Talon and Boom were already moving. Talon concentrated and swung his hand like he was lobbing a grenade at the guards. There was a soundless explosion, causing a faint ripple in the air that expanded outward from the center of the patrol car to surround all the guards. They collapsed where they stood as Boom rushed forward. He tossed the unconscious guards out of the van and squeezed into the driver's seat. Talon climbed into the passenger side, and Boom took off toward the gates.
"You okay?" he asked Talon as they sped away.
Talon nodded wearily. "Yeah, but all the spells are starting to wear me out."
"Just hang on for now." Boom said. They came at the gates at top speed. Security guards stood their ground and tried to stop the van. Bullets cracked the windshield and pinged off the body. Talon felt one impact against his shoulder. The ballistic lining of his coat stopped the round from penetrating, but it still felt like getting slammed by a troll wielding a baseball bat. He looked at the gates and clutched Boom's arm.
"Frag, the gates! We aren't going to be able to break through them in this thing!"
"you've got a better idea, I'd love to hear it!" Boom said.
"Aracos,"
Talon thought,
"aid me."
He could feel his ally's power feeding into his own. Concentrating with all his might, Talon cast the same spell he'd used to lower himself and Boom safely to the ground, this time on the van itself. The van was considerably heavier, and it took everything Talon had, but he managed to levitate it. As the van rushed toward the gate, it suddenly lifted off the ground and was airborne. It flew up and over the gate and its security devices and tire-shredding spikes, then landed smoothly on the road outside. Boom laid the pedal to the metal and the tires squealed as they touched down, burning rubber to put as much distance between them and the arcology as possible.
"Hope you can handle it from here, chummer." Talon said wearily. "Cuz I'm done." He slumped back against the seat, nearly exhausted from all the rapid-fire spellcasting. He mentally told Aracos to keep watch for anyone trying to track them in astral space and to deal with them. Then he started to consider their next move.
Talon didn't believe what happened to Lofwyr was an accident. Someone
wanted
them to bring Dr. Goronay and the artifact to the dragon, as some kind of hit. And that meant someone had set them up. Talon didn't like to play the puppet in somebody else's show. Whoever they were, he was going to find them, and he was going to make them pay.
It took some time for Talon and Boom to be sure they had evaded the Saeder-Krupp security forces, at least for a little while. Talon was against using his headlink to try and warn the others about what had happened at the arcology. Cellular calls were too easily traced, and he was certain that S-K would be using all of its considerable resources to track them down. They were better off returning to the safe house and getting the rest of the team out of there. Talon was just glad they'd made their own arrangements in Essen, rather than relying on Herr Brackhaus; otherwise the location of the safe house would already be compromised.
Talon wondered about Brackhaus' involvement in this whole mess. It was possible the man knew nothing about it, that he really was simply acting under orders from Lofwyr or someone else in Saeder-Krupp. It was equally possible that he'd set Talon and his team up for a fall as part of some power struggle within the megacorporation. There was no way to be sure at the moment. Still, Talon fully intended to find out.
They'd quickly ditched the Saeder-Krupp security van and stolen a good-sized minivan. If the corp had a means of tracing the van, they would find it soon enough, but minus the runners. Boom's skill in electronics came in handy for hot-wiring the van, and his driving prowess helped them maneuver around the city to keep from being spotted and picked up by the local authorities. Talon hoped Saeder-Krupp would try to handle things themselves before bringing in the police. Of course, the police worked largely for S-K anyway, but he still believed the corporate higher-ups would be reluctant to allow any word of what had happened at the arcology to leak out.
The Essen safe house was in an abandoned warehouse district in the city's former industrial area. As they pulled into the alleyway, Talon scanned the area for any signs of pursuit or a tail. His senses, both magical and mundane, detected none.
"Coast is clear." he told Boom. "Let's go."
They climbed out of the van and took the stairs two and three at a time up several flights. When Talon was a few steps from the door, he heard Aracos call out in his mind.
"Boss, trouble! That elf magician is here, he's . . ." Suddenly, the voice was cut off and Talon felt a sudden emptiness, an absence in his mind and spirit. Something had happened to Aracos.
"Boom!" he hissed quietly. "We've got company."
He jerked his head toward the door. The troll leveled
the submachine gun he'd taken from an unconscious Saeder-Krupp guard, while Talon drew his mageblade with one hand and readied a spell with the other.
With practiced precision, Boom kicked the door open, his gun moving to cover the room while Talon went in low, senses alert for a potential target. Then they stopped in their tracks and froze.
What they saw were Trouble, Val, and Hammer, every one of them unconscious. They'd been secured to chairs with heavy plastic strips, the kind used by police to restrain prisoners. All save for Hammer, who was bound to some stout pipes protruding from the floor. Their mouths were covered with silvery tape.
Their captor stood in the middle of the room, behind the chair holding Trouble. In his left hand he held a slim pistol, most likely a Slivergun, with its deadly plastic flechettes. In his right hand was a slim-bladed silver sword, its edge pressed near Trouble's pale, exposed throat. His thin, cruel face wore an arrogant expression of triumph, and he radiated calm, despite the situation.
"Welcome back." the elf said in a quiet, firm voice. "I was beginning to wonder if you would return at all. Lower your weapons, or this lovely dies."
Talon glanced over at Boom and lowered Talonclaw, but did not sheath it. Boom slowly lowered his Ingram, never taking his eyes off the elf.
"Who are you, and what did you do to Aracos?" Talon asked.
The elf gave a slight bow, sweeping his Slivergun in the air in front of him. "I am called Silverblade." he said. "You need not be concerned. Your familiar is only disrupted temporarily, although I could just as easily have destroyed it. And I assure you, I have more than enough power to deal with the both of you, if I don't get what I want."
"And what is it you want?" Talon asked, as if he didn't already know.
"I'm interested in Dr. Goronay, and the artifact you appropriated from Herr Zoller and his friends earlier this evening."
Talon shrugged and gave him a weary smile. "Then you're out of luck, chummer. The good Dr. Goronay freaked out completely and has a new career as a pile of ash on the floor of Lofwyr's office. As for the artifact. . ." He took the bag off his shoulder and slowly upended it, dumping the gray, cracked crystal out into his hand. "It managed to take out Lofwyr himself in one shot, and every Saeder-Krupp security agent in Europe is probably looking for it, and us, right about now."
The elf's eyes widened and Talon could see the calm façade crack a bit.
"The crystal
. . .
attacked Lofwyr?" he asked incredulously.
"Attacked and very possibly killed." Talon replied. "When we left him, he was lying on the floor. I couldn't tell if he was stunned, hurt, or dead, but he didn't look very good."
"Impossible." Silverblade said.
Talon shrugged. "Believe what you like. You're a mage, and I'm sure you're already reading my aura. Go ahead and check to see if I'm lying. I won't try and hide anything from you. At this point, I've got nothing to lose." Talon let his masking drop, revealing his true aura to Silverblade. It was a calculated risk, since it would allow the elf to know just how powerful, and how tired, Talon was, but it was important that the elf know he was telling the truth.
Silverblade's eyes narrowed as he weighed Talon's words. "This puts matters in a different light." he said slowly.
"Glad you think so." Boom muttered.
Talon decided to try and press the advantage. "Look, I don't know who you are, or who you're working for, but you're after what's about to become the hottest bit of property in all of Europe, possibly the entire world. And as much as I'd like to continue this conversation, we've really got to get out of here before Saeder-Krupp manages to track us down. You found us, and that means they could be here any fragging minute too. Now, do you want to take it up with them, or can we just go our separate ways?"
"Unfortunately, I still have orders to recover the artifact." Silverblade said.
"You're welcome to try, but do you really think you can smuggle it out of Germany? Especially with S-K security watching all the ports of exit?"
"I have my own means out of this charming little region." Silverblade said. "And as for Saeder-Krupp, I hardly think they—" The elf mage suddenly glanced to one side, as if he saw something invisible to normal vision. Boom started to make a move, but Talon grabbed the troll's arm.
"No!" he said. "There's something there."
Silverblade removed his sword from Trouble's throat and slashed at empty air. Suddenly, a loud hissing and gurgling noise filled the room and things began to materialize out of the shadows of the loft.
"Elementals!" Talon said. "We're under attack!"
Two spirits appeared in the room: one a mass of dark, smoky vapor that exuded a noxious odor, like rotten eggs; the other a gurgling, vaguely humanoid blob of water that seemed to form from beads of moisture in the air. Silverblade slashed and parried with another that could not be seen.
"There's a fire spirit in the astral," he said, "and a magician controlling them. I think Saeder-Krupp has found you."
"Boom, get the others out of here!" Talon said. "We'll hold off the spirits as long as we can!" The troll looked from Talon to Silverblade, then back to his friend, then he went into action. He grabbed Trouble and Val, chairs and all, and headed out of the room. Talon shifted his attention to the astral plane and leapt into the fray to help Silverblade.
As astral space unfolded all around him, he could see the auras of the three spirits—the material air and water elementals and the astral fire elemental Silverblade was dealing with. He could also see the hovering astral form of a dwarf clad in flowing robes edged with faintly glowing mystic symbols, the mage directing the spirits. Although nothing on the dwarf's person indicated it, Talon was sure he must work for Saeder-Krupp, and that meant some kind of backup wouldn't be far behind.
The air spirit tried to cut off Boom's retreat from the room. Talon swung at it with his mageblade,
striking at it from the astral as well as on the physical
plane. Although physically the spirit was nothing more than a cloud of mist, the astral form of Talonclaw connected with its astral body, leaving a long black rent in its structure. The spirit recoiled slightly from the touch of the mageblade, then regrouped and began moving back in on Talon.
A horrible stench flowed over him as the spirit tried to smother him with its substance. Talon fought down the urge to retch from the terrible odor and set about with Talonclaw, slashing at the spirit wherever he could. He coughed and his eyes began to burn and tear. The assault of the elemental was worse than tear gas, and it was only Talon's astral senses that let him see at all through the stinging and watering of his eyes. His attacks were having some effect. The air elemental recoiled more and more from each swing of the enchanted dagger, tears and rents showing in the fabric of its astral form.
Suddenly, Talon felt something cold and slimy coil around his ankles. The water spirit! The liquid began to flow up and over him as the air elemental backed away. Talon slashed at the water elemental with his mageblade, but the spirit continued to flow until it covered him completely. Talon tried to take a deep breath, but only managed a quick gasp of the fetid air before the spirit engulfed him, surrounding him with a bubble of water. Talon fought back as the elemental began to exert pressure on him, trying to squeeze the air from his lungs. It was like dropping to the bottom of an ocean, the water pressure increasing more and more. Talon thrust out with his dagger, and the enchantment allowed it to wound what was only water, but the spirit fought tenaciously.
Talon's vision started to swim as his lungs burned for oxygen. He fought the need to exhale, since he knew the spirit would force all the air from his body if he did. He felt the water recede from the hand holding Talonclaw, and he tried to cut into the spirit elsewhere. He was starting to black out.
Suddenly, a gleaming silver blade sliced through the bubble of water around him. The water parted and fell away as the magical forces that allowed it to defy gravity were dispelled. The spirit's vital force broke up and its manifestation became ordinary water, leaving Talon sopping wet, but able to gasp for a breath of air before the air elemental tried to move in again.
Silverblade went back to back with Talon, holding his sword in front of him like a shield.
"Deal with the air spirit." the elf said over his shoulder. "I'll take the magician."