The name made Damon flinch, and he sat up, suddenly
attentive. “Yes I am. What have you heard?”
“Can you tell me,” Ken continued, ignoring his question, “how
you came to know her?”
Damon cocked his head, “Is this a test?”
“Yes, it is,” Ken answered, “A test of a prospective
informant. I need to know if his story is true, and therefore I need your clear
and unsullied answers.”
Damon explained how Joann was the one who met him, convinced
him, and took him to become the Demon. Ken asked a series of detailed
questions, and Damon answered them as best he could remember.
Apparently Ken was satisfied with the story provided by his
mystery contact, and Damon could see that he was calculating and plotting in
his mind.
“Would you like to let us in on anything?” Damon asked
sarcastically.
Ken’s eyes refocused on them and he smiled. “We’ve got work
to do. We’re being drawn into a war.”
Ken laid out everything he’d learned from Ted Khasan and
Joann. He explained what he learned about the Spire, the Trueblood military,
and the infiltration by Pryke agents. He told them what he knew about the
Augies, but it was very little information and of questionable value.
Finally, he described what they knew about the communication
by the Pryke agent, and what they interpreted as an assassination attempt or
similar attack planned by the Prykes.
“Four
Kyndra-kissed
days!” Ken exclaimed after
finishing the story. “How are we supposed to get something put together in that
amount of time?”
“Organizing a response to be in position in four days is
going to be extremely difficult,” Leland said. “Not to mention that we really
need to be there in three if we want to have any kind of advantage.”
“Wait a minute,” Damon waved his hands as if clearing the
air. “Tell me why I would try to save Reverend Trueblood—who, by the way,
tried
to kill me
? I say let him die!”
Ken said, “Honestly, I considered it. However, if the Prykes
take over the Consensus it would be a true nightmare. Things aren’t that bad
right now—of course I’d like to make some changes in policy and regulations, if
only we could be given more freedom to pursue—”
Leland cleared his throat to interrupt the runaway train of
thought.
“Yes, well,” Ken continued, “if the Prykes took over it
would be full-on tyranny of the old-fashioned kind. Rule by terror, most likely—”
Leland spoke over the top of another growing rant, “We
really do need to prevent the Pryke takeover. I know the Truebloods aren’t
great, but they are far more reasonable than the Prykes.”
Ken added, “It’s true, we might be able to
work
with
the Truebloods.”
Damon considered, glancing between his friends.
“Fine,” he sighed. “Taking orders again.”
“Now, about those Augies . . .” Ken said.
“Just get me there, I’ll take care of them,” Damon said
brusquely.
“Weren’t you listening?” Ken said in exasperation, “You
can’t take them on, they’re too tough, and there’s too many of them. Not to
mention we have a very limited supply of your
expensive
missiles and
weapons. We can barely fill your slugs!”
“But you’ve improved my controls, and reworked the operating
system, and created the mobile power station to support my energy weapons. I’ve
never been faster or stronger!” Damon countered.
“Not good enough. They’ll kill you easily.”
“It’s not so easy,” Damon growled, his eyes narrowing.
“Enough,” Leland interjected. “We’re wasting time. Damon,
you can’t do it alone, that’s simply a fact, not an insult. We need help. I’m
sure Ken has contacts, and I’ve got a small army I can call on planetside.”
Ken laughed derisively, “Seriously? Your
Christians?
”
Leland merely smiled. “You might be surprised, son. After
all, these are the men who killed armored infantry bare-handed, and carried
Damon twenty floors up through a collapsing factory. They’re tougher than you
think. And those were the untrained ones. I’ve got fifty veterans available as
well.”
No one argued.
“Right,” Leland continued. “Ken, can you provide some ships
for transportation?”
This time Ken laughed in true humor, “Now you
must
be
joking! How many do you need?”
“There’s another problem,” Leland tapped his finger on his
lips as his eyes went unfocused. “No matter how we approach this, it’s going to
be interpreted as an attack.”
“We can contact Reverend Trueblood and explain
. . .” Damon started.
“No,” Ken stopped him. “We can’t do that. Literally, there
is no way to contact him. Even if we could, why would he take us seriously?”
All three men were quiet, lost in their own thoughts.
Leland spoke first, “Then we attack.”
“What?” Ken exclaimed, “You
just said . . .”
“Yes, I did. Since there’s nothing we can do to change the
appearance, we’d better treat it as an attack and plan accordingly. Once the
Augies show up, hopefully they will take advantage of our distraction and
proceed with their plans, but we’ll be ready and in place to stop them.
“The only problem is that we may never be vindicated, and
could be tried as rebels. If no one knows what the Augies were up to, and we
stop them, we will always look like the enemy.”
Ken was nodding and biting his lower lip. “I don’t like it,”
he said quietly.
“I know,” Leland agreed, “but there’s no other way in the
time we have. Whatever happens to us, the Consensus would be saved from a
brutal Pryke tyranny.”
“Wait,” Damon said, “I can explain it to him.”
“How?” Ken protested, but Damon didn’t let him continue.
“If I can talk to him, face-to-face, I’m sure I can convince
him of the truth.”
All three exchanged glances, waiting for a better idea to
surface.
“Well,” Ken said, “let’s get started!”
They discussed strategy and tactics for another hour before
breaking up to coordinate their individual pieces of the operation. Damon left
on a small, nondescript civilian ship to Havyn, so he would be in position as early
as possible. Leland went down to the planet to recruit and outfit his troops.
Ken had a lot of contacts to make: mercenaries, arms dealers, and his favorite
specialty salvage group. He also wanted to discuss more details with Ted, who
sounded quite useful.
**** ****
Damon enjoyed the view of the Spire
ensconced in its caldera. He couldn’t get close, of course, but the tourist
aircraft gave a decent view to both the naked eye and low-power binoculars
offered by the tour guides. Using his implants, he was able to get a much
closer view. He itched to send out an active scan, but it would bring down
quick retribution. Resigned to passive sensors, he found very little useful
information. He could detect multiple Debar reactors deep underground, along
with permanent wormhole signatures that he could not resolve with any accuracy.
As far as guards, there were constant ground patrols all
around the caldera and the lake below. Aircraft patrolled the skies, though not
as often as their earth-bound counterparts.
Feeling wholly unprepared, Damon missed the briefing packet
he always received for Council missions that told him all the details of his
upcoming target. He had never truly appreciated the comfort such intelligence
had given him. Even then, when he rarely had to worry about dangerous
opposition, it still calmed him to know details about the environment.
He searched for a possible path to the Spire that would
allow him to arrive undetected, but he found nothing in that approach. He had
hoped to come up with his own plan, but instead he would have to rely on Ken’s
crazy scheme to get him there.
In any case, he had no time to lose. The Augies would be
returning in a few hours, and he needed to find Reverend Trueblood before they
arrived. There was no guarantee that Leland and the troops would arrive before
the Augies, so it was up to him to find, protect, and somehow convince the
reverend that they were the good guys.
He signaled Ken that he was ready, and the aircraft banked
suddenly, picking up speed. The tour guide in the cabin looked momentarily
shocked, but her training took over and in a surprisingly calm voice she began
to give instructions to the panicking passengers.
In short order, the crew had everyone loaded into the
emergency capsule and ejected. Ken reconfigured their passenger log so they
wouldn’t miss him when he stayed behind in the stricken aircraft. As Damon
prepared himself for the next step, he hoped Ken had it calculated properly.
The craft was not fast, but it used its full power along
with its altitude to drive for the Spire as quickly as possible. Damon watched
the patrol aircraft in his HUD as it swooped around to intercept. He tore out
one of the large seats from the passenger area and held it tightly.
A red flashing light in his HUD indicated missile launch and
he braced himself for impact.
The explosion rattled him, but he’d taken worse hits in the
past. Falling now with the debris of the aircraft, he curled into a ball and
clung to the seat in his hands. The smoke and other falling parts should give
him cover, but he wanted to make sure that no one would see a man-shaped object
falling from the wreck.
As Ken predicted, the craft had gotten close enough that
Damon fell into the water near the edge of the caldera lake.
He allowed himself to sink to the bottom of the lake before walking
over the uneven terrain of the lake bed. He reached the base of the Spire
without any obvious alarms being raised.
At least nothing on passive
sensors,
he warned himself. He held no illusions that he would be able to
penetrate the Spire without being detected, and at that point things would get
crazy.
Ken had sent a timer just before taking over the aircraft,
and it showed Damon two important items. First was the estimated arrival of the
Augies, about three hours away; and second was the arrival time for Leland and
his strike teams, about two and a half hours. Too close for comfort, and
certainly not enough time for the teams to set up any kind of defense before
the Augies arrived.
Damon turned his attention back to the Spire and wished once
again that he had more detailed information. He checked his oxygen levels, and
realized he needed to get moving.
He pulled a collapsible underwater shelter from his pack and
placed in against the base of the spire. Damon watched it unfold and bond to
the rock-and-concrete structure, forming a completely water-tight bubble around
him which clung to the Spire’s wall. While the enclosure worked to pump the
water out of the bubble and replace it with thin, oxygen-rich air, Damon got to
work on the wall itself.
He dug into the wall with the cutting laser from his right
wrist, knocking off small pieces of concrete with his left fist as they became
loose.
Left hand’s nothing but a hammer now,
he thought irritably, still
angry about losing its weapons.
He kept the hole as small as possible, hoping that he would
be able to hide it once he gained entry to the Spire. He did not expect to get
in undetected, but any delay in discovery would get him closer to his goal.
He fervently hoped that Ken and Ted successfully disabled
the Trueblood WERA, or his attempt at stealth would become laughable. Both of
the electronics wizards promised they could scramble the Trueblood defensive
systems, but Damon was nervous nonetheless.
Finally, he broke through into the interior, and the water
pressure on the enclosure was too much for it to maintain its shape. It pushed
against him and squeezed him through the hole. Once inside the inevitable
alarms were sounding, so he worked quickly to disguise his entry point.
The enclosure did not collapse completely, and was able to
hold back the water long enough for Damon to seal the hole crudely with cement
scraps, adhesives, and liberally applied heat from his lasers. It wouldn’t
stand up to close scrutiny, but should buy him some time.
He looked for stairs leading up. He did not know exactly
where to find Reverend Trueblood, but he was sure it would be near the top of
the tower.
Damon paid close attention to his passive sensors and
avoided contact for long enough to make the Trueblood guards believe it was a
false alarm. He overheard it suggested more than once that the aircraft mishap
probably triggered it. Nonetheless, he stayed vigilant, and despite his hurry,
he moved deliberately and did not rush.
Just like crossing the open back at
home,
he thought, but pushed aside the memories of Andrea that inevitably
sprang up.
Surprised by his good fortune, he avoided contact for almost
an hour, much longer than he ever anticipated. Unfortunately, his upward progress
was much too slow. Ken estimated he would have to move up approximately 100
floors, and so far he had only covered twenty. Obviously, he would have to give
up stealth for better speed.
Up to this point, he’d been moving through the support areas
of the Spire. The large rooms were filled with machinery and supplies, but very
few people.
The floor he just entered, however, was quite different. It
looked like an office, or possibly a school, with many small rooms off long,
straight hallways. There were more people around as well, making it difficult
for him to stay hidden.
He found two guards stationed at the next stairway and it
appeared to be a permanent post. Previously, he had hunted around for another
way up, but now he felt the inexorable press of time.