Zeke understood. “He needs to be stopped, doesn’t he?”
“Please understand. There are many people who need your help, and you are the only one with the power to do it, even if you don’t fully understand why.”
“And if I fight him, it will all be over, right? The oppression, the malak, the draugr, and everything?” He looked to Elijah to strengthen his resolve.
“That is what we believe.”
The door to the room burst open. Daniel rushed in, out of breath. “A message from the Supervisor. He wants to assassinate the Karellan. He needs our help.”
Elijah laughed. “Well, it looks like we now have an opportunity.”
Zeke didn’t argue. “I guess I have no choice.”
An hour later, Quetzalcoatl lifted off and the tiny island quickly disappeared behind them. “Our course is set. Barring the unforeseen malak attack, we should arrive in Nifelheim just before sunrise,” Jack announced in his usual irreverent manner.
Zeke sat in the back of the cockpit near Ariel. He fingered his sword casually. “We’re really going to do this, aren’t we?” he said to himself.
It was loud enough that Ariel heard him. “Are you nervous?”
“About the Karellan? No. He’s just a man. I’ve fought men before.”
“And Metatron?”
Zeke paused. His fingering stopped. He gripped the sword gently. “I don’t know. Elijah seems to think I’ve learned enough to fight him.”
Daniel turned back to face them. “Please, have faith in his wisdom. If he thinks you have the power, I would trust him.”
“And what about you?”
“Excuse me?” Daniel asked, not understanding the question.
“Can we trust you, or do your loyalties lie with the Karellan?” The boy hadn’t done anything suspicious since the night in the laboratory. He didn’t seem to be pursuing the overlord’s goals, but if Zeke had learned anything in the last two months it was that the Karellan’s motives would always be a mystery to him.
Daniel hesitated. “You have my word. I will follow you to the end.”
“Thank you.”
The meeting was in a bar in the upper city. Although it was intended for first-class citizens, the place looked like it belonged in the slums. It was dirty, and the pre-dawn clientele didn’t improve the atmosphere. One of the rougher bars that ignored laws concerning last call.
Zeke instinctively reached for his sword.
“Wretched place,” observed Ariel, following him in.
“I don’t know,” said Jack, “A few curtains, a sofa with some throw pillows, a barrel of saw dust to cover the vomit . . . we might just be able to clean this place up.”
“Daniel assured us it was the safest way to meet without being spied on.”
“I don’t know. Seems like a pretty sleazy place,” Ariel countered.
“Maybe a few doilies on the tables . . .”
“How many of these people do you think even know where they are, let alone are capable of reporting what they hear to anyone?” Zeke motioned around. Most of the patrons were slumped over in their chairs. The rest were passed out, lying in puddles of various fluids.
“We could just throw a sheet over them. Pass them off as bean bag chairs.”
Ariel suddenly realized they’d been ignoring Jack. “You know, you’re very kind to help us this much, but you’ve taken us to Rome and back already. You know you’re not under contract, right? You don’t have to stay with us.”
Jack looked offended, but didn’t lose his cheerful demeanor. “Hey, I know you guys see me as just some hair-brained pilot, but I’m just like all of you. I want to see the Karellan fall as much as anyone. I have to do my part to help.”
Zeke listened to his resolve. Even the pilot, as inept a fighter as he was a comedian, was going to fight. “Thank you. Your help would be welcome.”
“I think I see them,” interrupted Ariel.
Careful not to draw attention, she subtly motioned towards a table in the far corner of the room. The Supervisor sat quietly with Daniel, backs to the door. There was a third person with them.
Jae-Hoon.
They made their way over and slid into the empty chairs around the table. “Oh God,” cried Jack quietly. He took his hand off the chair and immediately began wiping it on a small cocktail napkin.
“I’m glad you could make it, Mr. Branderlief,” Dumah began. “Thank you for your help.”
Zeke looked at the man calmly for the first time in his life. “Well, I guess I just realized I had to do something.”
“You remember Jae-Hoon, right?”
He turned to the Slayer. “Spend two weeks in jail with someone, it’s kind of hard to forget them. I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”
“Thank you. It’s good to be fighting at your side again,” he said, extending his hand.
They shook.
Zeke turned back to Dumah. “What did you learn?”
Dumah began his briefing. “Trying to attack the Karellan in his office would be suicide. The place has flawless security. Elite guards are posted everywhere, and if we could get past them, the man himself is not to be trifled with, which is why Daniel can’t do it alone.
“Jae-Hoon has obtained a tip that the Karellan will be making a personal inspection of the city’s central power reactor later this week. He’ll only have a small division of guards with him. Daniel has validated this tip as accurate.” He pulled a series of documents out of a tube. Rolling a blue print out on the table, he continued. “These are the plans for the reactor. Most of the facilities are off-limits for safety purposes. He will probably spend most of his time here.” He pointed at a large room in the center of the building. “This room is the main service area for controls and maintenance.
“Since there’s only one way in, most of the guards will be posted at the entrance to the building. That’s where we’ll need a diversion.” Here he flipped through the documents until he pulled out a map of the surrounding area. He pointed to an alley down the street from the reactor. “A small band of snipers here should be enough to catch their attention, but . . .” He paused as he shuffled through the papers until he found another map. “. . . they’ll need to draw the guards to this point before my militia can take them captive.”
“That’ll never work,” said Ariel. “The guards won’t abandon their post to chase after some snipers.”
“Of course not. The distraction is just to thin them out. Then it’s up to you, Daniel. You’ll be positioned with Zeke. Once our decoys draw away the guards, your job is to take out the rest. We’ll supply you with a semi-automatic tranquilizer rifle. It’s fast and non-lethal. You should be able to take out the remaining guards before they notice you.”
“And then we attack?”
“That’s the plan,” Daniel answered. “I’ll stick with you for support inside. We don’t know how many guards we’ll find, and then there’s the Karellan.”
“I’ll be on your team, too,” added Jae-Hoon. “You’ll need all the support you can get.”
Zeke sub-consciously tightened his grip on his sword. Planning made him nervous. He had thought about attacking the Karellan for years, always hoping he’d have the chance.
Now he did, and he was worried.
“I want to be a decoy sniper,” said Jack.
“Are you sure?” asked Zeke, grateful for the pilot’s spirit, but doubting his skill.
“The guards will show no mercy if they catch you,” added Daniel.
“I’m sure. I want to help.”
“Me too,” said Ariel. Zeke looked at her disapprovingly. “No,” she said, knowing what he wanted to say. “You can stop protecting me. I’m strong enough now. And I have to do my part, too.”
He paused, trying to summon the right words. “Just be careful.”
“You’re forgetting I was trained by Micah Frostbane,” she said proudly. “Those guards will be in more trouble than me.”
“I like your confidence.
I just hope you’re right,” said Jack.
“And I will be fighting beside you,” said Dumah. “On the front lines this time, Mr. Branderlief.” Zeke understood the gesture. He tried to view it as a good one, but years of hating the Supervisor as a weasel of the government was hard to overcome.
And he still had doubts. “Just one thing, before we start. How do we know that assassination is the best plan? What if they replace him with someone just as bad? Or worse?”
The High Theocrat came to mind. His disposition had led to the Karellan. It did not seem to be a trend of improvement.
“We’ve publicly broadcast the data you retrieved from the lab. There has been dissent among the first-class citizens. We now have support for the assassination.”
“But who will take over for the Karellan?”
“We’ll decide that later,” Dumah said gravely.
Several days later, Zeke found himself on a rooftop in the upper city, Jae-Hoon at his side. His eyes were glued to the gates of the reactor, watching the guard through binoculars.
There were a lot of them.
He didn’t like the plan. Nervousness aside, there were too many guards. He knew Daniel was a skilled sniper, but could he take them all down? Not to mention that a nuclear reactor was not an ideal battleground.
A door swung open loudly. Daniel stepped through, holding a very large gun.
“Shh!” urged Zeke.
“Don’t you know how to keep a low profile?” Jae-Hoon asked.
“Relax. No one can hear us. They’re too far away.”
Zeke didn’t understand how he could be so calm. “At least you’re here.”
“Think I’d skip out on this party? I just had to pick up the gun. They hid it in the basement. In pieces. Of course. It took some time to assemble, but . . .”
“You’re here now. That’s what matters.” Even in the army, Zeke had never had a lot of patience for gun-talk. Assembling, disassembling, calibers, muzzle-velocities: it all bored him.
And he was in no mood to listen to it now.
“Look!” cried Jae-Hoon in an intense whisper. A reflected light flashed at them from an alley. “That’s their signal. The Supervisor should begin his attack soon. Keep an eye on the guards.”
Dumah caught the sun’s rays with a small mirror, sending them up to the rooftop. He was dressed for battle in dull grays, to blend with the cityscape. Weapons were strapped to his pant legs, his waist, to his sides.
He looked ready for an all-out war.
The difference between him and the rest of the sniper team was that he looked comfortable. Relaxed.
Ariel’s clothes were too big for her. She held her rifle, thinking back to Rome. Dumah was a good soldier, but no replacement for Micah. And having Jack at her side was not as comforting as having Zeke for support.
The pilot held his gun awkwardly. He was the only one on the team without military experience, but Dumah had let him come anyway on the condition that he would be ready to run like hell.
That was the objective. Stay in sight, but out of range. And keep running.
“I don’t like this,” said Ariel quietly.
“Bad feeling?” asked Jack.
“No, actually. A good feeling. But I’ve never trusted those.”
“Like it or not,” interrupted Dumah, “it’s time to go.”
Gunshots ring out in the distance. The assassination team watches. Three guards raise their weapons. One gives a series of hand signals to the rest.
Eight of them run after the snipers. Only two stay.
Daniel eyes them up through the scope. “Only two? I’m disappointed.”
“This can’t be good.”
Jae-Hoon crouches, ready to leap from the roof. He and Zeke grab the thin ropes tied to the building. “No time to stop and think now. Go!”
Pfft! Pfft! The high-powered dart gun fires silently. The guards slap their necks as if bitten by a mosquito.
Then they fall.
“Let’s go!” Zeke shouts, already leaping over the side of the building. He repels quickly down to the street. Jae-Hoon is close behind. Daniel drops the gun and follows.
They hit the ground and run. Within moments, they reach the fence around the reactor. The gate is still open from the fleeing guards. They run through the yard of concrete and metal, up the stairs, over the fallen guards, and through the reactor’s front door, pushing it shut behind them. Success. They’re inside.
And so was the Karellan.
The hallway was dark. Quiet. Empty. Not even an employee, let alone a guard.
“That was too easy,” observed the Slayer.
Zeke looked around. “Something is definitely wrong.”
Dumah’s sniper team bursts into a clearing behind the maze of alleys. He turned, raising his rifle. Ariel and Jack dive off to the sides for cover. Militia men pop out of their hiding places, each brandishing an assault rifle.
They wait. Nothing happens.
“Damn! We lost them!” shouted Dumah. He motioned toward his team. “Double back. We have to find them before they return to the reactor.”
“No! Wait!” shouted Ariel. She knew. That feeling she had. The good feeling, the one telling her the plan would go off perfectly.
“What is it?” Jack asked. Dumah glared at her curiously.
“We didn’t lose them.”
“Can you hear them?” Dumah signaled his soldiers to be ready.
“No,” she said. “We weren’t the decoy! They were!”
“Who?” Jack asked, confused. “The guards?”
But Ariel was already running back into the alley. “Zeke . . .”
Dumah signaled his entire militia to follow.
Despite being a public utility building, the main hall of the reactor bore a remarkable resemblance to a castle. It was dark. There were no windows. And it was long. It seemed even longer to Zeke’s team, since they had unknowingly started taking smaller steps.
Daniel gently raised is shotgun. “It’s so quiet. I expected at least a few guards.” The other two were not comforted by the Raven’s lack of information.
“It’s awfully dark for a routine inspection,” Jae-Hoon observed.
“They cut the power,” said Zeke. It was an unusual thing to be saying about a nuclear reactor.
“Why would they do that?”
“Because they knew we were coming.”
They continued down the hallway until they reached a large door at the end. The one they believed would lead to the Karellan.
The one they feared would lead to a trap.
They pushed the door open cautiously. What was inside was unlike anything they were prepared to see. If the plate-city was a monster, they had just found its heart. A short catwalk led to the main floor of the service room, a metal grate suspended high above a pit of tubes, cables cords and machinery. They must have been above a mountain, because the mess of the chasm below them stretched far below the bottom of the plate. These mechanical veins stretched up the wall to their sides to the ceiling above them. They hung down in places, just above their heads.
They had wandered into the center of a cavernous mechanical demon.
At the far end of the room, beyond another catwalk leading to the wall, something didn’t fit. Pinned up above a small door was a large corpse, drained of blood, its life spilling out onto to the grate, dripping into the abyss.
A dragon.
Zeke alone dared to approach it. Did the Karellan do this? he wondered. To possess so much power . . . the overlord could not be human.
Then something caught his eye. The skewer, pinning the beast to the wall. It looked familiar somehow. He examined it closely.
“What is it?” asked Daniel, still hanging back with Jae-Hoon.
The dragon’s head hung back, its neck snapped. Zeke brushed it aside. Sticking out of the dead animal’s back was an ornate katana, pushed deep into the corpse. “It’s a sword.”
A voice boomed. A figure stepped out of the shadows. �
�It’s a Masamune,” said Micah Frostbane.
Chapter Twenty: Reunions
Zeke stared, speechless.
Micah calmly stepped up to the dragon and pulled the sword out with one hand. The corpse slid to the catwalk below, its neck dangling over the side.
“It was salvaged from the ruins of Old Japan. Found locked in a vault. Near-perfect condition.” He pulled out a rag and wiped the blade clean. He started to put the rag back in his pocket, but gave a second thought to the blood-stained cloth and dropped it on the grate.
“Sorry for the mess,” he continued, nodding at the dragon. “But I heard you were coming and I thought it would be best to warm up first.”
Zeke finally managed to bring words to his mouth. “Micah?”
He stopped, looked directly at his friend and smiled cheerfully. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Ten years . . . we though you were dead.” Zeke was not as cheerful.
“Zeke,” called Daniel, backing up nervously. Jae-Hoon looked back and forth at the others in the room, not understanding what was going on. The two swordsmen seemed oblivious to everyone around them.
“Not dead, no. Just . . . tied up with work.”
“Have you come back to fight with us?” If Micah had enough power to slay dragons, maybe Zeke wouldn’t have to fight alone.
“What are you doing?” shouted Daniel.
“Of course,” said Micah. “I want to see how strong you’ve become.”
“You and everyone else,” he laughed. “So you’ll help us take down the Karellan?”
Daniel finally shouted loud enough to break through. “He is the Karellan!”
Zeke was left speechless once again.
Micah spoke without a hint of malevolence. “Surprised? I was certain at least Daniel would have figured it out by now. He is probably the most intelligent Raven I’ve ever employed. He did a wonderful job of bringing you here.”
“Daniel? You didn’t . . .” Zeke’s voice faltered. Didn’t what? Bring me to my friend? Or my enemy? he thought.
“No. I didn’t betray you. Not this time,” the boy stammered.
Ragnarok: The Fate of Gods Page 24