Deadly Wands (34 page)

Waiting for this moment, Company #10 lured
them down while shrieking a warning. Several thousand militia fell
out of a cloud upon the bombers, who already had four super-quad
companies on their backs. It was like the Mongols flew into a box
canyon in the sky filled with locusts.

The whole point of training bombers to fly
really high is so they can drop bombs with impunity. Billy lured
the bastards low enough for militia to reach them. After destroying
those three battalions, everyone rose to wipe out the remaining
Mongols.

Like his father, Billy punished the punitive
expedition.

CHAPTER 41

The next day Jack found them in Cuenca and
had his own tall tale to tell.

“On the Pyrenees I found the 2
^nd
and 3
^rd
divisions eager to get back to work. We couldn’t
get to Madrid in time, so I led them to Valencia. Imagine
everyone’s surprise when we showed up in the middle of the night.
The Mongols assumed we were their bombers returning home, so they
flew up to greet us.

“We arrived in a line of two hundred
companies abreast. So when thousands of ecstatic Mongols flew in
front of us, their wands singing -- well, you just don’t get
targets like that very often. We swatted them from the sky. It
looked like a giant meteor shower. Picture twenty thousand quads in
an ideal position shooting fireballs across one kilometer of night
sky. The video is stunning.”

Jack sighed, savoring his rare victory.

“Well, we couldn’t stop there. The surviving
Mongols naturally fled back to their bases around Valencia, so we
followed them. The Spanish couldn’t wait to take advantage of their
change in fortune. They swamped the air bases, their two-wanders
going building-to-building. The long-suffering residents of
Valencia finally saw an opportunity to strike back against their
oppressors and joined in. It wasn’t a battle so much as a
massacre.

“The Americans found the Mongol vaults, with
ten tons of gold, and took over the stone barracks. They’re now
using the Valencia bomb factories to hit the nearest Mongol air
units while we still enjoy surprise.”

Billy literally and figuratively patted him
on the back. “Great job, Jack. I think a thousand or so marathoners
from the bombing run escaped, so we should spend a few days hunting
them down. They’ll be easier to kill now, while they’re scattered,
than if they join another unit. Let’s break into squads to cover
more territory. I’ll need another day to heal, and could someone
please find me some clothes?”

Princess applied more lotion and creams while
Billy napped naked. He drank enough pain-relieving tea to cure a
corpse. It turned out that he needed two extra days before he could
join his friends, and it took that long to have someone pick up the
spare set of wand launchers he kept at Global Bank in Madrid. His
father left him dozens, yet Billy feared wearing them out all. He
could make his own, but they were never as good as his father’s,
and just one defect could kill him.

Usually they flew as high as possible because
that was the safest way to travel, but hunting Mongols who did not
want to be found forced them to fly low.

Team Red found a few hundred survivors the
last two days, so they were surprised to spot a squad of Mongols
below them, flying low and slow. That’s a good way to get killed.
Their steep dive increased their speed, quickly catching up to the
sitting ducks. Then they slowed to match speed and course to blast
them to hell.

Except the Mongols did something new.

A flash of reflected light caught Billy's
attention, something he later recognized as a mirror, and the squad
rose while turning in place to fire point blank at them. That was a
tricky maneuver that required a lot of practice, and only very
confident quads would risk using themselves as bait.

Billy heard someone yell out in pain as he
squeezed between two big fireballs. He saw Ox falling
uncontrollably, but the one frantically taking off her smoking
armor was Blade. The blasts from these guys implied double
strength. And that’s when it hit them: the mercenaries sent to kill
him!

Which meant this squad was not alone. Billy
turned and saw the rest of their company dive out of cumulus cloud
cover to surprise them from behind. The irony of the same attack
being used against them would not register until later.

"Bear! Lead them to the forest," Billy
commanded.

Normally, one hundred enemies did not worry
Billy. But these guys signed up to kill the Red Baron, so they must
be very good. And that worried him.

Billy cut up the squad below him, while the
enemy company chased his friends. Then he rose at maximum speed to
fire into the back of the mercenaries. A squad broke off to catch
Blade and another squad moved to face Billy. He tried popping to
the side really fast, but it didn’t work nearly as well as on
mediocre quads. He was probably still twice as fast, but he was
usually four times as quick. It took longer to weed them out, and
the mercs looked shocked that he beat them.

Billy saw them capture Blade instead of just
killing her outright. And, of course, he knew why: her burned shirt
exposed her fantastic breasts. Princess once joked that her breasts
must have wands because they defied gravity. Enraged that she’d be
raped again, he watched the Mongols knock her out and take her
away. Instead of pursuing, he had to rescue Princess.

In the forest, Bear waved them down in some
trees to organize a response.

"Hotshot," he said to Prince. "We need to
split them up. Go north and blast some to distract the others. The
rest of you, find cover before they shoot us from above."

Four enemy squads landed like a square in the
trees, while the others hovered above, shooting down at every
shadow. They had their backs to him, so Billy cut them up. The
fourth one screamed, which drew the attention of the others. He now
had a serious firefight on his hands as some moved to flank him
while others fixed his position. Those thousands of duels against
teams of three now paid off as Billy juggled multiple
opponents.

Then another firefight broke out below the
tree line to the northeast and the enemy split up. Afraid of those
soon to attack him from behind, Billy pressed forward. Then Prince
fried one quad hovering above him, popped up above the forest to
nail another and wing a third. He fled, luring several after him.
Billy’s other super-quads popped up and found themselves behind the
skirmish line facing Billy. They attacked the enemy from the
rear.

"They captured Blade. Let's go after her!"
Billy yelled.

But just as they rose in the air, the
remaining thirty enemies moved to block their way.

"Go get her!" Bear told Billy, who flew away,
taking several enemies with him as his team disappeared back into
the forest.

Billy ignored his pursuers because killing
them would only slow him down. He flew higher until he spotted
Blade on the horizon. He caught up with the slower ones before they
knew he was there. Six flew together, so he pierced the body armor
of two using steel from his boot wands, while cutting the legs of
the rest. The leader, holding Blade, shrieked a warning and a
patrol from his fortress responded. Billy cursed his lousy luck at
having another squad blocking him. He swung around rather than
engage.

When Billy saw the castle, he realized he was
near Barcelona. The Mongols not only replaced the battalion he
killed in the arena, but based the mercenaries there, too.

Billy dropped near the ground to use the
terrain to get closer unseen. He hid in woodlands, making his way
forward as more Mongols flew south. He hopped over the fortress
rim, slashed at two enemies, then used his boot wands to propel him
forward along the battlement while cutting down defenders with
swords. Not shooting gave him several extra heartbeats before
somebody noticed and fired. For a long minute he fired at those
with their backs to him while avoiding fireballs coming at him. He
then fell upon troops rushing out of the barracks until the
defenders along the battlements poured down fire. Fittingly, Billy
was much better with steel because of Blade. He popped sideways and
a dozen blasts struck those trying to exit the building.

"Everyone get down!" he yelled into the
doorway, then ran in and stabbed those foolish enough to follow his
order. As more blasts struck the entrance, he rounded a corner and
extended hand blades to pierce several enemies each, then jumped up
to fire his boot wands into the survivors, landing painfully on his
back. Billy used a wand to push himself sideways and another wand
to blast two guys standing too close together. Then he opened a
door that led to a narrow corridor, fired at those in it, and ran
deeper into the fortress.

As he passed burning bodies, he thought it
must be horrific to see a ball of flame swallowing a hallway, and
knowing there’s nothing you can do to save yourself.

As long as he had surprise, it worked. But he
heard people blasting behind him and knew he was dead if they
caught him inside where he had nowhere to maneuver. He found a
doorway into the courtyard and peaked out to see a lot of troops on
the battlements and perhaps one hundred more flying overhead.

Billy returned to the last corridor and
blasted blindly, before risking an eye to stab survivors. Those at
the other end also shot at him blindly, so he closed and locked the
door, fuming that he did not find Blade. He changed clothes and
armor with a dead Mongol, then opened the door enough to fire
blindly again, catching several more. Dense smoke consumed the
hallway. He could hear a few wounded survivors coughing, which gave
him an idea.

He brazenly marched arrogantly into the
courtyard, swearing in Mongolian.

"The bastard escaped!" he shouted to call
attention to himself, then kicked a water tub for the hell of it.
He felt a dozen skeptical wands pointing his way when blasts from
inside told him that the door he locked had been blown open. From
the battlements, it sounded like a firefight.

"Let’s get him!" Billy yelled.

He led them through the same entrance he
entered originally, knelt down next to someone wounded, waited
until they passed, slit the wounded guy's throat, then caught up
with the group. He carefully positioned himself to extend both
blades into as many as possible, then blasted. His fireballs struck
with such force at close range that they literally lifted bodies
into the air to smash into those behind them, which made finishing
them all easier.

Now he ran the other way. He soon encountered
two golden mules guarding an open steel door. Crap. That meant more
elite troops.

In their own way, quads who transported money
were as rare as marathoners because it’s hard to trust fliers with
backpacks full of coin. They didn’t have to fly as far, but they
had to fly and fight while weighted down. Paying for a couple
million quads and several million two-wanders took a lot of golden
air mules.

So it felt good to kill them.

He couldn't just turn around without raising
suspicion, so he said, "have you guys heard the news?" Then he
thrust two blades into their chests from twenty meters away and ran
past them downstairs to what must be a dungeon. There he found ten
more looking at him suspiciously. He let his helmet hang from a
strap, put his wands away, and held out his hands to show he was
unarmed.

"I was never that young," a veteran remarked
after getting a good look at Billy's innocent baby face. Their
leader stepped into his way and drew a wand.

"The captive is wanted for questioning,"
Billy tried.

The leader laughed. "I'm sure she’s getting
questioned as we speak." Billy flashed back to his nightmares of
the Khan’s bodyguards brutally gang raping his mother to death. He
suppressed a shudder. "Who wants the girl for questioning?"

"The general."

From their reaction, he knew he screwed up.
The general must be the one doing the questioning downstairs. While
falling backwards, he pressed his elbows against his body to launch
his wands. From their expressions, Billy doubted they had ever seen
wand-launchers before.

He blasted them with even his boot wands,
which conveniently propelled him away. More golden mules burst
through the door from the dungeon. Billy slide down the hall like a
sled, before smashing into the wall where the corridor turned.
Frantic, the teenager rolled out of line-of-sight as a stream of
fireballs cooked the wall.

They were not far behind, so he squatted,
pointed one wand near the floor and blasted blindly. His fireballs
swallowed the corridor. The bastards still shot back, so they must
have used shields to make what the Romans called a “turtle.” While
most projected interlocking metal from floor to ceiling and wall to
wall, the rest would shoot through small openings.

Since he could not defeat this effective
tactic, Billy ran, panting like a dog. Hearing voices coming from
upstairs, he retracted his wands and yelled out, "Help! The damn
mules killed the general!"

Hoping his obvious youth would protect him,
he collapsed under one of the torches that illuminated the
otherwise dark corridor. Then he cried like a scared little boy. It
was not hard.

Everyone demanded answers at once, but the
smell of burning flesh trumped everything. Billy screamed in pain
and begged them to remove his smoldering chest plate. He had no
idea he had even been hit. Most of them dismissed the crying boy
and raced down to see what the hell was going on. Billy cried out
for someone to help him to the infirmary. Not a moment later the
firefight resumed downstairs.

With an arm around an old veteran and a young
kid, he limped to the infirmary for medical attention. He made sure
to groan in pain whenever someone got a good look at him, and this
time he didn’t have to fake it. At least one hundred quads still
patrolled the skies as Billy entered the courtyard. As they passed
a water barrel, he stopped to slosh water onto his chest. The
relief felt better than sex. It was like taking a giant dump after
a week of constipation.