Hard Magic (52 page)

“Sullivan, please, I beg you. Listen to me.”

He shoved the Fade off and ran for her, his heart leaping. Delilah stepped out of the shadows and—

She was dead . . .

It was obvious. He’d seen thousands of zombies during the Great War. The unnatural fire in her eyes, the way her skin hung loose over her face. She was dressed in a formless UBF coverall, but black blood had congealed all around the hole in her abdomen from the wound that had killed her.

Delilah stopped right in front of him. “I’m sorry,” she cried, her voice trembling. Her skin was pale white, but blotted with black and purple bruises.

He encircled her in his arms. “It’s not your fault,” he whispered. “It’s mine. Oh, God, forgive me. Please forgive me.” Now that he was close, he could smell her. Her body was already decaying. “I didn’t know. I never would have left.”

“Jake. I’m gone. Let go of me. Please, let go.”

He did so, uncomfortably stepping away. He wanted to die. “What . . . What . . .”

“The Lazarus magic got me. I died while it was still in effect. I think it was a fight between your magic and his, but his was stronger.” She raised one hand and stroked his cheek, fingers hard and dry. “Heinrich was going to mercy kill me, but I told him who better to go on a suicide mission than somebody who was already dead?”

“Shhh . . .” he pleaded. “I’ll find a way. There has to be a way to fix this. The Power—”

“No . . .” she answered. “You can’t understand the pain, Jake. I’m using my Power just to keep it in check enough not to go crazy, and when I run out . . .” she sighed. “I won’t turn into one of those mindless monsters, out of their gourd with pain. This is a one-way trip for me, baby. You have to let me do this.”

“I can’t.”

“You can, because you’re the strongest and best man I’ve ever met. Do this for me, Jake. Let me go. Be happy. Promise me you’ll go on and live a long happy life, have lots of kids, and die of old age.” She leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips, cold as ice.

He started to cry. “I can’t.”

“You can, and you will, because that’s my dying wish, you selfish bastard.” Her blackened lips cracked into a smile. She took his hand in hers, placed it on the center of her chest, where there was no heartbeat, and he died inside. “Now come on. I deserve to go out with a bang.”

Heinrich was waiting for them, his hat down low, covering his eyes. “This way,” he said softly.

***

Faye had jumped a hundred and fifty-two times in the last four minutes, she’d counted, and that damn ninja cow bitch had stayed with her every step of the way.

The two of them appeared at the very tip of the
Tokugawa
where the three balloons came together. Lightning crashed and rain pounded, as the other battleship loomed right overhead like a big black shadow. A single white biplane screamed past being chased by ten black ones, all shooting, and the white biplane exploded in a ball of fire. The old pirate ship had been shot so many times that most of its gas had leaked out, and it was gradually crashing into the side of the flagship. Her head map told her that men were dying all around her and a strange magic energy was building in the center of the ship, which could only be coming from the big, evil, magic superbomb.

Faye was gasping for breath. She’d lost her shotgun after using it to club a passing officer in the face, not that it mattered, since she’d gone through all her shells by that point. She’d been counting Travels, but she’d lost track of how many people she’d killed, shot, stabbed, maimed, pushed overboard, set on fire, or blown up. She was armed now with a meat cleaver that she’d picked up in the kitchen. It was still dripping blood from where she’d taken off a sailor’s hand.

Toshiko had dogged her the whole time. The ninja was panting almost as hard as Faye was. Her magic kanji were burning so hot that the rain hitting her instantly exploded into steam. Faye had shot at her, but she was always one step ahead. She’d pulled the pins out of grenades and dropped them, hoping that Toshiko would Travel right into them, but she’d been too smart for that, and would always Travel outside the blast zone.

The ninja raised her sword in a salute. “You are the finest Traveler I’ve ever known,” Toshiko said simply.

“And you’re still a big mean cow,” Faye answered, not that she was being honest. Cows were wonderful creatures. Imperium assassins, not so much. “Ugly and mean.”

“Surely, you’re almost out of magic by now?” Toshiko hissed. “I have direct lines to the Power, granted by the Chairman and his finest wizards. You have none. You cannot possibly outlast me.”

Faye checked. She still felt the same as ever. Physically, she was bushed, but magically, she was fine. “I’m just getting warmed up.”

“Let’s finish this, child, so I can get to killing your friends . . .” Toshiko had an evil smile. “That gives me an idea. Let’s see if you can keep up with me this time?”

NO!
Toshiko Traveled. Faye checked her head map.
There
.

The ninja was in the control room of the pirate ship. She yanked her sword out of the driver’s back in a spray of blood. The bald pirate captain was turning as she swung her sword at his face, but Faye crashed into her forearm. “No, you don’t!” Faye shouted in her ear. Toshiko grinned savagely as she Traveled out of Faye’s grasp.

Faye screamed as her clothing burst into flames. Some pirate woman had just set her on fire! “Not me, stupid!” she shrieked as she Traveled.

She caught Toshiko a short distance above, balancing on the slick top of the flaming pirate ship. The crashing rain dashed out the fire on her clothing. Her feet squished into the balloon fabric, once hard with gas, but now falling apart. They were about to hit the
Tokugawa
. Toshiko swung her sword, but Faye appeared behind her, trying to put the cleaver into her back. The two danced, steel swinging, both disappearing and reappearing so fast that Faye was only moving on unconscious instinct.

The ninja had been trained how to fight with a sword, and Faye hadn’t, and the steel drove through her calf. She screamed as she toppled, sliding down the edge of the balloon. Hydrogen fire was licking up to meet her. She had to outwit Toshiko somehow, something
crazy
. She Traveled as she entered the flames.

Faye hit the metal engine housing on all fours. The giant propeller was screaming only inches away, a huge black blur that would destroy her instantly. Maybe Toshiko’s head map wouldn’t be as accurate and—

The ninja appeared on the next engine over and waved. “
Damn it!
” Faye screamed in frustration. Toshiko mouthed something, but she couldn’t be heard over the roar of the propeller, but she just knew that she was going to go kill some of her friends. The Shadow Guard disappeared, but Faye was right behind her.

Lance was on the deck, hunkered down behind one corner, rainwater pouring off the edges of his big hat as he fired his Winchester at the approaching Imperium troops. Francis was off to the other side, smoothly working the bolt of his Enfield. “Look out!”Faye screamed.

But where was—and then she gasped as the sword hit her square in the small of the back. Faye rolled forward through the water. Toshiko stood over her, blade gleaming overhead, and the ninja was triumphant, knowing that she’d just struck a lethal blow.

“Faye!” Lance shouted, but Faye was already Traveling. She folded space and fell through, landing on her face in a puddle of water on top of the
Tempest,
only a few feet from where she’d taken her oath. Toshiko appeared, gloating. “You can’t run when you can’t feel your legs. I
felt
my wakizashi bite the bone . . . Pity. I have no doubt that if you were with us, you’d be the First amongst the Shadow Guard.”

Faye was coughing, lying on her back. She reached around behind her and found the little Iver Johnson .32, her faithful little companion that she’d bought in Merced for ten dollars, the same amount of money that Grandpa had bought her for. The mighty sword blow had nearly cut it in half. Once again, her life had been saved by ten bucks. “Oh, that wasn’t my spine, but you really messed up my gun.”

Toshiko finally lost it. She screamed in fury as Faye Traveled.

Faye appeared, falling in midair, right in front of the astonished Lance. “
Shoot me!
” Faye screamed.

To his credit, Lance Talon didn’t hesitate. He lifted the .351 Winchester and pulled the trigger.

Toshiko appeared behind her, still screaming, but according to the ninja’s map, the area had been clear, safe, and a tenth of a second before, it had been. Time seemed to slow to nothing as Faye’s head map recorded everything in the universe. The bullet traveled from the barrel, straight and true, and Faye only needed to fold space a tiny bit to get out of the way, and it was almost as if she could watch the bullet rotating as it passed through the air she’d inhabited, past Toshiko’s descending blade, and right into the Shadow Guard’s chest.

The bullet cleaved through her sternum, breaking and turning as it pulverized her heart, severed her spine, and flew out her back. The blood droplets and bone fragments seemed to hang suspended, intermingled between the raindrops, and then Faye reappeared off to the side. Time restarted. The ninja was looking at her, as if to say, how the hell had
that
happened, but then the lights went out. Lance hit Toshiko twice more as she fell, even though she was already dead.

“Told you so, cow . . .” Faye went to her knees, swooning from blood loss. She felt Francis’ strong hands on her, and the next thing she knew, she was in his arms, and he was carrying her away from the gunfire.

Chapter 25

I must tell you, Kermit, of these three particularly remarkable Heavies amongst the volunteers. They come from brave stock, as their father had been with me during the advance on Kettle Hill. Though all three are exceedingly similar physical specimens, these Sullivan brothers could not be of more disparate temperaments. One is a simpleton, with the gentle soul of a child, yet a more diligent soldier you could not ask for. One is a killer of men, a force of calculated belligerence, I fear he is only obedient to his officers because a discharge would jeopardize his opportunity to murder more Huns. The last is a thoughtful young man, the quietest of the three. He shows great promise as a leader. Never before, in all my years of campaigning, have I come across such stalwart troops. I tell you, son, the three are a terror to behold in battle, and if I had a thousand more Sullivans, this war would already be won.

—General Theodore Roosevelt,

personal correspondence posted

before second battle of the Somme,
1918

Imperium flagship
Tokugawa

Madi was waiting
at the end of the twenty-foot-wide catwalk. He had been joined by two other Iron Guards: the wretched Lazarus, Hiroyasu, and the stalwart Nobunaga, a Brute who was also the Chairman’s champion sumo wrestler. Sumo was another weird Jap obsession that Madi had never gotten into. He found the whole thing kind of queer, with men pushing and slapping on each other in loincloths, but Nobunaga had been a tough guy before he’d picked up half a dozen kanji to increase his already formidable strength and vitality. Behind the three Iron Guards was the engineering section’s Torch and twenty of the strongest Marines on board.

Of course, it was his brother that appeared at the far end of the catwalk first. Jake looked a little scary in the red light, the foreign invader surrounded by the giant heaving bags of gas, and for just a moment, it was like the bags were lungs and the
Tokugawa
was a great living creature. Jake was the disease infecting it and he was the cure.

“Maybe I
should
start writing poetry,” Madi said.

“Huh?” Nobunaga grunted.

“Nothing . . .” Beneath the catwalk was a two-hundred-foot drop to the armored section that separated the two top hulls from the bottom one. There were a few ladders that went all the way down, but he had a feeling that anybody who went over this rail in the next few minutes wouldn’t be taking a ladder. “Hiroyasu, fall back and animate the marines as they die. Marines, stay behind cover and use your rifles. Choose your shots carefully. Do not let anyone through. Protect the Torch. We don’t want a fire in here. Nobunaga, on me.”

Jake just stood there in the center of the doorway a hundred yards away, watching.

“Come and get me, Jake . . .” Madi whispered. The Geo-Tel had already been activated, and the Power was gathering, but his brother would be dead long before it fired, and he’d make sure this time.

A short, balding, pudgy, bespectacled man joined his brother in the doorway. The man scowled, as if sizing up the engineering section’s defenses. Madi recognized him. In fact, he’d even shot him recently. Damn Grimnoir vermin, they were harder to get rid of than cockroaches. The man cracked his knuckles. He’d been a little woozy from all the hits he’d taken at Mar Pacifica . . . What had that lump’s Power been?