Strangers and Shadows

by John Kowalsky

  There was a pause on the line as the sergeant gave the order. “There, you should be able to see what we’re seeing now.”

  Dorian glanced at the feed on his data pad. He watched as the officer got out of the car, drew his sidearm and approached the van. Just off to the side of the frame he could see the officer’s partner hanging back, covering the passenger side of the vehicle.

  The officer spoke with the driver for a few moments and then visibly relaxed as he holstered his gun and walked back to his car.

  “What the fuck was that?” Dorian heard the sergeant yell over the comm. “You get a hold of those two fuck wads and put them on the line with me!”

  Dorian interrupted. “Sergeant, that won’t be necessary… I expected as much from these three. They have a way of confusing people’s minds. It was a DOD project that was stolen by these terrorists. We’ve learned that they have plans to sell it to the highest bidder on the black market. So, you see, it’s not your officers fault. Just follow them from a distance and be ready to assist me when I call. And whatever you do, don’t lose that van.”

  The sergeant stuttered for a moment before replying, “Aye, aye, sir.”

  Dorian ended the call and turned to his second in command. “Have them start jumping in a few EMF devices close to their location.”

  “But sir, it takes the generators several minutes to spin up and broadcast their field to its maximum circumference,” the second in command replied. “They’ll be out of range before the field is within reach.”

  “I’m fully aware of that. Just do it anyway. Celia is powerful enough that she’ll detect the voids that the EMFs produce, and that will suit my needs just fine.”

  The second in command nodded. “I understand, sir.”

  “It will light a fire under their feet that will drive them right into the trap I have waiting for them,” Dorian explained. “When you’ve finished ordering the devices in, contact the good sergeant and tell him to be ready to shut down the Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel when I say so.”

  Several minutes later, Dorian watched the vid feed from the helicopter as the van entered the tunnel. He called the sergeant. “Shut it down.”

  “What about the other side?” the sergeant asked.

  “Leave that to me. My team will apprehend the terrorists personally. You just make sure no one comes out of that tunnel on your end.”

  Jimbo Stevens saw the woman at the end of the pier next to the dog park, and instantly fell in love. Normally, a shy young man, Jimbo boldly pulled his boat alongside the pier when she waved him over.

  “Wanna give me and my friends a ride?” the woman asked.

  His chest swelled at the thought of having the woman aboard.

  As an officer of the Port Authority, Jimbo knew that he should decline. Official vehicles were for official use only. He should smile, ask her out on a date, and then point her to the nearest civilian boating establishment. Instead, he heard himself say, “I’d love to.”

  His eyebrows immediately furrowed after he said it, matching the confusion he felt inside. Had he just told her he would take her and her friends for a ride?

  As the woman and her two friends climbed onto the boat, Jimbo tried to explain that he’d made a mistake—that a ride would not be possible, but it was as if he’d lost all control over his mouth. She was so beautiful. It was as if she was glowing, and her smell—she smelled like spring flowers after the rain. She made every other woman that he’d ever met seem like a little girl playing in the mud. He would do anything for this woman—anything to keep her from going away.

  Jimbo took his hat off and shyly combed his thinning hair back with his bare hand. “Hi, there, I’m Jimbo.” He stuck his hand out and the woman shook it lightly, delicately.

  “I’m Celia,” the woman replied. “And these are my friends, Jack and Ava.”

  “Pleasure to meet you,” Jimbo said. The man and woman nodded back but said nothing.

  Jimbo started when the most beautiful woman in the world spoke to him. He’d been staring at her, and he wasn’t entirely sure for how long. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” Jimbo asked.

  She smiled and replied, “I asked if you could take us on that ride now?”

  Jimbo blushed. “Of course. Where was it that you guys wanted to go?”

  The woman bit her bottom lip seductively. “Could you take us up the river a way, to New Jersey?”

  “I dunno,” Jimbo shook his head. “I’m supposed to be on the look out for some kinda terrorist threat or something. I can’t really remember, now that I think about it.”

  Celia stepped closer and touched his arm. “I bet you could do both.”

  “Yeah, I suppose I could,” Jimbo said. He pulled the boat away from the pier and out into the open water of the Hudson. It was a lovely day to be out on the water. The sun was shining, but it wasn’t unbearably hot yet, like it would be in a few months.

  “How long do you think we’ll have until they figure out we’re not in the tunnel?” Jack asked Celia.

  “Not long, I would imagine. Speaking of which… Jimbo?” Celia turned to him. “Do you know how to turn off the transponder on this old thing?”

  “Well now, why would you wanna go and do a thing like that?” Jimbo asked.

  The woman stared at him and said nothing. He’d made her mad for sure. She would go away now and leave him and he would never see her again. “Yes, yes… I can, I can turn it off,” Jimbo babbled.

  The woman smiled at him and everything was right in the world once more. “Excellent, Jimbo. Would you do that now for me?”

  Jimbo popped open the panel below the steering column and disconnected the power cable from the device that would transmit their location. “There we go… All done.”

  “Wonderful, Jimbo. You did an excellent job,” Celia said.

  Jimbo beamed. It felt so good to make her happy.

  “Now, how fast does this thing go?” she asked.

  Jimbo cranked open the throttle and sped upstream. It was a wonderful day to be out on the water.

  No one had come out of the Lincoln Tunnel’s three tubes since the van drove into the center tube several minutes ago. As Dorian and his team entered the tunnel they were greeted by the sound of honking horns and angry drivers. What I wouldn’t give for an EM pulse right now, Dorian thought. Instead he had his nanites isolate the annoying frequencies and turn the volume down. He could still hear them, but they were nowhere near as invasive.

  The honking stopped as drivers saw Dorian’s team in full riot gear walk past with weapons raised at the ready. They reached the van and took cover behind nearby vehicles. The air was thick with exhaust.

  “Sir,” one of Dorian’s agents reported, “there aren’t any life signs coming from the van.”

  “What do you mean? That’s not possible.”

  The agent shook his head. “I’m afraid it is, sir.”

  “You’re wrong, agent. We saw them enter the tunnel. If they would have jumped out we’d know. Check the bitch’s tracker.”

  The agent checked. “It shows her nearby and on the move.”

  “Give me eyes inside that van,” Dorian ordered.

  Four men moved in and took the van. They opened the doors and found it empty.

  Dorian cursed and kicked the door of the nearest car several times. The driver stared at him with terrified eyes and a confused look on her face.

  They had eluded his snare for the second time. He couldn’t just jump in endless EMF generators—he had to know where Celia would be in order to use them effectively, and he wasn’t even sure if she knew where she was heading. Besides, most of the generators were already in use in the Sixth. If only she would slip up somehow…

  “Alright, let’s head back up topside,” Dorian said. It was going to be a long goddamn day.

  Persistent Resistance

  Several weeks had passed since Desmond had last seen his daughter. He wondered how she was doing and what kind of trouble she was gett
ing into. He thought she would have liked what he was doing with the resistance.

  Thanks to Kid, the gateway had been shut down, and with it, the endless supply of large scale EMF generators had ceased to flood into the Sixth. The supply of smaller, normal EMF generators had not stopped however. From behind their protective barrier, the Seventh’s army kept jumping more and more EMF devices on world. Desmond, with the help of Drum, and a handful of others, had managed to organize small guerrilla strike forces.

  They had succeeded in stopping the spread of the Seventh’s EM field, but all of Cairo and much of the surrounding land was already encompassed. Any attempt to spread the EM field was stopped by the strike forces.

  It was no way to win the war, Desmond knew, but he wanted to give Wizard some time before resorting to more drastic measures. He also needed time to train his agents for such a mission. In order to take back their world for good, they would need to destroy the large EMF generators that were making this standoff possible. Their range far exceeded the range of the normal EMF generators. They extended for several miles. That was a long way for a Shadow to infiltrate with no telekinetic abilities. They would have to be trained on unfamiliar weapons and transports if such a mission were to succeed.

  He stood on a ridge, looking out over the vast sandy plains toward Cairo. Somewhere out there, miles away, the invisible EM field started. There was a brief flash of light beside him and he felt her presence before he heard her voice.

  “Desmond, they are attempting to extend the field again!” Riley reported. She was the leader of one of the guerrilla cells. A young woman of seventy-two, she reminded Desmond a little of Celia at that age.

  “Where?”

  “Everywhere!” There was a note of desperation in her voice, and Desmond had no need to guess as to why. Previously, the Seventh had never tried to extend the field in more than one direction at a time. The new tactic worried him. What could they be up to? Where they just merely trying to stretch the resistance’s lines thin, or had they found a weakness to exploit?

  “Get word to Drum and Sandoval. Make sure they are aware of the situation and tell them to proceed as usual when dealing with an expansion attempt. I will lead the cells from the south while you take the north, and Drum and Sandoval, the east and west. Be sure they have their comm operators alert and ready should our abilities somehow be compromised.”

  Riley nodded and then jumped out to deliver Desmond’s orders.

  Desmond walked in the command tent which also served as the mess hall and local gathering spot. He informed those gathered there of the attack. “Sudi, Leopold, Murdoc, and Placido you fly the byrds. Choose the rest of your teams and be sure that your unit has a comm. We don’t know what to expect out there.”

  “You’re not going to lead us?” Sudi asked.

  “Not this time,” Desmond said. He had previously led all of their sorties. “This is what I’ve been training you for. I’ll be here, coordinating with your units and the others to the north, east, and west. Be careful, do your jobs, and get back safely.”

  Sudi approached the byrd. From the outside, it closely resembled one of the Seventh’s hovers. The big difference was a hover had a computer for the brains, while a byrd had an actual brain for the computer. Similar in technology to the mimes, the byrd was operated by a telepathic link with its pilot.

  Sudi reached out and woke the byrd. The side door opened and she climbed inside. She adjusted her seat, fired up the engines, and double checked her comm link. “Testing, testing. One, two…”

  “Coming in loud and clear.”

  She nodded to no one and instructed the byrd to lift off. The byrd quickly gained altitude and soared out over the camp, making its way across the plains.

  The EM field was marked by mimes. When one went off-line, they knew the EM field had expanded. Sudi made contact with the conscious mimes. She had three left before she reached the most recent gap. Each mime was spaced out approximately a mile from any other mime, so she had about three miles left to go.

  The sandy plains provided little cover for the EMF generators or anything else, for that matter. Spotting them and then picking them off with the byrd’s pulse cannons should be easy.

  As she neared the last on-line mime’s location she dropped her altitude down to fifty feet and slowed her speed.

  She passed by the last marker and quickly saw the downed mime in the distance. She scanned for the EMF generator or any of the support vehicles and troops that often accompanied them.

  She saw nothing, except for empty sand.

  It didn’t make any sense, there should be something within sight that had taken the mime off-line. She guessed the mime could have failed on its own accord, but such a thing was rare.

  Sudi was about to turn the byrd and head for home when she felt the byrd lose consciousness. She tried to reach out and awaken it, but her own abilities had also succumbed to the EM field.

  She cursed her own foolishness and braced for impact. The byrds were not gliding devices, but they weren’t entirely void of aerodynamics either. Thankfully, she had enough speed and a flat enough surface, both on the bottom of the byrd and the sand below, that she should survive the crash landing.

  The ground rushed up to meet Sudi much faster than she expected and slammed into the byrd. The impact took the wind right out of her and threw her against her restraints.

  Thanks to the adrenaline, Sudi didn’t feel two of her ribs breaking. The byrd briefly gaining altitude twice more before slamming back down to earth and slowly grinding to a halt.

  Sand and dust filled the cockpit and Sudi coughed, instantly regretting it. Hot white pain coursed through her as she discovered her broken ribs. Despite the pain, she couldn’t help but cough once more. Damned reflexes.

  She gingerly unhooked her restraints and checked the rest of her body for damage. Thankfully, aside from the ribs and some minor cuts and bruises, she was unharmed.

  Her comm link chirped and she looked around trying to find it. She had lost it during the crash.

  She moved aside some debris and located it.

  “Attention all byrds, something is amiss with the EM field. Turn back and head to base for debriefing.”

  “Thanks… Now you tell me.” Sudi tried the side door, but found it locked shut. She wiggled out one of the shattered view ports and got her bearings. It was going to be a long walk back to base.

  She took out her comm and opened a channel. At least she could report what she’d found.

  “Do you want me to send out a party for you?” Desmond waited for her reply. “Then get back as soon as you safely can.” He ended the comm. He’d had reports of similar incidents from Riley, Drum, and Sandoval. They had all lost byrds during the mission, some fronts lost as many as three. Two people had died in the crashes, while others had been seriously wounded.

  Desmond called his captains together for a council.

  He sat at the table in the command tent and watched as they jumped in, one by one. Drum first, with his imposing frame and hearty laugh. Riley jumped in next. Her wild curly hair sprang every which way as she moved to join them at the table. Last came Sandoval, a tall thin man with dark brown skin and a serious demeanor.

  “There’s the grim reaper… Now we can start,” Drum joked.

  Sandoval gave no response as he took his seat.

  “What do we know?” Desmond cut to the chase, wasting no time with pleasantries.

  “All of our surviving pilots reported no signs of an EMF generator before they lost control of their byrds,” Riley said. “They must have jumped in some of the big bastards.”

  Sandoval shook his head. “No, there’s no way they’d be able to jump in more generators of that size and magnitude with the ring portal destroyed.”

  “Then what are they doing?” Riley asked.

  “Maybe they’ve found a way to boost the range of the smaller devices?” Drum proposed.

  “Or, maybe you’re all right, after a fashion.” Desmon
d opened a comm channel on speaker. “Murdoc, this is Desmond. Are you still in the air?”

  “I just touched down at base,” Murdoc replied.

  “Good, I have a new recon mission for you. I want you to grab a repulsor chute and take the byrd up over the top of the EM field.”

  “Understood. What’s my objective?”

  “To make sure the big EMFG’s are still in place at the center of the city.”

  “Copy that. I’ll be in the air in ten.”

  Riley narrowed her eyes as she looked at Desmond. “You think they’ve moved the big EMF generators out from the center, don’t you?”

  Desmond nodded. “Thereby causing the field to extend without the help of the smaller generators. If I’m right, they may have given us a golden opportunity to take out the larger generators.”

  And So It Begins

  Celia flashed into resistance headquarters with Jack and Ava jumping in right behind her.

  Desmond watched passively, almost as if he had been expecting them. His captains, however, did not. They stood abruptly, going for their weapons. “It’s alright,” Desmond said. “This is my daughter, Celia, and her friends.”

  “You make it sound like I’m five and I’m having a sleep over,” Celia responded.

  “Everything go alright?”

  “For the most part… The bastard that mom’s been dating gave us quite the chase, but we managed to string him along long enough for Uncle Wizard to finish these babies off.”

  Jack Spade shifted a heavy pack off of his back and set it on the floor with a clunk.

  “It’s ready then?” Desmond asked.

  Jack nodded. “Yup.”

  “What’s ready?” Sandoval asked, a frown spread on his face.

  Celia reached into the pack and pulled out one of the devices. “These are ready… low yield-explosive viral delivery devices. We didn’t have time to come up with a clever acronym for them.”

  “And just what might these viral devices be delivering?”