Shadow Ops 3: Breach Zone (35 page)

‘Most of you know who I am,’ Britton began, ‘but in case you don’t, I’m Oscar Britton. I am the so-called Selfer fugitive who helped save FOB Frontier. There’s a lot of people out there who have staunchly supported me, and I’m deeply humbled by that.

‘And now I want to call on that support. Most of you also know that this country is experiencing the biggest threat to its existence since its founding. A powerful army of monsters is in our midst, and I won’t lie to you, it’s got a real shot of doing some serious damage.

‘The leader of this army has put out a call to all Latent people to help her. From what I can see here in New York, some of you have already answered that call. That’s a mistake.

‘She talks a lot about freedom and being part of some master race of magical beings that rules over humanity. She’s brought up the fact that she’s Latent as if it gives her some kind of moral authority. She throws in some gripes about the government’s treating her badly. Well, I’m Latent, too, and I’ve got as much of a beef with the government as anyone.

‘Scylla has talked a lot about Latent people “no longer being dogs for weaker beings”. I don’t see non-Latent people as weaker than me. I don’t even see them as being all that different. Science is just beginning to wrap its head around magic and how it works, but I already understand it well enough to know that there’s something about my limbic system that allows me to channel it. That makes me powerful, but it doesn’t mean I’m not human, and it sure as hell doesn’t mean that this isn’t my home.

‘I know Scylla. I’ve watched her butcher hundreds of people. She’s only interested in replacing the tyranny she rails against with one of her own. You’ll see if you answer her call. You won’t be fighting alongside other human Selfers. You’ll form less than one percent of an army of monsters straight out of your worst nightmares. I’ve fought these so-called Mountain Gods, and they’re not pretty, or nice, and they sure as hell don’t care about the future of humanity. If they win this fight, do you think they’ll simply say, “Hey! Thanks for the help, we’ll just go back to where we came from now!” They’ll stay, and I don’t want to find out what the world they’d build here looks like.

‘Scylla’s partially right. The government has done Latent people wrong, and it needs to change the laws. But we have to do it
right
. Blowing up the biggest city in the country isn’t the way.

‘It’s slower and it’s more complicated and it’s frustrating as hell, but there’s a
right
way to fix this. We need to amend the McGauer-Linden Act. I am standing here with Lieutenant Colonel Jan Thorsson and Brigadier General Alan Bookbinder of the Supernatural Operations Corps. Most of you know who they are, and that they were willing to defy their government rather than allow it to do wrong by you.

‘Scylla has promised you a kingdom apart from humanity. That’s bullshit. She is human, as are we all, and we don’t need to live apart from anyone.

‘Here’s my counteroffer. Help us to beat her. The SOC promises to convene a special committee to review the McGauer-Linden Act with a mind toward allowing Latent persons who prove control over their abilities to live as free citizens: not in the SOC, not in the NIH monitoring program, not in the Marine Corps Suppression program. Their own magic at their own disposal. Private citizens, equal under the law.’

There was, of course, no guarantee that the president would accede to these demands. No promise that a defeat of Scylla wouldn’t instantly devolve into a civil war as Selfers demanded rights the government had never agreed to give them.

‘We’re with Scylla on this much: Limbic Dampener will be subsidized, mass-produced, and distributed. Control over magic will not be held hostage to the profits of the Entertech Corporation. All will have access, especially the newly Manifested.

‘This process will be slow, there will be hurdles. It will be frustrating, but the alternative is what you see here and in Mescalero. I don’t want to live in those ruins. That’s why I’m for the slower road, the longer road, the
right
road.

‘I’m here to fight against Scylla and what she stands for. I am Latent, and I’m human, like all of you. I am fighting for humanity, and I ask you to join me. After the victory here, we will start on the road toward freedom, equality, and peace for all of us. They called us Selfers because they thought we used magic only for ourselves. In New York, let’s use our magic for others. Join me. Push back this threat. Save this city. Together, we’ll forge a new world of magic with room for all.’

Ben waited another moment before stopping the camera. They waited in silence as he opened a smartphone and began tapping away at the screen. ‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘You’re live.’

‘How can you be sure that . . .’ Harlequin began, but the news channels on the monitors were already showing him and Bookbinder standing to either side of Oscar Britton with the words
BREAKING NEWS
scrolling beneath. On the major networks in an instant.

‘Thank you,’ Harlequin said.

Ben shrugged. ‘Thank you. I truly hope you beat this thing, and I truly hope the government does right by its Latent citizens.’

They’d promised Ben he could stay in the park and film, and he headed out of the ready room to start gathering footage. The three men stood in silence, thinking on the gravity of what they’d just done.

‘Think it’ll work?’ Harlequin asked.

‘Probably not,’ Britton answered. ‘I believed every word, and it still sounds like crap to me.’

Harlequin shrugged. ‘They impeached Walsh. Hopefully, that was a step in the right direction.’

‘I think seeing you and General Bookbinder in the picture will help,’ Britton said. ‘A star carries a lot of authority.’

Bookbinder snorted. ‘Porter might take to the airwaves any second and deny all of it.’

‘I don’t think he will,’ Harlequin mused. ‘We’re overwhelmed and losing ground here, and he knows it. He doesn’t want a disaster on his hands any more than we do. He can’t truck with Selfers or he publicly goes against his whole line. He’ll wait to see if we’re successful, make his call based on that.’

‘Gatanas didn’t tell us no,’ Bookbinder said.

‘An old mentor of mine once told me “that which is not specifically prohibited is authorized”.’ He wondered where Crucible was in this fight. The SOC was entirely on two fronts now, so if his old friend wasn’t here in New York, then he was neck deep in Mescalero.

‘So,’ Britton said slowly, ‘let’s say this doesn’t work, let’s say that the Selfers stick with Scylla. What happens then?’

‘Then?’ Harlequin sighed. ‘Then they take New York. Then, we lose.’

Interlude Nine

Beyond The Pale

Due to the critical security concerns surrounding the development of Limbic Dampener, the court has elected neither to liquidate Channel Corporation nor to solicit for proposals from the contracting community. As the government lacks the expertise in the federal workforce, we have selected the Entertech Corporation to take over where Channel left off after the unfortunate Manifestation and arrest of their CEO. Entertech has ably served the United States on arcane matters since its founding, and remains the only private entity in the country equipped to handle the unique technical, logistical, and security requirements of this crucial program.

– Cameron Williams Attorney,
Office of the Secretary of Defense

Six Years Earlier

H
arlequin came to as Crucible dragged him upright, slapping drywall fragments from his shoulders. He blinked in the settling dust, staring in wonder at the pile of wood, wire, and metal that had formed a natural cave. He blinked again. Sunlight. The dust swirled out of what was now an open porch, spiraling as the breeze took it. The Channel building looked as if a bite had been taken out of its apex, left completely open to the sky.

‘I’ve got her, sir,’ Rampart was saying, crawling out to join them. They’d been spared the worst of the debris. A huge chunk of masonry had crushed Grace’s desk, followed by a double-thick sheet of drywall, serving as an impromptu lean-to, sheltering the four of them.

‘You’ve got her?’ Harlequin couldn’t keep the relief out of his voice. ‘She’s alive?’ He felt for her current and found it, faint, but present, raced to the pile of debris covering her, digging frantically, heedless of his bare hands.

‘Everybody okay?’ Crucible shouted.

‘He’s not,’ Rampart said, kneeling beside Hicks and checking his vitals. ‘Breathing, but out cold.’

‘I’ve got her Suppression. Get him out of here and get him to an ambulance,’ Crucible said. ‘They shouldn’t be in short supply.’

Harlequin saw his point. He could hear the sirens echoing up to them already. He spared a glance down as he worked. Much of the building was scarred where the tumbling chunk of the building’s canopy had struck it, windows shattered, walls torn out, offices left exposed to the gusting wind. Harlequin saw blood streaking the destruction and turned back to his digging. There would be innocent dead. He didn’t want to think of what had happened on the busy street below when the piece of the building came crashing down.

He heard Rampart grunt as he lifted Hicks’s unconscious body and carried him to the stairwell. Harlequin kept digging.

At last he found a pale arm. He grasped the wrist and felt a faint pulse. Relief flooded him, and he had lifted her hand half-way to his lips before he stopped himself. He went back to digging as Crucible joined him, finally exposing her torso, coated in dust, the jagged splinters of a shattered girder protruding from one arm. ‘She’ll feel that when she wakes up,’ Crucible said. ‘She got the worst of it. Might be something broken farther down. Better not to move her.’

Harlequin tried to sound neutral. ‘What’ll happen to her?’

Crucible looked up at him. ‘What’ll happen to all those people down in the street? Crushed under half a building because some fucking Probe couldn’t be bothered to do the right thing?’

This is my fault. Every casualty down there is on my head.

Harlequin grappled with that guilt as his boss stood, emotions warring on his face. At last, he blinked hard, put his hands on his hips, and surveyed the damage. ‘What a fucking mess.’

The wind whistled in Harlequin’s ears, the bright sunlight revealing New York’s cityscape in all its glory. At this height, with the dust clearing, it might have even been a beautiful view. Provided you didn’t look down.

Crucible’s voice was gentler as he looked back to Harlequin. ‘We’re not going to kill her, Jan. There’s a place we take Selfers, Probes especially. I guess it’s time you saw it.’

Harlequin barely heard him beyond what he needed to know, that Grace would live. He stared at her face, eyes closed, lips slightly parted, not so different from how she’d looked as she lay beside him on their last night together.

‘Hicks told me some nasty bullshit, Jan,’ Crucible said. ‘Said you knew about her. Said you knew what she was hiding.’

Harlequin’s mouth went dry. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘Told him I’d break his jaw if he spouted any more crap like that. Can’t imagine this would have gone different if you tried to bring her down yourself. This is what Selfers do, they . . . break things.’

Harlequin felt weak, whether from guilt or relief, he couldn’t tell. Probably both. ‘Thank you.’

‘Love can make you do strange things,’ Crucible said. ‘Emotions are unreliable. That’s why we stick to regs, Jan. I never liked that whole sheepdog bullshit you were spouting when we first came here, but it got me thinking. You were right about one thing. There’s a difference between Selfer and Sorcerer, and it’s a line that can’t be left to the vagaries of human emotion. It has to be crystal clear. There’s one thing, and you either get it or you don’t.’

Standing in the swirling dust of the collapsed building, hearing the tramping of boots heralding the approach of police, or SOC, or EMTs, staring down at Grace’s face, Harlequin couldn’t focus. ‘I’m sorry, sir. I don’t remember.’

‘Really? You’re the one who told me.’

Harlequin shook his head.

‘Regs, Jan. It’s regs. We follow them, Selfers don’t. That’s the difference.’

And it was.

Jan Thorsson stood in the wreckage, fingers holding Grace’s wrist, straining to catch her fluttering pulse, the screams and wailing sirens drifting up to him from the street, the short pops of sparking wires.

It was the sound of what happened when you thought you knew better than the people who wrote the rulebooks.

It was the sound of consequences.

Chapter Twenty

Try The Bad Guys

When you weaponize magic, the ability to Draw and Bind is only one piece of the puzzle, maybe even the smallest piece. A helicopter pilot once told me that flying is like ‘driving, checking your e-mail, and dancing all at the same time’. Mission-focused magic use is the same thing. Effective Pyromancers who don’t know how to aim are about as useful as Aeromancers who don’t know how to fly. Just because your daddy gives you a new Ferrari doesn’t mean you automatically know how to drive it.

– Chief Warrant Officer-4 Albert Fitzsimmons, Inputs (stricken) to quarterly report on the progress of the Shadow Coven (C4-Umbra) program

With the barricades breached, Scylla turned her army north, and the pressure on Battery Park subsided.

Bookbinder worked around the clock, ensorcelling the ammunition arriving from Fort Dix and Hamilton, overseeing the soldiers who then packed it into helos that took to the sky to distribute it among the units desperately trying to corral the breakthrough.

Harlequin had been looking nervously to the south ever since he heard how Bookbinder had been delayed, until the news reported that the navy’s Fourth Fleet had surrounded the Breach in the water. Anything coming out of it would do so under their guns.

‘We have to do the same,’ Harlequin said to Bookbinder, as they rested inside Castle Clinton. ‘They think we’re out of the fight. We need to get them looking at us again, threaten the Breach. It’s the one point through which Scylla receives supply. We put that at risk, and we force her to turn her attention to us.’

‘Outside the walls of this compound?’ Bookbinder asked. ‘We won’t last long.’

‘We’ve got Britton now. You helped us get an army on the hop last time, Oscar. Can’t we do it again? What about your goblin buddies in the Source?’

Britton pursed his lips. ‘They’re still getting back on their feet after saving our asses at FOB Frontier, and they only got into the fight after we’d disengaged. A raging battlefield with goblins fighting goblins? The friendly fire would be insane. Plus, we’re fighting against other humans now. The Mattab On Sorrah have religious dictates that would have to be reconciled. It would be complicated. It would take time.’

‘We don’t have time,’ Bookbinder said.

‘Truelove’ – Britton’s brow wrinkled – ‘I doubt he’ll help, but I can ask.’

Harlequin’s face lit. ‘We were wondering what happened to him.’

Britton’s expression set. ‘I can contact him, that’s all. He’s . . . not favorably inclined toward the SOC at the moment.’

‘Neither was Downer,’ Harlequin said. ‘Give me a chance to talk to him. We can offer him the same deal that we’re offering . . .’

‘Downer already talked to him. I think she . . . put some cracks in his defenses. I can work that angle.’

Harlequin was about to respond when a sergeant came bursting into the room, out of breath. ‘Sir! There’s an Aeromancer flying around out over the water. He keeps shouting that we shouldn’t shoot him, and he wants to talk to you.’

Harlequin rushed out of the exit, Bookbinder and Britton behind him. He raced past the guards and jumped airborne, rising up and over Castle Clinton, shading his eyes and looking south.

In the distance, a Blackhawk hovered, its guns broadside at a floating man, gesturing wildly at the crew. As Harlequin watched, the Aeromancer began to descend slowly toward the shoreline while the helo hovered behind him, keeping its mini-gun trained on his back. Soldiers crowded beneath him, guns aimed skyward.

As the man came into view, recognition bloomed in Harlequin’s mind. He hung back, descended until he stood beside Britton and Bookbinder.

The Aeromancer saw him, of course. Harlequin felt the pulse in his current, saw the flicker of dark anger in his eyes, but he swallowed it and faced Britton squarely, breaking into a smile. Bookbinder recognized him as well and waved the soldiers back, though they only moved a few steps, guns trained on Swift.
They’re going to have to get over this,
Harlequin thought.
Our only chance is to work with Selfers.

‘Howdy,’ Swift said.

‘Took you long enough,’ Britton said. ‘I was worried about you.’

‘You worry too much,’ Swift said. ‘That was quite a speech you made. Any of it true?’

‘Every word,’ Britton said.

‘Yeah, I figured. You were always a pompous dick but never a liar. Might be why you’ve got so many die-hard fans in the Houston Street Gang.’

Harlequin swallowed his excitement.

Swift’s face went pensive. ‘I’m here because we know each other, and for all the help you’ve given us, but I still have to answer to the rest of them. Even after all that happened, some of the gang are still just barely off the fence. Luckily, they’re outnumbered by your cheering section. You were the first to bring this thing public. After both Gate-Gates, when people watch TV, when they go on the Internet to debate Latent rights and the McGauer-Linden Act, it’s your face they see. Hell, I know you. I was in a gulag with you. I’ve seen what a fuck-up you are firsthand, and I still get chills sometimes.’

Britton looked embarrassed. ‘So, that’s why you’re here? Because I’m on TV? Hell, Harlequin’s on TV all the time.’

Harlequin winced.
Don’t draw attention to me. He hates me.

Swift didn’t even look at Harlequin. ‘Yeah, well. I’m not a fan, but the gang feels that his most recent appearances have gone a ways to balance all the crap he stood for before. You know, I’d still rather see the guy dead’ – Swift raised his voice, making sure Harlequin could hear him – ‘but it’s like I said. We make decisions as a group, and the decision is that the gang wants in. We want the new world you promised. We’ll help you to get it. I was in the hole with Scylla. I remember what she’s all about. I don’t want to live with whatever she’s got planned.’

Britton grinned and clapped Swift’s shoulder. ‘That’s fantastic,’ he said, turning to Harlequin. ‘Is there an access point we can open to get them in here? Maybe we can have a helo . . .’

Swift cut him off. ‘You never were a good listener.’

The Aeromancer finally turned to Harlequin. ‘We want all the way in. Not just to the fight. To the committee meeting. To the legislative process. When the law gets rewritten, we have our hands on the pen.’

‘We’re out on a limb here,’ Bookbinder answered. ‘I can’t speak for what the president or his staff are going to . . .’

‘Well, we’ll just go, then,’ Swift said. ‘You fucking people need to learn when your back is against a wall, and you can’t negotiate anymore. I said that
I
know Scylla and
I’ve
seen what she’s about.
I
won’t join her. A few of us are of the same mind. But a lot of the others see her point. I’m sure when they hear that the president would rather take his time and dither over this, they’ll know he’s not for real. I thought you appreciated the precariousness of your position. I guess I was wrong.’

‘So you take Scylla’s bootheel off our necks and replace it with yours?’ Bookbinder asked.

‘Goddamn right!’ Swift said. ‘We’ve been putting up with yours on ours for years now! It’s about time you got a fucking taste! If clinging to the trappings of your power is more important to you than winning this fight, then be my guest. But a nation “of the people” actually has to be of the people, jackass. That means a place at the table.’

The rage rose. Harlequin felt his magical current surge and his muscles bunch.
Is he wrong? He’s here to help you! Why are you so angry?

The anger suddenly competed with shame.
Because you’re on the same side now. Because you’re no different.

Because now even you can’t tell the difference between the sheepdog and the wolf.

‘We’re not trying to overthrow the government here. That’s Scylla’s game. We’re just trying to force it to change. This is still America, Swift,’ Britton said. ‘That place at the table is for representatives designated by popular acclaim, not a power grab.’

‘Yeah, when it comes to Selfers, the Porter administration definitely has popular acclaim. Jesus, listen to yourself. What the hell do you think the SOC is but a giant power grab? It’s the few Latents who have agreed to do the bidding of the people most terrified of them. All we’re doing is trying to make sure our voices are heard.’

Bookbinder opened his mouth to reply, but Harlequin could stand it no longer.

If Swift is your partner, then he’s your partner.

‘How many are you?’ Harlequin cut Bookbinder off.

The anger in Swift’s voice was unmistakable, but he answered. ‘Twenty, maybe twenty-five if I twist a few arms.’

Harlequin looked at Bookbinder. ‘This whole argument won’t matter anyway unless we win.’

‘Could it tip the balance?’ Bookbinder finally asked.

‘Maybe,’ Harlequin said. As if on cue, a series of booms sounded far to the north, followed by sizzling cracks of summoned lightning. The soft whisper of distant screams reached him. Harlequin sighed, felt his shoulders slump. He was so damned tired. ‘Probably not.’

‘Maybe not,’ Swift said, ‘but we’re one of the most well-known gangs outside of Mescalero. If we stand with you, chances are it could turn a few heads. Maybe turn a few coats, too.’

Harlequin sagged, the exhaustion and the gravity of it finally sapping what little remained of his strength. They had come so far, and for what? He’d gotten Downer, gotten the training Covens, even gotten Bookbinder to produce magical ammunition. Now, at long last, Scylla played a trump card that he couldn’t hope to beat, turning the government’s own record of oppression against itself. Harlequin had faithfully served that system, and in doing so, maybe even helped to create the threat he was now called on to mitigate. And for what? He’d now gone on record calling on the state’s greatest enemies to join him. What future did he have even if he did manage to win this?
Self-indulgent. Cowardly. It’s not about you. You have people depending on you. Take care of them.

‘If you’re bringing twenty Selfers to the fight’ – Harlequin’s voice sounded as if it came from a long distance away – ‘then we’re going to need to turn a whole lot more coats. We need a serious contingent of magic-wielding troops. Quebec . . . All the good guys have been waved off by other good guys.’

‘Then we ask the bad guys,’ Swift said.

Harlequin looked up at him at that.
We already did that
, he thought. Better not to say it.

‘You’re already getting us.’ Swift was smiling now. ‘You need dyed-in-the-wool bad guys.’

Harlequin began to take his meaning. ‘Who is worse than you?’

‘In the eyes of the US? No one,’ Swift said. ‘But Mexico has its own prodigal sons.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Harlequin was too tired to play guessing games, even if it did antagonize his potential ally. ‘You mean the
Limpiados
?’

‘You know about them?’ Swift asked.

‘I . . . ran into them a day or two ago. They’re not interested.’

‘They’re not interested in
you
. They’re damn well interested in Oscar Britton. I talked to them back when I first got here, tried to see if we could find a common interest. They weren’t buying it then, but things have changed.’

‘Let me guess,’ Bookbinder said, ‘they’ll want a place at the table, too. A voice in the new policy.’

Swift shrugged again. ‘That’s the only thing you have on offer, General. But yes, they want to curry favor with the American government for the same reason any Selfer would, so they can step out of the shadows. They may live in a sewer, but they’re not stupid. If America’s policy moves, Mexico’s . . . heck, maybe the world’s, will follow.’

‘So you’re offering the assistance of a group of sewer-dwelling Selfers who work for the most notorious drug cartel in the world,’ Bookbinder concluded.

Swift nodded. ‘I’m offering you a chance to beat Scylla and save New York City. If you’ve got a better idea of where to get Latent troops, I’m all ears.’

Bookbinder sighed. ‘Whatever I promise you now, the government can overrule. We can publicize the hell out of your involvement, show Selfers and the US military working together, I can put in all the good words I’ve got, but that’s where it ends. This may finish up with everyone’s head on the chopping block, win or lose.’

‘Seems to be something of an Internet media campaign, though,’ Britton said. ‘We’ve created a fact on the ground by making them public. Administration’s had a tough time shaking that. Heck, not only are both of you still in uniform, you both got promoted.’

‘And put out to pasture,’ Bookbinder said.

Britton smirked. ‘I’m sorry, but you appear to be in charge of the most significant military engagement in the history of our nation. Wherever this so-called pasture is, I don’t think you’re in it.’

Harlequin surprised himself by laughing. Some of the exhaustion fell away. ‘Okay, let’s get the cameras back in here. We’ll do another speech, this time with Swift in it. That is, if you’re willing to make a public commitment?’

Swift nodded. ‘Two delegates. Myself and Guinevere. That or nothing. You insist on that when you get your meeting to reform the McGauer-Linden Act, and you hold the line if you don’t get it. We bleed together. We negotiate together. You try to break us off at the critical moment, and you’ll have a brand-new insurgency to deal with.’

‘Don’t threaten me,’ Bookbinder said, ‘I’ve acted in good faith since I came up Latent. If I say we’re honoring our commitments, then we’re honoring them.’

The crackling sounded again, the screams drifting from the north. Stuttering gunfire as the fight was joined in earnest.

‘Fine,’ Harlequin said. ‘What are they going to do, fire me?’

Britton looked to Bookbinder, who nodded silently. ‘Okay. Get the cameras back in here, and let’s go for round two.’