Britton heard the sharp report of gunfire and the frozen shards exploded outward, flying in TrueZero’s face. The SOC Hydromancer went flying backward, the fabric of his body armor ripping as a round caught him in the chest. He fetched up hard against the opposite wall and slid into a sitting position, senseless.
Sharp rolled around the corner to hurl the grenade, and a round caught him in the leg, spinning him off- balance. He collapsed, already lifting his carbine and firing one-handed into the darkness. The grenade, pin pulled, rolled a couple of feet down the hallway and stopped.
The other operators turned toward it, their guns dangerously out of the fight.
“I’ve got it!” Britton shouted, and snapped open a gate between the grenade and the team. It glimmered over a section of the berm beside Route 7 in Shelburne just as the grenade exploded. He felt the hot air of the thermal discharge engulf him, his ears ringing from the percussion. The solid rubber balls, intended to stun and incapacitate the enemy without killing the hostages, whisked harmlessly through. Britton could hear them pattering off the tarmac of the thankfully empty stretch of road.
The operators wheeled, dropping to their knees, knocking their NODs up onto their helmets and flooding the room with white light from the mounts beneath their carbine barrels. Gunfire exploded from their weapons, and Britton was momentarily blinded until he had a chance to push his own night optics away from his eyes.
“Get down!” Sergeant Sharp had begun to shout. “Get down on the fucking ground right now!” Over his back, Britton could see ragged men, gaunt and long-haired, moving in the room beyond. At least two lay on their sides on the floor before them, stirring weakly, bleeding out into the dust beneath them. Behind them, he could make out the hostages, their uniforms filthy, lying facedown with their hands bound behind them. Another round hissed by Britton’s head as the Hydromancer slouched over on his side.
Sharp’s face had turned gray as the pool of blood from his leg expanded, spreading out to make the floor slick. One of the operators slipped in it and went down. The enemy was pinned down in the close confines of the room, but they would make no headway. Britton knew a stalemate when he saw one. As Britton watched, a man stepped into view, one foot on the back of one of the hostages. His thick black hair tumbled from under a beaded cap, a cluster of feathers sprouting from the peak. He wore a tactical vest, the magazine pouches bulging with long rectangles covered in duct tape, wires extending from their tops to his belt.
No time for a stalemate.
Britton stepped into the doorway.
“What the hell are you doing? Get the hell out of the way!” one of the operators shouted.
Britton snapped open a gate back on the trauma tent at the FOB and leapt through. Fitzy, Therese, and Colonel Taylor gaped at the sight of him, but he ignored them as he opened another gate on the back of the room and stepped through directly behind the man in the vest.
The man had a cell phone in his hand, a curling cord extending from it to his belt. Britton opened a small gate below his elbow and severed the cord just as he shouted something in Apache and punched a button on the phone.
Nothing happened. Stunned, the man punched the phone again, then turned, his eyes widening as Britton raised his pistol and brought the butt of it crashing into his temple. Other men in the room were turning, whirling to face him, leveling their weapons. Seeing their chance, the operators came storming into the room as Britton opened another gate and stepped backward through it into the trauma tent.
“It’s okay,” he said to Fitzy, “we’ve got it.” And then he was gone again, running to Sharp’s side and dragging him backward through another gate to the trauma tent. The sergeant was unconscious, but the other operators were inside the room, and the shooting had stopped. Britton felt strong arms grab the sergeant from the other side and haul him through, and he raced to TrueZero’s side. The Hydromancer stirred weakly. Britton fingered the bullet hole in the fabric and felt dented but solid plating behind it. No penetration. He’d probably escape with a broken rib.
Sharp gave a weak thumbs-up as Therese bent over his leg, her eyes closed and hands gently drifting over his knitting flesh. TrueZero had stripped his vest and shirt and sat coughing raggedly as a nasty bruise spread its way over his ribs. The other two operators knelt on either side of the rescued marines, checking them for injuries. Both hostages stared wide-eyed at Britton, silent and terrified. One finally mustered the presence of mind to drawl a thank-you.
“You’re welcome,” Fitzy answered for him. “I’m afraid you’ve just become read into a rather classified government program. We’ll go over the requisite nondisclosure agreements once you’ve been cleared by medical.”
Britton knelt in the gravel of the trauma tent, stripping off his gear, as a blue-scrubbed orderly approached him. “You okay?”
“He’s Shadow Coven,” Fitzy snapped. “He’s better than okay. He’s the magic behind the magic.”
The doctor at last turned to Colonel Taylor and gave a thumbs-up sign. “They’ll live.”
Colonel Taylor sighed, his shoulders sagging with relief. He leaned over Sharp where he lay on the gurney. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you, son.”
Sharp nodded, clearly uncomfortable with the praise. Colonel Taylor turned to Fitzy. “Chief Warrant Officer Fitzsimmons, I’m delighted with the capabilities Shadow Coven brings to our force. Keep up the good work.” Fitzy saluted as Colonel Taylor made his way toward the entrance. “I’ve got to call General Hamilton and let him know we’re out of the woods. You take it from here.”
“Sir,” said Fitzy, and turned to Britton. “Don’t go thinking you’re a fucking hero all of a sudden, Keystone. You’ve got miles to go yet.” But Britton couldn’t miss the grudging respect in the chief warrant officer’s eyes.
Therese stepped from the gurney’s side and reached a hand up to cup Britton’s cheek. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the side of his neck, leaving him tingling. “I think you’re a hero, Oscar. You’re amazing, and you did a great thing today.”
“Jesus,” Fitzy muttered, disgusted. “Let’s get you the hell out of here before this mutual admiration society gets out of hand.” One of the operators shook Britton’s hand before Fitzy managed to whisk him back out of the tent.
Britton was exhausted, the adrenaline of the action curdling in his veins, leaving him sick and shaking. But he was also overwhelmed with a sense of joy. He had done it. He had used his magic to save people’s lives. He had controlled it to the point where it did good. People were alive because of Oscar Britton, because of what he could do. How could running ever be better than that?
“I get it now, sir,” Britton said to Fitzy.
“What is it that you get?” the chief warrant officer asked him, frowning.
“I mean I’ll do it now. For real. You don’t need the ATTD anymore.”
Fitzy was pensive for a moment as they walked along. “Well, that’s an encouraging thing to hear, Keystone. Very encouraging indeed. But if it’s all the same to you, we’ll just keep it there for the nonce.”
Britton nodded, and they walked on in silence, pushing the rest of the way through the cash and back out into the road.
“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, there was this…giant black thing I saw when we first flew in. It seemed to be on the same side as the Goblins. I saw it again in one of the videos in the SASS. They said it was one of the Apache’s ‘Mountain Gods.’?”
“That’s right.” Fitzy kept his eyes straight ahead.
“Well, what are they doing in both Mescalero and in the Source?”
“Let me answer your question with a question, Keystone. Do you think that the United States Army, in all its wisdom, would have missed such a connection?”
“No, sir.”
“And, given that we clearly wouldn’t have, do you think we might have people working on what the significance was?”
“Yes, sir, you would.”
“And do you also think that if we felt your opinion on this particular matter was of any value, we would have solicited it by now?”
“I get it, sir,” Britton said.
