Prophet: Bridge & Sword

by JC Andrijeski

  That was… very accurate.

  Loki clicked his fingers, sending a pulse towards the painting, and the wall safe behind it.

  “Open it,” he said to Illeg, using the link despite how close they stood to one another now. “…Hurry,” he added. “They’re saying we may have company when we surface.”

  He felt the ripple of humor on Illeg and Ontari’s lights cut out at his words.

  Their aleimi stilled back to razor focus.

  Loki waited while they worked, periodically glancing at Holo and Jax at the door. Illeg and Ontari first used a physical scanner to determine if any dead-combustion (non-organic) charges lived in the hinges, then began conducting preliminary scans on the hinged door to the safe, using both their light and semi-organic instruments.

  Minutes later, they removed the image hanging on the wall.

  “Kind of old school, isn’t it?” Mika said. “A safe in a wall? Hidden behind a painting?”

  “Humans can be nostalgic,” Ontari said, shrugging.

  “Can you break the lock?” Loki said, quiet.

  Illeg and Ontari glanced at him.

  “We’ll get it,” Ontari assured him.

  “Work fast.”

  None of them bothered with the links anymore.

  Loki felt it when a flush of adrenaline hit his bloodstream, seemingly out of nowhere. Up until that instant, the danger Yumi warned him about felt abstract. Now, he felt the difference in his light. They were in trouble.

  He touched his headset, opening yet another channel.

  “Preela?”

  She answered at once, even as his light skated out, taking a quick snapshot of what he could now feel converging on the grounds of the White House building.

  “In the air, sir,” she confirmed. “We’re looking at structural damage on the roof––”

  “And?” he cut in.

  “No good, sir. Sensors say it won’t hold us. Looking for an alternate until you’re ready for pick up.” She paused, and Loki heard the whine of the Chinook’s rotors in the background as the bird turned. “…Any idea when that might be, sir?”

  “Not yet––” he began, but Illeg cut him off.

  “Gotcha,” she said, smiling grimly at the safe door.

  “––But soon,” Loki added into the comm, his light refocusing on the safe and the three seers now standing in front of it, since Rex had joined them. The ex-Rook appeared to be the one who had cracked the last part of the locking mechanism.

  Loki remembered that the big-shouldered seer had a background in explosives and safes. He’d been a professional thief at one point, back in Russia. Like many seers had been in those years, he’d been recruited by Galaith directly out of the Russian gulag, where he’d been awaiting sentencing for one of those crimes.

  Loki heard somewhere that the Sword had been recruited similarly by the Rooks, once upon a time.

  “Where are you with it?” Loki said.

  His physical voice sounded more noticeably tense outside of the link.

  He watched as Illeg and Ontari peered inside, using penlights to illuminate the greenish-blue walls. Now that he could see with his physical eyes, he was even more impressed with Illeg and Rex’s work. The safe’s walls stood at least four inches thick, cut at a diagonal angle to fit perfectly over the organics-lined cavity. Even with the physical light overpowering his Barrier sight to a degree, Loki could see the density of those vein-like strands of aleimic light, pulsing under the strength of the nearly full-blooded organic.

  “Tick-tock,” Holo muttered from beside him.

  Loki glanced at him, but could not disagree.

  He watched as Ontari, Rex and Illeg began pulling out data keys, stacks of paper and larger organic devices. All but the paper appeared to be made of cutting edge tech. The three of them started to examine individual pieces and Loki snapped his fingers, loud.

  “Pack it up,” he said, sharp. “All of it. We’re leaving.”

  18

  NO EASY EXIT

  THEY USED THE elevator to return to the ground floor.

  Loki had originally considered the below-ground tunnel, thinking it might be safer.

  Yumi agreed.

  Something caused Loki change his mind, though, before they’d even started in that direction––some tightness in the higher areas of his light, which felt clear for the first time since he’d left the Chinook. Apparently, adrenaline had been the thing to finally penetrate the light obsession he’d been suffering since he first laid eyes on the female human.

  In any case, he had his team reverse direction.

  Mika and Jax were already fighting with the elevator doors when Yumi pinged him via the link.

  “Do not use the underground exit, brother. Repeat. Do not use the underground tunnel. Acknowledge receipt.”

  “Acknowledged,” Loki said. “Can you tell me anything?”

  “Reception party. We’re working on getting you more intel now. They have seers with them, brother, so we’re working to crack the mobile construct they’re using.”

  “What about the elevator?”

  “Clear for now. Secondary team is approaching from the south and west. Advise leaving through the East Wing or the North Portico––”

  “Government?”

  “We think so, yes. But you understand they might not be only that?”

  “Copy, and understood.” He glanced at the others, knowing they hadn’t heard him through the sub-vocals. “They have seers,” he told them through the link.

  Ontari, Holo and Rex all looked at him.

  Mika and Jax managed to pull the doors apart a few inches. Jamming the jack into the opening they’d created, Mika activated the power source on the semi-organic and the tool moved smoothly, forcing the heavy doors apart with a metallic screech.

  Loki sent the pulse to move.

  His team filed into the elevator.

  Ontari slipped through the open doors first, kneeling by the open panel inside. By the time Loki entered and moved to the back, Anale had already re-opened the secondary security panel while Holo worked quickly to reattach the power source to both via squid appendages.

  The squids sparked with aleimic light as Anale and Holo spoke to them.

  When the physical lights of the elevator flickered, then suddenly rose, Loki and the others raised hands in reflex, squinting and blinking up at the light.

  Within seconds, the elevator began to move.

  “Status?” Loki said through the link, talking to the carrier again.

  Rex, Jax, Mika, Illeg, Holo and Kalgi held their weapons up. Already split back into their two combat teams, with the exception of Anale and Ontari monitoring the panels, they faced the doors as the car rose.

  Yumi’s voice came through distantly once more, probably due to interference from the underground shaft, the density of the organics, and the swiftly moving elevator car.

  “Four minutes before they breach the South Portico,” she said, her voice flickering in and out. “We count thirty infantry, dressed as SWAT. They could be police, but Balidor says they have a military imprint. He’s guessing Navy SEALs, from aleimic signatures.”

  Loki frowned, glancing at Rex.

  Rex shrugged, smiling at him a little.

  Loki had opened the channel so the others would hear Yumi, mainly to save time. When he saw the harder look forming in Rex’s eyes, he was strangely reassured. A lot of seers had a tendency to underestimate human-run military units.

  Loki knew from personal experience it wasn’t a wise attitude to take.

  “Engage or avoid?” Loki asked Yumi. “Or are we too late for that?”

  “They’ve got seers,” Yumi repeated. “At least four. You won’t be able to push them, brother. Balidor advises avoid. We can see you now, so we’ve got your coordinates synched. Assuming the elevator car maintains its current speed, you have a thirty-two second window to get to the North Portico. We believe we can shield your trail for that long, based on our readings of their
combat construct. They’re already trying to hack the illusions we’ve put up around you, so they know you’re there. Balidor thinks it will take them at least three more minutes to make real progress, so you should be free of Barrier attacks until then. We’re in touch with Preela already. She’s standing by. She can’t come in too soon, so if we get cut off, she’ll wait for visual confirm. They have RPGs, so she’s on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue––”

  “Got it,” Loki said. “Received and understood.”

  Next to him, Kalgi swore softly in Prexci.

  Loki gave her a scarce glance.

  “Confirm all tactical,” he told Yumi. “Taking recommendation in full. Tell Preela we’ll be at the North Portico in approximately…” He looked at the clock on his headset display, which he’d synched to Yumi’s map as she spoke, making minor adjustments based on blocked passageways and other impediments they’d encountered on the way in. “…Two minutes.”

  “Will do,” Yumi said. “Walk with the gods, brother.”

  He didn’t bother to answer, but motioned Mika to cut all security protocols, now that they no longer had to worry about the alarms. She did, and all of them winced, feeling the silent alarm as a surge in energy through the organics, even as the elevator car briefly shuddered.

  It didn’t stop, which had been Loki’s only fear. Rather, it began to accelerate slightly from the surge in additional power. It would no longer stop them at the top floor and scan them, either, prior to opening the doors.

  That should buy them a few more seconds at least.

  Even so, he felt the muttering going on in the minds of his team.

  “Focus,” he cautioned them through the link. “We’ll have time.”

  He felt their minds sharpen, even as they reinforced their grips on the guns they held, mouths firming as they faced the door. Ontari and Anale held their weapons now, too.

  They reached the ground level what felt like seconds later.

  Once he’d triggered the doors, Loki motioned for Ontari to leave the power source attached. Four of his people had already squeezed through the opening and into the corridor near the kitchen before those doors finished disappearing into the walls.

  Loki felt the difference in the nearby Barrier space at once.

  They’d been tracked to the elevators.

  He motioned for Anale to take the lead, and to move fast.

  They began a fast-moving combat jog down the center hall, single file, keeping to the shadowed part of the wall and moving almost soundlessly as they aimed for the North Hall. Going around a large pile of rubble and burned furniture just outside the opening, they entered in groups of two at Loki’s soft prompt. Each paired team sent clicks back through the links to signal the space ahead was clear.

  Then all of them were more or less running for the North Portico entrance.

  They still moved quietly, the thud of boots dulled by sound-canceling organics, along with the brush and squeak of armor and cloth.

  Anale and Rex led. Kalgi took up the rear like before.

  Loki ran just ahead of Kalgi.

  He worried briefly that the entrance itself might pose a problem, but the bullet-proof glass doors had already been blown out in some previous skirmish. The opening stood as a ragged, gaping maw, only slightly lighter than the shadowed interior, since the sun had started to fall towards the horizon while they were below ground.

  He now glimpsed a pre-sunset sky tinged with pinks and oranges, even as gold sunlight continued to slant sideways over the lawn, driveway, and Pennsylvania Avenue.

  Anale and Rex disappeared through the opening first.

  They sent back an immediate ping, letting him and the others know they didn’t see or feel anyone waiting for them.

  Loki touched his headset. “Okay, Preela. Now would be good.”

  “Roger that.”

  She might have said more after, but before she could get it out, gunfire erupted from the west, directly in front of where Loki stood.

  He shifted directions swiftly and instinctively, darting right just before something pummeled into his shoulder, knocking him to his back. Next to him, he saw Kalgi fall, too. Mika dove behind cover in front of him, firing past the opening where the glass doors had once stood.

  “Fuck,” Kalgi said next to him.

  She was up again, and dragging him, even as Loki fought to regain his feet. She brought him around to the east side of the doorway, behind where Mika continued to fire. Loki gasped, got to his feet, and followed her, glimpsing through the opening where Rex and Anale were firing back at whoever was coming towards them from the west. Loki could see Kalgi’s free hand pressed against the middle of her chest, holding it as if in pain, but he didn’t see any blood. He assumed that, whatever her injury, it hadn’t penetrated her bullet-proof jacket or vest.

  Looking down at his own shoulder, he realized he hadn’t gotten off so lucky.

  “At least some are packing organics,” he said through the link. “Armor piercing. Don’t assume the vests will hold.”

  He felt the acknowledgment from Anale and Rex, then from Mika, Illeg, Holo and Kalgi. Raising his rifle, Loki realized he couldn’t quite brace it with his injured arm, and slid it up against his hip instead, handling it with his right arm, which was awkward, since he usually used his left.

  He could still shoot, but not well.

  It hit him that he hadn’t heard or felt anything from Jax or Ontari since the engagement started. He turned, scanning with his eyes and aleimi, looking for them as Kalgi fired through the opening with Mika and Illeg, who had joined them. Holo had already gone to reinforce Anale and Rex behind the stone wall at the top of the outside steps.

  Loki found Jax behind where he and Kalgi crouched, near the main staircase in the foyer. Jax was trying to drag Ontari, who was probably twice his weight.

  Loki touched Kalgi faintly with his light.

  “I’m going back,” he told her.

  Glancing over her shoulder, Kalgi frowned, as if to protest. Seeing Jax, she seemed to change her mind and nodded, seeing where Loki’s light pointed out Ontari’s weight. Being wounded, Loki figured it should be him.

  He would not be much good to them on the line like this, anyway.

  Kalgi let out a snort, raising an eyebrow at him. I’d take you on a bad day over most on a good one, brother.

  Loki smiled, surprised at the warm words, then turned and ran, staying low as he approached Jax. When he reached the seer’s side to help him with Ontari, however, he froze, staring down at Ontari’s face. It was completely blown off. Loki knelt at once, checking the male seer’s pulse. He was dead. His light had shifted out of his body.

  When Loki looked up at Jax, he saw that the light in the seer’s violet eyes had receded to some other place, as well––if more temporarily than Ontari’s.

  Shell-shocked, as the old timers used to call it.

  Loki had to wrestle with the younger male to get him to let go of Ontari’s vest. He blew warmth at the East Indian seer’s light, tugging at his fingers, prying them off the organic fabric.

  We can’t bring him, brother, Loki told him gently, pulling him away from the corpse. We will do rituals for him, back at the ship. But his body, it must stay here. When Jax tried to go back to the big Adhipan male, Loki gripped him harder. It is okay, brother. His Ancestors will find him. He does not need this shell anymore.

  He’s on the List, Jax sent, still trying to return to Ontari.

  Loki gripped him harder. He blew warmth over his light, opening his heart. The gods love your devotion, dear one, but it is too late.

  “Our ride’s here.” Kalgi tapped him sharply through the link. “Out on the road. Move it, Loks. We need you, brother.”

  “Understood,” Loki sent. If there’s an opening, don’t wait for me.

  Go fuck yourself, Kalgi sent angrily.

  Loki barely heard her.

  He knew Anale had most of the materials they had brought up with them from the safe. They
had given Mika some of it, too, just to spread it out somewhat, and Jax had some in his vest pockets, as well.

  He looked down at the younger seer’s face. From the look in his violet eyes, he had not succeeded in reaching him even a little. Without thinking, he drew back his fist, and punched the East Indian seer in the face with his good hand. When Jax continued to try to return to Ontari’s body, catching hold of one of the fallen seer’s legs, Loki ripped his fingers off the other man, not doing it gently that time.

  When Jax fought him, Loki hit him again.

  He contemplated drugging the other man, using the painkillers from his emergency kit, when Jax suddenly seemed to snap out of it.

  He didn’t come back entirely––that vacant look never really left his eyes––but he came back enough that he followed when Loki yanked him down into a crouch.

  Without waiting, Loki ran with him for the North Portico entrance.

  When they reached the entrance, Loki felt the helicopter as much as saw it––right before he saw the RPG launcher rise up from one of the small, black-clad dots hunched against the west wall of the main residence and the West Wing.

  Releasing Jax, Loki pinged Rex to take him. He raised his sidearm, aiming at the human with the RPG. He immediately felt the pain of a seer trying to get into his light, but aimed the gun with his left hand and arm anyway, gasping as he tasted blood in the back of his throat from the Barrier hits.

  He squeezed the trigger.

  The sound felt distant, far away.

  The man holding the RPG crumpled.

  “Go!” Loki shouted through the link. “Now! Everyone go!”

  The team broke cover the instant Loki spoke.

  They darted over the driveway and to the grass surrounding the fountain, only to split around the broken cement ornament. They ran in a jagged group, legs flashing, for the single gap in the wrought iron fence––a fence that still marked the boundary between the White House grounds and Pennsylvania Avenue.

  Rex and Loki continued to drag Jax as Kalgi ran on the other side, covering them with her rifle. Mika limped beside her from a hit in the leg.