Slave Line (The Young Ancients) (40 page)

The man looked ready to soil himself anyway.

"No sir! Honestly I have no knowledge of this."

"Good. Then you won't mind if I check that out? Torrance Purple, will you use one of your verification devices on the Premier here. It will save time."

He sounded like he knew the answer already, but after Tor slipped the amulet on its hemp string around the chubby mans neck, making him glow cheerily, he was cleared in about a minute.

"I seriously don't know anything about this. The last I checked, which was... about a week ago, I think, the Larval were all accounted for. Are you certain it was them? It would be hard to steal and return an aircraft like that, but they aren't the only group that could pull it off. IPS could do it, so could the Air force, if it came from the top. I
could
do it, of course, but didn't. Maybe even those commando's from Noram could pull it off? When they came in on Easter the bastards just did what they wanted and all our forces could do to stop them was surrender. They didn't even use lethal weapons for the most part, except on the tanks. They just walked right up to our lines and knocked everyone out. Except for Serge and his daughter. Those two they took out immediately. I think they wouldn't need to take one of our fighter jets though." The man was turning an unfortunate red color, not getting that everyone just believed what he was saying for some reason. Probably due to the fact that he didn't know they could tell if he was lying or not.

"Clear." Tor said, letting the man off the hook. He turned to Denno, waiting for any more questions to come. There were some, but the man didn't fib until asked if he wanted to stay Premier. He said no, but the black flash told them all it was a lie.

When that was pointed out to him the fat gentleman in front of them just shrugged.

"I do like the credits. Half a million a year will keep me in comfort in my retirement, don't you think? I just need the job long enough to draw the long term pension. Two years of service and I'm set for life."

It was true, and Denno laughed about it, but Tor didn't get what it all meant instantly. Cordes slowly dribbled information about pensions into his mind, putting it forward very carefully and making it really obvious where the information was coming from. Nice of him to be so considerate, Tor decided. If he kept that up they really could get along. It couldn't be easy for the Ancient in his mind to do it though. That kind of control being used all the time had to be brutal.

They were taken to a boring looking room done in beige that had a table and chairs, but not much else, and got asked to wait while Denno and Foley went to make "calls". About both the Larvals and the disposition of the aircraft, Tor figured. They were left waiting for a long time, no one bothering to come back at all. After nearly two hours Tor was just about to go and look for Brown himself, even if it would cause problems, when the two men came back into the space at a fast walk.

Denno looked around, eyes uncomfortable enough that Tor let his hand find the multi-weapon in his right hand shirt pocket, the one just above his waist. He didn't wait to pull it, aiming it under the table at Denno and the man next to him. Just the force lance setting, which would only knock them down, but it was a strong one. It wouldn't go through his own shields coming toward a person, so that covered the Ancient, but the other man would be hurting if he didn't have some kind of protection on his person. He made ready to activate it when Foley spoke, his voice sound confused, rather than dangerous.

"Some Larvals, about fifty of them, they've taken a small rural town in the south-west. Queensland. They're demanding that the Ancient turn himself over to them, or they'll slaughter everyone there. It's thousands of people, three thousand four hundred and seventy-two." He seemed upset by the idea.

Tor could sympathize, since Denno was saying that he'd have to go. After all, they were his responsibility. Brown also seemed to believe they could be reasoned with.

"That would make sense as long as they don't have Cordes inside calling the shots. As far as I can tell that version hates you all. Can you get that nano shutdown thing ready quickly?" He looked at the man, not wanting to make a big deal out of it if he couldn't manage it.

The simple fact was though they weren't turning Denno over to the killers. Even if he was their creator, they didn't just leave a target alive and wouldn't be going after the man using such tactics if they didn't think they had a reason. If they just wanted to chat with him, they'd use their communications devices... or arrange a lunch meeting.

He looked at Burks and Orange, then nodded.

"Green could help me with it? I think I can do the work in a few hours. How do we stall them until it's deployed? They're used to nano protocols, so anything too obvious will probably be thwarted. Unless we take them at the right moment, when they're distracted. Maybe have it carried in, but we'll need time to get enough powder ready to be effective. We can't use self-replicating nanites either. It's too dangerous. They'd kill themselves and everyone in the town to stop that from happening. For that matter if that ever happens we'd have to do that as well. It's why no one plays with those anymore. Each time they've been used they've eventually almost destroyed the planet. That means we'll have to use direct exposure. But..." He shook his head.

"We don't want to get too complex. We'll spread it with gas grenades, or spray it on. It isn't perfect, but it should get most of the ones that are collected together. Do we have a location for the others?" This got put to Foley, who checked the small black pad in his hand.

"The civilian net has a few sightings reported. Not enough to be definitive. The military channels have gone dark... All of them." He pounded on the flat pad in his hand several times.

"That can't be a good sign. Should I activate an alert?"

Denno gave a single clipped nod, speaking in a strange accent, a lot like Foley did.

"Do it now. We can't afford to let them take more hostages. We... need to buy time." He looked at Orange then, who smiled darkly.

"I'll try to leave your civilians alive. I can't promise that, but I'll do what I can. Can I borrow your Carriage Purple?" She turned to look at him earning a nod.

"I'll drive. We can hold them off, perhaps distract them for a while. I don't know how, but we'll try to draw them away from the hostages. Promise them pie or something. Everyone loves pie. How long do we need to stall for?" If it took less time it would be better, but Tor really doubted they were going to stop for lunch or drinks at a pub.

"Six hours if all goes well. Call it seven. Try not to let everyone be killed please? I'm counting on you. Austra is counting on you both." Brown seemed to mean the words, even if it was a little overdone.

Austra though, could go soak its head. Tor was going to try and stop a slaughter. It didn't matter who the people were. A tendril of fear ran through him then, thinking about the situation.

It had been a while, but he'd fought the Larval before, and while he'd won, it had cost him to do it. A lot. He nearly died flat out and would have if Trice hadn't come in with a healing device almost instantly as the fight ended. All of the Larval had survived too. If he'd been alone they would have won the day most likely.

Of course he'd been naked at the time and done it to free a hostage. They had even more now. Of everything. Hostages, assassins
and
the home ground advantage. The only trick was that he wasn't who he'd been back then. It didn't sit easy, but to save thousands of lives he could sacrifice one now if he had to, and not just himself either. The assassins probably weren't up to date on that fact. It could, possibly, give him a small edge. This time he wasn't giving up his weapons either, or his shield. It might help him survive. Even the seven he'd fought before had refused to meet him with weapons, saying that they'd die if they did. Hopefully that would turn out to be the truth.

They knew their job well, so he'd have to trust they knew their own limits too.

He needed to see a map of where they were going, which was brought up on a screen in the room after Denno poked his fingers in the air and spoke to the air for a while. The location wasn't that hard to find in the real world it seemed, he could mainly follow the coast line, then turn right at the second river.

"OK. We'll see you in seven hours? Try not to be late. I don't know if I can sing and dance much longer than that." As he and Orange left Trice tried to follow him, a grim look on her face.

She'd lost her left arm due to the Larval. The idea of facing them again had to be freaking her out. But she came along anyway, or did until Burks grabbed her arm.

"Patricia? We'll need you for the second team going in. Probably a few more individuals as well if it can be managed."

He didn't say more, just running after Denno, holding her by the hand. Tor understood, he thought.

There were fifty Larval on site. Maybe a lot more. As a force they were possibly one of the most dangerous groups on the planet. It was why Denno had them all built like he had, in case they needed ground troops to fight off an invasion. If that alien stuff was even real. Tor had seen the data, but it could all be faked, couldn't it? Just little lights dancing in the air after all. Even if real it didn't mean that they'd be fighting on the ground, but Denno hadn't known that they might be able to get a fleet up in time. It was still going to be close, but maybe they could do something?

The point though, Tor understood, was that as scared as he was, Trice was more afraid. As small and weak as he was, Tor had better reflexes than she did under pressure and better combat skills. Plus the Larval hated him for some reason. Maybe it was Burks they really didn't like, but it was
him
, personally, they'd gone after all those times. Calling him the "Unknown Factor" if he remembered right. Whatever that was.

So Tor had a chance to get them to come after him. If they did it right it could take long enough. They needed to start slowly though, to buy time. Lots and lots of it.

Ideally without ever closing the distance between them at all.

"I need to talk to the one in charge at the hostage scene. The Larval I mean." Tor spoke in a low tone, not knowing if anyone would bother paying attention to him. Orange looked and didn't do anything, but the Prime Minister pulled his little black square out and handed it to him without asking why he wanted it. Tor looked at it and was tempted to start poking at it randomly, but didn't want to waste the time. He looked at the man and sighed, giving a rueful look in his direction.

"I don't know how to use this. Our magic is different than yours. Do I hit a sigil or something? I don't know how to..." He looked at it and saw it did have a blue glowing mark on it, which he pushed, automatically using intent to cause it to work. The front lit brightly, making a little chime as it did. He expected something, so didn't jump or anything, but couldn't make sense of most of the pictures it displayed. It was a good idea, the way it organized things, but it took knowledge of what the secret signs meant to make work. Foley took it back and hit one of the pictures, which were all in color and looked pretty realistic, but not perfectly so.

"Here, this will connect with them. Sorry, I should have remembered that part of things. The whole different... magic. Yes." He looked almost angry about something, but Tor didn't have time to figure it all out, since a familiar and evil sounding voice was on the line.

"Prime Minister? I hope you have our Ancient ready for us. Trussed like a goose, ready to eat? We grow impatient. It would be a mistake to try and send in any of your military or police you know. We control their com bands right now and any attempt to do anything will cause us to kill all these little civilians and move to the next location. We're prepared for this to go on for a good long while. We have nothing but time, but these innocent people here don't." The voice had a strange and eerie quality to it, almost a singsong lilt under the Austran accent.

It was a Larval all right. Tor wouldn't forget the voice if he lived for ten thousand years. They were creepy as all get out. Sure, he was biased, but that didn't mean he was wrong. Just trying to kill him all those times was enough to cause him to be a little angry at them. That and scared, but they wanted him to be afraid, didn't they? That's what they were doing, threatening innocent people.

"Put Cordes on the line.
Now
." Tor didn't sound frightened this time. He sounded... Mean. Hard even. Like someone that actually knew what he was doing. He'd always thought he couldn't act, but this seemed to show differently.

There was a silence that seemed to radiate from the device as if a physical chill was coming off of the black. It only hit his soul though, nothing else. The voice that spoke was deeper, but clearly the same person, only the accent changing.

"Cordes here. I take it this is one of my brothers? Who is it? Brown? Tesco? Or... could it be you Green? After all this time? You always were my favorite. So easily led and controlled. Of course you eventually helped them kill me didn't you? I don't remember it, but I put it all together over time. Shame on you.
Shame
. I bet it took you a while to get over having done that, didn't it little brother. Did you see me in your dreams? Do you still? Haunting you and asking why you did it?" The voice had gone into a happy and playful tone, not dark or menacing at all.

It was a trick, no doubt.