More looks were exchanged, then Gordon shook his head. “Too many hints to be purely coincidental. We need to have a little talk with him.” He lifted the cell to his ear as he peered at VRL’s address, reading it aloud. “Sergeant, I need you to take the team to that address and collect a man by the name of Henry Gable.” He looked to Dawes. “Do you have a picture of him?”
“I’ll get you one,” Dawes said as he pulled his own cell out.
“Sir, what about the prisoners?” Mick asked.
Gordon knew if he mentioned them to the General, his answer would be to terminate them. Something told him that wasn’t the route to take here. He was going with his gut.
“Their leader is dead? Ask them what they’re going to do.”
“Yes, sir,” Mick replied, and he heard the relief in her voice.
There was a muffled conversation, then the Sergeant was back on the line. “They received amand from their new leader to go home and wait for an assessment.”
“Who’s their new leader, and where can we find him?” Gordon asked.
Another brief conversation, then the Sergeant was back on the call. “Roy Duncan. He’s also at VRL.”
Gordon looked to Dawes with a grim expression. “Sergeant, you have your orders. Top priority, don’t spare the horses. Get to VRL and take these two people into custody.”
“Yes, sir!” She hung up.
“Are you going to fill us in on the details?” Baines growled.
Gordon nodded. “I think I may have to amend my previous theory. The Sergeant and her team followed the midwestern agent to a small town in rural New Jersey where they encountered a battle underway between two giants and a group of werewolves. I believe some of these beings may already be in ce, somehow disguised as humans. Maybe the green light is breaking their disguises, which is why we’re suddenly receiving reports of them appearing all over the world.”
“Giants and werewolves? Really?” the Generalined.
“But Silver People are more reasonable?” the Colonel retorted and got a scowl from the General. “Listen, thebelsgiantsandwerewolvesare just ceholders until we get more information. I don’t like this any more than you do, but these are how the facts seem to be lining up. We need to speak to these two people from VRL.”
“What about the monsters?” Baines demanded.
“The non-humans?” Crane said to correct him and received a scowl. “The giants are dead. We’ve identified and are about to capture the leader of the werewolves. The rest aren’t important right now.”
“You let them go?” Baines yelled in outrage.
“General, the Colonel’s right. His team has more critical targets to acquire and no time to waste,” Hugh suggested.
Dawes looked uneasy but nodded as well.
“Perhaps we should join them in New York?” Hugh continued.
“Yes,” Gordon said firmly, and eyes turned his way. “It feels like something is escting, and signs are pointing to VRL as at least one of the focal points.” He held the General’s eye. “My Sergeant just informed me that the green light covering everything outside contains the same energy as the strike zone but not as strong. Ites from the same source as the pseudo-clouds. We don’t seem to be able to measure it with our instruments, but it can be felt.”
Gordon saw the others were absorbing that information. “We’re missing a significant detail. As the man said, sometimes you have to look at what’s missing to find what’s hidden in in sight.”
He looked into the eyes of the other men. “Let’s go meet the missing piece.”
***********
Being inside a ringing bell is not a pleasant experience, but it beats being incinerated by a beam of white-hot sma.
Marisa pulled Meixiu and Siobhan to her sides, and they nced up at her in dazed confusion. “You’re going to have to brace me! I’m going into Henry’s mind to find him!” she eximed. She felt them wrap their arms around her and take a grip on the gurney. She was now pinned to its side. She looked down at Henry’s sleeping form and ced her hands on his forehead and chest. Clearing her thoughts, she let her mind sink into his.
She was swept away on the raging current of the Wild Magic circling the. The sensation of falling was terrifying, but she focused on the feeling of Henry’s presence. She needed to reach him.
“Henry!” she cried out.
She felt him all around her but spread so thin. His attention swung towards her, cially slow.
Agony shot through her, and she heard shrillughter. It was Mab, enjoying the pain she was inflicting upon Henry, and subsequently, Marisa.
As quickly as the pain appeared, Henry eased it with soothing waves of cool. She felt his focus returning, and his presence began to solidify.
“What are you doing? Henry asked her, his voice stronger anding from the space before her.
As they were still joined mind to mind, Marisa felt him splitting his attention between her and attacking Mab. There was another part of his mind he was keeping hidden. How was he doing this?
She pulled her attention back to answer him. “Your body is back at VRL in the boardroom, but we’re being attacked by the Hidden Races Council members!” Marisa eximed.
A bloodcurdling scream of agony and rage cut through the space around Marisa. Suddenly, Henry was standing before her in all his Satyr glory. He grinned at her yfully. “Mab found my prickly pear cactusnd mine traps. That should distract her for a while. Come with me!”
He took her hand, and she suddenly realized he’d given her a physical state as well. She nced down at herself and realized she was in her true shape. She could feel his strong hand in hers, and her next awareness was of standing on a rocky cliff overlooking the rough moonlit ocean.
“What? Where?”
“Irnd. Specifically, the northwest corner of the ind overlooking a rocky crag called Carrickhesk.” He pointed out into the darkness. “Can you see what’s bnced atop the rock?” he asked.
She peered into the murk. “No! It’s too dark.”
Henry smiled and handed her some binocrs he seemed to pull out of thin air. “Abracadabra! Try these.”
She hesitantly looked through them, and there was Mab’s castle, precariously bnced upon the rock. She gasped as she recognized it from the night Nate was kidnapped. She lowered the binocrs from her eyes. “Nate’s in there.”
Henry looked at her in surprise. “No! He’s on Eden. Didn’t DJ tell you guys?”
Marisa shook her head. “I don’t know who that is.”
Henry’s grin changed to a look of disappointment then worry. Finally, he pushed that aside. “Nate’s on Eden. He was pretty messed up emotionally when I freed him from Mab’s castle-” Some movement on the horizon distracted him. “Ah! We’ve gotpany at ten o’clock.”
Marisa lifted her binocrs and saw a tiny dot on the horizon. “Who is that?”
“It’s a surprise!” Henry giggled.
Marisa looked at him closely. His eyes seemed ssy. “Henry? Are you drunk?”
“What? No!” Heughed, then paused and smiled in confusion. “I don’t think so. I don’t recall drinking anything.” He nced in the direction of the castle. “Hang on a second. I gotta lift a skirt.” He bounced his eyebrows at her, then took a wide stance as he faced the castle. He bent his knees and reached his arms out like he was bear hugging a tree. Then he grunted as if he was trying to uproot that tree.
Marisa watched as his muscles bunched and swelled. He groaned from the effort, then his legs began to straighten out as he lifted… something extremely heavy and invisible. He bent backward just a little then held the position.
“What are you lifting, Henry?” Marisa asked quietly.
“Shield,” he grunted. His muscled were trembling from the effort.
Marisa lifted the binocrs once more and looked towards the castle. How such a huge structure could bnce on such a small piece of rock was beyond her understanding. The shield over it was still invisible, but if she imagined a dome over the castle and Henry lifting it, based on his movements, there might be a ten to fifteen-foot gap at its base on the far side now. At thest second, she caught the sh of several missile’s rockets driving them forward, through the invisible gap to strike the rock with devastating effect. A second barrage of missiles shot in under the protection though one was a little high and exploded against the shield. A jet shot by overhead as a third and final set of slower-moving missiles struck the small rocky ind with an enormous concussive st. Marisa threw up her hands to protect her face as the st, and the rocky shrapnel reached them, but it flew through her without impact. She’d forgotten she wasn’t actually there.
With a gasp, Henry fell back on his ass, panting from the effort. Marisa was stunned by how real everything felt but was grateful that hadn’t included being hit by the debris. She wondered if Henry needed the structure of physicality and tranted his mental effort into its physical requirements. Her eyes nced to the retreating jet.
“What happened?” Marisa said.
“The shield is gone,” Henry sighed as he pushed himself back to his feet.
Immediately the hillside came alive with Hidden Races Council soldiers, all wrapped in ck cloaks. None could see Henry or Marisa. The soldiers ran to the cliff’s edge and began their preparations for invading. Henry guided Marisa to the side to avoid being walked through.
“Are you going to the castle?” she asked.
He shook his head. “It’s not there. I felt it move when the supports sheared off in thest explosion.”Text ? owned by N?velDrama.Org.
Marisa looked through the binocrs then back at him. “I can still see it!”
“That’s just the false one we were in when Mab was visiting Manhattan,” he exined. “It’s a trap. Once you’re inside, it’ll disappear into nothingness. The physical one isn’t here anymore.”
Marisa shuddered as he looked through the binocrs at the smoldering rubble of the small ind. “So, she escaped?”