Chaos Unbound (The Metis Files Book 2)

by Brian S. Leon

  I preceded him through the passage, which opened into a room about the size of a gymnasium, lit entirely by the same bioluminescent glow as the passageways. Whatever emitted the light completely covered the ceiling, yielding a pleasant but pale electric-blue light that illuminated everything in enough detail that I had no problem making my way around. Once inside, thankful to be out of that furnace, I stopped and waited for Dvalinn to lead the way.

  He walked across the space to a massive rectangular table so polished that it reflected the light above, appearing to give off the light itself. Dvalinn sat in a massive and incredibly ornate metal chair at the head of the table made even more impressive by the way it so perfectly reflected the bluish light. He motioned to the rather mundane chair next to him and placed the knife on the table in front of it. I took my parka off and sat down as a dvergar servant placed two crystal goblets on the table between us. Dvalinn grabbed his and drank without waiting for me.

  “I see you’ve put the knives to some use,” he said, liquid dribbling through his beard, sizzling as it hit smoldering hair.

  “More than you can imagine. They have served me well. Lord Dvalinn, I need to know if you can make a cloak that can cause me to appear invisible.”

  He laughed a deep belly laugh that would have made Santa Claus jealous and set his glass back down. “A cloak of invisibility, you ask?” He smiled broadly as he chuckled. “Like Harry Potter?” He laughed deeply again and slapped at the tabletop, causing it to rattle.

  I was surprised that he knew who Harry Potter was, and my shock apparently showed.

  “Don’t be so surprised,” he said, his grin wide to reveal his pointy teeth. “We have seen the projections of the boy who is supposed to be a wizard. I have even built a device to decode and emit your encoded picture discs containing these projections. We find them greatly entertaining.”

  “I apologize if my disbelief offended you,” I said. “I was not surprised at your knowledge, only that you would find human entertainment… entertaining.”

  “Nonsense, you humans are very creative, though you waste your talents focusing too much on such dalliances rather than worthwhile endeavors. You create, but what you create serves no real purpose. Save maybe to destroy.” He held out his glass for a servant to fill again. “Your race excels at destruction,” he said, shaking his head.

  “We do, but I am currently trying to stop a cambion Blud Fae-Succubus bent on causing even more destruction for my people. That is why I need the cloak. If you can make such a thing.” I added the last part almost as a challenge.

  He pushed himself back in his chair, his facial features sharpened, and the amusement in his eyes disappeared. “But I have made such a thing, though it has been repeatedly abused and not only by your race.” He suddenly leaned on the great glowing armrest nearest to me.

  Before I could rethink my idea to challenge him, a handful of cave crickets bounded across the table, stopping between us. I raised my hand to shoo them from the table, but in the blink of an eye, Dvalinn caught a pair of them in his hands and presented them to me.

  I took them in hand, and to my astonishment, while one was a pale living insect, the other was actually made from a dull white metal. “A robot bug?”

  “An automaton, yes, but even the real ones cannot tell the difference. It can do everything a living ‘bug,’ as you call it, can do, except breed. It even possesses a simple decision engine driving its behaviors.”

  “You built this?” I couldn’t help but wonder about the implications such a thing might have in the human world and what he might actually have out there. Then I pictured Geek’s reaction and had to stop myself from laughing.

  “Of course, who else?” He rapped his knuckles on the table. “You humans are just arriving at the ability to make technology small enough to do this, but this particular creature is over a hundred years old and still requires no maintenance. The cloak you ask of was easy by comparison.” He laughed deeply again. “You humans are struggling to develop crystalline solids to produce the effect of cloaking.” His tone became condescending. “Natural crystals with such properties have always existed. You simply have no idea where to find them nor even how to use them if you did.”

  I sat quietly, afraid to defend humankind for fear of pissing him off since he possessed my only real option. Besides, he was apparently right.

  He shook his head. “You are a young race, and your skills are growing rapidly. I only wish you had gained your knowledge in harmony with the earth, rather than in spite of it.”

  “I agree with you, mostly,” I replied, putting the bugs back down on the table. “But I don’t have the luxury of time for a philosophical debate on the destructive nature of my race, my lord. My time is short, and I need the cloak. If you’re concerned about its misuse, I will return it to you as soon as I’m finished with it, but I don’t think I can accomplish my goal of capturing this demon fae saboteur and assassin without it.”

  “The Hanner Brid?” He stroked his beard with a pensive but concerned expression. After a moment, he leaned back in his chair to speak to a dvergar who’d suddenly appeared next to him. They spoke quietly in their native insect language, then the attendant receded. “I know of the crimes you were accused of… and that your name has been cleared. You say this Half-Fae is guilty of these misconducts and that you intend to stop him?”

  “Yes,” I said, meeting his gaze.

  “I am familiar with this being only by reputation,” he said, staring back at me. “And I know you to be truthful and honorable, so I will help.” As he spoke, another attendant showed up and placed two simple metal cases on the table. One resembled a thick briefcase; the other was more like a heavy-duty toolbox. My eyes traveled from the cases back to Dvalinn.

  “I will provide you with the cloak under several conditions,” he said, placing one big hand on the larger container. “First, you will return it to me upon your new year, no later. On this, I will not waver. Do you understand?”

  I nodded. According to the information on the maps I had, that gave me several more weeks than I needed.

  “Good. Second, in return for its use, you will arrange for an instrument of my design to be included as part of a low Earth or polar-orbit satellite. Several human nations are planning upcoming launches, including the territories of Bolivia, Belgium, and Austria. I do not care which.”

  I did a double take, and for a second, I thought I’d misheard him. I knew it was possible to buy space aboard research satellites, but I had no clue how much that would cost or even if it would be possible so close to the launch dates. And then I began to wonder about his intentions.

  “This is the price I ask,” he said, eyeing me intently.

  I felt like a baby sea turtle trying to cross the beach with a hungry bird circling overhead. “If this thingamajig has any effect whatsoever on humans, I will have to refuse. Nor would I allow you to use it under any circumstances.” I glared back. I wasn’t sure what he could do, but if he could make a lifelike robotic bug, then I had no doubt he could figure out some way to worm into the global financial system or even invade human military infrastructure—which he clearly disliked.

  “Rest assured, Guardian, that my intentions are only to aid my own people. Humans will suffer by neither its use nor the information it generates, I so swear,” he said, his tone even and friendly.

  I watched him fixedly for a moment, trying to decide if he was being truthful. The only thing I had going for me was that Dvergar were not deceitful like the Fae, and Dvalinn had always kept his word with me in the past. Then another issue dawned on me: What if I arrange it and the damn thing won’t plug in right or something?

  “Will it even be compatible with the technology these countries are using?” I asked.

  “No need for apprehension regarding its congruity. The device is… adaptive, for lack of a
better term. It will work with any human machinery.”

  My gut told me I could trust him, but it could have been my desire to hunt down the Hanner Brid at all costs. Either way, I decided to agree. “I will do my best—”

  Dvalinn slammed his massive hand down on the table. “No. You will succeed. That is my price,” he said, growling like a beast.

  “Well, if you put it that way, then sure, I’ll make sure it gets into space.” I really didn’t like being yelled at, and I could feel my resolve for decorum start to ebb away, but I needed that damn cloak.

  “Good. Finally, I require one more thing.” His tone became much more calm, almost jovial. “I would like a VIP pass to the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show to be held in your Los Angeles city.”

  “I’m sorry, did I hear you right? The big show where all the newest electronics, gear, and gadgets from around the world are unveiled for the coming year?”

  I didn’t know much about technology, but people made such a big deal out of the CES that even I knew about it. A wide, pointy-toothed grin split his bushy, smoldering beard again, and his eyes twinkled in the blue-green glow of the room.

  “Okay, if that’s what you want, no problem.” Hell, I figured by comparison to getting his doodad attached to a satellite, getting my hands on a VIP pass to the CES would be a cakewalk.

  “Then we have an accord, Champion of Pallas Athena,” he boomed in an affable tone as his grin broadened into a sharklike smile.

  He flourished one meaty paw toward the two cases on the table then grabbed the briefcase-sized one and spun it to face me. He opened it to reveal a dark glittering mass that took up the entire interior of the container. He grasped the object, which appeared to flow like water as he lifted it, then draped it across an arm in front of him. Instantly, his torso, as well as part of the chair and table, disappeared. Then the same space became blurry and went completely black as he shook it out and dangled it from one hand with a clinking and chinking reminiscent of a crystal chandelier. Even with my gift of true sight, which allowed me to see through magic and glamours, the cloak completely blocked my view of what was behind it. Amazing…

  “Alas, it cannot transmit light fast enough to cloak movements above a snail’s pace, I am afraid, but it will shield you from every type of electromagnetic wave, including the infrared lengths of light. And, no, it is in no way magical,” he said, his chest inflating as he talked. “I built it.”

  He threw it at me, and I was unprepared for its mass when it hit me. I expected the heft of a dense, thick garment—maybe fifteen pounds at most. But the thing weighed nearly a hundred pounds and hit me like a dead, boneless animal.

  “Holy crap.” I fumbled the cape as I caught it, making Dvalinn laugh deeply.

  “Weighty, yes?” he said, beaming. “It’s made from hundreds of thousands of special magmatic euhedral crystals that I grew myself, enmeshed within a special alloy then woven into the finest wool. Think of it as the weight of responsibility you carry when you use it. One last thing: to work, it must cover something generating an electrical field. That means it must be alive and have a mass of at least three or four stone.”

  “Got it. Alive and more than forty or so pounds.” I briefly considered the cloak’s limitations, but given it was my best option, I would make do.

  I stood to fold the cloak back into the case, and Dvalinn got up with me.

  “I look forward to our next meeting,” he said then left unceremoniously.

  Another dvergar approached me out of the darkness, carrying some sort of light-emitting device giving off the same blue-green light of the ceiling. As the attendant waited silently next to me, I closed the case, stowed my knife, and pulled on my parka before reaching for the other case. I expected it to be proportionally heavier, given its larger size. Again, I was surprised. It weighed hardly anything at all. In fact, it weighed less than I would have guessed the case itself should have.

  “Please, if you will follow me, I will bring you to a passage that will bring you directly to your transport above,” the attendant said.

  Chapter 34

  We made it back to Duma’s hotel on Miami Beach, and despite the fact it was four o’clock in the morning, we had to push our way through the still-writhing crowd. The room upstairs was empty. Sarah had gone. I deflated a bit and surprised myself by realizing I actually wanted to see her. She had left a note taped to the door that simply said, “Sorry, called to DHS business. Be careful. Looking forward to later.”

  Yeah, so am I.

  “One last thing before we head out,” I said down the hall to Duma as he unlocked the door to his room. “We’re going to need some help on the ground once we get to North Korea. Elegast intimated that he would provide assistance if asked and to tell you that we could reach him at Calanchi.”

  “What? Figures, that prick,” Duma said, suddenly shoving his door open.

  “Oh, and we need to make this guy think we’re still actively searching for him, so he doesn’t spook off this thing in North Korea.”

  “Makes sense,” he said from halfway into his room. “But who? We can’t send humans.”

  “How about those guys from your cousin’s halfway house?” I asked. “Sarah mentioned some unsolved incidents she found that sort of fit the Hanner Brid’s style. We can have them poke into those older attacks and follow his trail.”

  He jerked back out the door so fast, it was surreal. “Seriously? Those guys aren’t fighters. This guy’d kill them without batting an eyelash.”

  “I don’t want them to confront him, but rather hound him from a distance. I want them to let him know someone is still chasing him, but not necessarily breathing down his neck. The events Sarah found are old enough that they should be safe. Hopefully, it’ll appear like we lost him and had to go way back to try to pick up his trail again. Ask Elegast to help with that, too. Being pursued by several different groups flailing around that far behind him might feed his arrogance and make him feel secure about continuing with his plans in North Korea.”

  Duma’s forehead creased deeply, his white eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head and eyed me sideways.

  “I don’t expect them to catch him. I’m hoping he’ll think we’re still searching for him while we lie in wait,” I said. “Tell them to contact Geek at the Metis Foundation for help. I gave Tolfin his contact info.” Part of me didn’t like the idea of possibly putting those guys in danger, but I convinced myself they might find a sense of purpose if they could help.

  Duma closed his door, and I went back to work checking out the maps yet again, trying to figure out what my options were for getting on a train at a top-secret station we hadn’t found yet. After that, I only had to worry about figuring out what I was supposed to do once I was on the train no one knew anything about. The one thing I did know was that my guns were going to be all but useless, short of killing Kim’s guards, and I wanted to avoid that at all costs. Despite their government’s record of human rights abuses, they were still human and, therefore, under my protection. It wasn’t my job to judge human behavior. Unfortunately, I also had no doubt the Hanner Brid would use humans as a means to an end.

  As crazy as it sounded, though I was mostly in the dark about much of the ambush itself, the part that kept really giving me fits was getting out of North Korea with the Hanner Brid in tow—either dead or alive. I was giving myself a headache because I had no idea where the nearest path through the Ways would be, leaving our exfiltration a complete mystery. While the rest of the situation was far from concrete, at least I knew my goal was to sneak onto the train and wait for the attack, which theoretically would come somewhere in that valley in North Korea, bounded by those tunnels and the trestle, on December seventeenth.

  Hell, I practically had the bastard in my hands.

  Two days later, Duma walked into my room, agitatedly talking on a cell phone a
t two in the afternoon. I had slept until nearly one myself. Given what we were about to do for the next few weeks, I’d figured I should get as much rest as I could while I could get it.

  Once he got off the phone, I wadded up a piece of paper with my required gear list on it and threw it at him. “Everything okay there?” I asked, wondering about his phone call. “Someone scratch one of your cars?”

  His hand shot out in a blur and easily caught the scrunched-up ball. He straightened the wrinkled sheet, read it, then tilted his head.

  “This is easy,” he said, swatting at the list with his free hand. “What about that?” He pointed at the large case containing the satellite array.

  “That’s an Athena thing. I’ll deal with that before we leave.”

  “Then you better hurry. And, yeah, everything is fine. That was Ab. His op went sideways. Lost most of his team, but he’s okay. We need to meet up with him at one of our places.” He crumpled the page, tossed it back at me, and left.

  I caught it, too. It was obvious everything was other than fine, but it wasn’t the time to push Duma.

  I grabbed my phone and called Athena, who, as usual, answered before it even rang on my end. We spoke for a few minutes without revealing any major details about the plan in North Korea.

  “I do not like this deal you have made with Dvalinn,” Athena said. “I trust it was made of necessity, but Dvalinn is devious.”

  “I’m not sure what his intentions are, but I trust when he says that whatever this thing does, it will not impact humanity. I will admit that it may be worth keeping a closer eye on him. His technology is beyond what I expected, and far beyond human capabilities.”