“I would have it no other way,” he replied. “I will find someone I trust, and that person will be authorized to conduct these meetings and do business on my behalf. I will join you when necessary and available. This will make things much smoother on your end and mine.”
“That sounds acceptable,” they each replied before their spokesman took over. “We’ll wait for your next meeting request. In the meantime, we are still working on the Stop Walk Talk paperwork being reintroduced for each and every Federation Navy data request.”
He stopped, and BURT watched him pause to examine his notes. When he continued, he smiled. “Basically, they’ll encounter a steel-reinforced wall every time they try one of their little tricks. Fortunately for us, we have a number of years’ experience dealing with this kind of tactic from both the Federation side of things as well as industrial competitors. The Federation attorneys on this case, however, are new to the field and rather green, all things considered.”
“Good,” he replied and scanned the information on the Federation Attorneys assigned to the case. “We don’t have time for kids playing in the courtroom. I will speak to you gentlemen later, and I hope you enjoy the cigars I sent from Dreth last week. The factory is still up and running, thank God. There’s not a single distributor on Earth that can match them.”
The attorneys all murmured their thanks before they made their farewells and disconnected one at a time. BURT terminated the feed and rerouted any data paths that might lead back to him.
He needed to determine who the right person was to entrust the company to in all the legal matters. It didn’t take him long to run the requisite data in the background. He focused on people he already knew as well as others with good reputations and whom he believed he could trust with secret information. When the data had been analyzed and the results finalized, he was not the least bit surprised.
“She will not like this.”
As BURT concluded his meeting and prepared to speak to the person selected, Stephanie prepared to enter the scenario one more time. This time, she not only pulsed with energy, she was as mad as hell and teetered on the edge of going berserk. Not only that, she was lucid.
The team had been brought together and now stood with the scenario still frozen in front of them. She stood a little apart, two steps in front of them, with her gazed fixed on the aftermath.
Marcus glanced uncertainly at Lars before he closed the distance to the girl, placed his hands on her shoulders, and ran his hands down her arms to her fists. When he closed his hands over hers, he could feel her clenching and releasing her hands. This close, he could see the veins in her neck and forehead pulsing, and the flare of energy rolled through them both.
He released her slowly and stepped back, his eyes wide as he nudged Lars. The team leader stooped toward him, and Marcus pointed at Stephanie as nonchalantly as he could manage.
“Is she okay?” he hissed.
Lars narrowed his eyes when he noted the girl’s pulsing veins and the flicker of MU across her skin. He peered furtively around them to see if anyone else had noticed and relaxed when no one seemed to be concerned.
Still, they were in a simulation, and he wasn’t even sure if the AI running it was designed to handle something like her abilities. He wasn’t exactly sure what to do and was worried he’d simply have to wait until her vitals reached the warning range or she made some kind of move. Either way, he only hoped he was ready for it.
Knowing at least two of her team had taken note of her, Stephanie tilted her head back and forth to crack her neck. She closed her eyes for a moment to block the simulation out, very aware of her body. It seemed she could feel almost every inch.
From the movement of the ventricles in her heart, to the ripple of her intestinal walls, and the flow of blood through her muscles, she felt it all. Every shift of her feet created a burst of energy that pulsed through her, setting her teeth on edge. It wasn’t so much ecstasy as a feeling of pure control and power.
Internally, things had moved faster than she’d been able to move them before. Since being killed in the ambassador’s attack, she’d forced the gMU through a massive vortex she’d created in her center.
This compressed it into raw energy that blazed with power. Once created, it spread through her body like wildfire and pushed impatiently at every point, waiting for purpose and release.
This time, when the scenario started, they greeted the royals flawlessly, but the team kept a careful eye on Stephanie as the speeches started. They could see she held it together but couldn’t tell how long she’d manage to do so.
As expected, the scenario changed and tears pricked the corners of her eyes as Brilgus spearheaded the plot to assassinate the royals.
It didn’t fit with the bodyguard she knew. The angry face and sharp, violent movements were so out of character that she found it hard to believe.
Not that it mattered. She controlled her shock, assessed the situation, and responded. In the blink of an eye, Stephanie had vanished. Morgana had come to play.
The energy rose from her skin and swirled around her, and her hair lifted as though blown by a wild wind.
“Oh, crap,” Marcus moaned, and Lars swore as he moved so he could see her face. Her eyes had gone as dark as night.
“Shit!” Brenden yelled. “What’s the code word?”
“Todd!” As Lars answered, she launched herself forward to drive a pulse of energy into Brilgus that flattened him against a wall. She leapt off the stage and released multiple bursts of magic to sear through the first Meligornsians to follow the traitorous bodyguard’s lead.
A dozen fell to her spells and then a dozen more. The Meligornians on stage surged toward her, and those in the tiers charged, focused on where she stood. The team watched in horror as the renegades began a united assault.
The sheer number of them broke over her like a wave and carried her to the floor. The attack didn’t stop there, but the aggressors piled on top of her and buried her with their bodies. For a moment, the pile heaved, and the guys held their breath.
From what they could see, she had to be under more than a dozen people and not a single piece of her was visible. No one on the stage moved. Apart from Brilgus, the ambushers had all been in the tiers.
The team looked at the royal guard, but they had surrounded the royals and paid no attention to the pile of Meligornians in front of the stage. The human mass heaved once more and then went still.
Cautiously, the team moved closer for a better look. Marcus studied it warily and his head tilted in curiosity a moment later. “What is that?”
Lars followed his gaze and immediately saw the glow of energy seeping through the stacked bodies. His eyes widened. “Take cover!”
The guards forced the royals to the ground as the team flung themselves to one side. From the front of the stage, a huge burst of energy erupted and every Meligornian on top of her careened away. Many landed hard and didn’t move, but others scrambled to their feet and immediately turned to where she struggled to stand.
Worse, more attackers now descended from the tiers, intent on reaching the royals. Lars didn’t stop to wonder why the royal guards hadn’t hustled their charges out of the amphitheater. He and the guys left the stage and prepared to meet the next wave.
Their purpose was two-fold. They had to prevent any of the traitors from reaching the king and queen, and they had to protect Stephanie—both from the Meligornians and herself.
Magic sizzled violently from every quarter. The spells wore a soft purple hue but were no less deadly because of it. Lars and Marcus separated to stop a group of the enemy from reaching where Frog and Johnny stood between Stephanie and five mages with magic arcing over their hands. Avery and Brenden tried to protect the approach to her left and cover both her and the stage.
Another group of Meligornians tried to slip around the humans to reach the steps on the right side of the stage. Lars cast a desperate look at the team and saw they were holding their own.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the doors at the top of the amphitheater crashed open and more adversaries raced in.
“Damn.”
Stephanie had found her feet and placed a hand on Frog’s shoulder. The familiar blue glow of a shield formed in front of them and they turned to the group moving around their flank. The boys would be all right.
Lars didn’t bother to look toward the stage. The royal guards would do what they always did—protect the king and queen—but still had not tried to get them to safety. Why the damned AI running this shit show hadn’t added that to its routine, he didn’t know, but it sure as hell made his life difficult.
He and Marcus fired into the group heading toward the stage. They tried to traverse the distance between them, only to find their path blocked by more Meligornians. At the same time, others had slipped between them and Stephanie to effectively destroy any opportunity to go back.
“Well, this is one hell of a…” Lars muttered and turned so his teammate was at his back as they prepared to engage the enemy surrounding them.
“We are so royally screwed,” Marcus snapped and shot the closest target. “Screwed. Screwed. Screwed. Screwed. Screwed.”
With every expletive, he fired again and dropped another attacker. Lars matched him, shot for shot, but it was only a matter of time before the aggressors closed and they were forced to fight hand to hand. When that time came, Marcus was right.
They really were royally screwed.
The Meligornians barreled in relentlessly. Some fell to Lars’ well-placed bullets, but more drove into him and pushed him back against Marcus. The two men fought like wild things, even though both of them knew it was only a matter of time before they were brought down.
“Stephanie will be so pissed off with us.”
Lars was about to reply that he and Marcus should give her a reason to be pissed off when there was a shout from the stage and the king’s voice rolled out around them.
“Help them! It won’t do us much good if you protect me and the others die.”
Why he would care about that, Lars couldn’t tell. He only hoped the royal guard could do something in time. He didn’t see the king roll his sleeves up and heave himself up from the floor. He certainly didn’t see the queen tug at her husband’s arm.
“What are you doing?”
He stared at his wife. “I’m going to fight. I think it’s about damn time the leader of Meligorn showed he was willing to protect his allies instead of cowering behind his bodyguards. What sort of a message does that send our allies? We need to fight back and show them we will not bow to their hatred.”
As he spoke, the royal guard eliminated the small group of Meligornians heading around Lars and Marcus to the stage and then struck those who attacked the two men. It was all the pair needed to turn the tide.
As the guards mopped up the area around them, the two teammates worked their way to Stephanie and slid in behind the shield she had created. Frog and Johnny sent Lars worried looks to indicate that he needed to go to her.
He looked past them and wasn’t sure he wanted to approach. Magic swirled around her like coruscating fire and the power of it raised the hairs on his arm. He swallowed hard and reached out tentatively to touch her on the arm.
Even knowing she was fighting mad, he was still shocked when she turned viciously toward him, her hands raised with magic twisting around them. The shield never wavered and continued to provide a barrier between her and the enemies as she looked at him.
Her eyes were as black as night, but recognition sparked within their depths and they faded slowly to a more purple hue. They now revealed a little more Stephanie and a little less Morgana. No words passed between them as they stared at each other for a long moment. Then, as if they’d said all that was needed, both nodded and turned back to the fight.
Lars fired at the enemies, and Stephanie surprised them by maintaining the shield while she spun horizontal blocks of magic that struck the nearest Meligorns in a wide arc at knee-height.
Bones shattered among her victims, and he winced. Still, it was good to see her at least attempt to disarm them instead of killing them outright. That wasn’t easy, not with so many attacking at once. He tried to follow her example, but it was difficult to aim and make each shot count without fatalities.
The team continued to fight and held the front of the stage alongside the royal guards. From behind them, the king himself stood behind his throne and used his magic to destroy his enemies.
The queen had ducked in the center of her guards, at first not willing to harm her own people. She was well-known for her kind heart. What she wasn’t known for was her temper.
That came to the fore when a bolt of magic rocketed into one of her guards and he fell with his armor shattered and smoke rising from his skin. He tried to rise, but she pressed him back and her eyes blazed with purple light.
“Stay right there until the healers come,” she ordered and looked for who was responsible for the spell. Her gaze settled on one Meligornian she recognized from parliament, and her mouth twisted into a very unqueenlike snarl. “I will deal with this.”
“Uh, your Majesty—” was all another of her protectors managed before she rose to her feet and drew on the MU around them. The guard’s mouth hung open when she launched a barrage of magic into the Meligornians who still attacked the guards in front of the stage.
It impacted in a series of purple streaks that wound tightly around throats and burrowed beneath tunics and ceremonial robes. Anyone hit by them shrieked as power surged over them to trigger nerve endings and muscle strands and topple them with great effectiveness.
The royal guard cheered, and the king laughed.
“Now, there’s the girl I married.”
The queen snapped back, “And I’ll deal with you later, Your Majesty.”
The king fired another round of magic and grinned as he sought his next target.
“Doesn’t this remind you of that time my father sent us to—” He stopped speaking and sliced his hand hastily to deflect an incoming onslaught back to the enemy.
It didn’t take them long to finish the battle. The royal guard, the team, Stephanie, and the royals themselves, worked together to defeat the last of the Meligornians who’d instigated the attack. As the battle came to a close, the king cast one last spell to fell a traitor who tried to flee the scene. When he’d fallen, everyone took a deep breath and holstered their weapons, happy to see that the royal couple and the courtiers loyal to them were okay.
Lars high-fived several of his teammates and turned to hug Stephanie. However, as his gaze drifted to where she’d last stood, he couldn’t find her. It took him a minute of scanning the amphitheater frantically until he located her.
She had walked to the very bottom of the tiered seating and now looked up toward the very back. As he watched, she tilted back her head and screamed.
It was a high, thin sound that reminded him of shattered glass and pain and tortured metal. It radiated throughout the amphitheater and echoed back like a thousand souls in torment.
Everyone fell silent and simply watched as she stood motionless for a moment before she collapsed. The ambassador was the first to reach her after he raced across the stage and used magic to vault over the battlefield.
He arrived moments before Lars, knelt beside her, and grasped her wrist to feel for her pulse. After a moment, he waved his hand over her face. He repeated the gesture and closed his eyes tightly.
When he opened them again, his expression softened with grief and he leaned down to kiss her cheek. He lifted her fragile-looking hand, laid it across her chest, and looked at Lars and then at the king and queen.
The royal couple stood on the stage, their expressions concerned. Their guards and courtiers hovered protectively around them. It was as if everyone held their breath, waiting for the ambassador’s verdict.
With a shaky s
igh, he shook his head and waved his hand over her face again. This time, he created a veil, a Meligornian custom when someone had died.
“She’s dead…” He choked and buried his face in his hands. His shoulders heaved in silent grief.
A chorus of gasps and protests greeted his announcement before the entire scene froze and turned black.
Lars’ eyes opened and he shoved the lid to his pod up. He yanked the small IV from his arm, leapt out, and ran to Stephanie’s pod. Marcus followed quickly and placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, brother. It is only a simulation. Remember?”
He stared at him for a moment and glanced down at his own body. He was almost surprised to find he was no longer dressed in battle gear or robes, that there was a ship moving steadily beneath them, and that the expanse of space danced outside the viewing ports along the room’s edge.
He exhaled a deep sigh of relief and put his hand to his chest. “Good Lord, I…I thought…”
Marcus patted him on the shoulder. “We all did when we first opened our eyes.”
The rest of the team exited their pods correctly and Frog walked over to the leader’s pod to deactivate the alarm he’d triggered by his abrupt departure. Lars looked at the closed pod beside him. “I think I should check on her anyway. Frog, can you read that screen at the front and tell me if it’s safe to open this thing?”
Frog hurried over and pressed his finger to the screen several times before he nodded. “Yeah. She’s good.”
He entered the opening sequence and lifted the lid. As it opened, a swirl of magic escaped and rose into the air around him as he peered inside. Stephanie lay there, her eyes shut but her cheeks flushed.
He lowered to one knee and stroked her cheek. “Stephanie. Wake up. Are you all right? Are you conscious?”
Witch Of The Federation (Federal Histories Book 2) Page 25