Dan was terrified of him, and he had never been kidnapped by an Iron Guard. He could only imagine how his wife was feeling. He reached over and took her hand.
The Iron Guard finished the complicated movements with the club extended in a blow that would pulverize half the bones in a man’s body, and then returned to the same ready position he’d started from. He waited a few seconds and then launched into the exact same series of movements, only faster this time.
“I’m sorry about this, Jane,” Dan muttered. “I know how you must be feeling.”
“I’m fine.”
“With all that happened last year, the very thought-”
“Dan. Look at me.” He complied and stared into her perfect eyes. “What do you see?”
“The beautiful and completely wonderful love of my life?”
“Correct…” She gave him a mischievous smile. “And?”
“You’re tougher than you look?”
“Yes. It’s alright. Don’t forget, I’ve been in the Society longer than you have. I grew up with this kind of stress.” She gave his hand a squeeze. “Of course I’m scared of the Imperium elite. Only a fool wouldn’t be.”
“I’m not scared of him.”
Jane cocked her head to the side. “I may not have Hammer’s Power, but your blood pressure is elevated and the muscles around your left eye socket develop a nervous twitch when you’re lying.”
Dan unconsciously put one hand to his eye. “Okay, fine. You got me. I’m scared to death, but not for me. For us. Madi thought you were a valuable commodity, and now Jake is inviting the fox into the henhouse. What happens when Toru makes the same decision? Sure, he might be telling the truth with all that talk about honor and obligations, but what if he changes his mind and decides they’ll take him back if he brings his masters a good enough present? Like maybe a perfectly good Healer and a sack of Grimnoir heads. I’m telling you, no good can come of this. Jake’s lost his damned mind.”
“Jake is afraid, desperate maybe, but not crazy. Judging from the physiological indicators, I’d say that Jake is the most rational one in our group, and you have no idea how much it pains me to say that, since I believe he’s fully willing to throw his life away at the slightest provocation if he thinks it will make a difference. He’s prepared to do whatever he has to in order to win. If that means making a deal with evil incarnate, so be it.”
“Is it worth making a deal with the devil, to beat another, bigger devil?”
“I’m afraid your theological analogy sort of falls apart there, Dan. But if they are even half right about how dangerous the Pathfinder is, can we afford to find out?”
Toru finished yet another set of intricate movements and froze. He held still for what seemed like forever. Unyielding.
“I don’t like it… but you’re probably right.”
“I usually am, dear,” she said. Dan just grunted in agreement. Even a man who could magically win any argument wasn’t going to touch that idea with a ten foot pole. One of the cars left the barn and set off down the lane in a cloud of dust. “Who’s leaving?” she asked.
“Jake, Lance, and Ian are going to scout the OCI’s island fortress.”
“And they’re simply leaving the women here alone with that crazy Iron Guard?”
“Hey, I’m here.” To be fair, his Power hadn’t proved the most useful against Iron Guard level willpower, and he knew it. He wasn’t offended. As far as protecting the women folk went, Faye by herself was more than a match for any old Brute, and the French girl was a Torch. It was difficult to be a male chauvinist when women were human flamethrowers or could outfight a platoon of Imperium marines.
“That’s not what I meant.” Jane sniffed. “Of course I know you’ll protect us!”
“It’s okay. I’m not offended. A wise man knows his limitations, though I thought you weren’t worried about him?” He chuckled. “Never mind. I’ll quit while I’m ahead. Don’t worry. I asked for this.” He removed the captured Dymaxion from his pocket. “Mr. Toru doesn’t know this thing exists. If he tries any funny business, he won’t be nearly so tough when he finds out he’s not bulletproof anymore.”
“Oh, Dan. You’re so clever.” She kissed him.
“That’s why you married me, babe.”
OCI Headquarters
Francis tried to remember exactly how Buckminster Fuller’s drawing had looked before he’d been forced to eat it. A square. A circle. Another circle. Got to get the intersections right. Three triangles stuck together in back. Two squiggly bits that connected all the points. Two? Or was it three? Shit. I haven’t even gotten to the octagon yet.
Frustrated, Francis wiped away the design, smoothed the dust, and tried again. The dim flickering light made it difficult to see and his fingertip wasn’t the most precise instrument, especially when it was attached to a hand that was shackled to a chain.
“What are you doing?” Heinrich asked through the wall.
“Nothing.” I can’t talk about it or they’ll hear us.
“You know, I have been thinking about something.”
Square. Circle. Circle. “Yeah?”
“The one nice thing about them using our bodies as evidence is that they can’t torture us too obviously, plus they have to feed us, and let us use the latrine. To do otherwise would cause suspicion during the investigation.”
Sure, they’d been given water, canned rations, and been unshackled, then handcuffed and taken to the toilet while being watched by five burly guards with clubs and a Dymaxion twice a day, but it wasn’t like they had any opportunity to escape. Heinrich had tried last time, but had only managed to injure two of the guards before being wrestled down, and dragged back to his cell. “Your point?”
“No point. I’m just saying that this could be a lot worse. Starving and wallowing in our own filth before being murdered… now that would be unpleasant.”
“Nobody likes annoying optimists,” Francis said.
“And to think that a few days ago you called me a pessimist.”
Francis went back to trying to draw the spell. If only he could get this thing to work, then Heinrich could fade through his chains. Fighting a Fade indoors was suicide. The guards wouldn’t have a chance. All he had to do was perfectly re-create the most complicated spell that he’d ever seen, and then only for a minute, and they could blow up all the Dymaxions and waltz right out of here. Squiggly bits. Octagon… Fuck.
Heinrich started to say something but then stopped. The opposite chains rattled for a moment and then his friend was still. Francis could have sworen that he heard whispering. “Heinrich, you okay?”
“Couldn’t be better.”
Heinrich was a strange one, even for a German. Francis shrugged and went back to drawing. A few seconds later he heard a small ticking noise coming from inside the wall. A whisper came through the hole in the bricks. “Shhh, don’t talk. Just listen.”
Lance?
“They’ve got spy holes in the walls. You’re being watched and listened to.” He turned his head enough to see the black head of a rat perched on top of his chain. “Here’s the deal. We’re going to spring you tomorrow.”
Yes! He should have known his friends wouldn’t let him down. He hadn’t given up hope, but he’d been getting close.
Francis urgently tapped his finger in the middle of the spell he was drawing.
“Interesting. What’s that do?”
Francis wrote in the dust. BLOWS UP DYMAXIONS.
“That would be handy,” Lance whispered. “Think you could do that on demand?”
SIGNAL?
“Explosions. Screaming. Gunfire. That kind of thing.”???
“Well, a maybe is better than nothing. How big do they blow up?”
GRENADE
“I’ll tell Sullivan not to keep his in his pocket then. Anything else you can tell me?”