Demon Accords 6: Forced Ascent Read online

  “Look, the point is that we all know you can classify anyone at any time as a terrorist by that definition. The real question is what’s your angle? What do you want?” Darion asked.

  “What we have is a national threat to security wielding unknown abilities or technology, operating at random inside the borders of the United States with no checks or balances. Mr. Gordon here has served his country well over the last few years, but there is nothing preventing him from going off the deep end and assaulting that very same country. How do you think the people sworn to protect this nation from any and all threats feel about a rogue operator who can do the things he can do? It’s frankly worse than allowing test tubes of Ebola to be carted about at random by any federal employee that wants one,” Alexis said.

  “Again… what is it you want?”

  “We want controls in place to ensure Mr. Gordon’s compliance,” she said.

  “And those are?” Darion asked while my stomach got tight and twisted.

  “We want young Miss Velasquez in Federal custody. We want a… monitor implanted in Mr. Gordon’s body to track and isolate him. We want him shadowed by government agents at all times.” She sat back, watching us for reaction. I had plenty but I somehow managed to control my initial reaction—or more importantly, Grim’s response. The images in my mind were bloody. Very, very bloody.

  “No, no, and no,” Darion responded. “Why would Mr. Gordon acquiesce to these ridiculous demands?”

  “Because failure to comply will constitute a declaration of intent to commit further acts of terrorism and war against the United States,” McFeeney interjected. He paused for dramatic effect, which was ruined when footsteps thundered down the hallway outside accompanied by howls of pre-teen laughter.

  “And once you’ve decided you’re at war with my client, how do you see that playing out?” Darion asked, smiling at the sounds of the kids.

  “The only way it can, Darion. With the death of Mr. Gordon and all he holds dear. Nobody can hold out against the full weight and power of the United States Government,” Gleeson said, his eyes on mine.

  “Really? I’ll tell you what I think,” Darion began, but the door to the room suddenly opened and the guard posted outside stepped in. Everyone but me jumped a little at the sudden interruption. The Secret Service guy took one step forward and one to the side, holding the door open for the service cart that came bumping through behind him. It was pushed by an older hotel staff person and was loaded with pitchers of water and glasses.

  “Sorry to interrupt, but the water you requested is here, Senator,” the guard said, not acting apologetic at all.

  Chapter 2

  Everyone looked at the old lady while she clumsily moved the pitchers and glasses to the table—except me. I kept my eyes off her, even as I could feel her moving around the room, her presence bright in my mind. She shuffled and kept her head down, finally completing her task and then awkwardly dragging the cart out of the room.

  The senator poured himself a glass of water then settled back into his chair, finally looking at Darion expectantly.

  “Go on, Darion, tell us what you think,” he said.

  “I think, Senator, that we’ve been down this path once before and it broke down to something like mutually assured destruction.”

  “But that confrontation included an extremely supernatural powerful entity and the full resources of the worldwide Coven. The entity has completely disappeared and the vampire has been severed from the larger organization. You’re on your own,” Alexis said, looking me dead in the eye.

  Darion turned my way. “Chris, that true?”

  “That statement isn’t exactly true. I can call any of the Elders of the Coven from my cell and they’ll take my call,” I said, although I wasn’t actually certain of that. “In vampire politics, the term sever usually applies to limbs and necks, not relationships. Let’s just say we’ve been granted breathing room for our smaller part of the overall Coven. But let’s assume that any of you have a clue how the Darkkin mind works and let’s say it’s just me, Tanya, and some others. I think, in all honesty, if you force us into a corner, it’ll be a nightmare none of you will survive. Just my opinion. What do you think, General?”

  Creek’s mouth was compressed in a thin, angry line, but he didn’t answer right away. He just stared at me, the wheels of thought almost visibly turning in his head.

  “I think I’m having déjà vu. As I’ve advised the President, I do not favor the military option. It’s not viable,” he finally said.

  “That’s not your call, General. Your only job here is to tell us what it would take to finish off Gordon here,” Gleeson said, voice sharp.

  “In that case, Senator, in my estimation, as a professional soldier who has closely observed Gordon in action and studied each of AIR’s failed attempts to capture him, we would be fighting a guerilla war on US soil against an opponent who has enormous advantages in urban warfare. I’ve seen Gordon decimate the werewolf equivalent of a company of infantry by himself—in a ridiculously short period of time. From what I understand, his girlfriend’s abilities are comparable and he has an unclassified were of unknown capability. From the data collected by Oracle, the three of them assaulted a hardened military facility and cleaned out its entire complement of heavily armed, highly experienced enhanced soldiers in less than fifteen minutes. Add to that an organization of an unknown number of vampires who have infiltrated our society, alliances with several Packs of weres, and God knows what else. And that was before he somehow dropped a multi-ton nickel-iron asteroid with pinpoint accuracy, yielding the equivalent energy of a tactical nuke. In short, it would be, as he indicated, a nightmare.”

  Gleeson was almost purple and the closest Secret Service-type guy looked worried, like he might have to dial 911 and perform CPR. McFeeney jumped in before the senator could unlock his clenched jaw.

  “How would you go about it, General?”

  Creek didn’t speak for a second, looking pretty angry himself. “You really want me to detail our potential responses to the opponent we would be using them against? Have you any concept of operational security Congressman?”

  “Of course General. Just the broad strokes. Outline the kind of resources Mr. Gordon would be facing.”

  General Creek’s jaw clenched and unclenched a few times as his eyes moved between McFeeney and myself.

  “We’ve been running scenarios from the moment we first became aware of the threat Gordon represents. We’ve constantly updated the models with new data with every incident to come to our attention. We’ve identified numerous geographic and urban design chokepoints in every major city in the United States to use as killzones. Then we use a Monte Carlo approach, like the Wall Street guys use, to run our scenarios one thousand times each and collate the outcomes. Here’s what we think:

  “Aircraft and remotely piloted drones are pretty much a no go—Gordon can crash them at will and there’s evidence he can direct the crash to some degree, turning our airpower against us. However, the presence of a small amount of depleted uranium may mitigate his abilities to some degree. Each drone, aircraft, and ground element would carry a small object of DU. We would still have to commit overwhelming numbers to compensate for his abilities. If he and his vampire were in York City, I would use the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum—they’re light infantry. The 174th Attack wing at Hancock in Syracuse for their Reaper drones and the Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s A-10 Squadron from Fort Indianhead Gap.”

  “All of them?” McFeeney asked.

  “Yes. We’ve designated other combined force packages for every geographic location.”

  “And what success rate did your models return?” McFeeney asked.

  “About thirty-three percent, with a troop casualty rate of eighty-seven percent. Of course, that was before the asteroid. Now we’re updating the models to assume we have no satellites, and that any armor or concentrations of soldiers are under threat of directed kinetic energy assault
from above.”

  “What about civilian collateral damage?” McFeeney asked.

  “Those numbers were pretty bleak. Although, endangered civilians actually benefit the scenario – tend to draw him out. He has that whole hero complex thing going on.”

  Bishop looked a little uneasy and McFeeney was downright upset.

  “Well for God’s sake, just flush him into the countryside. Things will be wide open and you wouldn’t have so many civilians around,” Gleeson said after glancing at his fellow political allies.

  “That approach yielded the lowest civilian death rate, but the success rate dropped to about twelve percent and we would lose almost all of our soldiers. Again, that was prior to the new data.”

  Gleeson had gone pale while McFeeney looked shocked but thoughtful. The congressman turned to Nathan Stewart.

  “Director, what could your group add?” he asked, flicking a glance my way and then back to Stewart.

  The Colonel Sanders mustache twitched a few times as Stewart considered his words. “We’ve done quite a bit of work with Chris and Tanya and the rest of their crew lately. You know we’ve been trying to contain this little problem with dimensional portals—the ones that lead straight to Hell? Not that open Hell gates are a threat to national security or anything. Chris and company have been by far our most effective resource against them. They are a diverse group, closely knit and well-coordinated. I’m not a military man, although I’ve known many over the years and worked closely with more than my share. I think the general’s assessment is pretty good but his numbers might be a bit optimistic. Now, among my own group, we certainly have some talented people, but I’ll be the first to admit that they aren’t in the same class.”

  “You’re not being helpful here, Nathan,” Gleeson said.

  “Look, I’ve been doing this for over fifty years, this supernatural stuff. I’ve studied everything I could find, traveled the world collecting artifacts, people, and information. I can tell you unequivocally that my friend Chris and his group are pretty much unprecedented. Now, the general here is trained to see threats around every corner. I’m conditioned to see opportunities and allies. So far, Chris has done nothing but help this country. Destroying his natural-born allegiance to the United States would not only be a disaster, it would rob of us of his abilities. You are all concentrating on the fact that he pulled down an asteroid –” Stewart said, but was suddenly interrupted by Darion.

  “Allegedly.”

  “Darion, I was there. He yanked it down. But my point is if he can pull them down, he can push them away. Or if you want, let’s talk missile defense. What about it, Chris? Could you stop an ICBM? Could you deflect an earth-killer asteroid?”

  I glanced at Darion, who looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding assent. I silently consulted my dark half, Grim, and then considered the amount of help I’d had from my brothers of the Host.

  “I’m not sure. I had… help, of sorts, with that little ten tonner. A really big one? I suppose if I had plenty of lead time to influence it, then maybe. Last minute, doubtful. Missiles? Again, I’d need some warning, but I think so.”

  “See, that’s the thing we should be working on, the useful, productive stuff. Not threatening him. So far, it’s been my observation that threats against him or his people are spectacularly counterproductive.”

  Alexis turned to the two professional politicians. “You two through?” Both reluctantly nodded.

  “To answer your question, Darion, we are not claiming the base or AIR as government entities. Rogue operation operating outside government control. Which is what we’re talking about here. Mr. Gordon and his group represent an uncontrolled, serious threat.”

  “Whoa Alexis, let’s talk about that point. The government, or at least part of it, has been aware of the supernatural community for some time. You’ve created organizations to monitor them and yet you’ve made no attempt to imprison or control them. Yet Chris here represents, all by himself, more of a risk than all of them? Not buying it, Alexis,” Darion said. “I believe that you’re actually thinking more like Director Stewart. That he’s an asset… a weapon, to be deployed against whoever you decide to. That’s what this is really about. So you propose holding his goddaughter, a natural-born US citizen, hostage? Why not just tear up the Constitution and declare a new monarchy? Oh wait, whoever had a Chris Gordon in their arsenal could just about do that, now couldn’t they?”

  A flicker of a frown flashed over Alexis’s features before she smoothed it away. She opened her mouth to speak, but it was my turn to interrupt.

  “You can’t take Toni hostage. I’ve prevented it.”

  Now a full-fledged frown appeared on her face and on the faces of the two politicians. Creek just continued to glare, and Stewart looked curious.

  “Prevented how, Chris?” Darion asked, although he already knew the answer.

  “Toni is now protected. Anyone attempting to attack or kidnap her will die almost instantly. Attacking her parents will have a similar result.”

  “Explain. We know where the girl is and we know about the security around her. Believe me when I tell you we can take her at any time that we choose,” Creek said.

  “No General, you can’t. If you check with your watchers, you’ll find her private security shadow has been drastically reduced. The ones left are all humans we hired, and their job is mainly to warn off anyone stupid enough to attack. If the assault looks determined, their orders are to get out of the way and seek cover. They are forbidden to be armed. Pulling a firearm near Toni is a really, really bad idea. Full disclosure: Anyone attempting to take custody, hold hostage, or harm her in any way will die. I failed to protect her before when AIR took her. I won’t ever fail at that again. Consider this your warning.”

  Nobody spoke for several moments. Gleeson started to speak, but Alexis raised one hand toward him without taking her eyes off of me.

  “You’re threatening us?”

  “Semantics. I have given you warning. The security personnel around her are for the public’s protection, not hers. Hers is pretty much absolute and before you ask, the answer is no, I’m not going to tell you what her protection is. My advice is to sit back and watch. Someone’s bound to do something stupid and you can observe the results.”

  “Well that was ominous,” Alexis said. “I’d normally say it was dramatic theater, but I’m told that you usually understate things. But I’ve never been part of the physical threat side of things. I come at things a little differently. So in the near future, here’s what you can expect. We’ll freeze your assets and those of every vampire or were you have around you. The media will receive anonymous tips about you—with sordid details about you and the monsters you consort with. We’ve kept it secret till now—now we let the whole cat out of the bag. Overnight, you’ll be famous, well infamous really because the details won’t be pretty. The entire country, hell the world, will revile you. Fear you. Toni’s family will be revealed, as will your grandfather. Any publicity-shy supernatural around you will be in sudden danger of being revealed. Multiple lawsuits against the Demidova Empire will appear, as well against your grandfather and yourself. EPA claims for the radioactive depleted uranium dust falling out from the asteroid strike. The Velasquez family will be unemployed, their professional lives ruined. Your goddaughter will grow up in the shadow of your disgrace. How will she view you then, I wonder. The Coven and Packs will cut you free, leaving you without resources and hated by the public. Some idiot will attack you and likely get destroyed or at least seriously hurt. It’ll be on Youtube three minutes after that, showing the world what a monster you really are.”

  She finished and took a sip of water, coolly watching me for a reaction.

  I’m not sure how I looked because inside, I was struggling with Grim while working through the implications of her little speech. We had discussed all the military and law enforcement angles, but not this. I ransacked my brain for a solution, for a hole in her attack, but nothing app
eared.

  Behind me, the door opened and I felt the maid come back in without turning to look. Alexis raised her head and spoke. “We don’t want to be disturbed at the moment.”

  “Ah, then you shouldn’t threaten my Chosen, my goddaughter, or my family,” the maid said in an arctic voice. Wind whipped across my face as she circled the room too fast for the humans to follow, the three remaining guards slumping to the ground as she passed them. They looked dead, but their continued heartbeats told me she had just knocked them out. Next was the rustle when she pulled off her gray wig and then the sound of the Velcro ripping told me the uniform was being dispensed with. The faces around the table reflected shock and surprise and fear.

  “Hi, I’m Tatiana Demidova and since you’ve just threatened to destroy my family, I felt I ought to join the discussion.” She moved up behind me and put both hands on my shoulders. Normally I would offer her my chair, but I could tell through our link that standing was a strategically dominant position and I was pretty sure she was ready to dominate the bejebbers out of them.

  “So I listened in on your plot. It’s nasty and psychologically devastating. I’m impressed. You would make a good vampire, Ms. Bishop. But I’ll come back to that point in a moment. Did you know, General Creek, that we have copies of every bit of footage your people have ever recorded of my Christian in action?” She wasn’t lying. I had watched all of that footage in an attempt to get some of my memories back. She continued, “I have some really gifted hackers on staff, like Chet, who you already know, and a new young friend who can do things with computers that seem like magic.” Nathan Stewart stiffened a bit at that one, no doubt guessing who she was talking about. “We could show the whole Loki Spawn campaign as seen through the eyes of the military as they sat helpless while my Chosen protected the country. Talk about Youtube, whew, that stuff would go super viral. And Nathan, I’m afraid we have footage of all the portal-closing demon fighting stuff as well, not to mention some choice shots from that school in Brooklyn where my Chris killed the terrorists. Media? We can either give them the footage or flat out force it through the system. Hey, what would your Command and Control systems be like if we knock out all your satellites and leave our own? Food for thought, huh General? Miss Bishop, you make him infamous and I’ll make him famous. How fast would NBC, CBS, or ABC, not to mention Fox, jump at a chance to interview a Demidova?” She bent down and placed her face alongside mine, still looking at Alexis. “Wouldn’t we make a cute celebrity couple? And let’s talk about assets—good luck finding any. My people have been hiding their money for thousands of years; I’ve got tricks you’ve never heard of. Then, at the height of the whole thing, we’ll pull a Snowden. We’ll leave the country and seek asylum from Russia or China, both of which will fight tooth and claw to have us. As a matter of fact, the ambassadors of both countries are currently seeking a meeting like this but without any threats. The public will hate your President and Congress for forcing such a national loss. And please don’t quote me any crap about preventing us from leaving. We can penetrate the borders of this country or any other at will. And finally, Ms. Bishop, when your boss’s ratings are at their lowest and his respect and admiration for you have turned to hate, maybe at that point we’ll see just how good a vampire you’d really make.”