Deadly Wands (14 page)

William and Tommy took to the air, forcing
the attackers to show their backs to either them or Billy. With
their eyes on his father, Billy used four wands to rocket himself
just over the grass and barely had enough time to lift his arms to
cut five rapists in the legs before he flew off the mound and into
the air. The ambusher split up, with most of them chasing the
bigger threat, the Boy Wonder.

William and Tommy spread out so that the
attackers had to show their backs to one or the other. William shot
at those attacking Tommy and Tommy shot at those attacking William,
while both evaded fireballs. This took out several opponents until
the enemy got within blade distance.

William’s years of dueling paid off. Instead
of trying for fatal blows, he nicked the bicep of one and slashed a
calf muscle of another, their yells as they plummeted to Earth
elating him. He popped down as they swarmed him, then popped
towards Tommy, blasting into their backs. Tommy dropped down while
shooting up so they engulfed his opponents in a hellish crossfire.
Unfortunately, his low, slow position made him an easy target for
those pursuing William. Lacking the momentum to evade, he tried to
hide behind shields when several fireballs swatted him from the
sky.

Diving after Tommy, however, exposed them to
William, who fired in freefall. His fireballs engulfed two and he
stabbed two more. The fifth one, however, reversed course to
escape.

The two veterans now circled each other in
the air like a merry-go-round. They traded fireballs first, but
both were too fast to hit, so they drew swords.

“I’m gonna torture you for raping my wife,”
William vowed.

The other guy shrugged. “Someone needed to
give her an orgasm before she died.”

Furious, William attacked, his swords a blur
against the blue sky. His opponent not only matched his blade
length, which was unnerving, but was even better at sword fighting,
which William previously thought he excelled at. His need for
revenge gave him enough extra speed to hold off the superior
opponent, until a blade he never saw took off his helmet and sliced
his face. Blood blinded his left eye, so he flew up at a 45 degree
angle while blindly firing until he had a moment to wipe the blood
away. And just in time. He blew off his enemy's right foot off.

William dumped his bleeding opponent between
a wounded rapist whose genitals Billy was electrocuting, and Tommy,
whose wounds Billy was healing.

"These guys won't talk either," a very
frustrated Billy growled angrily.

"I think I recognize my guy." William closed
his eyes to search his wand for a recording. A moment later a three
dimensional image showed Genghis Khan seated with his royal guard
at the Peking stadium, laughing at Billy's jokes.

"The guard standing right next to Genghis!"
Billy pointed out. "That's him."

"Which means these rapists belong to the
Kashik -- Genghis Khan's own imperial guards. That’s why they’re so
good. Well, we finally have something to spend our wealth on
besides American highways." He addressed the wounded. "Did you know
that American Jack has your roster? Or that it lists every member
of your family? You targeted our family. Now we’ll target yours. I
hope you have lots of descendents."

Billy had always wanted to meet American
Jack. The Mongols enriched themselves by enslaving natives to
extract resources in Africa, so the English made their own fortune
doing the same in the New World, flying patrols in Iceland to
protect the only route to America. They had a monopoly over an
entire continent, until the Spanish started sailing there.

Then American Jack armed, trained, and united
the American Indians to repulse the Mongols, English, and Spanish.
Most English and their mixed children allied with Jack's Indians in
exchange for outlawing slavery and setting up representative
democracies. Together they kicked the Mongols out of Alaska, the
English out of North America, and the Spanish out of South
America.

American Jack now had quads to fight the
Mongols, the natural resources of an entire continent to fund a
rebellion, and a new form of government to contest the old forms of
tyranny. He was the oldest and strongest voice for people fighting
world conquest.

William started taking his body armor off.
"I’m gonna switch armor with Tim. While I torture the rapists to
death, I want you to carry Tommy to the camp and tell everyone that
bandits killed your mother and father. You're now an orphan.

“For the next several weeks, I want you to
take our English security and duel at the largest arenas, never
spending the night afterwards, though. Not this full moon, but the
dawn after the next one, return to the Peking Arena to exhaust
their best champions. It’s been two years, so Peking should have
new duelers.

“Let everyone know that you’ve lost the will
to live. Act crazy in Peking. Break down emotionally during
interviews. Throw tantrums in restaurants. Threaten suicide. Set up
their expectations. And make sure you change your appearance as
much as possible.

"When you run out of opponents, I’ll appear
as that arrogant German duke that I killed a few months ago. You
remember the Kaiser’s grandson, who became famous as Prussia’s best
dueler? Well, he also had his face slashed like mine. Remember to
carry several bags of blood and wear several layers of
fire-resistant clothing so I can burn you.

"Listen. You have several thousand relatives
eager to avenge their family. I’ll have them spread the news that
anyone can make money killing direct descendents of the khan. We’ll
have organized gangs, petty criminals, and professional bounty
hunters working free lance for us."

Billy's eyes lost much of their glaze.
William knew he’d go crazy for revenge, so he needed to propose
something big to satisfy the boy's thirst.

“I don’t expect you to think clearly right
now, but I need to know that you’ll follow my plan. Are you with
me?”

Billy felt himself float around in his body.
He couldn’t believe he lost his mother.

“Dad, what are you gonna do?”

William smiled grimly. “They say the Khan has
a million descendents. I’m gonna kill them all.”

Billy wasn’t sure how serious he was.

William hugged his son until they both broke
into uncontrollable tears. They may have continued crying until
nightfall, but Tommy moaned in pain.

“Billy, one last thing. Your mother died
because we got predictable. We stayed here too long. Predictability
is fatal.”

“You wanted to leave a week ago. Mama would
still be alive if I listened to you.”

“Promise me you’ll never let the enemy
predict your next move ever again.”

“I promise, daddy.”

“Then I’ll see you in Peking.”

CHAPTER 15

Once Billy carried Tommy away, William cut
off their heads because Mongols believe their souls will never find
peace if headless. Then he took his wife’s wands and reviewed their
last memories. He saw Liz descend to their hut when several wands
from within shot them at point-blank range.

The surprise was total. Fliers need all four
wands to land safely, which makes that moment the best opportunity
for surprise.

William watched a blast strike Elizabeth
hard. Someone behind her fired back, but did little harm to those
inside. A strong arm -- William assumed the Matriarch’s -- grabbed
his wife and carried her away. The video grew weak, so Liz must
have been hurt bad. Still, he heard Mary and Emily shooting at
their pursuers. Somewhere in the middle of a long firefight, his
wife recovered enough to blast, but not to fly, which effectively
disabled Susan, who had to carry her. After absorbing several
weaker blasts, a concentrated fireball smashed them from the sky.
Even then, Liz tried to shoot the enemy as she fell.

William felt so proud of his warrior
princess.

On the ground, they made for easy targets. He
heard a short, intense fight rage above them, and saw bodies fall
in the periphery of the recording. Mary, burned and bleeding, kept
shooting until fire swallowed her. Even then she tackled the
nearest Mongol, driving hot steel through his chest armor as others
hacked at her. Then the wand showed Emily as she lay burning on the
ground. Susan cursed someone, and the wands turned in time to see
the master swordsman pulled twin blades of steel from her.

Liz now used the wands for propulsion, to get
the Mongols away from her wounded family members. She shot up like
a rocket using only her boot wands, not able to dodge or weave. She
rose in an arc and fell as predictably -- suicide flights, some
called them. She landed hard and, from the sound, probably broke
her back. Still, the love of his life did not cry or beg for mercy.
She pointed her wands at herself and yelled “kill them all, my
love. Kill them all for me. I love you and have no regrets.”

Their last image showed his wife defiantly
cutting her own throat. William had never loved her more than that
moment.

Once he finished his first round of weeping,
William made a mental note to tell Billy how Susan, Mary, and Emily
fought when they could have fled. The last thing William wanted to
do in life was die well. Living well is easy; dying well is hard.
He took some comfort that his wife died well. She died like a
Mongol.

William genuinely liked and respected
Mongols. Moments like these reminded him why he also hated them so
much.

Her death opened up a chasm so large that he
knew he’d never fill it. He married someone so wonderful that she
ruined him for other women. Like Billy, he now had a death
wish.

William flew to the nearest Global Bank
branch, sent a message to his American raiders, and transferred a
ton of gold to American Jack in return for an updated list of the
locations of Imperial Guard families. Then he visited several large
Mongol cities to buy wands, clothes, and food.

Posing as a logistical officer, he paid cash
for fruits, vegetables, milk, bread, and beef jerky to be delivered
on specific dates at farms he rented just outside of his targets.
Fliers thought it odd he painted large red X’s on the roofs. He
bought ovens, stoves, large cooking pots, milk cows, wheat, grains,
a lot of underclothes, and tons of salt. And, of course, all the
wagons, horses, mules, and oxen on the market.

After all, he had an armada to feed.

Once Jack sent him the new list, he went to
Peking and began a series of interviews with the Triad hierarchy.
Triads started with the original goal of returning control of China
to Chinese. After failing that, it had since degenerated into
mostly a criminal money-making operation justifying itself with
patriotic rhetoric. They remembered him, of course, and the son who
paid them so generously.

A few dozen hardened street fighters, each
carrying a large backpack full of mediocre wands, escorted William
through a maze of back alleys to a small home where a dozen old men
sat at a beautiful oak table. After ritual tea sipping and the
traditional exchange of bland pleasantries, William handed the
leader a memory stick. Despite looking so frail, the Triad
projected a large image of William in a cave filled with Chinese
cultural treasures, some millennia old. William helpfully recorded
close-ups of the items in anticipation of this day.

“The Americans found these Chinese artifacts
in the Mongol capital. They recovered thousands of old Chinese
paintings, ceramics, pottery, and scrolls, which rot as we speak.
They have no value in America, and they don’t have the connections
to sell them in China. They don’t even have incentive to move them.
One earthquake could bury them forever. Who knows what the intense
cold in Siberia is doing to them right now? The Mongols don’t want
the Chinese to know that their ancestors for centuries enjoyed the
most advanced society on Earth. The ancient Romans thought they
conquered the world, but the Chinese, at their peak, occupied three
times the land and had four times the military might. I now offer
you everything that you see in the cave.”

William could tell the guy wanted it all.
Whoever returned these items would become a hero to every
Chinese.

“Tell me why I can’t just torture you into
revealing its location?” the Triad asked.

“Do you know how vast Siberia is? The
Americans took me there in blindfolds, so I’ll need help just to
find it. The snow changes the landscape every year, so everything
looks different. It’s not like a city where you can give someone an
address.”

Actually, they buried it all in a cave in a
Manchurian forest rather than air-haul it to his fleet.

“And how much do you want?”

“The Mongol government tracks all benefits
ever paid to members of the Imperial Guard and their relatives.
That wand has a copy of that list, complete with addresses. I want
you to bomb every property on that list, regardless of where they
are, on the night of the next full moon. Cut off the heads of
everyone in those homes. If you don’t bomb them all, then you don’t
get the Chinese artifacts.”

“But they’ll avenge their families. This will
re-start the war between the Triads and the Imperial Guard. It took
two years just to correct our last misunderstanding.”

“Then you better kill them all.”

“Why do you want to kill Imperial
Guards?”

“Because they all descend from either the
Khan or his brothers, and I want Genghis to feel what I feel.”

The leader looked like a ghost. The old men
spoke rapidly, talking over each other.

“How will you know we haven’t just bombed a
thousand random homes?” one of them asked William.

“The news agencies will figure out the one
thing they all have in common. You know how the Mongols love
reporting facts and figures. They’ll count in grisly detail how
many family members of the Imperial Guard have been beheaded. I
know how many exist, so you better make sure you are thorough if
you want the treasure. Beyond the obvious value, all of China will
hail you as heroes.”