A subtle agency omnibus, p.88
A Subtle Agency Omnibus, page 88
part #1 of The Metaframe War Series
Peter clasped his shoulder and offered, “We’ll have to get you an eye patch.”
Anton stared out at the sea with his one good eye, his left hand lifting reflexively to the bandages covering the left side of his face. “It will have to be black.”
Peter nodded. “Fitting…”
The two young men stared out at the rolling waves. The storm had exhausted its fury, a wreath of stars graced the heavens, providing a faint ghostly light beneath a shroud of infinite darkness.
Marcus Drake was dead, proof that Anton could take down his enemies. Now there was only Armitage and Crane to destroy, and he would have justice for his mother and father.
Juliette had been lost and Yvette with her. The Mirovar force team was badly wounded, its leaders dead or maimed with grief. There was work to be done, they would have to rebuild, and refocus on a new mission.
It was time to step up and make a real difference to what was happening in the world.
Armitage was gone, but he felt she was still alive, still out there, still an agent of her master’s will. Without her cold body as definitive proof, it would be foolish to assume she was dead, but it was Crane who was the architect behind her actions. It was Crane who had ordered the murder of his parents. It was Crane who had to be destroyed. With Kain’s secret collusion with the vampires exposed, it was time to take the battle to the Vampire Dominion.
Anton observed quietly, “We must cut off the head of the snake.”
“Amen to that,” Peter responded.
The ocean’s endless darkness drank in their quiet words, a mute answer to the crystal purity of their shared purpose.
Anton stared out into the night and considered his visions. He had thought to discuss them with Juliette, she’d asked him to do exactly that after the vision of Peter’s death, but now she was dead that conversation was never going to happen.
It probably didn’t matter, there were too many real world things to do. They didn’t seem to be causing any harm and might even be helpful, hadn’t the vision today indicated the importance of saving Peter?
Anton decided to remain silent on the topic of visions. There was no need to tell Li or anyone else, after all, there were friends to keep safe and vampires to kill.
And that was enough for any man to deal with.
* * *
Chloe was the sole occupant of the cabin of her Spike 512 supersonic business jet. It was half-past ten at night, the flight was more than fifty thousand feet above sea level over the mid-Atlantic.
The pilot and co-pilot, her surviving retainers, had stayed at the airport during the day. As humans, and mistakenly deemed innocents, they’d been left alone by the UK force team when they’d investigated the hangars that morning.
Her mind turned to recent events.
Juliette Mirovar had nearly claimed her life with her silver dagger.
Chloe had leaped far enough out from the cliff to miss the rocks - just barely. She’d been underwater for nearly thirty minutes and swept out into the North Sea. The silver-induced catalepsy had reduced her metabolism to a level that had ironically saved her from drowning.
With the dagger removed, she’d revived in time and swam back to shore. Coming out on a beach a couple of miles north of Whitby. She’d run back through the night at speed, making for her private airport outside Goathland.
Now onboard her flight, showered, and wearing an elegant silk dressing gown, she relaxed in her favorite chair with a glass of chilled Krug champagne. She studied the high-def screen in front of her, it displayed recorded feeds from the Gossamer chamber at her manor house.
Li had died as planned, and Anton had killed Marcus in a frenzy of violence.
He had a talent, just like his grandfather. A capacity for an enhanced burst of speed, much like her supreme ramp. He was becoming the weapon she needed to defeat Crane, although he did seem to be quite berserk when he went off on a rampage.
She’d watched the footage of the death of Marcus three times, from different angles. Anton had moved so fast; he’d penetrated inside Marcus’ defense before he could move. It was quite stunning, and then using the Blue Dragon like it was a dagger - she pursed her lips, What was in control when that was happening?
Chloe tilted her head slightly, Talents - there’s always one or two quirks in there.
She took another sip of champagne; it really was excellent and the perfect ending to a difficult two days. She could visualize Crane and Anton in combat, it would be a bloody mess, but there was no certainty that Crane would win. She looked absently at the bubbles rising in her glass and decided that Anton was indeed the ‘one,’ to kill Crane for her. He’d proven it tonight when he’d killed Marcus.
Marcus - she would miss him, but omelets, broken eggs and all that.
Anton would one day free her, an act that would usher in an entirely new world.
She took a deep breath and sighed, Mechanics.
The Raven was still in place, an essential link into the Mirovar force team. Their information on the rendezvous point proved they were still working to her advantage.
But still, there was a question over them, would they remain loyal? She determined to test the Raven soon, to ensure they were still committed to their mission. Upon reflection, it had become clear the Raven had not gone to the rendezvous site and must be either Peter Lamb or Chiara Romano.
Her thoughts turned to her destination, and Cornelius Crane.
Crane was a terror in combat, faster and stronger than any other vampire, except herself - if she used her supreme ramp she was faster, stronger, harder, but Crane knew nothing of her power, and she couldn’t use it due to Allemande’s curse.
The source of Crane’s powers was a mystery, he’d hinted it was due to his great age, being nearly a thousand years old, but Chloe suspected it was something else. Crane was a man who kept his own secrets.
She finished watching the recordings and wiped the data, the images preserved forever in her eidetic memory. There was one last thing to do to complete the evidence for the story she would tell Crane. She set her screen to a sole camera feed at the entrance gate to her manor house. The camera swiveled around to face the manor.
She ran a command on her smartphone. Less than a second later, the manor house silently disappeared in a fountain of fire, dust, flying masonry and billowing clouds of smoke.
Chloe sipped her champagne, she would tell Crane a tale about being targeted by Red Empire assassins, the bombing of her ancestral home, the battle with the UK Order team, how Marcus had bravely fought them to the death. How the encounters of the UK Shadowstone squadron with the Mirovar force team had produced Order losses, including Ramin Kain, his head of staff, Samuel Luther, the warrior Yvette Mirovar and the loremasters Juliette Mirovar and Joan Lewis.
While a high price had been paid, the events of today had eliminated the Order in the United Kingdom, diminished their force of loremasters and seriously weakened the Mirovar force team, a result that could easily be deemed a victory for the Vampire Dominion.
The smoke cleared from the screen, the light intensifiers on the camera feed revealed a great gouge in the ground, like a giant’s hand had reached down and scooped the manor house, the dungeons underneath, and half the cliff away and deposited it into the North Sea.
Chloe drank the last of her glass of Krug, savoring the exquisite and refined flavors. She put down the glass and declared softly to the empty cabin, “The past must die so the future may live.”
It seemed apropos.
Chloe spent the rest of her flight reviewing her plans. The Order would hold a conclave that she must disrupt to cement her position with Crane. There were new allies to recruit to her cause, members of an ancient predator species whose powers would be extremely useful in the coming war.
For war would come, and it would be preceded by chaos.
She would have her liberty, and she would bring a new order to the world, one that reflected the truth of how the world really worked.
She would make deception obsolete.
It was her destiny.
* * *
Standard operating procedure for the Red Empire when building a camera sensor network was to build in a secret pathway through it.
After breaking contact with the Order force team, Tamsah al Ramil had left the manor house using the pathway he’d built himself. He expected Armitage would scan the camera feeds, and his exit from the manor house would not be recorded. She would be left with the belief he’d remained in the manor house.
He’d seen the explosion on the horizon far to the south, she would think he was now dead, his body consumed in the destruction of her original home.
He felt betrayed, he and his fist team had been sold to the vampires for no discernible gain. It was against the precepts of the Way of the Faithful. It was wrong in so many ways, and there must be an accounting for the Red Ghost’s actions.
If necessary, Tamsah vowed that he would be the agent of a terrifying and remorseless retribution, the Way could not be denied - there would be justice, or there would be death - there were no other options.
He passed through a stand of trees, dark shadows illumined in silvery starlight. He was tracking a fishing trawler north along the coast, the ship visible a mile offshore. He moved through the darkness like a shadow, easily keeping pace with his quarry. He would have to find shelter soon, for the sun would rise in a couple of hours, but he would pick up the trail again come nightfall.
There was a girl onboard the trawler, a young woman of extraordinary skills. She interested him, there was something about her that resonated within himself. She was a key of sorts, a key to his own strange fate. There were powers swirling around her and her friends, and he planned to find out who those powers were, and if appropriate, he would thwart them.
She’d spoken truth to him, and he’d felt deeply ashamed, and it seemed a lifetime had passed since that last happened.
He’d done nothing wrong. He’d acted with honor at all times, and yet, he was now a vampire. The only answer was that a power beyond his understanding was moving through his life. There must be a greater purpose behind what was happening. The only thing he had left was his faith in the Way, and it would be his sole guiding light.
It would have to be enough.
Tamsah al Ramil, the Sand Crocodile, initiate of the second level of the test of the Olgoi Khorkhoi and Red Empire fist team leader vowed to bring justice to the world.
He smiled slightly, he now had two guides, faith, and justice. Since honor was now denied to him, they would fill him up.
He would be their willing and terrible servant, for none could stand before the might of faith and justice together.
He stared out at the trawler, the truth speaker would have to be protected, her fate was his fate. There was something there, something beyond definition or knowledge, a calling beyond oaths or allegiance.
As the Way proposed, in the end, there was only ‘the truth,’ and those who were shameless before the truth would be honored above all others. Her words had cut him more deeply than any sword could have done. She’d awakened a fire within him that once lit, could not be extinguished. There were those like the Red Ghost who had lost the ‘Way,’ and would need to be corrected, but the truth speaker was someone else, she was something else.
If need be, Tamsah would protect her with his life.
The End
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A Subtle Agency Omnibus on Amazon.com
The story will continue with the next instalment of The Metaframe War.
The Day Guard on Amazon.com
The Day Guard
IT'S A HOT WAR.
Cornelius Crane, King of the Vampire Dominion has his eyes fixed on the final destruction of the Mirovar force team and Anton Slayne.
The Day Guard is ready. Crane’s new super-soldiers can fight the Ramp masters of the Order of Thoth and the Red Empire during daylight.
The Order of Thoth has called a secret conclave to decide who will lead. The faceless men who run the Order will stop at nothing to ensure Francis Mirovar does not become the next Head of the Order
Rogue vampire general, Chloe Armitage, seeks a new alliance with an ancient foe. A terrible power Anton Slayne has never seen before.
Will the Day Guard tip the balance of power in favor of Cornelius Crane? Will the faceless men of the Order secure their grip on power? Will Chloe Armitage advance her enigmatic cause?
Will Anton Slayne and his friends prevail, or will the last true hope of humanity versus the vampires be extinguished forever?
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Writing The Metaframe War Series
You will find details on the concepts used in the stories of The Metaframe War, my reflections on the craft of writing, snippets of draft text from upcoming books, and news of new releases. You can also use Goodreads to connect with me and ask me questions about my books and writing.
Graeme Rodaughan, A Subtle Agency Omnibus
