by Bryan Fields
Thain ignored the blows. He grabbed Rose by the throat, lifting her clear of the ground. He held her in front of him, using her as a shield. “So you’re the one doing all the magic. You had me quite fooled, thinking David an arcane prodigy. Shame on you, little Dragon.” He looked around her at Harmony and cocked his head. “Your blonde friend is one of your kind as well, I take it. I’d say she’s older than you. Much older, yes.”
Thain tightened his grip. “You were right to hide from me, child. Your existence changes the equations somewhat. I’d planned to conquer this world without using my armies. They would make it far too easy. I wanted to do this world in…what do you call it? Hardcore mode. That’s it. But you just had to interfere. I guess I’ll have to, as you say, reroll.”
I lowered my bow. The math is wrong. That line made sense now. Too little, too late. I drew and aimed again. “Go home, Thain, and be satisfied with one world. You can’t raise the faithful of this world. You’ll never raise an army of any size, and now the armies of a second world will rise up to oppose you. Give it up.”
He laughed. “Be satisfied with one world? Boy, I’ve conquered four of them. I dare say I’ve gotten to be very good at it. Conquest is an addiction, and I am jonesing for a hit.” He shook his head and waved the words away. “Oh, that was rubbish. Don’t ever let me speak that way.”
“No problem,” I said. “Let Rose go and you’ll never have to utter a trite catchphrase ever again.”
“Don’t think me a fool, boy. I have no such thoughts toward you. You’re a man of hard purpose, who would strike me down in a moment given the chance. Her life preserves my own. Rest assured, I shall not harm her.”
Rose smiled at him. “Good to know.” She pulled one of the ceramic tactical knives from her belt and stabbed Thain up and under the ribcage. The blade struck something hard and glanced off to the side.
Thain grabbed the knife blade and snapped it off. “Wonderful stuff, Kevlar. One of this world’s most useful inventions.” He smiled at Rose as he tightened his grip. “Even your claws are useless against it. Stop fighting, or I will hurt you.”
Harmony said, “She might as well fight you. You’re going to kill us all anyway. You have to. Otherwise, we will alert the armies of our world to prepare for your coming. We might even make Earth our battlefield. David is right. You will face the armies of two worlds, armed with both technology and magic. You can’t allow that to happen, so we must all die.”
Thain stiffened. “You think me a coward?”
“You’re the one hiding behind my girlfriend,” I said. “You’re the one who’s made a career of slaughtering people who can’t fight back. Besides, Mom always told me, ‘coward is as coward does’.”
“Be careful, David. Don’t make your beloved pay the price for your insolence.” Thain gave Rose another shake. “Sit back and relax. I’ll be finished with her presently. All I need do is memorize the vibration of her home world, and we’re done here.”
I don’t mind admitting, I was scared. He’d survived the destruction of his physical form once already, and I had nothing capable of taking him down. Looking down at him, watching Rose struggle to breathe while she clawed at his wrist, I lost hope. We were all going to die.
Then die with your teeth in his throat.
I looked down at him again, and fear gave way to anger. Anger was a lot more useful. I pulled the macuahuitl out of its case and headed down the stairs.
In the parking lot, I called out, “Thain! If you’re really all that, if I’m no threat to you, then face me! One on one. If you’re really immortal and indestructible, what do you have to fear?”
Thain moved Rose to the side so he could look at me. “Will that make you happy? To martyr yourself for the sake of this world?”
“It’s a start,” I said. “Kicking your ass is higher on my list, though. Do you even remember how good it feels to deal with someone yourself, using your own hands, without all the minions? Is there any sense of fun left in you at all? What’s the point of living forever if you can’t enjoy the little things anymore?”
Thain sneered at me. “My sense of fun is secondary to my sense of self-preservation. You’re not going to goad me into dropping my guard or doing something similarly foolish. Now back away, oh noble hero.” He shook Rose again to make sure I got the message.
This time, Thirteen’s attack was silent. He launched himself off the roof and landed on Thain’s shoulder, ripping the dead man’s eye sockets apart. Thain spit a mouthful of scorpions at him. Thirteen jumped to the side and attacked again, claws carving through Thain’s shoulder. The arm pulled out of its socket, disrupting Thain’s spell. Both he and Rose dropped to the ground. The cat finished his assault by unhooking the gold amulet Thain was wearing and carrying it under the nearest car. Thain tried to grab him but only managed to knock the drover’s hat off Thirteen’s head.
Rose rolled to the side, knocking Thain’s arm away from her throat. She started pulling more magic into herself, powering up for her next attack.
I charged in, trying to give Rose and Harmony time to build up their magical reserves. We could use some epic spellpower right about now.
My first blow ripped through his thigh bones, sending legs one way and torso another. He bounced up as though it were but a flesh wound and nailed me with a backhand slap. I went skidding across the ground. I rolled to my feet, taking care not to fillet myself with the macuahuitl.
Rose hurled a ball of green fire at Thain. He blocked it with his remaining hand, containing the flames until they dissipated.
I chopped down across his face and through his sternum. Matchstick bones and dried skin peeled away from the Kevlar plates around his heart. I reversed my grip and slashed up, ripping through the nylon ties holding the plates in place. They fell to the side, exposing his shriveled excuse for a heart. I brought the macuahuitl down…and a blast of lightning threw me across the parking lot.
The macuahuitl shattered into smoking splinters and razor-sharp obsidian shards. I was lucky—if I’d been using Kindness, the electrical charge would have turned me into a smoked kipper. I pushed myself up, feeling along my pant leg for the handle of the sgian dubh. I drew it and aimed a flying tackle at Thain.
My first stab missed. He grabbed my wrist, bending it backward. What was left of his jaw flopped open, pouring out a swarm of scorpions right in my lap. I tore myself loose and scrambled back, dropping the knife while I slapped the little monsters off of me. They stung me dozens of times before I was rid of them.
Rose turned the energy she’d gathered from another flame bolt into a wave of healing energy. It drove the poison out of my system, leaving me whole and ready for another round with the dead guy. All I lacked was a weapon.
Harmony shouted a spell in Draconic, wrenching control of the portal away from Thain and sealing it shut. Every word rang out like the tolling of cathedral bells. The ground shook, windows shattered, car alarms went off, and building walls cracked all around us. Rose and I fell to the ground and stayed there.
The remains of the dead hatchlings collapsed into dust. All around the perimeter of the storm, winds died, clouds dissipated, and debris rained down on the ground. As the cloud wall thinned, I saw rows of SWAT officers and other well-armed folk waiting to advance.
I had no idea how long it would take Thain to open a new portal, but for now, he couldn’t call for backup. I stood up and drew my last ceramic knife.
Thain was on his back, clawing the ground with his remaining arm. His limbs were flopping around, trying to work their way back to what was left of his torso. I kicked his chopped-off arm to the side and knelt on the one attached to his torso.
Harmony touched my shoulder. “David, stop. We can’t destroy him like this.”
I shook her hand off. “I’m pretty sure we can. Not a metal blade.” I pulled my arm back to strike.
Harmony took the knife out of my hand. “If you destroy his body, his spirit will be free to find another host. As long as h
e’s like this, we can contain him.”
I stood up. “Fine. Contain him, until we find a way to destroy him.”
It only took Harmony twenty seconds or so to gather the magic she needed. Not a very long time, but it was more time than Thain needed. While we watched Thain’s head and torso, his severed arm wrote a spell on the air behind us. His body dissolved into sand and blew away, leaving us staring at a couple of Kevlar plates and some nylon zip ties.
Ishmael and a group of SWAT officers jogged up to us, taking in the damage. “Good to see you, David. Are there any active threats we need to know about?”
I nodded. “One. Thain vanished on us. I have no idea where he is. Hopefully he ran away to lick his wounds.” I paused to direct two EMTs to the stairs inside the range. “Check up there first. We have at least one injured party on the roof, plus several casualties.”
I stopped, my throat closing up. The idea of Jake and Miranda being dead was too monstrous to put into words. I took a breath and said, “We lost at least six people, not counting the ones in the feed store. Two of my friends were Denver cops. The guys who arrived in that cruiser over there died as well. Did anyone who tried to run through the barrier make it?”
Ishmael looked down and sighed. “No. No sign of anyone, alive or dead. A couple of volunteers wanted to try to get through using a bulldozer, but I talked them into sending in two robots first. Both were smashed to pieces in seconds. I don’t think anyone could have survived those winds.”
I took a quick look around. No one was close, so I whispered, “Thain is a bigger threat than I thought. He claims to have already conquered four worlds. He came here alone because he wanted a challenge. He thinks of it as playing a game in hardcore mode. I’ve got no proof either way, but I have no doubt he meant it. Now he may be after Rose’s world as well. What if he has an army big enough to attack two worlds at once?”
Ishmael grimaced. “The usual. You die, she dies, everybody dies.” He got his cell phone out and added, “We can sit around the fire and sing sad songs in the night later. Right now I—h, crap.” He swapped the phone for his gun and shouted, “Take cover, but hold your fire! Nobody fire until we know what we’re dealing with!”
I joined him behind a car, watching a cloud of dust and sand spinning around in the middle of the road. The cloud collapsed in on itself, becoming darker and more solid, until it coalesced into Thain. He had his arms folded across his chest, relaxed as you please, ignoring the dozed assault rifles pointing at him
The bastard smiled at me. “Rest assured, David, my army is quite large enough for two worlds. In fact, it’s big enough for three.” He opened his arms and held up Thirteen’s hat. “How fortunate that I now have three to conquer. I say, David, meeting you has turned out to be a singularly profitable event. You’ve handed me decades of entertainment, and I thank you for it.”
Thirteen streaked out from under a car, hissing and leaping at Thain’s head. He slammed into an invisible wall and careened off to the side. He landed hard but came right back for more, clawing and tearing at the field separating him from Thain.
Thain twirled the hat around on his finger. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a new toy to explore.” He drew three columns of symbols on the air and vanished, taking his force field with him. Thirteen spun through the spot where Thain had been, claws shredding empty air. He landed with a growl and stomped off.
Ishmael holstered his gun and ran his fingers through his hair. “Let me get this straight,” he said. “The cat is from another dimension, too?”
I nodded. “Yep, a nasty one. By rights he should be dead. Both his tissues and the dirt in his fur are radioactive. I’m pretty sure his world is a nuclear wasteland.”
Thirteen came out from under the car holding Thain’s necklace in his paw. He jumped onto my shoulder in a single smooth bound. I put my hand up to steady him.
Thirteen angled to the side so he could look at me. “It’s worse than you can imagine,” the cat said. “Still, there’s no place like home.”
The last thing I saw before the world vanished was Rose leaping toward me, her eyes full of utter terror.
Chapter Eighteen
A Cat Out of Hell
I landed hard on my back, banging my head against the floor. It didn’t help my brand new headache any. Deep purple blotches blocked my vision until I closed my eyes. The creeping pulses of light weren’t much improvement.
I felt Thirteen’s paws prying my jaw open. He stuffed a pill into my mouth and said, “Chew.” He waited until I made a face at the gut-wrenching bitterness, and then poked me in the shoulder and said, “Stay.”
Frakking cat.
I kept my eyes shut while the pill worked its magic. I could hear a lot of keyboard action and several very noisy cooling fans, but trying to talk or look around made me sick to my stomach.
A few minutes later, I felt a slight popping at the base of my neck. All the pressure drained out of my skull. The headache vanished and I could open my eyes again. The queasy stomach I could deal with.
My first impression was that I was in a server room on a submarine. It was around twenty by forty, with steel plates for the walls and ceiling. Steel buttresses ran from floor to ceiling, spaced every ten feet. The floor was steel grillwork, with fans and air conditioning under it. Below the fans, massive steel foundation beams rested on springs four feet across, each cemented into solid granite.
The roof was open, showing dozens of conduit bundles coming in through the walls and connecting to an olive-drab cube some ten feet on each side. More conduit connected the cube to towering gray boxes that could have passed for vintage refrigerators. They filled the area to the point where you would have to scoot sideways to get past the workstations lining the walls.
Thick sheets of glass around four feet across hung above each workstation. Most of the glass panes were empty and transparent, but one sheet was active, showing status readouts, several mainframe sessions, and a dozen security camera feeds.
Thirteen was sitting in front of a cat-sized keyboard at one of the workstations. He looked over his shoulder and tossed a badge to me.
I caught it and clipped it to my shirt. “What hit me?”
“Microwave stunner,” he replied. His voice was harsh and papery, not much more than a stage whisper.
I nodded. That didn’t tell me a lot, but it confirmed I wasn’t hallucinating. I thought of and discarded a dozen questions before deciding to stick with the basics. “So, what’s your real name?”
“Subject Thirteen. Sapient domestic shorthair. My species was created in the eighteen hundreds. This is the Year of the Republic 2226. It’s eight years ahead of your calendar. This world diverged from yours when the Egyptians developed electricity and gunpowder. Chemical batteries, temple lights, basic rockets, and small bombs. Rome assimilated them and conquered the world. All but Australia, anyway.
“Bubonic plague wiped out half the world in 1074 and the empire fell. Skip six centuries of chaos and turf wars. In 1784, the various countries of North and South America unite to form the First Republic. Total economic and social failure. In 1867, the richest man on the continent buys the Senate and seizes power. Joshua Norton becomes Emperor Norton the First, and he buys the laws he needs to rebuild the country. India develops nuclear fission in 1868, and Indra’s Arrows win them a third of the world. Tesla develops a viable low-energy nuclear fusion process in 1925. He sells the technology to both sides, ensuring they’re equally matched.
“Mutually assured destruction keeps the peace, until the day the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts. Bad enough by itself, but the shock wave triggers a dead man’s switch. Automated retaliation missiles launch. Once those birds go up, San Francisco and Mumbai both throw everything they have at each other. That was Ragnarok, the day world perished in blood and fire, seventy-two years ago. Did I miss anything?”
“I… No. What kind of experiments were done on you?”
“Forced paw-structure evolution. Three mo
nths in restraints, fed through a tube. Screamed the whole time. Gave me this lovely singing voice.”
“Did you ever try to escape?”
Thirteen bared his fangs for a moment. “Escape? I’m a patriot. I volunteered!” He took a deep breath, and added, “We all did.” He went back to working the keyboard. I left him to it and wandered around the room while I absorbed the info dump.
The only exit was sealed by a blast door that appeared to have dropped from the ceiling. A unit insignia was painted on the door, commemorating the 121st Tactical Innovation Command. It had a gold dodecahedron on a black field, with Sola Mens Mea Vos Occidere Potest on a banner above it.
A bit more hunting turned up a not-quite American flag, along with a guide on how to properly display it. The colors of the Sovereign Republic of the Americas had red and gold stripes, with a gold eagle surrounded by laurel leaves on a purple square in the upper left corner. The eagle held a Roman fasces in its talons, making it look even more warlike. Just on the surface, the heraldic meanings I was seeing were implying some unpleasant things about this version of America.
An open gear locker yielded a knee-length black leather duster. The back displayed the Republic’s gold-on-purple eagle over a set of red and gold vertical stripes.. According to the label, it was fireproof, radiation resistant, and lined with Kevlar. Fit me like a dream, too.
The locker also yielded a phone directory for the city of Auraria. The map inside told me it was capitol of Jefferson Province. On Earth, Auraria was the first city established at the junction of the South Platte and Cherry Creek. It lost the fame game and was absorbed into Denver in the mid-eighteen hundreds. It seems to have fared better on this world.
One workstation had a topographical map pinned up. It took a bit to work out familiar landmarks, but I finally figured out I was somewhere in the south end of Boulder Valley, which was now part of the Devil’s Thumb Proving Ground. A little more searching revealed a small “121” noted in the southwestern corner of the proving ground. If this was right, I was somewhere in Eldorado Canyon.