Sons (Book 2) (50 page)

“It would if you saw any part of the original lists,” Richard said leaning against the wall of lockers.  “They needed everything.”  The glint of humor was in his eyes, but he’d been in the middle of it so long, it just wasn’t funny anymore.

“Why so much so fast?” I asked.

“We were supposed to be a strike force, not a standing army,” Byrnes said calmly.  “We burned through our resources on schedule on the first morning.  You… arrested our departure.”

Chuckling, I said, “Well, let’s go take a look at the bad news, then, and get started before it gets any later.”

Jimmy led us through the maze of corridors to the office where he’d left Steve and David.  The office was a good choice, central to the kitchens, bunk rooms and the workout areas.  When we walked in, two brownies were lying on the stone-topped desk, each writing intently on scrolls that ran the length of the desk with ball-point pens.  Steve and David stood on opposite sides of the desk leafing through cut-sheets.

“How’s it going, guys?” Jimmy asked as he walked in.

“We’re about as ready as we can get,” Steve said, still flipping pages as he turned around to face us.  “When does Seth get back?  Oh, you’re here.”

“What happened with you two?” David asked, grinning as he looked us over.  We were still disheveled and a bit sweaty.

“They were sparring,” piped one of the brownies writing on the desk.  “In the gymnasium,” squeaked the other, both continued writing intently.

“Ain’t that great, David?” Steve said, grinning and laughing lightly.  “We’re in here working our asses off and they’re out there playing.”

“They weren’t playing.  Trust me.  And my men needed to see that,” Byrnes said.

“What?  Why?  Why would that even remotely interest you?” Steve asked, screwing his face into a grimace of utter confusion.  I plopped my butt into one of several chairs pushed up against the walls and waved an invitation to Byrnes to explain it to them.  I already knew what he meant; I just didn’t care about it.  That battle was already won.

“Well, think about it from anyone’s perspective but mine, say Corporal Joe, and ignoring the morality of the issue for the time being,” Byrnes started.  “Corporal Joe loads onto a truck believing he’s on a mission for God and country to remove a massive threat to both with a large group of like-minded men.  He disembarks at the first position and begins preparations for the strike and boom.  They’ve surrendered.  It’s over and done.  And what have they surrendered to?”  Byrnes held his hand out at me.  “A kid, from where we stand, barely out of diapers.  He’d have to get Mummy and Daddy’s permission to enlist.”

The Deas shot forward angrily and the brownies jumped up from their writing to advance on the Major.  I quickly asked the Stone to shield him, tinting the field with a faint red color.  “Guys, he’s not disrespecting me,” I said calmly.  “He’s just relating a perception from this morning.  It’s okay, but thank you for defending my honor.”

The familiar scratch of shifts occurred as Kieran’s group appeared in Peter’s living room.  Ethan helped Dad to a chair as he shook his left leg and limped, but otherwise they looked healthy and in good moods.  Peter jumped over to his office, picked up a laptop, then shifted back through the veil again.

Byrnes continued nervously, obviously oblivious to my family’s traveling but now very aware that the brownies weren’t just big talking toys.  They had teeth.  “Then the compulsion spell hits all of us and, quite frankly, we’re all miserable because of it.  Two men died in our defeat.  Two.  And not a shot was fired.  To Corporal Joe, it was a devastating defeat and totally unimaginable.  Emasculating, ego-crushing, demolishing and less than fifteen people saw it happen.  If the compulsion allowed it, the suicide rate would have been in the high sixty percent range.  Corporal Joe wouldn’t be here.”

Steve was listening to Byrnes’ explanation of his situation carefully, considering the opposition’s position.  I don’t think Harris would have given Byrnes the time of day, much less listened to why the sparring match helped his men.  It was a good thing that we decided to go for ‘second sons’ as assistants, I decided.  They’d be more apt to be open-minded.

“The showdown with Echols helped,” Byrnes went on.  “By that time, we
felt
like a POW camp but when Daybreak brought up the wall of fire it was the first show of power most of them had seen.”

“That was Robert’s wall,” Mike corrected him.

“Robert?” Byrnes asked.

“My Dad,” I said.

“Oh, well, the point is, very few men have seen him or anyone else exercise any amount of real power until then,” he said, still somewhat blandly.  “Everything you guys have done has been subtle or behind closed doors.  Then the bug-out blew our minds.  I mean, totally blew our minds.  We were literally dropped out of this nasty mud hole into a huge, beautiful palace with absolutely no visible means of transport.  Just a quick flip of a switch and we’re gone.”

I guffawed—loudly—but the statement amused everyone.  “It’s not quite that simple,” I said.

“Oh, I believe that,” Byrnes said, smiling.  He continued with more emotion now.  “With the First’s demonstration of the Road and our first exposure to the Faery, followed by the exhilarating run down the Road and even more exposure to Faery, to say that, as a whole, we were confused would be a vast understatement.  But still, even then Corporal Joe knows that he’s a dead man being led to the gallows.  But, damn, look at these gallows!”  He grinned, holding up both hands at his surroundings.  “Daybreak let us have the run of the place and everyone knows there’s some seriously powerful magic involved, but nobody understands why we surrendered.  Until those two go at it for a few minutes.  With sticks, of all things.  Sticks!”

“Staves can be just as dangerous as knives, Major,” Richard said with amusement.  “And in the right hands, they can be even more dangerous.”

“Bullets are nothing but tiny sticks moving very, very fast,” Mike added, pulling up another chair.

“They packed into the gym to watch,” Byrnes said, grinning and excited.  “Even some of the Faery came, but every man that could came running and even though you could barely keep up with what they did, it was fantastic to watch.  Better than any CGI movie you ever saw.”

“I don’t get it,” Steve said after moment.  “How did that help?  What was the point?”

“If the two of them did that in practice,” Byrnes said, “just imagine what just the ten of you could have done to us in anger, with real knives.  And I’ve seen the sword he carries.  Somewhere.  It will help bring understanding to our surrender.”

“You do understand that they are the exceptions and not the rule, right?” David asked.

“And I don’t think I could do any of that away from the Palace,” Jimmy added.

Peter shifted into his dining room, dropping a stack of something onto the table. 
Little Brother
, he called. 
Are you busy?

“We’re just finishing up with the supply list, Peter,” I said aloud, pushing the words along the link, too.  “We’ll be along in a moment.”

“That list is pleasantly short,” David said, pulling a desk drawer open and retrieving two sheets of paper out.  “The Palace is extremely well stocked, so most of what they need is foodstuffs that aren’t found on Gilán.  Once the brownies have moved supplies to local storerooms and we get food, they’ll be set for the week.”

“Who’s in charge of the staff here?” I asked Jimmy, taking David’s list without reading it.  He nodded at the desk, so I turned to see Alsooth smiling at me and waiting patiently for whatever I was about to say.  He was one of the unchanged, shorter than a brownie should be at fourteen inches tall, bright Gilán-blue eyes, and curly brown hair.  It was hard not to smile back at the cherubic face.

“Alsooth, how is your group getting along with Major Byrnes’ men?” I asked.

“Lord, we are well, to my knowledge,” he squeaked in clear English.  “There have been no incidents and we have encountered only a few reticent to talk to us or who show some negative feelings for us.”

“Good.  And they’re not overworking you guys?  I see that you’ve pulled in more than the original one hundred that I agreed to allow.”  Both Jimmy and he started to panic a little.

“Only with the First’s permission, Lord Daybreak,” Alsooth said quickly, chirping some.

“It’s all right,” I interrupted him before he got on a roll and started going too fast.  My ears had enough today.  “I don’t object to anybody helping out.”

He stood there a moment, just looking at me, blinking at me.  “Thank you, Lord Daybreak, but no, they are not overworking us.  Overall, this has been a pleasant if confusing experience.”

“I agree with the confusing part,” I said leaning back in my chair.  “Okay, we’ll leave the men in your hands, Major, and the facilities to you, Alsooth.  We’ll see what we can do about the rest of the supplies and get back to you.  Deason, Deacon, has anything happened outside that you need to attend to?”

“No, Lord Daybreak,” Deacon piped out.  “Preparations for the Great Claiming and the festivities are progressing favorably.”

“Good,” I said, standing up.  “I want that to be a good day for everyone.  I guess that means you don’t have to stay here, either.  David, Steve, you guys have everything you need right now?”  They nodded, then I shifted us to Peter’s living room, leaving only Byrnes and the brownies behind.

“What did you do to your leg?” I asked Dad immediately as I walked out into the night air on Peter’s balcony.

“What?” Dad asked, startled.  “Oh.  You saw that?  A minor sprain.  I stepped in a hole and twisted it.  It’s better already.”  He swirled a bulbous glass of nearly black liquid around for a moment before taking a sip. 

I sat at the table next to him, examining his left leg carefully.  There was some minor swelling in the tissue, but nothing permanent, just mildly discomforting.  Then I looked at the table and saw the food they had laid out and realized how long ago lunch was.

“Please tell me that’s not out of an MRE,” I said as I snagged mouthful of rare beef rolled in cracked pepper and shoved it in my mouth.  This was rapidly becoming my favorite food.  That much savory flavor had to be a sin to somebody’s god.

“No, that didn’t come from an MRE,” Kieran said, chuckling, as he placed another large platter of antipasto on the table.  He pointed to a dish of chopped black olives.  “Ethan said to try the tapenade.  You’ll really like it.”

“Did you get the list?” Peter asked as he came out on the balcony.  He carried two wineglasses and a stack of small plates with him.  Setting one glass on my right, then sitting to my right, he started reaching for food, too.  Pretty soon, his stack of plates was spread around the table and we were all eating and quiet for a moment.

“It’s a Chianti, by the way,” Peter said, nodding toward my wineglass.  “The list?”

I pulled the two pages out of my pocket and spread them out between us.  It was a short list, comparatively.  Food, mostly, in massive quantities.  Well, massive to what I was used to buying.  Some clothing issues, shoes and boots.  “Oxycodone?” I asked.

“Medical marijuana?” Peter exclaimed, laughing.

“Steve!” David exclaimed. 

Then Steve laughed.  “I thought it was funny!” he said.  “That it even showed up on the lists showed some moxy.”

“So does oxycodone,” Dad said.

“That’s a painkiller, right?” I asked.

“Hm-huh,” Dad muttered and nodded through a mouthful of bread and black olives.

I looked up at the fairies fluttering overhead.  “Hey, guys?  Did y’all see anybody who looked like they were hurt?”

“No, Lord, not that we could tell, but we have not been looking for it,” Deacon squealed, then flew off to chase his brother again.

“Okay, that moves to the top of the ‘You gotta be kidding’ list, then,” I said.  “At least until they can give an explanation for it.  I’m not supporting someone’s drug habit.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t ask for cigarettes, too,” Peter said, pulling the first page back to the top.

“They did,” Jimmy said.  “I said no to that already.  Sorry, I didn’t know what oxycodone was or I would have nixed it sooner.”

“You’ve heard of it, I’m sure,” Richard said mildy.

“Probably under its brand names, though,” Dad said.  “Oxycontin®, Percocet®, a few others.”

“Oh.  That’s addictive,” he said.

“Can be,” Richard agreed, sipping at his Chianti then held up his glass.  “Appreciate the irony.”

“This is going to be fairly simple,” Peter said, marking the list.  “Dad’s original estimates were close to these, so that’ll make things a lot easier.”  In the right margin, he wrote in values comparable to those needed on several of the food items.  “Do you think you’ll have time to set a few new locations into Mike and Dad’s keys tomorrow before you and Kieran disappear into the wilds of Gilán for the day?”

“Yeah, I need to make one for Steve anyway,” I said, leaning back in my chair.  “We’ll have to stop in a few times throughout the day anyway, to check on them if nothing else.  Not that I don’t trust y’all, but we have got to make sure that they’re totally taken care of since we’ll all be out of reach Wednesday and Thursday.”

“Why?  What happens on those days?” Steve asked.  “Are those the ‘Great Claiming’ and the Emissaries meeting?”

“Yes,” I answered as Mike leaned over and said quietly to him, “I’ll explain it to you later.  Right now, the ‘when’ is more important.”  Steve nodded and returned his attention to Peter and me.

“So what are these numbers?” I asked Peter.

“Couple of things, really, but the short answer is that’s what we can get fairly quickly.  We’re gonna have to work for it, though.  Our reconnaissance was more successful than just a truckload of MREs, which we have Echols and Ethan to thank for those.  We didn’t even think to look into the big, yellow ‘elephant’ until he started the engine.”

“Even evil twins can be useful at times,” I said raising my glass in his direction.

“Too bad we can’t get Echols one, too,” Ethan said, grinning.

“Evil twin?” Dad asked.

“Ooohhh,” Kieran grimaced.  “One of those ‘later and in private’ conversations, Dad.  Terribly complicated and emotionally disturbing at times, at least for Seth.”

“I got over it,” I said.  “And now I have another brother.”

“Once we finished with the recon,” Peter continued trying to keep us on track, “we went back to your house and went through the preliminary supply lists to decide what we’d have to buy versus what would be easier to buy than try to snatch.  These are what I’ve arranged to buy already through Dillon.  We should be able to start moving them over here from the Mineshaft in an hour, maybe two.”

“That’s a third of this list,” I said.  “Very nice, guys.  I’m guessing that you chose not to buy the things like salt and flour because they’re going to be easy to take?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Peter said.  “From the diagrams I was able to lift, if we split into two teams, we should be able to shift a majority of what we need in about fifteen minutes, providing we don’t meet up with any major resistance.”

“We need to increase our jump points, too,” I said.  “It occurs to me that as much as people complain that we’re hard to find, we really only have about four cities to operate in.”  I caught the confused look on Steve’s face and smiled at him.  “Mike, that’s something you might add to your list of things to explain to Steve tonight.  You’re not alone, man, but at least you stand a chance of getting your questions answered.  Mine?  Eh…not so much.”

“I just never thought I’d be planning a
heist
on my first day of my first real job,” Steve said, causing a few chuckles and snickers.  “I would have liked to see the sparring, though.  Byrnes seemed really impressed with it.”

“It was impressive, sir!” Deacon squealed, shooting across the table lightning quick to stop a foot in front of Steve.  “The First showed excellent control and speed for one so newly appointed and young.  Lord Daybreak chose well in Jimmy Morgan and we look forward to serving with him for many centuries.”  Then he was up and away again.

“What the hell was that?” Dad asked staring after the fairy, shocked.

“After we hauled the MREs to the kitchen,” Mike explained using his soft, airy accent.  “We went off to find Jimmy to get the supply list.  He was in the gym, watching three pairs of quarterstaff fighters workout.  Before we got there Jimmy refused an invitation to spar with one of them and mentioned it to Seth.  Seth agreed with him that the chance of permanent harm or even death, even in practice, was too high.  Lord Daybreak and his First opted to demonstrate why that was true.  They had fun doing it, too, and it showed.  Deason, how many humans and how many Fae were in the room at the end of their match?”

Deason flew down and squealed, “Four hundred and one humans and two hundred and eighteen Fae, Master Ferrin.”  Then he was off again, something catching his attention deeper in Peter’s apartment.

“They rooted for him, didn’t they?” Ethan asked me from behind an arched eyebrow and a crooked smile.  He meant Jimmy.

“Yeah,” I answered, snickering.

“It was probably a good thing the men got to see it,” Kieran said thoughtfully.  “From their side of it, I bet it was tremendously ego crushing to them to surrender without even picking up a weapon.  At least that gave them an idea of why they lost.”

“Byrnes said pretty much the same thing,” Richard said, sliding his plate forward.

“Let’s hope it works out that way.  Dinner was very good, Peter, thank you and to everyone who helped,” I said as diplomatically as possible.  “So what base are you planning to hit?”

“I would think that rather obvious,” Dad said quietly from the far end of the table.

“Stewart?  Isn’t that an artillery training facility?” I asked.

“Got it in one!” Ethan cried across from Dad and began clearing the table.

“And a major deployment center for the Middle East, too,” Peter said.  “How much would you like to bet that’s where the MREs came from?”

“I know better than to bet against the house,” I said grinning at him.  “What’s the plan?”

“Your parts are very simple,” Peter said seriously.  “First, open a portal to your father’s house in Savannah.  Then go take a long, hot shower and relax for half an hour.  Dress in something business casual and check with Dillon on delivery of promised goods.  When it’s ready then move it all over and go to bed.” 

“So what you’re telling me is that you don’t want me to participate in the raid against Fort Stewart, that instead I should go on an egg and milk run to London?”  I glanced quickly around the table at Ethan, Dad, and Kieran.  All three were relaxed but attentive, showing no hints of unease.  Simple to assume this was planned.  Turning back to Peter, I asked, “Would you care to tell me why?”

“Start with you’ve had a hard day and deserve the lightest work?” Peter said sternly. 

“You are more well-known than we are and more easily recognized,” Dad added.

“You’re a hell of a lot faster than we are and end up on your own more than you should and it’s dangerous,” Ethan said.

They each had a reason or two given with little emotional display.  Each point had some validity, though some more than others, and not one of them was one I couldn’t come up with on my own.  But before they could start a second round the table again, I stood up, forming the portal to my room behind me and shutting them up.

“I’m not so much bothered by your reasons, although many of them are arguable,” I said, working to control my emotions.  I chose to look at Peter as I finished.  “What does bother me, though, is that I actually had to ask.  Goodnight, gentlemen.”

I moved to my bathroom and started undressing.  Jimmy left Peter’s less than a minute after I did, appearing outside the entrance.  He didn’t know where he was, rather blindly following me, but he oriented on the sound of the running water in my shower.  “Seth?” he called timidly into the bathroom.

“In here, Jimmy,” I said, stepping into the stream.  I’m sure I didn’t sound inviting, but I just couldn’t fake it right then.  Bracing my hands against the tile, I shoved my head under the hot water and just stood there, hoping the blasting would take away the day’s aggressions and frustrations.  It wasn’t terribly effective, even if it felt good.  Glancing through the steamy glass wall, a blurry Jimmy was leaning on the vanity nervously, fidgeting. 

“Seth, are you okay?” he asked quietly, looking up.

“No,” I grunted, probably too harshly.  “But I’ll get there.”  It was time to clean up.  Little dots of liquids from the alcoves in the walls were enough to create the lather to carry away the crud of the day.  I was rinsing off in no time.  Damn, they’d even managed to screw up this minor pleasure for me.  There just wasn’t any desire in me to stay under the water.  The towels were still comforting for some reason, big and fluffy.

“What happened out there?” Jimmy asked quietly as I stepped out of the shower stall, towels wrapped around my waist and shoulders.  He stood up, shifting from foot to foot, unused to this type of conversation obviously.

I sighed.  “Family crap, Jimmy.  They took a dump on me, ganged up on me, and didn’t even see they did it,” I said, dragging a brush through my hair.  “They let me down, is all.”

“They hadn’t figured that out when I left,” Jimmy muttered, looking everywhere he could but at me.

“Yeah, well, they’re a little emotionally stunted,” I said.  Taking a drop of what passed for toothpaste here, I rubbed it across my teeth.  Jimmy watched intently now as I swished the foaming gel around in my mouth and rummaged through the vials on the recessed rack.  He probably thought I knew what they were.  The blind leading the blind.

“You mean, they’ve got their heads up their asses,” he translated, making me laugh.  Luckily, I was about to spit anyway, but I still missed the basin some and sprayed the faucets and part of the mirror.  I stood there, quietly laughing and letting the crap drool out of my mouth for a moment.

“Something like that, yeah,” I mumbled, rinsing off the counter, then my mouth.  “You should probably get cleaned up, too.  Go ahead and use my shower.  There’s clean towels and washcloths in the closet there.”

“I’m going with you?” he asked, both excited and upset by the thought.

“We don’t go anywhere alone, Jimmy.  I need somebody to watch my back,” I said, applying the salt block that acted as deodorant to my underarms.  “Dropping by the house was supposed to be a milk run, too, and you saw what happened there.”

“Yeah,” he muttered, moving to the shower stall slowly pulling at his shirt.  “Listen, Seth, I know I’m not your first choice and all, but… if you need to… you know… if you need to talk… somebody to lean on…”  When I turned, he was still trying to find the right words to say what he meant.