Loki nodded, returning his grin.
Behind Leo were the two final members of the team—Jonas Hopkins, the former Minister who now wore the name ‘Railgun’ as proudly as he wore the Crimson Sash uniform. His white teeth gleamed out at Loki out of the black mahogany of his face. Standing a few yards apart, looking more than a little lost, was the self-styled ‘Freak', a soft-eyed, blond haired street kid from Southern California. He flushed a little under Loki's gaze.
"Okay, folks. You know the drill. No killing. Incapacitate only. Don't feel too bad if you have to hurt them—they did, after all, kidnap an immortal. We want to discourage that sort of thing, if you know what I mean.
"Railgun—do your thing."
The squat black man closed his eyes and stood there silently for a long moment. Loki's skin started to tingle and the hairs on his arms stood straight up. After about twenty seconds they heard a distant, muffled ‘crack’ as the facility's main above-ground power transformer blew.
The Burning Man lit up, the flames starting at his feet and flowing upward, like a strange blue-white liquid, to quickly envelope his legs, torso, arms, and head. He thrust his arms skyward as withering heat radiated off his body, sending them all stumbling back several feet. He whirled, extending a hand, and sent out a sheet of blistering flames through the fence. It sagged, then simply seemed to evaporate. He cut it off, leaving behind a twenty-foot stretch of fence line now little more than a silvery puddle on the ground. “Beee-you-tee-ful!"
"Good job, Burning. Now ... everyone know their assignments? We'll have no way to communicate, so we have to make sure to follow our cues exactly. We don't want to spend any more than ten minutes in there. It'll take that long for them to get choppers here from Malmstrom, five minutes or less if they send jets."
"And if they send jets?” asked Mongoose.
"And do what—blow up their own installation just to get us?” The Burning Man's voice sounded incredulous.
"Not out of the question,” said Omega. “Depends on what they have here they don't want getting out."
Loki nodded. “Exactly. Everybody ready?” Nods all around, he noted with a self-satisfied invisible grin. “Good. Let's do this."
* * * *
Matt laid down a blistering sheet of fire across the surface of the landing pad. The flames were so hot that the tar in the asphalt caught fire and continued to burn. At the sound of gunfire behind him, he spun and sent a lance of blue-white flame whipping across the courtyard. Soldiers dived for cover and the firing stopped momentarily.
Loki gave him a thumbs-up sign with his free hand and cinched his other arm around Hermes's legs. The boy immortal dangled unconscious from his shoulder as he jogged through the compound, skirted the burning asphalt, and burst into a sprint across the field toward the woods bordering the fence.
He spotted Renee and Mongoose racing on an intercept course a few hundred yards away, soldiers in hot pursuit. The soldiers held up about fifty yards behind, bringing their rifles to bear. Renee executed a spin and launched herself back toward them, barely more than a blur as she landed in their midst. They flew like dolls.
Another squad burst out of the trees in front of him, their rifles already chattering. Loki skidded under a hail of bullets, letting Hermes roll off his shoulder. He snatched up a long section of tree branch and whipped it in their general direction. As they dove for cover, he risked a glance at Renee and Mongoose.
Where the hell are Freak and Juneau? He rolled to his feet and snatched Hermes back up, resuming his sprint for the tree line. The chatter of gunfire resumed a few seconds later, but he zig-zagged his way into the trees and picked up speed, bounding over logs, brush, and other obstacles without once losing his grip on his passenger.
He slid to a halt in front of the fence, realizing, a little late, that they'd detoured some three hundred yards down the fence from where Matt had burned through it. He shrugged, lifted the unconscious immortal over his head, and threw him up and over the fence and the double layer of razor wire. He hit the ground on the other side with enough force to make Loki wince. Sorry, buddy.
He vaulted halfway up the fence and flung himself over the wire, landing feet first next to Hermes. He heaved him back over his shoulder and ran for the road. The sound of a helicopter at cruising speed jerked his head around—he spotted it coming low over the compound behind him, searchlight raking the ground beneath it. It banked suddenly, reversing course and dropping down below his line of sight. Shit! The roar of the machine's fifty-caliber machine gun ripped through the night.
Loki dropped Hermes under a tangle of brush and sprinted back toward the fence. This time he leapt it without touching it, and landed on the other side already on the move. He dodged through the trees, bolted back out into the open space between the woods and the compound. The chopper roared overhead, fifty-caliber chain-gun chattering as it swept over Renee and Mongoose.
Across the compound, near the door into the holding area where he'd found Hermes, Freak and Juneau stood amidst about twenty others. Not soldiers, judging by their various states of undress. More prisoners?
They'd jeopardized the whole operation because they felt they needed to free everyone? Loki nearly laughed, and probably would have if not for the fact that Renee and Mongoose were still in danger. The chopper rotated once again, searchlight whirling past him so quickly he barely had time to react. As the tail came up and the gunboat seemed to leap at the two women, Loki leaned down and snatched up a fist-sized rock.
He pulled his arm back and let fly. The stone struck the rear rotor with a clang. A half-second later, the rotor fell free, whipping through the air and burying itself in the ground not ten feet from where Loki stood. The helicopter began to spin out of control.
It veered suddenly and headed straight for one of the squat gray-green buildings. The pilot, obviously quite skilled, managed to control it well enough that it seemed to sink into the side of the roof rather than simply crash. Good, he thought to himself. I wasn't trying to kill anyone.
That was the irony here. These people—despite their hideous lack of judgment—were allies against a common enemy, though, technically, they didn't know it. This secret compound was most likely where they brought paranormal anomalies to study—people like Hermes, or perhaps meta-humans like the members of his team.
Most likely black bag, considering that Athena was in contact with the President himself. He'd never have authorized such an operation. Or so Loki told himself. There was a lot he didn't understand about mortal politics.
Juneau and Freak had prodded their group into running toward him while Matt appeared from the left and hurled up a wall of fire behind them, apparently to block any pursuit. In all probability unnecessary, since they'd managed to throw the whole place into all kinds of chaos and confusion, but it rarely hurt to make certain. Loki nodded and turned back around.
* * * *
They all joined up again at the hole in the fence. Mongoose and Renee helped the prisoners along while Juneau and Matt watched the rear. Loki went ahead and picked up Hermes, then loped to the waiting mini-van.
He tossed the unconscious immortal in the very back and turned to watch as the others approached. “We can't fit everyone in this vehicle,” he told them. “So,” he added, coming to a decision, “I want you—Renee—to drive them to the nearest city where you can find a hotel.” He glanced at his watch. “Still six hours until dawn, more or less. It's going to be cramped, but if the team and I stay here, on foot, we can keep the soldiers occupied and possibly head off any attempt at pursuit. Get them into a hotel and get yourself safe before dawn. Okay?"
Renee wanted to argue. He knew that look in her eye. But she wouldn't. Not this time. “Get these people out of here, Renee. We'll be fine. You know I'll be fine."
She walked over, put both hands on his shoulders, and leaned close. “I've heard others describe you as a ne'er-do-well and a scallywag, and a host of other, less flattering things. The longer I've known you, the more
responsible you've become. I'm not sure this is a good thing anymore,” she whispered into his ear. “Take care of yourself, Loki. I love you."
"Love you, too,” he answered. “Anyone seen Leo and Falk?"
This question received a lot of head shakes. No one had, apparently. Great. Just great. He watched as everyone stuffed themselves into the van and it trundled off down the road. At least it was a large mini-van.
"I told you we should've gotten the SUV,” Matt remarked.
"Do me a favor. Shut the hell up."
Matt just grinned at him.
* * * *
"No, Mr. President. I didn't know anything about this ahead of time. In fact, I wouldn't know anything about it now if you hadn't called me.” Goddamit, Loki, what the hell have you done now?
"I have to say—this has put me in a very awkward position,” Keel replied tersely. “I didn't know of the existence of this installation until I heard it was under attack. From what I've managed to get out of those who knew, I would never have approved of its mission. But that's a far cry from tolerating attacks on U.S. military installations by costumed vigilantes."
"Uh-huh. Well, I can't tell you what it was about until I hear from Loki or his girlfriend,” she told him. “I'm as in the dark as you are."
"It's somewhere I don't like being, Athena. I'll tell you that right now. Put a rein on him and I'll do the same with my people. Agreed?"
"I'll put as long a leash on Loki as you put on your people,” she replied tersely. Not that Loki's likely to wear any length of leash easily, she added mentally.
He hung up and she lay there on her bed, staring at the phone in her hand for a long minute before clicking it off and laying it on the nightstand. She blew a stray hair out of her eyes and sat up, throwing her legs over the side. So much for a few hours of sleep.
She knew she didn't really need it, but she'd grown accustomed to it over the years, and enjoyed it immensely when she got the opportunity. Which wasn't often enough, these days. The weird thing was that mortals needed sleep, not just to rejuvenate their bodies, but just to stay sane. Their minds needed it as badly as their bodies did. And, in the beginning, they'd all once been mortal, too. It made no sense that they didn't need to sleep anymore. Oh, it did physically—their bodies rejuvenated themselves almost instantaneously. But their minds?
She considered it one of the larger mysteries surrounding what they'd become.
She walked into the closet and found an outfit for the day. Fifteen minutes later she had showered, primped, and was riding the elevator down. The conservative dark blue skirt suit felt odd in one way, but just right in another. She had the feeling she needed to look as normal as possible today. She didn't know the reason behind it, but she knew enough to obey it.
Thor met her at the elevator. “Do you ever leave?” she asked him. He answered with an amused shake of his head. He liked to keep busy, and his notion of ‘recreational activities’ were a bit seamier than she liked to consider. He had, after all, spent the better part of the last decade playing at being a ‘rock star'.
He'd switched gears with surprising ease. “Just another layer of glamour, dear sister,” he'd said. “If anything, being a rock star is less about hiding your true self than this corporate bullshit is."
She had to admit he had a point. “What's up?” she asked him as he fell into step beside her. He obviously had something on his mind.
"Your meeting with Tsuruki Kenzan has been cancelled, or at least postponed. Japan has apparently suffered an epidemic of paranormal events and almost all the flights out have been cancelled for the foreseeable future."
"You're kidding me, right?” She didn't want to believe it.
"Not at all. Japan's not the only place it's happening ... sightings of the ‘little people’ in the British Isles have reached an all-time high. I'd almost go so far as to say that when Hades was freed, it freed other things as well."
"But that doesn't make any sense. Why would Shea have trapped them along with him? Unless they were a threat to the humans as well...” she murmured the last part. Maybe they were. Or, at least, Deryk thought they might be.
But how would he have tied all the ‘supernatural’ races into the same binding spell? From what little she knew about magic that would be damn near impossible. After the first of the year, I will have to start learning more about magic than I ever wanted to. She nearly laughed aloud. Thoth drives a hard bargain.
"Fine, then. I have a feeling we'll be hearing more about all this from the Presidential commission."
"You're still going to do that?"
"Of course. Did you think I'd just drop it? It offers too many opportunities to influence how this country—and the world—deals with what's going to happen over the next decade ... and longer."
"I just thought—"
"—you've heard from Loki, haven't you?” She stared at him, shocked. From sworn enemies to what—confidants? She shook her head. Unlikely, at best.
"He called the office, trying to reach you. Said he'd found who'd took Hermes. I tried to buzz you, but ... you didn't answer. I told him to do it."
"You told him to attack a United States military installation?” Incredulous, she let out a harsh laugh.
"Yeah, I did. And I'd do it again. I don't care if we're ‘out of the closet', as they say, with the government. They don't get to snatch our people whenever the mood strikes them."
"I'm not sure that whoever authorized this little venture knew what they were doing—even that Hermes was anything other than what he appeared to be—a human with special talents."
"And why is that? Because President Keel told you?"
She felt her jaw tighten. “I won't have you second guessing me, Thor. If you joined up with me, with us, it was with the understanding that I'm in charge. What Loki did, while understandable, was pretty goddam foolish, and, what's worse—I thought you had better sense than that."
He snorted derisively. “Better sense? No, lady, I've got better sense than to trust the government just because it is the government. And so should you. I don't know if you've got some kind of hard-on for Keel, or if he reminds you of your long-dead father, or what. I just know that while you're talking to him about being some kind of brain trust for the administration, the army—his army, is going around abducting people. Our people."
"You've been rocking too long, Stormchild. You're letting all that anti-establishment crap get to you."
He treated her to a bitter smile. “Say what you will, Athena, but you know how these things go. We've both seen it too many times. This place is far too much like Rome for me to feel completely comfortable with it."
She remembered Rome. Like Thor, she remembered it all too well. For an all-too-brief period of time, Rome brought law, some measure of equality, and the benefits of civilization to a savage world. But Rome grew too large too quickly, spreading out through Europe and Africa and absorbing culture after culture, finally losing itself in the process. “The U.S. may be similar in some regards,” she said, after a momentary pause, “but different enough. The balance of powers will never be replaced by a Emperor, for example."
"You think not?” Thor snorted. “Mortals, if they're capable of nothing else, can forget history as if it never happened. Democracy is only as strong as its weakest link. What do you think its weakest link is? I'll tell you—information. People make decisions based on the information they receive. If it's suspect, and you can't tell me it isn't, people make the wrong decisions. You see how easily they give up their freedoms in return for some promise of security that never quite materializes. People are constantly being fed ‘news’ that makes the world sound so dangerous—dangerous enough to justify that trade.
"Martial law is just around the corner, especially considering the changes that are about to become commonplace. Magic, meta-humans, and who knows what else. National security is at stake like never before."
"You're a cynic, Thor."
"The word you're grasping for i
s ‘realist', Athena. Government is a parasite pretending to be a symbiote. Eventually it devours too much and kills its host. It took over a thousand years for Rome. It's already happening here.
"Keel might be the decent guy he appears—much better than that last yahoo. He was about as smart as a bag of hair. Cunning little weasel, though. It's the system that's inherently flawed. Democracies can't work if people swallow everything they're handed by the media. And, unfortunately, most people do."
"Enough,” Athena growled. They'd reached her office and she'd swallowed about as much of it as she could stand. “You're trying to distract me, Thor. I should be pissed at you for giving Loki the go-ahead on this. But, dammit, you're right. We can't let anyone get away with snatching one of ours, be it some rival like Malice, or even the United States Army.
"We were just lucky no one was killed."
"Not luck. Not really. I instructed him to make sure of it, told him I'd hand him his ass if anyone died."
"And that worked?"
"Hell, no. He laughed at me and said he had no intention of letting anyone get killed—on our side, or theirs. He may be a fuck-up, but he's no killer. Never has been.” He gave her a challenging look, as if daring her to argue.
"No, you're right. Fact of the matter is, Thor—you're more a killer than he ever will be. Not that it's always a bad thing to be able to kill ... but it would be now. See what you can dig up on this operation—if it's black bag you're not going to find much. But try to trace land titles and figure out when they purchased it, and whether it's official government property or just made up to look like it. Might help us out if we have to answer for it."
He nodded. “Will do. Anything else?"
"Double check the arrangements for the New Year's Eve ball. Make sure there aren't any hidden glitches lurking just around the corner. Yes—I know you've already done that. Do it again. I can't escape this nagging feeling something's just not right."
Loki's Sin Page 23