Alice nodded thoughtfully.
“Tell me again, Mitsuru, what was the briefing on this place?”
Mitsuru looked up from the fragments of mirror.
“The Philippine Army and the CIA both believe it to be an Abu Sayyaf camp,” Mitsuru said, voice dead as she consulted her Etheric uplink. “It isn’t, of course. Its run by the Witches, the terrorist angle is just to keep the curious away. Satellite shows fifteen structures, arrayed in a rough semi-circle, on the bank of the river. The terrain around it is primarily jungle; the only road access is a dirt track. They’ve got a crude airfield, too, big enough for private planes.”
Alice nodded again, and Mitsuru went back to surveying the mirror shards, which were beginning to melt into the carpet.
“The strip is empty right now,” Mitsuru said distantly. “Barbwire around the perimeter. The angle is terrible, so I can’t see much else.”
Alice inspected her chipped nail polish critically.
“What kind of nonconventional assets can we expect, Mitzi?”
The glare Mitsuru gave her went way past insubordination.
“I told you already. My name is Mitsuru. Alistair tried to scan it a couple times already — he says it’s shielded, by someone who knows what they’re doing. They definitely have some fairly capable Operators, to keep a telepathic barrier like that up twenty-four hours a day. I can’t see anyone at all.”
“Could be a Witch,” Alice suggested. “They make artifacts that do stuff like that. It could have been set up in advance, or there could even be one there now, maintaining it.”
“That is entirely speculative,” Mitsuru said woodenly, still connected to Etheric network. “During attempts to scan the site, Alistair reported a number of Etheric signatures in the nearby wilderness, very probably Weir.”
Alice gave Xia a look. He gave her a very small nod in return.
“So, we’ll assume they have Operators and Weir, at the very least. Witches are a possibility too — though they tend to bail before things get heavy, unless they think they have all the cards. Plus probably a handful of normal humans.” Alice though for a moment, glancing over at Xia, then nodding in agreement, as if he had said something. “We’ll wait until twilight. They’re probably running around in a panic right now, waiting for us to come busting in. Let’s give them some time to start thinking that they got away. They’ll be more lax in a few hours.”
“Can we clear the camp on our own?” Mitsuru asked, her voice normal, disconnected from the uplink.
“Xia could clean that place out by himself,” Alice snorted. “I probably won’t even have to take my hands out of my pockets. I brought you along,” Alice leered at Mitsuru, “’cause I like watching you cut people up, baby. It makes me feel all funny.”
Alice winked at Mitsuru, who stared at her, mouth half-open.
“Don’t be dense,” Alice said sympathetically, “this is a big job. We’re not just going to take care of it — we’re going to make sure that you’re there, helping out, every step of the way, Mitzi. And once we wrap up a successful Audit, no one’s going to be able to argue with Gaul making you an Auditor, right? So, be a good girl for a little while longer.”
Alice giggled at her shocked expression.
“Oh, dear me, I said it again, didn’t I?” Alice gave her arm an affectionate pinch. “I swear, I meant to say Mitsuru…”
As the sun hid itself behind the low hills beyond the river, the camp fell into shadow.
The air was so humid it felt dense, and Alice felt the sweat bead on her neck the moment she stepped out of the shadow of a storehouse on the eastern edge of the compound, near the fence. She crouched and then surveyed her surroundings, her finger tight on the trigger of her shotgun. She needn’t have bothered. Aside from the sounds of the insects and the ever-shifting wall of vegetation, the area was deserted.
Even the best trained guard will fall into routines when patrolling the same ground every night — inevitably, given the boredom inherent in the job, and the limited number of routes available. The camp was protected by guards with sufficient professionalism to shift their patrol routes, but they’d been stationed there long enough to fall into a routine anyway. The jeep that they were using to patrol was on the other side of camp; Alice could see the mounted spotlight on the back from where she crouched. She reached one hand into her own shadow.
She pulled Mitsuru from the shadow first, but she emerged stumbling. Mitsuru shook her head several times, before crouching beside Alice, disoriented. Alice reached down and rested her hand on Mitsuru’s cheek, gently pressing the dizzy Operator’s head against her leg, reaching back into the shadows with her other hand.
Xia stepped out a moment later, in his heavy black coat and surgical mask, clutching Alice’s hand with his own latex gloved one. He glanced at the still dazed Mitsuru, and then looked questioningly at Alice. She nodded curtly.
At that moment, the night was rent by the sound of gunfire, followed by panicked yelling in a cacophony of Tagalong, French and English. There were two groups of guards approaching, and in the distance a gunman had climbed to the flat roof of one of the temporary structures and was taking potshots with his AK-47. At that distance, there wasn’t much chance of him finding a mark, particularly as they were only partially exposed to his aim, but Alice tugged the befuddled Mitsuru back behind the protection of the outbuilding, just to be safe.
“Alright, Xia. No point in subtlety now. Let ‘em know we’re here.”
Alice helped Mitsuru to her feet. She shook her head again, cautiously, and then nodded at Alice, apparently steadied.
Xia walked casually out into the open, rounding the storehouse corner and exposing himself to fire from both of the patrols, as well as the rooftop sniper. The 7.62mm rounds made a strange hissing sound as they hit the field of intense heat that surrounded Xia, visible only by the distortion in the air around him, then flattened and melted like solder into hissing pools on the muddy ground.
Xia closed his eyes, and then slowly raised both of his arms until they were above his head, palms to the sky. Though there was little wind, his heavy coat rippled and swayed, and the grass around him wilted and charred. A white luminescence appeared at the ends of his hands, and then slowly expanded, covering his entire body in a translucent shell. Xia spoke then, just once, but what he said could not be described as a word.
One of the Jeeps caught flame, burning from beneath its undercarriage. There were angry voices yelling in Tagalong, as some of the guards attempted to douse the flames with an extinguisher, while others milled about in confusion. The first explosion was dramatic, a terrific bang that sent chunks of metal flying in all directions as the jeep tore itself apart. The gas tanks on the other vehicles followed shortly, all three detonating in rapid succession, each sending a ball of black smoke and flame skyward. Looking through the filter of a combat protocol, Mitsuru watched the guard’s Etheric signatures snuff out, torn apart by shrapnel, their bodies left to turn to charcoal in the flames.
The jungle around the camp smoldered angrily, and then burst into a conflagration, the lush vegetation withering and charring in the sudden blaze. In an instant, they were surrounded on three sides by a towering wall of flame, bathing the camp in a flickering orange light, the barbwire fence protesting and warping in the heat, sparks carrying the flames gradually across the whole of the camp.
“You’re up, Mitzi,” Alice said softly, watching the flames with a rapt expression. “They have to come this way to get away from the fire. Put on a show for me.”
Mitsuru nodded, shifting her grip on the wrapped handle of her sheathed knife, and then disappeared into the shadows, moving in the direction of the nearest patrol.
Alice smiled to herself as she watched Mitsuru’s Etheric signature flit from building to building, her movements accelerated to a blur by a downloaded alacrity protocol, almost invisible in the flickering firelight.