G.H.O.S.T. Teams (Book 2) Shifters (15 page)

“Sounds like a plan,” Vector agreed.

We slowly made our way back to the northern stairs to find the team milling about. Freddy had pulled out a small notebook and some wax paper. He was in the process of taking some rubbings of the characters carved into the walls. The dwarven guards didn’t seem to be paying him any mind. Kara and Erika were slowly walking back our way, their conversation hushed and the occasionally giggle making me think that their discussion didn’t have much to do with our current situation. Danny was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, his eyes closed, and a small thin smile on his face. I figured I’d let Freddy finish up and check on Danny while the girls were making their way over. I stopped a few feet in front of him and was about to call his name when he opened his eyes and looked right at me, his smile turning creepy.

“Amusement, concern, and then curiosity,” Danny said.

“Sorry?”

“Your surface emotions as you approached me. I was practicing.”

“Impressive. I didn’t even notice your mind scanning mine.”

“Well, I was barely reaching for surface thoughts. If I pushed any deeper you probably would have noticed. But, I think I’ll be able to give you what you want down in the room. I should be able to sense their general mood as things progress,” Danny smiled.

“Awesome. I knew you could do it, kid.”

I patted him on the shoulder after I said it and walked back towards Freddy and the approaching girls. Before I turned away I noticed Danny’s smile and the look of pride on his face. He looked away fast, but not before I realized how much my compliment had meant to him. I was used to treating people roughly so that they were prepared for the ugly that we had to face every day. Maybe I had been wrong on Danny. The occasional compliment and encouragement might be the way to get the results I needed, something I’d be more aware of as we moved forward. I stopped next to Freddy who noticed me and folded his wax paper up before safely tucking it into his notebook.

“A truly breathtaking site,” he smiled.

“Glad you approve. Now what do you say we head downstairs and look things over?”

Freddy’s entire body tensed up in excitement. At about that time Erika and Kara showed up. Vector stood quietly next to me as Danny slowly wandered over. Freddy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He slid a hand down each sleeve, smoothing them out. Then he gripped his suit jacket and pulled it tight before he straightened his bowtie. He looked at me and gave a confident smile.

“I’m ready,” he said.

“We’re walking down a few stairs Freddy, not going on a date.”

“You’re wrong, BD. We have a date, and it’s with destiny,” Freddy stated.

How do you even respond to that? He was so excited that I almost envied him a bit. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been so excited about something. My life didn’t lend itself to many Hallmark moments. The closest I ever got was when my parents would visit me at the temple after a long absence. A smile crossed my face as I thought back to those times. Back then, I was a bit like Freddy. I worried about looking my best. Grabbing my nicest robe, trying to pull any wrinkles out of it. Sometimes I can almost fool myself into thinking that I’m not so different from everyone else. But I know better. BD is far from normal.

I gave Freddy a smile and let him enjoy his moment. I guessed that for him, visiting places like this was almost the same as spending time with family. I looked back at the team and they all gave me a nod to make it clear they were ready to head down. Then, after a quick glance at the dwarven guards, who gestured for us to proceed, Freddy and I started down the steps, side by side.

The excitement practically exploded from Freddy as he skipped down the steps. I maintained a decent pace, but as he pulled away, the occasional throat-clearing was enough to get his attention and bring him back. The stairs themselves weren’t much to look at. Just like the room above, the stairs and walls seemed to be carved out of solid stone, with torches every ten steps or so lighting the way. Our descent felt very shallow and the stairs were slowly curving to the left. It was easy to imagine that we were making huge circles around the room below. The “corkscrew” stairs felt like a very fitting name. After the first two sets of stairs, which took us to the dwarven waiting room, I really didn’t think we had much further to go. I was guessing The Circle was maybe a hundred feet below us. But the wide circular nature of the stairs meant that the trip took quite a while. Finally, just as I was thinking the stairs would never end, we found the bottom.

The last torch sat in its wall holder about five steps from the bottom. There was no door, simply an opening cut into the
rock, almost as big as the stair-tunnel we were currently standing in. The light from the torch was enough to see the landing in front of us, but none of its light ventured into the room itself. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was afraid to go any further. The entrance to The Circle was rounded, which seemed fitting, the bottom of the entrance not quite small enough to make a full circle. There were large runo-glyphics carved into the rock, circling the edge, and giving the whole thing a very Stargate vibe. It truly felt like a portal into another world. Freddy glanced up at the writing and let out a happy sigh. A quick glance behind me confirmed that the team was all there and ready to go, so I gave Freddy the okay.

“After you,” I said, gesturing with my hand.

Freddy smiled so wide that I thought his face might get stuck that way, Joker-style. He nodded to himself, as if he was confirming that this was really happening, and then he slowly stepped forward. The moment his foot hit the ground, the first brass ring made its presence known. A foot thick and set flawlessly into ground, the ring was perfectly level with the stone floor. It was about five feet into the room and its radiance illuminated the stairway considerably. The light had a slight yellow tinge to it, but not nearly as much as I had anticipated. Just as Freddy said, the next ring, about ten feet further in, sprang to life right after the first. Then the next, and the next, until the last ring flared to life. There were eight rings in total, the last of which sat just under the great table.

I couldn’t remember if Freddy had called it the great table or not, but it was a fitting description. The giant marble slab was huge. And when I say huge, I don’t just mean that it was a big table. I mean, holy crap, that table was enormous. It was easily thirty-feet across and probably a foot thick. Just as Freddy told us, the vine underneath of it formed the base, although it looked far more like an old twisted tree trunk than it did a vine. A gnarly looking thing, it must have been at least ten feet thick itself. But, the more you stared at it, the more you got the impression that it was actually several smaller vines twisted together into a much larger construct. The still water of the well underneath looked so perfect and calm I almost thought it was a mirror. I planned to take a closer look as I stepped into the room.

I’d never felt anything like it, but the rush was amazing. The air was heavy and warm, as if it was holding you tight. It reminded me of snuggling into a soft blanket. There was a general sense of euphoria and peace. I couldn’t help but smile and as I looked back I noticed the rest of the team doing the same. Each breath felt effortless and smooth, the weight of my chest vanishing and becoming non-existent. Then there were the smells.

With each inhalation the scent in the air changed. First it was the new growth and flowers of spring.
This was followed by oceans and beaches and warm summer air. The next breath brought forth the aroma of fall, my favorite. I could smell dying leaves on the breeze and pumpkins and spices and campfires. Finally, there was winter. A crispness in the air brought hints of snow and the smell of pine. Then the sequence repeated, my next breath taking me back to spring. It was amazing. After enjoying a few cycles, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and got my wits back about me.

Once I adjusted to the sensations, I looked back at the well under the table and watched as the façade of the mirror was shattered. First we heard the sound of wood bending, like trees swaying and flexing in the wind. Then, several of the vines under the table started to untangle and extend towards the edges of the marble slab. Like a time-lapse video of plants growing, they moved and twisted and reached out, forming a shape that mostly resembled a chair. There were six of them, one for each of us. There were a few “wows” from the team and someone even whistled. It wasn’t until the vines had finished their dance that I looked around the rest of the room.

I’d been so fixated on the great table in the center, that I didn’t even notice all of the pillars around us. Although to be fair, they were positioned in such a way that our view of the table from the doorway was completely unobscured. They were skinnier than I’d imagined, and they mushroomed at the top. Perhaps as thick as a flagpole, the marble pillars, the exact same green as the table, rose up all over the room, stretching out as they approached the ceiling. Their tops reached wide, almost branching out, and giving one the impression that the roof was simply a tree canopy. When I looked close, I thought I could make out subtle designs upon the ceiling that actually resembled tangled branches, but I couldn’t be sure. It was possibly a trick of the light, my imagination, and the high that this room seemed to cause. Upon each pillar was inscribed four runo-glyphs, one in the direction of each door. I looked at several of them before I realized that none of them repeated. I couldn’t see them all, but somehow I just knew that each one was unique.

As Freddy had said, the pillars did seem to be randomly scattered about the room. There was no discernable pattern, but they were more heavily concentrated away from the entrances, almost carving The Circle into quarters. A clear path stretched from each entrance to the center, none of the pillars within fifteen feet of the table. Although the floor itself was the same grey stone as upstairs, the green marble pillars did look as if they were growing out of and part of the floor. Not one of them “took root” on top of the brass rings or too close to each other. But to be fair, looking at them this way, it was difficult to tell exactly how close they might be to one another. It was almost like looking at an optical illusion, as if some other image was behind them waiting to appear when you looked just right. With each movement I made, they seemed to shift or waver. It was kind of cool. I started swaying back and forth just to watch it. I turned to see if the team was looking at me funny, but they all seemed to be equally transfixed by various parts of the room.

I wanted to get a better look at the table, so I started forward. Whether because of some herd mentality or equal curiosity, the team was shuffling after me. As I said before, the great table was huge. The closer I got, the bigger it seemed to be. It was a solid piece of green marble, with grayish veins running throughout its surface. I reached out and placed my palm on the table and watched as goose bumps popped up on my arm. There was power resonating from the marble that gave me a sense of strength and resolve. I sat in the nearest chair and it felt more comfortable than any chair had a right to be. As if it could read my mind, I twisted to face my team and the chair turned with me.

“These chairs are amazing. Do you think they’d mind if I snipped off a piece of this vine and took it home?”

I was half expecting Freddy to freak out and scold me for even saying such a thing out loud. But he just calmly smiled and shook his head.

“I do not believe it would be permitted. Even if we had something capable of cutting the vine,” he replied plainly.

“Bummer. This is so comfortable.”

The rest of the team scattered around the table and everyone found their own chair. I leaned back in mine, the whole thing shifting like some intuitive recliner. The pod-esque shape of the chairs made me smile. Almost like they were sprouts to hold seeds. I guess it was a logical shape for magical wooden chairs grown from a vine. The facial expressions on the rest of the team made it clear that they were just as comfortable as I was. Vector’s chair was even sitting a bit higher than the rest so that we were all at even height around the table. It was clear that this place took itself very seriously when it came to making everyone feel equal and welcomed. A moment later my attention was drawn to the sound of Danny exhaling heavily.

I looked up and noticed him staring at the table. He was shifting his lower body side to side, like spinning in an office chair. But he kept his eyes transfixed on the table itself. He stopped and looked up at us.

“You all have to try that. Look at the table when you move,” he said.

We all mimicked him, each in our own way, and I could see what he was talking about. The brown veins in the table were almost shifting and pulsing. Freddy had mentioned that they moved with the mood of the room, but I suddenly thought they were something else. I think they were the vine itself, shifting about as we adjusted our chairs. I placed my hand back on the table and continued to move. I thought I might feel the vines moving under my palm, but the only sensation was the original sense of power. I don’t know how long we sat there lost in comfort and fascination, but it was Erika who brought us all back to reality.

“We should probably go start setting up for company,” she said.

“But mom, I don’t wanna go to school today.”

Everybody smiled, but no one laughed. It was almost like we were too relaxed to chuckle. That thought made me smile more as I twisted about in my chair. But she was right. We had things to set up. So, as much as I’d rather sit here for the rest of my life, it was time to get to work.

“Okay, Erika’s right, we gotta get ready. Everybody on your feet.”

There was some lighthearted groaning and sighing, but slowly everyone got out of their chair. We headed back towards the north stairway, all of us stopping just outside of the room and turning so we could watch the lights turn off. A perfect reverse of our entrance, the first ring to go dark was under the great table. Then, one after another, the rings turned off until the last one, the ring five feet in front of us, went dark. I could feel myself mentally saying good-bye to the room as we started to ascend the stairs. The walk to the top was definitely longer than the walk down.

Once we were back in the world’s biggest basement, I found the dwarves in charge and we started discussing our security plans. They had no problems with any of the measures I wanted to put in place and they even went into detail regarding their own plans. There were about forty dwarves in the room now and they told me that sixteen others would be stationed at the stone doors. As much as I respected the GHOST organization, I got the distinct impression that these dwarves were far more combat capable than our own security personnel. So, I decided our earlier plan was a good one, we’d cover the surface entrances.

There wasn’t much for Freddy or Danny to do right then, so they waited below while the rest of us headed to the surface. Freddy was excited to continue examining the room and Danny said he wanted to meditate before the meeting. We left them in the company of the dwarves and found a guide to the top.

We took a different door to the surface, just because it was closer to the northern stairs. The dwarf used the same sequence to get us back up. The wooden doorknob put in place and turned to the left on the bottom and to the right on top. Of course, realizing that this was the opposite side of the door, I guess technically it was the reverse of the trip down. Maybe the dwarf was actually returning the internal magical mechanisms to their original position. Or something. I don’t really know. Magic in general gives me a headache.

Once on the surface, Erika escorted Kara out of the stadium and towards the water. They would find a nice secluded spot so Kara could use the living energy of the waterway to top off the charge on her magical gadgets. While they were gone Vector and I walked around the entire stadium and looked things over. The place was very quiet, with just a few employees working in a central office on the far side, where their cars were parked.

The stadium itself was not very secure. There were a great number of ways that someone such as myself could easily slip inside unnoticed. We’d do our best to position GHOST personnel at some of the key points, but we didn’t have unlimited troops. I realized that our best bet was simply to secure the ways down and if nothing else, we’d get a warning should trouble be en route. Gathering all of our extra guards together, I explained some things to be on the lookout for and where the key breach points were.

I set three GHOST guards at each of the eight entrances down. I’d originally hoped to use two, but I just knew the inevitable bathroom break would leave someone alone and that’s always when trouble happens. So, that only left me a couple of extra guys to wander around the stadium and keep an eye on things. I put a couple of guards down by the cars, just in case someone wanted to wait for us there, although I’d been told that the wolves were unlikely to park with us. Apparently they preferred to secure their own vehicles out in the open. I guess I couldn’t blame ‘em. If someone got tricky with some demolitions, Vlad and the Team van were in trouble. Another reason to keep a couple men there to watch things.