Thief Trap

by Jonathan Moeller

  “You hate them?” said Corbisher, incredulous. He was breathing hard, sweat dripping down his scarred face. I doubted he was used to this level of magical exertion. “You hate them? You’re the one who sent that bloodrat after me, you’re the one who…”

  I started to point out that he had been trying to kill me at the time, and then decided I was too tired to argue with the pompous blowhard.

  “Don’t start, you two,” said Morelli, reloading his pistol. “The noise might draw unwelcome attention.”

  “Wait,” said Murdo. “Quiet. Something’s wrong.”

  “What is it?” said Nicholas, calm as ever. He had resumed human form, and he didn’t seem tired. Shapeshifting into that panther-form must not tax his stamina at all.

  “Don’t get any closer to those bloodrats,” said Murdo, “but take a good look at them.”

  I frowned at the elder bloodrat whose skull I had just hollowed out. At first, it looked no different than the thousands of other bloodrats I had fought and killed in my century and a half in the Eternity Crucible. It was gaunt and sinewy with red fur growing from its gray hide, which was dotted with greenish pustules…

  Wait. Greenish pustules?

  I took a cautious step back. Of the thousands of bloodrats I had seen, I had never encountered one with those ugly green pustules before.

  “I didn’t think bloodrats could get sick,” I said.

  “They can’t,” said Murdo, voice grim. “They’re immune to just about every kind of disease and poison. That’s why they can eat and digest almost anything. But…”

  A fist-sized pustule on the side of the bloodrat burst, greenish slime spattering across the concrete.

  “Well, that’s gross,” I said.

  “Like these things aren’t gross enough already,” said Hailey, staring at the ceiling. I got the impression that she hated rats. Since we were looking at two dozen dead bloodrats, I couldn’t blame her for that.

  “It’s a biological weapon,” said Murdo.

  “Explain,” said Nicholas.

  “The map marked this entire area as a biohazard,” said Murdo. “Bloodrats are immune to most diseases. So why not infect them with a disease and then unleash them on a civilian population? They’ll spread the disease swiftly.”

  “That is messed up,” said Russell.

  “The people who built this place were willing to summon anthrophages and use them as weapons,” I said. “They probably thought biological weapons were a really nifty idea.” Maybe it was good the High Queen had killed anyone who had any knowledge of this place. Maybe it was for the best that Shane had been killed before he could use the Sky Hammer. The Elves were tyrannical, and the High Queen was ruthless…but as far as I knew, the High Queen had never unleashed plague-infected bloodrats into a city.

  A more disturbing thought occurred to me.

  Plague-infected bloodrats would be a deadly weapon. So would an army of anthrophages, and whatever other nasty little toys the pre-Conquest government had stashed in this place.

  Yet out of all those weapons, Nicholas wanted the Sky Hammer.

  Just what the hell would the Sky Hammer do?

  “Um,” said Russell. “If those bloodrats are carrying disease…do you think it might be airborne?”

  “It might,” I said. “Wait a minute. I have an idea.”

  I focused my will and cast the spell to sense magical forces, sweeping it over the dead bloodrats.

  “That plague?” I said, sorting through the sensations the spell brought to my mind. “It’s definitely magical in nature. But it’s not airborne. The bloodrats would have to bite you, or they would have to touch you…”

  Alarmed, I turned towards Murdo and focused my will on him. He had been killing bloodrats with his elemental blade, which meant he was close enough that some of their blood might have spattered on him. To my immense relief, he hadn’t been infected by the plague. Though if he was a Shadow Hunter, likely his Shadowmorph would protect him.

  I focused the spell on Nicholas. In his panther-form, he had been ripping apart the bloodrats with his claws and fangs. Sadly, he had not been infected. Though if a .50 caliber bullet to the head wasn’t going to kill him, I doubted a magical plague would do the job either.

  “If we encounter any more of these things,” said Morelli, “we had better engage them at a distance. Shoot them or hit them with spells before they can close.”

  “Maybe we had better find another route to the Sky Hammer,” said Murdo. “Fighting anthrophages and wraithwolves is bad enough, but at least a touch from an anthrophage won’t kill you.”

  I snorted. “No, they’ll just rip your head off.”

  “But just brushing up against an anthrophage won’t kill you,” said Murdo. “One touch from an infected bloodrat will.”

  “We’ll keep going this way,” said Nicholas. “We’re aware of the threat now, and we’re ready to handle it. If we take another route, we might encounter an unknown danger, one that we might not be prepared to face. Miss Moran. If we encounter any more bloodrats, use your ice spell to seal off the tunnel. That will give us a moment to get into proper firing positions. Once the bloodrats break through the ice wall, open fire.”

  “And if they get close enough to fight?” said Hailey, her arms wrapped tight around her chest. That was stupid. She needed to keep her hands free to help work spells.

  “Then I will change form and deal with them,” said Nicholas. “I suspect it will take magic more potent than this to deal with my Dark One’s protections.”

  “I’ll fight them with my elemental blade,” said Murdo.

  I met his black eyes. “And if they touch you?”

  I realized that had been a stupid thing to ask. If he was a Shadow Hunter, his Shadowmorph would protect him. And there was no way he would be dumb enough to admit that he was a Shadow Hunter in front of Nicholas.

  I just didn’t want him to get hurt. Or killed. Just like I didn’t want Russell to get hurt or killed.

  Murdo shrugged. “I’ll make sure they don’t.”

  “I don’t plan to engage anyone in hand-to-hand,” announced Russell. “I’m going to shoot them from a distance.”

  “Very sensible, Mr. Moran,” said Nicholas. “Let’s keep moving.”

  We picked our way around the dead bloodrats and walked down the tunnel. Nicholas consulted the map on his phone for a moment as he walked, nodded, and then put his phone away. The tunnel ahead took a right-angle turn, and I wondered what was around the corner.

  “Guys,” I said. “Better stop here. I’m going to Cloak and have a look around that…”

  I hadn’t even finished the sentence when the bloodrats surged around the corner and charged towards us, their long claws rasping against the concrete. There were a dozen of the creatures, with one huge elder bloodrat bringing up the back.

  “Kat!” said Nicholas, lifting his gun. “The ice wall!”

  I was already summoning magical power. Once again white mist swirled around my fingers, and I conjured a curtain of it before me. My mind shuddered a little with the strain. I had been using a lot of magical power, and while I was much stronger than I had been before the Eternity Crucible, I still had limits. But the thought of getting gnawed to death by a bloodrat (yet again) was an excellent motivator, and my curtain of mist hardened into a glittering wall of ice about four inches thick.

  At once it started to shudder as the bloodrats hammered at it.

  “That won’t hold for long,” I said, calling power for my next spell.

  “Be ready to fire as soon as they break through,” said Nicholas. The others leveled guns or readied spells.

  “I’ll have to deal with the elder,” I said. “It’s going to…” Red light flared behind the ice wall. “Here they come!”

  The ice wall exploded outward beneath the force of the elder bloodrat’s magic, and the smaller creatures charged forward. The others opened up with their guns and magic. Morelli and Russell each shot a bloodrat through the
head, the glistening red corpses sliding to a halt on the concrete. Murdo threw a pair of lightning globes that hissed and spat as they snarled around a bloodrat, and then opened up with his pistol. Nicholas, Corbisher, and Hailey cast blasts of shadow fire that withered the bloodrats to mummified husks.

  My full attention was on the elder bloodrat. It was huge, even bigger than the one I had killed earlier, and I felt the surge of elemental power as the creature cast a spell. I worked a spell of my own, calling a silvery Shield into the air in front of me, and a half-second later the elder bloodrat unleashed a bolt of lightning that filled the tunnel with dazzling white light and stark black shadows. The bolt slammed into my Shield with a thunderclap, and I stumbled back several steps, straining to maintain my defense against the attack, but I held.

  I struck back at once, hurling a volley of five lightning globes at the bloodrat. The huge creature reared back with a scream of pain, the lightning snarling through its greasy red fur. I saw several of the greenish pustules in its hide burst and pop like cracked eggs. Before it could recover, I yanked together power for another spell, and threw an ice spike. The spell caught the bloodrat in the chest, punched through its ribs, and found its heart.

  The elder bloodrat screamed in rage and fell dead to the floor.

  I looked around just in time to see Russell put a round through the head of a charging bloodrat, and silence fell over the tunnel once more.

  “Have I mentioned that I really hate those things?” I said, giving Russell and Murdo a quick look. Both were unharmed. Russell was reloading his AK-47. I was glad we had taken all that extra ammunition. I looked at Nicholas, Hailey, Corbisher, and Morelli. Not because I cared if they had come through unharmed, but to make sure they hadn’t decided to attack.

  “Once or twice, yes,” said Nicholas, frowning at the dead bloodrats. “These ones were infected as well.”

  “This place might be a continual battle,” said Murdo. “After Shane and all his people were killed, no one knew about this base, and more creatures would come through those summoning circles. They must fight each other constantly.”

  “Maybe they destroyed the Sky Hammer during their fighting,” I said. Now there was a hopeful thought.

  “Doubtful,” said Nicholas. “Creatures from the Shadowlands would not be interested in human technology. This way.”

  He was right, alas, so we went around the corner. I held my magic ready to strike again.

  The tunnel ended in another set of double doors. Unlike the previous doors, they stood wide open, revealing a cavernous, gloomy room. The terminal next to the door had been smashed and lay in dusty pieces on the floor. A sign over the opened doors said BIOHAZARD – EXTREME CAUTION. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

  “Guess we know where the bloodrats came from,” I said. It was too dim to make out much in the next room. It looked like a big warehouse, with rows of metal racks holding round objects. A central aisle wide enough for trucks ran down the center of the huge room, with smaller aisles branching off it.

  “Maybe we killed all the bloodrats,” said Russell, peering into the warehouse.

  “I’m not optimistic,” said Morelli.

  Russell sighed. “Neither am I.”

  We took a few steps into the warehouse. I looked left and right and up, but nothing moved. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I made out the contents of the metal racks filling the warehouse. They held hundreds and hundreds of metal cylinders, each one about the size of a coffin.

  Biohazard signs festooned every single one of the cylinders.

  “I believe we’ve found where Last Judge Mountain stored its biological weapons,” said Murdo.

  I cast the spell to sense magical power, and a wave of nausea went through me. “God…the plagues in those cylinders, it’s the same stuff that infected the bloodrats. Even a drop would be lethal.”

  “Best to stay away from them,” said Morelli.

  I glared at Nicholas. “We really need to find another route to the Sky Hammer.”

  “Where we would face equal but unknown dangers,” countered Nicholas.

  “Instead we’re going to face known dangers that might kill us,” I snapped back. “If one of those cylinders leaks, we could all be dead before we get anywhere near the Sky Hammer.”

  “Then we’ll just have to be careful, won’t we?” said Nicholas. He smiled. “Unless you’ve changed your mind and want to leave, Miss Moran. I won’t stop you if you decide to go. But I would hate to disappoint the Forerunner the next time I talk to him. I imagine he would share his disappointment with Lord Morvilind…”

  “Just shut up and let’s go,” I said. He had me, and I knew it, and he knew it.

  I could see now why he had been willing to take the risk of bringing me here, knowing all the while that I would turn on him as soon as he had the Sky Hammer. Without my help, it would have cost far more lives than Leonid Rogomil’s. He might not have even been able to get this far into the mountain.

  “Very well,” said Nicholas. “We’ll keep the same formation as before. Keep your eyes open for trouble, and for God’s sake don’t let any of your bullets hit one of those cylinders. The plague they contain isn’t communicable by air, but that hardly matters if it sprays out under pressure.”

  “Cheery thought,” I muttered.

  We started into the gloomy warehouse. My eyes flicked back and forth constantly, scanning the aisles and the rows of metal cylinders. God, there were hundreds of the damned things. I remembered Nicholas’s plans to blow up that stadium in Los Angeles. How much worse could it have been if he had blown up a few of these plague cylinders with the bomb? Hell, he wouldn’t have needed to bother with a bomb. He could have just dumped a few of the cylinders into Los Angeles’s water supply.

  If he timed it right, he could have wiped out half the city.

  For an instant, sheer anger made my vision turn red. Nicholas was planning something horrible, and I was helping him. Even if the Sky Hammer turned out to be broken or irreparable or something, he still would have all of Last Judge Mountain’s weapons, and he would have them because of me.

  Just with these cylinders of magical plagues, how many people could Nicholas kill? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Millions?

  I was furious at him. I was furious at Morvilind, for forcing me to work with this man. I was furious at myself, for not finding a way out of this damned mess.

  Because if I screwed up, Russell was going to die.

  I looked at my brother and remembered what he had told me, how if it came down to it, I should let him die rather than let Nicholas kill millions of people.

  With a sick feeling in my stomach, I realized we were almost at that point.

  I wondered if I should draw my pistol, shoot Nicholas in the back of the head, and burn his corpse to ashes. Maybe his Dark One couldn’t regenerate that. I would still have to deal with Hailey and Corbisher and Morelli, and of the three of them, Morelli didn’t have any magic, but he was by far the most dangerous. Maybe I ought to start by shooting Morelli…

  A flicker of red caught my eye.

  I came to a stop, calling magic, and in one of the shadowy aisles, I glimpsed a bloodrat dart under one of the metal racks.

  “Shit!” I said. “Did you see that?”

  “I didn’t see anything,” said Nicholas.

  “I did,” said Morelli. He had switched from his pistol to his AK-47. “Get ready. I think the damned things are under the racks.”

  “To hell with that,” I said, and I cast the ice wall spell. Instead of a tall, thick barrier, I made a low, wide wall. Each one of the racks had about a foot of space below it, and I sealed off the space with thick ice.

  So when the diseased bloodrats came for us, they charged in a red-furred, glistening mass down the central aisle.

  There was no elder bloodrat this time, just a bunch of the smaller ones, so when I cast the ice wall, they scrambled over the damn thing and swarmed us.

  We had to fight hand-to-hand. I called a f
ireball and sent it sweeping through the bloodrats’ skulls, turning their heads to smoking husks. Morelli and Russell started shooting, sending single rounds into the bloodrats. Nicholas shifted shape to become the armored panther-thing again, and he tore apart the creatures. Hailey and Corbisher fell back, throwing blasts of shadow fire. Both of them looked tense and frightened. Corbisher, probably because of his previous experiences with bloodrats in Venomhold. Hailey, because she just didn’t like rats.

  She threw a blast of shadow fire that withered a bloodrat into a husk and stepped back, a snarl of terror and rage on her face. Three more bloodrats lunged at her. I caught one with a fireball, and Hailey started another spell of shadow fire.

  And suddenly I saw the problem.

  “Wait!” I shouted. “Don’t…”

  She ignored me and screamed and threw out her hands. The spell blasted from her palms, but she had thrown way too much power into it. The shaft of shadow fire tore through both the bloodrats and then hit the corner post of one of the racks. The spell killed the bloodrats, and it also turned the base of the corner post to rust.

  That was bad, because those cylinders weighed thousands of pounds, and the rack started to buckle beneath their weight. And that meant the cylinders started to slide out and clang against the floor.

  “Get out of the way!” I said, blasting apart another bloodrat. I risked a quick glance around and saw that all the bloodrats were down. “Go! Go! Go!”

  I dismissed my ice wall, and we fled down the aisle as the rack collapsed and dozens of the cylinders tumbled free to clang against the floor.

  Most of us made it.

  Hailey didn’t.

  One of the cylinders hit her in the left leg, and I heard her knee snap, saw her lower leg jerk out in an angle that it shouldn’t have. She screamed and collapsed, and the cylinder rolled over her injured leg, pinning her in place. Something cracked in the seal, and a fine spray of greenish slime spattered across her face and chest.

  Next to me, Nicholas shifted into human form, staring at Hailey.

  “Nicholas!” screamed Hailey, reaching out her hands towards him. “Oh, God! It hurts! Help me! Please help me!”