Mage Dissolution Read online

  “Smooth,” Renee called over the noise of the engine. I regained my feet tentatively and shrugged off the impact. I was a little winded but I’d fared worse.

  “Actually, that wasn’t bad for a first try,” she said.

  I nodded to her as I assessed the situation. We were in the cargo pit of the aircraft. If movies were to be believed, then the cockpit would probably be through the curtained off doorway at the other end of the bay.

  “I’ll do better next time.” I grunted as I made my way to the front.

  Our conversation was cut short as a soldier emerged from behind the curtain, perhaps to investigate the smashing of cargo boxes. He immediately pulled a gun. A second soldier appeared behind him. Both raised their firearms in our direction with grim looks on their faces.

  “You really don’t want to fire that in here,” I said.

  They didn’t appear to be giving my suggestion much thought. I could see from this distance their fingers clamped over the triggers of their pistols.

  “Look,” I called, “you obviously know who we are and what we’re here for.”

  This had no effect, other than making their frowns grow grimmer. I still had my shield up from my less than graceful landing and fortunately they couldn’t get a clean shot at Renee with me in the way. Renee none the less took the opportunity to raise a shield herself.

  That was probably a good move, just in case this got out of hand. Though I didn’t think they’d fire a gun up here. Surely they were worried about hitting a fuel tank or something. Airplane fuel was supposed to be highly explosive right?

  “You don’t seriously think you can stand against us do you?” Renee called out as she pushed her way past me, “Game over boys, throw your guns down and we’ll let you go unharmed.”

  “That won’t work,” I scoffed.

  “Do you have a better idea?” she said, turning her back on the soldiers to face me.

  “No,” I admitted, “I just know from experience that that won’t work.”

  “It might work now,” Renee suggested icily, “Give it a chance.”

  A bullet grazed off the side of Renee’s head. The shield protected her from the worst of it, but I could see her shudder at the impact against it.

  “Don’t even say a word!” she snarled waving a finger in my direction as she spun around to face our opponents.

  “Which one of you shot me?” She demanded storming up the length of the cargo hold.

  The soldiers exchanged glances, obviously unsure of how to proceed. Dealing with furious and highly dangerous women who are bullet resistant can’t be commonly taught at military schools. I could tell by their expressions that they knew this wasn’t going to end well for them. To the soldiers credit though, neither of them tried to fire again. This was wise – it probably would have just made Renee angrier.

  “It was the one on the left.” I said.

  “I don’t need your help!” Renee called back sarcastically without taking her eyes from her targets.

  I wasn’t sure what happened next, but both pistols ended up sliding along the floor of the cargo hold towards my feet. There were several more thumps as the soldiers hit the ground.

  “Don’t say a word,” Renee said as we walked past the bodies. I took a quick look at our fallen adversaries. I couldn’t tell if they were alive or dead. In the end, I don’t suppose it matters much either way. They weren’t going to cause us any trouble now.

  I nodded briefly and moved through the curtain into the cabin. There was a row of seats along each wall. The accountant was there with two more soldiers. He had a resigned look on his face as he saw us walk through the doorway. He knew it was over.

  One of the soldiers rose to his feet and drew his pistol.

  “That won’t do you any good,” I said, “the last guys tried that.”

  He quickly swivelled the pistol so it was facing the accountant. The accountant’s eyes balked as he stared down the barrel of the firearm. The soldier looked cautiously at Renee, myself and the accountant. Shit. The other guys hadn’t tried that.

  “Okay, let’s all calm down here,” Renee said nervously. She obviously hadn’t anticipated this move either.

  “I’m calm,” the soldier replied with a blank look, “I’m simply following protocol.”

  “So, the protocol is, when you see us, you shoot him in the head?” I inquired dryly.

  He didn’t respond.

  “Wouldn’t want to be around for the long term strategy meeting,” I added under my breath.

  “You’re not helping!” Renee snapped.

  “I’m not trying to,” I grinned in way of reply, “he’s not going to shoot him. He would have done so by now.”

  I saw the soldiers arm tense in response and had to rethink things. I could have been wrong about this.

  “Please,” the accountant whispered, “don’t.”

  “Don’t worry he won’t.” I reassured him with a forced grin. It was taking some effort to remain so chipper about this. The situation was starting to get out of hand.

  Fortunately my showmanship had had its desired effect of moving the soldiers’ attention to me. I watched out the corner of my eye as Renee flicked a Mana thread around the pistol, I heard a slight click as she switched the safety on.

  The soldier glanced down and tried to pull the gun away, but Renee was ready. She flicked the gun from his fingers and sent it trailing along the floor.

  The second soldier reacted swiftly but I hit him with a Mana thread to the chest, knocking him down before he could raise his weapon. The first soldier backed away slowly looking for something, anything that would help him now. I could have told him that there was nothing that could save him.

  “End it,” he hissed, bowing his head in shame.

  “Don’t be dramatic,” I scoffed, gesturing towards the seats on the other side of the plane, “sit down in the corner and shut up.”

  Renee raised an eyebrow at my statement, but I simply shrugged. We’d got what we had wanted here, there was no need to escalate this further. Renee roughly pulled the accountant to his feet and directed him back into the cargo hold. I gestured towards the soldier with a cut-throat motion to stay put. He nodded. Clever man – he knew when he was beaten.

  “What’s your plan now?” Renee said once we reached the cargo hold, “I’m not sure I can teleport at this speed with two people.”

  “Me either. We’ll have to do it old school.”

  Renee nodded grimly.

  “Who takes Hugo?” Renee asked, gesturing towards the accountant.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I shrugged quickly, “I can take him, if you like.”

  “Fine.”

  Renee flicked the switch to open the cargo doors at the rear of the plane.

  “I’ll go first,” I said grabbing Hugo around the collar and pulling him towards the gap.

  It was a long way down. I’d never, ever, ever attempted a jump from this far up before. Hugo visibly shuddered as he saw the drop and began to pull back.

  “Don’t we need parachutes?” he looked terrified.

  “Don’t struggle,” I snarled, “I’ll end up dropping you.”

  “I don’t want to go,” he whimpered.

  “You don’t have a choice,” I replied as I pushed him and jumped after him. “You should have come with me without a struggle at the bar,” I called to his falling figure. I doubt he heard me.

  * * * * * *

  I wrapped a Mana thread around Hugo and attempted to pull him in close. I had to revise this plan as I realised that he was flailing around too much, I didn’t want to him to accidently hit me in the face with a wild swing.

  The wind tore at my clothes and my hair, pulling against my face and forcing the air from my lungs. My eyes watered as they were buffeted by the force of the air against my fall. This was going to be difficult. I don’t think I’d ever travelled this fast before. The wind was almost like a physical barrier against me. It felt like I was almost lying on something. It
was only the sight of the ground rushing towards me that ruined that illusion.

  I must admit that against all common sense, I was actually having fun doing this. Hugo was not doing quite so well. He appeared to have gone catatonic and was gazing at the ground in morbid fascination. The streets of Berlin eventually began to take shape as we free fell towards them at terminal velocity. The buildings gained detail and texture as they grew closer. I couldn’t quite make out people yet, but I could make out the vehicles passing by on the roads below. They looked so small.

  A Mana thread shot past me and latched onto a building rooftop. Renee had selected a landing site, I suppose I should do the same. We were still some height above the building, but I’d much rather be able to control my descent now rather than wait until later and then find out that I couldn’t.

  I sent a thread plummeting down to the top of the building, using it to slow my speed. I jerked violently as the thread took hold sending me into a tight spin. That wasn’t good. That wasn’t my desired effect at all. The Mana thread dissolved into shreds as my concentration broke and it took me several seconds before I was able to right myself to try again.

  My thread connection to Hugo had also been broken in the tumble and it took me several critical seconds before I could locate him again. My head was spinning and I felt sick to my stomach. I quickly latched a new thread around Hugo and sent another plummeting to the ground.

  I was more careful this time using far less force and began to slowly decrease my speed. Unlike my last attempt this didn’t send me into a spin and I felt the pressure from the fall lessen.

  The building was getting awfully close though. It was difficult to notice anything except that hard concrete surface slowly getting closer and closer. The closer I got the closer I came to realising one simple fact. I wasn’t going to make it in time.

  I’m not sure how hard I would have hit the roof, but the fact of the matter is the human body is mostly made up of water and isn’t very impact resistant. With a shield around me I might survive the impact, probably by cannoning straight through the roof and into the building below, but I couldn’t raise a strong enough shield around both myself and Hugo and I needed us both to survive the fall. So that wasn’t going to work. Besides, Renee would never let me live it down if I ended up destroying the building in my landing. She had given me enough grief over my landing on the plane.

  Hugo was screaming unintelligibly as the ground loomed closer. This wasn’t going to be pretty. If I didn’t need what was in that bastard’s head so much I would have just saved myself.

  I pulled our connecting thread in tight, raising the flailing Hugo towards me. I grabbed him firmly from behind and knocked him savagely over the head in an attempt to stop the flailing. I’d heard that this is what you’re supposed to do if you’re grappling with a hysterical drowning man. This was kind of like drowning right? It didn’t work. The movies made it look so easy. You simply knock someone on the head and they go down. That’s the way it was supposed to work. I cursed my luck and cursed a now angry and hysterical Hugo and got to work. There was only one way we were going to survive this. Teleportation.

  If I had any other option there was no way in a million years I’d attempt this. I could see the rooftop I wanted to land on, it was getting closer by the second.

  I took a quick breath to prepare and forced myself to find focus. I tightened the thread around Hugo and pulled him in closer. I somehow managed to wrap my arms around his flailing limbs, then wrapped the teleport field around us.

  The felt the immediate screams of protest from my body and felt Hugo go stiff. The rooftop was frighteningly close and now I could even make out the cracks between the panels of concrete.

  It was going to be a race. Which would come first? The completion of the teleport Mana field or a sudden and very violent impact?

  I breathed a sigh of relief as my vision distorted into the blurry haze that comes with teleportation. I knew I could remain in this state for a few seconds before my structure began to break down and I wouldn’t be able to re-corporate. I had done it.

  A savage thump preceded my re-corporation. It hurt, but it hurt a lot less had I not teleported to the rooftop. My shoulder was jarred and Hugo was lying across my body. I pushed him off and got to my feet in time to see Renee make her landing. She came in hard, but then she had just jumped from a plane.

  She fell to one knee as she landed, but that was the only indication of the difficulty of her jump. She had aced it. Show off. She didn’t comment on it, but I could see it in her eyes. She was pretty impressed with herself.

  “I’ve never done that before,” she breathed as she rose, “it was more fun than I thought.”

  I didn’t particularly want to ever do that again.

  I moved to check on Hugo. He’d passed out. I suppose that was to be expected. This must have been a little outside of his normal daily routine. I checked his pulse, which was fine and then looked around. I didn’t really know where we were, but I could make out the massive bulk of Berlin central station in the distance, which gave me a rough idea.

  “What’s the time?”

  Renee checked her watch. “About eleven.”

  I never wore watches. It had been a point of contention between us. I was always asking her for the time. In my old life I had simply used my mobile phone. Now I no longer kept one. I didn’t like the concept of my location being tracked by an electronic device. It wasn’t paranoia – it had happened to me once before. I wasn’t going to take the chance again.

  “We need to find somewhere safe,” I said.

  “Duh,” Renee replied.

  She closed her eyes and I saw a Scry thread lance out from the building and into the city below. I knew she was looking for a hotel room, preferably from a large chain. Something with a lot of rooms that wouldn’t all be booked out. Given how late it was, it would be relatively safe that any empty room we selected wouldn’t be booked that night.

  Renee eventually nodded and blinked as her vision returned to the rooftop.

  “Found one.”

  “Where?”

  “Four Seasons.”

  “Nice, I’ve always wanted to stay at a Four Seasons.”

  I followed her Scry thread back to the hotel room. The room was dark, but I could see well enough by the light through the window to send Hugo and myself into the room. Hugo didn’t even twitch as I pulled him roughly to his feet and teleported him into the hotel room.

  “We’ve got almost the whole floor to ourselves,” Renee commented as she joined us.

  I glanced at her in the darkness. She always looked especially attractive in shadow. I could see her glittering eyes peering at me.

  “You just gonna stand there gaping at me?” Renee smirked. “We’ve got work to do.”

  “No.” I let off a glow spell, illuminating the room in the soft glow of Mana.

  That was the problem with these high-end hotel chains. They used a form of key in the door to activate the electronics. No lights, no power, no TV. That didn’t really bother me all that much as all I was normally looking for was a warm bed and running water for a shower. I never stayed more than one night and was at least courteous enough to clean up after myself. If I did my job well enough, the only thing that would give away my visit would be a few missing toiletries and a less than pristinely made bed.

  “We’ll need some supplies,” Renee said as she pulled Hugo roughly into a chair.

  I nodded and sent out my own Scry thread. I quickly located the necessary items. I didn’t much like it, but there was nothing for it.

  My shopping list was a little unusual – a set of handcuffs, some fabric for a gag and something that we could use to threaten Hugo with. I selected a nasty looking hunting knife from a hardware store. It looked suitably threatening. I didn’t like the necessity of torture, the whole idea left a bad taste in my mouth, but I just didn’t see how we were going to get past the conditioning that Victor had placed on him. Even under the
threat of pain there was still a good chance we’d fail. Even if he wanted to talk, he mightn’t be able to – I knew, I’d been under one of those compulsions myself. I knew how potent they were.

  At the last minute and cursing my own lack of foresight I grabbed a first aid kit. We’d need to patch him up afterwards.

  I sat wearily down in one of the kitchen chairs as I teleported the required items onto the table. I had discovered early that I could teleport objects to me. It was this combined with my ability to clone items that allowed me to live like I did.

  “Fluffy handcuffs?” Renee queried as she glanced at my haul.

  “It was all I could find.”

  This wasn’t exactly true, the hardware store had had handcuffs too, but I liked the look on Renee’s face when she found something that she could tease me about.

  Her gaze flickered across the hunting knife and her expression hardened. We could have used Mana to threaten Hugo, but we both knew that we’d need some form of visible threat. Mana alone wouldn’t do the trick. The compulsion wouldn’t allow anything less than total terror to break its hold over him.

  “Do you really think you can do this?” Renee whispered as she gestured towards Hugo.

  “I have no choice.” I didn’t like it any more than she did. I applied the handcuffs to Hugo’s limp wrists and bound him securely to the chair.

  I slapped Hugo lightly around the cheeks until he came around. He spluttered and coughed as he regained consciousness. He glanced frantically around the room and then his face dropped as he saw us. He went white.

  “I can tell you nothing,” he stated in stoic German, “You know this. Why do you do this?”

  I didn’t answer him, instead I gestured towards the knife on the table. Hugo’s eyes flicked at the knife and then back to me.

  “You will tell me everything I ask you.” I reached for the hunting knife. Hugo’s eyes followed every movement of my hand. He watched as my fingers trailed across the hilt of the blade and closed around it. He could see my arm muscles as they tensed as my fingers curled around the knife. I moved slowly, letting the tension build. If I moved slowly enough maybe I wouldn’t have to do this. Maybe I wouldn’t’ need to, I’d see a blink or a slackness of expression that would lead me to believe that Hugo had broken the compulsion on his own.