Shaking his head no at the young woman, he tried to explain, “This place is old. Some circuits they’ve never updated. That thing you tried to grab is called the three-phase-mercury-arc-rectifier, and it’s very unusual to see one in actual use these days. It’s used to convert AC power to DC power. Basically, this thing controls the smaller motors that run the elevator. What happens is a magnetic arm activates the mercury inside this cathode. The spark created…”

  Sheldon trailed off when he realized that Nadya wasn’t there anymore. “It’s not boring to me,” he muttered.

  “Ladies? Here’s what we have to do. We will all board the elevator, and the both of you will focus power on that line. If possible, envision electrical energy, but Magickal will serve the same purpose,” Sheldon explained as he attached the wire to the side of the elevator.

  Amber looked around, “Where’s Alex?”

  “Right here,” the weapons specialist spoke as he stepped out of the darkened hallway. “I booby-trapped the corridor as best I could. It might slow them down a bit. Did you figure it out?”

  Sheldon pointed to the box and explained. Alexander looked at the wire and frowned, “Where did you get the wire?”

  “Ripped it out of the wall over there,” Sheldon remarked.

  A loud explosion echoed down the hall.

  “Hope it works because we’ve run out of time!” Alex hustled them all into the elevator. “Doors?”

  “I disconnected the power. Focus your power now!” Sheldon exclaimed.

  Both Mages cupped their hands and forced as much Magickal power into the electrical system of the elevator as they could. While rigging up the wire, Sheldon had disconnected every other possible drain on the system.

  There was a sudden whirring noise, and the elevator shook. Ever so slowly it started to move upward at less than half speed.

  “Crap!” Alexander unslung his Saiga and started firing at the Imps that tried to scurry onto the slow moving elevator.

  Stepping in front of the Mages as protection, Sheldon did the same. They were moving but burning through their ammo at an accelerated pace.

  Ever so slowly the car passed up into the shaft denying the Demons access to it on the lower level. Up above no one knew what might happen.

  “Just a little more, Amber. We’re almost there.” Sheldon coaxed the Mage leader. The elevator was halfway up into the shell of the building when it stopped suddenly.

  Amber shook her head and braced herself against the wall, “Too much. I need to rest to recharge up a bit.”

  “No time. We need to get out of here and find cover!” Alex directed.

  Climbing out first, the larger man pulled Amber up and then Nadya, “Sheldon, can you make it?”

  He nodded and joined the others behind chunks of debris as they scanned the area.

  “Gamma Section still stands, we could shelter there and let you rest. I’ve still got to activate the bomb,” Alex pointed.

  “Let’s go then,” Amber ordered.

  The original entrance to the section was up a stairway and through several layers of airlocks and security doors. All of them were shattered. Demon ichor and blood were everywhere. So were the men and women of Gamma Section.

  “They died hard,” Nadya whispered.

  “And took several hundred with them,” Alex finished her sentence.

  The halls were rent and ripped by claw marks and bullet holes. For each human body, there were at least a dozen Demonic ones.

  Using the tip of his shotgun, Alex opened the door to the command center. It was filled with lots more bodies, but none still moved.

  “Over there,” Sheldon pointed. One of the consoles still glittered with lights.

  A female corpse in a private’s uniform had a death grip on a large red button on the board. Pulling slightly Alexander was able to move the body off the panel and onto the floor.

  “Weapon of last resort. It must have been her last act,” Alex explained.

  Amber peered at the dead woman’s face as she removed one of her dog tags, “Private Bakes. I’ll remember that name and pass it along to the authorities. Provided we all escape this mess. What’s it look like?”

  “About what we thought,” Alex responded as he gazed at the far-off hole through the remaining windscreens.

  “That bad? We need to rest and plan then,” Amber remarked.

  “Search the bodies for ammunition. We’re going to need every single round if we plan to do this,” Sheldon stepped up, “Ignoring Amber’s gaze, he started patting Bakes down.”

  Amber checked her watch. “I figure two and a half to three hours from now we’ll go.”

  “Why that much time?” Nadya asked.

  “The sun will be up by then. I’d much rather fight in the day than at night. Plus it gives us a bit of sleep and allows Alex time to make a melee weapon,” Amber explained.

  Alexander smiled. He liked clubs and things. The better to beat in the heads of Demons.

  Chapter 10

  The appearance of four humans in the middle of the Demon horde came as a shock. The Demonic Captains were deep in battle with human tank forces and shock infantry when word was passed that Human Mages and fighters were battling toward the portal rather than fleeing it. Orders were given, and forces turned. For the defenders, it was just the pause they needed to move additional arms forward. For Team Theta it meant attackers both ahead and behind.

  “I think they noticed us!” Alexander yelled as he swung his combat bowie knife in an arc.

  Amber blasted the Demons charging her with her pyrokinesis, “You think?”

  The team was moving as a tight square toward the portal. Each member’s strength supported by the next.

  “How are we on time?” Sheldon asked. Even with the team’s hands-free communication system turned all the way up they could barely hear each other over the roar of Demon screams.

  “No idea! Just keep moving,” Alex replied. He was chopping and shooting Demons right and left.

  An accomplished knife fighter as well as a Mage, Nadya struck out at a Cambion Demon that got too close to her. Instead of knives, she wielded a pair of eighteen-inch Roman style Gladius swords. Chopping left then right, the young Mage’s arms and upper body, dripped with Demon ichor. “This freaking sucks! Brace yourselves I’m going to try something.”

  Concentrating her Magick, Nadya drew an enormous amount of power from the Earth around her. Several ley lines met in the area making it rich in energy both Demonic and natural. She’d been careful up till now to not use what was around her. The threat of possession was just too great.

  Gritting her teeth the Mage cast a common, but underused earthquake spell. Using the team’s location as an epicenter, the ground beneath their feet bucked outward in a wave of destruction that toppled and crushed unwary Demons.

  “Alright, Nadya!” Sheldon cried. “You should do that one more often.”

  “The risk is too great out here,” Nadya panted, the spell took a lot out of her. Casting her eyes forward she could just see the ruins of the enclosed bowl. “The bowl looks broken.”

  “That is a good sign,” Alexander pulled the team forward, striking downward at injured Demons as they walked.

  “We just need to get there,” Amber muttered.

  <<<>>>

  “Sir! A seismic event at the Demonic portal site has been detected,” one of the techs sitting in the monitoring station reported to Michael Best.

  “Show me,” Best commanded. Ever since the horde broke through the commander had been doing backup scans for the Pentagon. ARCANE’s equipment was just that much better than anything the military currently had.

  High above the state of California, one of ARCANE’s Keyhole twenty-five satellites maneuvered for position aiming its cameras downward.

  The tech pointed toward the screens on the main wall, “That’s the feed we’re getting from Sat Com’s KH 11’s and that is ours. We’re scanning on all frequencies and wavelengths. The epicenter was right there,” the tech pointed at the ARCANE feed.

  “Can we zoom in?” Best asked.

  “Our bird can read the text off a phone,” The man fiddled with his controls, and suddenly they were all looking at the disturbance.

  Everyone in the room dropped what they were doing and stared at the screen. Four heavily armed humans stood in a square pattern surrounded by thousands of writhing Demons. As they watched from the safety of the ARCANE bunker, four people fought for their lives. Magickal spells sparked and Demons fell. Whatever one man was firing kept the Demons at bay for only a moment. Suddenly there was a flash and alarms sounded in the room.

  “What the hell was that?” Michael Best yelled.

  “Energy spike coupled with another seismic event!” One of the techs behind him replied.

  Michael nodded without even looking. On the big screen, the flash faded, and Demons were down all across the field. Theta team moved even closer to the portal. They kept sweeping down with melee weapons killing as they went. “Class Three my ass. Someone misclassified that girl on purpose. If she survives this, we can reclassify and move her into tactical.”

  The tech sitting in front of the commander looked up at him, “Sir? Did you say something?”

  Michael shook his head, “No. Just muttering to myself. What’s the big picture look like?”

  The screens switched, and one of the military feeds was on the big screen. Demons like a red tide stretched out across Southern California. Military forces were marked as being in a position to back up the coming attack. Pentagon planners were trying to get as many units ready as they could.

  “The horde turned! According to our figures, there’s been a thirty-two-degree change in their advance. Pentagon advisers say it looks like a retreat,” one of the techs commented.

  “Demons don’t act that way. They’ve figured out our plans somehow. Get me whoever’s in charge over there right freaking now. They need to bomb the living hell out of them NOW! If that thirty percent or whatever catches up to Theta, we might never get that thing closed!” Michael ordered. “Send this data to Right and Left. Now’s the time for action.”

  <<<>>>

  “Move, move, move! Get those tanks into position!” Master Sergeant Huckleberry yelled at the units in his squadron over the radio. The One Hundred and Eleventh Cavalry Regiment had a long history in California and fought in the last Demon War. Unlike last time though, the officers didn’t make it to the battle line. Their convoy was attacked and destroyed by Demonic scouts. That left temporary command to the few non-commissioned officers in the unit. Replacements were supposed to be coming.

  “Can we even damage these things with the M256, sir?” The tanks loader, acting corporal Nancy Kim asked.

  “Don’t call me sir, I work for a living. The Italians did some damage with the outdated guns they had. We should be able to take down the big ones for sure. The .50 cal and the M240 will take down the smaller ones. I’ve lost connection with command, so I’m not even sure what intel we have is real right now,” Huckleberry replied.

  “The reason I ask, Sergeant, is when we got the call to move I had them load our entire supply of M1028’s and distribute it around. We only had enough to replace half the shells though,” the young woman explained.

  “Half? In this tank right here?” Master Sergeant Huckleberry pointed to the M1 tank they were all inside of.

  “Yes, sir... I mean yes, Sergeant Huckleberry. All four of our group has them,” she replied.

  Huckleberry rubbed his hand together. For just a moment he envisioned one of his favorite authors laughing at the irony. Picking up the radio headset he looked back at the loader, “We might just survive this after all. I’m going to start calling you Faith though. Think of it as a new nickname, Corporal Kim. Now get us into position while the rest of the sergeants and I rethink the battle plan.”

  E4 driver Chuck Avery nudged the corporal, “What’s 1028?”

  Corporal Kim loosened the headphone on her head and glanced over at the driver. “M1028. Think of it as a gigantic shotgun shell designed for a tank. The round itself is experimental, but we were supposed to start testing them next month before they were deployed to Conception base. Why us is a mystery, but they will make a huge difference here.”

  “Why, Faith?” Chuck asked.

  Corporal Kim laughed, “No idea. But remember it’s coming from a man named Leaf Huckleberry. Basic must have sucked so much for that man. Typical California National Guard.”

  “Leaf? Who names a child Leaf?” Chuck asked.

  “That would be hippies, E4. Now if the social circle is over, we need to get moving. Units Three and Four are going to take either side of that ridge ahead. Two gets the front, and we will hold the high ground. So we need to slip in right behind Unit Two, understood?”

  “Yes, sergeant,” both crew members replied.

  Huckleberry snorted, “Just do your jobs.”

  Regular Army, Marines, and California National Guard forces were moving into the general encirclement plan the Pentagon was using. They were set up from inside the ruins of Los Angeles, to Barstow, Porterville, and to just below San Jose in Hollister. The White House plan was calling for containment. Latecomers to the party were setting up on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountain range. If the Demons broke through, that might be the only physical barrier that could hold then in place while the nuclear option was deployed. No one was sure if radiation could even kill a Demon Lord.

  <<<>>>

  “How much time is left on the clock?” Sheldon asked the team. His guns clocked out a long time ago, and he was using the very expensive Benelli shotgun as a club.

  “What is it with you and time? We should have plenty of time to get to the chopper. Call it a half hour or so,” Alexander grunted out. He too was out of ammo and was chopping away with his combat knife.

  “I just want to know when I’m dying,” Sheldon cried out as he struck an Imp in the head and ducked a return blow.

  “Nobody’s dying today!” Amber waved her hand in a cutting motion, and more than twenty Demons went flying as if tossed. She formed a fireball in her other hand. “Duck!”

  The ball of flame expanded as it flew, incinerating another dozen or more Demons. The smell of the burning dead was overwhelming to the team.

  “We’re almost there. As soon as you can, Alex toss that thing into the hole,” Amber ordered as she readied a spell in her mind. “I’m got one more big one to toss then we break and head to the extraction point. Clear?”

  Alexander swung the bulky briefcase he’d been carrying for hours around to the front of his body and checked its readouts. Time to detonation was fifty-seven minutes and twenty-two seconds. “Understood boss.”

  The team was no longer in a group formation because the entire area surrounding the hole was covered in wreckage and Demon bodies, but more were coming out of the hole.

  “Everyone hold on!” Amber muttered a word of power and tossed the spell from her hand towards the hole. For just a moment nothing happened, but then a thin funnel of air and debris started circulating inside the massive hole. Just yards away from the team the chimney expanded into a full-blown tornado that was growing larger by the second. Using her entire will, Amber pushed the Magickal formation toward the north and the main Demon horde. It shuddered and fought her but began to move. Chunks of broken weapons, Demon bodies, and unknown material swirled across the battlefield violently.

  Sheldon shouted suddenly, “Nadya look out!”

  One of the guns off the old battleship mounts from Gamma Section flew through the air as the small funnel cloud reached F3 status. The barrel struck the earth inches from the young Mage. If she hadn’t ducked, it would have killed her.

  The swirling black cloud was now a quarter-mile wide and increasing. Lightning flashed, and the sky boiled. Black clouds rolled across the sky whipping the wind into a fury. Demon bodies flew in every direction.

  “What the hell, Amber?” Alex yelled into the storm.

  “Drop the damn bomb, Alex! We need to get out of here!” Amber yelled back at him.

  Alexander grimaced but agreed. Stepping over the destruction at the portal’s edge he swung the case as hard as he could. Like a shot putter, he tossed it toward the middle of the hole. For just a moment it seemed to hang in the swirling winds and then drop like a stone.

  “We’ve got less than an hour! That chopper better be there, or we’re dead!” Alexander yelled and waved the team back towards the base.

  <<<>>>

  “They did it, sir, the bomb is in the hole!” The comm tech announced to the room at ARCANE.

  “It’s not over yet, son. Do we know what spun off the tornado?” Michael Best asked.

  The group’s scientific advisor shook his head negatively, “It has to be Magick of some kind. California doesn’t get those sorts of weather phenomenon. Not enough low-pressure areas to speak of. That thing is at least an F4 and increasing.”

  “This is why we Mages are NOT supposed to tamper with the weather. Especially in a power-charged area like this,” Michael explained.

  “How so?” The scientist asked. He was in awe of the tornado on the screen. It was way past F4 and wasn’t slowing down.

  “Magick can come from many sources. Human Mages rely on that which is produced by ley lines that encircle the Earth. They are able to tap into an unending well of energy and manipulate it to whatever their need is. Constitution and personal willpower are all that’s required to control the power. Paranormal Magick users are born with the ability to create their own power from within. They can also use the lines. But a third power source exists as well. Death Magick.

  “Certain religious groups use the power for good but only after massive amounts of training and tradition. Dark Mages and Necromancers are able to tap the energy released when someone dies and use it for stronger spells.” Michael pointed at the screen, “Much stronger. Whoever cast that wasn’t as careful as they should be. If we rewind the tapes, you’ll see it started out small. That was the ley line Magick at work. Tens of thousands of living things died on that plain today. Somehow the Magick was corrupted.”

 

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