Satyr Play 03 Pt. 02

-=-

Sam reached a hand out to Jeannie, who grabbed Brenda's free hand as she held Jake's. Time appeared to slow as their perceptions sped up.

"It's like we just got sucked into the middle of a war! What the fuck do we do?" Jake asked.

Sam snorted. "Depends on who do you believe? The people defending the guy who turns into a goat-man or Snow White's eighth dwarf, Ragey. The little guy brought his own laser-firing Fairy! I felt the heat of that beam as it shot past my head.

"He's a Satyr, not a goat man, and that laser would have burnt a hole right through him had it hit," Jake corrected.

"Do you think he could be responsible for that mess outside?" Brenda asked.

They were quiet for a moment as they recalled the events in the forest clearing.

"That screaming voice we heard. The one the Satyr guy called Mad Mab. She was pretty pissed at him for interfering with her vengeance. I think she sounded like the big bad in this situation," Sam suggested.

"I don't like her," Jeannie offered and Brenda nodded seriously.

"I think that means we side with the Satyr and do as the shiny lady asks," Jake reasoned.

Sam glanced at the players in this battle. The spell the fairy cast first knocked a lot of people out of commission right from the start. He saw some coming around, coughing and sneezing to clear their lungs and noses, but most were still down for the count. The doctor and her husband weren't the fighting kind, and he had his arms protectively wrapped around her.

The big redhead had pushed himself to his feet and changed into a huge, vicious-looking werewolf in a blink. Sam saw another blink to his right and saw the lovely brunette woman was on her feet as well. She now had shiny black and red skin and looked like something out of a fetish film. Very sexy... except for the razor-sharp claws she now had and the totally pissed off expression on her face.

"Form a wall between the bad guys and the Satyr! Stay linked!" Sam said, and they moved as one.

Through their link, they shared their fear of the laser bolts. None knew if their shiny skins would reflect it or not, so they agreed to leave that up to the force field the Satyr seemed to be under.

Sam now wished he'd brought along the soldiers.

-=-

Colonel Crane was in the middle of a storm of organized chaos. He was standing in a control room with dozens of soldiers gathering intel from stations around the world. Reports were coming in of sightings of non-human invaders. Not huge groups of them, just singles or groups smaller than half a dozen. It was the fact that it was so widespread that was confusing. None of the sightings reported violence. Well, none, after the swirling green light began playing music, at least. There had been some bloodshed and panic initially, but that seemed to have settled down. People were remarkably calm about this turn of events.

"Are we under attack?" General Baines shouted angrily.

Crane shook his head as he frowned at the General's agitation. He was tempted to ask them to play the green light music in the control room.

He glanced over at Hugh, who was leaning against the wall, watching them with his crooked smile. Their eyes locked for a moment, and he swore he felt the man's amusement. Sighing, he looked to the General. "No. This bears none of the signs of being a military action. Have the scientists had any success in getting any readings on the green light?"

Stephen Dawes shook his head. "The only information we are getting out of them is that the light behaves like a liquid. They're fascinated," he growled in frustration.

"What are your thoughts on this?" Hugh asked calmly from the side of the room.

Crane couldn't shake the impression the man knew more than he let on and was just watching them struggle to grasp the truth on their own. He had nothing to prove his gut feelings, so he tried to push them back.

"The appearance of the light coincides with the sightings of these non-human beings. Knowing what we do about the Silver People, the fact that they are actually humans changed by the materials found in the pseudo-clouds, which do seem to come from another place, I think we may be looking at another form of transformation. These may be humans changed by the green light." He looked to Dawes in frustration. "We need a new way to measure something we can't see."

Dawes's expression froze for a moment.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Hugh offered, and the Director jolted slightly as he returned from his thoughts.

Stephen shook his head gently like he was trying to shake free a blocked memory. "It was just something I heard someone say about seeing what can't be seen. He said sometimes you have to look at what's missing to find what's hidden in plain sight."

"Who was this?" Hugh asked.

"Henry Gable. The tech genius we tried to recruit because he discovered processors capable of performing Quantum Tunneling."

Hugh's eyes lit up, and he glanced at Crane, who was watching him.

The Colonel recalled talking about this young man. "Right, he went missing in that pseudo-cloud attack on the capital. You found him later, as I recall." Dawes nodded. "He discovered Quantum Tunneling in processors? What does that mean?"

Stephen shook his head. "All I know is that it made a room full of professional eggheads completely lose their shit." His expression turned serious. "I'm being told it represents a completely new era in computational power. A major leap forward, and none of my geniuses have the slightest clue how it works, but they all agree that it does."

Crane's cell rang, and he saw it was the Sergeant. "What's the situation?"

"Definitely FUBAR, Colonel. May I assume the green light is at your location as well?"

"You may. It's global," Gordon replied.

"Ah, okay. Just so you know, the light contains the same energy as the strike zone on the mall, just not as intense. We're picking up a charge from it, which has been helpful due to what we found here.

Our midwestern agents led us to a secret underground facility in Hainesburg, New Jersey. That's about an hour due west of Manhattan. When we arrived, we encountered a battle in progress, and that's when it got weird. I'll give you a more detailed report later, but I can tell you the two groups of combatants were not human. We had to resort to deadly force with the two giants as they wouldn't surrender."

"Giants?" Gordon interrupted.

"Yes, sir. Eight feet tall, tusks from their lower jaw, and built like tanks. One slapped Yablonski hundreds of yards away. It actually managed to knock him unconscious, but he seems fine now. The other combatants are... well, I think they're werewolves." When the Colonel remained quiet, she continued. "It seemed like they were ready to continue fighting, but they all just stopped. I overheard one saying their boss was dead. That really took the fight out of them. We don't have any means to restrain them as they're stronger than our zip ties, so we have a dozen of them sitting on the ground with guards posted around them.

We did a preliminary inspection of the facility. It looks like a farmhouse on the surface, but below ground is some kind of prison or medical center, but the kind where the patients are locked in their rooms. We found three dead bodies inside three of the rooms, two from close range gunshots to the head and one with no visible signs of trauma though the room was destroyed like a bomb went off."

"Where are the midwestern agents now?" the Colonel asked.

"During the battle, before the green light fell, we could hear some intense screams of rage a short distance away, which shook the ground, but we were too busy fighting to be able to investigate. Afterward, Sam stopped by to ask us to meet them in Time Square when we were done."

"One second, Sergeant," Gordon said to Mick. He spotted and flagged down the tech who'd been getting him reports on the movements of the Silver People. "I need tracking for the original midwestern Silver People between Hainesburg, New Jersey, and Time Square in Manhattan. Use satellite and traffic cam footage." The soldier nodded and rushed to his terminal.

Gordon went back to his call. "Any sign of who might be running this secret prison?"

"We found no documents at all. It looks like a paperless operation. There are computers, though, so maybe there's a server room. We need an inspection team up here," she explained.

"Sir! I found them!"

Gordon looked over in surprise at the tech. "Hang on again, Sergeant." He walked over to join the tech as the General, Dawes, and Hugh joined him to peer over the tech's shoulder.

The man looked back at the Colonel and received a nod to begin. "The traffic cams caught the four Silver People running with traffic—"

"Keeping pace with the traffic?" Gordon interrupted. The tech nodded as he looked back in question, so Gordon explained. "They can outrun any vehicle on the road and often run faster than the eye registers. If they're going that slow, they may be following someone. Look for vehicles that remain in their vicinity."

The tech looked back to the screen and rolled the footage he'd flagged forward and backward to see if there was a common vehicle in all the scenes. He paused the screen showing a dark sedan. "Yes, sir. This one."

"Get the plate and run it. Where are they going?" the General asked.

"The car turns up this road, and the traffic cam on the next street up doesn't show it coming out. They stopped somewhere on that street. Lots of financial companies in this neighborhood," the tech noted.

The men sitting at the terminal pulled up the listings, and Dawes sucked in a breath. Eyes turned in his direction.

He looked a little embarrassed, but he forced his expression to clear. "It could be a coincidence, but VRL is on that street." At the blank looks, he continued. "The company Henry Gable works for."

More looks were exchanged, then Gordon shook his head. "Too many hints to be purely coincidental. We need to have a little talk with him." He lifted the cell to his ear as he peered at VRL's address, reading it aloud. "Sergeant, I need you to take the team to that address and collect a man by the name of Henry Gable." He looked to Dawes. "Do you have a picture of him?"

"I'll get you one," Dawes said as he pulled his own cell out.

"Sir, what about the prisoners?" Mick asked.

Gordon knew if he mentioned them to the General, his answer would be to terminate them. Something told him that wasn't the route to take here. He was going with his gut.

"Their leader is dead? Ask them what they're going to do."

"Yes, sir," Mick replied, and he heard the relief in her voice.

There was a muffled conversation, then the Sergeant was back on the line. "They received a command from their new leader to go home and wait for an assessment."

"Who's their new leader, and where can we find him?" Gordon asked.

Another brief conversation, then the Sergeant was back on the call. "Roy Duncan. He's also at VRL."

Gordon looked to Dawes with a grim expression. "Sergeant, you have your orders. Top priority, don't spare the horses. Get to VRL and take these two people into custody."

"Yes, sir!" She hung up.

"Are you going to fill us in on the details?" Baines growled.

Gordon nodded. "I think I may have to amend my previous theory. The Sergeant and her team followed the midwestern agent to a small town in rural New Jersey where they encountered a battle underway between two giants and a group of werewolves. I believe some of these beings may already be in place, somehow disguised as humans. Maybe the green light is breaking their disguises, which is why we're suddenly receiving reports of them appearing all over the world."

"Giants and werewolves? Really?" the General complained.

"But Silver People are more reasonable?" the Colonel retorted and got a scowl from the General. "Listen, the labels giants and werewolves are just placeholders until we get more information. I don't like this any more than you do, but these are how the facts seem to be lining up. We need to speak to these two people from VRL."

"What about the monsters?" Baines demanded.

"The non-humans?" Crane said to correct him and received a scowl. "The giants are dead. We've identified and are about to capture the leader of the werewolves. The rest aren't important right now."

"You let them go?" Baines yelled in outrage.

"General, the Colonel's right. His team has more critical targets to acquire and no time to waste," Hugh suggested.

Dawes looked uneasy but nodded as well.

"Perhaps we should join them in New York?" Hugh continued.

"Yes," Gordon said firmly, and eyes turned his way. "It feels like something is escalating, and signs are pointing to VRL as at least one of the focal points." He held the General's eye. "My Sergeant just informed me that the green light covering everything outside contains the same energy as the strike zone but not as strong. It comes from the same source as the pseudo-clouds. We don't seem to be able to measure it with our instruments, but it can be felt."

Gordon saw the others were absorbing that information. "We're missing a significant detail. As the man said, sometimes you have to look at what's missing to find what's hidden in plain sight."

He looked into the eyes of the other men. "Let's go meet the missing piece."

Chapter 38

Being inside a ringing bell is not a pleasant experience, but it beats being incinerated by a beam of white-hot plasma.

Marisa pulled Meixiu and Siobhan to her sides, and they glanced up at her in dazed confusion. "You're going to have to brace me! I'm going into Henry's mind to find him!" she exclaimed. She felt them wrap their arms around her and take a grip on the gurney. She was now pinned to its side. She looked down at Henry's sleeping form and placed her hands on his forehead and chest. Clearing her thoughts, she let her mind sink into his.

She was swept away on the raging current of the Wild Magic circling the planet. The sensation of falling was terrifying, but she focused on the feeling of Henry's presence. She needed to reach him.

"Henry!" she cried out.

She felt him all around her but spread so thin. His attention swung towards her, glacially slow.

Agony shot through her, and she heard shrill laughter. It was Mab, enjoying the pain she was inflicting upon Henry, and subsequently, Marisa.

As quickly as the pain appeared, Henry eased it with soothing waves of cool. She felt his focus returning, and his presence began to solidify.

"What are you doing? Henry asked her, his voice stronger and coming from the space before her.

As they were still joined mind to mind, Marisa felt him splitting his attention between her and attacking Mab. There was another part of his mind he was keeping hidden. How was he doing this?

She pulled her attention back to answer him. "Your body is back at VRL in the boardroom, but we're being attacked by the Hidden Races Council members!" Marisa exclaimed.

A bloodcurdling scream of agony and rage cut through the space around Marisa. Suddenly, Henry was standing before her in all his Satyr glory. He grinned at her playfully. "Mab found my prickly pear cactus land mine traps. That should distract her for a while. Come with me!"

He took her hand, and she suddenly realized he'd given her a physical state as well. She glanced down at herself and realized she was in her true shape. She could feel his strong hand in hers, and her next awareness was of standing on a rocky cliff overlooking the rough moonlit ocean.

"What? Where?"

"Ireland. Specifically, the northwest corner of the island overlooking a rocky crag called Carrickhesk." He pointed out into the darkness. "Can you see what's balanced atop the rock?" he asked.

She peered into the murk. "No! It's too dark."

Henry smiled and handed her some binoculars he seemed to pull out of thin air. "Abracadabra! Try these."

She hesitantly looked through them, and there was Mab's castle, precariously balanced upon the rock. She gasped as she recognized it from the night Nate was kidnapped. She lowered the binoculars from her eyes. "Nate's in there."

Henry looked at her in surprise. "No! He's on Eden. Didn't DJ tell you guys?"

Marisa shook her head. "I don't know who that is."

Henry's grin changed to a look of disappointment then worry. Finally, he pushed that aside. "Nate's on Eden. He was pretty messed up emotionally when I freed him from Mab's castle—" Some movement on the horizon distracted him. "Ah! We've got company at ten o'clock."

Marisa lifted her binoculars and saw a tiny dot on the horizon. "Who is that?"

"It's a surprise!" Henry giggled.

Marisa looked at him closely. His eyes seemed glassy. "Henry? Are you drunk?"

"What? No!" He laughed, then paused and smiled in confusion. "I don't think so. I don't recall drinking anything." He glanced in the direction of the castle. "Hang on a second. I gotta lift a skirt." He bounced his eyebrows at her, then took a wide stance as he faced the castle. He bent his knees and reached his arms out like he was bear hugging a tree. Then he grunted as if he was trying to uproot that tree.

Marisa watched as his muscles bunched and swelled. He groaned from the effort, then his legs began to straighten out as he lifted... something extremely heavy and invisible. He bent backward just a little then held the position.

"What are you lifting, Henry?" Marisa asked quietly.

"Shield," he grunted. His muscled were trembling from the effort.

Marisa lifted the binoculars once more and looked towards the castle. How such a huge structure could balance on such a small piece of rock was beyond her understanding. The shield over it was still invisible, but if she imagined a dome over the castle and Henry lifting it, based on his movements, there might be a ten to fifteen-foot gap at its base on the far side now. At the last second, she caught the flash of several missile's rockets driving them forward, through the invisible gap to strike the rock with devastating effect. A second barrage of missiles shot in under the protection though one was a little high and exploded against the shield. A jet shot by overhead as a third and final set of slower-moving missiles struck the small rocky island with an enormous concussive blast. Marisa threw up her hands to protect her face as the blast, and the rocky shrapnel reached them, but it flew through her without impact. She'd forgotten she wasn't actually there.

With a gasp, Henry fell back on his ass, panting from the effort. Marisa was stunned by how real everything felt but was grateful that hadn't included being hit by the debris. She wondered if Henry needed the structure of physicality and translated his mental effort into its physical requirements. Her eyes glanced to the retreating jet.

"What happened?" Marisa said.

"The shield is gone," Henry sighed as he pushed himself back to his feet.

Immediately the hillside came alive with Hidden Races Council soldiers, all wrapped in black cloaks. None could see Henry or Marisa. The soldiers ran to the cliff's edge and began their preparations for invading. Henry guided Marisa to the side to avoid being walked through.

"Are you going to the castle?" she asked.

He shook his head. "It's not there. I felt it move when the supports sheared off in the last explosion."

Marisa looked through the binoculars then back at him. "I can still see it!"

"That's just the false one we were in when Mab was visiting Manhattan," he explained. "It's a trap. Once you're inside, it'll disappear into nothingness. The physical one isn't here anymore."

Marisa shuddered as he looked through the binoculars at the smoldering rubble of the small island. "So, she escaped?"