Staring at the screen, Amber asked, “Is she gone?”

  The computer entity responded, “She is. The signal was disconnected on the other end.”

  “So, basically we’re screwed,” Alex stated. “And they aren’t even going to buy me dinner first.”

  “You knew this could happen when you signed on the dotted line, Sergeant. ARCANE isn’t for everyone you know.” Amber glowered at the heavily armed man.

  Alex looked his boss in the eye. “When I watched a sea monster eat half my Special Operations team, I knew what I was getting into.”

  “You’ve never told us that particular story, Alex. Why now?” Sheldon asked.

  “It was my first run-in with paranormals outside of the occasional consult. The Merfolk that killed the monster didn’t do a thing to help us. We, humans, were left to fend for ourselves. I committed myself to protecting humans after that. It didn’t ‘jive’ with policy as you Americans say, so I left the service and joined ARCANE. It’s always been my belief that I would go out in a blaze-of-glory.” Alex explained as he mimed machine gunning things.

  Both Sheldon and Nadya shook their heads at his antics.

  Amber just continued to stare into Sheldon’s eyes. Finally, she spoke, “We still have five floors, and the trek to the portal surrounded by thousands of Demons to accomplish, all while protecting a bomb which could kill us. That might be excitement enough, don’t you think? You may get your blaze yet.”

  Alex frowned, “I forgot about them.”

  “I figured you did. Take Sheldon and go find that bomb. Bring back anything else you think we need,” Amber ordered. Raising her face to the ceiling she asked, “Computer, can you show me outside and the portal. I need scans of floors one through five as well too. Let’s get moving people we have a bomb to drop.”

  Chapter 7

  As bombs go, the military’s backpack nuke was pretty small, about the size of a dorm room microwave.

  The nuke was stored in a double-locked-code-word-protected-armored box. The box itself was bolted to the floor and looked to be too big to fit through the door.

  “How did they get that in here?” Shelton asked as he tried to look around the steel box.

  Alex ‘thunked’ it with his fist. The box didn’t even make a sound. “Hmm. They may have built the box first then the room.”

  “Do you see any cameras?” Sheldon pointed to the walls and ceiling.

  “Nope. They hid this thing in plain sight. I wonder how long it’s been down here. What do the instructions say about getting it open?” Alexander asked.

  Referring to his tablet, Sheldon pulled up the file sent from Washington and the FBI. Squinting and raising an eyebrow, Sheldon looked down at the device. “It’s a four-step process. Password, handprint, and an iris scan are needed.”

  “That’s only three steps, Sheldon,” Alex replied.

  “I CAN count. The fourth is a bit strange. A manual keyword needs to be typed in on a keypad within the box,” Sheldon explained.

  “What's so strange about that, I type stuff all the time?” Alex asked as he dusted off the handprint scanner.

  “What you call typing, I call hunt and peck. This needs to be concise and quick. The keypad is completely dark, and these instructions say you only get two tries before it locks down permanently. Can you do it?” Sheldon asked.

  Alexander snorted, “I can do all sorts of things in the dark with my hands. Just ask your mom.”

  Sheldon shook his head as he replied, “Leave mom out of this, she works hard enough providing for us kids. Seriously though, can you get it?”

  “If I don’t, you can try the second one. Here goes nothing.” Alexander laid his palm on the scanner.

  The scanner lit up briefly then a small door opened on the large box. Both men peered inside, a small ten-key pad sat inside.

  “Time to fish or cut bait, buddy. Do you still want to try?” Sheldon asked.

  The ex-sergeant shined his flashlight into the small compartment. The keypad was in the middle with just enough space for a hand to fit. Looking down at his large hand in comparison to Sheldon’s he shook his head. “No, too much is riding on this. You do it.”

  As Alex stepped aside, Sheldon reached into the hole. His hand slid in comfortably, and he could touch all the keys quickly.

  “Here goes the world.” Glancing at the instructions, he began typing. After a moment he spoke, “That should do it.”

  Seams that weren’t visible before opened across the top of the box with a hiss.

  “That’s it? How can something so small hold that much destructive power?” Alexander asked as he lifted out a largish briefcase.

  “I’m not that kind of engineer. We should be happy it’s as small as it is. Can you carry it?” Sheldon asked.

  “That’s what she said,” Alexander responded.

  “Dude, boundaries! We could die in the next couple of hours. Show some decorum,” Sheldon exclaimed.

  “This IS my version of decorum,” the former SAS man grunted as he shouldered the case. “We need to get back and get moving.”

  <<< >>>

  “Do we have everything we need to do this?” Amber asked the team.

  “I’ve got the bomb,” Alexander replied.

  “Computer, can you show us Level Five and the stairwells up?” Sheldon asked.

  The elevator doors were still open where they got off, but the stairwells were filled with Demons. Imps were climbing all over one another trying to open the doors onto each level. In some places, they were stacked five and six bodies deep.

  “By the Gods!” Amber exclaimed.

  “Are the main elevators still operational?” Alex asked.

  “All circuits seem to be working, but the power to the upper levels is failing due to damage and overload. Caution should be taken when using any machinery in those areas,” the computer replied to Alexander.

  “I don’t have enough power to fight through all of that! How are we supposed to get out of here? We’re trapped like rats down here. It won’t be long before they track us down and eat us!” Nadya started to panic.

  “We can get out, and we can complete the mission. Don’t worry, Nadya. There is another way, isn’t there Alex?” Amber glanced pointedly at the former SAS sergeant.

  Looking skyward the man ran through every evac scenario the team had ever hashed out. With a grim smile, he looked at both women, “Only one. The elevator shaft. We can climb up to Level One and then fight our way to the surface. Can all of you climb seventy feet straight up? There is a ladder so don’t worry about that.”

  “I… I can do short distances, but I might fall!” Nadya replied in a panicked voice.

  Amber stepped closer to her fellow Mage. “You’re a Class Three Witch, Nadya, don’t you have telekinesis? If you slip, you should be able to self-correct, so you don’t fall. We might be able to rig something up like rock climbers use. Do we have any stuff like that, Alex?”

  The ex-sergeant scratched his scruffy beard in thought, “I’ve got a couple of carabiners in my bag that will hold a human’s weight. Also, I saw several spools of rope in the armory. We should be able to rig up a couple of safety lines. But, neither Sheldon nor I am strong enough to pull you up seventy feet of the ladder. If you slip, we’re counting on you to help yourself.”

  “Get moving on that, Alex,” Amber instructed him.

  Amber talked to Nadya for the few moments it took for him to get back, even going so far as to give a couple of telekinesis lessons.

  “Do the Demons scare you that much?” Amber asked.

  Nadya shook her head and looked away for a moment, “My family is from Southern California. Not all that far from here, actually. My granddad told stories of the first horde and how frightening it was to flee from them on foot. I don’t wish that upon anyone but dying… Dying scares me more than that... I can’t explain it right.”

  “Then don’t try. Every one of us has a different belief when it comes to that. My own Wiccan belief says we recycle. The wheel turns, and we move on. I don’t intend to go out in a blaze of glory though. I want to survive this. Life is an experience, and I want to see it all. Do your job to the best of your ability,” Amber explained.

  “I don’t want to let anyone down,” Nadya whispered.

  “We’re a team. None of us will allow that to happen. Trust us, trust me,” Amber replied.

  “I’ll do my best,” Nadya affirmed and started rechecking her weapons again. She wasn’t big on guns usually. Knives and crossbows were more her things. But Alexander had found her a double barrelled sawed off shotgun, so all she had to do was point and shoot. Shotgun rounds can make big holes in things.

  “Everything ok, ladies?” Alexander asked.

  Amber glanced at Nadya who nodded back at her. “We’re good. Let’s go poke the bear and fly out of here.”

  The elevator ride up to the fifth level was very tense. Each member of the team was thinking the plan through in their heads while making corrections to their own part as they went.

  They were going to climb to Level One, fight their way out and over to the hole. Then drop the bomb and run like flaming hell. The Navy or Coast Guard would pick them up. Easy. Simple. It was just several thousand Demons. What could go wrong?

  <<< >>>

  “This sucks! Whose idea was this again?” Alexander groaned after twenty feet of ladder.

  “Yours!” the rest of the team whispered.

  Level Five was clear or at least it looked that way. Not bothering to even check the stairs the team locked down the hidden elevator and stepped into the main complex elevator. Without pressing a floor, they opened the roof hatch and climbed up to the top.

  The Demons on Levels Two, Three, and Four, definitely could hear the team. The sounds of tiny fists beating on metal could be heard as they pounded on the doors to the elevator shaft.

  “What happens if they break through?” Nadya asked. She was in between Alexander and Sheldon on the ladder.

  “Demonic waterfall. The Imps won’t even look,” Alex replied looking down at the Mage. “If that happens we’ll need to hurry. They will fill up the shaft quickly.”

  Almost as if he caused it to happen there was a loud crash above them. A meaty red hand had punched through the second level doors.

  “Get moving!” Amber cried out.

  Alexander climbed as fast as he could. Every four feet or so he would unclip Nadya’s line and reclip it higher to keep her safe.

  The shaft was cut straight through the bedrock. Blasting marks could be seen on all four bare rock walls. Only the areas near the doors were finished over with metal plates. The ladder rungs they were on were just rebar stuck into the rock.

  True to Alex’s prophetic comment, there was a sudden ripping crash, and a veritable tide of Demons came pouring down the shaft.

  Both Mages' hands came to life with power as they watched the waterfall of death in front of them. Imps, Cambion Demons, and several unknowns all went screaming past the quartet.

  “We don’t have time for this Amber. Climb!” Alex yelled at them.

  Several rungs up Alexander was parallel with level two’s entrance. Two large Demons stood in the entranceway. Looking up he could see the access panel to Level One set into the middle of the ceiling. There wasn’t a ledge or access of any kind to reach it. A slight path of steel I-beams ran around the elevator’s wider portion of shaft here.

  “Amber, can you lift me up to the access door?” he pointed upward.

  Leaning out as far as she could on the narrow ladder, Amber looked to where he was pointing. “No way in hell! If both of us did it, we wouldn’t have enough strength to get out of here. Stick to the plan, Alexander.”

  The stream of lesser Demons slowed as the larger one noticed the team. A few brave Imps tried attacking across the I-beams but were picked off by shots from the team.

  “Look out Alex!” Sheldon cried just before a greater Demon tossed one of the Imps straight at the fellow team member.

  Blam!

  Alex swung the Saiga shotgun he picked up in the armory around and blasted the demon like a clay pigeon. “That was a fastball special! Nadya, I need you up here.”

  Carefully Alexander stepped off the ladder and onto the closest I-beam. If the elevator car had been here, this would’ve been far easier to do.

  Keeping his gun trained on the opening he looked down at the female Mage and made a show of clipping her line to his belt. “I’ve got your line right here, I need you to make room for Sheldon.”

  Nadya reached up with her left hand and stepped up to Alex’s level. Balancing on the beam, Alexander fired one armed at the Demons in the doorway. The Mage could see that if he fell so would she. Taking his possible sacrifice to heart, Nadya released his hand, took a step onto the beam, and gripped the support beam behind her with her right hand.

  “That’s a good girl,” he muttered. “Sheldon, your turn.”

  Carefully edging his way around the walls, Alex made room for the tech to step off the ladder. At his side, Nadya was firing shotgun blasts one-handed at the smaller Demons.

  “Can either of you put a shield on that door so I can get to it? It’s the only way out of here!” Alexander exclaimed.

  Slinging her shotgun, Nadya began focusing her power on her free left hand. “I can try. It won’t hold for long. There are too many unnatural materials in the doorway.”

  “Anything you can give me will help.” he stopped shooting and reached into a belly pouch.

  Sheldon moved aside as Amber stepped off the ladder and turned. She studied the opening just as Nadya’s spell triggered. A glimmering shield now covered the entrance. “How long can you hold it?”

  “Moments. If we were anywhere but here…” Nadya grunted with the effort.

  Amber prepared an Air spell to bolster the Earth Mage’s as she watched Alexander unclip Nadya’s line and work his way around to the doors.

  “Alexander what are you…?” She stopped at his upraised hand.

  Removing his hand from the pouch, Alexander pulled out a claymore mine. It was one of the newer models that worked remotely.

  Seeing what he planned Nadya moved the shield closer to the Demons pushing them back into the hallway. The shield shimmered and rippled from the effort.

  Without looking, Alex armed the mine and called out, “Amber, I need you to shield the team. These things should only blow forward, but backscatter is possible.”

  Switching gears, the Air Mage threw her spell at herself and the other two as Alexander stepped away from the doorway.

  “Nadya, drop it!” Alexander cried.

  The explosion was almost instantaneous. Down went the shield and boom went the mine. For just a moment, the doorway was like a massive jar of strawberry jam as more than a hundred crammed together Demons died when sixteen-hundred hexagonal fragments hit them at an explosive speed of 3,937 meters per second.

  Slipping and sliding on Demon blood and guts, Alexander stepped into the second-floor elevator landing. After several booms from his shotgun, he yelled to the team. “Get over here as fast as you can. We’ve got incoming!”

  Nadya unclipped her end of the safety line and dropped it into the shaft. She patted his arm as she stepped past him. Spells at the ready she sent blasts of power down both directions of the passageway.

  Both the stairs and the elevator to Level One were on the opposite side of this floor. Dedicated to mostly administrative offices and tech stations it, like Level Five, was a maze of offices and locked rooms. Planners had designed an outer ring of passages to traverse the floor without passing through any workspaces. There were, however, crossing points and those might be Demon infested.

  “Which way, do you remember?” Alexander asked.

  Sheldon held up a tablet with directions still blinking on it, “That way.”

  When the tech started to take the point, the former SAS fighter grabbed him back. “You stay in the middle with Nadya. Amber take the point, I’ve got tail-end Charlie. Anything comes up behind us—is dead.”

  “Enemy ground, guys. He’s right. Sheldon, you’re behind Nadya. Blast anything that attacks but watch your ammo. It’s a long way to the hole.” Forming several balls of ice and wind in her hands Amber tossed them forward.

  Chapter 8

  At the Charleston, South Carolina incursion site demons worked frantically to gather information for their Duke. “Milord, we now control the base in California,” Dargun informed his commander and Lord, Duke Harborym.

  The Demon duke that occupied the body that once belonged to Camilla Blackmore smiled and let out a roar. “Excellent work. Now we can claim what should rightfully be ours. Inform our new Captains to begin the attack upon the coastal cities. Take as many slaves as possible and open the breeding halls. We must be ready to repel our new allies if they attack us. Dragons can only enter this world one at a time through the portals, and we can kill them quite easily.”

  Dargun bowed as he received orders. “Milord, the Witch Esta has not returned through the gate as yet.”

  The once beautiful woman’s eyes flared red and flames crackled around her like a corona. “What! She dares my wrath? Send another group of guards through the gate. They are to return her to us or don’t return.”

  Glad he’d excelled far above his guard status, Dargun only nodded, “It will be as you have foretold.”

  Still inflamed, the Duke waved his servant away. Esta’s perceived betrayal was only a minor irritant. The power he was receiving from the number of deaths in California had already increased his power by a factor of five. Taking the cities would complete it. He walked out onto what the humans called the captain’s walk and looked out at the harbor. Soon. Soon his minions under Nuthon’s leadership would spawn and take this town that they called the Holy City and make it Hell on Earth. If the portal could be completed, no human would be able to stop him.

  <<< >>>

  “There she is!” FBI Agent Anabella Smith pointed toward the large antebellum house.

  Agent Jones directed the camera hidden on the outside of the surveillance van to take continuous pictures and video.

 

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