Aetherial Annihilation (27 page)

"Commander Salazar and I spoke using normal phone lines earlier," Thomas said. "His legion has had great difficulty infiltrating the impact site south of Medellin."

"Can we travel there yet?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Since the La Casona way station is aboveground, it's been more severely affected by the aether shortage than the others."

"What about opening a portal inside the La Casona pocket dimension itself?" I asked.

He pursed his lips. "Since we cleared Atlanta of crystoids, it might work, but our earlier efforts to do just that failed."

"Can't hurt to try," I said. "If we make it, we can feed at La Casona and maybe help clear the crystoid in Medellin."

"I think it'd be better to take the safer alternative and feed here at the compound," Elyssa said. "It doesn't make sense to risk traveling there." She showed me a map on her phone plotting a route from Bogota to Medellin. "Plus, it'd take us over seven hours to travel to the crystoid."

I sighed. "Yeah, you're right." Seeing my friends again would have to wait.

We left the room and took a levitator back to ground level, left the big barn and made our way to the church. Mom showed up not long after, and she, Ivy, and I filled our tanks.

"Where's Dad?" I asked on the way out of the church.

"He's personally coordinating with operatives from Eastern European governments," Mom said. "They're being very stubborn, especially Russia."

I feigned a gasp. "You mean, he's being responsible?"

She smiled. "Yes, it's rather unsettling, isn't it?"

Ivy yawned and rubbed her eyes.

Mom stepped in front of my sister and put a hand to her forehead. "Are you sure you're up to disabling more crystoids?"

"I'm fine," Ivy said. "I probably shouldn't have eaten so much chocolate ice cream though."

I chuckled. "Feeling chocolate wasted?"

"I hope that's all it is," Mom said. "How's your leg, Justin?"

"How did you know—"

"Elyssa told me." Mom raised an eyebrow. "I know we've been through a war, but I still worry about you."

"My leg is fine." I rubbed the hamstring in question. "Not even a little bit sore."

We walked over to the underground garage. Elyssa, Shelton, Adam, and Bella waited for us there along with a small group of Templars.

"I figured having a rescue squad available might be a good idea," Elyssa said.

Shelton grunted. "Especially knowing we have a crazy scientist hell-bent on stopping us."

The levitator doors slid open and Nightliss ran out. She saw us and smiled. "I heard you were going after more crystoids and would like to help."

"Sure." I waved her over. "Have you blessed many new recruits?"

"So many I lost count." She sighed. "It will be nice to do something else for a change."

"Can you channel Stasis good?" Ivy asked.

Nightliss nodded. "I even practiced to make sure."

Ivy grinned. "Okay, well, someone's gonna have to hold you down or the crystoid might yank you off your feet." She hugged Nightliss. "I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."

"That's very sweet," Nightliss said.

Ivy backed away and nodded. "You're totally my favorite Darkling."

Shelton snorted. "How about we get moving?"

"Good idea." I led the group across the garage to the portal zone.

The Templar portal coordinator saluted when our group approached.

"A portal to the Grotto, please," Elyssa said.

"Right away." The Templar tapped on an arcphone and looked up a moment later. "ETA one minute."

The portal appeared precisely one minute later right inside the yellow zone.

"I think you missed a sprinkle," Adam said to Shelton as they stepped through ahead of me.

"I never miss a sprinkle," Shelton replied.

Adam snorted. "You still have one on your nose."

Shelton rubbed the tip of his nose, dislodging the refugee sprinkle onto his finger. "Man, I hate to waste it."

Elyssa gagged. "Please, dear god, don't tell me you plan to eat a nose sprinkle."

Bella knocked the sprinkle off Shelton's fingertip. "Harry, no nose sprinkles."

"Hey, that was a perfectly good sprinkle!" Shelton protested.

Ivy giggled. "Nose sprinkles sound so gross!"

I threw in my two cents. "We're off to a fine start, folks. Maybe we can just use Shelton's nose sprinkles to defeat the crystoid menace."

That sent a ripple of laughter through the group, though our Templar comrades maintained a stoic demeanor.

Thankfully, our precautions were unneeded. Neutralizing the crystoids threatening Western Europe went flawlessly. Mom and Nightliss handled two each; Ivy and I finished off the rest.

Shelton took great joy in updating the map. We now had a larger beachhead to work with, but Asia still had the complexion of a pimply-faced teen, and Africa looked only marginally better.

"We're down to seventy-three crystoids," Shelton announced. "We've come a long way."

"Still have more than half left," I grumbled.

Nightliss massaged her temples. "I feel so drained."

Eyelids drooping, Ivy leaned against Mom. "I'm ready for sleepy time, Mommy."

Mom kissed me on the cheek and hugged Elyssa and Nightliss goodbye. "I'm going to take her home." She squeezed my hand. "You need to rest too, okay?"

I held up my hands. "No argument from me." It had been an incredibly long day, and it was nearly one in the morning already.

"I will see you tomorrow," Nightliss said, and took a portal back to the Ranch.

Elyssa and I went back to the mansion with Shelton and Bella.

Shelton pulled me aside after the women went upstairs. "All right, so I got some ideas for asking Bella to marry me."

I hadn't given his request much thought and instantly felt guilty. "I haven't come up with anything yet."

"That's okay." He joined the tips of his thumbs together as if framing the view. "Picture this. I take Bella on a walk, then other people who are pretending to be on a walk themselves just burst into song and start dancing. I figure we could get a lot of Templars to do that. By the time we get to this cliff overlooking the valley, you, Elyssa, and all our friends jump out of hiding, dance and sing while I drop to my knees and pop the question. I call it the flash mob wedding proposal."

I blinked several times, before realizing he was serious. "Uh, that's probably the worst idea I've ever heard. Can you imagine getting Templars to perform song and dance?"

"I thought it would be kinda neat." He shrugged. "Okay, so another idea I had was we commandeer one of those old battle golems from the war—"

"You mean a goliath?"

He nodded eagerly. "Yeah, exactly. Me, you, Bella, and Elyssa go on a picnic. We make the goliath attack. You pretend that you sprained a back muscle or something, so I come to the rescue and pow! I knock it over. On the bottom of its foot it says, "Bella, you're a real knockout. Will you marry me?"

My initial snort of mirth turned to uncontrolled laughter. "Shelton, where in the hell are you getting these ideas?"

He frowned. "Cinder researched them for me. He said the noms have all sorts of neato ideas for proposals."

I groaned. "If I didn't know better, I'd say Cinder is totally playing you." I gave him a pointed look. "And you'd deserve it after the rotten advice you've given him about acting more human."

"My advice is straight from the heart, man."

"Yeah, like telling him to grunt every few minutes because that's what real people do?" I rolled my eyes. "Look, you don't need to impress Bella with all that crap. She loves you—heaven help that poor confused woman—and that's the only thing you need to know. Take her out for a fun date, and ask her to marry you beneath the full moon."

"Oh, I could ask Ryland and his buds to fake a lycan attack." He clawed at his neck. "I'll have blood pouring from a wound, and then when she thinks I'm dead, I'll pull a ring from the blood and propose."

"Now I know you're just making stuff up."

He laughed. "Yeah, but the look on her face would be priceless."

"Right before she punched you." I put a hand on his shoulder. "Look, I'm exhausted, and I'm dying to brush my teeth after the ice cream today. Let's sleep on it, okay?"

"Sure thing." He looked toward the kitchen. "I'm gonna get a snack first."

"Are you sure you need something else to eat?" I set my arms akimbo like Elyssa did when she challenged me. "I think you're stress munching."

He shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose the stress of proposing is getting to me."

"All the more reason to get it done and over with." I stifled a yawn. "Goodnight."

"Night, man."

I headed up to my room and got ready. Elyssa was already in bed reading something on her arctablet.

"Whatcha reading?" I asked when I snuggled up next to her.

"Invasion plans." She turned off the tablet and set it on the nightstand. "Once we finish off the crystoids, my father wants to enter Seraphina in force and finish off Cephus."

"I was thinking the same thing." I squeezed shut my eyes and groaned. "It feels like we're never going to have a lasting peace."

Elyssa stroked my head. "I know, baby."

I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. "Why didn't we just invade right away? All I had to do was redirect the army to an Alabaster Arch, and we could've ended this months ago. Instead of chasing crystoids all over the world, we'd still be sitting on the beach."

"Maybe." She tapped a finger on her chin. "Or we might still be embroiled in a war. Once we defeated Cephus, I imagine we'd have moved on to fix the conflict between the Darklings and Brightlings."

"Yeah, you're probably right." I nuzzled my nose against hers and kissed her forehead. "We still should've skipped vacation and taken the long road to peace. Instead, I chose short term pleasure, and now we're paying the price."

"You've got to stop beating yourself up over that, Justin." She leaned against me. "We'll beat this like we've beaten everything else."

"Yeah." I knew we'd eventually prevail, but cleaning up the crystoids looked to be a long-lasting project if we didn't gain access to all the impact sites.

Thomas met Elyssa and me with a grim face the next morning in the conference room. "Commander Salazar requested help in Medellin." He projected a video from his arctablet showing at least a dozen transformed airships circling the impact zone. "His forces have taken casualties from camouflaged robot forces hiding in the jungle."

"How are we supposed to travel there?" Elyssa asked.

Thomas switched to a map and zoomed to Central America. "Our people were able to open a portal as far south as Panama. I've rented two troop transport planes that we'll take from there to the international airport in Medellin. From there, it's a three hour drive south."

"How are we supposed to fight robots and laser-equipped airships without magic?" I asked. "Granted, we might do okay against the robots if our Nightingale armor holds up, but the airships are another matter."

Thomas switched back to the airship footage. "I tried to purchase combat helicopters from a black arms dealer in Panama, but they couldn't supply the ammunition we needed. Commander Salazar employed the use of anti-aircraft missiles, but the airships are equipped with flares that divert the projectiles."

I paused the video and zoomed in on one of the airships. "With their armor active, we can't hijack them like I did in North Korea." I tried to rotate the holograph, but it was two-dimensional. "How old is this recording?"

"It's actually recent. Commander Salazar is utilizing a satellite phone and relay system." Thomas folded his arms. "We purchased enough bandwidth to allow a live video feed if we want it."

"Who'd have thought we'd be using nom technology for a Templar mission?" I stared at the frozen image of the airship and noticed it had a turret on the top and bottom instead of just one. It also sported a missile launcher. "Did anyone else notice these things are upgraded?"

"This is going to be a nightmare," Elyssa said. "How far away is the crystoid from populated areas?"

Thomas switched to a map and zoomed to a three-dimensional view. "It's located in a valley, miles away from any habitats." He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

Elyssa walked up to the holographic image and surveyed the area. "The terrain is treacherous, guarded by robots in the forest and heavily armed airships above. A ground assault would yield heavy casualties on our part, with very little risk to the defenders."

"Where are you going with this?" I asked.

"There's an alternative." She sighed. "I think our best hope is destroying the crystoid."

Chapter 23

My eyes went wide. "You want to blow it up?"

Elyssa nodded. "I hate to say it, but that might be the easiest way."

"Do you suggest we bomb it using a plane?" Thomas said. "I might possibly procure the ordinance, but it would likely be an unguided drop. Our chances of hitting the target would be slim."

Inspiration struck. "You know the portals in the sky above the crystoids?"

They nodded.

"Did the ones above the neutralized crystoids close?" I asked.

Thomas nodded. "Apparently the aether from the crystoids was the only thing keeping them open."

"Damn." I pinch-zoomed the map for a worldwide view and looked at the remaining crystoids. "Do we have images of anymore impact sites?"

He pointed to one off the coast of Iceland. "That's the only one, but it's several hundred feet underwater."

I scrolled to the location. "Is it visible from the surface?"

"Yes, but it's created a maelstrom like the one off Thailand." Thomas flicked to an image of a great foaming vortex in the water.

Elyssa frowned. "You want to travel through the sky portal above the crystoid and find the corresponding one over Colombia, don't you?"

I nodded. "Think about this. We could fly a broom down the aether beam to every other crystoid site and take pictures, then open a portal and neutralize them." I slapped the back of a hand into my palm. "I don't know why I didn't think of this before."