In a shallow, selfish way, Madi was thankful for those Grimnoir who'd captured the device. He'd only been ten in '08, and he'd been living in the area that would have been immolated. He would have died along with everybody else and never had the opportunity to become an Iron Guard. Fate had smiled on him, and since it spared his life by thwarting the Chairman then, it was only right for him to help put history right now.
The Cog bowed and scurried away with the others. The wizards still made Madi uncomfortable, but they had their uses, just like the Iron Guard, or even that madman Tesla. Everything was falling into place, all for the Chairman's inevitable reign, and Madi would be at his side until the end. FS Bulldog Marauder The sky was black with rain. Clouds roiled and lightning crashed. The winds were blowing at terrible velocities, but Southunder's magic was cushioning them from the very worst.
"I think we've lost them," Barns said.
Sullivan was standing at the very front of the glass bubble, watching the energy. "We have to go after it."
"We don't even know where it is," Southunder said. He was sitting in his captain's chair, rubbing his eyes with his palm.
"They'll take it right to the Chairman, and one minute after he puts it together, America is gone… We need to at least warn them."
Barns turned around from his console. "Who'd believe you? I don't believe you, and I'm sitting right here."
Southunder rose. "I can at least alert the Grimnoir. They know people. Maybe they can… hell, I don't know, start evacuating… I still remember the spell, I just haven't done it for so long. Damn Pershing's orders! I never spoke to anyone, just in the off chance that the Imperium would find it." He went to the wall and pulled down a small round mirror. "Mr. Parker, go to the galley and get me some sea salt… It's been a long time, hiding, all for Black Jack, and all for nothing."
"We'll make it right." Sullivan vowed, even though he had no idea how. UBF Tempest Francis was biting his nails. The sun was down. They were on the outer edges of a bad storm. The teleradioscope was still getting a return telling them the approximate location of the Tokugawa. It was moving west again, heading for Japan. This was their last chance. They were moving along at full speed to intercept.
The boarding party was below. He wished he had more time, then he'd personally speak to every one of them, knight, mercenary, and other. The Tempest wasn't designed for such things, but Lance had told him that they'd land right on top of the giant Tokugawa, lower the ramp, and it would be just like parking at an airport. He had a sneaky feeling it wouldn't be that easy, and suspected that Lance concurred. Either way, he'd be joining them at the last minute.
Faye had joined them in the cockpit and was wandering around, looking at all the flashing lights, remarking on how pretty they were, and he felt a little nervous that she might start pushing buttons just to see what would happen. She was geared up for battle, armed with a short Auto-5 shotgun and wearing crisscrossed bandoleers of brass buckshot shells. Her hair was tied up, and Francis realized that he was staring at her, so he went back to trying to be a leader for the UBF men. He didn't like the idea of her going in with the boarding party one bit, but Lance had been adamant, they needed every warm body they could get.
Pain shot through his ring finger, as if it had gone molten. Lance had been talking to the navigator, and he jerked as his ring ignited too. He'd never felt one burn so hot. It was like a knight was trying to contact everyone. The signal was so strong that all the Grimnoir in the world had to be feeling it. He shouted at the nearest crew member. "Get me some salt!" Lance started clearing maps from the navigator's table.
"I don't think I would have took the oath if I knew it was gonna try and cook my fingers off," Faye said as she watched them make the circle. Dan Garrett had come running. The stubby man was so weighed down with extra ammo that he had a hard time climbing up the ladder. Heinrich Faded through the wall and took his place off to the side. Francis could see that Heinrich's wrist was still bruised and discolored from where Delilah's magically enhanced grip had crushed it in the morgue.
A minute later the circle was complete, and light from the shining disk filled the little room.
He did not recognize the Grimnoir in the circle. He was older, weathered, totally bald, with wrinkles around his eyes that suggested he was a man who spent a lot of time laughing and smiling, except those eyes were hard now and there wasn't an ounce of laughter left in him. "Attention all Grimnoir knights. This is Robert M. Southunder, once of the knights of New York."
"Former knight," came another voice with a French accent, and the circle suddenly shifted to another man that Francis had never seen. "A disgraced knight, turned to brigandry."
"The vagabond returns," said a grey-haired woman. She sounded English. Francis had never seen so many people communicating through a magic circle before. The background noises told him that there had to be many others listening as well. The Power drain to the creator had to be enormous.
"Stick it, Harriet," Southunder said as the circle flew back to focus on his face. "There's no time for your politics. The Chairman has the Geo-Tel."
There were collective gasps from every corner of the world.
"Preposterous!" bellowed someone else, a hundred other people started to talk and now the circle was spinning so fast that Francis thought he was going to be sick.
There was a brain piercing whistle. Faye pulled her fingers away from her lips. "Y'all shut up and let the man talk already, jeez-louise."
The circle returned to Southunder. "Thanks. I can't keep this up for long. The Chairman recovered the last piece. Did we ever find where they'd marked New York?" There was a spinning chorus of negative replies. "Then we've got to assume that he'll fire it at the same place as last time. We need to evacuate the Eastern Seaboard. Contact the President, the Army, do whatever you have to do."
"Things have changed since you left, Robert," the Frenchman said. "Actives have no favor in the halls of politics. They will not listen to us."
"Then get off your asses and do something," Southunder barked. "Live up to your damned oaths for once."
Lance cut in. "Where is the Chairman?" Everyone knew he'd want to be there when it was used.
"I don't know. The device was in the Northern Marianas," Southunder replied. There was another voice from behind him, a deep rumble, and a large, beard-stubbled face pushed past Southunder.
"Lance?" Sullivan asked.
"Yeah, we're not far from you. We're tailing the Imperial flagship now," Francis said.
"He'll fire it from his flagship, sure as hell," Sullivan said. "That's his style. Give us your coordinates."
Francis signaled for the navigator, who had recoiled in panic from the glowing, levitating, magic circle. He really had to remember that not very many people got to see stuff like this.
The next face that appeared in the circle was more recently familiar. It was Isaiah Rawls. "It looks like I'm the senior member of the council listening, so it falls on me to do this. Stand down, knights. That is an order. Do not, I repeat, do not attack the Tokugawa."
"Are you mad?" Dan shouted. His voice made Francis reel. Dan was under such stress that he could barely control his Power. The anger in there was palpable, and Dan's emotions made Francis want to pull his.45 and shoot Rawls right between the eyes. "You couldn't stop us when we were going to do it for one person, let alone ten million."
"Let them try, Isaiah," the English woman said. "We've nothing to lose at this point."