“Doesn’t look likely?” Cassie repeated. “Do you want to know what looks likely? That this dark-elf woman opened a portal between our world and hers. I saw her do it, all right? She channeled mana and opened a portal by herself, after she kidnapped Colonel McKnight.” Cassie glared at the middle-aged woman, then at Buck, then at Alex. “You idiots opened our world up to them. The basilisk wasn’t here accidentally. That damned dark-elf woman was controlling it.”
Alex sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I think you’re right.”
“Oh, come on,” said Buck. “What are you getting at?”
“That we’ve been played,” said Alex. “The intrusions, even the basilisk, were just a distraction. The dark-elf woman was spying on us. She was a scout, just like the teams we sent to Rubicon.”
“And now she’s taken our leader,” said Cassie. “What does McKnight know?”
“Everything,” said Alex.
Cassie looked from face to face. An uncomfortable silence settled over the room. Don’t they get it? Why won’t any of them say what’s needed to be said? “What the hell is wrong with you people?” Cassie finally asked in disbelief. “We need to go after McKnight. Right goddamned now!”
“Cassie,” Alex said then paused as he considered what to say. “We can’t just—”
“Bullshit! You can. You have to. You just don’t want to. McKnight is your leader. You can’t just throw him away and say Oh well.”
“What will they do to him?” Elizabeth asked. “Why take him?”
“Because, honey,” said Buck, “he knows things. First, you scout out an enemy. Then you capture a prisoner, interrogate him. That way—”
“That way you know everything about your enemy,” finished Cassie. “Even more reason to go get him back.”
“Blondie, we just had our asses kicked by one woman and her pet lizard.” Buck jabbed a finger at the wall-mounted screen. “We’ve already reported the attack. This train is off the rails. Right now, a bunch of very senior government officials are waking up some of the most powerful people in North America, including the President. Once they’re sitting across from us in a video teleconference, they’re going to want to know what just happened. For Christ’s sake, aliens have attacked us. They’re not going to want to hear some bullshit rescue plan that’s only going to make things worse.”
“Can’t get much worse,” said Alex.
Buck’s face looked as if he’d been kicked in the balls.
“Cassie’s right,” said Alex, taking his boots off the table and leaning forward. “Why can’t we go after him? We still have most of Task Force Devil, over a dozen tier-one assaulters. We have some serious firepower, heavy machine guns, anti-armor weapons, explosives. They wouldn’t be expecting us. Who would?”
“Don’t be an idiot,” said Buck. “We’d go to jail.”
“Maybe, but I’d go to jail for McKnight. From what I’ve heard, you owe him as well.”
“That’s not your—”
“We could bring the Gateway Machine on line rather quickly, actually,” Dr. Simmons said. “It’s been on standby for some time, but it would be easy.” She looked up at the plasma screen. “How long do we have?”
“Not long,” said Alex. “Maybe forty minutes, maybe less. Right now, the Prime Minister and the President are probably getting rushed to National Defense Headquarters and the Pentagon. But if we’re still sitting here when they arrive, it’ll all be over.”
“Jesus Christ,” said Buck. “Can you hear yourselves? Nobody’s going anywhere. This is over. I’m in charge, not you. This isn’t a debate.”
“They’re going to torture him,” Alex said. “That’s what interrogation really means.”
“Look, I love the colonel like a father. You have no goddamned idea!” Spit flew from Buck’s mouth. Cassie could hear the emotion in his voice. “But they can’t even speak to him. They don’t know our language. They’re savages. We have time. We can mount a real rescue mission once—”
Alex shook his head. “There won’t be a rescue mission. Come on, you know that. This is it. The grown-ups are going to shut us down while they reassess the operation and assign all new people. There’ve been too many deaths. If we don’t go after him, McKnight will be tortured and killed.”
“I…”
“You told me once that the colonel saved your life in El Salvador.”
“Yes, but…”
“You’re not going to get another shot,” said Alex. “This is it. I’m done; you’re done. There’s no coming back from this kind of failure. Hell, you’ve lost your commanding officer. Under your watch and under my watch. Whatever else happens, your time in uniform is over. You’re about to become retired.”
Buck went pale as a ghost. “But… how would we even…? We can’t find him, not now.”
“Clyde can,” Cassie said.
They stared at her in silence for several seconds. Elizabeth reached over and squeezed her hand. She prayed she was right.
“If you’re going to go,” Dr. Simmons said, “it needs to be now.” Her eyes flicked to the plasma screen once more.
“Even if we find him and bring him back…” Buck stared at his hands. “Even then, they won’t…”
“No, even then it’s all over for you and me. But he’d do it—he’d come after us.” Alex stared at Buck. “You’re in charge now. It’s your call.”
All eyes were on Buck. Cassie watched him, knowing he wouldn’t do it—not Buck, that mean bastard. McKnight was screwed.
Buck made a fist, squeezed it tightly, then closed his eyes and nodded. “Okay,” he finally said, almost in a whisper. “We go. All hands on deck, with everything we’ve got. Let’s go get the boss.”
Chapter 43
The decision to go after McKnight made, time sped up for Cassie, becoming a blur of activity. She ran back to the barracks and dressed quickly in one of the combat uniforms they had given her. Clyde had finally come out from under the bed. She hugged him briefly, reassuring him. As she yanked the laces tight on her combat boots, she mentally wrestled with the existence of a device that could transport people across the void of space. It was amazing—impossible—but then again, everything these days was impossible.
Ready as she was going to be, she dashed out of her room, Clyde at her heels. Without him and his sense of smell, his hunting ability, they had no way to find McKnight again. It was bring the dog or abandon the man.
She hoped Paco would forgive her. She hoped Clyde wouldn’t just hide under a bush.
In the hallway, she almost ran right into Elizabeth, also wearing combat clothing. The two women stared at each other, breathless, then together rushed down the stairwell and back out into the night. Buck, who she was secretly afraid might change his mind again at any moment and cancel the rescue attempt, had ordered them to get ready ASAP—before they were ordered to stand down by Ottawa and Washington.
Minutes later, they ran up to the rendezvous point near the dam’s infrastructure. A military van was parked in front of a huge concrete bunker. On the side of the bunker was a round tunnel opening, at least twelve feet high, looking like the entrance to a bank vault. Several soldiers, already wearing full combat loads with body armor, stood watching as Cassie, Elizabeth, and Clyde approached. The troops had stuffed the pockets of their load-bearing vests with ammunition and grenades, giving them a surreal appearance that was totally out of place in the quiet northern forests of British Columbia. Cassie only recognized one of them: Marcus.
As they approached, Marcus, clearly waiting for them, pushed himself off the bumper of the van and motioned them over. “Alex wants me to kit you up.” He walked around to the open doors at the rear of the van. Cassie and Elizabeth followed. The back of the van was stuffed with weapons and equipment, some of it thrown in haphazardly.
“Is that safe?” she asked, pointing at what looked like a small missile lying beside crates of ammunition.
Marcus flashed her a smile. “Probably not.” He grabbed a bulky
armored vest and held it out for Cassie to slip her arms through. “Try this one on. There’s only a few women on the team, so we don’t have a lot of choice. This is about the smallest we have.”
She wriggled into the vest, instantly feeling its hefty weight pushing down on her shoulders. Covering her chest and back, it was secured around the waist with Velcro straps. Marcus helped her tighten the straps then stepped back and punched her in the chest, hitting something hard and unyielding, knocking her back a pace.
“That’s a ceramic plate. It covers your vitals and will stop most rifle rounds… unless the shooter is real close. The rest of the vest will only stop fragmentation—little pieces of jagged metal.” Marcus turned back to the van and pulled out another vest.
As Elizabeth pulled it on, she glanced at Marcus. “How does it do against lightning bolts?”
Marcus snorted. “Probably fuse the plate right to your body.”
“That’s about what we thought,” Cassie said.
“So, don’t stand in front of dark elves casting magic.” Marcus handed helmets to her and Elizabeth.
“Is this bulletproof, too?” Cassie asked.
“Not even a little bit.” Marcus flashed another of his perfect smiles. “It’s a Pro-Tek bike helmet painted black and weighs a lot less than a Kevlar helmet but looks totally bad-ass, don’t you think? Better than Oakleys.”
She frowned at him, puzzled, but let it go. These people lived in their own special world.
Next, he handed each of them GPNVGs then helped attach them to a swinging frame bolted to the top of the bike helmets. When he was done, they could just flip the four-eyed night-vision devices up or down as they needed them. When they were done adjusting the chinstraps, he had them jump in place and shake their heads. With the GPNVGs sitting on top, the helmets were heavy and unwieldy, putting weight on Cassie’s neck. Maybe in time she’d get used to them, but at the moment they were awkward, and the body armor was heavy and restrictive.
“Is this really necessary?” Cassie asked.
“You know how many people we lost last night?” Marcus asked.
She looked down, staring at her feet. Beside her, Clyde sat on his bum, watching the three of them, his tongue hanging out.
At that moment, Alex appeared, walking out of the tunnel entrance. He frowned as he examined Cassie and Elizabeth. “Give them MBITRs, too.”
Marcus nodded. “Just about to set them up, Cap.” He turned back to the van and began to root among the equipment. With Marcus’s back to him, Alex glanced to make sure no one else was watching before sliding up next to Cassie. He undid the cargo pocket of her pants, held up a silenced 9mm pistol for her to see, then slipped it into her pocket, meeting her eye as he refastened the flap and winked. He leaned in close to her ear. “Buck said he’d shoot me himself if I armed you again. Don’t get me in any more trouble, okay?”
Cassie put on a fake smile and nodded quickly.
Elizabeth looked from Alex to Cassie. “What about me?” she whispered, glancing at Marcus’s back.
Alex snorted. He gripped her bicep and squeezed it. “Elizabeth, you are a weapon.”
Cassie reached into her pocket and withdrew the Brace. “Here,” she said, handing it to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth raised her hand and then stopped, her fingers only inches from the talisman. “Are… are you sure? The Great Elder Brother gave it to you.”
“Maybe. But maybe he just wanted someone other than that elf bitch to have it. Look. You’re way better than I am with the offensive stuff, and this thing is a weapon. If we’re going to war, then you need to be packing the heat, not me.”
Elizabeth gingerly took the Brace from Cassie’s somewhat reluctant grip.
Am I making a mistake or finally acting like a grown-up? She didn’t know, but maybe she did want the Brace back after all, because as Elizabeth slipped it into her pocket, she felt a sudden pang of regret as if she had just made a horrible mistake.
Cassie bit her lower lip and looked away.
Marcus returned with small radios, each with a one-eared headset and mouthpiece on a wire. He kitted up both women, attaching the radios for them to their vests, then quickly showed them how they worked. Cassie wasn’t at all sure she’d remember, but at least now she had a radio if she became separated again. Next, he gave them each a first-aid kit, three of the ready-to-eat meals in a bag, a pair of orange-tinted ballistic glasses that they hung around their necks, and a wicked-looking fighting knife that clipped to their vests. Finally, he helped them strap on a full Camelbak canteen. When he was done, Marcus stepped back, admiring his work. “Consider yourselves in full battle rattle, ladies. Absolutely bad-ass.”
“I feel like a turtle,” Cassie said.
“If it keeps you alive, it’s worth the discomfort. Besides, this is all your idea anyway.” He slapped her on the back, and she staggered forward before catching herself.
“Let’s get going before I change my mind,” she said.
Alex led the way into the tunnel, which was lit by overhead florescent tubing and sloped downward. The lights hummed above them, flickering. She must have seen this bunker a dozen times before from the outside but had never wondered about it and certainly hadn’t known that it led deep below ground. What else had she been oblivious to?
As they went deeper, the air became noticeably cooler. “Well, that’s a bit of a blessing, isn’t it?” she said. “It’s hot in all this gear.”
“Enjoy it,” said Alex. “It won’t last.”
The tunnel continued downward, angling back and forth at set intervals like a mountain pass. How deep did it go? Then, just ahead, it led to a large open area, a cavern of some type. As she stepped out of the tunnel, her breath caught in her throat. A giant hole, at least a hundred feet across and supported by concrete walls, had been drilled into the earth. A large platform with an oversize open-aired cargo lift awaited them at the edge of the hole. She was acutely aware of the presence of millions of tons of rock and earth overhead, held up only by the science of modern engineering. There was a wet, muddy smell in the air, reminding her of worms after a fresh rain. The lift, she noted as she stepped closer, was completely open with only guardrails running around it. It was attached to rails on the inside wall of the giant bore hole—much like train tracks—that circled its interior. The lift didn’t go straight up and down, she realized, but rotated along the rails, spiraling. She wondered how far down it went. Several other soldiers, also geared for battle, waited for them before the lift.
Clara stepped forward, her face painted green. She held up a small tube. “Time for some makeup, ladies.”
Cassie and Elizabeth held their chins up as Clara judiciously applied the wet paint, smearing it across their exposed skin. While she did this, Alex and Marcus also applied their own camouflage paint, making them look even more warlike and aggressive. They were almost unrecognizable.
Alex motioned them over to the waiting lift. “You all set?”
“As much as I’m going to be.” Cassie’s fingers went up to touch her face, which felt sticky.
“We’re going to be,” Elizabeth said.
Cassie hoped she didn’t look as silly in war paint as Elizabeth did. Clara, on the other hand, looked right at home, as if she were born to do this.
Alex extended a hand toward the lift. “We’re running out of time.”
The lift easily held all of them and, in fact, could have held more without being crowded. Alex stood near a control panel and pushed a button. The platform shuddered momentarily and then began to slide along the rails, slowly circling the inside of the hole as it descended, humming and grinding along. Cassie approached the guardrails and braved a glance over the side. All she saw below was darkness. “How far does it go?”
“The Bore Hole goes down about two hundred meters,” answered Alex. “The Gateway Machine needs to be beneath the dam’s reservoir, nestled into the bedrock.”
“Why?” asked Elizabeth.
“It creates tr
emors—sometimes a lot of them. In bedrock, the machine is less likely to shake itself apart.”
Cassie stared at him, her eyes widening. “Oh, this is just getting better and better.”
Alex put his hand on her shoulder and smiled. “It’s safe.”
“When was the last time you used it?”
“Just before the breach.”
At that moment, the lift shuddered—far too violently—and Cassie grabbed at Alex’s shoulder.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Sometimes it does that. It’s just a rough patch along the way down. Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t worry about it, he says.” Cassie let go of his shoulder but transferred her grip to the lift’s railing. She stood there quietly, concentrating on her breathing. They descended for several more minutes. Looking up, Cassie could still see the lights from the platform near the top, but they were far away. How many revolutions around the inside of the hole had they made so far—four? More?
“We’ll be at the bottom soon,” Alex said, shuffling in place.
Cassie, feeling a touch of vertigo, took his word for it. She looked over at him. “So, these dark-elf creatures can control monsters, channel way more mana than us, and are intelligent enough to figure out a way to follow you guys back to our world?”
Alex, not meeting her gaze, shrugged. “Seems so.”
“And you had no idea?”
“We knew there had to be a dominant species on Rubicon, but no one knew what they were or what they could do. I mean, come on, magic? Dark elves?”
“But you had to know they wouldn’t like being spied on, right? I mean, who would?”
“Damage is done, Cassie. Time to move on.”
“We’re here,” Marcus called out.
The platform slowed to a shuddering halt, and Cassie risked a glance over the railing. The bottom of the tunnel was only about twenty feet below. Across from the lift, the platform had stopped in front of another tunnel. Alex stepped off the lift and approached the tunnel. A very solid-looking glass door, probably hermetically sealed, blocked it. Alex keyed a code into a wall-mounted keypad, and the glass door slid open, releasing a gust of air. Cassie felt two sensations. The first was air that had suddenly become a lot warmer; the second was the invigorating, breathtaking sensation of mana that suddenly flowed around her—so much mana. “Oh my God,” she whispered.
Starlight (The Dark Elf War Book 1) Page 35