Deadly Wands (65 page)

“Now is not the time to get diarrhea of the
mouth and constipation of the head,” he warned the Baron.

Billy finally cleared his eyes and,
apparently, his head. "A panic room. The Immortal built himself a
box to escape into." It sounded like Billy was trying to convince
himself of what his eyes plainly saw. "The whole point was to kill
the Khan. We knew exactly where he’d be, exactly when. And he still
got away."

"Pull yourself together, man!" Prince barked
impatiently.

Billy pounded on the steel. "My lord! Are you
all right? The cowards fled. Everyone is chasing them down. Do you
need help?"

Genghis recognized that voice, but couldn’t
place it. It sounded like his kids when they are lying about
something. I’ve met him, the Khan realized. I know the Red
Baron.

He also realized that the Indian and the
Baron worked together, knowing that nobody would be able to take
their eyes off them. The warnings from numerous sentries fell on
deaf ears. Since he himself fell for it, Genghis knew it was a
great deceit.

Literally shaking, he got up and flew to a
spy hole above the bedrock. He could not believe what he saw --
total devastation. Thousands of laughing enemies stabbed bodies and
transferred wands. One hundred thousand quads -- the talent he
needed to exterminate the Americas -- all gone. Just like the
Peking Arena.

And that's when it struck him like his
father’s boot.

"You're that damn traitor, Temujin, aren't
you?" he yelled. "The brat from the Olympics twelve years ago. I
gave a beautiful speech at your funeral! I’d never have believed a
descendent of Taran would betray his own people."

"I didn't descend from Taran. A pregnant
ancestor married him after Mongols killed her husband. My ancestors
died fighting you. You killed the first one over Peking in
1215."

"Do you even care that I exterminated Taran’s
descendents? You know, you’re not the first true quad I’ve had to
kill. You’re just the first to not descend from me.”

“True quad?”

Neither Billy or Prince ever heard that term
before. Apparently it described the few who could use all four
wands for fire, steel, and blasting.

“As for Peking, you mean that cocky Prussian?
Of course! He was a baron, too. Richthofen, right? His mother
Hildred caused me more trouble than he ever did." Genghis, despite
everything that happened, now laughed viciously. "You descended
from Karl van Richthofen? The jokes on you then, because Baron von
Richthofen was my bastard son. The baroness sought me out because
she wanted a powerful son. Well, I gave her one, only to have the
turncoat grow up to lead thousands of quads against me in China.
She wanted me to marry her. Ha! Like I’d give up Borte for a cranky
bitch like her. She was all beauty, zero gratitude."

"Liar!"

"She proudly put me on his birth certificate.
Look it up."

“I’ll ask him. He’s fighting above us right
now.”

“What? Now you’re the one lying!”

“He changed his name to American Jack.
Perhaps you’re heard of him,” Billy yelled.

“That traitor is still alive?” the Khan
roared incredulous. The irony is that Genghis never targeted
American Jack because his weak tactical skills killed more enemies
than Mongols.

Billy felt overwhelmed. He could not think
clearly and therefore needed to buy time. “How ironic that your
only surviving son is your biggest enemy. Consider this a final
family reunion, grandfather.”

“I descend from this mass murderer?” a
shocked Prince asked in disbelief.

"So, Genghis, you're my ancestor?” Billy
said, trying to figure how to break into the panic room. “Does that
make me Mongolian after all?"

"This changes nothing," the Immortal yelled
back. "You killed my woman, so I’ll kill you and yours. I don't
care how many babies you have -- I’ll kill them all if it takes me
eternity."

They say Heaven is where you have nothing to
do and eternity to do it in, so this must be Hell.

Billy turned to Prince. "Take a team to the
Forbidden City and kill the Khan's family."

"I heard that,” Genghis screamed, “you
son-of-a-bitch!"

"What are you gonna do, yell at me?" Billy
screamed back, nearly losing it. He knew he hated Genghis Khan with
all his soul, but he never let it consume him so completely before.
His head hurt and he really needed to pee.

If Genghis Khan fathered American Jack, then
all of Jack's descendents were also the Khan's. As were his own
kids. Billy felt sick. He not only had the Khan’s blood, but
polluted thousands of babies with it. Though his mind was a fog, he
knew he had to kill the mass murderer now while he had the chance.
He flew down to where the steel wall disappeared into the bedrock.
Collecting all his strength, he punched a short blade into the
metal, causing a short gash. He repeated it a dozen times until
exhaustion stopped him. By that time he had a small crowd wondering
what the hell he was doing.

"Uh, Red, more Mongols are coming."

"I need more time. The Khan is in there. Do
we have any bombs left?"

"Why would we not drop them all? And what do
you mean, he’s still alive? The bells are ringing. A million
battles are raging in the streets.”

Given his stressed out mind, Billy couldn't
think of anything Genghis could do to save himself, yet something
nagged at him that The Immortal would somehow survive.

"If you come out, I promise you a fair
fight," Billy yelled into a hole, but didn't get an answer. He flew
to the top, punched more holes, then blasted straight down. He
searched for a dead body through the smoke. What the hell? He
squinted to see, to his horror, the entrance to an underground
tunnel.

Billy fought his way up, out of the rubble,
and saw, a few hundred meters from the stadium, a store made of
mortared stone built like a fortress. He ignored the fierce
dogfight raging above him. He flew to it and found an oak door
still open, but nobody inside. He rushed in and saw the tunnel's
exit. Panicking for the first time in his life, he flew to the
Forbidden City and found several of his troops gathered around a
body. The richly dressed corpses must be the Khan's family, quad
warriors who may have fought like tigers, but were no match for his
brother-in-law. Yet it was his brother-in-law laying in a pool of
blood.

"Prince was cuddling two crying babies when
some Mongol stabbed him in the back, took the babies, and fled.
Some of our guys are chasing him, but he's pretty fast."

“That was Genghis Khan.”

“Weren’t you suppose to kill him?”

Some of the guys recorded Prince's final
moments, while others waved wands to heal his back. One of them
looked at Billy and shook his head negatively. Too much internal
bleeding.

"We should have given him one of our new
suits," someone said, which only made Billy feel worse since he
didn't think of that, either. Prince had been dueling for months in
Peking, and so couldn't make it to Anchorage. Better back armor may
have saved his life.

"I never saw him coming," Prince whispered.
"I'd be alive if I killed the babies, but they reminded me of my
own.” He pulled Billy close so no one else could hear. “Jirko
didn’t have his Millennials on him, so he must have given them to
his son, who has the same name. They say the kid is even better.
And when the Khan took my Millennials, I saw his wands clearly.
They weren’t Millennials.”

That rocked Billy. “Genghis gave away his
most prized possession?”

“You have three sets of Millennials to find,
brother.”

Billy knew his brother-in-law was in terrible
pain. "I'll get him for you, and make sure your children know what
a great hero their father was."

"You're the hero," were Prince's final
words.

“Don’t say that! You don’t even like me.”

Prince laughed, despite blood flowing from
his mouth. He clearly thought that funny. He made eye contact with
Billy and died with a big smile on his face.

Which really pissed Billy off. Who the hell
dies happy? Every version of his own death, that he imagined, ended
horribly.

Billy broke out in tears, which shocked the
troops. Through his blurry eyes he saw Princess, not Prince, dying
before him, which flipped a switch that let the crazy out. The
image of losing his wife was more than he could handle. Too much
happened too fast. His brilliant plan failed, and millions of the
wrong people were about to die because of it.

Billy had never felt overwhelmed before.

With the Khan still alive, the Chinese
wouldn’t attack from the south, the armada in Korea wouldn’t attack
from the east, and the air force now attacking from the west would
return home, leaving the Americans and his marathoners to face a
few million Mongol quads. What Billy needed was time to think
things through, but his grief shut his mind down.

“How am I gonna tell my wife that Genghis
Khan killed her twin?” Billy cried out, on the verge of an
emotional meltdown.

TO BE CONTINUED…

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sorry for the cliffhanger, but
I need you to read the exciting sequel, The Deadliest Wands, coming
in 2015! Please post reviews online and tell your friends on
Facebook and Twitter to get this ebook while it’s still free. And
thank you for supporting a struggling writer.