Hard Mettle

by John Hook

I shook my head and continued. “I suspect we’ll find out her real agenda eventually. We always do.”

  “In your case, usually the hard way,” Izzy added.

  “Yes, and no doubt this time as well. She seemed to be focused on me. However, I don’t think there is a danger to Zaccora right now and I would balance leaving them alone with looking for small opportunities to help them out if they need it. I’d rather make them an ally than have a cold war.”

  “Agreed.” Roland nodded. “You’re not just saying this so you don’t have to feel guilty about running off with both Blaise and Izzy?”

  “Actually, I’d like to take Kyo, too.”

  “You sure that will be enough?” Roland’s annoyance was showing. My concern was Antanaria. His concern was Zaccora. We weren’t entirely on the same page.

  “No, actually. I need you to split our combined forces into two divisions. I need you to come with us at the head of one of those divisions. The other division will stay and watch Zaccora.”

  “Are you crazy?” Roland spit out.

  “You have to ask?” Izzy laughed.

  Roland relaxed a bit.

  “We are about to uncork something big in Antanaria. I want you waiting outside the city in case we succeed. There will be a power vacuum and I would like you to sweep in to keep the other casino owners from getting big ideas.”

  “And if you don’t succeed?” Roland was probing my face to get a sense of how worried I was.

  “If we don’t succeed, it will be pretty obvious. In which case, do not enter the city. Return to Zaccora.”

  “You realize we’ve just taken in a large new group of former Dark Men who’re a little disoriented. They know what they were doing for Gerod was wrong, but they’re fighting years of loyalty and looking at Zaccorans as the other. It would be better if they had time to adjust.”

  I sighed. “I know you’re right, Roland, but we don’t have time. All we can do is mix them in well with the others and hopefully they’ll be forced to work it out.”

  “And you are expecting me to do this how soon?”

  “Kyo and Blaise will help you.” I smiled sweetly.

  “How soon?”

  “We head for the desert tomorrow morning.”

  Roland shook his head, but I caught just a touch of amusement on his face. “Of course we do.”

  Roland and Kyo actually did most of the work together. They decided on a force that was less than half, ensuring Zaccora was well protected. They also didn’t include any of the original Zaccoran fighters from before they were integrated with Roland’s Dark Men. The reasoning was that their mission had always been their own defense and defense of the city. What was going on in Antanaria wasn’t really their fight. They selected most of the Rockvale fighters, about half the Dark Men who had been with Zaccora since we freed Haven, and then all of the new Dark Men that had been released by Zara. We were hesitant to leave them with the Zaccorans while they were adjusting, and we figured Roland and the other Dark Men could keep them in line. Nothing like a little battle action to cement team spirit. Taka stayed behind as chief engineer as he knew the most about Zaccora’s defenses, many of which he had designed and built.

  I took the lead with Blaise and Izzy. The route through the mountains that had been so confusing the first time Azar had led us was now familiar to me. Roland and Kyo stayed at the head of their troops, although they had delegated guiding the troops to trusted squad leaders whose loyalty they knew they could count on. I had them stay a bit on either side of the main path so as not to be as easy to observe. Not that I thought we were being observed, but I cast my eyes to the sky in different directions quite often in case Zara came around. For now, we seemed not to be a priority.

  Something still bothered me about Zara. I couldn’t quite figure it out. It was as if I recognized those eyes. I’m not sure how or who they belonged to. And yet I felt sure I had looked into them before. It was driving me a little bit nuts when I let myself think about it. So I didn’t let myself think about it.

  Crossing the desert, there was no way to prevent observation from above, so we just kept careful watch. Antanaria was set down in a depression probably carved out by the water that formed the oasis, which had broken through from underground. It was surrounded on three sides by cliffs, so they couldn’t see our approach. We parked most of the troops on the other side of the cliffs where they were well hidden from the city and even had shade from the cliffs a good deal of the day.

  I took Izzy, Blaise, Kyo, Roland and a small group of hand selected observers who would scout from atop the cliffs to a vantage point where they could look down on Antanaria.

  “Big place.” Roland was already making tactical calculations.

  “It’s Las Vegas, not a garrison. The only thing you’ll be needing to do when you come in is crowd control. The dangerous part is the inner city.”

  Roland frowned. “Those look like the horsemen you described before. The ones that obliterated Rockvale.”

  “Indeed they are.”

  “And your plan to handle them?”

  “My plan is to free Adaxa so she can free Guido. At that point, I have to hope that the combination of abilities of Guido, Adaxa, myself and Saripha gives us what we need, but it’s not exactly a plan.”

  “It was a trick question.” Roland sighed.

  “Don’t forget, we expect at least one Angel to show up,” Izzy added.

  “Don’t spoil all the surprises.” I smacked Izzy lightly on the back of the head. Roland ignored us.

  “What looks like a statue on a throne is Guido?”

  “Exactly.”

  “So what are we watching for?” Roland turned to me. “Let me guess… You don’t exactly know.”

  I gave him my best car salesman smile. “The important stuff is going to be going on around the top of that large tower. If we can’t free Guido and drive off the horsemen and, possibly, an Angel, it will be pretty clear. In which case you should wait for cover of darkness and return to Zaccora.”

  “And if you succeed? What will that look like?”

  “If we manage to drive away or kill the horsemen and the Angel, we will at least have won the initial battle. However, you’re going to have to use your own instincts of when to move in. There will be a few Shirks at the gate, but they are mostly sleep walking and won’t put up any resistance.”

  “You don’t want to work out a signal?”

  “If we can, we’ll send Tweedledum and Tweedledee to you.”

  “The giant smiling frogs?” Roland raised an eyebrow.

  “He remembers.” Izzy giggled.

  I put a hand on Roland’s shoulder. “It has to be your call. There may be a lot of chaos in the streets if people look up and see the order changing atop that tower. Make the best decision for our troops.”

  Roland nodded. We shook hands. Then I descended to the city with Izzy, Blaise and Kyo. The Shirks didn’t even bother me about my comings and goings anymore or the fact that no one with me had collars.

  We were in the inner chamber of the Lotus Queen again. After a round of hugs from Saripha for all, we set right in finalizing our plan. I explained to Blaise why we had brought him. The “door” that sealed off Adaxa’s chamber was an elaborate and constantly evolving energy puzzle using very complex harmonics. I suspect it was generated by alien technology rather than the dreaming or Adaxa could probably have opened it. I could harmonize my energy with it like the underground vault doors, but then it would shift. What we were hoping was, just like the very complex networks controlling the pain towers, there was some kind of overarching pattern to these shifts which I couldn’t see but Blaise might.

  “So how do we do this?” Blaise said after a thoughtful silence.

  “Tweedledee and Tweedledum will take us over two at a time. Azar is already over there watching what is going on atop the tower where Guido is. He’ll warn us if and when they seem to become aware that something has changed while we are doing this.”

&nbs
p; “I’ll call for Lazitar.” Saripha’s eyes blazed with anticipation. “He’s been quite agitated during your absence. He’s uncomfortable that this is taking so long.”

  “Saripha, wait.”

  Saripha looked at me.

  “I’d feel better if we just did this without him. He doesn’t have a role in this and he’s a bit of a loose cannon. Makes me a little uneasy.”

  “I don’t think we can, Quentin. This is his grandmother, the matriarch of the old family, the symbol of all he has lost. We can’t ask him to stand by and depend on strangers.”

  “Your Queen speaks wisely.”

  I spun around as Lazitar strode into the room.

  “I’m not anyone’s Queen.” Saripha sighed.

  “I meant no offense.” I was trying to be diplomatic.

  “None taken, although your disrespect is again noted. I have no reason to trust you, either. We both want something. I need Adaxa freed and you need her dreaming capabilities. We don’t need trust. We will work to our common goals and go our separate ways.”

  “Yes, dear.” Luckily, I don’t think he understood the comment. The fact is, he was only a part of this uneasy alliance in order to get what he wanted and that made him unreliable.

  “How do we do this?” Lazitar asked in his usual demanding tone.

  As if on cue, Anika walked in with Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

  “I guess we’re all here.” Anika nodded and ruffled Izzy’s hair.

  “So where is your secret way into the inner city?”

  I gestured to Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who stood still as always with blank expressions seemingly frozen on their faces.

  “These two can teleport us, two at a time, inside the wall.”

  “Why do we need so many?” Lazitar asked dismissively.

  “Because I say we do.” I squared off with Lazitar and held his gaze. His face seemed to pass through several emotions, but finally he looked away to Saripha.

  “We had best get started, don’t you think?”

  To Lazitar’s annoyance, it took a while for Tweedledum and Tweedledee to bring over everyone: myself, Saripha, Izzy, Anika, Kyo, Blaise and Lazitar. We were gathered on the street just outside the shorter tower on the left where Adaxa was being held. I sent Kyo immediately to the big tower. She had been to the roof before and knew the way up. She would join Azar in making sure that things weren’t going sideways on the roof while we were working our scheme. She could also be a runner to communicate with us if they did. What I most worried about is that we ended up setting off some alarm while freeing Adaxa that would tell them too early what was going on.

  Tweedledum and Tweedledee then disappeared.

  “Where are they going?” Lazitar seemed worried about every little detail.

  “They’ll be back when we’re ready.”

  “How will they know?”

  “Trust me, they’ll know.”

  “Couldn’t they just take us through the door where Adaxa is?”

  I shook my head. “No, whatever the energy is that contains her, they can’t pass through it, either. Now relax and let me work. You’ll get what you want but we need to be careful, which means we’re all going to have to be patient.”

  Lazitar clearly thought I was a pretty lousy planner. That’s okay, I was used to that. I just didn’t want him doing something unpredictable because he decided he had a better plan.

  I assigned Anika to remain on the ground floor. She watched from the top of the stairway to the basement. It was a precaution in case someone came into the building and began moving upstairs. It would be her choice whether to distract, incapacitate, kill or otherwise signal us if that happened.

  The rest of us moved upstairs. We were going to the third floor and the first time we had gone directly there because that is what Azar had marked on the map. Once again, the climbing of the oversized stairs proved more arduous. This time, when we reached the fourth floor, I stopped.

  “Maybe we should turn these buildings into a gym one day.” Izzy stopped and took in a breath.

  “Yeah, even for glamour bodies that don’t need much rest, these stairs are a bit much.”

  I was eyeing a door at the end of the hall. I looked up, then back down to the door.

  “That door leads to a chamber that is directly under Adaxa’s chamber.”

  “It would appear so. Think that might be another way in?”

  “Or it could be where they are controlling her from.”

  “Or it could be the lunch room.” Blaise joined us.

  “I think maybe we should find out.”

  Lazitar grabbed my shoulder.

  “What are you doing? You said Adaxa is on the fifth floor.”

  Saripha stepped between us. Her eyes were like the sky just before a storm.

  “Lazitar, you have to let Quentin do what he does. We are certainly not going to endanger Adaxa given our need for her, but Quentin’s sometimes odd way of doing things is what has kept us going in the face of Shades, Manitors and Angels.”

  “Sometimes odd?” I feigned a hurt expression.

  Izzy laughed. “Most times odd.”

  “Bat shit, wouldn’t work for anyone else,” Blaise added.

  “I like to improvise,” I muttered.

  “You don’t like to plan,” Izzy added.

  “I like flexibility.”

  “Yeah, flexibility. That’s the ticket.” Izzy rolled his eyes.

  Lazitar was becoming annoyed with our banter. I didn’t really care about that, but I saw Saripha was becoming a bit strained by it as well. She was trying to make peace and hold the pieces together. That I cared about.

  I turned to Lazitar with my best serious expression. “We’re about to do something that’ll be a major disruption to their operations. They’ve invested a lot in protecting against that happening. I think it’d be foolish to proceed without knowing if, one floor below, they’ll have a way of knowing what we’re doing before we’re ready for them to know about it.”

  Lazitar thought about this for a while but finally stepped back. I walked up to the door, motioning everyone else to stay back and out of the way. The door was smooth and without any features. No knobs, no handholds, no locks, no keypads. There was no visible means of opening it. It was only a single door, but it reminded me of the double doors in the pain towers, the same smooth material, whatever it was. There was no pulsing of air behind it, but that may have had to do with the environmental setup of the towers. I felt around for anything that might trigger the door to open, either on the door or in the frame, but found nothing.

  I pressed my ear to the door. I could hear nothing from the other side. Then, unexpectedly, I heard a whirr. It made me jump back because it sounded electronic, though I didn’t know if it was. A line appeared to the left of the door and then it snapped inward at the door frame. A man pulled the door open and stepped through, most of his attention on a small device in his hand. It looked like it was covered in the fleshy material we had seen used as displays on the equipment in the pain towers. As in the towers, there were brightly illuminated and changing tattoos rather than blinking lights. The device made clicking sounds in response to the changes in the tattoos, but it didn’t actually sound electronic. It was more like the rubbing of insect feet and wings. Very creepy.

  Luckily I had managed to levitate horizontally to the ceiling just as I realized the door was about to open. I made sure my blue skin didn’t become illuminated and he didn’t look up. He was a human dressed in a jumpsuit and looking like a factory worker or an engineer. He pulled the door shut behind him and I heard it seal, followed by a click that I assumed meant it was locked again. He walked on and down the stairs, not noticing anyone lurking in the shadows. I made sure he had disappeared down the stairs and then floated back down to the hallway facing the door. The others came up behind me.

  “Tech,” Izzy said. He was in Dr. Zarkov excitement mode again. He probably wanted to know what was on the other side of the door more
than I did.

  “The way he held it, I was afraid it was some kind of scanner and would pick us up.”

  “Maybe it’s a communicator.”

  “Could be the door opener.” Blaise shrugged. He leaned against the wall almost as if nothing was important, but I knew he was scanning everywhere.

  “Tech on a floor under Adaxa can’t be coincidence?”

  “Probably not.” Blaise’s eyes lit up.

  “You think you can get in there?” Izzy asked. His tee shirt had already changed to read “Antanaria Skunk Works,” showing a picture of a skunk with futuristic-looking weapons.

  I laughed. I loved Izzy’s tee shirts. They were part of his glamour that changed over time. I don’t think he even realized he was doing it half the time anymore.

  “You bet, Mr. Wizard!”

  6.

  I returned to the door and pressed my hands against it. I turned my mind inward, listening to my breath. With each flex of my diaphragm a blue light was fanned as if by a bellows, and I reached out with what I visualized as tentacles of blue into the door. At first I sensed a powerful source of energy, but I realized it had nothing to do with this door. It was from the floor above. It was potent but also very contained. It was like it was in a box I couldn’t break into, but it was leaking everywhere. I did my best to not engage with any of that energy, but it was difficult. Then I sensed the energy of the door, a series of interlocking rings spiraling out. I let my blue energy flow together with the rings, turning each one in sequence, opening them, releasing the other rings. When the last one opened, the separated rings arranged themselves like a flower. Then there was a humming sound. A moment later, the door popped away from its door frame. I phased back in. Izzy and Blaise had already come up behind me. They stood at either side of the door. I pushed the door open and stepped through. The door made very little noise. I didn’t close it enough to seal, but it wasn’t obvious that it was open.

  We were in an empty hallway so no one was alarmed at our entry. There was a single door just to the right and a set of double doors at the end of the hall. The door at the side of the hallway was a more conventional door with a release. I walked up to it and squeezed on the release slowly, trying not to make too much noise. I pressed the door in.