Deadly Wands (39 page)

Genghis promised a fortune, so commanders
chased him instead of easier targets, letting him lead them away.
What began as an even fight turned increasingly lopsided, so he
flew to the next closest battle, but Grandma had it under control.
He helped them win faster, eager to deprive Mongols of precious
marathoners.

Someone came to tell Billy they got the
general. They had removed his armor and chained him to a boulder.
Heat severely burned his left side, from his hip to his face.

"The famous Red Baron," Jebe said, not at all
afraid. "You should be congratulated. I haven't been beaten this
badly since I last argued with my father."

Billy shut him up by breaking his jaw with
his fist, which really hurt his hand.

“Who got him?"

Champa, the hot Vietnamese he impregnated,
waddled forward. She resembled an angry Asian version of Princess,
but was so skinny while pregnant that she looked like a snake who
swallowed a pig.

"The new wands you gave me saved my
life."

"Kill him slowly," he commanded.

She started slicing Jebe up to inflict
maximum pain, enjoying every minute of it -- therapy for finding
her family massacred. His body now knew death was imminent, so
Champa transferred his wands while contently watching life drain
out of him.

Billy always suspected that Champa had many
reasons to feel vindictive towards the Mongols, but never asked.
Now, however, he could tell that she satiated some of that thirst.
Something seemed to fall off her shoulders. She turned to Billy and
bowed very low, in a gesture of deep respect.

"On behalf of my ancestors, I thank you."

Billy shocked the reserved woman by hugging
her like a child. “When you give Jebe’s wands to our child, he or
she will always remember your victory that restored the family
honor. May your anger die with Jebe.”

Billy noticed Bear staring at him strangely,
and knew instantly that something was wrong.

"She'll live," was the first thing Bear told
him, "but she's burned up bad."

He didn't need to give a name.

Billy followed him to a hut that managed to
survive. Princess lay hurt, but conscious. Snow eased the burning
that cooked her skin from the lower spine to the back of her head.
She lost most of her beautiful hair and it looked like a vampire
nibbled on her left ear.

"I never saw it coming," was all the
explanation he needed. That's how he foresaw his own doom. The
blast must have hit between her helmet and her back armor. “The
suit you gave me saved my life.”

Unfortunately, he was going through his new
armor faster than Uncle George could replace them.

"Bear caught her as she fell and used snow to
minimize the damage," one of the healers told him. "The
third-degree burns will heal, but leave scars. The baby should not
be effected if she recovers well, but her state of mind may
determine the baby’s fate.”

Billy could see that Princess feared how this
would change their relationship. The scars on her neck may never go
away. He knelt to kiss her lips.

"A few more burns and you'll be better
looking than me." She tried not to laugh because it hurt so much
but, honestly, he couldn’t understand how anyone could enjoy
touching him, much less for hours at a time like Princess did.
"This changes nothing between us, you know. Don't make me enforce
our contract: you still have to marry me and have my babies. If
your hair doesn't grow back, I'll cut off your brother's while he
sleeps. He doesn't like me anyways."

Her face beamed gratitude. "I know you have
to go. When will I see you again?"

"Not soon. I need to destroy the Khan’s new
million-quad armada in Kiev."

"Please take someone with you," she
joked.

Billy got up. “Bear, my next trip to the
bank, I’m gonna transfer a ton of gold into your account for saving
my wife. If it’s a boy, I’m gonna name him after you.”

“Bear?” he asked skeptically.

“No. Harry, because you’re so hairy your body
doesn’t need soap so much as shampoo.”

Princess smiled. “I now know my son’s
name.”

Billy just gave Princess something to look
forward to during her weeks of recuperation. Outside the hut, Bear
set him straight.

“Keep your damn money. I did what anyone
would do for a comrade in arms. And I still owe you for the
wands.”

Bill placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I
didn’t give you the gold to reward you. I did it to remind Princess
how much I value her. Save it in case I’m not around to support her
or the child.”

That left Bear speechless. He had never known
anyone who could see so far ahead. But, then, Billy had another
inspiration.

“I need someone to kill me for the Khan’s
thousand ton reward.”

The thought of killing Billy horrified Bear.
“What am I gonna spend a thousand gold tons on?”

Billy laughed. “I’m not asking you to keep
it. I’m asking you to take it. Just think of how many mercenaries
Genghis could hire with a thousand gold tons. Did you take any
wands from their marathoners?”

Bear took out his best captured wand set.
“These are actually pretty good. I got a battalion commander as he
tried to rally his men.”

“Then let’s go somewhere private so you can
kill me. After stripping the enemy a month ago, we put our clothes
on them just so it’d look like they massacred us. I got great
close-ups!” Billy closed his eyes, then passed those videos.
“Remember to tell every news agency from here to Peking that Jebe
destroyed us and that you killed the Red Baron. And if you get an
opportunity to give Genghis one of your famous bear hugs, well,
that’d be hilarious!”

They didn’t have time to bury the dead. All
but the seriously wounded flew to the Mongol logistical camp off
the mountain. But they found the support base virtually deserted.
Locals washed clothes and tended kitchens. Nobody shot at Team Red,
so they didn’t shoot at anybody. While they ate, the locals told
them the Mongols abruptly left a few days before.

“They went after Jack,” Grandma predicted.
“If that storm didn’t cost us three days, we’d have surprised
them.”

“Have them sleep,” Billy ordered, since they
were too tired to do anything else. “Set up a wide perimeter. I’ll
find out what happened to Jack. Grandma, have them pack enough food
for a long trip.”

Billy flew all day and found Jack’s camp
after sunset. Billy saw thousands of corpses as he descended. Jack
didn’t even get up. Once he landed, Billy could see why: Jack’s
right leg was severely burned.

“You let them ambush you?” Billy asked in
astonishment.

“I didn’t let them do anything,” the old man
shot back angrily. “This is war. They had weeks to plan their
ambush. I doubled the usual patrols, but I had few super-quads or
marathoners. I had everyone sleep in their armor. I kept a third on
standby during the night. Plus, I only had weeks to organize and
train them. What else could I do?”

“You knew they knew you were coming, so you
should have ambushed their ambush. Put your highest fliers in the
same units and rotate them to protect you from high-altitude
bombers. Establish layers of sentries far from camp who can signal
each other without letting the Mongols know. Arrange dummies to
lure the enemy in while your best quads wait in hiding. How much of
your force did you lose?”

“Over half. But their losses were just as
heavy.”

“Word of their victory will spread like
herpes.”

“How did you do?” Jack demanded.

“We killed them all, including Jebe. Princess
got burned bad, but will be okay. Now we’ll go north to destroy
this new armada.”

“We should spread word of your victory over
Jebe,” Jake argued.

“No!” Billy didn’t mean to yell, but can’t
this man ever think ahead? “The Mongols must think they’ve won so I
can surprise them. I want you to record me laying on my back,
dying. I’ll remove my shirt so everyone sees the X on my chest.
Pretend you found me on the mountaintop, my forces slaughtered. I
need you to zoom in on my chest and act scared when you realize
that I have stopped breathing. Are you up for it?”

“That’ll be the easiest thing I’ve done all
day.”

Jack recorded for ten minutes while Billy
recounted in detail how famously clever Jebe tricked him, and how
he’ll never forgive himself for sending his super-quads to their
doom. He said it so convincingly that Jack almost believed it.
Billy let Jack get a close-up of the Millennial Wands he took from
Subodei to convince Genghis Khan it really was the Red Baron. Then
Billy surprised him by projecting a video.

“This is the bastard who got me,” the
teenager said after Jack examined his fake wound. The movie showed
a carefully rehearsed duel with Bear yelling triumphantly when he
stabbed the Red Baron in the back.

When the Baron started crying over the loss
of his team, Jack -- still traumatized by the death of his troops
-- joined in. It looked either moving or pathetic. They ended it
with Jack pronouncing the Red Baron dead and weeping over the
corpse.

“Let me review it,” Billy demanded
impatiently.

“Geez, Red. I can’t see your chest rise,”
Jack said as it ended. “No one will mistake your disgusting
skeleton body for someone else’s. How can women even touch
you?”

Billy let that slide since he didn’t know.
“Tell your commanders you’re gonna visit me on the mountaintop.
Then return tomorrow, act depressed, and finally break down to
explain how Jebe wiped us out. Transfer my death video, but make
them swear to not share it. If you are convincing, Mongol spies
will do the rest. Everyone believes the rumor, while few believe a
speech.”

CHAPTER 50

A few days later, Billy entered Global Bank
in Warsaw, checked his messages, transferred some gold, and picked
up more body suits. He got an update of the steel-hull warship his
great-uncle George was building in London. The latest message from
Prince gave him directions to a secluded valley an hour from
Kiev.

The Mongols apparently did not appreciate how
useful a communications network would be to the Baron. It’s how he
communicated with American Jack, the bounty hunters who killed the
Khan’s descendents, and the Americans.

Billy flew them over a thousand kilometers a
day to out-run even the Khan’s famous postal service. The strongest
carried the heaviest items like cooking pots and stoves. None of
them ever felt safe in the same place for more than five hours.
Even putting up sentries could bring disastrous attention. Only
Billy’s intimate knowledge of population centers let them travel
undetected.

After over a week of constant flight, someone
dropped in front of them and gave the coded signal. Billy flew
forward until he saw Prince’s relieved face. Prince led them to his
valley, where several hundred men looked up as thirty thousand
strangers landed among them.

“How did you know it was us?” Billy asked
Prince.

“Mongols do not fly in a defensive
stacked-diamond formation several thousand kilometers from the
nearest enemy. Much less so damn high.”

Billy laughed at his foolishness. He stacked
his battalions five deep, five stacks total, in the shape of a
diamond, with another stack flying point.

“We’re hiding the Scandinavian and Russian
marathon divisions an hour away,” Princess told him. A big bearded
guy marched forward. “Red, this is Ivan the Terrible.”

“You don’t look so bad,” Billy joked.

“Ivan,” Prince said, “it is my pleasure to
introduce you to the Red Baron.”

They shook hands and the big guy nearly broke
his bones with his tight grip.

“You’re tiny,” the guy concluded, studying
Billy for flaws.

“That’s not what the ladies say. I hope you
made good use of the money, armor, and wands we left you the last
several years.”

The ingrate grunted. “No offense, but could
you flash your wands for us? I, of course, believe you are who
Prince says you are, but it’d reassure my guys.”

“Then record it to recruit more quads.
Otherwise, no one will believe the Red Baron is in Russia.”

Billy noticed where a stream passed by the
nearest building, so he popped over it at optimum height and did
his primal scream -- which, while it did wonders in combat, felt
silly otherwise. He burst flame from all four wands, did a pretty
dance he developed with Diva, then shot four blasts.

Literally tons of dirt rocked his stunned
audience. His own men knew enough to back up, and smile in
anticipation. The dust cloud smacked the Russians like a sandstorm
which -- being Russians -- was probably a first.

Billy deafened those without ear protectors.
He landed in the crater and waited for them to surround the rim,
looking down at him. Every time they went for water, they’d have to
walk around his crater.

Even Ivan looked impressed. “I believe you
now.”

The Russians cheered -- they had the Red
Baron! And thirty thousand other guys.

Ivan wanted to impress upon the Baron how
dire the situation was. “Those bastards took all the food we had
stored up for the winter to feed this new armada. Those Mongols are
feeding over a million parasites from the Stans, which means a few
million Russians may starve by spring. Please help us.”

“So that’s why you’re finally willing to
spill Mongol blood. How many quads do you have?”

“I’ve spread a rumor that I’m giving every
Russian quad all the grain they can carry from warehouses in Kiev,
so I expect a few hundred thousand Russian quads to show up. I’ll
wait until just before midnight before telling them of the attack.”
Ivan paused dramatically. “Are you really gonna attack a million
quads?”

“That’s why we’re here. But we’re really
tired, hungry, and sleepy.”

Ivan wasted no time. His men showed the
newcomers where they could sleep while others prepared a giant
feast. Soon, over roasted pig, Prince brought the commanders up to
date.