Beyond the building, Kyle suddenly saw movement. Three black and armed attack helicopters arced quickly around the structure. They cut across the Core, dodging buildings as they moved from east to west, their UCAS Army markings easily visible in the morning light. Then they fired, unleashing a powerful barrage of rockets against the upper stories of a copper-colored office building at the southern edge of the Core. Seeks-the-Moon made a noise deep in his throat: even without the binoculars he could see the flash of weapons and the huge fireballs that erupted from the building.
The helicopters continued their lightning volley as dozens of dark shapes bolted from the growing inferno. Most fell quickly, either unable or too injured to fly, but some, a half-dozen forms of what seemed to be wasps, shot toward the helicopters. Three of them suddenly broke off their attack, bouncing in different directions in a glittering blur of wings and sparks of astral energy. Kyle was still unwilling to use his astral senses and expose himself to attack, but he was sure those three had run into other spirits, elementals or watchers, guarding the helicopters. The three remaining insect spirits continued their mad rush at the choppers.
The helicopters jinked, turning away from the bugs and accelerating. The lead helicopter dipped, and caught the first insect spirit in its rotor blades, hurling it away but damaging the blades. The second helicopter avoided its attacker and tired to evade, but Kyle knew the wasp spirits would be much, much faster than the machines. The third wasp caught its prey, and began to attack the cockpit
Kyle wondered, but only for a moment, if the cockpit would hold. Then he saw the armored glass shatter and peel away. The helicopter immediately yawed to the right and began to lose altitude. It would hit the ground in a matter of seconds.
He looked for the second copter, and saw it maneuvering vainly to avoid its attacker. Regardless of how good the pilot, it would not be able to hold out much longer. Kyle took a deep breath and called on his power. Raw astral energy focused through him and the formula he assembled in his mind. He reached out with his astral senses and synchronized the energy of the spell with the insect's, then released it. The energy flashed between them in astral space, a blue-gray spark of power that exploded against the thing like a bolt of lightning. It spun to one side, its wings torn, and began to fall, still writhing in blue energy as it dissipated. The helicopter dropped below the tops of the buildings and fled west, using the streets as cover. Kyle quickly scanned for the first helicopter, but did not see it. A ribbon of smoke rose into the air to tell him where the third had fallen.
Within a minute of their sighting, they were gone. A handful of dark shapes lurked in the area of the office building, whose upper stories were ablaze. Soon the ominous shapes descended toward the streets.
"It would seem your government is actually doing something," said Seeks-the-Moon.
Kyle nodded. "Keep a lookout. Someone or some of the bug spirits may have seen my spell."
"I have been," said Seeks-the-Moon.
"Did that first helicopter get away?" Kyle asked. "I couldn't tell."
"I couldn't either."
Kyle looked back toward the Core. Light gunfire echoed up from the streets near them, but he still saw nothing. Kyle then looked east toward the lake. The sky was virtually cloudless, reflecting cleanly off what he could see of the still waters of the lake.
There were boats out there, arrayed in a north-south line about three kilometers from the shore. He could make out the shapes of what seemed like Coast Guard cutters, and what may have been a regular Navy vessel or two. The rest seemed to be merchant vessels, probably impressed into service. There were a few smaller white pleasure boats out there as well, but those seemed to be keeping clear of the blockade. An orange and white helicopter hovered in the air near one. After a moment, the two parted and the sailboats headed back toward shore.
Kyle turned his attention inland. There was little change visible in the already half-abandoned Noose, and he wondered if the vagrants and squatters living there might not survive this best of all. There was little else to see, with the exception of some smoke northeast and near to the lake.
Looking west of the city, he could see more smoke, a half-dozen thin plumes, and signs of a land blockade around the city. Off some distance, helicopters and what seemed to be at least one light combat vehicle, maybe a scout LAV, patrolled the line of demarcation, which street rumor said was either as far west as Interstate 294, or as close as Harlem Avenue. The binoculars' rangefinder placed them at about fourteen kilometers, which made Harlem far more likely than the interstate some twenty plus kilometers away.
Beyond the helicopters Kyle could see a glint of light from something big and elongated that hung in the air. A lighter-than-air craft, he thought, probably housing high-resolution radar for monitoring the sky over the city. He wondered if it was powerful enough to pick up the insect spirits when they moved about in physical form. He also wondered about the vulnerability of the craft, hanging there in plain sight. He knew that he could easily have struck it with a powerful spell, and assumed that others in the city could do the same. He also knew the military would have thought of that too.
Then, finally, he looked north. Again, there was smoke, a particularly dense cloud billowing upward along the lake. He could barely make out the demarcation line, and wondered how far north it was. They'd been told Belmont Avenue, and he hoped that was true, as it would place Beth's apartment and Natalie's school out of the containment area. But the helicopters seemed farther away than that; the rangefinder on the binoculars was estimating fourteen kilometers, which seemed too far.
Without a map there was no way to tell, so Kyle and Seeks-the-Moon began walking northward.
24
To make the best time, and to avoid getting ambushed by someone who might want to relieve them of their weaponry, Kyle and Seeks-the-Moon headed north along Interstate 90/94. It meant they were more exposed, more vulnerable, than if traveling one of the main streets, but it also put them less at risk. Kyle hoped that with the advantage of Seeks-the-Moon's always active astral senses, they would have advance warning of anything coming.
As they headed down to the highway via the Lake Street exit ramp, a battered delivery truck sped past them, the older ork male in the passenger seat keeping his eye, and the barrel of his shotgun, trained on them. The truck didn't slow, but continued north, weaving once to avoid the burned wreck of a bus in the passing lane.
They saw only one other car, a Toyota Elite speeding south on the other side of the highway. When its driver saw them, he slowed down and screamed out "What are you fraggin' nuts!" before zooming away again.
The city was quiet around them as the roadbed rose slowly from below street level near the old Loop, to above street level a distance beyond Hubbard's Cave. At that point, Kyle and Moon could see more smoke and some obvious fires that still raged uncontrolled. They ducked once into cover as a swarm of insect spirits, dragonflies, appeared over the rooftops, and then quickly banked away down toward the streets. It was like the sudden passage of a heavy dark cloud that blocked the sun and deafened the ears with the whirring of giant wings. Kyle thought again about casting a spell that would make the two of them invisible, then decided against it since they didn't yet know how the creatures perceived. It might not do any good.
Once, a possibly stray bullet kicked up dirt near them, but they could see no sign of a gunman. They kept walking, but Kyle readied the formula for a spell that he could cast quickly that ought to-he hoped-slow a bullet down, if not stop it completely.