Dearest Mother of Mine (Overworld Chronicles)

by John Corwin

  Elyssa blurred to him, striking him at the base of his neck with a quick chop. He dropped like a wet noodle. She caught him before he thudded to the floor, and carried him inside a nearby closet filled with magical cleaning potions. Elyssa poked him with a Lancer dart to keep him knocked out long enough for them to finish their business.

  "Why didn't you let me try to sweet talk him?" Stacey asked.

  The thought had popped into Elyssa's mind, but the expression on the man's face told her instantly he'd seen right through the deception. "I didn't want to take a chance, especially with a battle mage."

  "Elyssa did the right thing," Bella said. "These men are trained to kill first and ask questions later."

  Stacey shrugged. "I've often found a pair of these"—she cupped her breasts—"will get you past just about any man. Even if I have to knock them out while they're distracted."

  "What matters," Elyssa said, "is that these disguises should work on anyone who isn't a supervisor or battle mage."

  They crept down the hall, listening for the approach of anyone else, but Justin's ruse seemed to have cleared out most of the battle mages. Elyssa checked the time. Only fifteen minutes had passed since infiltration, but it felt like much longer. They had to hurry. And what if they couldn't find the transport schedule for Justin's mom? She pushed her doubts away. They could worry about that when they reached the objective.

  "There's the office," Stacey said, pointing down the hall.

  A placard on the wall read, Arcsys Information Director.

  Elyssa peered into the office door. It was a large office, though cluttered with old arcterminals and other bits and pieces of equipment she didn't recognize. A young Asian man sat at the desk inside, his eyes glued to the monitor in front of him. She aimed a Lancer, and nailed him in the chest. With a startled grunt he slumped atop the touchscreen keyboard on the desk.

  Bella slipped a lanyard from around the man's neck, and inspected it. "This is his access card," she said, putting it around her neck and tucking it beneath the robes.

  Elyssa looked at the screen and saw the picture of a wet cat in a shower, its expression desperate. She pshawed. "Looks like he was working hard."

  "That poor kitty," Stacey said, her lips pouting with empathy.

  Elyssa tucked the slumbering man away behind a pile of parts so he couldn't be seen from the doorway. At least the clutter had some use. The Lancer dart would keep him asleep for a few hours.

  While Bella kept watch on the hallway, Elyssa set her phone atop the touchscreen interface on the administrator's desk. The system looked like an advanced nom computer, though aether powered it instead of electricity and it used the aethernet instead of the internet. She activated the spell Adam had put on the phone, and waited.

  Searching…Arcsys node found.

  Accessing…

  Fail. Attempting root spell hack…success.

  Elyssa breathed with relief at the last word her phone screen. Files flashed past on the Arcsys terminal, presumably as Adam's script copied them to her arcphone. Even with her enhanced eyesight, the images moved too quickly to see what it was copying.

  Root access secured. Starting search *Alice*…no results found.

  Starting search *Alysea*…no results found.

  "How much longer?" Bella asked, her body tense as she watched the hallway.

  "I don't know," Elyssa said. "It's running searches, but it's not finding anything." She looked back at the screen.

  Starting search *secure transport*…results found. Accessing…

  The last word remained for so long, she wondered if the arcphone had frozen. "Come on," she said.

  "Someone's coming," Bella hissed. "Oh, dear, it's a battle mage." She withdrew her staff, flicked it to full length, and aimed it down the length of the door.

  "There's nowhere else to hide," Stacey said, eyes flicking around the room.

  Elyssa ducked behind the desk, jerking Stacey down next to her. Bella backed away from the door too late. A man in a black robe appeared just outside the door and stared straight at Bella. Elyssa prepared to launch herself at the man the minute he moved toward the Arcane.

  Instead, he merely grunted. "Where the hell is he?" he muttered to himself. "Lazy bastard always taking breaks." The man looked up and down the hallway. "Hey, Minh? I need you. My printer is broken again." He walked away.

  Elyssa and Stacey blew out held breaths in unison.

  "How the bloody hell?" Stacey whispered.

  "I put up an illusion to make the office look empty," Bella said, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead.

  "Why didn't you do that the minute we came in here?" Stacey asked.

  "I've been working on it all this time. It's not easy to make a convincing illusion of a complex scene."

  Elyssa looked at her phone to see if the program had finished. Instead, large red letters flashed on the screen.

  *Access Denied*

  Chapter 23

  Elyssa

  Fighting back the despair, Elyssa touched the phone screen. No response. Had they done all this for nothing? She flicked a finger across the screen again, but still nothing happened. Out of frustration, she rubbed her hand all across the screen.

  Please be patient while I work…

  Elyssa breathed a sigh of relief. At least the program hadn't broken her phone or frozen it.

  All attempts to access data have failed. Touch screen to continue.

  She did so.

  Account lacks permissions to access data node. If you receive this error, it means you'll have to access the Arcsys datacenter directly. Flick the screen to track the specific Arcsys node location.

  At least Adam had provided good instructions in case of an issue. She flicked the screen.

  Tracing…Arcsys node found. Populating map.

  A grid of hexagonal shapes filled her screen. Near the middle of the grid was a section highlighted in red and labeled 00 Access. In the center of the highlighted section, a big blue "X" appeared on one of the nodes.

  "Crap," she said. They'd hoped entering the basement wouldn't be necessary, but since the administrator lacked the credentials for the high-security files, it left them no choice. "It found the node, but we can't access the data from here," she told the others, showing them the map of the Arcsys datacenter.

  Elyssa's phone vibrated. She flicked to a new text message from Christian Salazar. Arcane Council is demanding we reopen the arch. I can't delay for more than fifteen minutes. Better hurry.

  "No, no, no!" Elyssa said, and showed the others the message.

  "It bloody figures," Stacey said, shrugging as if they had all day. "I love a challenge."

  Bella gritted her teeth and brandished the administrator's access card. "Let's do this, people. To the levitator."

  Elyssa dispersed a couple more spy-bots down the corridor leading to the levitator and found the way clear. They hurried down the corridor to their objective. What looked like an empty security desk sat before it, but whoever was supposed to be stationed there had apparently left.

  "Broken scroll printer," Bella said, pointing to a black printer with sheets of scroll parchment stacked next to it. Its touchscreen flashed the message, "Please clear jam."

  "At least we got lucky on something," Stacey said. "Just hope he doesn't go into the admin's office while we're below."

  "Nothing we can do about that," Elyssa said.

  Bella swiped the access card across the reader on the outside of the levitator. The door dinged open almost immediately. Elyssa was about to step inside when Bella barred the way with her arm.

  "What's wrong?" Elyssa asked.

  The Arcane pointed to a silver pattern etched into the marble floor inside.

  Elyssa had thought it was simply an aesthetic design. "What is it?"

  "It's a ward. If we don't have the proper counter-ward, whatever that may be, we can't step inside there without it activating."

  "What happens if it activates?" Stacey asked.

&nbs
p; Bella grimaced. "I don't want to find out." She regarded it for a minute. "De-warding it is out of the question as well. I simply don't have time."

  "Maybe the administrator has the counter-ward," Elyssa said. "Or maybe his access card is all we need."

  Bella tapped her chin, staring at the pattern. "Actually, I think I recognize this pattern."

  "You do?" Elyssa asked, daring to hope Bella could deactivate it.

  "It identifies whoever steps on it. If you're not supposed to be there…" she trailed off peering at the pattern for a moment. "I think this ward will shock an intruder, and trigger an alarm."

  "What if we put the administrator inside and stood on top of him?" Stacey asked.

  "It'll still detect us," Bella said.

  Stacey prowled the alcove. "Every levitator has another access point for servicing."

  "What if I send a spy-bot down the lift with the administrator?" Elyssa said. "It could take a picture of the area below, and maybe we can use the portal to access it." She checked the time on her phone. "We have thirteen minutes before Christian has to reactivate the Obsidian Arch in La Casona."

  Bella knelt, eyes tracing the pattern. "See what happens when you put one of your gadgets inside."

  Hoping it wouldn't trigger an alert, Elyssa activated a spy-bot orb and let it float inside the lift. It sparked, plunked to the floor, obviously dead. She held her breath, expecting an alarm to wail at any minute.

  "Interesting," Bella said, not attempting to retrieve the tiny sphere. "I think the ward disabled, but didn't destroy it. Perhaps it was designed such a way in case someone forgot a phone in their pocket."

  "They're awfully protective of this place," Stacey said, eyes scanning the corridor. "If only we knew if this levitation shaft goes up to the roof or not. If it does, we might find an access door."

  "Then we could lower ourselves down the shaft," Elyssa said. "But what if there's not enough room to slide past the levitator?"

  "As with most magical levitation devices," Bella said, "there may be some slight give if we push it."

  Elyssa hadn't dealt with a levitator quite as well protected as this one. "Do you think there's a chance the shaft will be warded?"

  "I certainly hope not," Bella said.

  Elyssa looked at the progress her army of magic roaches had made on the map and saw the second floor was nearly complete. She zoomed in on the section just above where they stood and noticed something missing. "There's no levitator shaft going to the second floor," she said.

  "Bloody hell," Stacey growled.

  Elyssa knelt and opened a smaller clamshell case with more of the little critters inside, aiming the opening toward the gap between the lift and the wall. The roaches swarmed the shaft. One went inside the lift and promptly went belly-up, proving the ward had no mercy on anything with eavesdropping spells. The map of the levitator shaft filled in, showing only a few extra feet of space above the levitation car where the shaft ended.

  "The passage isn't warded," Bella said, watching the map. "Can your little minions take pictures?"

  "I wish," Elyssa said. She noticed the map hadn't grown in a few seconds and realized why. "The doors below must be sealed tight because the roaches haven't mapped the area beyond."

  "What a bloody conundrum," Stacey said, hand on hip.

  Elyssa checked the status of her spy-bots and saw the hallway remained clear. The guy with the broken printer would probably be back at any minute. She looked at the map again, desperately searching for a vent or anything else that might lead down into the basement. The map outline showed a wide vent shaft angling straight down, but the map ended a few feet down—not far enough to be anywhere close to the bottom. It probably had a ward similar to the levitator killing the roaches before they made it very far.

  Elyssa checked the time. Ten minutes left.

  Her eyes wandered back to the map. A potential weakness caught her eye. "Follow me," she said, leading the others left, down the hallway, and to the door of a supply closet tucked into the back. The door was locked.

  Elyssa jerked hard on the handle and felt the lock snap. She was sick of every little thing in this place blocking access.

  "I know how you feel," Stacey said with a smirk.

  The closet held a mishmash of items including boxes of blank parchment against the back wall. "Help me move those out of the way," Elyssa said.

  "What exactly are we doing?" Bella asked.

  "Getting into the shaft."

  It took two minutes to clear the boxes. Elyssa tested the wall with her knuckles, rapping lightly. Ordinary drywall. "Can you cut this open, Bella?"

  The other dhampyr nodded, withdrew her wand. A thin purple beam intersected the wall. She flicked her wrist in an approximation of a square, leaving a black line. With a jerk of her wand, the section of drywall fell to the floor. A concrete wall confronted them. Stacey stowed the sheet of drywall to the side.

  "It appears to be normal concrete," Elyssa said, running a finger across it. "Reinforcing everything with diamond fiber would have been prohibitively expensive."

  Bella dug into her satchel and withdrew several vials of liquid. She held up a pink one, shaking it. "I believe this potion will do the trick." After uncorking the vial, she screwed a nozzle to the top, and sprayed fluid all along the concrete. The surface bubbled. An odor not unlike burnt popcorn filled the supply closet.

  "I hope that guard doesn't come back," Stacey said. "Because he'll smell this from a bloody mile away."

  It took less than a minute for the concrete to sag into a soupy gray mess, revealing the back of the levitator car. On this side, however, a gap wide enough to squeeze through presented itself."That's not going eat through the floor, is it?" Stacey pointed at the puddle of concrete on the floor.

  Bella poured a vial of blue liquid into it. "Not anymore." She produced another vial and sprayed the air with it. The popcorn odor faded. "Much better."

  Elyssa looked down the shaft, flicking on her night vision.

  Only seven more minutes.

  She couldn't see the bottom. A small glowball she dropped down the shaft fell for at least three stories before stopping. Too far to jump. The levitator had no cables to slide down. Wasting no more time, Elyssa withdrew a circular object about as big around as the palm of her hand from her satchel, and pressed it to the inside of the shaft. It sent a spike into the concrete with a distinct thunk, locking it in place. A hook protruded from a hole in the side of the device. She pulled on it, unspooling a foot or so of diamond fiber from within.

  "I'll go first," Elyssa said. "Hopefully I can force the doors open at the bottom."

  "How are we supposed to get down there after you?" Stacey asked.

  "When I signal the all clear, just touch the button in the center," Elyssa said, pointing at it. "Or, if I can't get the doors open, it can pull me back up."

  "Good luck," Bella said as Elyssa slid into the narrow gap between the shaft wall and the levitator car.

  Some of the goopy concrete material got on her hands. She hoped it didn't melt her skin. Elyssa let go of the ledge and pushed out, feeling her hair brush the bottom of the lift. The rope played out, allowing her to rappel her way down the shaft wall until she reached the bottom. Once there, she inspected the doors.

  Sealed tight. Reaching down, she unsheathed a thin dagger from her thigh, and jammed it into the seam. A quick jerk wedged the doors open a fraction. She quickly grabbed a very short but wide bar from her satchel, and placed it inside the opening, then pressed the center.

  "Five minutes," Bella hissed from above.

  The bar lengthened, pushing the doors open a little at a time. Each elapsed second felt like a winch tightening her nerves. No time to waste. She unhooked the rope and, using the glowball she'd tossed down earlier, flashed a signal to the other women. The rope retracted. Seconds later, Stacey dropped down beside her and signaled for Bella to follow.

  By now, the wedge had opened the levitator doors most of the way, revealing
a large room with black marble floors, walls, and ceiling. Hexagonal tiles spaced evenly in the floor drew Elyssa's attention. She looked at the diagram from Adam's program and realized they must be the nodes. But how was she supposed to interact with them if they were in the floor?

  Only three more minutes.

  Bella looked flummoxed. "Most of the heists Stacey and I pulled off were strictly low-tech," she said, looking around the room. "Perhaps I should devote a decade or two to educating myself."

  "I wonder if those are the high-security nodes," Stacey said, pointing to a patch of gray hexagons near the center of the floor.

  Elyssa looked at the map and judged the number of grids to be about right. "I'm a little leery about walking out there." What if the floor was warded?

  Bella flourished her wand, winding it through a quick pattern. Purple butterflies popped into existence, fluttering across the room, painfully slow. Elyssa's stomach tensed. Could they do this? Or had they bitten off more than they could chew? The first butterfly reached the gray marble tile in the center. It popped like a bubble. The same thing happened to the others that entered the gray area, whereas the rest of them made it to the other side of the large room without incident.

  "Bloody hell," Stacey said. "Now what?"

  Elyssa ground her teeth in a very unladylike way. While she could appreciate stealth, sometimes it made her feel better just to beat the crap out of someone. She pulled out her arcphone and marched across the floor to the forbidden zone, tempted to find a good sledgehammer and smash it to bits.

  Less than a minute remained before the Obsidian Arch reopened. It wouldn't take Kassus and crew more than five minutes to make it back to Darkwater headquarters from the way station. How could they possibly open this thing and hack it in such little time?

  Bella caught up with her. "What are you going to do?"

  "I don't know yet," Elyssa admitted.

  "I wouldn't step on that part of the floor," she said, looking worriedly at the gray tiles not ten feet away.