I headed back to the airfield with a commando sergeant named Crossno, but we ran into a security patrol.
“Stop! Who goes there?”
We didn’t think Moncrieff was aware of the impending invasion of their territory, but I could understand why guards might think people skulking around near their airfield at one o’clock in the morning was unusual.
“Just a little stroll in woods,” I answered, trying to sound my sweetest and most feminine.
“Come out so I can see you,” the guard ordered.
I motioned the sergeant with me to circle around, then answered, “Hang on a minute. My boyfriend and I need to put our pants on.”
The two guards burst out laughing.
Taking off the black face mask and the watch cap I’d been wearing, I unbraided and shook out my hair, then picked my way through the woods in the direction of the guards’ voices.
“Hey, I didn’t realize we were doing something wrong,” I said as I stepped out of the trees onto the path. The new moon didn’t shed much light at ground level. I could vaguely make out two figures standing in front of me. “We just wanted to get a little privacy and fresh air.”
“The airfield is right over there,” the guard who was doing all the talking said. “Don’t you have a room of your own?”
“His wife is kinda nosey.”
More laughter.
I moved closer. “You wouldn’t want us to get in trouble, would you?”
A loud thump was accompanied by the man in the rear slumping. Reaching out to the closest man, I touched him with my father’s box and triggered a light shock, causing him to stiffen, then shake and drop his rifle. He fell convulsing to the ground. I used my handcuffs to restrain him, then stuffed a handkerchief I found in his pocket in his mouth.
We dragged both men into the woods, stole their radios, and used parts of their own clothing to tie them up.
“Damned inconvenient,” Sergeant Crossno said. “We still have thirty-six hours until the time to go.”
I agreed. I had hoped to talk our way out of the situation until he slugged the guard. “I wonder how often they’re expected to check in.”
He shrugged. “When they don’t, their superior will call them. I’ll just try and bluff it through.”
“That might work until their shift is over,” I said. “Come on, let’s see what has them so on alert.”
A simple chain-link fence surrounded the airfield. It wasn’t electrified or magikally enhanced, so I figured it was mostly to keep any animals from wandering in and getting on a runway. The sergeant used a tool he was carrying to cut a hole in the fence, and we slipped through.
It didn’t take long to figure out why they had patrols out. A large jet with an Akiyama logo sat near a cluster of buildings. The plane and the area around it were lit up with floodlights.
“That plane is too large to use that runway,” the sergeant said.
Under normal circumstances, I would have agreed with him. “The plane’s probably magikally enhanced,” I said. Assuming I was right in all my suppositions, I might be looking at Sarah Benning’s ride out of North America. If they had a magitek on board, the plane could probably make it all the way to Japan or China without refueling. But even without a magitek, magitek enhancements would allow an aeromancer to get it off the ground with a runway half as long as it would normally require.
“This is the type of thing your team is supposed to disable,” Crossno said.
“Yeah.”
But I hadn’t planned on a magitek airplane. The rest of my team would have no trouble disabling a normal plane’s electrical or mechanical systems. And they could probably do it without actually touching the machine. To work on the giant Akiyama machine, I would have to at least affix a device to it.
“I have to actually touch the thing,” I said, holding up a small three-way box—enhancer, converter, and disrupter in a single package. Very expensive if one had to pay for it. “I need to attach this to it.”
He swore.
“Want to flip to see who goes out there?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Tempting, but this is what I’m here for. Does it matter where you put it?”
“Not on a tire or anything temporarily attached to it, like a fueling hose, or any wiring. On a wheel hub is okay. On the body itself is better.” I studied the plane. The sergeant was a little shorter than I was, and without elven blood, I doubted he could jump as high as I could. “Probably the best place is on one of the engines.” They were attached under the wings, and I was sure he could reach them.
“Got it.” He took the converter. “What do I do with it?”
“Just touch it to the metal, and it will stick. I’ll cover you.”
We worked our way through the shadows around the airfield until we were as close to the plane as we could get.
“Give me those cutters,” I said. He handed them over, and I cut another hole in the fence behind me.
“Good thinking.” He shed some of his equipment, keeping his rifle and sidearm.
I didn’t know if I was close enough to affect anything, but figuring it was worth a try, I cast a spell toward the control tower, hoping to disrupt their electronics. I unslung my laser rifle and nodded to my companion.
“Good luck.”
Crossno had a little over a hundred yards to travel, the last third under the bright floodlights. We hadn’t seen anyone moving around, but I was sure someone was on duty in the tower, and likely also in a security monitoring center somewhere on the grounds.
He ran in a crouch, covered about ten yards, then froze. After waiting for about five minutes, he did it again. It was excruciatingly slow, but it was designed
