Ragnarok (31 page)

When thinking back to Rook, and how she met him, and how she had come to this place, it made her angry. The anger countered the bliss. That, and the anger and the frustration felt more natural for her. More Russian. So, she stopped trying to focus on Rook and instead turned her attention to the abduction of her parents.

The thought that someone would take her mother and father filled her with a deep rage. That the same people would abduct her and take her aboard a ship—the ship on which she had met Rook—bound for who knew where, filled her with a desire for vengeance.

Things had gone easily for Asya as a child. But as adulthood had neared, she was given two choices: ballet, for which she had a natural talent, or medicine. Both options would be well respected and would allow her to move from the middle class to the upper echelons of stardom, or at least cement her role in the new Russian middle class.

She had shocked her family by choosing the army instead.

Her athletic abilities helped her excel in combat training, but she was too defiant to rise in the ranks, and was already hindered by the fact that she was a woman. She wasn’t interested in rank, anyway. She just wanted a real experience in her life. She served her time in the infantry, and then when the chance came to leave the service, she did. She traveled around Russia and even went abroad a few times. She thought about settling down somewhere, but for now, she had been happy to keep on the move and see some sights. She was almost to that place she had been seeking—a place of inner contentment bred from pleasure with the decisions she had made instead of those decisions made for her. Then the men that Rook had killed captured her on the streets of Murmansk.

A life interrupted. Her life, interrupted.

The anger she felt filled her like an inflating blimp. She let it rise, pushing out any semblance of happiness. She could now picture the attack on Rook and the anger she’d felt toward the mob. She pictured the people and the injuries they had sustained. She understood now, after having been forced by her bliss to march Rook to the pit, that the others had been under the influence of the glowing wall of light as well.

She became furious.

An entire village of people. Controlled. Their lives stolen. Brutalized!

She let all of it feed her anger. As though a hypnotist had just snapped his fingers, her mind returned in a flash.

Asya Machtcenko opened her eyes and found she was sitting in a chair, in a dark room. It was a computer lab with several desk workstations and flat-screen monitors. All sensations of being controlled were gone. She recalled sending Rook to his doom in the pit. She also remembered handing him the LED and telling him not to drop it. She hoped he had listened to her.

And where is Queen?
she wondered.

She got up and looked down at herself. At some point, she had put on a white lab coat. She grimaced.
I am no man’s lackey.
She was about to take it off, but changed her mind. It might help her move through the lab unnoticed. She needed to get to Rook and see if she could help him.

How long have I been under its control? How long have I been unaware of the things around me?

She stood and scanned the computer displays. They were all on, even though no one sat at any of the stations. She wondered idly where all the money for this equipment had come from. Rook had said the town was remote and they didn’t even have telephones or wireless coverage. The entire lab was covert and underground. To Asya’s way of thinking, a government had to be involved. Possibly even her own.

None of the information on the displays—having to do with the weather outside the lab, the giant, curved metal cage and power levels in a ‘receptor’—meant much to her. She crossed the floor to the room’s only door. She opened it slowly and walked out in a very slow, dreamlike shuffle. She let the focus in her eyes loosen, careful not to stare at anything in particular. Walking was difficult at first, but the more steps she took, the easier it became.

The massive glowing sphere cast brilliant light from the center of the room. She intentionally stayed on the edge of the cavernous space, avoiding the influence of the sphere, but not appearing to do so.

She didn’t see any people, but there were a few of the white creatures with the spooky eyes moving around the chamber. They looked at her with their heads turned awkwardly to the side,
almost far enough to break their own necks
, she thought,
unless they can turn their heads all the way like owls
.

She continued her dazed walk, noting whenever a creature would move in her peripheral vision, but none of them advanced on her position. They just seemed restless to her. When she reached the tunnel where she’d deposited Rook in the pit, she moved past it. She realized that she had no way to get him out of the pit.

If he was still alive.

She wanted to hurry, but the lingering creatures might notice. She needed to find a rope or something she could use to help Rook.
Something I can conceal in this coat.

She moved to the office where she recalled cutting the plastic bands on Rook’s wrists that attached him to the chair. She also recalled the gun the man had. It wasn’t a rope, but if it was still in the room, she would take it. She checked her pockets and found that the gun she had held on Rook and the knife she had used to cut him free were missing. She didn’t remember anyone taking those things from her, but neither could she recall giving them up.

The office was empty. No knife, no guns and even the laptop the man had used was gone. She waited in the office for a minute so it looked like she had a reason for being there if the white
watchers
, as she thought of them, were intelligent and paying attention to her movements.

Then she left the room and started around the circumference of the great room again. A few of the watchers were still in the massive space, but some of them were gone. She tried to look covertly around the room as she shuffled along the wall, looking for another place to explore. The next door was labeled with a mop and bucket symbol on the door and the legend:
Freiheitsstrafe Schrank
. She realized it was German for a Janitor closet. She didn’t think she would find a rope in there, but it might do for her to check on the way back.

The next door was more promising. It had a legend of a lightning bolt on it and the word:
Sicherheitsraum
. It was one of the few German words she knew. The first part meant “security” and the
-raum
portion meant “room.” She calmly walked in and closed the door behind her before reaching for a light switch.

She flicked on the light and stifled a scream.

For the second time in one day, she had illuminated the space around her to find it full of bodies.

FIFTY-FOUR

Endgame Headquarters, White Mountains, NH

The mood in the subterranean base was grim as everyone packed up for a war. Deep Blue and King had returned to the base in the Black Hawk and found the White Team members just finishing packing up. The
Persephone
was loaded up with weaponry, more of the armored suits and computer arrays. By the time the Black Hawk touched down outside the
Central
section’s enormous hangar door, Deep Blue was pleased to note that Lewis Aleman was installed in a computer station inside the VTOL plane’s midsection. He would be monitoring the situation from inside the plane as it sat on the pavement, instead of inside the base.

Callsign: Black Seven, and his brother, Black Eight, the team’s mechanics, refueled the vehicle outside the hangar, readying it for the trip to Norway. Neither man spoke to him as he walked past them, which Deep Blue appreciated. They were focused on their job, even if it wasn’t the most glorious of positions.

The five members of the White security team, with callsigns White One through White Five, were stationed around the crescent-shaped transport ship, each man in snow-battle armor and armed with white-coated Mk 17 FN SCAR assault rifles. They each looked vigilant and angry.

Good,
Deep Blue thought.
Be angry and use that in Norway if you get a chance
.

Each man was from the 10
^th
Mountain Division at Fort Drum, and there were no better men for an arctic or alpine assault force than 10
^th
 men. The White team was specifically tasked with duties at the Endgame base, and these men were tasked with keeping the base secure. In any other circumstance, they would be staying behind, protecting Fiona and Sara, keeping support team members like Lewis Aleman and even himself safe from any attack by hostile forces. What the Chess Team field members—King, Queen, Bishop, Knight and Rook—did out in the world was difficult enough, without having to worry about the people you loved or the sanctity of your home. But this situation was desperate; the entire world was in danger, and Deep Blue had two members of Chess Team already missing and presumed dead. Another two members were already on site in Norway, but he had no idea if they were alive, captured or in the thick of things. Anna Beck, callsign: Black Zero, and Deep Blue’s covert operative, Black Six, were en route to Norway now.

The newly christened Endgame organization was scattered, and he didn’t yet know what to expect from this stabilized portal in the Arctic. He wanted every resource close and readily available. As he approached the hangar door, which he’d had to have refitted after a security incident earlier in the year, he saw Matt Carrack approaching him. Carrack, callsign: White Zero, was the head of base security and Deep Blue’s right hand in all things since his promotion to the role the previous summer. The man looked the part of his callsign, with his all-white Arctic gear and his weapons covered in white cloth wraps as well. Like the other security team members, Carrack wore the white version of the experimental impact-resistant armor. He carried his helmet under one arm as he approached Deep Blue.

“Sir. We’re just about ready to go. King is inside with Jet and Professor.” Carrack was referring to Sara Fogg by her security codename of Jet—a sly reference to her spiky black hair, likening her to the rock singer Joan Jett. Fiona had a security codename of Professor, because of her linguistic abilities. Neither woman was aware of the names, chosen by Carrack. The men studiously avoided using the names around the two.

Deep Blue looked at the man and nodded. He understood. King was saying goodbye. Just in case. “That’s fine, Zero.” In the field now, Deep Blue would refer to Carrack by his callsign, where he would normally refer to the man as Matt—one of the few team members with whom he would be so personal.

“The pilots and Black Five are aboard, as is Aleman. Rome—” Carrack had deemed George Pierce, callsign: Rome, “—is staying behind with Jet, Professor and the rest of Black Team. I’d prefer to have at least one security member with them, but I understand it’s not possible.”

Deep Blue nodded. “It’s not.”

Carrack continued. “Black One and Two will rendezvous with us just past Iceland. I’m ready to seal the base on your word. I have all the equipment you’ll need waiting for you on the plane.”

“Okay, just give me a minute with King.” Deep Blue left the man standing on the pavement and stepped into the dim hangar.

Deep Blue looked into the glassed-in office at the back of the hangar, just in time to see Fogg and Fiona unwrap their arms from around him. A group hug. The man was lucky. Tom Duncan had always been single, even as President. And he hadn’t had time to think about dating since.

No one in the office was speaking. Deep Blue walked up to the door and stuck his head inside the room.

“Am I interrupting?” He could see that their faces were drawn and tight.

Fogg wiped a stray tear from her eye. She looked at Deep Blue and said, “If you come back without him, I’ll—”

“Won’t happen,” Deep Blue said with forced confidence.

To his surprise, Fogg wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight. “Be careful, Sir.”

He felt pressure on his waist and looked down to find Fiona squeezing him. He smiled at King. They were both lucky men.

“Enough of that,” King said. “We’ll be fine.” He leaned down to Fiona and spoke three words Deep Blue didn’t understand.

Fiona’s reply was just as mysterious. But then King kissed her forehead, kissed Fogg hard on the lips and headed to the door without another word.

Deep Blue followed, asking, “What did you say?” Though he had a pretty good idea.

“She’s teaching me to speak Siletz,” King explained. “I told her if you came back without me to keep Sara away from you.”

Deep Blue laughed. He had always appreciated the team’s ability to find humor before entering a lion’s den, or in this case, a dire wolf den.

Aleman approached, his face grim.

All the humor Deep Blue felt quickly drained out of him. He had worked with Aleman for a long time now and could read his facial expressions and body language with ease. “What is it?”

Aleman met the two men and looked at the floor, his lips twitching. “Casualty reports from the Exxon Building portal and collapse.”

Deep Blue frowned. Casualty reports with just one name on the list were hard to deal with. He knew this report would be far more difficult. But he needed to know. “How many?”

“Two thousand civilians, mostly taken by dire wolves. Despite being in New York, the number is lower than other areas because it appeared so far above the surface.”

“Military casualties?” Deep Blue asked.

“Two hundred and climbing. They’re still digging through the rubble. But...” Aleman squirmed. “They were able to confirm... Sir, General Keasling—he was below—he…”Aleman shook his head, then met Deep Blue’s eyes and used Keasling’s first name. “Michael is dead.”

THE SOUND OF FURY