Shadow Ops 3: Breach Zone (9 page)

‘That looked like Mescalero,’ Harlequin said.

‘It is,’ Gatanas replied. ‘This is a two-pronged attack. At approximately the same time your Breach opened up in Manhattan, a similar one boiled over on the reservation. At least, we’re assuming that’s what it is. Maybe the
Gahe
were hiding there all along. Same profile. Goblins, giants, more
Gahe
than we’ve ever seen in one place before. Add the Apache insurgency to that. The SOC is engaged there. It’s a small corps, Lieutenant Colonel, as I’m sure you know.’

‘Sir, respectfully, what’s the nearest town to the reservation? Ruidoso?’ Harlequin asked. ‘That’s got ten thousand people on a good day? We’re in the middle of New York fucking City. If I don’t get help, we’re going to have a massacre on our hands the likes of which this country has never seen.’

‘You don’t get it,’ Gatanas replied. ‘It’s not Mescalero, or even Ruidoso. It’s White Sands.’

‘White Sands?’ Harlequin let all pretense of protocol drop. ‘Why should I give a fuck about White Sands?’

‘Because it’s the lion’s share of our strategic stockpile. You’re so focused on the new nuke that you forgot about the old ones.’

Harlequin looked at Hewitt. The colonel was pale. ‘Our nuclear warheads,’ he said.

‘We’ve been destroying them as fast as we can as part of the START V treaty. Most of what we’ve got left is secured at White Sands Missile Range, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the worst armed uprising this country has ever faced.’

Harlequin couldn’t think of what to say. ‘Is there a lot?’

‘There’s enough.’ Gatanas’s voice was flat. ‘I’ll send you those training Covens and as much conventional firepower as I can spare. You’ll have to hold what you’ve got until we can get Mescalero put to bed.’

Harlequin stood, began to respond, but Gatanas cut him off. ‘You’re a soldier, Lieutenant Colonel. Do more with less. Find a way.’

Harlequin sagged, sat. ‘Okay, sir.’

‘Okay,’ Gatanas said. He reached to toggle off the connection.

‘Wait,’ Harlequin said, then remembered his manners. ‘Sir.’

‘What?’ Gatanas frowned.

‘I need some things.’

‘I already told you what I can . . .’

‘With all due respect, sir, you’re asking me to hold this ground against a foe only vulnerable to magic with almost no magical resources. More conventional troops aren’t going to cut it. You want me to do this, I need some things. Four things, specifically.’

Gatanas’s frown turned ugly. ‘And those are?’

‘I need FEMA here right now. The entire city should be evacuated.’

‘Now wait just a minute,’ Hewitt cut in. ‘The fighting is confined to . . .’

‘Respectfully, sir,’ Harlequin said to him, ‘I don’t have the time or resources to clear eight million people out of their homes and fight this enemy with one hand tied behind my back. Those barricades won’t hold, and when the enemy breaks through . . .’

‘Lieutenant Colonel Thorsson,’ Hewitt said through clenched teeth, ‘this is New York. I don’t think you fully realize the kind of people who live here.’

‘Maybe not, but I realize the kind of people who are going to die here if we don’t get this city evacuated.’

‘Gentlemen, enough,’ Gatanas cut in. ‘You’ll get FEMA. I’m already getting as many SOF teams as I can beg, borrow, or steal into the city to get refugees out. They’re going to be working on their own, but you might find them knocking on your door from time to time for resupply or to drop off civilians.’

‘Resupply? Sir, I don’t have the . . .’

‘What else?’ Gatanas cut him off.

‘I need General Bookbinder.’

Gatanas looked uncertain. ‘The general is . . .’

‘Sir, it would really help if we just dispensed with the illusion of secrecy. We both know what Bookbinder can do. If I can’t have Sorcerers on the line here, then I need ordnance capable of harming the enemy. Magical ordnance.’

Gatanas rubbed his eyes and sighed. ‘Yes, I figured that was coming. The general is . . . we’re having some trouble raising him at the moment. As soon as we can get ahold of him, he’ll be relieving you of command.’

If Gatanas had meant the threat to Harlequin’s authority to check him, it failed. ‘That’s fine, sir, so long as he makes with the magic bullets. How long until he’s inbound?’

‘I have no idea. As soon as I know, you’ll know.’

Gatanas was clearly already at his wits’ end. Pushing matters wouldn’t get him the help he needed any faster. ‘Okay, next. I need Sarah Downer.’

Gatanas suddenly looked awake. ‘What?’

‘Sarah Downer. I need her out of detention, back in uniform, and standing next to me.’

‘You know damned well that isn’t going to happen, Lieutenant Colonel. We’re still questioning her. Her pretty face hasn’t been on TV either, so Porter isn’t under any kind of public pressure to play nice, which, I might remind you, is the only reason you’re not in a cell next to her.’

‘No doubt, sir,’ Harlequin said, ‘but you’re asking me to protect a city of over eight million people with no arcane support. Downer can take a couple sparking wires and make an elemental platoon. I need force multipliers, and apart from Bookbinder, she’s the best one you’ve got.’

Gatanas was quiet for a moment. ‘This is personal for you, Thorsson. You’ve been pushing for her release since we took her into custody.’

‘Downer is loyal, sir; she wants to serve.’

‘Which is no doubt how you feel about your own sorry ass.’

‘Your words, sir, not mine.’
But absolutely true. ‘
I need her magic, and I need it right now.’

Gatanas paused. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

‘One last thing,’ Harlequin said. ‘If this country doesn’t have the magical resources to deal with this threat, then we need to reach out to partner nations who do. I need lines to the defense attachés for Canada and Mexico. This is a threat to them, too.’

Gatanas rubbed his temples. ‘How is it that you can call all that “just four things”?’

‘Because that’s what it is, sir. Four things, without which, I can promise this city will fall.’

Gatanas shook his head. ‘What does she want, Thorsson?’

Harlequin tapped his finger against his chin, driving all thoughts of the woman he had known from his mind. Instead, he conjured the face of the monster who had slaughtered hundreds in the SOC liaison-office parking lot. ‘Revenge. And I don’t just mean smacking the SOC in the face for what we did to her. I mean total revenge. Making all non-Latent society pay for what she perceives as some kind of genetic apartheid. I talked to her plenty when they first put her in “the hole”, sir.’
And plenty before that, too
. ‘She’s convinced that she’s the one to usher in a new age of Latents-on-top.’

‘Kind of what Oscar Britton wants.’

‘No, sir. Oscar Britton wants equal rights for Latent people. Scylla wants the apartheid she perceives to reverse. There’s a difference.’

‘So why are the
Gahe
helping her? What do they want?’

‘That, I don’t know, sir. I only know that if they want it, then I don’t, and violently.’

‘Okay, well I . . .’

Gatanas was cut off as a soldier ran breathlessly into the room behind Harlequin. His eyes widened as he saw who was on the screen, and he saluted halfway before realizing he was indoors. ‘Sorry, sir. I mean, to interrupt. Sorry. Master Sergeant Bilkes said I should . . .’

‘It’s fine, Specialist,’ Harlequin said. ‘What’s the problem?’

‘It’s . . . It’s the enemy commander, sir. She’s outside the T-walls. She threw this up, said you’d know what it was.’ He handed Harlequin a chunk of broken street signpost, tied with a scrap of white bedsheet.

‘What is that?’ Gatanas leaned across his desk, squinting. ‘Hold it up to the screen? I can’t see it.’

It was a long time before Harlequin could answer.

‘It’s a flag of parley, sir,’ he said, holding it up. ‘You wanted to know what Scylla wants. I guess we’re about to find out.’

Scylla stood some distance away from the line of T-walls. A
Gahe
stood to either side of her, black bodies crouched, heads turning, scanning for threats.

He flew over the T-walls, gathering dark clouds around him, boiling with lightning. As soon as he cleared the perimeter, he lowered himself to just six feet above the ground. He wanted the high vantage point, but if Scylla had some way to Suppress him, he wasn’t going to risk falling to his death.

The preparations were more than good battle sense. In a moment he’d be face-to-face with this woman out of his past, and that was not the time to lose focus.
The lightning is for Scylla, not Grace. Remember that.

‘Isn’t this dramatic?’ Her voice carried over the distance. ‘You and me, New York City. Just like old times.’

She smiled, her confidence as smooth and enchanting as the most talented politicians he’d known since he’d come to be stationed inside the Beltway.

He breathed deeply in a failed attempt to slow his pounding heart.
Not Grace. Not Grace. Not Grace.

‘You come to surrender?’ he asked, struggling to keep the tremor out of his voice. ‘I should warn you that your list of crimes makes it highly unlikely that any court in this country will let you live.’

She smiled wider. ‘I’ve been thinking about your court system. There’re some changes I’ll be making there. Thanks for reminding me.’

‘What do you want, Scylla?’ Saying the monster’s name felt good.
Don’t call her Grace. That woman is dead.

‘To save your life, and the lives of whatever handful of Latent people you have under your command. You’re an idiot, but it’s an idiocy born of devotion to the institutions that raised you. It takes a lot to break those chains. You turned down the chance to come with me before, but . . . you know, since we were close, I figured I’d give you another one.’

‘You’re not making sense.’

‘I am the only one here making any sense.’

She held up a pistol. Without taking her eyes off Harlequin, she fired it into one of the
Gahe
. The creature didn’t flinch, the bullet vanishing into the dark surface of its body.

‘You have a lot of these,’ Scylla mused, looking down at the smoking gun. ‘Bigger ones, too. None of them will help, you know that?’

‘If you think that means I give up my position, you’re wrong.’

She shook her head, clucking her tongue. ‘That’s suicide, for you and your subordinates. And for what? So you can go on doing the bidding of people who are terrified of you? We’re the same, Jan. We both want to do good.’

‘You don’t want to do good.’

‘We’re the next rung on the evolutionary ladder, you and I. We are quite literally the same. It’s foolish for us to fight.’

‘We’re not the same. I’m an agent of the people of the United States of America, and you’re a murdering criminal. Whatever happened between us died along with those people you killed. Now, tell your dogs to go back where they came from and surrender. I won’t take it easy on you, but I’ll be just. That’s something.’

‘I think I’m done with your brand of justice, thank you very much,’ Scylla said. ‘If you’re determined to remain a footrest for the humans, then I’ll have to hold you to account along with them.’

‘Humans?’ Harlequin asked. ‘You’re a human.’

‘No, I’m not.’ Scylla’s expression darkened. ‘I’m something else entirely. You could be, too, if you’d only let yourself see it. We’re a new race to rule a new world. Your SOC and McGauer-Linden laws are just feeble flailings to stave that off. That flailing irritates me. I’m here to make it stop.’

‘New race, huh?’ Harlequin gestured to the
Gahe
. ‘Is this what the new race looks like? Because you don’t seem to fit in too well. And honestly? They’re fucking ugly.’

She exchanged glances with the
Gahe
she’d shot, back to Harlequin. ‘Looks can be deceiving. There’s plenty to find ugly about humanity.’

‘And plenty to find beautiful, too,’ Harlequin said. ‘Are they equally devoted to this new order of yours? And what about all those goblins up on Wall Street? What did you have to promise to get them to help you?’

‘And what were you promised, Jan? Are these humans you’re so ready to die for rewarding your loyalty? Are they treating you like the hero you are?’

Harlequin swallowed. Faces flashed through his mind, the vein throbbing in Hewitt’s forehead, Knut’s curled lip.

‘They’re terrified of you, aren’t they?’ Scylla asked. ‘They curse you even as they beg you to save them. Why, Jan? I don’t understand.’

Because it’s not about me. It never was
, he thought. But all he said was, ‘You can’t understand.’

‘Jan,’ she said, her voice low now, all anger gone from it, quivering ever so slightly. She sounded hurt. She sounded genuine. ‘Jan, please. Don’t do this.’

It’s not her. Grace is gone.
Harlequin looked down and shook his head.

Scylla sighed. The remnants of her smile faded. ‘Remember when I worked here?’ she asked, sweeping her arm to encompass the now-silent Financial District. ‘Remember what I showed you?’

‘I remember,’ Harlequin said. ‘It doesn’t matter. You came up Latent. You came up Probe. You killed people.’

The sardonic smirk returned. ‘And that is why they help me. The goblins, the mountain gods, all of them. They see you for what you are, and they know you will never stop until you control every action of everyone and everything that frightens you.

‘They want the same thing I do. To be able to go to bed at night and never have to wake up worrying that you’re out there, plotting to put us in chains again.

‘We can’t get that by negotiating with you. We can only get that by teaching you what those chains feel like. You’ll have to wear them for a good, long while before you understand.’

Her voice and posture stiffened. ‘Last chance. You can stand at my side, or you can crawl under my boot, but I’m done asking nicely.

‘I’ve given you terms. Accept them, and let’s be done with this.’

Harlequin shook his head. ‘Your terms are refused. You’re going to have one hell of a fight on your hands. I promise you this: When we beat you, and we will beat you, we’re not going to throw you back in the hole. We’re going to make damn sure that you can never hurt anyone else ever again.’