China, where we built the schools and began the experiments. Millions have died so far, and millions more surely will follow, but in the end, the world will be strong.”
Dan was astounded. “All of the evil things you’ve done-”
“Are nothing compared to what would happen if the Enemy wins. Do you not understand that yet, Grimnoir? Have you never looked into the eyes of a Summoned?”
Dan shook his head in the negative. The things had always made him a little uncomfortable, even the tame ones that Francis had owned. Sullivan leaned forward, intrigued.
“Those broken spirits, those damaged creatures, they are all that remain of the intelligences from the last world the Power inhabited before it fled to ours. They are refugees, dragged along with the Power. That will be the fate of man if the Enemy wins. The Chairman showed us a vision of the last world. It had been magnificent, far beyond our understanding, with cities made of coral, grown as tall as the clouds. But it was all ruined when the Power left them behind to be consumed by the Enemy. I would do anything the Chairman asked to spare us that fate.”
Sullivan leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “How’s Dark Ocean the key?”
“I do not know. Dark Ocean is no more. When Okubo Tokugawa became the Chairman, there was no longer a need for us to hide. Dark Ocean was disbanded. We were placed in positions of trust and authority to continue to work on his behalf. It is no more. Our warriors became the first of the Iron Guard, our assassins the first Shadow Guard, those who could read minds or spin words became the diplomats. Few of us remain, and those who live are feeble old men serving as teachers, bureaucrats, or such as I.”
“What about the other ones that were nearly as strong as the Chairman? He said they could help us.”
“I will not speak of them… I have told you enough, Grimnoir. Your message has been delivered. I will communicate it to my superiors and action will be taken. Since you came under a flag of truce, the two of you will be allowed to leave.”
“Do your superiors know the Chairman’s dead, or does the hoax go all the way to the top?” Sullivan asked.
The ambassador’s face turned red. “You try my patience, fool. Pray to your false god that the Chairman still lives, because without him to lead us against the Enemy, we are all doomed.”
Iron Guard Toru waited patiently before the mirror. The Power required to keep the link open was draining, but he would hold it as long as necessary. The Chairman had to be consulted. Toru owed the Chairman his life in more ways than one. It had been the Chairman’s mercy that had spared him after his dishonorable actions in China. It had been the Chairman’s wisdom that had dispatched Toru to America to learn at the side of the wise and noble Ambassador Hatori.
Most of all, it had been the Chairman who had given him life, for Toru was one of the thousand sons of Okubo Tokugawa. It was prestigious, but much was expected from a warrior who had the very blood of the Chairman pulsing in his heart.
It was a shock when the Chairman himself appeared in all his majesty in the mirror. The greatest warrior of all time! Toru nearly choked. It was only the third time he’d ever had the honor of speaking to his father in person. His forehead hit the floor.
“What is this?” the Chairman demanded.
Toru did not dare to lift his eyes as he stammered out his story.
“They said I was dead, did they? You are certain the Grimnoir spoke of Dark Ocean?”
“Yes, but I was not familiar with what they spoke of.”
“Then you left them alone with Hatori?”
The Iron Guard died inside. He had displeased his father. “As Hatori commanded.”
The Chairman was seething. “Listen carefully, Iron Guard Toru.. Go immediately and kill the Grimnoir. Do not question them or capture them. Kill them.”
“Yes, Chairman.” He started to rise.
“Wait.”
Toru finally dared lift his head a tiny bit. The Chairman was watching him with eyes of fire. Toru quickly looked back down. A small brown mouse was scurrying along the bedroom wall, surely sensing the Chairman’s fury and trying to escape. Toru felt as low and pathetic as the rodent. The Chairman did not speak for some time, as if he was pondering a great riddle.
“If I have failed you I will-”
“ Seppuku? You have a habit of making poor decisions, Iron Guard Toru, but no.” Toru was filled with shame at the rebuke. “I have need of you still. Your actions are not what is troubling me. It is this matter before us, but I have made my decision. Your next task will be more difficult. We must assume that Hatori has been influenced by Grimnoir cunning. After you have disposed of them, Hatori must die.”
Toru could not believe his ears. He must have heard wrong. “Chairman?”
“Ambassador Hatori is surely influenced by their magic and must be destroyed. Allow him to speak to none of the men. He is not to be trusted. Do you understand, Iron Guard?”
His stomach was sour. Hatori was his mentor. Killing him was unthinkable. “Yes, Chairman. I will do as you command.”
“See to it. Summon some of your men.”
Toru leapt to his feet. He flung the door open and called out. Within a moment he was joined by two marines. When they saw whom he was speaking to, they dropped to their knees and bowed as deeply as possible.
“You are witnesses to my will. Ambassador Hatori is relieved from command immediately. You will answer only to Iron Guard Toru.”
Flustered by the honor of being spoken to directly by the Chairman, the men barely managed to sputter their confirmations.
“Report when it is finished.”
The mirror flashed white and the spell was broken.
He had just been asked to kill his closest friend. It was madness. Hatori was a loyal warrior of the Imperium; he would never go over to the Grimnoir. Toru was consumed with doubt, just as he had been when he had last failed the Imperium. An Iron Guard does not doubt. An Iron Guard acts. There was no time for thought, no time for hesitation, not when the Chairman had personally given him an order. There was a rack by the door filled with weapons. He picked up his favorite, a steel tetsubo. Toru spun the spiked club through the air. “For the Imperium!”
It took a lot of practice to get the hang of steering a field mouse. The mouse-eye view of the world was radically different and hard to adapt to. Colors faded to a greyish-green; details were fuzzy while the smallest movements or lights became incredible beacons. The faintest smells were incredibly distracting, and his sensitive paws could feel the tiniest of vibrations or variations in the surface, but mostly it was hard to drive a mouse because everything was huge. The giant skyscrapers he was running between were small indoor trees. The jungle was a fern. It was hard for a human being to make the shift. It was a good thing that Lance Talon had a lot of practice.
He had picked up the mouse at the Bonus Army camp. Once it was under his control, which was a snap with an animal that had such an itty-bitty brain, he’d stuck the mouse in Dan’s pocket. It had taken an amount of Power way out of proportion to the animal’s size to keep control, but that was because of the distance involved more than anything.
Controlling an animal was sort of like driving an automobile. You didn’t become the car, but you sat in the driver’s seat and told it what to do. In Lance’s case, he was a much-better-than-average Beastie, and could actually feel through all of the animal’s senses. He’d followed his friends into the dragon’s den with the goal of keeping an eye on things. When the one Iron Guard had been ordered out, Lance had decided to tail him, and it was a good thing that he had. It was also a good thing that the ambassador didn’t own a cat.
The little animal’s heart beat at an insane rate as Lance forced the little legs to keep moving. He could feel the rapid drumming as if it was his own.
Lance’s conscious mind was in two places, and while the part that was in the mouse ran to warn Dan and Jake about the Iron Guard coming to club them to death, the rest of him was pulling the canvas cover off the new 5 -inch Stokes mortar that had been bolted down in the bed of his truck.
“Maybe we should be going now…” Dan Garrett whispered to his friend.
