The Genie and the Engineer 3: Ravages of War

by Glenn Michaels

  Paul nodded thoughtfully as he considered the options. “Daneel 1, tell David 707 to use Deception 12.”

  The Scotties in the room all chuckled. Daneel 1 cheerfully acknowledged. “Orders transmitted. David 707 is taking his battalion of Scotties and circling around 30 miles south of the city to avoid detection and maintain as low a magical profile as possible. He intends to position most of the brigade on the rooftops of the Ningbo Bank and the Bank of Beijing and other large adjacent buildings to the east on Jianguomen Inner Street, east of city center. Once they are in place, they will go to silent running conditions and await the arrival of a Chinese wizard.”

  “A bank robbery,” Norby 1 observed with a knowing smile. “Yes, that will make a nice diversion!”

  Paul nodded in approval. “At a minimum, several Oni should show up. If we are lucky, we might bag a wizard as well. David 707 and his Scotties will throw up a bubble around each one of them, blocking any opportunity for them to portal out. Daneel 1, please remind David 707 not to hurt them but only render them unconscious. Now, who is David assigning for the deception team?”

  “Rann 727,” he said, identifying the Scottie named after Arcturus Rann of the Marvel Comics’ Micronauts. “They will use a page from Napoleon Bonaparte’s playbook,” Daneel 1 explained. “Rann 727 will take his 4th Platoon of Company D and will stage a fake robbery at the front entrance of the Agricultural Bank of China, one block west of Ningbo Bank. They will throw around a lot of magic while they are doing so, physically disguised as humans. They will take their time with the robbery, fire off a lot of ammunition and magical spells and make a ton of noise. All of China will hear about the robbery. They are instructed to temporarily take hostages but not to threaten them, and certainly not to actually hurt anybody.”

  Paul took a deep calming breath. “It sounds like a lot of fun, but there are so many things that could go wrong. Perhaps it would be a good idea if I popped over and lent a hand—”

  One of the other Scotties in the room, Gort 737 (1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still) displayed the face of a young freckle faced redheaded man on top of his cube. “Dad, they will be fine. They don’t need you there, risking yourself.”

  “I agree with Gort 737,” spoke Daneel 1. “There is no need to risk you, sir.”

  Paul shook his head. “Yes, we’ve had this conversation before. And probably will again.” He sighed. “Alright, you win. This time.”

  All the Scotties smiled.

  Daneel 1 added. “Sir, I know what you want done. If a Chinese wizard and/or Oni shows up, Rann 727 will retreat eastward where David 707 is waiting. The trick here is not for Rann 727 to wait too late and get his platoon trapped in the bank building. I have recommended to David 707 to place sentries in hiding on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, to warn when Chinese wizards and Oni show up. They’ll likely be coming from the Zhongnanhai complex, to the west of the Forbidden City. I don’t know if they will fly in or portal in. My guess is that they will portal in someplace close by, perhaps the alley behind the bank itself, so I’ve told David 707 to place a sentry or two to watch that approach. We don’t want anyone to get hurt, especially not a Scottie or any Normals.”

  “I concur,” Paul said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Oh, one more thing. If the Chinese wizards have any special weapons, or talismans that are more potent than ours, then I want all the Scotties to clear out immediately. Come straight back here. Got it?”

  “Loud and clear,” Daneel 1 replied optimistically. “I’ve passed along those instructions.” He paused a moment, then said, “They are on their way!”

  Paul dropped heavily into a seat at the conference room table. “Daneel 1, assign Robby 747 and his battalion of Scotties to keep the police away from the operations at the banks. Flood their phone lines with fake calls, jam their communications and trigger a few dozen fake alarms. If necessary, disable the electrical systems on their vehicles. We don’t want any Normals getting in the middle of this operation. Got it?’

  “Orders transmitted,” Daneel 1 replied. “Robbie 747 estimates ten minutes to arrival on site.”

  Paul rubbed his hands together. “Daneel, while we are waiting, go ahead and set up Operation Stalking Horse for Canberra, Australia using Deception 21. Then in Tokyo, using Deception 7, and in Tehran using Deception 3. And then we wait.”

  “Acknowledged,” Daneel 1 replied with muffled laughter.

  The wait was agonizing.

  An hour crawled by. Capie showed up to provide moral support, patiently sitting at one end of the conference table.

  Paul glanced over at her. “It’s time for the Scotties to make their big entrance. Are you ready?”

  She gnawed her lower lip. “‘I suppose there’ll be a war now, hmm? All that running around and shooting one another. You’d think that sooner or later, it would go out of fashion.’”

  “Londo Mollari, Babylon 5,” Paul stated with a chuckle. He hadn’t known she was that big a fan of Babylon 5. “I suppose there could be shooting.”

  “Will the Scotties be safe?” Capie asked, biting at her lower lip.

  “I guarantee it,” Daneel 1 promised them.

  “Daneel 1, let’s see if we can watch some of the action,” Paul suggested. “A microportal, please, at 100 miles over the city. Use it as a spy-eye and magnify the image and display it here on the wall.”

  A bird’s-eye image of Beijing appeared on their viewscreen. The display funneled downward as the magnification increased. Soon they were watching vehicles move around and even tiny human figures walking the streets.

  The Agricultural Bank of China’s multi-story building appeared near the top of the screen. Beneath it, on the street, they could see ball lightning shooting upward into the sky, holograms of two large fire-breathing dragons in pitched battle, one of them clinging to the side of the bank building itself and the other one making short loops back and forth, strafing the one on the bank building with fire on every pass. Below, at street level, a dozen Qin warriors in terracotta uniforms brandished long metal tipped wood-shafted spears, battling in the streets.

  Paul was impressed with the theatrics.

  Suddenly, at street level, a dozen figures fled through the large glass front doors of the bank building, plasma fire following in their wake. Those fleeing dodged and weaved as another group of figures emerged from the doors and then too from alleys on both sides of the building. Even from this truncated view, the newcomers could be seen as mostly Oni, though one of the figures was smaller and behaved differently.

  “The plan is working,” Daneel 1 observed, encouraged.

  But Rann 727 and his troops seemed to be having a difficult time, the Oni pursuing aggressively on their heels. Twice Paul watched plasma blasts intersect the personal shields of his Scotties. Though they stumbled, still they fled eastward.

  Time seemed to slow but in reality, the pitched battle lasted for less than a minute, until Rann 727 took a left beyond the Bank of Beijing, his troops right behind him. The wizard and Oni, still in hot pursuit, drew even with the front of the bank when David 707 sprung his trap.

  Without warning, fire rained down from above and from every nook and corner on the street. The Errabêlu wizard and Oni were caught by complete surprise. They fought tenaciously but were quickly isolated and encapsulated in magical force-fields.

  A Scottie appeared in the briefing room. Rann 727.

  “Mission accomplished, Dad,” he reported. “No injuries. David 707 is mopping things up and will report shortly.”

  “Excellent work, Rann 727,” Paul complimented him as he sighed in relief. “For you and your team. Please let David 707 know that I want to interview the captured wizard. How many did we bag in total?”

  “One wizard and twenty-five Oni, sir,” Paul was informed.

  “Move all the prisoners to Azkaban, Daneel, as soon as possible. Have all of them put into stasis, except for the wizard. I want him interrogated first. Then put him in stasis with his Oni.” />
  “My pleasure, Dad.”

  “Oh, and Daneel? I want you to go back through the videos of the bank robbery,” Paul told him. “From my viewpoint, I saw no evidence of special weapons or any super-powered spells at all. I want you to check the footage and interview the Scotties involved. See if they saw anything out of the ordinary.”

  Capie chuckled. “Anything out of the ordinary, he says. Other than the flying dragons and the Qin warriors. Right.”

  “Okay, Dad,” Daneel 1 confirmed. “Though I admit the Oni were more aggressive than I anticipated, I didn’t see anything that suggested super spells or super talismans. On the other hand, I noted that the Oni fought more like warriors than soldiers, even more so than our simulated war-games suggested.”

  Paul nodded. The part about the Oni as warriors and not soldiers made sense. Throughout most of human history, warriors, as individuals, were typically stronger, faster and all-around better fighters and killers than were soldiers, and the Oni were by no means an exception to that rule. On the other hand, warriors acted as individuals and rarely as a team. Soldiers were trained to fight in concert. Many an army of soldiers had defeated an army of warriors because team efforts simply accomplished more on a battlefield.

  “We should crank that information into future operations,” Paul recommended to Daneel 1.

  The lack of super-weapons or super-powers puzzled him. Where was the evidence of the arms-buildup? Where were the talismans that supposedly rivaled his own in power? Yes, the twenty-five Oni that David 707 had just captured could be a part of that buildup. A year ago, there probably weren’t that many in Beijing. But still, it wasn’t quite what Paul anticipated and it just didn’t seem to make much sense.

  Capie gave her husband a suspicious look.

  “Okay, I admit it. Back on Mars, I was pretty busy with my operations planning for helping the poor and needy. I didn’t read all the strategy and tactical reports you kept sending out. So, tell me, are you planning to run other deceptions in other cities, like with the dragons?”

  Paul gave her his best naughty grin. “Yes, we are. Oh, just a few things we dreamed up. In Canberra, Australia, the Scotties will project images of bunyips flying across the sky. Those are mythical Aboriginal monsters that lurk in swamps, billabongs, and waterholes. Sort of like our Swamp Creature. For the Japanese, we figure on using Deception 7. That will consist of a huge battle fought in Tokyo Bay between Mothra and Godzilla—”

  Capie put her hand to her mouth, to try to stop the giggles bubbling up from below.

  “Godzilla?!” she exclaimed. “You really are wicked, you know that!”

  “Oh, that’s nothing,” Paul asserted. “For North Korea, in Pyongyang, we will use Deception 18, an army of gwishin, what we call ghosts. For Tehran, I want to use Deception 3, an army of angels complete with white robes, wings, and halos. London will get Deception 9, sightings of zombies; and Washington, D.C. will be treated to Deception 1, an invasion of flying saucers, straight out of “V” and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.”

  Capie punched him lightly on the arm. “I’m so glad you are on our side!” Then her look sobered. “But it will scare a lot of Normals. There will be lots of cell camera videos and photos. They’ll freak out, cause markets to crash, frighten a lot of people.”

  Paul casually shrugged. “Yes, it will do that. Temporarily, that is. But this is a onetime event. And the Scotties and I don’t think we will have to explain anything to the general public. That will be up to the governments of Earth. We think that the various governments and yes, even Errabêlu themselves, have procedures and methods already in place to prevent, cover up, and suppress the public disclosure of magical events. They would almost have to have that in order to keep their existence secret for this long a period of time. They would have done so to protect their monopoly on their power, so we think that they will continue to do so now. And when we get started, causing a lot of magical incidents, the world leaders will panic and put a lot of pressure on Errabêlu to make the magic stop, destroy any evidence involved and cover it all up. Which works to our good. They will do most of the work to suppress anything odd that happens. Anything major that they miss, we can take care of later on after Errabêlu is gone. On a long term basis, in only twenty or thirty years, the so-called experts will chalk up anything that does get out to the public as mass-hysteria, induced by the economic crisis, all the wars and rumors of wars and so forth. It really won’t matter how many videos and pictures are taken. As I said, the governments of Earth will take care of most of it for us. And the rest will be discounted as forgeries and hoaxes. From what I’ve seen, most governments won’t let anything like facts or physical evidence get in their way. They never have before.”

  Capie frowned and sighed. “You’re probably right.”

  EIGHTEEN

  The Saint Elias Mountains, Canada

  Mount Logan Facility

  Situation Room

  Tuesday, 10:02 a.m. PDT

  June

  “We have a little over eighteen weeks now until the German general election,” Alpha 505 (from the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers) explained, gesturing towards the holographic widescreen television display hanging in mid-air in front of him. On that screen, a pair of “talking heads” were debating the latest public opinion polls on the two most likely candidates for the Chancellorship.

  Paul felt a sudden intense pang of regret for having agreed to let Capie leave the day before. By now, she would be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the poorest nation on Earth, together with I Corp, 1st Division, 3rd Brigade. She had been itching to get started with her humanitarian efforts and, in truth, Paul had been dying to go with her. Not only would he miss her terribly while she was gone, but he had wanted to help her, Vicki 1, Jocasta 1, and Selma 1 with their dispersal of some of the MBE drug, as well as with their additional plans for assistance of the peoples there. Instead, he was stuck here, busy with the war effort, muddling through the mire of politics and international intrigue. In short, he missed her.

  He turned to Daneel 2, floating ten or so feet away. “Do we know how many wizards are in Berlin?”

  “According to Ruggiero’s avatar, there should be one wizard and at least a hundred Oni. But that information is nearly a month old now. There are probably a lot more Oni there now, most of them fairly new,” Daneel 2 impassively replied.

  Paul looked around the Situation Room, the hectic pace of operations a sign of the seriousness of their operations.

  By corps, division, brigade, and battalion, the Scotties had been split up, sent to various countries to begin infiltration of the many capitals of the planet, their purpose to find and seize the wizards of Errabêlu wherever and whenever they could be run to ground. Since Errabêlu’s only concern was controlling the various governments of Earth, the Scotties’ strategy was to foment a national emergency of one kind or another that only the wizards of Errabêlu could address.

  In Germany, general elections were about to be held and, among other offices, a new Chancellor about to be elected. Paul’s recommendation to the Scotties in this case was to upset the apple cart—to create enough of a ruckus with the election so as to cast doubt on who would actually win. Furthermore, the Scotties were to throw those election returns in disarray, to create a scandal involving both of the candidates, to make it appear that each had engaged in political shenanigans in order to win the election. Already there were rumors of political high-jinks going on, and the mass media was finding it increasingly difficult not to report on the juicy details involved. Paul smiled. With a little help from a few Scotties, those details would eventually be reported and the resulting publically-known political emergency should force an Errabêlu wizard out of hiding.

  The TV image froze briefly and then a new image snapped on, that of a woman behind a news desk, speaking earnestly. With a flick of the wrist, Paul raised the volume level and cast a spell to translate her words into English.

  “…at this time,” she
said. “I repeat: we have received unconfirmed reports that the Russian military is currently mobilizing all military forces around the Moscow general area, including Russian nuclear forces at this time. We are working to confirm these reports. Our preliminary information is that the 4th Guards Independent Tank and 5th and 27th Guards Independent Motor Rifle Brigades in the Moscow Military district are being mobilized. It is assumed that other units in the district have also received orders. We have no reports regarding any of the other Russian districts, but please stay tuned to this channel for further information as it is received. We will return you to our regularly scheduled program at this time.”

  Paul tuned out the audio. A flare of light above them announced the formation of a portal. Paul glanced upward to see the light from a microportal ten feet over their heads.

  “Dad,” Daneel 2 announced. “I am receiving feeds from multiple locations. Sonny 69,” (the 2004 movie I, Robot) “in Koroshevskiy, Russia reports that several military units in the Moscow Military District are definitely mobilizing,” he reported. “He reports that he has tapped military communications there. Apparently Errabêlu is mobilizing a defense of Moscow. I am also getting a report from Viral 243,” (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) “that military forces around both Warsaw and Kiev are also mobilizing. Sir, I’m wondering…”

  Paul nodded. “It’s one of the possible responses we anticipated that Errabêlu might make. To fight back using the Normal armies. The mobilization of Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian armies and only around their capital cities suggests that this is their strategy. If true, we could well see the mobilization of other armies in the days to come. Perhaps here around Berlin too.”

  “You did predict it as a possibility,” Daneel 2 pointed out. “Since they don’t care all that much about Normals, they don’t mind using them against us.”

  Paul rubbed his chin. “And they will likely know by now that we have pledged not to hurt the Normals. Therefore, they believe that we won’t fight the Normal armies, that we will be hamstrung by fighting them without actually killing them.”