Chapter Ten: Evacuation. Weapons.
Part 1
“What do you mean ‘Boulder wants to leave’?”
We sat in my office. Charles the demon and Williams the officer sat across from me as we discussed the details of the evacuation. Michelle had been tasked by the united states to organize the peaceful evacuation of its resident demons while there were other representatives all over the world doing the. Same thing. Some of the revelations weren’t quite as easy as others.
“Boulder, Colorado was built atop the Adjasivant mother ship,” Charles explained.
“How is Queen Ardranna these days?”
“Pregnant.”
“Wait, why was an entire city built on top of a ship?”
“That’s not really the pertinent question, is it?”
“So you’re telling me,” Williams said slowly as if by doing so things could be made clearer. “That Queen Ardranna wants to take off with one hundred thousand United States citizens on board?”
“They’d be safe and made comfortable.”
“That…”
“Charles, if it comes to it, inform Queen Ardranna that she can leave with Boulder if and only if things seem dire enough. As it is, preemptively leaving would cause undue worldwide panic.”
“Like Tokyo.”
“Like Tokyo,” I agreed. I still needed to figure out how to get that city back.
“Everyone else seems fine with resonance transmission. There is a small percentage of demons who won’t leave.”
“They can gather at what remains of my workshops across the US. The residual quantum qualities should protect them from… The shunting.”
“According to my reports there are about a thousand demons in the United States and fifty thousand more across the world.” Williams said. “So while there will be some-”
“Four times that.” Charles interjected.
“What?”
“At any given point in time there are two hundred thousand demons, beings who don’t belong here,” on this planet.”
Williams stared. “And beings like Ardranna and her ship?”
“Twenty-thousand,” I answered. “Remember, there are some realities with technology far greater than ours and consider traveling to this time period… Like time travel.”
“Is time travel possible?”
I didn’t answer.
“So we are all set?” I asked, smiling at Charles.
“Yes.”
“Good, get it done.”
The phone rang on my desk and it took me several moments to work the controls to answer the call. When I finally did, Dr. Amelia Olyphant’s even, cynical tone came through the line. “I’ve got good news and bad news.”
“Bad news first.”
“The good news, Dr. Olyphant replied cooly, “Is that the weapon prototype is done. The bad news is that we have a problem mass-producing the weapon.”
“What sort of problem?”
“Well, beside the fact that this seems to be a new revelation in human ingenuity,” she did not at all seem smug, “the materials we will need are extremely rare on this planet.”
“Meaning?”
“We probably have enough on the open market to make fifty.”
“Fifty?” Williams asked. “To take on a an army of at least a billion beings?”
There was silence for several long moments.
Finally, Dr. Olyphant spoke. “I’m sorry, did I not make myself clear?”
Part 2
“I’ll do it.”
We sat in the small conference room in the Office of Paranormal Affairs in the basement of the Pentagon 2. Somehow, Williams was able to procure a computer projector to display a presentation on the far wall. Unfortunately, the problem was that she was not able to get a screen. Instead large white pieces of paper, the sort that presenters write on on easels, were taped up onto the wall in roughly the same area of the projection.
The team was gathered. Lorenzo and Delores sat at the table with me. Jenna and Aiden sat in the corner. The young man sat with his arms crossed, eyes narrowed and expression defiant. But he spoke up. “I’ll do it.”
Williams sighed, “This is not an easy mission. It’s not like your videogames. There’s no reset button.” She paused and I could almost hear the thoughts spinning in her mind. They were the same in mine: There was so much to do and he was an asset; but I didn’t want another death.
It had only been eighteen hours since the death of Henry and emotions were still immensely raw. I know how much Jenna and Aiden were in pain. I know, because I’ve experienced so much death and despair… And even in those times the strength of the human spirit, the will to survive and persevere amazes me.
Williams looked to Jenna whose eyes seemed distant. She didn’t seem to be paying attention. “He can do what he wants,” she said.
“That’s insane. He’s just a kid.” Delores looked around the room, eyes wide. When no one agreed or even replied she continued. “Are you all insane.”
“He can be extremely helpful,” I said, shrugging lightly. Of course I realized the kid’s age. I wasn’t unobservant, but when the world was in danger, if someone wanted to risk their life for it, who was I to stop them?
Morals shift during war.
“So,” Williams said with a sigh. “Valentine and Aiden are going to go steal the materials needed from the Smithsonian’s exhibit from the Tomb of Rhiannon from Truth or Consequences.”
Lorenzo raised a hand. “I’m sorry, what’s so dangerous about this mission?”
“Have you ever tried to steal anything from the Smithsonian?” I asked. “It’s not a pleasant experience by any means.”
“Why?”
“Besides the fact that there are hundreds of devices in its store rooms that hold vast mystical power-”
“Mystical?”
“All of them have been catalogued,” Williams interjected over Delores. “And secured.”
I allowed her a moment to think about her words and how they contradicted mine, then continued. “They act in concert and disrupt my abilities. Which means that once things go south, I will be depending on you, Aiden if it comes to anything superhuman.”
“Yeah, I got it,” he said, not bothering to look over at me.
The Smithsonian. I hadn’t been there for over fifty years. That wasn’t nearly enough time to be forgotten. But if I wanted to get the materials we needed to craft the weapons for our defense, I needed to take this chance.
“While you two do that, Delores, Lorenzo and I will coordinate the evacuation. Charles has already established the gateways across the country and he’s working on doing the same for the international locations.” Williams let out a long sigh. “I’m also pulling together our ground teams and starting their specialized training against he beings as you described them and the process required for their dispatch. Are there any questions?”
There were none.
Part 3
The elevator ride was awkward. The walk to the car was awkward. The ride to the Smithsonian castle was awkward. In general the entire experience was awkward.
“Why are we stealing from the Smithsonian? Isn’t it a government thing? Don’t we have special clearance or something?” Aiden asked as we walked along the nearby street, biding time until the museum closed.
“The upper levels are governed by the United States government. We’re going below, where other things might not see my visit as… Friendly.”
Finally, we sat on a bench along the Mall, waiting as the sun drifted toward the horizon. A group of people played kickball on the green and a young man flew a kite with his young son who seemed delighted at the spectacle. The image was not lost on me.
These people, knowing only of Tokyo’s lost continued on. Playing. Loving. The revelation of the invasion would change all that to panic and fear. Did they deserve to know about their impending doom, face it straight on with eyes open? Or was it better for them to live their last moments with blissful ignorance?
I sat there, pondering until the players left and the son and father packed up and went home. Darkness had fallen when I heard the crunch of gravel as Aiden approached. “Aiden,” I began. In a sense, I understood that Aiden thought me responsible for his father’s death. I felt responsible. Things should have been different. I should have taken on the creature there in the hotel room instead of trusting its nature.
When one lives as long as I have, one has many such thoughts. Should have and should have and should have.
“Whatever, let’s just get this done.”
And the discussion, however much it was such, was over.
Getting into the Smithsonian was relatively easy. Considering much of its security systems are based on on-the-shelf technology, I had no problem circumventing it with the use of a few devices created by my company.
The details of getting into the iconic Castle proper aren’t terribly important here. Suffice the matter to say that we encountered no trouble making our way to the lower level. Or, at the very least, the entrance to the same.
Beyond the displays for various famous and culturally significant objects and events in American history are the back storage rooms, offices and consoles for all of the Castle’s facilities. Behind the storage room is an elevator that ostensibly enables large pieces transport from the loading dock to the floor. Intelligence that Williams provided us said different. On the panel of elevator buttons, below the emergency call buttons, was a keypad. I entered a sequence of numbers, pressed all four of the elevator floors, then rang the call button twice. The doors slid closed and the care began to descend.
“Look,” I said, turning to Aiden. “Things will be difficult enough once we get down there. Talk to me so that we can at least get closure on this.”
Aiden didn’t look at me. “You want closure. I’m the one who has to bury his father.”
Ouch. “I don’t want anything from you,” he continued. “You can’t bring him back and I’m not going to ask you to do something I know you won’t do.”
“Won’t do?”
Aiden turned red-rimmed eyes toward me. “You brought someone back to life in the middle ages, didn’t you? It’s in your file.”
“Yes,” I replied softly. “I brought someone back to life.”
“And you won’t do the same to my father, I get it.”
“Aiden, there’s a reason why I can’t-“
“I said I get it. It’s clear by now. You want him out of the way to get to my mom.”
I like to think myself unflappable but in this case I was defiantly flapped. “Your mother!?”
“She’s not ugly and I’m not stupid.”
“Yes your mother is attractive-“
“I knew it.”
“But I wouldn’t kill someone for her. Or anyone over-“
The elevator doors opened onto a dark stone-lined hallway. And there, standing and waiting, was a Dactyl.
“This day keeps getting better and better.”
Part 4
The Dactyl. Three women stood several meters away from the doors of the elevator emitting internal blue light. Each one imminently stunning. Dark hair, black eyes and impossibly wide smiles showing far too many teeth.
“The Mage – Has Come – As We Expected,” they said, one after the next. “Our Song – We Shall Sing – For Him Again.”
“Cover your ears!” I launched myself forward and was only able to catch one in the jaw. The impact was like striking stone and I felt something give – not in her bones, but in mine. Pain shot upward through my arm and in a blurring moment, I found myself hurtling through the air to slam into a very solid, dusty wall.
Aiden moved as well, faster than I’d expected, and tackled one of them to the ground. The other two, though, easily picked the young man up and tossed him after me down the hallway.
“What the hell?” Aiden asked as he picked himself up, then helped me to my feet.
“Mermaids, sirens, the medusa, all of them the Dactyl,” I explained. “And the Dactyl is not a pleasant creature.”
“What the hell are they doing in the basement of the Smithsonian Castle?”
The three women, clad in gossamer silk like some sort of sinisterly beautiful female triumvirate, stepped slowly down the hallway, closing in.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But usually what I do is run.”
So we ran along the corridor, turning when I recalled Williams had indicated. Out of sight from the Dactyl, I leaned against the stone wall, breathing heavily, something I never did. But, beyond that, certain things came first: “I did not allow your father to die so that I could seduce your mother.”
Aiden glared. “You want to do this now?”
“If I’m going to die, I want you clear on just what happened.”
“Amazing things, Valentine. You’ve done amazing things but you won’t save one man. One. Single. Man? He’s my father!”
I didn’t see it coming. The fist flew and then I flew twenty feet down the hallway, coming to a rest awkwardly on my shoulder. I felt something pull, but not break. As I tried to get up, Aiden was upon me, grasping my collar and fist raised. “Aiden,” I said, my voice perhaps a bit more panicked than I’d intended it. “Aiden. Before you pummel me and destroy any chance this world has at stopping Rhianna’s invasion, there is something you should know: Henry wasn’t your father.”
“W-what?” Aiden paused, then I moved.
By that time, the Dactyl was upon us once again, this time not quite all grins. Their eyes glowed red. I rolled to my feet, “I’m sorry, I lied.”
“You what?”
“And that wasn’t fair, but we have to get going again, we have to get to the level below this one.”
“I should-”
“Run! And cover your ears for christssake.”
The dactyl opened it’s mouths and whispered. Whispers of comfort and silence; of promise and glory. Whispers like that of a mother holding a cooing child and a lover murmuring softly into her partner’s ear as they drifted to sleep.
Aiden stood, stupefied and still as the Dactyl closed in on him with those slow, measured steps. “Do you ever listen?” I hissed as I gripped his arm with my good hand and pulled him away from the women, which had the unfortunate result of my standing right before them.
“The Mage – Resists the Song – As in History,” the Dactyl said, alternating mouths to speak.
“Sorry, ladies, I can’t stay for supper… Or dinner,” I pushed Aiden behind me to get moving. As they spoke to me their vocal spell was broken and Aiden sprinted down the hallway. I moved after him but a long fingered hand shot out abd raked across my skin. I cried out, but continued moving, the wound was superficial.
“What the hell were they?” Aiden asked as I caught up to him.
“The Dactyl.”
“You said that, but why are they Dactyl people?”
“You misunderstand. They are The Dactyl. One being split into three parts. I’ve met her several times before and she always manages to get free.” I pulled Aiden aside as I bent double. My injuries were catching up to me.
“You’re hurt, I didn’t think… Oh crap your… abilities don’t work down here.” He looked genuinely concerned. This is when, I believe, the boy realized himself that he didn’t actually want to kill me.
“That’s less about the Dactyl and more about everything in these walls.” The slow, steady rhythm of the Dactyl’s feet filled me with greater determination and energy. “Let’s move.”
The resource we needed was housed in a crate that had been shipped from Truth or Consequences directly to the Smithsonian. The crate, according to the manifest, had gone missing, but there was really only one place it would end up: the top-secret vaults beneath the streets of Washington, D.C..
I hadn’t expected to find the Dactyl here, of course, but it was a hazard that could not be accounted for. The saying goes that no plan survives contact with the enemy.
Part 5
I leaned heavily on Aiden for support. Now confident that the boy wouldn’t stab me in the side when I wasn’t looking, I felt comfortable enough to depend on him in this. I gestured down the corridor. “The last on the left,” I said, consulting the internal map provided me by Williams and her team of the top-secret underground maps of the Smithsonian. We stumbled down the corridor, passing several metal doors. Line shone from small circular windows placed high along the frames.
I disentangled myself from Aiden’s shoulder as he moved to pull at the door. When it didn’t budge, he took several steps back but I raised my hand to stop him. Americans, always so in a rush. Though, to be fair, time was of the essence. “She gave us the code before we left.”
“I wrote it down,” Aiden said, searching his pockets. From the far end of the corridor, the clean blue light of the Dactyl grew in luminosity as they rounded the corner. Aiden produced a slip of paper and then moved over to the key pad. “Seven, seven, one… is that a four or a nine?” The keypad played a series of descending notes. “Crap! Okay, seven, seven, one, nine…” he muttered to himself as he punched in the long sequence of numbers and, again, the keypad gave it’s negative indicator.
“Aiden, focus,” I said, breathing heavily. The pain in my side had subsided somewhat, but the panic I felt as the Dactyl approached grew to fill in that gap.
“Oh bump this,” Aiden said and swung at the keypad. It shattered, sparks flying out of the stone wall onto the stone ground. I groaned as Aiden looked at the door expectantly. When it didn’t open, he looked to me.
“It doesn’t work like that,” I said, pulling myself upright to cross to the door. “It never works like that. You don’t destroy a key to get into a locked room.” I gripped the door handle and pulled. “Come on, then, pull!”
The door shuddered and the heavy metal hinges gave a strong groan of distress, but it held. And even as we worked, the blue light grew closer. And closer…
The Mage paused and sipped at his tea. The Writer leaned forward, eyes wide with anticipation. “Well?” the Writer asked, excited.
“Well what?” the Mage asked as he set down his cup of tea. He raised a brow, then smiled slightly. “Oh, you mean the Dactyl and the top secret area beneath the Smithsonian?”
“Yes! Why would you stop in the middle of the story like that and pause for such a long time?” the Writer asked, picking up his stylus from where he’d laid it on the table.
“Anticipation is a part of the story,” the Mage replied easily.
“Yes, but not right in the middle of it!”
“Oh, very well.”
Just as the Dactyl’s feet appeared around the small frame of the door, we’d managed to pry the damned thing open and make it inside. Which, as far as I was concerned, no better than where we were before. That is to say rather than being trapped out in a hallway, we were then trapped in a room.
The room we found ourselves in was stark white, a sudden contrast to the earthy and natural decor of stone and moss just beyond the door. Light filled the room, but it was most focused on a two-meter diameter spot in the center of the room. “There it is.”
Below the light, hovering nearly a foot from the ground and reaching halfway to the three meter ceiling was one the pawn-shaped pedestals that had once made up one of the Mage Towers. This, unlike the others, had been made from the original metal which had come down with us as we landed all those eons ago on Earth. The others, namely the ones that I have under my direct control are replicas — effective and completely functional replicas — but replicas nonetheless. This was a true Mage Tower which had been one of the originals and now would be used to destroy the army of one of my kind.
“This is it?” Aiden asked, confused. “I thought this was supposed to be a weapon.”
“It is a weapon,” I replied slowly. “It can harness the power of thought and will and make it reality. The metal of it can bestow a disruptive wave and–”
“You make ray guns out of it,” Aiden asked.
“We can.”
“What about lightsabers?”
“They’re copyrighted,” I said and stepped over to the Tower. As my fingers touched the smooth surface of the tower, I was thrown back by a powerful force emanating not from the Tower itself but from three women who had ripped the door back off of its hinges and stalked their way into the room. The three women gestured forward, each with long-fingered hands tipped with wicked black nails.
“This is new,” I grunted as inexorable force pressed me against the smooth, far wall. “This was a trap, wasn’t it.”
“The Mage is — clever but not nearly — clever enough,” the Dactyl said, alternating between the three women that comprised its being. “The years have — made us — stronger.”
The force pressed against my chest and I found it increasingly more difficult to draw breath. Each far harder than the last. I looked around the room and found Aiden who had pressed himself against the wall next to the door. The Dactyl hadn’t stepped completely into the room and so hadn’t noticed him, yet. “Stronger?”
“We — have — learned,” the Dactyl said. The women would have had a winsome smile had it not been for the fact that they were, essentially, evil. “And have — been — gifted.”
“Gifted?” I gasped. There was a pain at the top of my head, as if my skull was going to pop off with pressure from just behind my eyes.
“Oh good!” I recognized the voice, but the room swam in my vision. Streaks of darkness filled my vision until all I could see was the cruel face of Rhiannon. “I knew he would come.”
I love Dr. Olyphant’s cool take on this. She couldn’t care how many beings are coming. She’s just sticking to her facts.
Last paragraph Part 2…”against he beings” should be “against the beings”.
Why can’t computers understnad what we want and not what we told them to do?
BTW…oooh boy, Valentine is going to depend on Aiden, after Aiden has pretty much accused him of abandoning his father to die…this could prove to be VERY interesting.
“but in this case I was defiantly flapped” i think you mean ‘definitely’.
still an excellent story, keep up the good work!
OOOOOOOh boy, this definitely went the WRONG way with Aiden…definitely did not see THAT coming.
PS…
Part 3 Par 6
Replace
I sat there, pondering until the players left and the son and father packed up and went home. Darkness. Had fallen
with
and went home. Darkness had fallen
Cheers, Oliver.
I enabled a new autocorrect feature on the device I use to write this. Unfortunately, it’s far more stupid than the grammar/spelling function in word…
Yeah, Aiden’s a little insane at this point. I’m having fun writing the conclusion to the chapter!
I love the story so far. It’s kinda has a feel of the Dresden files, but with a touch of x-files
Still an excellent story, and it’s nice to see Valentine get outclassed. Not that I don’t like the character, but it humanizes him somewhat to read about him having to run like hell. Plus, it lets his dry humor really come to the fore.
Keep up the good work!
Great story, thanks for writing it! Will there be any more updates?
Will the story go on??
I’m hoping all is well with you as we haven’t heard from you in over 3 months now.