Rash'Tor'Ri (Soulguard Book 4), page 4
"Yes, but I fear it won't remain so."
"Me too," I said. "I'm taking an action to deal with it if it doesn't."
"Do tell," she said.
"Do I need to leave so you can talk?" Kevin asked.
"Might as well write you into it, anyway, Kid," I said. "Some of this you already know but some will be new to you. I made a trip earlier this year…"
Chapter 6
Lyrica led the way to a restaurant called Tabla Luna. It was supposed to be some sort of authentic Latin cuisine.
"Oh, my," Reyna muttered. "I wonder if they have Ceviche."
"Ceviche?" I asked.
"It's a seafood dish used as an appetizer."
"I like seafood."
"You like any food," Jacobs said from behind me.
"He's right," Lyrica said. "You like anything, as long as it comes in great quantity."
There were people backed up out into the parking lot.
"This may take a while," Paige said. "I'll go put our names in."
Paige made her way through the crowd to the man who was the host. I saw him look out the window at us and he asked her a question. She nodded and he rounded the counter to grasp her hand. I saw the excitement and gratitude rolling through his aura. I saw Paige protesting politely but the man shook his head and motioned for her to stay right there.
He rushed to the back and Paige looked at us with a shrug.
A tall woman and three children almost ran from the back area. All three children, a boy of about eight and two girls that had to be twins a few years younger swamped Paige and hugged her. Surprise rolled through her aura as she hugged the children. The mother stepped in and embraced Paige. She whispered something to her and Paige nodded.
It wasn't very long until we were rushed inside and seated at three tables. Several diners were asked to move to different seats to open up tables that were located together.
As we sat, the man from the front approached with his hand outstretched. I stood back up and shook his hand.
"Mister Rourke," he said with a heavy accent. "It is an honor to welcome you to Tabla Luna. I owe you and yours more than I could ever pay. You brought back my life, my wife and children, when they were lost to me."
He was struggling with the language and Adaya spoke up in Arabic. He nodded and spoke back to her.
"His family was in the group we pulled out of Cairo after Lyrica set the world on fire," she said. "It seems, he wishes to provide a feast to the saviors of his family."
After he had spoken for a moment, Adaya said, "He recognizes many who were there. He has studied the news reports constantly and has seen the footage repeatedly. He is asking if we might tell him of what happened during our assault. He says, if it is classified he won't ask more."
"If you want to, go ahead," I said. "None of it is classified and perhaps it might give a little understanding of what we do."
Adaya began telling him what had happened. People around us dropped into silence to hear. More people had crowded closer as she continued speaking. She pointed toward me and motioned downward as if I was going down into something.
A young boy asked something.
Adaya nodded and said something that drew the child's widened eyes to look at me. She continued and motioned as she told the story of the giant dog pile. I saw her point at me and circled her finger around her ear, which earned a few chuckles. She told of the loss of our friend, Lennox Flynn. There were sad faces around us as she told of all the fallen.
Then she pointed at Lyrica and made huge motions with her arms as she described what some had seen with their own eyes. These few were nodding and looking at Lyrica in amazement.
Some asked questions and she once again pointed to Lyrica. I heard the word "almealij", which I had learned was Arabic for healer. Lyrica was studying a menu, remaining as inconspicuous as possible.
Adaya's story wound down and the owner shook his head in amazement. He turned back to the table after motioning for the gathered crowd to go back to dinner.
"I thank you all."
He said something more to Adaya and left for the kitchen.
"He says our dinner tonight is on the house, and he will accept no arguments on the matter. Enjoy."
"That was unexpected," Kharl said.
"True," I answered. "Thought there would be more fuss about the leveling of a pretty good chunk of the city."
"Ah!" Reyna exclaimed. "They do have Ceviche!"
"I'll try it," I said.
"Of course you will."
"What are you tryin' to say?" I asked.
"Nothing at all, fearless leader," Reyna returned.
"Perhaps she's saying she should order double if she expects to get any," Paige said.
"Or triple if she insists on sitting beside Kharl," Lyrica said.
She ended up needing the triple serving. It was delicious, as were the other items we ordered. I ordered a dish with many types of meat in a fajita style meal. All in all, it was a great dinner.
"All we need to top off the evening is one of the sordid tales that always spring up around these tables," Jacobs said.
"There's nothing that could top the naked savior of Paris," I said.
"Ahh," Rostov sighed, "Devushka moyey mechty."
"Say What?" Jacobs asked.
"My dream girl," Kharl answered. "Learned some Russian in my time. At least the important stuff."
"Sounds like our Russian friend is smitten," Prada said.
"Perhaps you are not a one to speak of smitten, my friend," Rostov said with a grin. "I have seen a certain Marine many times in your presence."
"I think I've seen all there is to see now," Damaris said, "Andrea Prada just blushed."
"I think that is a blush!" Jacobs exclaimed. "Who's this Marine? I gotta meet the guy that tamed Prada! Just wait 'til I get back home!"
"You keep your mouth shut or you'll lose another appendage!" Prada growled.
"I'm gonna have to risk it! This is too much to keep secret."
Prada scowled.
"Speaking of Marines," Lyrica said, "Prada was just telling me a little story, today, that her beau had told her. What say you tell the others?"
"Sully's gonna kill me if I get him started again," Prada grumbled.
"Sully?" Lyrica queried. "I had no idea his name was Sully."
"Sullivan Hicks," Prada said. "Do you really want me to tell everyone? You know he'll get started again."
"How bad could it be?"
I was watching the two of them. I remembered a particular suspenseful part of a movie I had watched not too long ago, and projected the music that had played while the characters were about to be attacked.
"Aw, Hell," Prada said, "He's already started."
Lyrica giggled.
"I don't know what you're talkin' about," I said.
"This!" Prada exclaimed. "This is what he did to a whole platoon of our brave Marines! For two days!"
"In all honesty," I said, "One of 'em was complaining that they would know when things were gonna happen if they had that suspenseful music before it did."
"So they had to live two days in a jungle, surrounded by Kresh, hearing the Darth Vader song whenever Sully walked up?" she asked. "And poor Corn had to hear the Jaws music every time he refilled the water from the stream?"
"There might have been a shark…"
"How about Corporal Santos, who was already freaked out about you?"
"He asked me to play something scary."
"Carnival music?"
"That stuff is terrifying," I said. "How was I supposed to know he was afraid of clowns? He was convinced I had taken the knowledge from his mind. I didn't, I just hate clowns. Carnival music freaks me out."
"He lined the inside of his helmet with the packaging from the MRE's."
"Don't tell anyone," I said, "but that doesn't really work."
She looked at me with her eyes narrowed. I projected a short tune I had heard in a western when the two gunmen stood facing one another in a dusty street.
She shook her head in defeat.
"I told you," she said to Lyrica, "Don't get him started again."
She laughed that musical laughter I loved to hear. This had turned out to be a much better evening than I had expected. Great food, great friends, great family, and the greatest joy of my life. All together at one time. A wonderful evening.
Chapter 7
After some deliberation, we had decided that Lyrica would go to Edinburgh with Paige and the Kid. There were people still in need of her healing, and I could handle the set-up of the area in China. I would be spending long days building shields and weapons. She could help with those, but her skills lay in the art of healing. She should be using them.
"This gate seems to be out in the middle of an open spot like it is in Kansas," Rostov said.
"True," I answered. "If it was in a deep valley, we could bury it."
"It would certainly be faster," Reyna said.
The plane started its descent.
"Looks like we're here," I said. "There should be quite a few people already here."
When the C-130 rolled to a stop and the door opened they saw how many were truly there. I had seen it with my inner sight. There were hundreds of thousands of soldiers already in the area. I saw a familiar face in the front of the group there to meet us.
Len Yueh had gone ahead of us to meet the officials and tell them the news.
"Good to see you, Len," I said.
"We have much to speak of, Sir."
"I'd say we do. Have the Chinese figured how they want this set up?" I said. "It looks like there's a lot of source weapons out there."
"There are many," he said. "Pon Xiang, the head of the Academy here, is on his way in with all of the support Mages and most of the full strength Mages to handle the guns provided by the government. They will imbue the cannons for the defenses."
"Will they need the Source cannons for Mages to use or do they have enough conventional artillery?" I asked.
"They have thousands of weapons, more than we have Mages to imbue them. This is one less thing you will need to construct. They do want shields around various emplacements."
"I figured they'd need some of that. I was expecting to make some Mage batteries, too, but, what the hell?"
"Do you wish to meet our Military Liaison?"
"Sure thing," I said. "Then we'll get right to work."
***
I stood atop the forty feet tall wall the Chinese had been constructing over the last few months and looked across the bottom of the shallow valley, below. Across the valley the wall was beginning to take shape.
"I see why we started the guns and shields on that side of the valley," Prada said. "At first I was a little confused about it."
"Yeah," I said as I formed the latest piece of the huge shield wall that would project another forty feet higher than the bulwark of concrete and steel where we stood. "We've got, at least, some defense on both sides of the valley this way. The more of the wall they get done, the stronger the bulwark."
"We should have done something like this in Kansas," Adaya said. "It's a good idea. Especially with the shield backed against the concrete. Adds more strength to the whole thing."
"When all is said and done," I said, "We can put this sort of defense at every Gate we locate. The one in Kenya could be built while the Gate is submerged, drain the lake that's formed there, and be ready to blow the Hell out of anything that peeks through."
"I wish we knew where they all were located," Rostov added.
"Man, that would be great," I said. "Can you imagine the welcome we could give the bastards?"
"It would be glorious," he agreed.
"Ok, Alexei, You have the next one."
Rostov began to weave a massive shield across the front of the concrete bulwark. When he was through, there was another section of the shield wall ready for me to work with. I extended a tendril from my Soulstream and connected to the construct. I could feel Rostov on the other end.
"Ok, you can cut."
He severed his connection to the shield wall he had constructed. Then he moved on down the wall to begin constructing another section. I took the section he had built and pushed it into the ground to anchor it. Now the top was even with the previous section. It was rested against the bulwark for the bottom forty feet and stretched into the air above.
Then I began to open the three feet by five feet firing slots in the shield. They aligned with the raised portions of the wall that gave the people who would be standing there cover. All along the wall were raised areas with the firing slits. These holes would be manned with Source weapons. Not just regular Source weapons, either.
Jack the Engineer, as we liked to call him had been busy.
What rested behind the walls, ready to be installed were a large amount of howitzer sized Source weapons that worked much like the personal weapon. A person would sit in the control module and use the massive weapon just like the others. The gun would have a mechanical system to swivel and raise or lower the weapon. The mental Pull would fire the weapon. It was fed by a twelve inch stream, and do a great deal of damage. Each weapon would have a crew. The crew was to replace the barrel when it got too hot. Each weapon would have its own stack of spares.
The barrels would be flaming hot, so the weapon was designed with its own ejection system. The barrel would be ejected from the weapon outside the shield to, hopefully, do more damage to those outside. Then the operator would swivel the gun for the replacement to be attached. It was a hell of a cannon, and the Chinese had bought a lot of them from my company.
I finished the slots and formed a large tendril on the far side of the shield. Slamming it down into the Source I watched the brilliant flow of power as it began to power the shield. Then I pushed my end down into the Source and disconnected. I felt some of the power before I managed to severe my connection and released it skyward in a blast of fire.
"Better start payin' better attention, Boss," Prada admonished.
"Was thinkin' about these new guns," I said. "Got a little distracted."
"I was filmin' it with my phone," she said.
"Why?"
"Just in case you blow yourself up, again," she laughed. "We only have the one time on film and I think the Academy would love to get an updated version."
"Hardy freakin' har."
"It's ok," she said. "I'm patient, I can wait till it happens naturally."
"I'm not sure why my closest friends live to see stuff like that."
"I don't know, perhaps it comes from getting thrown out of a bunch of planes."
"If I remember correctly, you weren't the one thrown out of the last one."
"Don't know what you're talkin' about," she said as she pushed a button on her phone. "Let's go get the next section."
"Really?" I asked. "I thought you said you were patient."
"Oh, I am," she grinned. "But I'm damn sure not gonna miss it when it happens."
I shook my head in resignation. Then I had an idea.
"Prada," I said, "You got the next few."
She shrugged, still grinning, and handed her phone to Adaya. Adaya nodded and turned the camera toward me as Prada walked down the wall chuckling.
"Hmph," I grunted and connected to the section Rostov was finishing.
Prada didn't get to film me getting blown up again that day, I made sure of that. Three days later I let my concentration slip and blew myself off of the top of the wall to land in about a foot of mud where the rains had turned the ground to mush. I was happy to see that Prada was nowhere near when this occurred. Unfortunately, Brighton had caught it on his phone.
***
"Keith," I said as I saw the camera man Jennifer had brought with her. "How's the knee?"
"Hurts when it rains," he answered.
"I don't doubt that," I said. His knee had been in pretty rough shape when I had healed him on the battlefield in Kansas. Lyrica would have done much better but I did what I could.
"Colin," Jennifer Alstead greeted me with a smile.
It's hard to believe she doesn't avoid me like the plague after what she saw in Kansas. She had been out in the middle of the battle with Keith protected by a squad of trainees and National Guardsmen. She'd also had a firsthand view of the monster inside me.
"Jennifer," I returned her greeting.
I could see her and Keith's fear, but I looked past it to see the rest of what was underneath. Lyrica had really opened my eyes and my world was so much easier to cope, knowing that there was respect below that fear. I used to see the fear and turn away because I hated that people feared me. Now I don't turn away, and I see the rest of the emotional gamut below that fear I saw at first.
"I understand you're ready to do an exclusive," she said. "I remember asking for this a couple of years ago."
"You saw what I did, then," I said. "You even agreed it would be more damaging to know some things than it would help."
"I did," she said. "What's changed? Alan wouldn't be clear on that point."
"There was something that happened that has been classified," I said. "Too many have been a part of it and I don't think it will remain a secret. Alan and I decided it would be best if we got out in front of it with something solid. I hate politics."
"Give me an idea of what we're working with so we can make a plan."
"You saw what I did in Kansas," I said. "My skills as a Soullord put me in a position to manipulate the life force in all of us. But it wouldn't let me do that with the Kresh. The reason I was able to rip that Kresh's Soul out comes from my DNA. When my mother was pregnant with me, there was an attack on the Soulguard base in New Mexico. My Father had been lured to Denver by the Kresh and he had taken the majority of the Guards from the base……"
Chapter 8
Three months of shield making had gone by quickly. I knew nearly nothing about China and the Gate was out in the middle of nowhere. We spent the majority of our time working on the defenses. I was happy to board the jet and head toward Edinburgh.
