Orders of Magnitude (The Genie and the Engineer Series Book 2)

by Glenn Michaels

  Okay, the Maricá was next, a small airstrip across the harbor and up the coast twenty five miles away.

  And there it was, just as pretty as you please, the big Hercules aircraft rolling down the runway as he watched, gathering speed and lifting gracefully into the night air. But what disturbed Paul the most and caused a strong tingling sensation to run up and down his spine was the sight of several human-shaped silhouettes flying alongside the plane.

  Oni.

  He couldn’t get a decent count. It was too dark and they were weaving in and around the aircraft. No doubt they were invisible to the pilot, who would otherwise be freaking out at the sight of such creatures flitting around his aircraft. It reminded Paul of the Twilight Zone episode, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” but he put that thought away.

  He whipped the phone out and frantically punched the buttons.

  “Capie? Capie! The plane is at Maricá Airport, to the east of Rio! Get here as fast as you can! And get this! It’s being escorted by a bunch of Oni! That’s right, a lot of them! Ten or more, at least! Right! And yes, I’ll be careful!”

  • • • •

  Capie shoved the phone back in her pocket and was on the verge of opening a portal straight to the Maracanã Stadium, throwing caution to the wind. After all, any Oni around would shortly know that she and Paul were in the area anyway. Why hide anymore?

  And then she stopped suddenly as she carried that thought through to an obvious conclusion.

  No. Going to Rio was not the best first choice. There was somewhere else to go first. Then Rio.

  She just hoped that Paul would understand and that he could hold out until she got there.

  • • • •

  Paul dissolved the microportal and opened a portal toward the east, stepping through and cutting his distance to the C-130 by twenty three miles. The sooner that he intercepted the terrorist aircraft, the better the chance he had at taking it out.

  “Uncle Sam, any suggestions?” he asked, incredibly afraid of the danger he would shortly be in. He watched the Oni apparently taking notice of him in the darkened sky. Several of them began moving ahead of the plane, in his direction.

  “You already know what’s at stake,” the tall specter reminded him. “The Oni will probably split up, some to guard the plane and the rest to attack you. Don’t get bogged down in trying to take out the Oni. That plane is your goal. Deception and illusions won’t work on the Oni, but they will work on the Normal piloting that plane.”

  The image took a deep breath and quickly added. “Your pledge not to kill anyone. You might have to break it, to save the lives of more than eighty thousand Normals.”

  Paul swallowed hard and gritted his teeth. “Right. I thought Capie might be here by now, but it’s just as well that she isn’t. This is going to be dangerous. Time to go.”

  He ramped up his night vision even more, the better to see his target and the Oni guarding it. The plane was now only a mile away, still climbing and accelerating. With his stomach tied in knots, his heart thundering in his chest, Paul gritted his teeth and launched himself forward.

  Gathering his powers, he cast a spell for a huge fiery apparition in front of him, half phoenix and half dragon, its wings spread wide, its mouth spewing fire, its entire body glowing a bright red.

  But the plane showed no reaction at all, continuing on a steady course in his direction. The Oni must be casting a counter spell, blocking the pilot’s ability to see the illusion.

  Frustrated, the distance to the plane now a half mile, he cast a spell to fire a large plasma bolt at the plane. However, the bolt dissipated into nothingness before it was halfway there, again apparently at the instigation of the Oni. Was there no way to reach the plane?

  Paul would have loved to have used his fusion spell but they were over dry land, no water nearby. He could portal in a few pounds of H2O, of course, but probably never get it close enough to the plane to use it. Moreover, there were people on the ground below him. At their low altitude, the risk was too high.

  The combined closure rate between him and the plane was nearly 300 miles per hour and he was now out of time. The leading edge of Oni started firing plasma bolts at him. Paul ducked and weaved, firing back at them and every now and then, at the plane. Very few of his shots hit an Oni, bouncing off their shields and none ever hit the plane.

  He was forced to turn with and match the plane’s speed and direction. By his estimate, they would be at the stadium in less than twelve minutes.

  As he dodged another bolt of plasma, he wondered again where Capie was.

  • • • •

  At only fifty feet off of the ground, Capie was zipping down the Esplanade de Ministerios in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, conducting a strafing run. Only, she wasn’t firing bullets but magical spells.

  They were for fireworks, various characters from Disney films, gremlins, creatures from Harry Potter films, from Lord of the Rings, spells for griffins, dragons, monsters from various Japanese and Hollywood Films, amongst others. Whatever illusion she could think of that would draw a lot of attention, she created it.

  There was panic in the streets. Fire trucks and police cars were roaring up and down the boulevard, chasing the chimera.

  Gee, how long would it take for the Errabêlu wizard here to notice?

  • • • •

  The wizard in question, Guillermos Olivos, wasn’t in Brasilia. He was in Rio de Janeiro. In fact, he was in the VIP section of the stands in the Maracanã Stadium riveted to the opening ceremony.

  Olivos was a huge fan of the Olympics and he had expended considerable political and financial capital campaigning to have his country of Brazil selected to be the host for the games. It gave him great pride for his nation to have that honor this time.

  So he was quite angry indeed when one of his Oni brought him word that another wizard was terrorizing Brasilia. The timing involved infuriated him, with the perpetrator invading his country, his capital city when he, Olivos, was in Rio trying to watch the Olympics! Such insolence! Such effrontery!

  And the flagrant tawdry deluge of magical spells that this depraved immoral wizard was using, in a public venue! It riled and enraged Olivos to the extreme. If they agreed on nothing else, the wizards of Errabêlu took great pains not to display the use of their magical powers where Normies could see them! Why, this was more than a crime! It verged on an act of war! How dare the upstart! To do this to him, a senior member of the Conclave of Magi, no less!

  Red faced, he hotly issued orders to the Oni messenger, then dashed out of the VIP box himself. He would see to this personally.

  • • • •

  And then, not far in front of Capie, a portal opened up and two Oni emerged. She came to an abrupt halt, hovering in midair, grinning smugly.

  Finally!

  She turned, speeding off, casting more spells. She had to time this carefully, lest she be trapped here.

  There! A glimpse of two more Oni, flying down a side street, on an intercept course with her. She veered again, now toward the Congresso Nacional, a 302 foot tall building at the end of the boulevard. At the last moment, she altered course, now skimming upwards along one side of the towering edifice until she reached the roof.

  And portaling away, straight to Rio de Janeiro, freely expending all the magical energy that she could muster. She didn’t want her pursuers to miss her trail.

  • • • •

  Paul was wracked with despair, pain, and hopelessness. Nothing he had tried had worked. The C-130 was now over the middle of the Cunha channel and less than a minute from the stadium. Already the pilot had slowed the craft, dropping it to a lower altitude on an approach run. The rear cargo hold ramp was coming down too, allowing Paul a brief look into the lighted interior.

  He could see a cargo pallet sitting in readiness.

  Two more plasma bolts hit his personal shields, as he attempted to dive out of the path of the Oni again.

  In desperation, he reached down with
his powers into the water of the channel below the plane, forming a ball of fusion.

  The explosion echoed through the bay, a geyser of black water reaching upward for plane—

  But the blast was diverted by the Oni, never reaching the aircraft.

  A sudden bright blast of light to the north caused Paul to spin around.

  What was that all about?

  • • • •

  Despite the darkness, high above the bay, Capie took in the situation almost immediately and she dove for the plane, cast a spell to form a solid magical shield in front of her.

  Behind her, Olivos and a dozen Oni emerged from another portal, tracking her effortlessly and rocketing after her.

  • • • •

  Paul saw a dark shape shooting for the opposite side of the plane, effectively outflanking the Oni in front of him. Could that be Capie?

  And then he saw a second portal open up and another dozen Oni emerge and fly towards the plane.

  His heart sank and he cried out in total anguish, his body shivering uncontrollably in rage.

  More Oni? There was absolutely no chance of stopping the attack now! 80,000 people were about to die horribly and he couldn’t stop it. There were too many Oni!

  And then the dark shape rocketing through the gloom of the night sky plowed through the outer skin of the plane, shredding a hole in the aluminum sheeting as it plunged into the interior. But it did not come out the other side.

  As Paul watched, he saw a very curious thing. One of the arriving group of Oni stopped in midair, pointing at the Oni protecting the plane. This second group of Oni then veered slightly, heading toward the first group. Paul never found out that the one leading the attacking Oni was the Brazilian wizard.

  They opened fire with a torrent of plasma bolts on the first group.

  Mouth falling open in total astonishment, Paul watched for a few seconds as the first group responded in kind. In less than ten seconds, the two factions merged into a real fur-ball of a dogfight.

  Idiot, he screamed at himself. This was his chance to do something while the first group of Oni were distracted! MOVE IT!

  He flung himself forward, aiming for the rear cargo door of the C-130.

  The plane was already over the eastern section of the city. In seconds, it would be over the target.

  • • • •

  Capie broke through the side of the Hercules aircraft, knocking two Quds Force troopers to the cargo deck. She spun, using a spell to push back two more soldiers.

  A plasma bolt hit her in the side, throwing her against the wall. Raising one arm, she fired back at the Oni that had hit her, one who was disguised as an Iranian soldier. Her plasma bolt burst against its chest and knocked it to the ground.

  Another bolt hit her and she suddenly found herself lying on her back on the deck staring up into the face of a middle-eastern man.

  “A woman!” Omar shouted over the thunder of noise inside the plane. He turned and moved off, yelling some words in Arabic, which Capie was too dazed to understand. She followed him with her eyes, a corner of her mind noting the two huge cigar shaped cylinders sitting on pallets. Two bombs. And three soldiers were gathered by one of them, at the end of the plane, manhandling it towards the open cargo ramp.

  The man who had leaned over her was now standing behind them, one arm raised high. He screamed at the soldiers and dropped his hand.

  They shoved hard on the bomb, and it teetered on the edge of the ramp.

  • • • •

  As Paul shot forward, dodging past the swirling combat and carnage of the battling Oni, he was able to see far enough into the plane to note the soldiers pushing on the bomb.

  “NO!” he screamed, diving into opening, just as the bomb started sliding down the ramp.

  He tried casting a spell to push it back, but the bomb was too heavy and its inertia already more than he could handle.

  So instead, he straddled the casing near the end and cast a spell to hold on as tightly as he could. The bomb popped out of the rear of the plane, into the night air, falling fast in a downward arc.

  The iconic image of Slim Pickens in the film Dr. Strangelove popped into his mind and Paul screwed his eyes shut, screaming at the top of his lungs, “Yeeeee Hawwwww!”

  A drogue chute popped out of the tail and he flung his eyes open again as the bomb jerked hard enough to make him slide all the way down the bomb’s length to its nose. He barely managed to hold on, where now he was in an upside down position.

  He noted that the bomb was rapidly approaching the opening in the roof of the stadium, not far from dead center, in fact. He had only seconds to do something, since the first stage of the detonator would likely go off just as soon as the bomb passed through that hole.

  The detonator. He glanced at the front edge of the bomb, noticing a small hatch built into the casing. That would be where the detonator was installed and where it had been armed, prior to being dropped. Placing one hand on the hatch, he closed his eyes again and muttered a chant.

  “In the name of Peace on Earth, let the value of vacuum permittivity inside this bomb be cut in half!”

  Inside the bomb, at the detonator, the battery circuit feeding the timer to the two detonators suddenly lost most of its voltage. Moreover, the electric charge for the exploding-bridgewire detonators was also severely diminished. In effect, the detonator was stunned into an unconscious state. No longer armed, the bomb fell through the circular hole in the stadium roof line without exploding.

  Paul jumped clear, using a spell to come to a halt in midair as he watched the bomb half bury itself in the grass of the stadium’s open field, just missing the Israeli team captain by twenty feet.

  The crowds in the stadium’s seats fell quiet at the sudden and unexpected appearance of what looked, for the all the world, to be a bomb plunging into and now sticking out of the ground. Paul lowered himself and landed next to the now inactive explosive device. Facing the stands and raising his hands high in the air, he then bowed.

  At first, no one seemed to know how to respond to this. Then a lone elderly man in the crowds stood and began to clap. Others soon joined and within seconds, the place was thundering with applause. Paul bowed again, noting out of the corner of one eye the onslaught of hundreds of police and security officers scrambling pell-mell across the field from all points of the compass, in his direction, guns waving frantically. With a wave of his hand, he rose into the air, accelerating back out of the hole in the stadium’s roof.

  Scanning the city skyline, he quickly found both the plane and the still raging Oni battle. The dogfight however, seemed smaller than before, no doubt due to causalities on both sides. It was the plane, though, that Paul was interested in. It was in a steep right-hand bank, heading back out over Guanabara Bay. Perhaps it was making another attempt at a bomb run using the second bomb that he had caught a brief sight of inside the cargo bay.

  He briefly considered destroying the plane, now that there weren’t any Oni to stop him. But that figure who had flown into the plane might very well have been his wife. Okay, so maybe he couldn’t destroy it outright, but he sure could prevent it from making another run.

  Gathering all his power, he fired two huge blasts of plasma, both of them racing across the night sky, the first exploding engine number four and destroying the last several feet of the starboard wing tip. The second spell did the same thing with engine number one and the left wing tip.

  The plane’s nose dropped and the pilot suddenly had a fight on his hands, keeping the aircraft in the air. Shooting forward, Paul raced across the intervening distance and angled in toward the C-130’s side and the gaping hole there. As he approached, Paul got a good look at the lighted interior.

  And saw his wife on the cargo deck, badly hurt and bleeding. An Oni also lay on the deck, its chest charred black. Another Oni was talking to an Iranian soldier. Reaching out with his powers, Paul lowered the vacuum permittivity around the Oni still standing and had the satisfaction of
seeing it suddenly jerk several times before collapsing to the deck. Then he pulled himself through the hole.

  Omar saw Paul immediately and shouted at the soldiers pushing the bomb. Two of those men drew pistols, P226s, but Paul froze all of the men with another spell.

  With as much care as he could manage, he levitated Capie off the deck and into his waiting arms.

  “Stay with me, now, love of my life!” he managed to say soothingly to her through a suddenly too dry throat. “I’ll get you to safety and take good care of you. Just don’t leave me now, CB!”

  Walking forward, he maneuvered around the frozen figures in the plane and then floated out the cargo ramp, into the night.

  Outside, holding an unconscious Capie in his arms, he turned in midair and watched the plane speed away.

  “Considering what they nearly accomplished,” he snarled angrily, “I should just let everyone on that plane die in a fiery plane crash. But I did promise not to kill anyone. So, may those fires be extinguished forthwith!”

  Obediently, the flames instantly disappeared from view and the pilot appeared to regain control, stabilizing the craft into level flight once more.

  And thus no one was more surprised than Paul when the Inboard Main #3 fuel tank exploded suddenly, shredding the right wing and destroying Engine #3. Mortally wounded, the plane entered a spin to the right, practically falling from the sky and nose diving towards the warm waters of Guanabara Bay.

  “Oops,” Paul noted grimly but with little regret. “I guess I was a little late putting out that fire after all. Sorry about that. I really did try.”

  The thermobaric bomb in the cargo hold had already been fully armed. Upon detecting the rapid decrease in altitude, its circuitry fired the drogue chute, hitting Omar in the chest, breaking three of his ribs and propelling him halfway down the length of the cargo hold. Then, at the right altitude, the first detonator blew, disbursing ethylene oxide throughout the cargo hold and some of it out the rear of the plane. A few hundred milliseconds after that, the second detonator blew. The resulting thunderous explosion disintegrated the plane into several million tiny pieces and shattered windows all around the bay of the city.