Shadow Born

by Jamie Sedgwick

  “The only good thing about all this, is that we know the Shadow is pretty clueless about our activities. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have bothered.”

  “So what do you think about our plan?”

  Reeves took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, I won’t lie to you, it’s gonna be tough. There’s nothing ideal about this situation. That doesn’t mean we can’t pull it off, but I’ll feel better about the whole thing if Pete comes through with those building schematics. Then at least we’ll have an idea of what we’re getting into.

  “Speaking of Pete, I like the changes you’ve made with the plane. I’m not thrilled about her hull being cut open, but you boys did a nice job on the TIG welding. If those grenade launchers work, I might have to recruit you and Pete as engineers. Which reminds me, what kind of equipment did you bring?”

  Gabriel went to the closet and brought out all the gear. They had a rocket launcher with four rockets, and he explained that they had outfitted the Albatross with almost a dozen more. They also had several backpacks, each containing a compass, one survival knife, and an EGG (second generation).

  Gabriel pulled out the sword that Pete had made and showed it to Reeves. “A sword handle?” Reeves said. “What do you plan on doing with that?”

  “Abracadabra!” Gabriel said. He pressed the hidden button, and the blade appeared almost instantly. “Pete made this out of some stuff he found in the armory. It’s got R9-11 embedded in the steel, so we can use it against humans and Shadowkind. Now we don’t have to shoot anything!”

  “I like shooting things,” said Reeves. He emphasized the point by ramming a freshly loaded magazine into one of his .45’s, and then holstered it. “What else have we got?”

  “Well, actually that’s about it.”

  Reeves looked grim but he kept his thoughts to himself. He went back to the closet and brought out several TAC jackets. “These are bulletproof,” he explained. “It’ll stop a .44, but it’ll hurt. Try to avoid getting shot, that’s always best. The cord on the front releases an emergency chute… a parachute. It’s supposed to open automatically at one thousand feet, but keep your fingers on it, just in case.”

  “We’re jumping then?” said Gabriel.

  “Unless you’ve got a better idea, yes, we’re jumping. We need to drop those grenades after we’re all in place, which means we need the plane up here when we’re down there.”

  “So who’s gonna fly the plane?”

  Reeves glanced at Mr. Oglesby. “He is.”

  Gabriel looked at the old man. He had the chair reclined horizontally as far as it would go. He slept on his side, with one arm dangling out of the seat, and spittle dribbling from the edge of his mouth. One of his legs kicked as if he were dreaming about chasing a rabbit. Gabriel glanced back at Reeves uncertainly. Everything was going to count on those grenades going off at the right time. If there was a hole in the plan, it sure seemed like this was it. Mr. Oglesby was going to fly the plane? Gabriel didn’t know if he should laugh or cry.

  Chapter 39

  “Fifteen minutes!” Jodi shouted from the cockpit.

  “Oglesby, you’re on,” Reeves said.

  Mr. Oglesby stepped into the cockpit and Jodi turned over control of the plane. “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” he said. He turned on the COM. “You there Pete?”

  “Absolutely! I’ll be right there with you the whole time.”

  Thank goodness for that, Gabriel thought. He exchanged a glance with Jodi and saw in her eyes that she was thinking the same thing.

  “Go silent,” Reeves commanded. In response, Mr. Oglesby throttled the plane back to minimal RPM’s and dimmed the lights. “I want all COM sets on at all times, and an open channel except when communication is absolutely necessary. Gabriel, your orders?”

  “I drop into the foothills northwest of the castle and make my way to the main grounds. I use a flare gun to launch three flash-bang grenades through the upper story windows at precisely 10:15. You two will do yours at the same time, and then Mr. Oglesby will drop the EGGs on the palace grounds, just as everyone is evacuating the palace. When I see the lights, I go through the nearest ground floor entrance on the north side.”

  “Good,” said Reeves. “Jodi?”

  “Same as him,” she said, “except that I’ll be coming in from the south, close to the lake. And you’ll come in from the east.”

  “Good. Nobody is to go near the main entrance, do you understand? We want them to have a clear exit. This plan hinges on us scaring the heck out of them, and if we don’t leave an escape route, things will get ugly in a hurry.”

  “Affirmative,” said Jodi. Gabriel nodded. He had to admit it was a solid plan –at least based upon what they had to work with-but there were plenty of things that could go wrong. Like the EGGs not working. Since the second generation hadn’t actually been tested yet, there was no guarantee the things even worked. If that happened, they were going to be in a world of trouble.

  Gabriel’s stomach knotted up as they approached the hatch, and the reality of the situation suddenly seemed inescapable. He was about to jump out of a plane wearing a parachute that may or may not actually open. If he survived, he was going to go infiltrate an enemy base to rescue a hostage in an extremely hostile environment -though it was entirely possible that the hostage had already been killed. It was also possible that Julia had been brainwashed and would try to kill him as soon as he found her.

  Reeves opened the hatch and pushed Jodi out. She shouted, “Woo-hoo!” as she vanished into the darkness. Gabriel stepped up, and saw the jeweled sky arcing across the dim horizon; the mountains and the ocean below were black as ink. The wind whipped at his face and sucked the breath from his lungs, and he shouted, “This is crazy!” Then Reeves’ hands pushed him from behind, and the universe seemed to open up and swallow him.

  Chapter 40

  The roar of the engines quickly faded in the distance, leaving only the sound of air rushing past Gabriel’s ears. As his eyes adjusted, he saw the vast black expanse of forests and mountains that was China. Not all was black though. Cities lay scattered across the land, thousands of twinkling lights that mirrored the sky above, and even skyscrapers lurched out of the darkness.

  The streets of Xi’an swarmed with cars, their glowing lights shooting back and forth like tiny red laser beams that left tracers in Gabriel’s eyes. The sight was surreal, and indescribably beautiful. Gabriel was sure the city couldn’t have been half as beautiful in the daylight.

  He wondered for a moment at all of those lights. He wondered about the people in the cars, rushing so quickly from one place to another. There were families in those cars. Mothers and fathers returning home from work, or perhaps headed out for the evening. In the buildings, families were making dinner and watching television and reading books. It seemed that each light out there had a story, and he wanted to watch them forever, to have some part in their lives. If he could never have a real family of his own, maybe that would be enough, just to watch.

  The moment passed all too quickly, and the silence was broken as Reeves voice came over the COM. “Three thousand feet,” he said. “Pull your chutes in… three… two… ONE!” Gabriel yanked on the cord and heard the fabric unwinding behind him. A split second later, the chute caught the wind, and he bounced as the lines went taught.

  “Everyone okay?” Reeves said.

  “Affirmative,” Jodi replied.

  “I’m good,” said Gabriel.

  “Excellent. Now for step two. Check your GPS. It’s the watch built into the jacket sleeve. Just pull back the cover and touch the face.” Gabriel did as he was instructed, and he saw a green compass with a red dot just north of center. Next to the compass, there was a display of longitude and latitude. That wasn’t much help to Gabriel since he’d never studied navigation.

  “The red dot is the castle,” Reeves said. “Try to get as close as you can, and look out for the landing positions we talked about earlier. If you run into troubl
e, let me know immediately. Otherwise, I want radio silence for the next fifteen minutes.”

  Gabriel’s time in the air passed too quickly, and before he knew it, he was hurtling towards a field outside the castle grounds. Fortunately, his landing was quite soft. He hoped the others had had similar good luck.

  He rolled up the chute and stashed it next to the fence at the edge of the field. Armed with a pair of night vision sunglasses and his GPS, he headed for the castle. He had to stop twice to wait for pedestrians who just happened to be walking near the castle grounds. It was unlikely that they had anything to do with the Shadow, but it wasn’t worth the risk of allowing himself to be seen. He hid behind a tree the first time, and a tall shrub the second.

  Outside the castle wall, he found a guard dog on patrol. Fortunately, he was prepared. A tranquilizer dart from his collapsible blowgun did the job just fine. He waited a moment to be sure the dog was out and then crept cautiously up to the wall, past the dog’s slumbering body.

  Scaling the wall proved a simple task. The ancient stonework was full of cracks and holes that he could use for handholds, and Gabriel was up and over in seconds. He dropped to the ground on the other side and found a hiding spot behind some bushes. Around the corner to his left, he saw the training grounds.

  Skeletal practice dummies rose up out of the ground, casting odd shadows in the moonlight. They looked like scarecrows. There was an obstacle course there, too. Gabriel clearly remembered climbing the walls and running across those poles. He could cross that obstacle course with his eyes closed. He saw himself there, training, fighting, taking in everything they taught him.

  At the time, Gabriel had told himself one day he would use his skills against them. He would take the training they had forced on him, and become their worst nightmare. Tonight was that night.

  His head swam with so many memories that Gabriel couldn’t process them all. He remembered the guards, the beatings, the other children. He could remember starving; constant relentless hunger.

  What about before? He thought. Why can’t I remember how I got here?

  Gabriel shook off the memories and forced himself back to the present. The Celestial Palace stood before him, a once majestic citadel that was now little more than a crumbling ruin. The castle was collapsing beneath its own weight. It was huge, probably ten times the size of Julia’s mansion, and it rose twelve stories high. The tiered roofs and sweeping upturned eves must have once been elegant and breathtakingly beautiful, but now chips and cracks marred the faded paint and wooden beams rotted beneath. It seemed like a good hard wind might blow the thing right over.

  Gabriel shook his head, dismayed by the Shadow’s lack of respect. Such a place should be preserved, not destroyed. It was just a thing to them, just a means to an end. Just like everything. The Shadow valued nothing except power.

  He touched the intercom button on his radio. “I’m in place, Reeves,” he whispered.

  “Ditto,” Jodi said a few seconds later.

  “Excellent,” said Reeves. “Oglesby, what’s your situation?”

  “If Pete’s calculations are correct, I’ll be there in three minutes,” Mr. Oglesby said.

  “Alright,” said Reeves. “Everybody loaded?”

  “Yeah,” said Gabriel.

  “Ready,” said Jodi.

  “Okay. Three, two, one, FIRE!”

  Gabriel took aim and fired through the highest window he could see. There was a hissing sound as the grenade shot through the air, followed by the sound of breaking glass. Gabriel heard shouting inside the castle, and then the grenade exploded. It let off a loud boom followed by several seconds of bright, strobing lights. If anyone in that room had their eyes open, they were gonna be blind for the next twenty minutes or so. They wouldn’t be hearing very well either. After all, that was the whole point of a flash-bang grenade. It was virtually harmless, but it was devastating to the senses.

  Gabriel saw the other grenades going off and he quickly reloaded. This time he aimed for the sixth level, to encourage the escapees to get downstairs and outside faster. By the time his third grenade went off, people –and things-were flooding out the front entrance.

  Gabriel dropped the flare gun and raced over to a nearby window. It was closed and locked, but the room inside appeared to be empty. He smashed the glass with the hilt of his sword and carefully climbed inside. As he scrambled through the window trying to avoid the broken glass, the Albatross went roaring through the sky overhead.

  Gabriel knelt down next to the window, and paused there for a second to watch Mr. Oglesby make his drop. Armed EGGs fell from the sky and scattered across the palace grounds. The shadow creatures didn’t stand a chance. Instantly, the EGGS began to explode.

  At that moment, Reeves cut the power and everything inside the building went black. So far, so good, Gabriel thought. If things continued to go according to plan, Mr. Oglesby would land the plane and be firing rockets to cover their escape within five minutes. Now all they had to do was find Julia.

  “Group up,” Reeves shouted through the intercom. “Move towards the front of the building and meet me at the stairwell. We’ll make our way up as a team.”

  “I don’t think she’ll be upstairs,” Gabriel said. “This place has a dungeon.” There was a moment of static silence as his companions digested that.

  “Fine,” said Reeves. “Gabriel, since you’re more familiar than the rest of us, you take the lead.”

  “Affirmative,” Gabriel said. A laugh erupted from his throat as soon as he’d said it. “I’m starting to sound like Jodi.”

  Gabriel put on his night vision goggles. He peered out into the hall and found it empty. Likewise, the rooms he passed along the way had all been abandoned. So far, it seemed that Reeves’ plan was working perfectly. Even shadowkind were eager to abandon their fortress once they thought it was no longer safe.

  Gabriel jogged down the hall, turned the corner, and ran straight into a guard. The man was enormous with a great rotund belly, and Gabriel rebounded like a rubber ball. The overweight and uncoordinated shadowfriend struggled for a moment to free his baton. Gabriel steadied himself as the guard took a wild swing at his head.

  Gabriel instinctively leaned away from the blow. He followed through, somersaulting backwards, and landed cat-like in the center of the hall. The man came at him, swinging madly. Gabriel leapt up the wall, bouncing from one side of the hall to the other as he climbed out of reach. The man cursed at him and called out, “Guards! Here!”

  Gabriel dropped, delivering a well-placed karate chop to the back of the man’s head. The man dropped to his knees and then fell forward, unconscious. Gabriel moved on.

  He raced to the next corner and leaned cautiously around. The castle’s main hall was wall-to-wall shadowkind. The ones inside were pushing to get out, the ones outside pushing to get in. A battle had erupted at the doorway, and it was quickly spreading through the crowd. Gabriel guessed there must have been a hundred Shadow creatures inside the room. He counted at least ten humans scattered among them.

  As his eyes swept across the melee, he located the stairwell at the back of the room -the stairway that led to the dungeon. Getting there was going to be impossible. Gabriel had one EGG in his pack, the one that Reeves had told them to keep in case of emergency. He stepped back from the corner and knelt down on the floor. If anything would clear the room out, that would do it. He set the timer for one minute, and then twisted to peer around the corner again… and he looked straight into someone’s kneecaps.

  Gabriel staggered back as three large shadowfriends came around the corner. One kicked at him. Gabriel leapt aside and the EGG tumbled to the ground. As it landed, the power button struck the floor and the EGG deactivated. Gabriel silently cursed himself as it rolled harmlessly up to the wall. Now there was nothing between him and at least a hundred shadow creatures.

  More important, however, were the three burly men who were about to beat him into oblivion. Gabriel turned his attention back to
them, and found himself staring down the barrel of a tazer gun.

  “On your knees, kid,” the man holding the weapon said. The other two drew batons and smiled wickedly.

  Chapter 41

  Gabriel met them with a defiant glare. He pulled his sword from the pocket on his sleeve and clicked the button. The blade sprung out, and the men’s eyes widened. “Not today,” Gabriel said.

  The first man fired his tazer straight at Gabriel’s chest. Gabriel dropped into a back bend and the tazer probes sliced through the air, a fraction of an inch away from his face. They imbedded themselves in the wall. Gabriel dropped to his back. He kicked out as he landed, and there was a cracking sound as Gabriel’s boot struck the man’s knee. The guard dropped, screaming.

  Gabriel landed hard on the flat of his back. Before he could recover, the other two men rushed in with their batons and started swinging. Lying flat on his back, Gabriel was at a severe disadvantage. Somehow, he managed to parry their attacks with his sword, at least for the most part. It wasn’t long before both men were bleeding from cuts on their hands and forearms. Unfortunately, the hard stone floor was taking its toll. Gabriel’s movement was extremely limited and it hurt every time he had to dodge a blow or twist sideways. He had to think of a way to get out of there!

  Then an opportunity presented itself.

  The two men were both about the same size and age, but one wore glasses and the other had long hair. The man with the glasses slipped as he took a swing, leaving his defenses wide open. Gabriel took advantage of the opportunity by opening a nasty cut across the man’s right hand. The baton clattered to the floor and Gabriel spun over onto his belly to make a run for it.

  He wasn’t fast enough. Just as he got to his knees, a boot slammed into his ribs. Gabriel dropped, gasping for air. Blows began raining down along his back and his legs.