Deadly Wands (18 page)

Then he learned the Americans were not even
in France anymore. Instead, they were robbing Bank of Mongolia
branches in Russia while getting the treasure they left in the
Urals.

Genghis groaned at hearing the news. This
left him two choices: intercept them before they reached
Scandinavia, or use his armada to crush French resistance. The
prospect of burning Paris to the ground made his fingers twitch.
But the French were much stronger now than just a few years ago,
while he had sent his best battalions from Europe to Siberia, so it
was not obvious that he could actually win with what he had.
Especially since the Baron decimated his frontline troops. And if
he did commit to conquering France, the Americans would probably
attack him from behind.

Genghis sighed. The French would still be in
France next year, while this could be his only opportunity to catch
the Americans weighted down. If he let them go now, they’d surprise
him again in the spring. France wasn’t his enemy. The Baron was his
enemy.

So Genghis rushed his armada north, not
knowing Paris pissed themselves in fear. He couldn’t let his
weakest troops slow him down, so he personally led his fastest
twenty divisions.

With twice as many quads, Genghis faced them
outside St. Petersburg. The Americans camped after dark an hour
away and slept early. The scout reports sounded too good to be
true, so Genghis went in person to see for himself.

Sure enough, it looked like the Americans
slept. If he took his entire force with him, he could have ended
this before midnight. As it was, by the time he returned with
troops, it’d be almost dawn. While the Americans didn’t have any
bombs because they carried too much loot, the Mongols didn’t carry
any bombs so they could fly fast enough to intercept them.

But William didn’t want the enemy well
rested, so Billy harassed them all night. The kid had more energy
than the Sun. Thousands of angry quads chased him as he dived out
of the night to fireball their tents. If the Mongols did attack en
force, Billy would have warned his father.

The Americans didn’t wear armor so they could
fly higher, faster, and farther. Which made sense in their
hit-and-run raids. But in a pitched battle, when neither side has
surprise, the side with armor enjoyed a lethal advantage.

Well, no time for surprises. This would be a
large-scale maneuver battle, the kind that Genghis perfected
centuries ago. The rest of his troops were only a day away, so he
was surprisingly confident.

Before dawn, the Americans ate breakfast,
formed up, and took to the air, leaving one hundred thousand
backpacks on the ground. This told Genghis that they planned to
fight. The Mongols spent the night in their armor, sleeping in
formation, and so wasted no time rising to meet them. Genghis
himself led the charge, eager to acquit himself after so many
costly mistakes.

But, instead of a great clash, the Americans
fired volleys whenever they enjoyed a favorable position, but
otherwise didn’t engage. The Americans could fly higher, and so
exploited their advantage by making the Mongols search for them in
the sun. This enraged the Mongols, who wanted to teach these
bastards a lesson. And they did. Genghis couldn’t help but notice
how many screaming Americans plummeted to earth. The Mongols needed
this to pump up their morale. Hour after hour they pushed the
raiders back, decimating their ranks.

With their heavy armor and weaker wands, the
Mongols tired first, forcing Genghis to rotate battalions. He
patted himself on the back for having twice as many troops. The
Americans, naturally, targeted units on the ground, so they rested
under the reserve division for protection. While each Mongol had a
water sack, each American carried several. Having planned on a long
battle, the Americans also brought beef jerky and bread to eat in
the air, while the Mongols started without even enjoying
breakfast.

Genghis thought everything was going better
than expected until he took a wild swing at an American who just
killed a bodyguard. His opponent yelled in pain and fell screaming,
but the Khan was pretty sure he missed. So he dropped below the
fight and tracked the wounded quad. Not easy while avoiding
blasts.

Then he saw it. His opponent regained control
over his fall and flew below tree level. A long moment later
Genghis believed he saw him streak over the horizon.

Genghis did not like it. Something was going
on, so he watched carefully until an American killed a Mongol, then
soon clutched his chest and dropped from the sky. When this guy,
too, recovered to disappear among the ground clutter, Genghis felt
a bad chill flow down his spine.

For some reason, it felt like the Americans
were laughing at him.

His battalion of personal guards flew
circle-8’s around him. He called a messenger over to tell the
reserve division to rest, then motioned for his security battalion
to follow him when the next enemy fell.

Genghis dived at full power and caught the
bastard just as he recovered. The Khan sliced off a leg and watched
him fall into some trees. He landed to examine the body. The fall
broke his neck, but the Khan could not find any other wounds. Yet
he couldn’t be certain the American faked an injury. He fought for
five hours, so why turn coward now? The Americans suffered just
half as many casualties as the Mongols, and did not look ready to
run.

Disturbed, Genghis ordered his battalion to
rest, eat, and drink. Something told him he’d need them soon. He
waited until the battle disappeared over the horizon, then led his
men around so he could strike the Americans from behind. They
dropped on the first enemy battalion that didn’t see them and
smashed their formation. Genghis himself killed three and wounded
seven more in his best moment yet.

Units often pair up to watch each others
back. Now, the enemy’s companion battalion dropped on his security
guards, canceling out their minor victory and giving the Khan his
first serous burn of the day. Genghis returned them to his main
force to better direct the battle.

By the time they pushed the raiders back over
their camp, the Mongols still enjoyed 50% more quads. Genghis knew
the enemy wouldn’t leave without their precious plunder, which
meant this was a fight to the finish.

Finally. Genghis needed a victory under his
belt. His troops lost so much faith in him that he could see it in
their eyes. The few with the balls to make eye contact.

Until then, the Khan believed he could still
win. The battalion guarding the camp had been cooking and, as one,
lifted food packs and water sacks to distribute to the one hundred
thousand or so comrades in the sky. The entire American air force
broke off to enjoy a brief lunch near their ceiling, putting the
sun behind them.

Dumbfounded, the Mongols stared at them. In
the middle of an hours-long battle, they were gonna eat? Really? In
three centuries, that had never happened before.

Genghis assumed it was a trick. Like everyone
else, he studied the skies for hidden enemies, then put a wand to
an eye to examine the terrain below them.

Nothing. No hidden ambushers diving from
above or soaring from below. No one. But if he could see over the
horizon, he could watch an American division smash his reserves on
the ground.

Genghis held his troops back, although he
didn’t yet understand why. The textbook move would have been a mass
charge to catch the enemy literally while they were eating. But,
instead, he reorganized his formations to better prepare for this
final fight.

And that’s when he noticed his quads diving
to the defenseless American camp. Soon many others followed,
gutting their formations. Genghis let himself go into a controlled
freefall while putting a wand to one eye to see better. Even at
this altitude, he noticed something bright glittering on the
ground. Near the one hundred thousand backpacks full of stolen
wealth.

Ah crap!

The Americans didn’t even respond. They
seemed more interested in eating than protecting their gold. His
troops must have agreed, because what was a stream now became a
flood. The first Mongols grabbed a backpack and flew off -- away
from the battle. They got away clean, which encouraged the
rest.

The butterflies in his stomach suddenly
turned into worms. Insight into what was really happening struck
him like a knee to the groin.

“Noooooo!” Genghis yelled, signaling retreat
at maximum volume while an invisible hand clenched his heart.

Most of his troops were allies or
mercenaries, fighting for pay, not patriotism, and a backpack of
coin was just too tempting to pass up. They all heard how the
Americans gave their European counterparts more wealth than most
families saw in a lifetime. So while half of his quads followed him
back, the rest dived to steal backpacks.

Backpacks that Genghis realized must be full
of rocks. The bastard outsmarted him again. This was the plan all
along. To exhaust the Mongols, then lure the greediest away with
false gold. That’s why they camped so close! We didn’t push them
back, Genghis realized, they pulled us in! He could not even tell
his troops because they couldn’t hear him. The Americans faking
wounds were probably positioning themselves to pounce on the
Mongols lugging one hundred kilos of rocks.

Genghis roared “full retreat” and led it
himself, diving to maximize speed. A glance over his shoulder
showed the Americans on their tail -- some still eating. He knew
they could cut up his slowest troops, but counted on his rested
reserve division to run interference.

When Genghis saw a shadow in the sky, he rose
expecting to see his reserves flying cover. Instead he saw an enemy
division blocking their escape. Genghis signaled a sharp turn south
to elude the trap. Later he would find the ten thousand corpses of
his backup division. His security battalion, having recently
rested, kept up, but the rest of his mighty armada could not. The
difference in energy levels proved fatal.

Genghis flew up and the sight of thousands of
Americans blasting his quads in the back made him sick because he
knew the fault was all his. Kicking himself for his stupidity,
Genghis led his one rested battalion to slow down the
Americans.

Genghis thought he’d finally get the climatic
battle he sought all day.

Instead the bastards blasted down volleys
from above. One hundred thousand fireballs a second rained down on
them. Genghis led the charge up, but the enemy only flew higher.
The fastest quads died first and Genghis himself got crushed like a
bug. A fireball hit his shield with such force that it broke his
nose, which blurred his vision.

He recovered before splattering on the rocks,
and saw his troops getting mauled a few clicks above. The Americans
tracked them like a shark, descending just enough to get within
lethal range. All too soon his exhausted armada disintegrated in
all directions. They abandoned their formations and the fastest
tried surviving at the expense of the slowest. The Americans
gleefully chased them down.

Genghis Khan just lost another battle. He
pissed away his best battalion for nothing. Humbled, he hugged the
terrain at maximum speed.

He landed at his camp and ordered everyone to
leave. He pillaged his own tent, but had to leave most of his stuff
behind. He had to personally threaten the slowest staffers to
launch.

And not a moment too soon. One hundred
Americans rose over the horizon like a storm. Genghis popped up and
flashed his four wands, hoping he could out-run the bastards.
Instead, the Baron flashed four wands, but otherwise ignored him,
preferring to kill his support staff. One hundred quads chased a
thousand, and would probably win.

Genghis had enough. He raced for his
follow-on forces to turn them around before the Americans destroyed
them, too. He lost the better half of his armada, and doubted he
cost the enemy a thousand.

They seemed surprised to see him alone that
evening, and even more surprised by the panicked expression on his
face as he ordered them to fly back where they came from. The Khan
didn’t care that they just finished setting camp -- he wanted them
in the air within an hour. Genghis was aware they thought he was
delusional, but he couldn’t afford to lose more troops. The Baron
was killing his guys faster than his flight school could train
them. His boast of infinite quads now felt like a cruel joke.

Later Genghis learned the bank gold the
Americans accumulated on their way to the Urals had loaded them
down, so they rested and feasted while waiting for the Khan to
catch up. With the Great Khan now in retreat, the Americans
deposited their stolen riches in Helsinki, then flew to the Urals
for the rest of their loot, while crushing Mongol units and
emptying Mongol businesses. Thousands of Russians eagerly took them
to the richest Mongols.

On that long, lonely retreat, Genghis
examined the trick the enemy pulled on him. Its brilliance was
obvious. He thought he had seen everything, yet the Baron kept
coming up with something new.

Then, like a lightning strike, he realized he
was fighting a Mongol! Mongols valued deception over brute force
because the better the deception, the fewer casualties suffered. So
duelers, commanders, and generals who won by deception received the
greatest respect. That’s how a million Mongols, fielding just one
hundred thousand quads, conquered half the world.

Now, how do I fight a Mongol? he
wondered.

CHAPTER 20

The Americans went home for the winter, so
father and son finally dueled in Europe to avoid exposing the Boy
Wonder.

Tommy waited until Billy finished his final
kill of the day at the Budapest Arena. Billy, perceptive as always,
became alarmed upon seeing his facial expression and stopped
applying a wand to his nasty shoulder wound.