Chapter 57 – Vael Debrief

  Cole spent the afternoon in the armory lab with Norn and Bjorn. He filled two more work orders—one for a midlevel kicker’s shotgun, to which he added a fire elemental effect, and one to a bolt action rifle. As he’d suspected, the minor quality part he’d stripped out of an otherworld carbine, once transplanted into a bolt action rifle, gave almost a guaranteed effect, rather than the 6%-8% percent he got when adding minor parts to automatics. In this case, the rifle now had the ability to shut-down spellcasting for four seconds, in addition to the effect it already had of being able to dispel ethereal shields. It was the perfect tool for assassinating mages at a distance.

  Would be nice to have this in my back pocket next time Beast Cult comes sniffing, he thought. A little gun envy was okay.

  The work order screen showed a long list of requests, but Cole was still limited to two charges, which seemed to recharge slowly, even in the artificial LF field of the weapons lab. So he spent the rest of the afternoon reading through the DOR standard operating procedures and sifting through Termlink database entries, trying to make up for lost time and his own ignorance coming in without proper training. Still, it was made to be easier to digest than the Army. While the Army might as well be speaking a completely different language compared to civilians, the Department of Otherworld Rescue had to be accessible cross-branch and to civilians. While it was still a flood of new information (the full SOP was a whopping six-hundred pages long), it at least wasn’t a flood of acronyms and tribal slang.

  Dinner was at the chow hall with Roxy, Howie, and Ken. And, surprising no one, sans Besson and Nona.

  Howie was completely enamored with the place his squire had found him. “It’s crazy! Three floor townhouse, insane internet speed, and all the streaming services. I can watch whatever I want, basically from any room in the house. What about you?”

  “Three-bedroom apartment in downtown Fredricksburg,” said Roxy. “Walking distance to a 24-hour gym, to which I am now apparently a diamond-level member, and about 20 different restaurants.” She looked over at Cole. “Let me guess, you’re out in the sticks, somewhere?”

  “Two-story farmhouse with a basement workshop. Got its own firing range.”

  “Sick,” said Howie.

  “And on brand,” said Ken. “Can we come over for some pew-pew?”

  “Any time,” said Cole. “Can never get too much practice. Just…” he looked at Howie, “…leave the grenades and mortars at home.”

  Howie laughed. “You got it.”

  “That reminds me,” said Cole. He checked his phone and saw that Nona had replied to his invitation to come practice shooting at his place—but surprisingly, that she had no way to get there unless he gave her a ride. For as mobile as the girl was off-world, she seemed almost glued to the DOR compound. It was strange, but he didn’t comment on it. Only told her that they’d go after lunch the next day. He also put his address in the team group chat. While he knew he’d enjoy having his own space, home was never home when you were alone. The whole time he’d lived with his granddad, it seemed like more often than not, one of his old army buddies was paying a visit, or one of the neighborhood women was bringing a casserole to the widower, or the old man had decided to invite half the block for a barbecue. Plus, the house was simply too much house for just one person.

  Cole looked at Ken. “How’s Han healing up?”

  “Good, good,” said Ken. “We’re doing otherworld site security for senior teams until he’s 100%. Then we’re floating support. So if you need a couple extra hands for an op, you know how to reach us. Just wait til chow and Roxy will sniff out our exact location.”

  “Oh come on,” said Roxy. “I’m not that bad.” She looked at Cole. “Am I?”

  He grinned. “I’m pretty sure your internal clock is forever keyed to the chow hall schedule. Don’t worry, it’s one of your best traits.”

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  Roxy grumbled at that but couldn’t muster an argument.

  Once they all finished eating, Howie and Ken split off, ready to head off post. Cole still had the debrief, but since his team was only field support, only he had to attend. Roxy hung around a few minutes longer, with a growing air of something not being said growing between them as she walked with him toward Lewis Hall.

  “Hey Cole,” she said. “About this morning…”

  “Yeah?” he asked.

  She glanced at him, then away. “I don’t want for that to be a one-time thing. And I don’t, you know, want it to be just that, you know? I’m not that kind of person to do just that. But working together and, you know, that. Fuck, I don’t even know what I’m saying.”

  “You’re really bad at this,” said Cole.

  Her eyes bugged out. “Fucker!” she said, knuckling the side of his arm.

  He laughed and rubbed the spot that would definitely have a bruise, later. “I know what you mean. And yeah, it could be messy, and yeah, it could blow up in our faces. But I don’t want it to be a one-time thing, either.”

  “Really?” she asked.

  “I mean, it was at least a two-time, thing, remember?”

  Roxy rolled her eyes but relaxed. With the hard part over, she was apparently back to her ordinary, outspoken self. “Look, mister. If that’s the case, then I’d say you’re a few dates behind and I expect you to make that up on the back end.”

  Cole raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright. Isn’t there something heavy somewhere that needs picked up and dropped back down?”

  “Yeah, your head!”

  Snorting, Cole reached out and gave her a gentle push. “Suppose I walked into that one. I’ll text you later.”

  Roxy nodded and then headed off—cutting across the grass toward the gym, of course.

  Cole badged himself into Lewis Hall.

  Most of Moriarty’s team was already in the conference room. Cole recognized the woman, Alexa, who had the clockwork robot dog in Vael, as well as a larger ex-soldier, Gundir, who had fought with an axe and lever-action rifle.

  Moriarty came in last, nodding to Cole. The man’s anger seemed to have faded over the last eighteen hours.

  “How’s your other teammate?” Cole asked.

  “They couldn’t save the leg,” he said casually. “Her days as a Kicker are done.”

  Cole winced. “That sucks. Sorry.”

  The other team lead shrugged, and a sly smile spread across his mouth. “I prefer to look to the future. I’ll be needing a new mage to round out the team. Think Howie would be interested in moving to a more senior team? If you’re willing to part with him, that is. It would be good for his career, but I don’t want to step on any toes.”

  What a jackwagon. Cole imagined Howie would have a few things to say about that offer—he’d voiced his opinion on Moriarty’s planning more than once on the way back from the Vaelian front. But Moriarty was clearly trying to get a rise out of him so he could claim the moral high-ground and regain face with his team. Cole had met other sergeants and soldiers, and even a few officers who carried the mentality that they could best make themselves look better by making others look worse.

  “I don’t keep my team leashed, Moriarty. They made the team and asked me to lead it. Ask Howie if you want, just don’t get butt-hurt when he tells you to pound sand.”

  Gundir snickered at that but turned it into an unconvincing cough at a glare from Moriarty. Anything else he might have said was cut off when Bricker entered the room with Ms. Mary and their slide deck.

  “Evening. Fine work, and condolences on the medical retirement of your teammate,” said Bricker.

  “Thank you, sir,” said Moriarty.

  Bricker eased himself down into a chair and waited as Ms. Mary got the laptop hooked up to the screen and pulled up the debrief.

  “You’ll be pleased to hear that Leon’s parents were notified, and they’re on their way. In the meantime, he’s responding well to therapy and resting. I know things didn’t go exactly as planned, but you persevered and got the job done. That’s another kidnapped child brought home, and you should all be proud.”

  He flipped through slides until reaching a video extracted from one of the helmet cams that showed the ambush of a convoy of steam-powered armored cars, and a trio of what looked like well-armed and armored soldiers rushing out to intercept with otherworld armaments. Behind them, dozens of uniformed soldiers also spilled out of the steam carriages to join the fray behind their high-level allies. The video clip showed that the rest of Leon’s party were able to weather the storm of long-range fire in the ambush and engage with Gundir and another teammate on the ground. And, of course, no Leon.

  “What went wrong?” asked Bricker.

  Moriarty answered instantly. “Flawed intelligence conclusions from the local source led us to believe the hero and a small escort would be in that convoy. Instead, it was the bulk of Leon’s party and a royal guard arquebusier contingent headed for the front.”

  Bricker flipped again, showing Cole’s scuffle with Vak, cut off before Nona’s arrival, and the subsequent ambush and extermination of the remaining Scarred. “And here?”

  Cole cleared his throat. “I failed to recognize the altered objective of the Deathbringer and his men once we learned about the shift in circumstances. Leon immediately became a target of opportunity. There was no way they could pass that up.”

  “And if you could do it again?”

  Cole glanced at Moriarty.

  “I’d neutralize Guall and his men immediately and find another way through to the front.”