Strangers and Lies (21 page)

There was very little she could do about that. In her mind they didn't have a lot of options really. They had to find where the place was and stop it, if possible. It meant going in with everything ready, if they could do anything at all. First they'd try magic, then force, and if that didn't work, they'd sacrifice some people of their own.

"I need coffee. That and my armor. We don't have time to play around and clearly I need to be ready to move in as well. If I'm the one calling for a nuclear strike... Rifting like this, then I should be there for it." She didn't like the idea, but it did kind of mean that at least someone was going to be on site that would do everything else they could first.

Gloria snorted.

"Curly girl, why would you think that
you
should go? You aren't even from here. This isn't your problem... Not at all really. We have people for that kind of thing. Ones with actual training and experience."

That was a good point and a thing that actually made sense, except that there was a link that Gloria had forgotten, that or had never known.

"Debussey... She brought me here on purpose, because I'm, in my own world, the version of her there, was my real mother. She wanted to sacrifice me, since that might just help her, I guess. That or she just hates me that much, which I guess
could
be the real purpose, but it seems like a lot of work just for that, doesn't it? She doesn't seem like the kind to waste effort." That was a real thing too. The woman was enraptured with her own intelligence and thought she could manage anything, but a big part of that was that she
was
powerful and smart enough to make a lot of things stick that no one else would have ever even dreamed of.

That meant that Gwen, like it or not, needed to stop her, because there was no telling what she might do, not now that she had a weapon as powerful as the one that destroyed the Capital just sitting around, at her beck and call. No place was safe if she won. Or, just as bad, if she started to lose.

There was almost an unlimited number of ways that she could really do a lot of damage, even if her team failed to bring in these beings from beyond. Heck, no one had even really proved that they existed at all yet. If they didn't and nothing happened when she sacrificed the King and the other leaders, she was probably going to break and figure out that she could rule anyway, with enough fear. Destroying a few million people would probably do that, wouldn't it?

It meant that, no matter what happened, she couldn't be allowed to survive.

Somewhere, deep in her heart, Gwen knew that she should be worried about that. Could she kill her own mother? The problem there was that, no matter how you looked at it, that bitch wasn't that. She might be the copy of her own mega-maniacal mother, but they hadn't known each other at all, had they? Even Billy wanted to just kill her. Did thinking it was a good plan make her a bad person? Probably. It also made sense and in the end she'd rather go in for years of whatever this world used for therapy rather than deal with the death of an untold number of innocent people.

They split up then, with Duke Morten and the rest staying at the airfield, which was about as safe as anywhere at the moment, as well as being familiar to them, which meant safe, at least in perception if not reality, and Gwen taking off back to Park Street. She'd wanted to at least pack her armor along with her, if nothing else. That and fit her lance with a laser sight. She'd been meaning to for a while, but hadn't gotten around to it, what with one thing and another.

It took a few hours to get it all ready, and more than a few cups of coffee. Winslow served it black in tiny cups, but kept filling her back up without being told, until she'd gotten through most of a pot. It left her shaking and warm, but that probably didn't matter. Being awake was more important than being comfortable, she decided, as the faint feeling of sickness that came from having too much caffeine started to kick in.

The lance, a large metal cone of dull metal, looked strange with the little magical radiative connected to the top with a buckled leather strap. The whole thing gave it a feeling of being slightly archaic, even if it was state of the art for this place. A lot of things were like that here. Then, deciding that being proper wasn't worth worrying about for a few days, she got into her base outfit, which was made of smooth and very plain cream colored cotton layers, and wore that with a thick pair of socks and her normal boots. It made her look a little like she was getting ready for a martial arts class, but she didn't care about that. It was, no doubt, scandalous, but if she had to armor up it would save two minutes, already having the stuff on.

When she went down to meet with James, who had been resting in the front room, boots off, laying on the floor with a soft looking cushion under his head, she decided that they should eat something.

No one was around for that so she jogged to the kitchen after dropping her armor off which was wrapped up in a bed sheet, since she didn't have any other way to carry it, other than having it on. It was useful in a fight, but she really didn't want to wear it around all day, since it was just a burden for anything else. The bundle was heavy, probably being close to a hundred pounds, but what else could she do?

The kitchen had people in it, as early as it was, and the older woman that she'd worked with there before wanted to make her an elaborate meal, one that would have at least five tiny courses. Normally that would have been fine, but she really needed to be at the University before everyone got in, so she shook her head.

"A few slabs of bread and some cheese or something portable. We don't have time for a real meal. I know it's... Uncouth or something, but it's also an emergency." She was about to try to explain again when the woman made a face and then nodded at her.

"Indeed. One moment." There was a flurry of activity and she was handed a tray with a pile of unrelated foods on it, not even set on plates, before Gwen could say anything else.

Then she walked as quickly as possible while balancing a tray, to find that James was awake and that Winslow was standing in the front room, dressed in a tan work out jumpsuit of very heavy leather and canvas, loaded down with at least half a dozen visible weapons. He looked almost like a Knight, or a fighter from a video game. It was both interesting and a bit unsettling, since she'd never seen anything like it before. Obviously it was combat gear. It didn't take a genius to realize that he figured on coming with her.

That sounded like a plan to her. After all, it was his world, and as Gloria had helpfully pointed out just a few hours before, they had people with training for things like this and Charles Winslow was one of them. She might feel like she had to go personally, but it was clear that it didn't make a lot of logical sense at the same time. For this man to go... That had a feeling of just being correct. Proper.

"Ma'am, I'm coming with you, now I know-" He stopped as Gwen held out the platter in front of her.

"Right. James, I want you armed too. We'll hold you back, if we can, since you have Ella and the kids. If it comes to it, of course, we all have to be willing to die to stop these monsters. Normally I wouldn't even suggest we go at all." Except of course that she really would. Ever since she'd gotten here she'd been doing strange things like that.

Running into situations that really shouldn't have needed her. It was, she suspected, that precognition that Beth and Heather had found during the testing. For some reason it was linked to fighting for her. It probably had been in her world, but since magic wasn't a real thing there, it hadn't been that big of a deal. Here it was pretty powerful in a fight, and other dire situations. Not that it was perfect. Or, if it was, then something else was messing her up, because there had to have been other things she could have done, if only she'd known to.

Stabbing Erin Debussey through the eye the first time they met came to mind for instance. Except, if there were others involved in the whole thing, and there had to be a much bigger collection of people, maybe that wouldn't have stopped anything? It was too much for her to think of, so she grabbed a large chunk of plain tasting white cheese and started eating, making sure James had some too.

The large driver nodded at her, which seemed a little strange, until she remembered what she'd just said. Her mind had wandered a bit.

He grimaced and took a quarter loaf of bread.

"I won't let them kill my family. No man would. Thank you for the consideration however."

It took a while for her to work out that he meant her saying that they'd hold him back from the front lines if they could. She nodded and headed to the front door, the others following along quickly. It was probably going to be a hurry up and wait situation, with people popping in all morning, moving at the glacial pace of this world, even as time ran out for them all. By her estimation they had about seven and a half hours left to actually do something that didn't involve having people blow themselves up.

After that...

Then all bets were off.

She grinned to herself, glad that no one else could see her, and managed to struggle with her armored bundle to the lorrie which was just outside, waiting and ready to leave. She needed help getting it inside the main compartment, but Winslow gave her a hand with it, not even asking what it was. He probably knew that it wasn't a load of pretty dresses and shoes. It clanked too much for that for one thing. He flowed into the seat across from her, his eyes dangerous and dark, his mouth set in a look that seemed to scream to the world that he was about to kill some people. She probably looked ready to attend a college class or something herself. That was due to how young Katherine looked though.

They rode in silence, with James covering the distance faster than normal since there was almost no traffic at all. The sky was just lightening enough to really count as far as driving went so they didn't need headlights, which was good, since she hadn't invented them yet, and as far as she knew, delusions and hallucinations aside, no one else had yet either.

When they got to Western University she had to stop for a few seconds. She'd kind of suspected that the place would be nearly silent, people having either run away to what they thought of as safer places, or still being asleep. Instead the place bustled with activity. There were booths set up near the front with long lines going to them, young men standing there, looking nervous and somehow brave at the same time. There was even one, with a much shorter line, for women. It didn't take a lot to figure out what was going on, since there was a sign on each that told her these were the Army recruiting stations.

It made some sense. Someone had killed tens of thousands of people, or more, and had kidnapped the King. These people, as proper and dapper as they normally were, simply would not let that stand. It made her eyes water a little bit. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to run off and get month's worth of training. If all went well the big battle was going to be in a few hours. If it didn't...

Then they'd all need to be doing other things to try and survive, if it was even possible.

People stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at Winslow, who was clearly decked out as some kind of commando. He didn't say anything, just nodding to them all. Others looked at her however, which she attributed at first to her fancy clothing, which certainly wasn't what anyone else was wearing at all. No one mentioned it, just trying to look like they weren't all freaked out and slightly shaking. She was, but that was coffee for you.

After a few seconds she sighed and spoke to them all, which was over a hundred people already, as early as it was.

"You might as well all hold off joining up just yet." How did she tell them it wasn't going to work that way? She didn't even know it for certain herself. Sighing she kept going, looking at some of the faces, all of them seeming so very young suddenly. Too young to die.

At least that day.

"We need to get you all armed and ready to fight,
now
. Anyone from the radiatives department? Get with James here and set up the new sights for crins. We'll get some brought in, somehow."

Everyone just stared at her as if she was insane, but she thought they could do it. It felt important to her at least.

"One way or the other, the fight is coming today. I can't promise you that any of us will survive it, but know this, no matter what happens, no matter how many of us die, we will
not
fail. We will
not
let these abominations pass. We will stand and fall together, and... We. Will. Stop. Them."

Not that she had a clue how they were supposed to do that.

Everyone kept looking at her for a second, then, for some reason, they started cheering.

Gwen had been correct in one way, things were moving too slowly. It wasn't that people weren't trying however, they just had to get in place and even being brought in by Westmorlands, a thing that left more than a few of them clearly upset and uneasy, the Magicians still had to get there and that took time. Grainger didn't wait for them all to get there however, starting the discussion after the first five people were in the room, writing ideas on a large black slate chalkboard.

After less than half a minute people were using terms that Gwen hadn't even heard before, and other than joining words, she couldn't understand what they were saying at all. A lot of the terms were simply new to her too, it wasn't just odd combinations or anything. She tried to follow along anyway, and at least stay ready for whatever was needed.

More people came and most of them ignored her for a long time, until one of them, a woman that looked to be a bit of a hard ass, for all that she was in a pale blue dress that should have looked soft, grimaced at her.

"It isn't enough. If we had the woman's biological child we might be able to do this, but this link is so tenuous that I can't imagine it doing us any good. No more than some random stranger off the street would. What Erin was thinking in the first place..." The lines on the side of her mouth showed that this woman frowned for a living, so Gwen waited to see if anyone else had a different, more helpful suggestion, but for a long time no one spoke.

Finally Grainger, who was at the front, waved his right hand.

"So we move to the next thing. This ceremony must be focusing a lot of power. We should be able to locate it..." That got the whole thing going in a different direction.

It turned out that finding that place wasn't the hard part, since Billy came in with an address not ten minutes later.

"It's in Marduk, we have clearance already, since their people realize that we might need to use the Westmorland option, and will have Teletransport in to the location within the hour. Special Service teams are going in, along with Gwen and I." He said it as if the whole thing just made sense. It really didn't because, of course, they weren't actually needed for anything as far as anyone could see. Still, she knew they had to go as well.

They had someone to kill after all.

The Magicians and experts, since, as it turned out, not all of them were in the same field of endeavor at all, focused on a way to keep the gate closed. That would take a lot of energy, which they didn't really have time to collect properly. Debussey was doing it through fear and human sacrifice. They couldn't even use that last one in time, it was decided. No one had wanted to go there anyway it was clear, but it just wouldn't work.

They were stumped for a while then.

Gwen shrugged.

"So get on the telesar and do a massive ceremony thing. Like Ferdinand did, only more focused. We'll need translators and to get it out worldwide, but..." Everyone looked at her as if she were a moron.

At least Doctor Grainger explained, looking tired suddenly. That or worried they were all going to die.

"That... won't work dear. We simply don't have enough time and it's too hard to get that many people working together. It worked for a few moments to steal energy before, but it was an emotional victory at best. If we cost Erin more than a few weeks of hardship I'd be surprised. No, the real value there was in making her afraid, but she'll be ready for those tactics now. We must simply do something else."

The whole room went silent then. It was clear that they just couldn't think of anything at all.

"We need to keep that gate shut. If it's a real thing I mean. Is it? I've never been too certain about that. I mean, is there any proof that these elder gods or Old Ones, whatever you call them, exist?"

That got her another look that kind of spoke to a low idea of her overall intelligence, but a kindly looking Asian man explained that indeed, there was ample proof that what was being done might work very well. It was also thought not to be survivable. That Debussey and her people believed they could was either insane or meant they had something no one knew about up their sleeve.

"Fine, can we take the area out, using the Westmorlands? Will rifting stop this?"

That got more silence.

Grainger, clearing his throat, straightened the front of his nice burgundy vest under his black suit jacket.

"Most likely. It should be a last resort of course, this is in a populated area and that much death might just fuel the magical process. We don't know that it would be a deterrent to the Old Ones, should they choose to come here."

That really left only one thing to try then. Taking them all out before the process could be finished.

One way or the other. It wasn't a fun thing to think about, but it was something to do, if nothing else. She went to Grainger's office in the back, pulling her sheet full of armor with her. It made some noise but no one bothered to stare at her overly, scrambling as they were to think of some miracle solution in a few minutes that no one had come up with for hours. It took a few minutes to get ready, and she came out with her lance in hand, not setting it down. They needed to get into place as fast as possible and as soon as things were ready they were going to leave for the Marduk Empire. The strike force was going to be made up of pretty much everyone in the Special Service, plus any Westmorland that had combat training. That was all they could transport and really, it was an impressive idea at that.

Gwen had a suspicion that something very horrible was being done to some people to force them to retrain all those radiatives that fast.

It meant going back to Central, since they were staging there, but on the good side she got to meet up with Heather and Beth. The rest of the Special Service group was ready to go, and depressingly only had about two hundred members in armor.

Adam Westmorland, looking more than a little crotchety, gestured at them and shook his head.

"The rest are all occupied and can't make it in time. It doesn't really matter. This should be sufficient." He was speaking to Heather, since she was the one in charge it seemed. At least of them. "The special cohort will be... There they are now. Try not to let them be killed if you can help it. Miss Farris, you have command of them. The code is 'For the Western Kingdom, I so command it'. That will set each of them to rifting. You won't have a large time period to leave the area, if you use that phrase, about five minutes."

The people that were lined up were dressed like every Westmorland she'd ever met during their work day. They wore dark blue tops and pants, and polished black leather shoes. That was about the only thing they had in common. There were three of them, one an ancient looking man with white hair and at least fifty extra pounds on him. The other two were younger, and both female. One was a real shock to her however, since it was Erica.

"But..." it was a real shock. Bethany had assured her that the Westmorlands that could explode weren't just allowed to run around. It seemed that wasn't exactly the truth, was it? "She's too young."

On the good side she didn't have to point to which woman she meant at all, Adam making a face and, for once, agreeing with her.

"She volunteered. I agree with you however, so do try to bring her back if you can. All of them. They're brave people, but they'll be just as brave alive, don't you think?" There was a sadness to his words as if he really didn't think they'd be coming back.

"Yeah. Well, make sure they're all armed. If we can we won't be using that option at all." That got a strange look from everyone, even as Adam gestured to someone that Gwen didn't know, a strong and fit looking man that came over with a collection of Crins for the 'cohort'. She didn't get why people were staring at all, but Heather patted her on the back, metal glove against armor.

"No one has ever let one of the volunteer crews go into battle armed. It's always been thought that they might choose to fight at the last moment, instead of rift, if they had the choice." She didn't have to explain that she meant they might fight against whoever was going to give the command for them to die, not the enemy. It sort of made sense, except for the fact that they were, as she'd just been told, volunteers.

"Screw that." The language got everyone's attention then, the entire field of armor turned slightly to face her, their identical blank faces directed her way at least. "This isn't some petty squabble or land dispute that should be worked out with a bit of diplomacy and a few hugs. I wish it were. We have to stop these people today. No matter what else happens. If we use this final option... We can't let these people go, you understand? We all fight, and if we can't win in time, we
all
die. There has to be total commitment here. I understand if people are scared, I... Think we should only take volunteers."

It was an alien concept to most of them though. The only 'volunteers' were the ones that were going to die for certain and that was a courtesy in general, most of them figured that they were just going to die anyway, ordered into battle on the whim of someone that would never even know they were there, at least past being numbers on a sheet of paper.

That being the case everyone just got ready to go, ready to activate their Teletransport spheres on Heather's command. It was a thing they'd practiced, since they had to go in and move forward instantly, the next people coming into the same space three seconds later. There was enough room for three people in armor to go in at the same time, side by side.

Heather was going in the first wave. That meant that Gwen moved in alongside of her, with Darrick on her other side, making a wall of metal. Directly behind her stood Beth, Billy and some guy or tall woman in armor that she didn't recognize. That wasn't hard to do, since they hadn't spoken at all. About ten places back the special crew was set, ready to go. It would get them in early, in case it was needed, but keep them safe, behind a wall of armored bodies.

Heather called out the orders again, just to make certain there would be no mistakes.

"On my mark we go. Three second intervals. Ready, set..." She held up the sphere, which matched her armor in color and made ready to tap the button on the top against her force lance.

"Mark!"

They all slapped the buttons at the same time, the world shifting around them, going dark for just an instant when she was forced to blink. It always happened, but she couldn't really tell why. It didn't hurt, but it was still strange to her, the image inside her mask changing like it did. She ran forward, using the mental control system that she'd developed, aiming her weapon and firing instantly, before she even understood why she was doing it. No one else was, but the move probably saved them, hitting the line of creatures in front of them hard enough to slow the rush they were making.

"Ambush!" She yelled it loud, not knowing if she should even bother. It was clear that everyone was going to get the idea soon enough.

The things in front of them were... strange. They were so bizarre that for a bit her mind refused to make sense of them. They looked to have legs that ended in feet like an ape, with similar bodies, along with squat heads that set into their shoulders with long eye stalks coming out of them, the bulb of the things on the end being very human looking. That part was what really disturbed her. They didn't look human at all, otherwise, but they
were
, at the same time. They also had tentacles instead of arms.

"I hate tentacles" She said, her voice a bit panicked sounding as she moved toward the thing, rushing them, firing constantly. She wasn't even missing, since the laser sight showed where she was aiming pretty well.

There were a lot of them too. More than they could beat alone.

Behind her the next wave came through, but then there was a brilliant flash of light and a familiar voice, calling out from the back of the giant space they were in. It was a cavern, or close enough that she wasn't going to question it for the time being. If it was something else, she wasn't getting it at all.

"Welcome! I see that you all came
exactly
on time. Excellent." Erin Debussey was wearing a white robe of heavy material. There was more to it than that, but Gwen kept fighting, so wasn't able to really examine her too closely yet. "Please, come in. Sorry about the shield there, I'm afraid we only have room for so many here. Who all do we have?" The bitch sounded like she was a town mayor trying to seem like they weren't a politician. It wasn't working.

The creatures went down under the lance, but it took a lot of hits first, and after about a minute everyone was surrounded by the things, their pink flesh, really more of a salmon color, holding them all in place, weapons stripped away. Oddly enough it was Billy that was having the best luck fighting still, punching and kicking in a way that Gwen knew she just wouldn't be able to match. She tried anyway, but eventually ended up wrapped in tight fleshy tentacles, holding her in place. They all were. It felt highly strange, like her own muscles were doing the work, betraying her somehow.

Crap.

Erin moved through the crowd, all of the things avoiding her as if she had a disease or something.

"Where were we now? Oh,
yes
... Whom do we have the pleasure of entertaining now?" There was an evil grin on her face. It wasn't a pleasant thing at all. She made a gesture, which got the armor to be stripped away, it wasn't well done either, the restraining straps being broken as often as not, which injured the people inside the suits. There were sounds from Heather, and the man she didn't know in the second wave that sounded like something was being broken. Bones, Gwen guessed.