Chapter 32
Jenks was tinkering with a submachine gun when we entered the armory. “You’re back already?” he said.
“It only took a few minutes,” I said. “I need to clean and store these,” I added, waving at my two pistols.
“The scattergun get used?” he asked as I cleared the rounds from the mag and chamber.
“No sir. Just the handguns. Three rounds each.”
He raised a brow, then nodded. “A quick wipe down and maybe a pull-through rope cleaning?”
“Yeah, that seems right,” I agreed. I fieldstripped both guns and gave them a quick cleaning, replaced the rounds in the mags, and put everything in their cases.
“We’re going to do a full debrief in little bit,” Vesta said to Jenks.
He nodded. “Omega texted me on my nano. Wouldn’t miss it.”
We all trooped back up together and arrived to find the debrief had moved to one of the bigger classrooms. Since it was January and dark at like five p.m., we had a full contingent of vampires.
The room now held a pretty large group. The STRT folks; both Velasquezes; the whole Reynolds-O’Carroll pack including Darci, Levi, and Ashling; Chris Gordon and Tatiana Demidova; Lydia; Nika; and Katrina.
Stewart and his anxious assistant were there, along with Cora and Wulf and our resident elf, Mal, and all four magic teachers.
“Excellent. We’re all here,” Omega said, popping into existence. “Agent Jensen, take it away.”
She looked better, all cleaned up, and her eye was less swollen, her foot in one of those boot things used after foot operations. She faced the group and leaned against a small table.
“I slipped into town after portalling just outside of the city limits. My plan was to visit a few of the local watering holes and mostly just listen. But quickly I was approached by locals who seemed interested in the fact that I was a woman. Your people are a bit aggressive around women, Craig.”
“More men than women. It’s a bit like Alaska and the Yukon used to be,” I said.
“Someone tried to slip a drug in my drink, but my internal nano systems detected it and stripped it out of my bloodstream. I pretended to feel the effects and two men hustled me outside. When it was clear they were just interested in rape, I broke their arms and knocked them out. After that, I tried a different section of the city where I just drank and listened until I overheard three men talking in a bar booth about yellowcake. It was quickly clear they meant yellowcake uranium and not the birthday kind. Two of them left and I followed them as they walked across town to a block of commercial offices. They knocked at a door that looked closed for the night but were admitted after exchanging a coded phrase. I reconned the building and found my way in via a second-story window. No one seems to lock those,” she said, looking at me.
“Falling from a second story is too big a risk for most burglars,” I said. “It’s considered a form of natural selection on Greenacres.”
“That would have been useful to know,” she said ruefully.
“The room I found myself in was rigged as a trap specifically for me, with steel shutters and a gas dispenser. That’s when I pinged my emergency signal.
The gas overwhelmed my internal systems and I slipped unconscious.
When I came to, I was in the basement of another building.
The men there had stripped me of weapons and, seeing me awake, they proceeded to question me.
Heavily. That’s when my foot was broken.
Suddenly, a woman came in… your mother, Craig.
“Actually, at this point, let’s just have Omega play the recording my nano system made.”
The giant wall monitor came to life and showed a rapidly shifting view with quick blank spots when her eyes blinked. Or I should say eye, as it was just the unswollen one that was seeing anything. The image swung slightly, as she was dangling from the ceiling.
A woman’s voice was dressing down the men and I instantly recognized it, having been on the other end of such a lecture many times.
“I told you not to harm her. How hard is that to understand?” my mother asked the obvious leader. She was dressed in dark work clothes and a green field jacket, but she looked healthy and fully herself—and alive.
“We don’t answer to you, woman,” he spat back at her.
“Richard told you to do as I say. But you know what, the damage is done and it’s on you. Your mistake. You know how Greenacres rewards mistakes, right?”
“Step off woman or you’ll…” the man started to say but suddenly a black drone shaped like a giant sunflower seed lifted out from behind my mother. The tip of the drone glowed with a sickly green light that promised something toxic and deadly.
“Fah, I waste my breath,” Da-Ni Blackmore said, turning her back on the men who were watching the drone like it was a full pack of axeheads.
“I am truly sorry for this, Caeco Jensen. You were supposed to be bound, not beaten, but don’t worry; it’ll be over soon.”
My mother dropped down and the view tilted downward to find her studying Caeco’s broken foot. Instantly, my mother opened her shoulder bag and pulled out a plastic baggie of premixed mud. “This should reduce the pain and swelling and help your clever nanos begin the repair.”
“You’re not going to kill me?”
“Goddess no,” Mom said. “I expect your rescue will be here very shortly, as your signal was cleanly sent, no?”
Caeco didn’t answer and my mom looked up, surprise blooming across her face. “Oh, you don’t think he’s coming?” she asked, then smiled. “You clearly don’t know my Craig well. And you don’t trust him, which is why you are here alone. As we guessed.”
“You planned this?”
“We did. You are here to carry a message for me. Not to be beaten,” Mom said, then glanced at the armed men who were glaring at her.
Mom is tiny and these guys had clearly lived a long time on the planet based on their heavy muscle mass, but Mom didn’t look even slightly cowed. “They’ll get theirs shortly.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean my boy is coming. He will sense them, he will sense your condition, and he will therefore kill every one of them.”
“You programmed him to kill,” Caeco accused.
“About the same amount your own mother programmed you,” Mom said. “I did everything I could to prepare my son to face any threat and to overcome it. And he has, hasn’t he? Eight vampires, was it?”
“Your intelligence is good.”
Mom snorted. “It’s far better than good, Caeco Jensen. I saw you when I was at Arcane… as a student. You would come by often to consult with Declan or Ashling. You were my inspiration, you know.”
The dark alien drone drifted over to Mom, and she glanced at it suddenly. “Ah, time grows short. I trust your systems will be able record my message to my son.”
Caeco must have nodded, as the image moved up and down. Mom focused and it was clear she was no longer talking to Caeco, just looking at her eye like a camera.
“My sweet gangaji,” she began. She pronounced the word gang-ah-jee.
“You are no doubt angry, hurt, betrayed, and confused. How could I do this to you? How could I leave you? The answer is how could I not? How could I not prepare my child for worlds where people can shift into killing machines or drink your blood against your will? Where witches stronger than me can blast you with fire, choke you with water, pull the air from your lungs, or pull you underground? Craig-a, you are my life. You always have been; you always will be. I had hard choices to make. Choices that kept you safe and alive. I am not sorry for doing so. And despite the hurt and betrayal you feel, you are safe, on Earth, and learning more than I can teach you. You are safe because of your abilities and your training. And you have found love, no? A more perfect partner, I could have never envisioned for you. Hello, Vesta Maeve. Treasure my gift to Earth.”
The drone beeped and Mom grimaced. “You are almost here. I have to leave, as we are not ready to meet yet, but I promise we will. I love you, Wangjanim.” It came out as Wahng-jahn-neem.
She turned and left without a word to the men, without a glance in their direction. The alien drone followed her and the men immediately relaxed.
“Line up. That stupid shit will be here soon. Shenn wants him dead,” the leader said.
Caeco’s head dropped and a view of the floor filled the screen.
A few moments later, she lifted it at the sound of wood scraping.
A cylindrical object flew into the room, and the leader started to yell grenade but a burst of noise like machine gun fire filled the air and blood sprayed and then all six men fell to the ground and I was standing there looking at her.
The recording stopped.
The room was silent.
“Okay, so we are behind the eight ball on this one,” Alex Gordon finally said.
“Well behind the eight ball,” his grandson agreed. “She knows everything that happens here.”
“She knew I was coming—alone—and she knew when and what my emergency signal was and knew my backup was Craig.”
“Was that one un-erased photo we found a plant?” Lydia asked.
“That seems likely,” Omega answered.
“Craig, what were those words she called you?” Gina asked.
I was slow to respond, and the answer arrived from an unexpected source. Jenks.
“Wahng-jahn-neem means my prince or our prince,” he said. “Gang-ah-jee is puppy. Common terms of endearment used by Korean mothers.”
“They knew about Vesta, but they apparently hadn’t predicted that she and Craig would be together, because she showed some surprise,” Lydia said.
“Is that important?” Katrina asked.
“It shows a gap in their ability to predict,” Lydia said. “But I’m interested in the split between Craig’s mom and the Golf Alpha organization. Correct me if I’m wrong, Omega, but that drone was the Adversary, right?”
“Correct.”
“So Da-Ni is working with the Adversary and somewhat allied with Richard Shenn’s group, but not super tight, based on the fact that she knew Craig would obliterate those men holding Agent Jensen,” Lydia summarized.
“And Yoon Da-Ni has a source or sources of intelligence inside this facility,” Caeco added.
“Jenks, how did you know those Korean words?” Lydia asked.
“Because I served in Korea in another life. Also, full disclosure,” he said, looking uncomfortable, “I am Yoon Da-Ni’s biological father. I do not know if she knows that and I haven’t had any contact with her since her time here at Arcane.”
“Oh, now that is interesting,” Katrina said, eyeing Jenks with narrowed eyes.
“Nika can scan me,” Jenks said, looking pained.
Before anyone could say anything else, I suddenly felt a fast approaching and familiar intent.
“Incoming,” I said, turning toward the classroom door. The handle turned and Jacques Armond burst in.
“Where is my beloved?” he demanded.