I don't know what it was, but I'm sure it was Roxborough who did it to him. He's just not the same. He may never be the same. But the mission Dunkelzahn entrusted to

  him is crucial. I would be failing them both if I didn't try to help."

  "Thank you," Lethe said, then exited the body of the security guard. The ork's spirit stayed, but the body fainted from the transition. After a minute, he was back to normal. Lethe was pleased.

  Then Nadja was talking to her secretary, connecting through to Jane-in-the-box. Making emergency travel plans.

  Lethe watched her for a few minutes. He felt a deep affection for Nadja. She had a pure spirit, one of the only such metahumans he'd encountered.

  Lethe hoped that she was persuasive enough to influence Ryan Mercury. Which would be greater, he wondered, Ryan's love for Nadja or for his newfound power?

  16 August 2057

  41

  Ryan had finally gotten to sleep when Jane came through with the news that the border patrols were thinning near LaGrande. It was time to move.

  The late afternoon sun shone down hot and bright into the ash canyon where they'd been hiding out. The whitish gray walls had heated up over the course of the day, and the temperature was becoming almost unbearable. But Ryan was so exhausted that he'd slept a little despite the heat.

  "Let's roll," came Axler's voice.

  Ryan rubbed his eyes and sat up in the seat of the helicopter, snapping his vertebrae into line. "I'll help you get the camouflage netting off," he said.

  "Already done."

  Dhin powered up the rotors and they lifted off, headed back toward the compound above Hells Canyon. He vectored out and cranked up the jets to maximum velocity. Soon they were sailing across the border. Jane's plan had worked; they'd evaded the Tir border patrol through patience and proper intelligence.

  A few minutes after they'd crossed into Salish-Shidhe territory, Ryan's wristphone beeped. It was Jane, and for a second he wondered why she wasn't using the communications relay in the helo.

  "I needed to speak to you privately," she said. "It's about the Dragon Heart."

  He brought the phone to his mouth. "What about it?"

  "I hear you've decided not to carry out Dunkelzahn's mission."

  "Has Lethe been talking to you? I-"

  "Is it true?" Jane's tone was accusatory.

  "Not exactly," Ryan said. "I just want to think about it first."

  "What's to think about? You've always done the dragon's bidding. That's what you do. That's why he chose you." "Maybe I need more now," said Ryan. "Like what?" "I need a reason."

  "A reason for what?" Jane's tone was sarcastic and grating. "To save the world?"

  "A reason to risk my life for someone else's plan. A plan, I might add, that I know nothing about."

  "You have to trust Dunkelzahn."

  "Well, I don't anymore," Ryan said. "I don't trust anyone."

  "So you're committed to this new course?"

  "I'm keeping the Dragon Heart, Jane," Ryan said. "It was willed to me, and I can use it effectively against whatever enemies Dunkelzahn had. I'm going to track down whoever killed him, and bring them to justice."

  "I'm afraid," Jane said, "that I will have to intervene."

  Ryan laughed aloud. "Am I supposed to be scared?" But the line was dead before the words were even out of his mouth.

  Slitch! Ryan thought. What can she do to me anyhow? He wanted this whole run to be over, and he needed rest. Soon they'd be on the ground again. Maybe then he could find a proper bed and get some sleep.

  42

  Burnout stood with Slaver and La Sangre, hard mountain rock beneath their feet. From their vantage slightly upslope and a few hundred meters away, Burnout had a clear view of the whole compound. Assets, Inc. It was a small airstrip cut into the eastern cliff above Hells Canyon. The only buildings were a dilapidated hangar made of rusted sheet metal, an attached mobile home that looked like it dated back to before th
e turn of the century, and four smaller storage sheds.

  Cyclone fencing surrounded the compound, but it was only necessary on the two flat sides. The other two were bounded by cliffs, one straight up and the other straight down, nearly two full kilometers to the bottom of the canyon.

  They had been waiting for only thirty minutes since dropping down from the Aztechnology helicopter a few kilometers away. The 'copter's rigger had been instructed to stay out of sight until called upon.

  "See anyone?" Slaver asked.

  Burnout shook his head. He hadn't seen signs of anybody, and La Sangre's astral reconnaissance had come up dry as well. They were already gone. And Burnout couldn't help but think that all this wouldn't have been necessary if Slaver had only let him make his move back in Washington.

  Ryan Mercury would be dead now. Mission accomplished.

  He heard something then, in the distance, a low rhythmic harmonic. It grew louder and louder until he recognized it as a helicopter. "Someone is coming," he said.

  " 'Bout fragging time," Slaver said. "Told you they'd come."

  Burnout saw the helo at the same time as he felt the magic. Like a yearning force, like water to his parched throat.

  Something on that helicopter was powerful, and Burnout wanted it. He felt the strength of it grow as the helo crested the cliff below the compound, rising up from the canyon, pivoting and touching down on the tarmac.

  It drew him in like a mana vortex, a gritty knife edge that cut to his very heart. He knew he had to have it; no choice. Whatever it was, he must get it for himself. Perhaps it could restore his magic, perhaps not, but either way he would remain incomplete without it.

  "Where are you going?" Slaver asked. "Frag, I can't take you anywhere."

  Burnout turned, feeling the hatred tingling at his extremities. Hovering like a hidden beast just outside his awareness. Waiting to pounce. He realized then that he'd already taken several steps down the slope toward the compound.

  "I'm going in for a closer look," he said.