Chapter 25 – Suspect Subterfuge

Cat looked down at the shipping complex from an abandoned apartment building using Frost’s magnifying goggles. It was a rectangular building, completely fenced in, with nasty, energized barbed wire at the top. Four guards covered each side, with a watchtower on every corner. All the security she could see were armed.

Cat pulled the goggles off with a sigh and threw them back to Frost.

“Too many guards,” she said. “This is going to be tricky. If only we could have Linton make us some glamors.”

Hunter came over to squint at the facility through the window. “Doesn’t look too hard to me. I could take these men out, easy. Just send me in alone—I’ll have the place cleared out in a few minutes.”

“It’s not about that!” Cat said. “Our goal isn’t just to get on one of those ships. We have to get that ship to take us to Drakemyth. If we murder everyone before we board, what do you think’ll happen?”

“Don’t much care,” Hunter grumbled.

“It means the MOW will find out. They’ll send ships after us, probably place Drakemyth’s facility under lockdown. We won’t get anywhere near the archon. What happened to that ‘a hunt is more than pulling the trigger’ shit you were spewing?”

“I hear you. Doesn’t mean we can’t kill them all quietly.”

“No!” Cat cried, growing exasperated. “If we kill anyone in there, it’ll eventually be discovered, and they’ll likely assume the worst, giving us the same fucking outcome.”

“We must infiltrate the facility without being discovered,” Aeva said, draped over a sunken old bed. “It must be as if we were never there.”

Cat snapped her fingers at the wildkin, producing a spray of sparks. “She gets it! We can’t be discovered, and we can’t kill anyone. Are we all clear on that?”

She looked at Hunter and Frost in turn. They were one man short, since Doc had to stay behind to care for Linton.

“As long as I get to kill Drakemyth, I don’t care what happens to the worms below him,” Hunter said. He stalked off to tend to his sword.

“This sounds great,” Frost said, “but isn’t stealth Linton’s expertise? How do we actually get through that fence and onto one of those ships without ending up as mincemeat?”

“You’ve got that invisibility cloak, don’t you?” Cat asked.

“It’s called a concealment matrix, but yes,” Frost confirmed. “It should be with my stuff, somewhere.”

“Could you fit four people under it?”

Frost shrugged. “I mean, if you really huddled up…? Maybe. Wildkin might give it away though. She’s a little…” He blew out his cheeks and gestured to his stomach, alluding to a large, round belly.

“Whatever you are suggesting, I am not,” Aeva said, deadpan.

“Okay, shut up, all of you,” Cat said. “I think I have a plan.”

“Righto,” Frost said. “Whatcha need, boss?”

“Hunter, go fetch Sparrow. Frost, get your invisibility cloak.”

“Concealment matrix.”

“Whatever. Just fetch it.”

The fine components of Hunter’s jaw twitched. “For what reason do we require that drug-addled thief?”

“You’ll see,” Cat said. “Just know we need him.”

Reluctantly, both Hunter and Frost set off.

***

“No, no, no, no, no!” Sparrow squealed. “No way! I won’t do it!” He tried to back out the door to the apartment, but Hunter was covering the doorway, arms crossed. Sparrow reconsidered that idea.

“Oh, come on!” Cat said. “You’ve done plenty worse before. All I need you to do is get a couple of friends together and pretend to protest outside this place. Just enough to get their attention.”

“Yeah, I’m not doing none of that,” Sparrow said, shaking his head firmly. “Storm’ll come and kill me! I know it’ll happen! I know it!”

Cat sighed. “How about we turn to what you’re good at, then? Running away. You know a bit of magic, don’t you?”

“Yeah, like, party tricks or whatever.” Sparrow wiped his runny nose. “What does that have to do with anything? I’m not gonna be part of your plan, y’hear?”

“Okay, but listen to this. You walk up to that fence and show off some magic. They come after you, you run as fast as those little legs will carry. If you do that, I’ll give you five thousand glints. Sound good?”

Sparrow’s eyes went huge and round. “For real?”

“For real.” Cat didn’t have anywhere near that amount of money, but she was sure Tess would spot her if it came to that.

Sparrow’s eyes darted around as he added up the risks and benefits. “O-okay, I’ll do it. Just tell me where I’m supposed to be. How do I get paid after we’re done?”

“Just lay low,” Cat said. “We’ll come to you, okay? It’ll take a day or two, at least. We have some business to conduct in Semic. The less you know, the better.”

Sparrow put on his best ‘complicit criminal’ face. “Right, right. Makes sense. So, are we doing this or what?”

Cat smiled. “Yes, we are, little guy.” She raised her voice. “Everyone, move out!”

***

They huddled together under the invisibility cloak, waiting in the mouth of an alley just across the street from the shipping complex. Sparrow hadn’t yet shown up to do his part.

“This plan lacks a certain… finesse,” Frost said.

“Quit whining,” Cat grumbled. “Not like you’re full of ideas, either.”

Frost giggled to himself. “Just saying, boss. Meant no harm by it.”

Cat was beginning to think that Sparrow had tucked tail and ran, when the little reedling hopped out in front of the complex, in plain sight of all four guards posted on that side.

A ball of light materialized in each of his hands. He began to juggle them as the guards watched with increasing annoyance. He added a ball while the others were mid-air, then another soon after, and finally he was juggling five balls, still moving his legs to the rhythm of a beat only he was privy to.

“Now you’ve had it you little shit!” one of the guards said. He commanded the others to open the chain-link gates, and they reluctantly complied.

Sparrow threw up his hands. All the balls morphed into little songbirds of solid light, fluttering off in every direction. He turned and ran as the guards got the gates open and set off in a sprint after the little kin.

“Now!” Cat said.

They started shuffling under the cloak, the world distorted around them through the permeable fabric. They moved with painful slowness, everyone bent double so that the cloak could brush the ground.

“Are you certain they cannot see us?” Aeva asked. “I find it difficult to trust this mantle of stealth.”

“Concealment matrix!” Frost hissed. “And, well, the magic isn’t as sublime as Linton’s, but it should, in theory, make us mostly invisible. Invisible enough. Or, I suppose it depends on surrounding light sources and the angle of viewing, but…”

“Silence,” Aeva said. “You are making it worse.”

They made it through the gates without any alarms being set off, which Cat took as encouragement. By the time the four guards made it back, huffing and empty-handed, the Bluebirds were well beyond their reach.

This is so stupid, Cat thought. I wish Linton was here. He would have come up with a better plan.

They skirted around the side of the building which made up the majority of the complex, towards the painted tarmac which served as landing platforms. A smaller skyship was already there, starting up its engines.

“I can’t believe you didn’t let me bring any of my weapons,” Hunter grumbled.

“Yeah, because a bag full of guns would definitely fit under here,” Cat said. “Just consider yourself lucky that this is working at all.”

As if on cue, the fabric around them began to shimmer and crackle.

“Uh, what does that flickering mean?” Cat asked.

“Invisibility costs a lot of blue anima,” Frost explained. “I never designed the concealment matrix to last for long periods of time.”

“We’ll be fine, though, right?”

Frost giggled. “Oh, no, this is pretty much a worst-case scenario. We should start panicking about now.”

Everyone started shuffling faster. They made it to the ship, but the wide boarding ramp was retracted, leaving no point of entry.

Frost got his wand out and they changed positions so that he could get at the machinery. The rest waited anxiously.

“How long until they can see us?” Cat asked.

“Shh!” Frost said. “Focusing here!”

Aeva whispered a prayer to one of her gods, whichever one held more sway at the moment.

“Okay, that’s it, we’re killing everyone,” Hunter said. He made to stand up.

The landing ramp jerked into motion, and the thick metal slab lowered itself towards the ground with a great hiss. The Bluebirds scrambled to get out of the way. As soon as the ramp touched down, they hurried up and onto the cargo hauler.

“What in all hells?” the pilot muttered to himself from the open cockpit. He gazed back towards the cargo area, which was stacked with crates and packages of different sizes.

The invisibility cloak grew more distorted. The inside of it was heating up as blue sparks bounced off their shoulders. The Bluebirds got behind some boxes and Aeva threw the thing off them. Frost whispered the command word several times, and eventually managed to deactivate his invention just before it caught fire.

The co-pilot came and checked on the ramp, muttering under his breath. He kicked the mechanism a few times and shouted an all-clear to the pilot, who closed the ramp back up again.

The Bluebirds snuck around some cargo containers so that when the co-pilot turned back around, he saw no trace of them. Hunter was the unlucky person who had to take the cloak, bundling the fabric up against himself to stifle the smoke.

They were not discovered. Minutes later, Cat felt a sharp tug in the pit of her stomach as the ship took off.