After Second Squad had filed out of the room, Cade addressed the rest of the men remaining in the group. He told them what they had found downstairs, what he intended to do about the discovery, and what to expect in the process.
“We’re about to leave this plane of existence behind and step into another one. The barrier between the two realms is called the Veil. Physically, you’ll feel a brief sense of dislocation and weightlessness when you cross it. It’s entirely normal and I’m telling you about it now so you don’t freak out when it happens in the midst of transit. Just stay calm and relax. It will go away in a few seconds.
“Emotionally it’s another matter. Everyone reacts differently to the crossing and I can’t predict what it will feel like for you. But no matter how you feel, remember that it’s only temporary. Stay focused on your faith and on the mission and you’ll be fine.
“Where we are going doesn’t have a formal name. Over the years, I’ve simply come to call it the Beyond. It’s like a mirror world of this one, except over there, emotion is the big differentiator, not technology. Your firearms won’t work, so don’t even bother bringing them along; they’ll just be dead weight. Keep your swords handy and if you’ve got an extra combat knife it wouldn’t hurt to have it close.
“The more force, willpower, and sheer determination you put into a strike, the better the outcome. If you don’t believe in what you are doing, the most perfectly executed slash to the enemy’s throat will only serve to draw a little blood rather than take the man’s head off. So stay focused and put everything you have into each and every swing.”
Cade paused and looked them over, confident that they were the right men for the job.
They all met his gaze squarely and without hesitation.
“You’re going to experience a change in your vision over there. All the color will be leached away. Everything, and I do mean everything, will be seen in some shade of grey. Once you come back to this side of the Veil, things will return to normal, so don’t panic when it happens. The one exception to this might be each one of us � in the Beyond, the living often seem to come across as more colorful, more vibrant than the dead.”
Cade caught Simpson, a man who’d joined Echo after Callevechio’s demise a few months earlier, looking a bit green around the gills and nodded encouragingly. “Those of you who were with me on the Eden op spent several days in the Beyond and escaped unscathed, so you know what to expect. Help the new men through the portal and stay with them until they’ve gotten used to things on the other side.
“Our mission is to disrupt the Chiang Shih encampment, buying time for the Order to mobilize enough troops to deal with what we expect to be a major incursion. We strike hard, strike fast, and then fade into the mountains, waiting for the next chance to do it all over again.
“Some of you have fought the Chiang Shih before. You know how fast and utterly ruthless they are. For the rest of you, understand that the enemy is driven by one thing only � hunger. They feed off the life force of the living and they need to do so again and again in order to sustain themselves. You’re going to look like a five course meal to them, since the living are few and far between in the Beyond. Stick together. Don’t let them drag you off alone.”
He paused, gave them a moment to digest what he’d said, and then asked, “Questions?”
There weren’t any, so Cade let Riley take over. Echo’s exec got the men on their feet, double-checked their gear, and then marched them out of the room and down the stairs to stand single file in front of the portal.
Casting one last look at the crucifix hanging above the altar and saying a short prayer, Cade turned and walked off after them, his thoughts no longer on the here and now but on what they would find once they crossed the Veil into the Beyond.
With Second Squad’s men in position, and the men from First Squad and the Command Unit packed into the room, there was very little space left to move around. Cade squeezed his way past the altar and stepped up next to the portal, to where Riley stood waiting for him. The portal itself had already been opened.
“Ready?” Cade asked.
“Always,” Riley replied and Cade knew he meant it. The Master Sergeant was one of the best men he’d ever served with and he always felt better facing the unknown knowing the big man had his back.
“All right, I’ll go through first. You should be able to see me once I emerge on the other side. At my signal start sending them through one at a time after that, a minute or so between each one. You bring up the rear.”
“Roger that, boss.”
“Good. I’ll see you on the other side.”
Drawing his sword, Cade walked over to the portal and without hesitation stepped through its shimmering surface.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
One by one, they came through after him. Some of them crossed the Veil without incident. A few reacted just as Olsen had, overcome by their emotions, and needed a few minutes to find their equilibrium. Childers, one of the new men from First Squad, was violently sick when he came through, vomiting repeatedly for the better part of five minutes, but some salt tablets and a few gulps of water from his canteen seemed to settle him down and Cade let him stay with the unit.
All in all, it was better than Cade anticipated. He gave them a few minutes to get used to the reality around them, knowing from personal experience how disconcerting it could be and then got them organized into position to move out.
Nightfall was a few hours away and he wanted to have them in a secure position before then. All sorts of creatures roamed the Beyond after dark and the men from Echo didn’t need to waste their time or energy fighting any foe other than the Chiang Shih. By setting up a defensive position in the ruins that he and Olsen had located on their previous journey, they should be able to stay low and avoid any of the roaming denizens of the dark while at the same time planning their campaign against the Chiang Shih in the valley below.
They headed out, moving in single file down the path until they reached the wider street below. They stopped for a moment to light the gasoline torches that they’d brought along with them. Cade wasn’t thrilled with the fact that the flames would also serve as a beacon, revealing their presence to anyone who might be watching, but he’d been unable to come up with any other way, short of using a flamethrower, to get such a large group through the gauntlet posed by the vegetation around them. The torches would burn longer than the flares they used previously and wouldn’t be as noticeable as the curtain of fire a flamethrower would create. And they should serve nicely to keep the creeping vines away from their route until they reached the far side of town.
As they walked Cade noted that something about the landscape around them was different.
There was color here.
Not just in his men, which was to be expected, for the living were always brighter than anything else on the other side of the Veil, but in all that he looked at, from the subtle hues of brown working their way through the dirt beneath his feet to the streaks of green and black that ran through the carpet of vegetation spread out before them.
It was as if the living world was somehow leaking into the Beyond.
What the hell was going on?
The last few days had been filled with their share of surprises. First his conversation with Logan, quickly followed by his discovery that Gabrielle was still lingering on in some sort of suspended state of existence and that everything Logan had told him about the Adversary and his plans for Gabrielle might actually be true. Then he’d received the mysterious package from Father Martin, which had led them to the church, the portal, and the current mission into the Beyond.
Something deep in his gut told him that the two groups of events were somehow linked together, that what had happened to Gabrielle was in some way connected to the events involving Father Martin, but he couldn’t make sense of it all yet, couldn’t find the forest for the trees around him, it seemed. He needed some time to sit back and think about it, work it through in hi
s head, but time was luxury he just didn’t have.
They left the remains of the town behind without incident and continued their march. It took them another hour to climb through the hilly country just beyond, finally reaching the particular ridgeline they’d selected as their staging area just before nightfall.
Cade had the men scout the surrounding area, making certain that they were alone. Once they had returned and given the all-clear, he had them set up three guard posts in a triangle formation around the camp, each one about fifty yards away from the center. That would give them enough warning if something managed to breach the perimeter.
An uncomfortable incident occurred just after they’d settled into camp, when the men broke out their rations. Like most modern military units, the Templars used MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat, individual packaged meals with a self-contained heating device inside. Each man had several MREs with them in their packs. But every package that they opened turned out to be spoiled, filled with maggots and other unidentifiable insects. They also stank to high heaven, as if the food inside had been spoiled for days, which should have been impossible since all of the packages were of recent manufacture and were sealed tightly up until the moment the troops opened them. Only the crackers and drink mix were still edible.
It was a disturbing reminder of where they were and several of them men crossed themselves and said a short prayer as the information was passed around. More than one refused to touch the crackers or the drink mix, and Cade knew that this was going to be a much larger problem come the morning when they needed food to keep their energy levels up after an attack on the Chiang Shih encampment.
Still wondering what to do about it, Cade moved off to a quiet corner and tried to get some sleep.
*** ***
He stands alone in the center of the street, in a town that has no name. He has been here before, more than once, but each time the resolution is different, as if the events about to transpire are ordained by the random chance found on a giant spinning wheel, a cosmic wheel of fortune, and not by the actions he is about to take or has taken before.
He knows from previous experience that, just a few blocks beyond this one the town suddenly ends, becoming a great plain of nothingness, the landscape an artist’s canvas that stands untouched, unwanted.
This town has become the center of his universe.
Around him, the blackened buildings sag in crumbling heaps, testimony to his previous visits. He wonders what the town will look like a few weeks from now, when the confrontation about to take place has been enacted and re-enacted and reenacted again, until even these ragged shells stand no more. Will the road, like the buildings, be twisted and torn?
He does not know.
He turns his attention back to the present, for even after all this time, he might learn something new that could lead him to his opponent’s true identity.
The sky is growing dark, though night is still hours away. Dark grey storm clouds laced with green-and-silver lightning are rolling in from the horizon, like horses running hard to reach the town’s limits before the fated confrontation begins. The air is heavy with impending rain and the electrical tension of the coming storm. In the slowly fading afternoon light the shadows around him stretch and move. He learned early on that they can have a life of their own.
He avoids them now.
The sound of booted feet striking the pavement catches his attention, and he knows he has exhausted his time here. He turns to face the length of the street before him, just in time to see his foe emerge from the crumbled ruins at its end, just as he has emerged each and every time they have encountered one another in this place. It is as if his enemy is always here, silently waiting with infinite patience for him to make his appearance.
Pain shoots across his face and through his hands, phantoms of the true sensation that had once coursed through his flesh, from their first meeting in another time and place. Knowing it will not last, he waits the few seconds for the pain to fade. Idly, he wonders, not for the first time, if the pain is caused by his foe or by his own recollection of the suffering he once endured at the enemy’s hands.
He smiles grimly as the pain fades.
A chill wind suddenly rises, stirring the hairs on the back of his neck, and in that wind, he is certain he can hear the soft, sibilant whispers of a thousand lost souls, each and every one crying out to him to provide solace and sanctuary.
The voices act as a physical force, pushing him forward from behind, and before he knows it he is striding urgently down the street. His hands clench into fists as he is enveloped with the desire to tear his foe limb from limb with his bare hands. So great is his anger that it makes him forget the other weapons at his disposal in this strange half-state of reality.
The Adversary simply stands in the middle of the street, waiting. His features are hidden in the darkness of the hooded cloak that he wears over his form in this place, but his mocking laughter echoes clearly off the deserted buildings and carries easily in the silence.
The insult only adds fuel to Cade’s rage.
Just as he draws closer, the scene shifts, wavers, the way a mirage will shimmy in the heat rising from the pavement. For a second it regains its form and in that moment Cade has the opportunity to glimpse the surprise in the other’s face, then everything dissolves around him in a dizzying spiral of shifting patterns and unidentified shapes.
Cade came awake with a gasp, the now familiar dream putting his heart rate into overdrive.
But this time, he’d noticed something different.
Amidst the ruins surrounding the Adversary, Cade had seen vegetation that looked surprisingly like that which had covered the town they had passed through earlier that afternoon.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
After the seeming reality of the dream, Cade was unable to go back to sleep. He decided to make himself useful, so he got up and checked in by radio with the listening posts, knowing that they’d be happy to hear a friendly voice after being alone out there in the dark for awhile.
Posts one and two were doing just fine. He was in the midst of speaking with Davis, who was holed up in post three, when the other man interrupted in mid-sentence. “Hold on a sec, Commander. I think I see…”
Cade glanced out across the darkness in Davis’ direction but he was too far away to see anything for himself. A minute passed, then two. He was about to call Davis back when the other man saved him the trouble.
“We’ve got incoming!” Davis shouted into the radio. “Twenty five to thirty Chiang Shih, maybe more. I lost count. I’m forty yards out and closing.”
The men manning the listening posts had orders to hotfoot it back to camp if they came under attack and Davis was obviously following them. Cade was confident that he would make it in time. His warning would also give the team the time they needed to be ready before the enemy reached them.
“Stations!” Cade cried, rousing the rest of his troops and then scrambled to get into position himself.
As he did so, Cade found himself wondering how the Chiang Shih had known they were there. Had they missed a sentry? Tripped some kind of warning system? Was it just dumb bad luck?
They were about to face a force much larger than he’d ever intended they face and at a time and place not of their choosing. It was going to take all of their skill to get through this. But like any good commander, Cade had made sure his men knew what to do in the event of an attack on their encampment and they reacted as they’d been trained. Seconds after the warning from Davis, the team was lined up in a semi-circle facing the onrushing enemy, protected by the ruins at their back.
The bows worked as well as Cade had hoped, the act of physically drawing the bowstring infusing the weapon with enough personal emotion to allow them to operate within the confines of the Beyond. Shot after shot flew from the Templar ranks, each one unerringly finding its target as the enemy rushed out of the treeline before them.
But it wasn’t enough.
The woods w
ere full of Chiang Shih, with more and more appearing at every moment and it was clear to Cade that if they stayed where they were they would be overrun.
As much has he hated to give up this position, it hadn’t been designed to withstand a full on attack. Trying to make a stand against this many of the enemy wasn’t even an option. They were a guerilla force, not an army. They had no choice but to retreat back the way they had come. If they could reach the portal before they were cut off, they could rely on Second Squad and the rest of the men they’d left behind to cover their retreat and keep the enemy from crossing the Veil.
“Fall back!” Cade cried and like a well-oiled machine the Templars surged into motion, leapfrogging backward, one group covering the other as they made their way back through the trees toward the road below.
And just like that, his plan to harass and annoy the enemy went out the window.
The moon gave them enough light to see by and the team quickly reassembled on the road below. A few of the men had minor wounds, but nothing serious. Cade could only hope it stayed that way. A count was quickly taken and when they were certain they had everyone with them, they continued onward. Cade estimated they had maybe five minutes lead on the enemy. It wouldn’t take the Chiang Shih long to figure out where they had gone and when they did, it would be a race to see who could reach the portal first.
Cade intended to win that race.
Free of the trees and the surrounding vegetation they made good time, reaching the outskirts of the town before too long.
That’s where things took a turn for the worse.
A glow lit the horizon ahead of them. Cade had just noticed it when Riley came back down the line, an urgent look on his face.
“They’ve fired the town. If we don’t move quickly, we’ll be cut off.”
His words were all it took to spur the men to redouble their efforts. They charged ahead, the thump of their booted feet the only sounds that passed between them. It wasn’t long before the air was filled with the smell of smoke and burning vegetation , getting thicker as they continued forward.
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