An Age Without A Name

by Randall Farmer

  Various predator suitable dishes occupied the table, but no one was eating. None of the senior Arms radiated happiness. They all felt things coming apart, the Cause failing, the world of Transforms as they knew it ending.

  “This isn’t a good plan,” I said, once the younger Arms were gone. I looked around the table, at the cold predator eyes facing me. “I know it and you know it. It’s a gamble. You all know why.” I wanted to take a bite out of the Hunter Empire’s army, and I was willing to risk a lot to get it done. “However, I came up with another, safer, plan I haven’t told you about. One I’m judging only we possess the experience to judge.”

  “Ma’am,” Keaton said. She leaned back with her eyes hooded and her arms across her chest. “I dislike any plan that requires the enemy to make mistakes, as does your stated plan. However, the reward does outweigh the risks. I take it that isn’t true of this other plan?”

  “Uh huh,” I said. “Enkidu’s coming in hot, thinking he can overrun Webberly’s Focus household-based army and Amy’s mobile army before they can integrate their commands. He’s coming in with overwhelming force, so he can force a surrender as well as mitigate against the distinct possibility that Arm Bass and her Hunter army and Sinclair and his Hunter army may turn coat or at least not cooperate in the fight. If Bass and Sinclair do cooperate, he’ll achieve about seven to one odds on Amy and Webberly’s people. Without Bass and Sinclair’s Hunter forces, he’ll get about three to one odds.”

  Nods all around.

  “If we – the Arms – charge out, with our mercs, at Enkidu’s army, they’ll retreat. I’m positive that my presence would spook Enkidu enough to make him re-evaluate and call off his attack. If we did this, I believe this would stop his offensive cold.”

  “He’ll go back to the hit and run guerilla style attacks he was using before Calgary,” Armenigar said, leaning forward with thickly muscled arms on the table. Tactics Enkidu used to verify that I was no longer a combatant. “His main forces will stay in the mountains and dare us to go in after him.”

  “Where he can carve us up into mincemeat,” Haggerty said. “He’s proven to me, over the past two months, that we can’t take on the Hunters at anything close to even numbers in the mountains and expect to win.”

  “In any rural area, actually,” I said. I overcame my nervous fears and continued. “I’m not taking a vote, but if any of you want to try and talk me out of my initial plan, I’m more than willing to listen.” Both Amy and Armenigar frowned. They didn’t understand.

  “Meaning, ma’am, that as both the Commander and Boss Arm, arguing with yourself isn’t getting you anywhere,” Stacy said. She understood.

  I nodded. I really wished Rose was up and functional. Losing both her and Dowling this close to the battle was going to make even the smallest of successes much more unlikely.

  “I think your official plan is far better than your fallback plan, ma’am,” Stacy said, after ten seconds of thought. “Chicago showed that Enkidu’s tactics have improved, but he’s still too much of a blunt force commander, far too wedded to poke and retreat, poke and retreat. He’ll make more mistakes than we will, and we’ll only get one chance at surprising him with your return. Your backup plan gives us no chance at a decisive victory. Your official plan does, even if the odds aren’t high.”

  I looked at Amy and Armenigar. “Fighting the Hunters in an urban area at terrible odds is far better than at even odds in the mountains or rural areas,” Amy said. “I think at three to one odds against, it’s an easy win for our side.”

  I didn’t agree. Not with half our people coming in from Chicago still wounded and barely able to wobble to the front lines. All Enkidu needed to do, to defeat us, would be to trot backwards and force us to follow him. I didn’t say anything, though. Instead, I glared at Armenigar and waited.

  “The one thing nobody’s mentioned is Mizar,” Armenigar said, six foot ten worth of overwhelming destruction. “You also have only one chance at surprising the Hunters with Mizar.”

  “What can one talented Chimera do, though?” Keaton asked.

  “I don’t know, and he doesn’t know, either,” Armenigar said. “He won’t, not until he does it, whatever it is. But we’re all here, all four of us. Don’t discount that.”

  I hadn’t thought of that, but she was right. Her, the Madonna, Sky and Mizar, the Major Transforms of the Lost Tribe, the precursors to the Cause and to the entire ‘quadrature’ concept. “I don’t know how much mysticism matters to the three of you, but to me, the four of us being here is very important,” Armenigar said. I frowned, as did Amy, but Stacy kept her stone face on, her eyes wary. “Hell, if things get real bad, just shove the four of us together, physically, and order us to save the day. You may not like what we come up with, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”

  Which I promised to myself not to do. Ever.

  Dolores Sokolnik (3/26/74 - 3/27/73)

  The caravan halted with a squealing of brakes and a coughing of engines at the sight of the half-tiger on her motorcycle in the middle of the road. Enkidu’s courier let her motorcycle fall to the ground, walked up to the front vehicle with the note, than ran back to her motorcycle and took off. Somewhere around the time Enkidu started to think like a general he had ditched his radios and walkie-talkies. Too few Hunters could use them, and he didn’t trust leaving his communications to the Monsters.

  Once night dropped over them they would communicate through their Pack Mistresses. Night was less than three hours away. Francesca, a half-ostrich and one of Sinclair’s people, whistled at Del and waved her over, and then pointed a wing at Emperor Caveworm’s big rig.

  Del got off her Harley and went to join Arête in with the Emperor. Poor Arête. He was hostage for her good behavior, now that she had revealed how easily an Arm could ignore the Law. He no longer left the Emperor’s side.

  “Yes, Emperor?”

  “Hand her the note,” he said to Pack Mistress Elspeth. Del smiled reassuringly at Arête, then read the note and shook her head.

  “Can you make any sense of what’s been going on these last six hours?” the Emperor asked her.

  Del hardened her face. “What I know is this: first, we were to go to San Jose the long way, south around the Sierras. Then we got a note saying we needed to cross the Sierras and head up toward Napa, to the Stone Point Barony. Then we got the note saying the police blocked the bridges over the bay between us and Napa, and we needed to double back east, all the way back to Stockton. Now that we’ve slunk north of Stockton, we’re supposed to double back south, way south, more than sixty miles south of San Jose, cross the Diablo mountains on the back roads, then approach San Jose from the south. Did I miss anything, Emperor, save that we’re going to be driving all night again?”

  “That’s it,” Emperor Caveworm said. “I want your tactical read on this damned mess, Huntress.” The Emperor was in a mood, which seemed to be his permanent state. Too much responsibility to juggle, perhaps. He was nearly impossible to read, for underneath his monstrous appearance was an older Crow with years of experience dealing with both Crows and Nobles. He could do ‘stone face’ almost as well as an Arm. The chaos level in his imperial army gave him lots of practice. It would be easy to waste weeks beating this crew into shape, weeks they didn’t have.

  His constant recruiting didn’t help, either. He grabbed any Hunters and their packs that he could find, even ones ill-suited to organized battle. Each recruitment took a great deal of his time, as he needed to adjust the Law on all of them, starting with the Hunter and going on down throughout the entire pack.

  Though his recruiting had ended once they crossed the Sierra Nevada mountains.

  Del thought. “We know Hecate and her group tried to hit Stone Point from the north and pin them long enough for Enkidu and our group to join in. Assuming we’re going to be joining the fight on Enkidu’s side, sir.”

  “We’re obeying orders right now, that’s all you need to worry about,” Emperor Cave
worm said. Del wore the Law on her, and his tag, and he still didn’t trust her with the details of his plans. Assuming he had any plans. Events appeared to be dragging the imperial army into a fight not in their best interest. She needed to learn the connection between Enkidu and the Emperor. Especially she would like to know if they had met in person since the Emperor declared himself. That didn’t seem likely, because if that was the case, the Emperor would be the one giving orders to Enkidu, and not vice versa. But how did the Emperor learn about Hecate’s plots against them and her attempts to hunt them down? One possibility was that all these orders, claims and warnings came through the Pack Mistresses, and Pack Mistress Elspeth wouldn’t talk, either.

  “Right, sir,” Del said. “Hecate blew her assignment, sir. There are a lot of possible reasons why, but somehow Hecate let the Stone Point barony people get free. Perhaps Hecate ran into Haggerty and her people again and got delayed.”

  “You said Haggerty’d planned to go back to Portland, so that’s not very likely. What about the rest? Police and bridges and things?”

  Del thought and let the information sift through her quiet pools, and she added up probabilities and logical necessities. “Haggerty’s here, sir,” she said after a half-minute analysis. “She’s using her FBI connections to help her screen her movements. Regarding going south and approaching San Jose from the south? I suspect Enkidu’s afraid the local Focuses, Crows and Arms are going to run. In fact, I would say the orders indicate that there’s been some running already. To hazard a guess, sir, I suspect the Stone Point barony’s in San Jose, and that Haggerty is either already there or on the way.”

  “San Jose. San Jose. Who’s in San Jose?”

  “Inferno,” Pack Mistress Elspeth said, her voice quiet and worried.

  “Now that sounds like a painful obstacle to run into,” Emperor Caveworm said, and chuckled. “I have no desire to be the first group to charge into those spears.” He thought for a moment. “Driver! Driver! Get everyone out. Time for some calisthenics, time to go raid some local butcher shops. Clean them out of meat, but be quick about it. We need to be back on the road by sunset.”

  Del smiled. The Emperor, it seemed, could be devious.

  ---

  Pack Mistress Elspeth opened her eyes and grunted, an inelegant noise from such an elegant woman. “There’s lots of yowling going on, Emperor. Sorry that took so long. It’s very hard to get anything clear from the other Pack Mistresses tonight.”

  Del opened her eyes and let go of Arête. Emperor Caveworm slithered himself awake on top of his hassock. “Old pains and responsibilities claw at me,” he said. Del guessed that he had been working the pheromone flow. Neither Newton nor Arête could access the flow in their Law-addled states, but the Emperor showed quite a few capabilities to go around the Law and its restrictions. Such as being able to proclaim himself Emperor. “Wake up the Newt, as well as Nabors and Hunter Tarn,” the Emperor said. “I’ve seen some very confusing things.” He turned to Pack Mistress Elspeth. “Things you aren’t to talk about with the other Pack Mistresses, even if you’re given a direct order.”

  “Yes, Emperor,” she said, as one of her guards crawled over to wake the others. “I can’t guarantee my sanity if I need to fight the Law with pain.”

  “So be it, Pack Mistress,” the Emperor said. “Enkidu’s idiocy is bearing fruit, and if I want to take over, he can’t learn what I’ve learned tonight.”

  Elspeth nodded. Del checked her mental timepiece and clocked it at three in the morning. She must have dozed off herself, though unlike these more senior Major Transforms, she never saw anything in her dreams that were not just dreams. They should be nearing Hollister, nearing time for the Emperor to call for another calisthenics break. Even driving the back roads, they must be within two hours of San Jose.

  “So, tell me what you’ve heard?” the Emperor asked Elspeth, once everyone in his command group was awake.

  “As Huntress Del surmised, Hecate found Stone Point empty, with ample signs that Haggerty’s group just left,” Pack Mistress Elspeth said, and Del repressed a shiver to hear that Bass was so close. “As usual, Haggerty’s group is able to shield themselves from the Hunters, even when the Hunters are right on top of them. However, Hecate’s group spotted Haggerty and crew visually as they were going over the Golden Gate Bridge. Hecate decided that if she followed Haggerty she’d walk into a trap. Hecate’s crew turned and fled, and a few minutes later found themselves chased by the police. They’ve been in a running shootout with the police ever since, Emperor.”

  Del kept her face clear of emotions, and wished she had a god to pray to. All it would take would be one pointed question, and the Law would force her to reveal how Haggerty was able to hide her entire group. The Emperor had been damned thorough when he wiped his memories before the hostage exchange, and he didn’t remember.

  “Idiots. Meaning the police, of course, ma’am,” Hunter Tarn said. “The last thing the police want to do is force an engagement.”

  “Unless they can force an engagement in a good killing ground, like a bridge,” Del said. In her opinion, Tarn overestimated the combat capabilities of Enkidu’s people. Tarn sneered at Del, not for the first time, and she sneered back. She wished she could spare the time to cut those sneery moose lips of his off his…

  “Enough!” The Emperor motioned for Pack Mistress Elspeth to continue.

  “Enkidu came through Stockton and turned north to cross the bay at Vallejo, and almost immediately ran into police problems. He figures he got spotted by enemy Crows, so he turned around and headed back east and did a big circle to the north. He was only fifteen miles northeast of Napa when he learned from Hecate that Stone Point was deserted.”

  “Oooh, he must have been annoyed, sir,” Nabors said.

  “Too bad I wasn’t able to trap him between myself and the police,” the Emperor said. “I’d just love to get a chance for a heart to heart talk with him and his officers. That would take care of this little problem rather permanently.”

  “Sir?” Del asked. More information on the Emperor’s plans. Mustn’t forget my mission, Del told herself.

  “If I can get to Enkidu and the Hunter command cadre before this fight, I can convince them I’m leading the Hunters, now,” Emperor Caveworm said. “After that, we’ll high-tail it back to the badlands and mountains. After we take care of Hecate, of course.”

  Del wanted to whoop and dance with glee. There was enough of the old Crow in Caveworm to keep him from any positive interest in continuing the fight against the Cause.

  “Take care of her, sir? How?” Del said. She did like the idea of taking down Hecate, but Arms were notoriously difficult to kill. The only mature Arm who had ever died in a fight was Rayburn, in Pittsburgh, killed by Duke Hoskins. Del couldn’t conceive of a way to take down a senior Arm backed by an army of Hunters.

  “I don’t have the slightest idea, but if I pass this information along to Enkidu, I’m sure we can eventually come up with something appropriate.”

  “Might I make a suggestion, Emperor?” Pack Mistress Elspeth said.

  “Certainly, Pack Mistress.”

  “Emperor, do you see any reason why we shouldn’t pass along the information about Hecate’s partial Law immunity?”

  Caveworm paused, and then took a deep breath.

  “Why…that’s an amazing idea. Almost as good as my idea to use Wandering Shade’s old dormant internal spy network to gather information. Why didn’t I think of that before?” the Emperor asked himself.

  The same reasons I didn’t, Del thought. Because the damned Law is making us all stupid, or at least dulling our mental edge to butter-knife levels. Eating our creativity. But use Wandering Shade’s old spy network? Damn. No wonder Caveworm seemed to know virtually everything that was going on among the Hunters. What an edge!

  “Once we’ve finished our talk, do so,” the Emperor said. He lowered his voice to a whisper. His big secret, finally. “The other side is struggling agai
nst plans just as fouled up as ours, if not more so. As Enkidu predicted, without the Commander there to steady them, our former friends are all running around like chickens with their heads cut off, blundering into things they shouldn’t, and annoying the wrong people.”

  Former friends, eh? Del wanted to throw something. How in the hell was she going to extricate Sin— whatever the Emperor’s former name was…out of this mess, when he so clearly didn’t want to be rescued. Extricating herself would be hard enough, and it looked to her like being Emperor had gone to Caveworm’s head. Arête? Well, so far, he was far more bamboozled than she was by the current mess. However, if she just ran, Arête said he could remove the Law from himself in less than two minutes. The only thing keeping the Law on the Crow Guru at the moment was a bad case of not wanting to get killed.

  “In specific, one of the Focuses our former friends are trying to protect has gone renegade and is interfering with Inferno’s ability to defend themselves. Protest marches, believe it or not. Mind-fucking the police. Not only that, but they did a passable job of assassinating Count Dowling and Arm Webberly, although I’m not sure anyone but me has realized that the same Focus behind the protest marchers was also behind the assassinations. The recurrence of this old-fashioned Focus behavior has the local Crows all panicked, and of the locals only Chevalier is at all useful. Which means…” he paused. “Time for another bout of serious calisthenics.”