he Masque of Nevermore – Chapter 3

“Frescoes…” Geoff was excited, gesticulating with his fork. “Who would have thought to find such a thing here? I have to go see the others when we have more time.”

“Figured you and Jorge would pretty excited about it but I didn’t read Bob as an arty type of guy. I think he was more excited than either of you!” Bob grinned down the table at Charlotte around a mouthful of food.

“See, like I said, he comes off as a caveman.“ She returned the grin minus the mouthful of food and watched him visibly swallow and take a deep sip of tea.

“I’ll have you know I took a degree in fine arts in Sydney. I’m crap at doing it as it turns out but it makes me appreciate the talents of others even more. Frescoes especially are incredibly difficult to do well and this artist did far better than well! Their work is up there in quality with some of the finest I’ve seen and I’ve seen most of the great masters. I would have said all but apparently I would have been wrong. I agree, seeing the others will be a pleasure. Do you know anything about the artist?”

“A little. He studied in Italy, then came to do work here but one no one wanted it. He finally got funding to do the little church we saw first and over the next thirty or forty years did a whole string of them all along the Appalachian trail and some others too. Some are religious like the ones we saw today but a good half of them are either completely secular or even a bit irreverent toward religion. I hadn’t even thought about it as being exceptional really… I learned about it on a school field trip when I was young.”

Charlotte took a sip of her tea. “Sorry about the caveman comment Bob. That wasn’t fair.”

“Eh, I’m used to it. I grew up in the outback and the Anangu kids used to tease me about it. Then they got me into the water… turns out short legs and long arms are a good combination there. Confused the hell out of me for a while because they started calling me Phelps and I had not the slightest clue who that was.” He grinned at her. “Besides, that means I get to call you BatGirl!”

Charlotte blushed at the laughter from around the table. “Well it beats ‘GI Barbie’ any day!” She’d timed it just right and the laughter which had begun to die down didn’t for another moment.

“GI Barbie, Batgirl… I’m not picky as long as she shares my bed!” Charlotte blushed anew at Yves’ comment. “Besides, I defy you to show me anyone who looks more downright sexy in battle gear than Charlie!”

“Well I’d vote for Jorge myself but that’s just preference. She looks scary as hell in battle gear to me!”

It was Jorge’s turn to blush at Bob’s comment and there was a little more good natured razzing at the glance between the men who had just recently begun dating. Griff got up to gather the dishes and Charlotte rose to help.

“You sit right back down Charlie, I’ve got this. We’ll get out of here so y’all can have some privacy.”

Charlotte sat as instructed while Griff swooped around the table, somehow managing to get everything in one pass. “I’m fine with you cleaning up Griff but I want you and Lil in here for this. Got a decent bottle in the back maybe?”

Lilly came in the same door her husband had just exited. “Well there’s just this old thing…” she pulled a bottle from behind her back. “Its only got 25 years on it though, so who knows if its any good.”

Charlotte wasn’t fooled. “Your grandad’s?”

“Yep!” Lilly smiled happily. “He finally decided he should bottle 10 barrels of his first reserve a few years ago. I’ll let you decide what you think of it.”

“Thanks Lil!” Charlotte turned to the rest of the table. “You’re about to taste the product of the finest distiller in these parts. Lilly’s great-grandad was a moonshiner before it was legal and even back then people would pay triple for his liquor. I’ve tasted some of Deke’s 10 year and its… something in a class of its own.”

By this time they all had rocks glasses in front of them with a double shot each and all were seated again.

“I thought you wanted us to stay clear Charlie?” Lilly inquired.

“I do… but you can’t stay clear if you don’t know where the action is. I’m sure Griff already told you Greer Hollow is the target but you need to know we’re going to be operating in the airspace over half the county at least and I’d rather not have my aerial assets come under fire because someone thinks I’m violating their privacy. There’s a very real possibility of stray fire if things break out of that holler so I want to make sure everyone in the area is ready to find some serious cover when the shit starts to hit the fan.”

“Makes sense. Bunkers ain’t exactly uncommon around here and we can make sure the word gets out.” Griff leaned forward. “I’m assuming you’ll want the roads clear?”

“Not until it kicks off. I want everything to look like an absolutely normal day right up until then, or at least as much as possible. We’ve made a practice of night attacks and overhead recon suggests they are compensating for that by adding half again as many duty personnel at night. We’re going to need to have those kids moving as quickly as possible and waking them up is a time-killer so we’re going to hit while they are eating lunch. Half the watch will be stood down, the kids will be awake and we can maximize our element of surprise while minimizing our exfil time.”

“Aren’t you worried about losing your stealth advantage?” Lilly wanted to know.

“Can’t be helped. We’re going to come in nape of the earth anyway so their first clue we exist should be a little visual flicker as each of us cross the ridgeline… Then we’re back down and camouflaged partly by the hillside. By the time they can react we’ll be on the ground and I really hope they send a response party… Either way, there’s a possibility we’ll be making use of some fairly heavy ordnance at basically any point in this operation.”

Charlotte considered for a moment, again deciding just how much to tell. “Once we have the kids to safety rescue operations end and Operation RatCatcher begins. None of them leave that holler alive. As far as their bosses are concerned they will have simply vanished into the mountains, never to be heard from again. We’ve located their hardwired outlinks and we’ll be jamming everything but our own comms. That will be our signal. Have everyone listening to a radio or have a phone on them. When it goes to static or loses signal its time to find a deep hole and crawl into it for a bit.”

Both of her friends were staring at her but Lilly was the first to recover. “That’s… I dunno really. I’d say it was harsh or brutal but given the targets…” She shrugged. “You said you wanted them to vanish. That can be taken care of but here’s where we can help. Bodies are no problem, enough old mineshafts around here to take care of that but I’d like to take it one step further and completely restore that holler. If we stage things properly we can get it done in 24 hours and leave their bosses thinking they vanished into the UnderHill…” She barked a sharp, harsh laugh. “Or whatever their version of it is anyway. You already scare them badly enough to have them trying some fairly extreme shit… Throwing in a healthy dose of superstition shouldn’t hurt at all.”

“I’m the scary one?” Charlotte laughed. “That’s beyond awesome Lil.”

“Ya know… If we can manage to stage some fairly large fog machines we can blanket the valley with a fogbank pretty quickly and do a fair job of hiding everything once you’ve finished. Any satellite recon would be pretty well fooled if we made it cold enough to cover the infrared signatures as well as the visual spectrum.” Griff looked thoughtful for a moment. “Shouldn’t take more than 3 or 4 of the big ones and we can camouflage em by moving farm equipment around.”

“Why don’t we start out with the fog? However cold it is we’ll be able to see perfectly well through other means and they will be blinded. Kills the element of surprise but…” Geoff shrugged “Given the choice between that and stealth once detected? I know which way I’d prefer it.”

That was met with nods and mutters of agreement and one head-wobble/nod combination from Pete.

“OK… its supposed to rain for a day or two starting day after tomorrow. Do you think you can get everything staged before then?” Griff nodded and Charlotte grinned ferociously. “Then we have our go-time. Tomorrow serious planning but for tonight… You wouldn’t happen to have a bottle or 2 more would you Lil?”

“I can break out some of his 10 year, yeah… but first you really need to taste this.” Lilly smiled knowingly as each of them took a sip and made various expressions of delight.

“Best bourbon I’ve ever tasted.” Was Yves’ pronouncement and it was unanimously agreed. “Is any for sale?”

“Not a drop but I can give you each a bottle.” Lilly grinned around the table. “This was a special batch, not for distribution.”

“After we’ve finished this business we’ll be more than happy to take you up on that Lil… but for now lets switch to the 10 year.” Their host nodded her agreement with Charlotte’s suggestion and returned with 2 more bottles which were declared to be first rate as well.

By the time they adjourned and made their way to various rooms in the sprawling house to sleep both bottles had been consumed and some fairly diabolical plans had been considered and mostly dismissed.

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Dawn the morning of the assault was just beginning to drizzle and the weather gods had gifted them with a natural fog cover which they had been quietly augmenting. By just before noon the fog in the hollow was almost entirely artificial as the increasing rain had dissipated the natural one. A large cell of more intense rain helped give even more cover as the team loitered just behind its leading edge being pummeled by the shifting air currents. On cue they separated, one group either side ducking down into the adjacent hollow and winging for their assigned positions.

The fog and rain allowed their movement over the ridgeline to go entirely unobserved and they swooped in, each of them taking out an assigned sentry silently before disengaging and allowing their Bats to make their way back into the mist. It only took a few seconds more for someone to miss a call in or fail to respond and suddenly the sounds of gunfire began to ring out. Shouts of aggression turned into screams of fear before being silenced abruptly and Charlotte spied her own target. She signaled to her fire team and they fell in, Charlotte on point, Geoff and Jorge flanking her and slightly behind with Pete covering their rear and each of their bats on overwatch above the fog.

They ran at full speed toward their target, mowing down anything that stood in their way as speed was of the essence. Charlotte skidded up to a concrete block wall and slapped a piece of det cord horizontally just above her head while her two flankers did the same with vertical strips about 6 feet apart. Another strip across the bottom and they all crouched to the side instants before a short sharp thump that barely sounded like an explosion blew the entire section of wall they’d outlined inward at the edges, making it crumble in on itself.

Before the debris stopped flying the team was inside and scattering as another team did the same on the opposite side. The 17 guards inside were quickly dispatched and suddenly the true magnitude of the task became apparent. They had expected a few more kids than the 8 that had been taken from the safe house but there were easily over 100 children here, frightened and crying on the floor with a few exceptions who were also on the floor but grimly silent.

Charlotte motioned a child who looked up at her to stay down and saw him passing the message to others. The teams took up defensive positions while she thought furiously for a moment before toggling to full broadcast so the entire assault party could hear. “Case X-Ray in effect. I repeat, case X-Ray in effect.” She paused for a moment before adding “Good hunting.”

There were no replies but a sudden flood of guards into the room meant they were busy responding. It was a short firefight but got hairy for a moment as someone was chiming in with what sounded like a massive weapon in the confined space and she guessed it was a .50 calibre heavy with one round of something much larger. As the fire died down she checked her team’s vitals and blanched when Geoff’s were flatlined. She ran toward his locator, skidding to a stop as she saw him lying on his back, a hole just a little bigger than a nickel punched neatly through his visor.

It felt like an eternity passed before she started moving again but Jorge later swore she hadn’t even stopped fully, just stutter-stepped and changed course. By the time she hit the door the guards had come through she was moving fast enough to blast it entirely off its hinges without slowing. Still at a full run she fired as targets made themselves evident, finally slowing as they became too numerous and threatened to envelop her. Her primary weapons ran dry and she switched to sidearms, then those ran dry and she threw all of her knives and still they came.

She drew her swords and dashed toward the knot of armed men, her screams amplified as much as her helmet systems could do. She was forced to stutter-step as her armor hardened momentarily from so many bullets hitting her but it didn’t slow her down appreciably and she burst through the men in a spray of blood, finally stopping as men who had died before they knew it fell around her. It took her a moment to realize there were no more targets, nothing but the dead on all sides, even the ceiling slick with gore.

Suddenly the sound of her own ragged panting filled her ears and she toggled her external speakers down again. After another look around she set about retrieving the throwing knives she could see, barely noticing that the sounds of gunfire had faded to the occasional short burst.

“Boss?” Jorge’s voice came over her comm. “I’m coming down the hall behind you ok?”

It took a moment for his voice to register. “I’m dry Jorge, got a couple spare mags?”

He wordlessly handed her 6 mags and she reloaded and charged her weapons. “Its done boss. Grey team is mopping up now. A couple of the kids got some minor shrapnel wounds from us blowing the walls but they are all more or less ok.” He didn’t mention Geoff, certain she was acutely aware and already blaming herself for his loss.

She started to move back toward the area where the kids were and Jorge moved in front of her, wordlessly proffering a towel he’d picked up somewhere. “Boss you gotta wipe off first or you’re gonna scare the hell out of those kids.” Charlotte stared at him for a moment before taking the towel and swiping it across her head, coming away with blood and bits of flesh and bone. She stared at it for a moment more, seeming not to recognize it and was only peripherally aware that Jorge had taken the towel back from her and was wiping the worst off, picking off bits that had made their way into crevices.

As soon as he appeared satisfied she half-ran back into the large room to see what appeared to be many more children than she’d thought at first. “Headcount?” She demanded of Pete who stared at her for a moment before responding.

“237 maam. Haven’t had a chance to count combatants yet. Our 8 are accounted for, relatively unharmed and they say we have everyone.” He was interrupted by the sound of a short but furious firefight. “That’ll be Grey team mopping up the runners.” he added unnecessarily.

“Mel?”

“Yeah boss?”

“Would you stop with the boss bit!?” She barked. “I’m assuming you advised our friends X-Ray was in effect?”

“Say the magic word and the busses roll boss!” came the reply and Charlotte snorted a slight laugh.

“We’re not using that road until we’ve had a chance to clear it. I’m securing them in place until then. Spread the word, we need something for demining that we can adapt for remote use. We’ve already lost one of ours today and I’m not risking anyone I don’t absolutely have to so X-Ray remains in effect until we implement Long March, got it?”

“Rikki-Tik, Boss. Be aware 2 combines inbound in 3 and 4 mikes, 1 bulldozer in 7. Estimate 37 mikes to clear to your location with 1 vehicle loss, 45 with 2.”

“Convey my thanks to our hairy friend…” Charlotte felt the prickling behind her eyelids and forced the tears down, kept them out of her voice. “Keep me apprised.”

She switched to a private channel with Yves but didn’t get a word out before his voice came to her. “We’re forming a shield party now. Notre ami le vaillant chevalier sera honoré correctement, Cheri.”

“And what does honor mean to the dead, valiant knight or not?” Charlotte stopped herself. “I’m sorry. Its not your fault.”

“Nor is it yours Cheri.”

Charlotte couldn’t think of anything to say so ducked into one of the large bathrooms to check herself over, realizing she was still liberally smeared with gore. She strode back out through the main room, noting that the children were largely calm and seated by this point as she strode back through the hole she’d blown in the wall bare minutes before to stand in the downpour. After a few minutes the red water had turned to pinkish, then run clear so she went back inside.

She made her way toward where Geoff’s body lay , realizing some of the children had clustered around him, amongst them the 8 they’d originally come for. She was stunned when she got close enough to realize they had already removed the legs from one of the tables and gently laid him atop it, arms crossed over his chest. She fell to her knees beside him and stroked the smoothness of his helmet, still unmarred save for that one hole... Which she suddenly realized had not gone all the way through the heavy reactive armor of Geoff’s helmet

“Mel!” Charlotte tried to keep the panic out of her voice. “Pop the seals on Geoff’s helmet, quick!”

She pulled on it and felt the catches give way, the helmet coming off with a sudden roughness in her urgency. Geoff’s face was unmarred and he gasped as he drew a deep breath.

“Holy shit I’m alive! What the hell took you so long and why isn’t the rest of this thing unlocked?” He stared in bewilderment as she gazed down at him, her helmeted face betraying none of the maelstrom of emotion that drew the waiting tears of grief forth and turned them to joy.

Charlotte switched to a private channel and made sure her external speakers were off. “Mel, his armor is fully unlocked right? He should be able to move?”

“They already moved him Charlie… its not the suit. Lilly is on her way now, 2 mikes and she’ll need space for a 4 man dropship. I’ll have Gundersen and her team waiting to start treatment immediately.”

“Thanks Mel… Any idea what the hell happened?”

“Working on it now.”

Charlotte turned her external speakers back on. “Geoff we’ve got a dropship inbound now. You’re going straight to Gundersen and her team.”

“So its not the suit then… Well hell, had to hope right? I’m sooo not looking forward to 6 more months of rehab.” He barked a short laugh. “Although I wouldn’t mind seeing Wanda. I heard she’s divorced again.”

“I’m sorry Geoff… I must have missed something. The armor should have stiffened and taken the impact…”

“Charlie?” she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Charlie, your armor saved my life. Don’t ever blame yourself for something you couldn’t have foreseen.”

Pete tapped lightly on her shoulder and she almost whirled around to strike him, managing to make it look like simply a hasty turn. He was holding what looked like 2 halves of a projectile in his hands but they seemed light.

“Sabots? What the hell were they firing?”

“Looks like the turret from an old Soviet era APC. The feed mechanism jammed so they only got off the one round… depleted uranium 30 millimeter dart with a discarding sabot. That thing should have gone through heavy armor like hot butter but your helmets are built of sterner stuff.”

“Maybe so but I obviously fucked up somewhere else.”

“No you didn’t Charlie. You and I both know the crystalline superfluid you’re using has an inherent limitation on response time. That’s why you went in a different direction for the spacegoing version. If anything it outperformed your best case scenarios.” Tina’s voice was gentle.

“Hey let her sulk. She’s trying to work up a good self-blame thing.”

Geoff’s attempt at humor didn’t have its desired result.

“Goddammit I’m blaming myself because its my fault!” Charlotte was raging to herself.

“You really need to go see Dr Morgelan about that shit Charlie. We all know you do it but its on the edge of becoming a liability. Yes, it happened on your watch, and yes, its on you. Nobody can change that, its how you and me and anyone else who ever went into battle giving a shit feels and it’s the truth of things too.” Geoff took a few breaths until he’d got his thoughts in order.

“The thing is… you literally did everything possible. You know full well a design that would take a hit like I did and fully protect against it would be completely unworkable as a land warrior system. Your system performed as designed and you made exactly the right trade-offs or I wouldn’t be giving you this lecture right now. Now if you’d known a way to compensate for this and make it workable and just left it out for… I dunno, whatever reason… Then yeah. I’d be first in line to lay blame but that isn’t what happened.”

Charlotte was about to interrupt but he cut her off. “What happened was so unlikely as to be almost impossible… and because your designs took even that into account I’m here trying to talk sense into you. You’re thinking about this backward. You’re looking at how you failed and for an engineering review that’s a good thing. Right now though, you’re wearing your CO hat and you, most importantly… Did NOT lose even a single member of the assault party or the captives. I will recover fully with therapy. Any way you look at it this is an unqualified success.”

“He’s right, Cherie…” came to her ears on a private channel. “We can talk about it all later. For now we have the children to think of. You must be Chevalier Reine for them because that is your legend, the Queen Knight, in armor as black as death.”

“I can’t….” She almost wailed into their private channel.

“You must. You are a legend for these children and a monster to their captors. You chose this path cherie, and I chose to walk it with you. All of these men and women chose the same. You are the strongest of us and we all know what it costs you but these children have been fortunate enough to not have to see your true strength. Those few who follow a path of service will discover it in their own time and those who do not are perhaps better for not knowing. Give them their sauveteur noir.”

“A vegades, realment, em pateixen de por, ho saps?”

“Of course you hate me sometimes my love, it is a part of being married, no?” Yves chuckled and despite herself she grinned.

She had almost disregarded the noise of the jumpship’s landing but when she was swept aside by medtechs she allowed it, turning her attention to the remainder of the mission. Team after team was reporting in with stiff resistance but no casualties, but more importantly with none of the truly heavy weaponry they’d anticipated in evidence. Something was seriously wrong here… This had been too easy by far.

“Tina, gimme a Drunkard’s Walk search of these hollows. There’s something wrong here and I feel like I’ve missed something really important. Use every asset available, no conditions.”

“Already underway but thanks for the extra assets. You got that same little tickle in the back o your mind, eh?”

“Feels a bit more like being tased but yeah…”

“Got it Boss! You lot need to get the hell out ASAP! That whole frackin valley is rigged to blow and I’ve got an interrupter on the trigger! I can keep it locked for maybe 5 minutes but they’ve got one hell of a cracker on the other side!”

“Mel, tell me you’ve moved up the timetable?”

“Clear to your position, first busses almost ready to load. We’re abandoning anything but evac and personnel further out are waiting for their Bats. If we can manage 6 minutes we’re clear.”

“How long for just the kids?”

“First 3 busses loading now. At a guess, 4:30.” Mel’s voice was subdued, she knew the next order before Charlotte did.

“Get the kids out. End of story.” Charlotte started herding kids toward busses herself and did the math “Mel, we’re 20 short?”

“Its all we got boss.”

Charlotte switched her systems to loudspeaker “I need 20 of the fastest runners off the bus now!”

To her amazement no one came off the busses but she was surrounded within seconds by almost 30 kids. She turned her volume down to encompass only the group who had gathered. “There’s only so much room on the busses and we have to get out now. We’ve got a mile to go and we have to do it fast so I’ll set the pace. Jorge takes middle, Pete takes up the rear. Now lets go and remember to breathe in rhythm with your steps, it helps.”

Charlotte set off at a slow run and kids fell in behind her, beginning to crowd her heels a little as they organized into a line and the first of the overloaded busses passed on the lightly graveled dirt road. She stepped up the pace just a little until the crowding happened again then did it again, using the natural group chase instinct to ease them into running faster than they thought they could. She’d raised the volume on her suit so the kids could hear her deliberately paced breathing and the other two set their suits to echo, realizing she was using the aural cue to induce them to breathe properly without them realizing it. The last of the buses pulled off the road down the hollow just as the runners passed the abandoned church and a few seconds later had them moving down the lateral road as quickly as possible to get behind the shelter of a small hill.

Charlotte had almost reached and had just swung the others into cover when she heard a whisper in her comms. “I’m sorry, I lost it Charlie…” and the ground reached up to smack her down then threw her in the air before rising to meet her again.