Elgin
*Uh...what...where...uh forget it.* Elgin picked up an image of a delta winged jet spinning out of the sky with its belly ripped off. The airplane had been a lot more fragile than the Iffrit had anticipated. But the jet had been going down anyway, the pilot having ejected in terror when he found himself facing a flying monster in the night sky over the Persian desert.
The GSh-6-23 six barrel gas powered Gatling gun in its pod form was a lot of weapon. And the Iffrit liked it, a lot. It was a bit hot though, it would blow through all two hundred plus rounds in the magazine in a second or so.
The Iffrit brought the weapon up in a steady two clawed grip, his vision overlaying his target and the probabilistic path of the semi armor piercing 23mm rounds. The cannon roared for well under a second and the Iffrit was slammed back by tons of recoil force. A small section of the Palace’s wall blew in, then a section of an inside wall, and the floor of the basement. Tao had a fraction of a second of warning, before he was shredded by Russian steel and explosives.
But Tao didn’t die quite quickly enough or completely. He had finally recognized the existence of the vast hunger under the building and had been in the process of communicating with it when his body was blown apart by a torrent of incoming semi armor piercing rounds.
The Iffrit swore to itself in a million languages and leapt skyward, avoiding by millimeters the lethal lash of an armored tentacle that punched up through a sewer grating and snapped down where the ancient war machine’s neck had been an instant before. The sky above the bordello was black with rain clouds, though the sky over most of the city was clear. The mist of rain that had been coming down changed to a torrent as the huge winged creature went up on hard beating wings, the cannon burped once, twice, three times, blowing tentacles apart each time, but it was pointless, two, three, more appeared in their place. The Iffrit put the weapon away in its intra-dimensional holster.
Looking down as he climbed the Iffrit saw the Hunger’s red, armor plated tentacles reaching up out of a dozen drains and manhole covers, lashing in pain at the abrupt death of its creator but reaching, searching in ravening hunger for something living to feed on.
In its insentient appetite the hunger had eaten the very rock away under the Palace, creating a vast hollow hundreds of feet deep. The cap that the Palace sat on was perhaps fifty feet thick, the Iffrit contemplated its options, but it decided it had only one sure way of opening the poisonous abscess to the air and sunlight of the real world. For a moment the Iffrit flashed into the orange half light of the shadow realm then back into the real world, for an instant a cone of orange surrounded him, a sheet of the shadow realm wrapping him and and the bordello. The sheet was gone in an instant, then the Iffrit folded its wings plunging down, following the Palace as it sank into the ground with a shrieking moan of displaced air.
Rain lashed down out of a coal black sky and lightning began to dance from ground to cloud, from cloud to ground, and between any protuberance or peak on the buildings around the gaping pit that was now filled with a roar of rage, of agony and of shattering masonry and stone.
The Iffrit plunged into the hole. A hundred armored red tentacles lashed up and at him each with its own dim and raging intelligence. This time the Iffrit could not dodge and it bellowed with pain as the tentacles struck home, slicing, smashing, bending.
Far away, just above the surface of the sun an odd three dimensional hole appeared, a black sink the shape of an agonized and writhing Iffrit. The pit lit up with sunfire, a searing shaft punched up into the black clouds as water laden air super heated in a fraction of a second.
The sunfire snapped off as suddenly as it had appeared but it had served its purpose. The pit was dark for only an instant before filling with blue white flame. The pit vomited a column of chemical flame a thousand feet long, an upside down rocket motor trying to push the island of Manhattan into the Earth, the whole of the island shuddered with the thunder of the motor,, the building closest to the column were blown to brick dust by the sound alone.
-o-
Section Chief Desmond Lee clapped his hands over his ear protectors as a roar filled the world, making everything, including his entrails shudder and shake. The brilliant white light of a few seconds ago, that he had seen from behind the shelter of an intervening building was replaced by a red orange light as the pumper went around the corner of the oddly desolate section of New York on what felt like two wheels.
Ahead he saw a tapering column of fire emerging from the ground, one couldn’t really call it a fire really, it was more like the deflagration of explosives like he’d seen in Iraq and the ‘Stan more times than he cared to remember. There was a pit in the ground that the column of flame emerged from but the fire was ripping the pit wider and wider, he could see chunks of pavement and earth being hurled into the sky.
It took a moment or so for him to realize that what goes up, must come down, he punched the ‘PubAddrs’ button on his mik, “Everyone, get under cover, get indoors, under a car, in a hole, Incoming!” He couldn’t even hear his own voice against the all encompassing roar.
Then rocks and other debris began to fall all around, mostly small stuff at first, it was eerie to see it bouncing windows smashing, know it was hitting the roof above him but not be able to hear it over that world ending roar. Now came heavier stuff, Desmond saw a block the size of an office desk smash a car into the ground, fortunately the car had been up on cinder blocks longer than Desmond had been a fireman by the looks of it.
The sound itself was having an effect, roof tiles were falling, windows were breaking, buildings were swaying and shedding dust as the sonic attack began to powder concrete and brick. The road ahead was rippling and bucking, manhole covers were popping off with billows of evil green flame.
Then the flame sputtered like a vast Bunsen burner running out of fuel, the flame shortened, bloomed, snapped tall again and then bloomed and fizzled to a shimmer over the mouth of the pit. Then it bloomed with a final gut shaking WHOMP and went out.
Debris continued to shower down as the the pumper bumped to a stop. Desmond tapped on the drivers shoulder, pointed forward. None of them could hear a thing over the roar of over stimulated aural nerves. As the truck jerked forward there was a hard crash and a piece of a building the size of a Smart Car broke apart on the shell behind the cab, if it had landed on the cab it might have killed them all.
The shower seemed to last forever, only a few large pieces came down, then it was small rocks, pebbles and then dust. The now pumpless pumper continued to creep forward until the roadway was too badly damaged and then Desmond hopped down followed by the rest of the crew.
He found himself on a new plaza on the bad edge of Chinatown, a huge hole in the center of the plaza surrounded by what looked like roadbed and old building bricks ground into urban grunge mulch. Every building surrounding the plaza was collapsed, their bricks partially pulverized, the structure behind the collapse obviously fatally weakened. He started giving hand commands to the crew, get the danger do not cross tape up now, make sure no one was trapped in the buildings, check for fires. He saw other crews at other entrances to the plaza doing the same thing, the police starting to fan out in support.
Grabbing a Haul-Back rope and clipping it to his belt Desmond carefully made his way toward the vast pit. He had his cell phone out and was videoing the scene for the record back at the fire house. His ears were beginning to recover and he could hear the sounds of a bustling disaster scene, if softly against the left over hiss.
Desmond stopped at the edge of the pit and looked in. Something like awe hit him, the pit went down, and down and down. Across from him he saw a water main gushing water into the cavern, he followed the water down but it vanished into the darkness. A fairly major gas main and been sheered as well, it burnt with a fitful blue then yellow flame. Electrical and phone cables hung down into the abyss, a couple of them sparking and writhing.
The black clouds that had come up s
o suddenly were almost gone and the sun finally broke through, sending a shaft of light down into the pit. Desmond inched forward until finally he could see the bottom. There was water down there like you’d expect but it was crystal clear, and through the water he could see tumbled rock and brick of a building that must have fallen into the pit when its roof caved in. The walls of the pit were ridged like he’d seen in water carved caves, though he couldn’t even begin to imagine where the water to have made this huge cavern would have come from.
His phone rang, he tapped answer, “Lee.”
“What the hell is it?” The voice was that of Fire Chief Lemond, calling from his office down town.
“Some kind of huge sink hole sir. I think it must have been filling up with gas and oil and when the roof finally gave way it let in oxygen and a cable break sparked it, blew it to hell and gone.”
“Jesus Desmond, I’ve been watching the video you and the others are sending, it’s a fucking nightmare. I’ve got Homeland Security screaming about a nuclear explosion, the FBI asking about al-Qaida sleeper cells, the Israeli consulate asking about an Iranian plot, the Iranian’s claiming the Israeli’s bombarded their consulate with bricks...shit!” Having vented the chief hung up.
Desmond started his careful way back. Halfway there he stopped and stared at something off to the side. Lying half buried in the rock and asphalt mulch was what looked like a red arm, an arm with too many joints and some kind of shell like a lobsters. It was utterly alien to look at, and it stank worse than anything the SubChief had ever smelt, it was already rotting away as he watched. He made a move to get out his iPhone again. But stopped the impulse and the movement, instead he looked away and steadfastly, carefully plodded back to his crew. There were going to be enough crazy rumors about this cluster fuck, no need to add that to the stew.
-o-
“Hey you, I’m talking to you,” the young cop lightly kicked the well dressed vagrant’s boot.
The sleeping vagrant groaned and opened a bloodshot blue eye, “Yes officer?” the accent was pleasantly western and if not friendly, neither was it surly.
“There’s a public emergency we want everyone off the street and out of the parks, you need to move.” The young policeman was a little less assured with the bloodshot eye fixed on him.
With a groan Elgin climbed to his feet, he ached all over. “Okay, heard the boom, hope nobody was hurt?”
The policeman grimaced, “A lot of people hit by debris and flying glass, a few killed I’m afraid.”
Elgin closed his eyes, he had known that was going to be the answer but he had hoped for a miracle. “Thanks, try and have a good day officer....uh,” He glanced at the name tag, tried to smile, “Manners.”
The policeman had no idea how much willpower it took for Elgin to start moving, he hurt all over and had several miles to walk, since he had no cash on him.
*You could easily fabricate some* Cutter pointed out, *It’s just colored paper and the bills you had with you last night are gone forever, it would be just recompense.*
Ignoring the logical argument Elgin tried to pick up his walking pace from the crippled dawdle he’d started at. At least he didn’t look as bad as he felt, but for the first time in a long time he felt like having a drink, or finding some weed.
He didn’t remember much after talking to the thug in the mirror realm forest. He remembered the battering the Hunger had delivered to the Iffrit in a few seconds, before the burst of raw sun ignited it. How the Iffrit had known that the goo that was the Hunger’s physical manifestation would burn like that was something he would have to ask, some other day.
The Iffrit had been hurled out of the crater on the leading edge of the blast wave and flipped into the shadow realm before crashing through a shadow realm sky scraper and coming to rest in the ruins of a half block of decaying brownstones.
The damages to the Iffrits body were no less real for having been done to a machine that could fold itself into the spaces between universes. So Elgin was dealing with the aches of his own abused body and some leakage from wherever the Iffrit existed between appearances.
Elgin looked to the south, the sudden intense squall that had covered the battle was long gone and a half dozen helicopters were circling the site of the vanished bordello like vultures over a fresh carcass. There were going to be a lot of rumors and theories about the end of the Palace, hopefully one of these days he’d be able to tell someone what had really happened, but for now the ‘sink hole full of gas’ theory he’d heard on the news feed was good to go as far as he was concerned.
-o-
It was evening, Alicia Pi reclined on the settee in panties, bra and diaphanous jacket, her thick, silky, jet black hair loose and flowing. She flicked the news feed off the screen of her iPad and brought up the e-mail. She was being congratulated for the destruction of Fenton Wu, little though she’d had to do with it or claimed to have. The near hundred million they had pulled out of the madman’s accounts probably had a lot to do with that.
There was a knock and then the door to her suite opened and Jason entered, looking every inch the new oriental stud that he was. He was sweating from the workout, he grinned at her, got a better view of her attire and leered at her, “Alicia” drawing out the last syllable into something like the end of ‘delicious.’
She smiled back, “You look pleased with yourself, a new personal best on the bar bells?”
“No, just going over the accounts again, who’d have known that bent bastard had so much built up. If he’d kept his spending under control he’d have been a billionaire.”
“Maybe, but it takes a lot of something to hide the fact you are killing hundreds of people a year.” She grimaced, “You know that if the change continues sorcery isn’t going to stay secret for long, and eventually the House will loose its advantage over the rest of humanity. And being one of the arms of a secret society that makes its living off human misery is not going to go over well. Even today, if they knew we existed they could overwhelm and exterminate us, if they had to.”
He dropped into a seat across from her, his smile fading, “Oh, and here I was thinking you were only thinking about my return.”
“Oh I was lover boy but, as big a subject as you are,” she purred. “I still have cycles for other concerns.” Her smile was wicked.
Jason tapped his leg looking troubled, “You looked over the reconciliation of accounts?”
A little shrug, “Skimmed, I’m no accountant, not even an MBA.”
“There was one account that we didn’t get. All that came back when the skimmer hit it was an encoded text file, I almost throttled Jess but he insisted that that it wasn’t a joke.” He took out his phone and punched in some codes, “Read the file, it’s addressed to you.”
Alicia got a cold feeling, the encrypted e-mail opened and she read:
To Alicia Pi and Jason Hu:
All of the other accounts are yours to do with as your conscience sees fit or your masters’ command. This account is small recompense for the evil the House of Dragons did to generations of women and men and will be used to try and undo some of the evil done to those still living. Do not try and re ensnare those who escaped the Ugly Palace of Lost Doves.
Do not mistake mercy for weakness for I destroyed the mad one and his creation. I know your purpose here but that does not mean I will forgive future transgressions. Alicia Pi you have the soul for your calling but you have trodden far from the road of righteousness, do not ever believe it is too late to turn aside, do not ever think that you are alone.
There was no signature or from line but at the bottom of the note there was a little black graphic, of a four footed eagle winged creature with one long clawed foreleg upraised.
Staring blankly at Jason, she asked “How much?” not that she cared but it was an obvious question and it might matter if the House got wind of this.
“Something north of ten million, that was how much was in it the last time my
team pinged it. The bank says that its been empty except for that note for almost a week, but the ping was the day before yesterday, so something got to the bank’s core database.”
Alicia bit her lip and curled a thick lock of hair around her fingers, her eyes blank, wrinkles between her eyebrows, she glanced up, “Jason, you know I’m loyal to the house, right? I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
She appeared to have no idea how devastatingly desirable she was sitting there, Jason wondered if she realized how guilty it made her look at this moment, but he knew Alicia well, probably better than she did herself and he understood the message in the griffins letter even if she didn’t.
He got up and lifted her legs so he could sit by her, she passively let him lift her legs then put them down and as he began to massage her feet her eyes opened in shock and delight and her back arched gently, “Oh that feels good.”
“I’m glad,” he paused, then went on, “Alicia, you and I work you know that.”
She opened her eyes a slit, “We do a lot of work together,” she said, teasing and testing him.
He sighed, “Alicia, I love you, have for years, do you think I follow you around like a puppy just because you’re a powerful sorceress and a very good lay?”
He rolled his thumbs up the arch of her left foot. She gasp sighed and shivered, but didn’t reply, her face in fact was very still, her eyes closed. He began to wonder if he’d misjudged her, or the moment. Then she moved, bounced so suddenly she was sitting in his lap and her lips were very close to his. She smiled wickedly, “Oh my! Hey mister, are you glad to see me or is that your Glock down there?” then she kissed him fiercely, possessively.