Deadly Wands (10 page)

“I have given your returning heroes more
wealth than they can spend in a lifetime. In return, they have
sworn a solemn oath to protect the peace. You think Genghis Khan is
not now planning to exterminate all Americans? You destroyed his
capital, stole his treasure, and slaughtered his people. Right now
he’s wondering why he didn’t wipe this entire continent clean years
ago. Unity will make you strong, rich, and safe. Warring against
your neighbors will destroy you all.”

Genghis had been sending punitive raiding
parties into the Americas for two centuries. He never bothered to
conquer the tribes because they didn’t have any wealth to steal, so
the Mongols just killed everyone and burned cities, crops, and
herds. They killed far more Americans through disease, starvation,
and displacement than through violence.

Because these raids depopulated western
Canada, the closest city, San Francisco, was several thousand
kilometers from Siberia. Anchorage was a fortress, not a city, and
acted as a tripwire to buy San Francisco time. American University
took responsibility for defense by vigorously patrolling the Bering
Strait and manning the ten lines of fortifications between the
Strait and Anchorage.

With spring coming, scouts noticed Mongols
bringing food, munitions, and supplies by the ton. Siberians warned
them that the Khan would invade with a million quads. The
University did the smart thing and begged William for help.

William looked relieved. Genghis wanted his
money back, knew most of it was in San Francisco, and that the
raiders were dispersed across the Americas. Why wouldn’t he invade?
William closed his eyes and saw the campaign as Genghis would.

“Baron, why are you smiling?” the terrified
University staff asked William.

“Because we’re going to destroy them,”
William answered to obvious disbelief.

Although what he said was true, he also lied
-- he smiled not because they’d destroy the invaders, but because
Genghis Khan would scare the Americans into uniting against him.
Because the raiders came from many tribes, Genghis would see all
Americans as the enemy. After pulling off such a profitable raid,
William wanted to recruit while the moment was ripe. Which is why
he sent Billy on tour and why he wanted his raiders to return home
richer than kings. William needed the full strength of the Americas
deployed against the Empire, and Genghis was gonna help make that
happen.

That made him smile.

At their victory celebration when they
arrived in San Francisco, William told them to take the next year
and a half off so that Genghis would hear of it. Privately, he
explained that the University would need all winter to count their
plunder and deposit it into one hundred twenty thousand Global Bank
accounts. Therefore, they needed to return in the spring to get the
rest of their money.

The University had just graduated the last of
one hundred fifty half-marathon battalions. The Baron wished he
could see the Khan’s face when he unexpectedly faced a few hundred
thousand long-distance quads instead of a defenseless city.

“Record me,” William ordered the staffers.
“Genghis Khan leads a million-quad armada to exterminate the
Americas. He plans on killing everyone. The only way you can save
your family is for every quad to help us stop him near San
Francisco. To compensate for leaving your jobs, I’ll pay every quad
who joins our self-defense force a full gold coin or its
equivalent. Come now or Genghis Khan will slaughter your family
just as he has slaughtered millions of other families, including
mine.”

Billy heard about the invasion just as he
started getting the shakes. In South America at the time, Billy
took the news like medicine. He flew two thousand clicks a day,
scared his father would win before he got there, and unaware that
the sneaky bastard wanted the Americans to win slowly.

He never told even Billy this, but William
wanted Genghis to bomb San Francisco because only an existential
threat -- a threat to their very existence -- would shock the
warring tribes into unity.

All ten lines of fortifications had a
division of cheap quads and a battalion of two-wanders for supply,
administration, and security. All were volunteers that American
Jack paid a subsistence wage. William saved the quads by sending
them south in a skirmish line with orders to kill every edible
animal they found on their way, and to blast every river, lake, and
pond to kill the fish. The two-wanders he asked to stay by
explaining how they were gonna beat Genghis freaking Khan:

“Genghis must feed and shelter a million
fliers, so he desperately needs your food and bunkers. You must
stay to deny him it. He’ll leave his slowest division to dislodge
you. You can do your part by keeping that division here so we can
pounce on them at our convenience. We’ll follow the armada and
ambush an enemy division at each of the fortifications. To help us
win, all you have to do is survive. For your service, dead or
alive, I’ll pay each of you a full year’s salary.”

“Baron, why are you so confident of victory?”
one of them asked.

“Because I’ve been preparing for this battle
for over a year. That’s why I built so many new bunkers. I killed a
quarter-million Mongols led by Genghis Khan last summer, and now
I’m gonna kill a million more.”

Instead of organizing the quads according to
how far they could fly, William put them according to how high. The
highest-flying battalions occupied the northernmost bunkers. The
University certified the ceiling of all graduates, which made this
easier. And whoever could not fly high enough was sent to San
Francisco. A year of preparations was about to pay off.

CHAPTER 12

William kept the thirty thousand highest
fliers for himself. Billy overtook them on their way to the Bering
Strait. The nervous quads had a hard time showing their fear when
Shorty, as they knew Billy, looked so giddy. And Willy, as they
called the Baron, could not look happier.

William sent Billy to warn him when the enemy
crossed the Strait while his unit rested at a secret munitions
depot that he had dug far north of the Khan’s invasion route.
William depended upon Billy’s ridiculous endurance. When he
convened a leadership meeting, the commanders seemed surprised they
were not trying to stop the invasion.

“It’s easier to kill Mongols where we live
than where they live.” William laughed. “Genghis is about to lose a
million of his best active duty quads!”

When Billy finally arrived, William could not
contain his excitement. Loaded down with bombs, that night they
flew to an island north of the Strait that the Americans had never
used before. They slept all day without cooking fires, then
attacked the Mongol base camp on the Siberian side that night. The
surprise was total. Genghis took all the warriors with him, so they
fought two-wanders, support staff, and one hundred thousand air
mules (quads who carried supplies -- not every quad was a
warrior).

Genghis needed so many air mules to bring him
food and bombs, so killing them cut off his supplies. Even if
Genghis pre-deployed food without the Americans noticing, or had
ships offshore, he’d still have to forage. For a million
mouths.

Instead of attacking the armada right away,
William had them air-hump all the Mongol food to their nearest
mountaintop bunkers in Siberia. A week later, they stocked up on
Mongol bombs and returned to Alaska to find the invaders.

William sent Billy to destroy the Mongol
supply ships that he assumed were now tracking the armada offshore.
His endurance made him perfect for finding the ships, and his speed
made him perfect for flying past defenders to sink them with
fireballs. Alone, Billy sunk three supply fleets protected by a
thousand quads each. One was so well protected that Billy dived
underwater and used his wands to propel him close enough to
puncture the keel with steel.

William pounced on each division attacking
the American fortifications. William not only got to use three
divisions to surprise one, ten nights in a row, but each defensive
line gave him bombs for the next drop, plus hot food and warm
beds.

The night they attacked the armada, William
waited until the Mongol rapid-reaction teams chased an American
battalion to the south. Then William came from the north, dropped
thirty thousand bombs, and blasted them all night.

Vastly outnumbered, the Americans at least
held the high ground. But they still had to dive to shoot enemy
units who showed them their back. Which gave the enemy the
opportunity to catch them.

Just before dawn, an enemy battalion dropped
on the unit his mother led. Billy warned her by screaming at the
top of his lungs and waving what looked like really long swords of
fire.

From all four wands.

The battle paused for a moment, so Billy did
it again. Except he let himself fall while projecting flame in the
shape of an “X” to keep all eyes on him while his mother led her
battalion back up to safety. Then someone raced up and flashed his
own four fiery wands and the fighting stopped, by mutual agreement,
so everyone could watch.

Billy suddenly faced Genghis Khan in battle,
while a million wands recorded them. They had even exhaustively
studied each other’s duels, although the Khan didn’t know he
battled the Boy Wonder.

His father didn’t want Genghis dead because
then the Mongols would lose under another leader, and assume they’d
win if they could just find the right leader. In contrast, if they
lost under Genghis Khan, they’d assume no one could have won.

When Billy didn’t find this convincing,
William tried another argument: “He can’t suffer if he’s dead. Only
alive can we make his life a living hell.”

Now that Billy found compelling.

What William didn’t ever tell Billy is that
he feared another leader would negotiate a peace. Genghis had three
centuries of legacy to protect; a new Mongol Khan only had people
to protect.

Billy, who enjoyed a height advantage, rose
in an arc and fell with his hands and feet pointing at the
Immortal, blasting a volley every heartbeat like a thunderous
drumbeat. Two fast fliers can close the distance surprisingly
quickly -- to either their detriment or advantage. The Khan tried
evading, without fleeing in front of his troops, but failed to
anticipate the speed and size of the four over-lapping fireballs
swallowing the sky around him.

The Great Khan avoided the first ones, but no
one on Earth could evade such huge, fast fireballs that originated
so near.

With no other option, he curled into a fetal
position and used his wands to project four shields to protect him
from the worst of the heat. He emerged with his hair singed and
what felt like a full body sunburn. He couldn’t open his eyes yet,
but he gulped down air because he had never held his breath that
long before.

Then a metal ball full of spikes whacked him
so hard in the groin that it obliterated his penis, testicles, and
manhood. Genghis Khan fell from the sky a ruined man. He lost so
much of his inner thighs that, for the rest of his life, he’d walk
like a man recently raped. He certainly felt violated.

The Great Khan dropped from the sky for an
eternity as his armada looked on. A veteran of a million fights,
Genghis fought through the pain and regained control before his
troopers rescued him. How embarrassing that would be. His entire
force loudly cheered him as he landed at a medical tent. Unable to
walk, he collapsed in the doorway and his fingers searched his
trousers for his missing genitals.

In the old days, before two air forces
clashed, each would send out a champion who took on all opponents,
one at a time. Genghis saw the enemy do this now, exaggerating the
gesture so all could see it.

Mongol super-quads accepted the challenge,
but reached him just a few at a time instead of many at once. While
doctors stripped his armor off, Genghis watched his best guys drop
out of the sky like exploded fireworks. His nemesis beat one about
every heartbeat. One minute slowly passed, then another as his
aides peeled his undershirt from his back and applied lotion to his
burns. His underclothes felt like they melted to his skin under his
red-hot body armor. The other Americans used this distraction to
disengage, leaving one guy to defy a million quad armada alone.

The video of the Baron castrating the
Immortal -- “sacking the Khan’s personal treasure” is how the
bastard phrased it -- would spread faster than gossip and would
smother Mongols like poverty. Mongol-haters would call Genghis Khan
“Dick-less Khan” and joke about his immortal balls.

The Khan ordered his highest-flying battalion
to attack. For some reason, sending a thousand to attack one quad
did not feel like overkill.

More minutes passed while Genghis sucked his
wands and directed their healing power to his wounds. He kept
waiting impatiently for a thousand fireballs to light up the sky.
Every Mongol he saw splatter the ground felt like a personal
insult. Some even smashed quads on the ground, a two-fer.

As the Americans disappeared over the
horizon, Genghis wondered why his enemy didn’t kill him. He could
have, easily. He couldn’t identify the motive, but it scared him
that his enemy was not scared of him.

A shadow passed through a white cloud on a
dark night. The lone enemy put the super-quads challenging him
between him and the high-altitude battalion. Or what was left of
it. As the battalion circled around, so did the Baron, striking his
challengers like notes in a song. It looked like someone was
throwing bodies off a cliff.

Genghis sighed and shrieked “attack.”
Thousands of nearby quads looked at him confused. He gave the order
again and half a million quads launched. A minute later the Khan
saw that the battalion had broken into companies, which finally
drove the bastard away. As a parting shot, he fired four fireballs
at Genghis’ tent before venting one last primal scream.