London Underground: An Unofficial Legend of The Secret World (Unofficial Legends of The Secret World Book 2)

by Blodwedd Mallory

  “So the team compensated for her inexperience?”

  “Actually, no,” Sevenoir explained. “We were lagging just slightly behind the Dragon until Wedd realized that if she changed her tactics and helped heal the team, we could hold the center. She did it without any of us prompting her. It was enough to push us over the finish line to a win.”

  The grey-haired man gave an interested “hmm” and sat back in his seat.

  “I know my esteemed colleague appreciates a solid win in the Templar column for the Secret War, but there’s still the matter of her missing mother,” Dame Julia said sharply. “And this trend of Ms. Mallory doing what she wants, rather than what she’s been instructed to do. It prevents us from keeping her safe, and we have a duty to Lisbette to ensure her daughter is cared for.”

  Plimmy cleared her throat and raised her voice. “Why are we not asking Wedd what she wants?”

  “For pity’s sake,” Julia said with a huff. “We know what she wants. The adults in the room are making the decisions here.” She looked across the room at the mysterious figure in combat armor and nodded her head.

  “Plimmy has a point, Julia. We need to hear from Wedd.” said the Chancellor, as she gestured to me. “Wedd, would you like to take a moment to clarify for all of us here what precisely your thoughts are?”

  What did I think? I was a little overwhelmed by all the attention here directed at my behavior and dismayed at the thought of having to go back to Innsmouth Academy and put my initiation on hold, but I wanted to do what was right for the organization as well.

  “At Innsmouth Academy, it was my job to manage the familiars loose around the campus. My friend Gypcie and I harvested them daily to gather anima charges to make shards to power the wards,” I began. “It was dangerous work, but Headmaster Montag and Ms. Usher trusted us to do it. It was how we contributed to the fight to hold back the darkness threatening to overwhelm Solomon Island. We even successfully fought and captured a wraith that was seeking blood-debt retribution from the headmaster.”

  “Yes, yes. We know all about your exploits at the Academy, Ms. Mallory,” Dame Julia said dismissively. The Chancellor looked at Dame Julia with a raised eyebrow, and her mouth flattened into a line.

  “My point is,” I said with some energy, “that I have been in dangerous situations before and I’ve learned how to take care of myself. Yes, it’s true that I am currently training to become competent with other weapons and I have a lot to learn before I master them, but I am smart and willing to work hard.”

  I bowed my head as tears began to well up in my eyes, and swallowed down the emotions choking my throat. I looked up at the panel who held my future in their hands. “I have wanted to be a Templar my whole life, and nothing has made me happier than being here this past week, working toward that goal. But at the end of the day, I am also a team player, and if it isn’t in the best interest of the organization to have me here now, I will accept that outcome.”

  Brigadier Lethe eased off the side of the table and faced the panel. “I’ve given nothing but favorable reports on Wedd’s progress. As she indicated, she’s been focused on her training and working hard to learn the things I’ve taught her. Why are we holding her to a higher standard than some of her peers? Her mother, as we’ve noted, is one of our most talented and dependable agents.”

  “And she’s missing,” Dame Julia shrilled. “Or did you miss that part?”

  “I did not,” Lethe responded firmly. “And of course I’m worried. But I’m also hopeful that we will yet get good news where Lisbette is concerned. What is the rationale of holding back Wedd because her mother is missing?”

  “Because at least then she will be safe! Her father…” Dame Julia stopped talking with a cough.

  Plimmy got up from her seat behind the table and walked up to the bench, with sorrow and compassion on her face for the silver-haired matron who was holding herself rigidly from her position at the center of the bench.

  “Julia, Julia,” Plimmy said, shaking her head. “You, of all people, understand that this world is not safe. It was never safe, not for an ordinary person and certainly not for a Templar agent. And we all must occasionally endure our loved ones being in harm’s way. You know that I, more than most, understand what that means.”

  Dame Julia looked gravely at Plimmy in acknowledgment, then glanced across the room toward the mysterious figures on the left wall. The man in the hood and armor gave her a slight nod, and she looked back at those assembled at the front of the room.

  “Very well. I withdraw my petition for Ms. Mallory to be returned to the Innsmouth Academy for the short term. But that means we still have to deal with the problem of her oversight and training.”

  “I’ll do it.”

  I jerked my head to the right at Sevenoir’s voice and looked at him in amazement.

  “You’ll do it.” Dame Julia said flatly, drawing my attention back to the bench. “Like you left her at the Agartha portal on Solomon Island to find her own way to London?”

  Sevenoir spread his hands and sighed. “That was a mistake. I was angry at the assignment. It was not my best decision. But, I’ve tried to make up for it and watch over her since.”

  Brigadier Lethe agreed. “He’s been a regular participant in her training…most days.”

  “And I can attest to the fact that he’s kept an eye on her outside of training as well,” Plimmy chimed in, turning to Sevenoir as she added, “although those ridiculous bunny ears made it hard for you to be subtle. Fortunately for you, she hasn’t had any counter-espionage training yet. I saw you coming a block away most times.”

  I gaped at Plimmy. She smiled at me and winked. “I was an agent for many years, dear. Dame Julia was my partner. Of course, I’m retired now and merely a landlady. I find it suits me as I get older. Not all of us want to devote our whole lives to the Templar task, although I do still enjoy being invited to the Christmas festivities.”

  Dame Julia gave her a wry smile at that.

  “Well, that settles it,” the dark-haired Chancellor spoke up. “Unless there is still discussion, I move that Wedd be fully reinstated as a candidate for initiation. And I further move that she be given provisional status. We can then supply her with gear and a uniform, so she’ll have her own to wear next time she joins her teammates in a Secret War scrimmage.”

  “Agreed,” the silver-headed man at the right of Dame Julia nodded.

  Dame Julia took a deep breath. “Very well then. Richard, please authorize Brigadier Lethe to provide Wedd with the necessary provisions.”

  “Of course, Dame Julia,” he said with a smile at me. “Congratulations, Wedd. Welcome to the Templars in a provisional capacity, pending your initiation.”

  Happiness flooded my body at his words, and I beamed. Sevenoir patted me on the back, and Plimmy pulled me into a big hug. Even Brigadier Lethe offered me a growled, “Good on you, soldier.”

  “But that doesn’t solve the problem of all the new Bees headed our way,” Dame Julia said archly. “George, you are soon to be swamped with trainees. The rest of our agents, Sevenoir here notwithstanding, who are not already on assignment are out in the field tracking down Gaia’s chosen. We expect the agents to be tied up for weeks as we figure out how to process and train the influx of new candidates. Everyone will have to pitch in. We cannot afford to let the darkness get a foothold in this war.”

  There was an abrupt knocking at the panel door, and a young aide entered and rushed up the red carpet to the bench. He handed Dame Julia a report and stood at attention while she reviewed its contents.

  Her face darkened, and she looked up with resignation.

  “And I see my comments were uncommonly prescient.”

  She stood up at the bench and eyed Sevenoir and me, frustration clear on her face.

  “We're in the middle of what some would call a ‘developing situation.’ Some fellows from Oxford have been excavating below Darkside. Another Roman temple, dedicated to Mithras. There's a mes
s of them around here, as the both of you well know. But this one's special.”

  Dame Julia practically spit as she said that, her anger causing her to lose her customary formality. “Aren’t they all? They’ve found some bloody artifact. Every time that happens, things go tits up. Everyone’s scrambling to get a hold of it. Like children scrabbling in the dirt for a shiny shilling.”

  She looked at Plimmy with what I could swear was a kind of longing in her face. “What a circus this all is.”

  “None better to handle it than you, Julia,” Plimmy said with a smile.

  “Right then,” Dame Julia responded, decisiveness clear in her face. “There’s a defensive perimeter, but it won't hold up against a sustained onslaught, I'm afraid. The position is already under attack, and the tunnels have been intentionally caved in to prevent us from pulling the assets out of there.”

  She paused, shaking her head as if she couldn’t believe her own words. “We need a detail down below, and since everyone else’s off fighting for home and country, Sevenoir and Wedd, you’re that detail.”

  Dame Julia gestured to the aide to bring us the report. “Go with Brigadier Lethe and get your provisions, Wedd. We don’t have time to fit you for an agent uniform now, but you’ll need a headset and a cell phone for contact. You both need to get to that Mithraeum immediately.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  The Approach to the Innermost Cave

  For a man with a stiff leg, Brigadier Lethe could move fast. The next few minutes were a blur as Sevenoir and I grabbed our things and followed him swiftly out of the room and back to the Crucible. The guards there held the doors open as he approached. Lethe traversed across the carpet to the steps to the practice floor quickly, and then leaning on the railing for support, he swung his bad leg out and hopped down the stairs two at a time.

  He made his way down to a black case in the center and grabbed a cell phone, and headset sitting on top of it and handed it to me. Sevenoir helped me fit the headset around my ear and jaw and turn the cell phone to silent mode.

  “That’ll be it then,” Lethe said, clapping me on the shoulder. “Godspeed, you two. Make me proud.”

  I thanked him for all his support, while Sevenoir consulted the mission report the aide had given us.

  “Looks like the location of the Mithraeum is in Lostbrooke Close,” he said. “That’s not far from here, thankfully. We can cut across Temple Court past the Honesty Yard. The entrance is down an access stair in the sewers.”

  Oh goodie. More sewers.

  I looked down at my plain black heels dubiously. I unbuttoned the cuffs of my white button-down dress shirt and rolled up my sleeves, then checked my backpack to be sure I had my athame and my blood and chaos foci.

  “Ready?” Sevenoir asked me.

  “Ready.”

  We headed out of the Crucible, across the hall, and down the front steps, turning left at the bottom. Sevenoir was right about it being close. The Honesty Yard was just to the west of Temple Hall, and we set a brisk pace crossing the yard to Lostbrooke Close, entering through a fancy wrought iron gate.

  The Close itself was a well-lit brick tunnel with a cobblestone floor, which provided access between Via Antiqua and the Temple Court for maintenance. Even though it was well maintained, it had rubbish and boxes which gave it a patina of disuse. I had to slow my pace a little there to compensate for the heels of my pumps on the cobblestones and rued my choice of footwear.

  Still, how could I have known this would be the outcome of my early morning invitation to Temple Hall? I was thankful I had decided to grab some breakfast.

  We followed the tunnel as it curved south, coming to the domed entrance of a metal staircase that headed down below the street level. To our right, the tunnel continued out to Via Antiqua. Ironically, I could see the Fallen King’s square on the far side from where we stood. He seemed a fitting icon for this folly.

  “Down we go,” Sevenoir said, and he stepped out on the curved metal staircase, his uniform boots ringing out as he proceeded down them. I followed him cautiously, walking on the balls of my feet, trying to keep my heels from catching in the grates.

  We came to a platform that sat level with the Bazalgette sewers I’d traversed earlier in the week. To the right of the bottom of the stairs, the entrance to the sewers was blocked with steel bars. Directly across, a path into the brick-lined sewer tunnels beckoned. Just left of that entrance was a rusted metal maintenance door, with an industrial-looking light fixture above it.

  “This is us,” Sevenoir said. A combination lock was fastened to the front of the door, and after consulting the mission report, he punched in the access code, and the door popped open.

  “Do you know how a sub-vocalization headset works?” he asked me. I shook my head. I barely knew how a cell phone worked.

  “Have you ever heard anyone reading to themselves at the library under their breath?”

  That I was familiar with. Mainly because I was known to do it. Gypcie had loved to tease me about it.

  “It works like this. When you think of a word, your brain starts to shape the muscles of your mouth and throat to speak them, even if you don’t say them aloud. The headset Lethe gave you is specially designed to pick those signals up. This enables us to communicate in near silence, which is important on a mission.”

  I nodded my head in agreement.

  “Try it,” he said.

  OK, I mouthed. In my ear, my words came back as if I’d said them aloud. “OK.”

  I saw his lips move in response, but nothing came out of his mouth. “Good, good.” Sevenoir’s voice came in clear as a bell through my earpiece. This headset was seriously cool.

  Then I heard another voice in my head. I cringed as I realized who it belonged to.

  “You’ve arrived just in time,” Dame Julia said. “There are enemies incoming. Find the main worship hall of the Mithraeum as quickly as you can.”

  Sevenoir pushed the door open and stepped quietly inside the maintenance access. I followed him, stepping again on the balls of my feet to keep the heels of my pumps from striking the floor.

  Behind the door was the entrance way to another Mithraeum, which of course I already knew, but was somewhat shocked to step through a modern threshold into a stone temple ruin. The floor was paved with aged, dusty flagstones, and the walls were ornately carved and covered with a faded white finish. Torches lined the walls in front of us and illuminated a staircase headed down. We moved down the first flight to a small landing covered with crates and supplies. This apparently had been an active dig recently. A standing commercial light fixture buzzed on the left, lending a bright glare to the scene.

  We rounded the corner to a large room, with three dim hallways, running east to west. To the left was a small space visible through a curved archway that was well lit. I could see a bank of servers sitting against the north wall through the arch.

  Sevenoir set off at a quiet jog up the middle hallway. I shuffled along behind him, listening carefully for signs of the intruders Dame Julia had warned us about. All I could hear, however, other than the occasional light footstep from one of us, was the electrical drone of the lighting down here.

  About halfway down the hall, we came to a large circular iron grate on the floor. Sevenoir cut left around it, and I followed him north down another hallway. We hurried through the hall until we came upon another arched entryway leading to a smaller set of stairs. We moved up the stairs and into a vestibule that opened up into the broader room that comprised what I assumed was the main worship hall of the Mithraeum.

  At the center of the nave was a raised dais in the shape of an inverted “T” in front of a rounded alcove set into the back of the wall, with columns to either side. That looked like the main altar. Someone had placed sandbags in a semi-circle in front of it. We could crouch behind the fortification to avoid enemy fire.

  Dame Julia’s voice rang again in my headset.

  “I don’t know how long you have to get set up, but
it won’t be long enough. There are arms caches there in the room. There should be turrets and mines inside them. Set up whatever defenses you can, but carefully.”

  I looked at Sevenoir with wide eyes. He nodded at my concern. I hadn’t been trained to set up mines or turrets.

  He motioned me over to a nearby crate, removing its lid carefully.

  Inside, packed in straw were round circular disks. They had a button on top. Sevenoir mimed pressing the button down.

  “These are proximity mines,” his voice came in clearly through the headset as his lips moved. “Set them down at the points of entry and press the button down to arm them, then back away slowly. And whatever you do, don’t go near them again once they’re armed.”

  It looked like there were six mines and three entrances to the main worship hall, so I took the task of setting up the mines, while Sevenoir found the turrets and assembled them to the right and left of the dais.

  I decided that setting the mines in a staggered fashion just inside and outside of each threshold into the room was my best option to effectively stop the interlopers. Carefully, I placed the outer mine first in the central entrance, setting it enough to the side that hopefully, a careless foe wouldn’t see it until it was too late. I pushed the button on the top of the mine to set it and, taking Sevenoir’s advice, backed away slowly to avoid triggering it.

  I repeated this step just inside the central entrance and then again at the openings on the north and south walls. When I was done, I surveyed Sevenoir’s progress with the turrets. Deadly looking guns mounted on a stand with a long strand of bullets trailing from them sat on each side of the dais. I stepped up, and one of the guns swung around to target me.

  “Stop!” Sevenoir’s voice boomed in my ear, and I stopped in my tracks. “Match friendly target.”

  “Matched,” a computerized voice acknowledged, shattering the relative silence of the room. Sevenoir and I both grimaced at the noise. Still, it was better than getting shot by our own defenses.

  Dame Julia’s voice came across the headset. “Our motion sensors down there were triggered. Someone is coming. Find your places. We’ll send a team to support you as soon as we can. With everything going on, we're woefully short on personnel. Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call for the Force Marshal.”