Kyle opened his eyes, and immediately began the stretching exercises he used to rid his body of the cramping and lethargy that came with a prolonged jaunt in astral space. That was why it took a few moments before he noticed the large easel and the crayon-scrawled words "I'VE GONE TO WORK." There was nothing else; no other words, no signature, no sign-off to signify with what emotions she'd written the words. Kyle slipped back into astral space and examined the easel and the now indecipherable writing. He sensed a slight annoyance attached to the words, but there was something else. A touch of brightness, though tempered by the darker emotion.
He sighed. He should have kept better track of the time, should have been here when she woke up. Beth would have been irritated by the time she came downstairs, and seeing him sprawled on the couch, his spirit and attention elsewhere, would only have made it worse. If true to form, she'd have calmed down by the time she got to work. He'd call her there later, after he dealt with Knight Errant.
Finding his clothes in a pile on the now remade bed, he dressed and went back downstairs to call the Truman condoplex. A servant answered, and moments later, he was speaking to Hanna Uljaken. She was wearing a white business suit over a mandarin-collared silk shirt mat matched her eyes. She was trying very hard not to show her anger.
"Where have you been?" she demanded. "Are you all right?"
Kyle started to ask her if Seeks-the-Moon had given her his message, but then realized that he'd taken Moon with him. The spirit was probably only now returning to the Tower as Kyle had instructed.
"Yes, I'm fine," he said. "I'm sorry I didn't let you know what was going on. I stopped by late last night, left a message with Moon, and then took him with me to help check something out."
"Well, that wasn't very smart." Kyle could tell she was still angry despite her smile and attempt at a bantering tone. Her reaction implied many things, but none of them he could deal with immediately.
"Is my car still at the staging area from yesterday?" he asked.
"Assuming it hasn't been stolen."
"I'll be back at the Tower in about an hour," he said. "I'll see you then."
"Don't you want to know what's been happening here?"
He tensed. "Anything critical?"
She shook her head. "No."
"Then I'd rather talk in person."
Her eyes softened. "Fine. Will you need Mr. Truman?"
"No. At least not right away."
"He's trying a full business load today."
"Good." Kyle started to reach for the Disconnect, then thought of something else. "Has Knight Errant reported in or briefed him?"
She shook her head again. "Not to my knowledge."
"If by chance they show up before I get there, stall them."
She nodded. "I will."
"Thanks. See you in an hour."
Kyle called a cab, and twenty minutes later was heading down Interstate 90/94 toward the Core. He looked to his right as they passed the Washington off-ramp, but the warehouse and Knight Errant's surveillance caravan were blocks from the highway. Minutes later he was at the Truman Tower, and being met by the normal retinue. Hovering in the background were a half-dozen Knight Errant troopers, though the security was markedly reduced. It seemed Knight Errant was less worried about the safety of the Truman family than previously.
He went directly upstairs, passed no extra Knight Errant guards along the way, and found Hanna sitting opposite Seeks-the-Moon in the large family room. A wooden board cross-hatched with lines and littered with dozens of rounded white and black stones sat between them.
"Who, dare I ask, is teaching whom how to play Go?" he asked.
Moon seemed pensive and his attention was focused on the board. Hanna, however, smiled and looked up. "I'm teaching him," she said. "He's very good."
Kyle laughed, but was surprised again. He'd tried a number of times to master the Japanese game during his student days, but had never quite managed it. She was probably exaggerating Seeks-the-Moon's abilities.
"Well, he seems to be deep in thought, so I'd be eternally grateful if you'd show me where I can clean up and change clothes."
Hanna stood up, straightening her jacket. "I'll be right back," she told Moon, who nodded, but did not look up from the board. Kyle followed her out into the corridor on this level. "That reminds me," she said to him, turning slightly, does he ever change his clothes?"
"Moon?" Kyle asked. "Yes, Moon."
"No. What he's wearing is part of his form. He knows a couple of spells. You saw him use the disguise spell when the Knight Errant combat team was here. But otherwise the clothes he's wearing are the ones I created him with."
"Here." She stopped in front of a door along the hall. "This is yours."
"Great." Kyle opened the door and stepped inside, then turned to her. "Come in for a minute."
She seemed to hesitate briefly, but following him in. Kyle closed the door and looked around. The room reminded him of a luxury hotel. There was a single, king-sized bed, night stands, dresser, and wardrobe, desk and telecom, and a small area off to one side, all modeled in the currently fashionable avante-Asian style. His datapad and portable telecom were sitting on the desk, and he assumed his clothes were already organized neatly in the dresser and adjoining wardrobe, but his interest was drawn to the gold and white marble bathroom he could glimpse through an adjoining door. He glanced in and confirmed the presence of a small whirlpool bath and shower.
"Very nice," he said.
"Glad you like it."
"I'm going to shower and change while we talk. Do you mind?"
"No, not at all." Hanna sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Good." He went to the dresser, searched through the drawers, and pulled out a pair of pale blue briefs.
Hanna flushed slightly and quickly looked away, but Kyle didn't let her see his smile. He went into the bathroom, closing the door partly. As he showered, he loudly told her what he knew about what had transpired at the first Brotherhood location at Harlem and Irving, and about his and Seek-the-Moon's investigations at the other sites. He told her they had not checked any of the other Brotherhood sites on the list, since the in-force presence of Knight Errant troops seemed a good indication that they'd found the point of interest.
"So you're hoping that nothing happens before you get back there?" she called out as he finished both his shower and the story.
"Yes and no," he said, toweling off. He could hear her moving around in the other room. "If they've already moved in by the time I get back, great. It'll be over and there'll be a scene to investigate."
"What if they won't let you?" she asked.
"Then I call in Eagle Security and they take over the situation. Knight Errant doesn't have the jurisdiction to override Eagle here in Chicago."
"They could still say no."
"They could, but that might provoke publicity they don't want." He slipped the briefs on and wrapped a towel around his waist. "They're operating in the city of Chicago, not on corporate territory."
He walked out into the main room and found her standing near the window, looking out across the city. If Hanna was embarrassed, she tried to hide it as Kyle stood obviously looking for something in the room. "Flat black case," he said, "A little larger than a briefcase."
She pointed at the wardrobe. "In there."
He took it out, and dropped it on the bed. Opening it quickly, he began pulling out items of heavy, white, semi-rigid partial clothing.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Form-fitting body armor. I had it made for me some years ago. Pretty expensive, so it's a valuable incentive not to gain weight." Maneuvering the towel, he pulled on a pair of long shorts with what seemed to be additional padding in the front and rear thighs. Those in place, he let the towel drop and began strapping other pieces onto his body, covering and protecting vital organs.
"You seem to be expecting trouble," she said, almost casually.
Kyle had gone to retrieve his magical foci from the bathroom. "I guess I am." He slipped them on and activated them. "All things considered."
Just over an hour later, he pulled into the intersection of Sangamon and Randolph and confirmed that the Knight Errant trucks were still present. Some of them had moved since earlier in the day, but the main Citymasters were still there. He'd gone past the Brotherhood warehouse too. Except for the absence of the dog, nothing seemed to have changed there either.
He made a left onto Randolph, taking the center lane to avoid the many trucks that dominated the one-way inner roadway. Three men, husky and dressed far too warmly for the weather loitered near the trucks, eyeing everyone who passed. Kyle continued on another block and turned into the inner roadway, stopping a dozen meters shy of the trucks. The three men watched him, then one broke away from the group and headed toward Kyle as he was climbing out of the car.
"Hey there," the man said when close enough to talk. "We're gonna have to back this thing up outta here in a couple minutes. You better not park there."
Kyle smiled. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind," he said. “Tell Captain Ravenheart that Kyle Teller would like to talk with her."
If the man was surprised he didn't show it. He merely nodded and turned away slightly, his mouth and throat moving, an obvious sign that he was subvocalizing, probably into a hidden microradio or cybernetic headware system. Within moments, he turned back to Kyle and said, "You're clear. Lead truck."
Kyle nodded. "Do I still need to move my car?"
"Not yet. We'll let you know."
"Thanks." Kyle walked forward, past the second truck, casually noticing the structural reinforcing, the barest signs of armor plating, and the flat mesh of military antenna in a strip near the roof. As he came to the front truck, one of its doors opened, a small stair folded out, and a casually garbed, buzz-cut man stepped out.
He nodded to Kyle and motioned him up the stairs.
"Not going to frisk me?" Kyle said.
"No, sir."
"Appreciate it." Kyle climbed the stair, and pushed carefully past the black curtains that hung just beyond the doorway. The interior was lit with flat green lighting, but where the Eagle Security command van had been cramped and overcrowded, the Knight Errant vehicles were spacious and efficient, as testified by the obvious comfort of the six individuals present. He saw computer consoles with large touchscreen displays that served double duty as control and data and trideo monitors. A long bank of them showed the exterior of the garnered Citymasters and the surrounding neighborhood, including multiple views of the Brotherhood warehouse. Another showed a truck full of troopers, dim figures in black body armor, waiting. From the way they were arming up, Kyle didn't think they'd be waiting long.
"Looks like I got here just in time," Kyle said.
None of the occupants of the command and control area seemed amused, save one.
"You owe me fifty, Vathoss," Anne Ravenheart said, smiling slightly as she turned in one of the console chairs. She was already geared up in her black body armor. A tactical helmet hung from the side of the chair. Beyond her, Sergeant Vathoss frowned at both her and Kyle.
"I left my credstick in my other pants," he said sourly.
"Null sweat," she told him, glancing over her shoulder at him and then back at Kyle. "I know you know Sergeant Vathoss," she said, "and Lieutenant Gersten." Vathoss didn't acknowledge the mention and continued working the combat data console he was prepping. Gersten, however, seated to the rear of the cabin and apparently doing nothing more useful than scratching under the collar of his combat armor, nodded.
"Across from me"-she gestured to the tall Japanese' woman on the opposite side of the cabin-"is Sergeant Sakai." The woman didn't directly acknowledge the mention either, but Kyle wasn't surprised. Three hyper-speed optical cables ran from the base of her neck and plugged into her chair, which was, in turn, part of and directly connected to her console. What he could see of her eyes were focused on something invisible to anyone else. She was the tac-ops officer, in charge of coordinating and tracking unit and individual movement once an operation began. Again, from the intense look on her face and the visible activity on her console, the preliminary stages were already underway.
"And lastly," Ravenheart said, indicating with her eyes the older and at least partially Amerindian man standing directly behind her, "I'd like to introduce you to Roger Soaring Owl, CEO of Knight Errant."
Soaring Owl, who looked more like an accountant despite his combat armor, nodded at Kyle. "I'll have you know that I came very close to losing that bet myself," he said in an almost deliberately slowed voice. "Fortunately, I changed my mind."
Kyle stepped forward and hesitantly extended his hand. The shorter man shook it vigorously. Kyle didn't know much about Roger Soaring Owl, but he did know the man answered only to Damien Knight, himself the CEO of Ares Macrotechnology. For him to be here, and fully geared, actually frightened Kyle. He hadn't heard that Soaring Owl was any kind of adrenaline junkie or even a hands-on manager, and that meant this operation was very important to Ares.
"You're not going, by the way," Soaring Owl said in the moment of silence after they shook hands. Kyle saw Ravenheart smile and spin back to her console.
"Going?" asked Kyle.
"On the raid."
"I should think you'd want all the help you could get."
Sergeant Sakai's voice interrupted them. "Astral teams report they're staging point one."
"Thank you," said Ravenheart just as Soaring Owl was telling Kyle, "We appreciate the offer, but we're all set." He smiled slightly. "We've done this before."
"So have I," Kyle said.
"Yes, the Eagle raid. We have it all recorded if you'd ever like to see it. Many men and women died there for no reason. We had the situation in hand."
Kyle felt cold. “The cocoons…?"
"No," Soaring Owl said. "The troopers. Those poor souls who were cocooned are lost. Nothing could be done for them."
"Based on what I saw in that raid, you need all the magical help you can get," Kyle said. "Conventional weaponry is only of limited use, grenades and rockets are useless, and considering the metaphysics, I can't see drone or remote weaponry being of any real help either."
Soaring Owl nodded. "You're right, but we're prepared. Eighty percent of the assault force is magically active-either full blooded magicians, sorcerers, or physical adepts. They'll have drone cover against the flesh forms, which gunfire seems to cut down just fine. They'll also be supported by a cadre of elementals and watcher spirits inside, and a circle of them outside as backup and to catch any that try to break free. We've also got four shamans, all combat-trained, who will turn the place inside out magically. There's going to be a world of drek flying into that building in thirty minutes, Mr. Teller, but you're not going to part of it."
Kyle scowled, but knew it was useless trying to change Soaring Owl's mind.
Then the older man smiled and gestured to the multitudes of display monitors. "You can, of course, watch."