Shadow Ops: Control Point

Her voice was firm. “I need you to calm down and stick by that phone, okay? Whatever you do, do not surrender yourself to the police. The police may not understand what you’ve done like we do. Should you see police vehicles, hide as best you can until we can get to you. Do you understand? Hello? Hello?”

The kernel of self-preservation blossomed. His mind conjured images of Harlequin descending, lightning crackling from his fingertips; the Probe girl on the roof lying helpless in a spreading pool of blood.

Oscar Britton might have a dangerous, uncontrolled power, but the army murdered little girls.

What the hell are you doing? His mind screamed at him. You damned idiot! Run!

He dropped the receiver, letting it hang.

He turned to see two police cars whip into the parking lot, screeching to a halt. Rob was gone.

Four uniformed officers exited the vehicles, guns drawn, and raced for the door.

CHAPTER VI: YOU RAN

Magic? Fuck that. I’ve got 5.56 millimeters of magic right here. Once I pull this trigger, no spell in the world is going to stop your brains from winding up all over the wall behind you. There’s been a reawakening all right. We woke up our warrior hearts. We remembered Guadalcanal. We remembered Fallujah. We remembered what it means to be a United States Marine.

— Lance Corporal Jimmy “Gonzo” Gonzales

Second Marine Expeditionary Force, Thirteenth Suppression Lance

Britton dove over the counter, flipping and landing face-first on the rubber matting. He heard shouts as he crawled to his knees, brushing his nose against a code-locked safe.

Beside it was a sawed-off shotgun. The breech was open, shells loaded into both barrels. All he had to do was snap it closed, stand, and fight.

He couldn’t run forever. Why had Captain Nereid had warned him not to surrender to the police? So Harlequin could have the pleasure of killing him instead or hauling him before a court-martial to do the deed officially?

He glanced over the counter. The police officers advanced at a crouch. Two leveled pistols. The other two followed, with shotguns ready.

Just a few hours ago, he’d been on the same side as the police. Crime needed a motive. All he’d ever wanted to do was the right thing. Rage and terror competed in his gut.

Rage won by a nose. The magic rose. This time he welcomed it.

Screw the gun. I don’t need it.

He closed his eyes and let the tide flow. He could feel the current reaching out toward the cops. He stood, arms spread. The air behind the policemen reverberated. They spun, crying out.

He hesitated at their cries. There had to be a difference between him and what he’d always been taught Selfers were. You didn’t kill your father on purpose, he reminded himself. That was an accident. You don’t hurt innocent people. If you forget that, you really are a Selfer.

He struggled against the magical tide. One of the cops turned back to Britton and fired. The bullet punched a hole in the sliding door and buried itself in the counter.

Britton didn’t flinch, overwhelmed by the magic coursing through him. He felt like his veins would burst, his cells pried apart. He desperately tried to shunt the tide back, but it would not be denied, howling toward the policemen.

Behind the cops, the air pulsed open into a shining gate.

Another cop leveled a black shotgun through the glass display window. “Selfer son of a bitch! Switch it off!”

I’m trying, Britton thought, but now it’s out, and I can’t stop it. He could feel tendrils of magic slide through the gate, reaching beyond.

The shotgun boomed, turning the window into spinning fragments.

The magic found what it sought and hauled it through the gate.

The portal spasmed and pushed something tall and strange into the world. The cops turned, Britton forgotten.

The thing from the gate was at least seven feet tall, covered with feathers so dark they absorbed light, each veined and edged in bright red, glowing bloody. A spade-shaped crest of the same color crowned its head. It took a tentative step on a leathery leg with dark purple skin. One claw hovered in the air. Its head flicked left and right, black eyes regarding the policemen, swinging a dark purple beak as long and sharp as any sword.

“Christ,” one of the cops said, raising his pistol.

The giant bird flicked its head again, the narrow throat ballooning to basketball size, tiny black feathers stretched so far apart that Britton could see purple skin taut beneath.

The swollen throat let go its cargo, emitting a sound so deep that Britton felt, rather than heard it, sending visible ripples through the air. The sonic boom shattered what remained of the windows. The hedges lining the storefront were knocked flat, the doors knocked off their sliding course, dropping slowly inward. The cops were blown off their feet, ears bleeding.

Showered with shattered glass, Britton ducked behind the counter. When he rose, the tide was already building again. The cops lay moaning. The bird paced across the parking lot.

Britton’s ears rang, his eyes dry from the wind gust. He turned and ran, bursting into the stockroom. Wire shelves lined the walls, piled high with cardboard boxes bulging with paper towels, canned food, and over-the- counter medicine.

He hit the back door, bursting it open and running into the warming dawn air.

And straight into Harlequin, emerging from the cargo doors of an unmarked white van.

Harlequin’s digital-camouflage uniform was neatly pressed. His polished boots reflected the sun. A pale- faced Dan Cheatham stood beside him, carrying his carbine.

I was always a friend to you, Britton thought as his eyes bored into Cheatham’s. We were a team.

Cheatham’s gaze broke. “… Sir, …”

“See, here’s the problem,” Harlequin cut him off. “You ran, Oscar. Warrant Officer Cheatham advised you to report to me immediately. You elected not to do that.”

Britton could feel the eddy of Harlequin’s magic. The wind about the Aeromancer whipped into a funnel, swirling dust and pebbles over his head.

The tide of magic overwhelmed Britton’s senses. Help me, he mouthed, his body burning with energy. He sank to his knees. I can’t stop it. It’s killing me.

Harlequin’s brow furrowed, the dust devil collapsed.

Britton’s tide rolled back, and he fell forward, gasping. He gulped air, feeling his magical flow intersected by Harlequin’s, rolled back. Britton’s training had taught him to expect that as well. They used it on the Marines in Suppression Lances and those civilians who enrolled in NIH’s monitoring program. Magical Suppression.

Cheatham leveled his carbine and advanced a pace.

Britton stood weakly, pointing at the carbine. “You don’t need that.”

“I’m afraid we do,” Harlequin said. “As long as my magic is tied up Suppressing yours, I have to keep you under guard.”

“No,” Britton said. “I called. I turned myself in.”

Harlequin shook his head. “Dan tells me you Manifested at around 0200. It’s now roughly 0800, You’re miles off post. You ran.”

“What the hell did you expect me to do? I’m a Probe. You’re just going to kill me anyway. I needed to see to my parents.”