Beyond the Pale (21 page)

The
teocalli
seemed mute and faint next to it, but Ryan knew that under normal circumstances the temple would itself be a beacon.
There’s some major mojo going down,
he thought.
Perhaps this is what Dunkelzahn feared.

“Talon,” Ryan said. “Look into the astral.”

“I have,” came the reply. “What the frag are you taking us into?”

“Not sure, chummer,” Ryan said. “But whatever they’re doing down there, I think it’s peripheral to our mission. We're here for Lethe. He’s in the temple. This ceremony or whatever might even work in our favor.”

Axler’s voice was cold and analytical. “The sec forces will be focused elsewhere. There’ll be way too much confusion for them to do their job effectively.”

“If you say so,” said Talon. “I’ll work on trying to keep the watcher spirits from giving us away. But I’ve never seen so many in one place before.”

“Cluster is right on time,” Jane said. “There should be something to occupy everyone’s attention very shortly.”
Grind’s voice growled in Ryan’s ear, “Where is the
ollamaliztli
stadium?”

“About six hundred meters behind the temple,” Ryan said. The stadium sat in the dim light of surrounding illumination—street lamps and security lights. It was inside the military perimeter, but had not been opened to the public. They wouldn’t have to land in a crowd of people.

“I see it,” said Grind. “Coming up fast.”

As they neared the ground, Ryan began picking out individual teams of armed guards, some occupying stationary positions, others moving through the crowds. “I hope that distraction comes soon,” he said. “Otherwise we’ll be like glued ducks up here.”

“Jane?” Axler’s voice.

“Should be any second,” came Jane’s voice.

A few ticks passed, and Ryan was jockeying his chute to get in position for landing when he saw the flash. A split second before the sound hit, a red and white burst of brightness from the head of the lake. Then a wave of sound crashed over him, ear-splitting and deep. A massive explosion ripping through the dark fabric of night.

Right on time.

Ryan had seen crowds react to explosions before. Close to the explosion, they ran away from the blast, trying to get as far from the destruction as possible. But a few hundred meters farther back, people merely panicked, trying to get out, but not knowing which way to go. Mob hysteria.

As Ryan watched, people ran into each other, trampling the slow and the weak, those who couldn’t get out of the way. Military personnel tried to calm them so that they could move through and get to the dam, which now spewed water.

“Look at the center of the crowd,” Talon said. “No one is reacting.”

As Ryan brought his attention there, he saw that Talon spoke true. The core cluster of people had not moved. It was as though they had not even heard the explosion. Only those outside the lake bed and on the far side of the temple had reacted.

“They’re under some sort of enchantment,” said Talon.

“It’s not important,” Ryan said. “The distraction served its purpose. Now concentrate on landing. Can’t have you turning an ankle. We need your talents, but I don’t want to be carrying you out.”

Below him, Grind landed, coming down hard. The dwarf rolled, using the third arm in his chest to tumble into a standing position. He made it look easy. Axler was next, pulling up at the last second to touch down as smooth as polished ice. Talon nearly hit Grind, but his landing, too, was fairly smooth.

Ryan came last, feet hitting, flexing his knees under the impact and running to a halt. “Cut your chutes and hide them,” he said. “Won’t be needing them.”

Jane came on. “Take the south tunnel exit and clip the fencing. I’ve deactivated the security cameras there, and no one’s watching the stadium now. The diversion worked perfectly.”

“Copy,” Ryan said. “I’m point.” He climbed the short stone wall and moved into the tunnel, followed by Grind, Talon, and then Axler bringing up the rear.

Ryan cut the fence and they were through, moving across a parking lot at a rapid pace. The parking lot was covered with trailers and old recreational vehicles. People were running everywhere, confused and scared.

Nobody gave Ryan and the others a second glance.

They crossed a road and a short field of grass as they neared the
teocalli,
which rose from the dark lawn like a mountain of hewn rock. The smell of mana was palpable to Ryan, coming from the temple and the Locus. Like a heavy thickness to the air around them.

The
teocalli
had no perimeter fencing; the first tier of the step-pyramid structure jutted from the grass, seven or eight meters straight up. Ryan picked out the guards and some security cameras on the top of the tier, alert and scanning the crowd. He also noticed recessed weapons mounted inside camouflaged turrets—miniguns and assault canons.

“Okay, Jane,” Ryan subvocalized. “Approaching temple. How do we get to the rear entrance you were talking about?”

“It’s directly opposite the main entrance. It’s at the end of a long corridor, and I’m not exactly sure where it comes out.”

Dodging through the crowd, Ryan led the team around the back of the pyramid, the side away from the main entrance and the lake bed where the Locus rested. Ryan scanned the rock of the temple wall, but it was smooth and straight. No sign of a rear entrance.

“It might be masked,” Talon said. “Hidden by quickened magic.”

Ryan gave a short nod.
And it might not be on the temple at all,
he thought.
Perhaps that corridor is underground, which might mean. . . .

Ryan scanned the area behind the temple. Live oak and pecan trees clustered here and there in the small grassy field, but there was no sign of a guarded entrance.
Frag.
Further back was an asphalt parking lot, full of cars. Surrounded by a low fence adorned by signs stating that the lot was restricted to
teocalli
personnel only.

No one is camping there.

Still, as he looked, he could see nothing that could be an entrance. Ryan shifted his perception into the astral plane, focusing to try to avoid the blinding light of the temple and the Locus, their auras so close they obscured the nuances of everything in the whole vicinity.

If there was a hidden entrance, Ryan would need to see details. He drew from the Dragon Heart, its dormant presence a constant reassurance at his gut. And as its power sharpened his astral vision, something came into view.

In the corner of the parking lot, the aura of a GMC Bulldog stepvan shifted under scrutiny, revealing its true shape as a small stone building disguised by a sophisticated masking illusion.

Talon was right!
Ryan thought.
There's a fragging guard house.

Ryan noticed that the little building was directly behind the center of the temple. “Come on,” he said. “I’ve found it.”

The sound of the drums had not ceased because of the explosion, but they faded a little behind them, blocked by the huge structure of the temple. Once he’d broken the masking, Ryan could see the small stone guard house clearly.

He could see two guards, one on either side of the wide stone door. A retinal scanner hung on the wall behind one of the guards.

“Axler,” he said. “Take Talon and Grind around to the edge of the lot on the far side, nearest to the entrance. I’ll take care of the guards, but have your Supersquirt ready for anybody we find inside.”

Axler’s smile stretched the black and white camouflage
patches on her face. She drew her Ares Supersquirt, a
soaker gun filled with gamma scopolamine and DMSO for skin penetration. Gamma scopolamine was a neurotoxin, extremely fast-acting. It targeted motor nerves and caused temporary paralysis instead of death. A few drops on the skin and even a troll would go down.

“You heard the man,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Ryan waited for a minute while Axler and the others circled around the asphalt lot. Then he took a few deep breaths to center himself. He concentrated his stealth magic, gathering shadows around him, blending his aura into those of the objects nearest him. diffusing his heat signature. All this he did with magic of the Silent Way, the path he had been taught by Dunkelzahn.

When he had disappeared completely, Ryan approached the low fence. Jumped it and moved through the parked vehicles like a whisper on the wind.

The two guards stood alert, probably due to the recent explosion and the thousands of people gathered nearby. They were Aztechnology Leopard soldiers, one troll with a Panther assault cannon, one ork carrying an AK-98 with under-barrel grenade launcher. Both wore tan uniforms over light body armor.

Ryan drew two of his xenoketamine-fiiled throwing darts.

“In position,” came Axler’s whisper in Ryan’s ear.

Ryan moved, a slight distortion against the background of cars. He fired the darts in succession, the first one nailing the troll in the base of the neck. The second one, off by a centimeter or two. landed just behind the ork’s ear.

I’m getting rusty,
Ryan thought.

Both guards collapsed to the ground.

Ryan reached them a second later, Axler and Grind and Talon appearing beside him as he checked the guards. Sleeping soundly.

Axler readied her Supersquirt as Ryan lifted the ork’s head and placed it against the retinal scanner. With a gentle sigh, the stone door opened.

Axler spun into the space, her soaker dousing the entire area, catching the two interior guards by surprise. They had time to turn, their eyes opening wide with instant realization as they went for their weapons.

Nobody could have reacted fast enough. Axler’s spray caught them across the exposed areas, face and hands. They grimaced in pain and went rigid as their muscles tightened involuntarily. Then they fell, their guns clattering to the stone.

“There’s a watcher spirit,” Talon said. “It saw us and is taking off.”

“Banish it!” said Ryan.

Talon focused for a second.

“Grind, can you help me with these guys,” Ryan said, pointing to the outside guards.

Grind nodded.

Talon looked up. “Got it,” he said.

“Good work, chummer,” Ryan said. “Now, can you do your invisibility magic on Axler, Grind, and yourself?”

Talon smiled at Ryan. “Ready when you are,” he said.

“Anytime,” Ryan said, dragging the ork guard by his booted feet.

Grind lifted the troll’s shoulders, nearly as wide as he was tall, and followed Ryan through the door, pulling the huge troll body inside with him.

Ryan watched the others fade from view, becoming harder to see as Talon’s magic went to work. Ryan led them down the stairs and into the underground tunnel. “We’re inside, Jane.” he said.

“Good,” came her response. “Hurry. I’ve looped the camera feeds, but it won’t be long before some slot in the security booth notices that the troll keeps picking his nose over and over.”

Ryan gave an abrupt laugh. “Can you give me an estimate on how long we can expect to be alarm-free?”

“I can give you one,” Jane said. “But it’d be wrong. They’ve got progs to detect the loop patch. Even with the sophisticated semi-randomizer I included, their security host will most likely trigger an alarm in less than ten minutes.”

“Copy,” said Ryan. The stairs ended in a tunnel, lit by yellow incandescent bulbs recessed into the stone. Murals covered the walls, done in the style of the ancient Aztec Indians, but Ryan was looking for hidden security cameras and recessed autofire drones. The invisibility should fool the cameras, but Ryan was the only one who could move without sound. Microphones could give them away.

“Take a right when the corridor ends,” Jane said. “Then another right into the stairwell. Go down a flight.”

“Copy.”

Ryan caught movement ahead. A group of five metahumans wearing gray robes crossed in front of the tunnel’s open end, moving from right to left. They didn’t even glance toward Ryan and the others.

“Quicksilver?” came Jane’s voice.

“Go ahead.”

“I’ve lost contact with Cluster and his team.”

“Explain.” Ryan reached the end of the tunnel and moved into the corridor. This one was more brightly lit, though the theme of ancient Aztec religion pervaded. One wall was covered with a long sinuous painting of a feathered serpent. Quetzalcoatl.

“After they blew the dam,” she said. “Cluster made positive contact, but said he was under heavy pursuit. He was confident he and the team would make it to the stashed T-bird, but I can’t raise him now.”

Moving rapidly and without pause, Ryan led the others into the stairwell on the right. The rust-colored tile steps descended into a flickering darkness.

“Last contact was ten minutes ago,” Jane said. “Either they never made it, or communications are out on the Thunderbird.”

“Did they have time to plant the Nightgliders for our escape?”

“I don’t know.”

“Drek!” Ryan whispered, reaching the bottom of the stairs.

Before Jane could respond, alarms started to sound. Loud klaxons in the small space.

“They know you’re in there,” Jane said, her voice small and tinny in the overwhelming din of the sirens. “Guards are on their way.”