A subtle agency omnibus, p.62
A Subtle Agency Omnibus, page 62
part #1 of The Metaframe War Series
“No,” Anton whispered. “Of course not.”
Li lifted both eyebrows skeptically. Coldly pushing past him, she hugged Justin.
“Bye, Uncle. Keep safe and kick ass.”
Anton shook his head in bewilderment. Why was Li upset with him? She wasn’t even talking to him.
Justin hugged her back. They broke apart. Putting a big hand under Li’s chin, his face became serious, and he advised quietly, “Take care Li, it’s one big trap over there, and we don’t know what Armitage’s real target is.”
“What about the inquisition?” Li asked. “Is that still hanging over my head?”
Justin sighed. “Unfortunately, yes. However, it will be put aside until we either get Ramin Kain back in one piece or we hold the next conclave where all these matters will be settled by the Head of the Order.”
Li’s face was downcast, she backed away from Justin, joining the rest of the team standing near the two SUVs.
Juliette stood next to Francis, one hand resting gently on his arm. A far-away look flitted across her eyes, and she reported, “Joan is aware of the situation. The Walker force team have pledged their assistance.”
Francis smiled grimly. “A second force team will even the odds. Are all the other loremasters aware?”
“Yes. The news will filter through the rest of the Order over the next few days.”
“See - you don’t need me,” Justin remarked, striding away from the porch and onto the track. He stood in the headlights of the front SUV, shouldered a backpack, put on a pair of Order nightglasses and called out, “Godspeed to you all.” He jogged off down the track, quickly vanishing into the dark.
Anton stepped up next to Francis and inquired, “The Walker force team?”
“The English team. Just like us,” Juliette answered. “Joan Lewis is their loremaster, and Richard Walker is their force leader.”
Luther pushed himself off the wall of the log cabin and stated derisively, “A real force team, one the Order can count on.”
Anton’s lip curled. He was about to respond, but pulled himself up short, thinking, I can’t let this guy get under my skin.
Francis stepped toward Luther. His hand flashed out, hitting Luther hard across the face. Luther’s head rocked to the side, and he staggered back. Francis snarled. “I’ve had enough of your disrespect.”
“What the hell,” Luther snapped, blood dribbling past his lips. He blurred forward to tackle Francis. Francis met his attack, flowing around Luther and bringing him to the ground with a thud.
Kneeling on top of him, Francis pressed down hard on Luther’s right arm, twisted up high behind his back. “Shut up, or I’m leaving you here.”
Luther grunted, and then squeezed out, “You can’t do that.”
“I damn well can.”
There was a long moment of silence.
“Are we clear,” Francis added.
Luther nodded and grunted again.
Francis released his hold, allowing Luther to regain his feet.
“Ramin Kain is not a traitor,” Luther asserted hotly, glaring at the others. “I will keep this mission honest.”
“Yes, you do that,” Juliette remarked, sweeping past him and taking a position in the front passenger seat of the lead SUV. “Peter, come up here with me and drive.”
“Sure,” Peter agreed.
Francis stared at Luther for a second and shook his head. “We can’t waste more time. We’re leaving now, everyone on board.”
Anton got into the back seat of the front SUV and sat next to Li. Chiara jumped in beside him in the last remaining seat. Peter put the SUV into gear rolling forward along the track to the main road. Li turned her head away, looking out the window. Anton decided not to press the issue, it was clear she was upset with him about something. He thought back over the night’s events. I protected her when she couldn’t fight, what is she so upset about? … Oh, I ran off after Drake.
The pieces finally dropped into place.
“Damn,” Anton whispered.
He’d abandoned her in the middle of a battle.
“Li,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
Li stiffened for a moment and then sighed. She turned her head forward, not looking at him. Her eyelids half-closed, she declared in cutting tones, “You will be if you do it again. What would have happened if they’d turned on Peter and me in numbers too high for him to handle? I couldn’t fight, not properly. We would have been killed for nothing because you’d run off. How often do I have to ask myself, ‘what were you thinking?’ You’re too smart to be losing it like this. Get a handle on your emotions before they cause damage to the team that can’t be repaired.”
Anton frowned for a moment, and promised, “I will. I understand what you’re saying. It won’t happen again.”
“… Don’t make promises you don’t know how to keep.”
“I’ll keep it,” Anton vowed, looking forward.
The SUV turned onto the main road and accelerated away, the second SUV following tightly behind it.
* * *
The Spike 512 supersonic business jet flashed through the night sky over the Atlantic.
Chloe Armitage glanced at the monitor seamlessly merged with the front wall of the cabin. It was 22:30 on Monday night in Boston and 03:30 on Tuesday morning in the United Kingdom. Stats streamed along the bottom of the screen. Altitude 51,034 feet, Speed 1253 miles per hour. In another two hours, she would be landing at her private airfield outside the town of Goathland, ten miles from her ancestral home near the town of Whitby - Armitage Manor.
It had been more than a century since the property had been known by that name. She’d begun obfuscating her personal history back in the 1890’s but still owned the manor house. It was the home of her human retainers, including the pilots who flew her plane. Finding out who really owned ‘Armitage Manor,’ had been made almost impossible to discover.
She didn’t need Shadowstone to hide her own tracks, she’d been doing that for most of her life.
Her smartphone pinged, there was a message from James Haley that read, ‘Tech crew dismantling the 3rd blackwidow. All deaths attributed to Order actions. Remaining Red Empire personnel en route to a Shadowstone safe house in Boston.’
She responded with, ‘Noted.’
The four Red Empire assassins in Boston, a fist team led by Nasr al Dam, aka Blood Eagle, would no doubt prove useful. Having a secret force in reserve in North America was an edge over her opponents. Chloe hungered for every advantage she could establish. Regime change was no easy task, and while she believed in her eventual victory, she had no illusions about the difficulties, risks, and challenges that lay before her. If Crane ever discovered what she was doing, he would surely kill her. Events had gone too far. There was no going back now. There would be no opportunity for forgiveness and redemption. She would be cut in half by his blade, and her living heart ripped from her chest - and there was nothing she could do to stop him. Jean Philippe Allemande’s curse ensured Crane was the one man she could never defeat in open combat, the one man she couldn’t fight against and win.
Everything was at stake. The game was live, and there would be only one winner.
At the back of the cabin under the watchful gaze of Marcus Drake sat Ramin Kain, head of the Order of Thoth. Kain was awake, bound and gagged. She could’ve drugged him, but she wanted him conscious, aware and frightened. She needed to break him before the Mirovar force team arrived at her manor house.
There were many questions to answer. After the battle at the Boston docks where she’d killed the Order grandmaster, Gang Wu, it had become clear the Order had managed to partially corrupt the feeds to the Panopticon. They’d demonstrated their capacity to shield operations from Panopticon surveillance on the night of the second battle in Boston where she’d killed Crane’s praetorians. Just how the Order had accomplished this feat was a question at the top of her list. A list which included, where were all the Order safe houses? What was the disposition of Order forces? Who were the Order loremasters? Where and when would the next Order conclave be held? These and many other questions she expected to answer today.
Chloe would have to wait until she got Kain into the dungeon beneath her manor house before she could begin the interrogation. The supersonic Spike 512 had bought her another three hours of lead time. She was six hours ahead of her pursuers.
Chloe tapped her fingers on the arm of her seat. There would be some necessary preliminaries before she could properly put Kain to the question. Then there were the inevitable preparations and final checks on the trap for the Mirovar force team she’d ordered built by the Red Empire assassins currently occupying the manor house. James Haley and the Spike 512 had delivered a four-man Red Empire fist team and a host of specialized equipment to the manor before completing his flight to Boston with the rest of the Red Empire assassins. She needed to be sure the trap was ready and fully functional - it was explicitly designed to condition Anton Slayne into a living weapon against Crane.
Li Wu’s death at the hands of vampires would be the final straw that would break Anton’s restraints, making him completely vulnerable to Chloe’s will.
She paused, frowning. With all the checks and preparations, her six-hour lead could easily become four, would it be enough time to learn everything she needed to know. Interrogating the Head of the Order of Thoth was a once in a lifetime opportunity, well … once in a human lifetime. Still, it was not to be wasted, and four hours would pass quickly and may prove to be insufficient.
She needed more time.
Her fingers froze, her eyes widened. She’d made a mistake. She was not six hours ahead of her pursuers, she was at best two hours ahead. Once the Order realized that the Embraer jet carrying the decoy GPS signal was not heading toward London as per its flight plan, they would look for another landing site. Once the pilots in the Embraer posted their changed flight plan to land in Goathland, the information would be accessible to anyone with Internet access.
The United Kingdom had its own members of the Order of Thoth. She was well aware of the existence of the Walker force team. Their center of operations was hidden in the metropolis of London. The initial flight plan of the decoy Embraer should keep them there. They would only begin to move once they became aware of the new flight plan to Goathland in Yorkshire, and London was hours away from Yorkshire.
How much time she had to question Kain rested on the capacity of the Order to realize the decoy Embraer had changed flight plans and transport the UK force team to Yorkshire. It was a capability of the Order that was currently unknown.
Chloe didn’t like unknowns in her plans, and she hated relying on the inefficiency of either the Mirovar or the Walker force teams.
It was safest to assume the worst and plan for it. The Mirovar force team would already be in communication with the Walker force team. They would pass on the decoy GPS signal, and the UK team would track it to Goathland and from there to the town of Whitby and her manor house. They could move into position to attack the manor house and rescue Kain. But would they attack immediately, or would they wait until the arrival of the Mirovar force team to ensure they had an overwhelming force?
Unless Walker were stupid, or desperate, he would wait. Whether the Order attacked or waited, she needed to consider and plan for either possibility.
The four Red Empire assassins she’d stationed at her manor house would help. They were a second, elite fist team. Like the team led by Nasr al Dam who had all bar one survived the battle at the Maine safe house, they were an elite squad, a notch above the regular fighters of the Red Empire. As effective as they were, they were too few to prevail against a full-sized Order force team, especially one that was prepared for combat.
She needed to keep the UK team, and the Mirovar force team separated for as long as possible, and she would need to deter an early attack by the UK force team.
Chloe frowned. She would have to deliberately delay the pursuit by the Mirovar force team. What were her options? The Spike had long overtaken the decoy Embraer business jet transporting Kain’s phone. The decoy plane would arrive at Goathland at 08:00 UK time. The GPS signal of the phone drawing the Order to the airfield. She could divert the decoy to another site, but then how to reacquire the Mirovar force team and draw them back to Armitage manor and the trap that waited there? She could get her staff to transport the phone, but what if the UK Order caught up with them before they arrived at the Manor. No, the decoy plane had to complete its mission, delivering the GPS/phone to her private airfield and from there to her manor house.
She had to throw something in Mirovar’s way, something that would give her enough time to drain Kain’s mind, but not so strong they would never arrive. Her fingers drummed the armrests of her seat. Focusing her gaze beyond the cabin, her mind raced through a dozen options before she settled on a new plan.
She commanded her phone, “Call James Haley.”
The phone rang three times before it was answered, “Yes, Ma’am?”
“Where are you?”
“Logan airport overseeing the teardown of the last blackwidow. What do you need?”
“Good. Delegate it. I need you to keep an eye open for the arrival of the Mirovar force team.”
“Yes, Ma’am. If they have a helicopter -”
“They don’t have one. They will come by car … expect them after midnight, one a.m. at the latest.”
“And when they arrive?”
“I need a photograph of ‘Anton Smith,’ getting on whichever plane they’re using to follow the decoy. Once you have that, bypass the Panopticon and alert Shadowstone UK to arrange a welcoming committee for Anton’s arrival in UK airspace.”
“Yes, Ma’am, will do. Anything else?”
“Yes. Don’t send the photo too soon; make Shadowstone in the UK wait. I want them rushed and under pressure.”
“Copy that. Anything else Ma’am?”
“I need you to intercept any communications traffic from UK Shadowstone to Crane’s personal line for the next twenty-four hours. I need Crane isolated from the UK, and I need a very plausible excuse for it.”
James’ breathing whispered hesitantly over the line. “… When do you need the intercepts to start?”
“As soon as possible, but not later than your notification to the UK of the imminent arrival of an Order of Thoth operative.”
“Yes Ma’am, there is a way this can be done.”
“Thank you, James, that will be all,” she said, disconnecting the call.
Now it’s time to focus on extracting everything I can from Kain.
Chloe smiled, her eyes shining with anticipation.
Her phone vibrated in her hand; the screen indicated a call from Crane. She tapped the answer icon and put the phone on speaker - there was nothing here she wanted to hide from Marcus or Kain.
“Yes, Sir. What can I do for you?” she asked.
“Where are you?” Crane responded.
“Over the Atlantic.”
“Are you in a drone?”
“Personal jet. I wasn’t anywhere near Fort Dix when Kain decided to fly to the UK.”
“What the hell is he doing?” Crane demanded.
“I don’t know. I’m following him now. I’m sure to find out soon.”
“What happened in Maine? It’s a mess over there.”
“Shadowstone hit a live Order safe house. The first in years. There have been Order casualties.”
“Was it Mirovar?”
“Yes,” Chloe replied, rising lithely out of her chair. Walking casually down the aisle toward Kain, she held her phone in front of her. “But at least some of the Mirovar force team survived, perhaps the majority of them. I will know more soon; it appears they’re also following Kain.”
“Remember what I told you - keep Kain safe. We need the stability of the secret detente for another year. It is essential that Kain is kept alive until the Day Guard is ready. Of course, afterward, he will be of no further use.”
Kain’s eyes bulged above his gag, his face flushing red.
Chloe tilted her head slightly, staring at Kain and affirmed, “I can guarantee he’s perfectly safe right now.”
“Excellent. Keep it that way.”
Chloe smiled slightly. “Yes, Sir. I will do my best.”
“See that you do,” Crane said and hung up.
Chloe arched an eyebrow at Kain. Turning on her heel, she strolled back to her seat. Crane’s call had been unexpected but useful. Events were tracking well toward her goals. She would remain vigilant to ensure that remained the case.
* * *
Electric motors hummed; the hangar doors grinding along their tracks with a low rasp.
The Order owned Embraer Legacy 500 business jet, taxied through the opening and out onto the tarmac. Everyone in the Mirovar force team was on the plane. Peter and Anton were in the cockpit. Behind them in the main cabin sitting in pairs along the aisle were Francis and Juliette Mirovar, Jay Creeley and Yvette Mirovar, and Li Wu and Chiara Romano. Sitting by himself at the back, Samuel Luther stared out the window.
Juliette leaned back in her chair and engaged her mind palace. The external world vanished, an internal landscape blooming into view. Recent events since the arrival of the Order traveler Deon Lamar, at the destroyed safe house in Maine, flashed before her.
She ‘reached,’ for what she needed. The abduction of Ramin Kain by the Red Empire and their escape in a nightfalcon helicopter arrested before her. She leaped up into the nightfalcon’s cabin, the helicopter behaving as a solid object in her vision. The surviving Red Empire assassins stood around Kain’s body, slumped on the floor. One of the assassins quickly bound him. The tallest of the assassins let his cowl fall back to reveal a head of close-cropped blond hair. It was Marcus Drake; he went forward to the helicopter’s cockpit. Chloe Armitage emerged from the cockpit and stood near Kain. Kain moaned, beginning to wake up.
Her mind flashed forward to Logan airport. She was standing alone on a runway. Racing toward her was an Embraer business jet, it lifted off, zooming overhead. Turning around she tracked its ascent into the night sky. A sheath of light glimmered around it, before streaking over the horizon. The plane was bound for England. She followed the light, her mind palace providing an intuitive leap. The light split in two, one strand heading to London, the second, brighter strand, heading toward the northeast coast.
