Chapter 19

Crnnch studied the few reports that he had. So far, other than the initial scan, there was no evidence that the new enemy were here, other than a possibly missing Crimonach, though the only thing suggesting it might be them was the complete lack of corroborating evidence.

His adapted body felt odd, as did the boost to his natural intelligence coupled with various nano-adaptions to his brain to give him unnatural psionic abilities. Much of the rumours regarding Seekers had turned out to be unfounded; merely a ploy to lull suspicions when he moved without the robe, which was actually a stasis shield, unannounced around the areas he was bidden to study. Yet he was stronger, more intelligent and faster than any of the ordinary Yr’ch save those members of the Beoghra, none of which were helping him in his quest to find out just who this new enemy were.

Still, sooner or later, patterns would emerge, patterns that he could unravel and that would lead him to his prize ... and their inevitable destruction.

Finally he rose, adapted the various nano-receptors built into his body to tailor his appearance and pheromone output to that of an analyst and left via a small portal to the site where the Crimonach had vanished.

The site had been thoroughly compromised by the dullards leading a cursory inspection and a new Crimonach was already in place. Yet Crnnch wandered the site anyway using a far finer set of senses than the Adept’s staff. Even so, there was little to find, a few spurious scorch marks suggesting a precision plasma exchange and some scuff marks that were probably from the Crimonach where it had been felled.

“Frustrating,” he muttered under his breath.

Things were moving back to a normal state of affairs in the encampment after the shock of Mage Negg’s death. Xi had felt it the worst, though a visit from Benjamin had put her back on an even keel and enabled her to cope with her grief without it overwhelming her. Benjamin also reported back Rowenna’s opinion of the Council meeting that had viewed and discussed the report on what had happened to Negg. It had gone exactly as predicted with Mage Clarence demanding the mission be recalled, Roxanne sacked, me charged and him put in charge, all of which had been voted down by nineteen to one, much to his evident frustration and anger. Mage Zola had spoken for all when she sent the Council’s condolences on the shocking loss of a good Mage.

Mage Kyra had shown up and I did recognise her from the Mage wars, though we’d rarely spoken as I’d never been injured other than in the tunnel leading up to Myrkálfar where Xi had got the toxin out of my system. She was currently with the medic Mages going over their research during the hiatus resulting from Roxanne standing us down to mourn.

Also arrived were another team of Drow under Lenna, whom I recognised as the arrogant Drow female who had spoken for the former Drow leadership. She still had touches of the arrogance, but had her team organised efficiently, plus, she and Ilzik seemed to have ‘something going on’ so I wasn’t too worried about past mistakes coming back to haunt us.

The final arrivals were a set of enforcers from the Department of Investigative Studies led by Mage Alice, a good friend of mine.

“Good to see you again, John,” she greeted me with a smile.

“You too, Mage Alice,” I replied with a formal bow, before sweeping her up into a hug.

“Been too long,” she sighed.

“Well, Morgana resigned and I had no more need to visit the Council or Roxanne. Plus, Emily...”

“Yes, took me a while to get over that.”

“We still remember her on the anniversary of her death. Róisín was devastated too, they were such good friends.”

“Yes, but it’s all in the past now. We won and, in the end, that’s all that counts.”

“I’ll fill you in on what we have so far; a couple of the Orc creatures are to be avoided at all costs, the others you simply have to cloak from,” I replied after a moment’s reminisce.

“Thanks, we’ll be over when we’re settled in.”

“Right, new missions,” Roxanne announced two days later. “John, take your team and escort Brianna’s team to this power plant; guard them whilst they do a feasibility study. Take Lenna’s team with you and make sure they understand the pitfalls. Alice, your team is to escort Xi’s team to the same plant and help them secure a Crimonach for our zoo. Ilzik’s team will be going with you, take anything he has to say about a security situation as gospel. All teams, take due care with any Orc creatures, never assume they are safe to approach or scan.”

“Yes, Mage Roxanne,” we all replied, then went to opposite sides of the command tent to begin our initial planning.

“We’ll have to be careful, John,” Brianna stated. “There are a lot of Orc workers and technicians around as well as a good few of their Crimonachs and some other miscellaneous biological tool aids ... we think.”

“Those the ones that Xi thinks are designed to get into spaces the Orcs can’t?”

“Yes. We don’t know if they’ll report back or not, hence the need for caution.”

“Got it, what do you need to see?”

“The Loegrian scientists want to examine the fusion plant as it is a lot smaller with a greater output than their own. They are wondering if the Orcs have found a better way past the focussed energy shielding they use.”

“Industrial espionage here we come,” I replied with a grin.

“Yep, it’s not all throwing down the Orc regime; sometimes it’s about stealing stuff.”

“OK, I’ll choose a point of entry for the team and we’ll go from there once we have a free Seer,” I nodded.

An hour later we were creeping through the bowels of the power plant. Lenna’s Drow spread out ahead of us ensuring we were not detected by any creatures lurking down deep with us. Also with us were Nell and three Kyresi of the Nosferatu who were there to keep an escape route open for us, should things go wrong.

‘We have reached the entrance, but it is guarded, ‘ Lenna sent.

‘This side or the other side?‘ I sent back.

‘This side, ‘

‘Take them out, ‘ I ordered.

‘Got it.‘ A slight pause. ‘Done.‘

“Right, my love, let’s see what we’ve got,” I murmured to Brianna.

The door was a typical Orc bio-controlled construct in that it reacted to pheromones and was coupled to an infra-red lidar system with built in facial recognition. What it didn’t have though was an alarm, that was controlled by an Omniscient in another part of the plant and hence was quite easy to fool, once you knew what you were doing.

“I can detect a few Orcs in what appears to be a control room, several other creatures doing what appears to be cleaning and possibly maintenance,” Brianna said after a few seconds.

“Any of them within visual range?” I asked.

“No ... hold. An Omniscient probe is moving through.”

“They cannot see us surely?” Lenna asked as she uncloaked for a few moments.

“No, they can’t, but they can see the door open,” I replied.

“Ah, yes ... sorry.”

“No need to apologise, it was a relevant question.”

“One that won’t be asked again,” she replied with a slight smile.

“At the moment, if you don’t know, ask. It’s how Ilzik got so damned good at this,” I nodded.

“Yes, my team intend to emulate, then surpass his,” she said earnestly.

“A worthy challenge.”

“Yes, we might not get to be better, but I’m determined to get us to be his equals, then accept his offer of marriage.”

“But not before?” Clara asked.

“I desire to be his equal. My fall from grace was far. I feel I have much to make up for.”

“The past is the past, but it’s still a very worthy goal,” I replied. “We’ll help, we’re always suckers for relationship bonding,” I finished with a chuckle, seeing some answering grins from my team.

“Why would you do this? You know who I was and what I did.”

“We were enemies; you lost, but surrendered honourably at the end once your leadership fell. Now you are allies and friends. Plus, Ilzik likes and trusts you, that cuts you a hell of a lot of slack,” I explained.

“I now see why Ilzik likes and trusts you.”

“And Esira too,” Brianna added with a grin.

“Oh please,” I muttered.

“Róisín agreed, you’re taking her on a date, next home visit.”

“How the hell can I explain a Drow on our Earth?”

“Your problem, not mine,” Brianna replied with a massive grin along with the other ladies in my team, though Lenna just looked confused.

“Esira wishes to ... mate with you?” she finally asked.

“Humans often partner up with a friend for dinner, dancing and yes ... sometimes sexual activity in a day or evening of pleasure,” Brianna explained. “John has a formal arrangement with his five partners and we sometimes agree to allow a friend informal privileges. It has to do with female Mages on our Earth outnumbering the male Mages by four to one.”

“And Esira is a friend in this category?”

“Very much so. She met Róisín, our senior partner, and terms were agreed after she expressed a desire to ... interact with John here.”

“So odd, Drow only mate to breed ... well, we were supposed to anyway, there was always gossip and rumours, plus I doubt Esira could have a child with John. Things have changed so much since we swore allegiance to House Skarlett.”

“Sex is fun, as you’ll probably find out with Ilzik.”

“I will think on this. Thank you for being so open.”

“No problem. We can go in now, the Omniscient probe has moved on.”

We slipped through the door and moved into the shadows, leaving the Nosferatu behind to guard our exit.

“Clever,” Brianna muttered as she and her team examined the massive generator sets.

“I’ll take your word for it,” I replied as my team maintained a perimeter around Brianna’s researchers with Lenna’s Drow even further out.

“They have designed neural bonds for the control systems of the fusion generators, made them radiation resistant somehow giving the controlling intelligence far finer and direct interaction with the system. They ... feel their way to much higher efficiencies, with far fewer inputs and monitoring systems.”