Chapter 21 - Attack on the Estate
Jordan reached the stone chamber at the bottom of the stairs just in time to see the purple glow in the centre of it wink out of existence. He cursed, since he did not know how to bring it back. He glanced around at the fallen Tymoreans, most had blood oozing from noses or ears. Those that didn’t, like the powerfully built blond man – the probable leader – were still unconscious.
Vila spotted a control panel and stepped around the bodies to examine it. “Jordan,” she gestured for him to come over.
Neither of them recognised any of the glyphs, most of which looked like buildings combined with two letters. None had RE for Royal Estate, or PA for palaces or any other suggestive clue.
Vila sensed her brother’s agitation and suggested, “That’s the ‘on’ switch, there. Perhaps it will still be set to its most recent coordinates.”
Jordan considered that. It was possible. He nodded, and Vila pressed the touch sensitive area. The purple glow reappeared.
“Now what?” Jordan murmured to himself. “Step into it and transmit?”
Vila shrugged. “When we did it before, we had to know where we were going.”
“We may have to try that, but since we are not sure, we’d better bring the capsules here. Turn that beam off for now. I will get the first capsule. Can you push those bodies out of the way?”
Jordan wasted no time slipping out and taking the route to the deserted building where their tunnel had emerged. He had considered transmitting there, but that was tiring when he did it too often, and he was going to need his energy and strength.
The Aeronite warriors guarding this access way appeared briefly as they flicked their stealth suits off then back on. Jordan remembered to turn his own back on – which helped him ignore the repellor field that was protecting the route. It discouraged unprotected yokels from wanting to travel that way.
Fortunately, the building was close. He re-entered the gutted warehouse and trotted to the capsule. Two of the infiltrator spies saluted him from near the tunnel entrance that came up through the floor. Jordan nodded at them, took out his transmitter, placed his arms around the oval ended cylindrical capsule as far as he could and transmitted away.
He arrived exactly within the cleared space in the council beam-in room having estimated distance and direction exactly.
Vila now had two of the attack team with her. They still looked like hell – faces pale and drawn with pain. Two more walked stiffly in and the leader said, “Commander, Sirs, we are the only ones fit to fight.”
Jordan doubted the term ‘fit’ and suggested. “One of you go and bring me six warriors from the outer defence perimeter on this building. Four of them can come with us now; the other two can come with you in the second capsule.”
One of the warriors went to summon the reinforcements, Jordan glanced at Vila and together they positioned the heavy capsule, pushing it until it was just within one of the tunnels. They used the one that their map indicated was headed most directly towards the Royal Estate.
Feeling the urgency to proceed with their mission, Jordan ignored his earlier caution and transmitted to the building to get the second capsule.
Vila snapped at the still groggy warriors. “Don’t just stand there, Captain. Make sure that none of these Tymoreans can get free to warn the Royal Estate about us. That is if any of them are still alive.”
“Do you mean kill them, Sir?”
“No, just secure them,” Vila said testily. She knew that many of them were dead, and merely moving them had made her feel queasy. “We may need to question them later.” It was the only acceptable reason she had for keeping any survivors alive. “Ensure any communicators are inoperable.”
Jordan reappeared with the second capsule, just as the six fresh warriors trotted in.
They stared at the long ovoid object that rested on its guidance fins and rocket propulsion vanes as he positioned it to point towards the tunnel where the first one was waiting.
Vila gestured at two warriors. “You two come in the capsules. You others, with us. We need warriors who are fully alert.”
The newcomers eyed the capsule dubiously. They hadn’t been briefed on the operation to the Estate. Jordan tersely explained their new mission, and then he snapped at them. “The assault team are recovering from the concussion grenade. It seems the walls here are shielded in some way and more of the blast was contained. Only four are able to proceed. Each of you will go with two of them in a capsule and follow us.”
“Sir, how will we be getting to the Estate?” one of the other four questioned.
Vila politely explained, in a tone of speaking to dolts. “Jordan and I don’t need a capsule. We can each take two of you with us using these Tymorean transmitting devices. They are perfectly safe. They are luxury devices used by the rulers of this world.”
Jordan stopped them thinking about the method of travelling by snapping, “What is the situation outside?”
“Sir, the locals have discovered that they cannot enter. A crowd is forming outside.”
Jordan spoke into his communicator and demanded a report from the sub commander in charge outside. He listened to the terse phrases of the experienced warrior, and then directed, “Maintain security on this building and proceed with the take over. You are in charge until we return.”
To Vila, Jordan said, “We’ve got to go, turn that device back on.” He continued then to direct the two newcomers who were to follow in the capsules giving them terse direction for positioning themselves inside – a matter of each curling themselves into a small space and strapping in. The other four knew already.
He ensured they knew how the capsule worked, had their maps marked with the route to follow via tunnel from city to city to the Royal Estate.
“Stealth suits on,” Jordan directed the four warriors who would come with them. “Vila, act injured again in case they have guards where we arrive.”
Vila immediately draped herself on Jordan as if he was helping her to stand. Both still had weapons ready to fire.
“Two of you hold onto me, and two onto Vila,” Jordan further directed, he had his second hand ready to operate the transmitter, as did Vila. As a group, they entered the glowing purple beam terminus and envisioned their final destination – a chamber like the one they were in, without the bodies and with a big machine at its centre.
All six Aeronites felt the sense of movement as the scene in the chamber blurred and turned to brightness. When vision returned, and a room solidified around them, Jordan said, “Wow!”
Vila straightened, glanced around and said, “This isn’t the right place.”
The invisible guards released their grip and made shuffling sounds as they looked around. They all heard a tinkling chime, and the sound of running feet, coming closer.
Vila instantly draped herself again, just in time. A man reached a doorway, paused to catch his breath. When he studied the two visible arrivals, his mouth dropped. He quickly hid his surprise at seeing the apparently high-ranking arrivals, straightened his colourful attire, and bowed slightly.
“Prince Tymos, Princess Kryslie, how might I serve you? I mean…” He suddenly noticed the blood on Vila’s face and uniform. “I’ll get a medic at once.”
Jordan stopped him before he had gone two steps. “Sir, please, we need to get back to the Estate. The fool at the last city sent us here by mistake.”
The local official went immediately to the control panel. He ran his fingers over the touch screen and murmured, “Yes, we had one of the Elders come from Amik yesterday. The operator must not have cleared the destination before sending you…”
“Sir, my sister is in a very bad way,” Jordan said, feigning strain and concern.
“I am just setting up the relay, your Highness. I’ll only be a moment.”
Jordan seethed when the man said, “I can get you to the farmlands, but the palace focus reads busy. There will be a delay there. When you arrive, have them send a priority override. I cannot do that from here.”
“Activate it,” Jordan commanded. He felt two warriors grasping hold of him again.
Once again the group, two visible and four shielded, entered the beam terminus, and transmitted away. They experienced the same sense of movement, saw the bright light, and this time had brief glimpses of the intermediate points of the relay. Finally, a room materialised around them, and the tinkling chime sounded again.
As Jordan lowered Vila to the floor again, continuing their ruse, he noticed the tile design on the floor of this chamber. It was a circle of tiles, red around the edge, and with a design of two crossed wheat sheaves. He recognised it as having been one of the glyphs on the machine in Amik. He had no time to consider that knowledge as a portly man in a brown tunic and trews puffed into the room. The scene of astonishment was repeated.
Jordan quickly gave the man orders. “I need to get my sister back to the Estate, urgently. I need you to send a priority override signal and activate the beam for me.”
The man turned to the control panel and obeyed, he touched several places on the touch pad, frowned and jabbed a stubby finger on one spot more forcefully.
“Sir, they are not responding. All I get is the busy signal. This is most unusual. They should reply to the urgent signal. I will go and bring Elder Satreen.”
Vila whispered to one of the cloaked and invisible warriors. “Shut that fool up.” To her brother she added, “The Royals must be fleeing to their supposed sanctuary in Dira. We can as easily transmit ourselves, without the beam. They won’t be expecting anyone to do that.”
Jordan nodded faintly in agreement, as the portly man fell to the floor, his dead body still twitching from the energy beam discharged at close range.
Vila controlled nausea and directed, “Take him far enough into one of the tunnels to be out of sight.”
It took Jordan a few minutes to select between the three tunnels but he finally decided that the odd rock formation in the small tiled mosaic in the floor in front of one of the tunnels was the glyph for the mesa where the Royal Estate was situated. When the two warriors returned from hiding the dead man and were again holding onto either Vila or himself, Jordan switched on his stealth suit, and Vila did likewise.
“We have about twenty miles to travel from here to the Estate,” Jordan told the four warriors. “We will have to transmit in stages along the tunnel. I am not sure what the range is for these devices. Keep your hold on us or you will be left behind.” He felt the warriors tighten their grip.
“Our job is to infiltrate the Estate, collect a particular high ranking hostage and return to Amik,” Jordan went on. “I know this wasn’t your original task, but if you obey orders you won’t go wrong. The assault squad will follow us. They have another task to do, and will also keep our line of retreat open. We are to avoid being noticed as much as possible.”
Vila took over the briefing. “Warlord Kellex’s agent at the Estate has reported the presence of a maintenance shaft from the cellar of the High King’s palace to the beam-in room where we will arrive. We will have to climb up to the palace level. It is about a five hundred feet. In both places, we can expect to encounter lots of people, so try to edge around them. We may be invisible, but we are still solid presences. The repellor fields on the suits will help nudge people away but not if they are determined to get where we are.”
The four guards gave a brief acknowledgement over their heat set comm. units.
The group halted while still well back in the tunnel, when they had the beam in chamber in sight as a brightly lit room with many people moving purposefully about. Jordan and Villa both felt the need to munch on some high-energy rations before proceeding further. While they ate, they watched the activity. There was no break in the stream of people. Vila took a moment to clean the blood from her face and hands. She wished she could change her clothes. The Aeronite uniforms looked smart, but they would seem strange to any Tymorean that saw them. They couldn’t be cloaked all the time.
“Check your weapons,” Jordan spoke softly over the heat set comm. He followed his own advice, checking his stunner and disintegrator. Both were fully charged. He heard the sound of one of the warriors replacing a battery pack on one of his weapons.
Jordan also checked that his two fighting knives were loose in their hidden sheaths. His hand felt for the small stun grenades and the tiny smoke canisters on his belt, He could identify each type by feel.
“Let’s go.”
Moving six figures through a crowded room wasn’t easy, but was helped by the nervous jiggling of the people waiting their turn to beam away. Jordan identified the door of the maintenance tunnel from a description Kellex had given him. He opened it noiselessly, for it wasn’t secured. Then he stood in front of the slight opening and whispered in the headset for the others to slip through it. Although he was effectively invisible, the suit’s field disguised the fact that the door had slid open enough for people to slip through. When all had reported, “Through”, Jordan followed. He turned to slide the door shut and saw a guard coming. He gave a brief command for silence and to make no movement.
The oblivious Tymorean guard muttered, “I wish people would not poke their noses where they are not meant to be.”
The guard did glance in through the door and looked around and up. Hearing and seeing nothing, he shrugged and shut the door.
Jordan sent a microburst transmission to Kellex, reporting that they were in position. He received an acknowledging burst. Before beginning to climb, Jordan sent Vila down the narrow side tunnel to confirm that the water supply line was indeed in the position Kellex had told them. She returned quickly, gave Jordan a brief, “It’s there,” and heard him send a message to the assault team that were on their way.
Kryslie trotted from the security monitoring room in the President Governor’s palace, and confirmed in passing the yellow alert status. Extra lights in every passage had begun to flicker yellow, and the passages were devoid of all but essential personnel. Everyone else would be either in their quarters or in other assigned areas, if not on their way to Dira.
When she reached the Great Hall of Reslic’s palace, she eyed the purposeful activity. Small groups of people, all carrying bundles, disappeared at intervals. She expected the scene to be the same in the other two palaces.
All seemed under control, so she went outside into the Government Gardens and let her senses open up to the aura around her. She recalled the alien infiltrators who had come some months before and had tried to abduct her and her brothers. Vividly, she recalled how their presences had felt to her. She felt nothing like that now. The guards patrolling the grounds noticed her, saluted and continued on.
This time, the guards had warning of an impending intrusion and the Estate was shielded. Also, while there was an alert on, no traders would be allowed to access the tunnels to come up, and none had been within the mesa when the alert had started. To check that her awareness was correct, Kryslie looked up, adjusted her eyes and saw the faint mauve glow of the shields. To normal eyes, they would be invisible.
The idea occurred to her that Aeronites without traces of power would be less detectable. She considered whether Kellex would send ordinary troops or his elite. The latter, she decided, since he must have a way of knowing that all the Governors were away…and he would still think she and Tymos were absent.
How would he think to infiltrate this time? If they tested the shields, they would find them solid, but their testing would be noticed. However, they already knew there were some shields. If they tried an EM pulse, again that would be noticed, although it would not affect the nested shields being used.
What if the infiltrators were already in place, and had been since before the alert? Last time, they had come in with traders during the day, waited until dark to bring in the rest, and until the following day to attack.
The idea unsettled Kryslie, so she began to roam the grounds, listening for stray thoughts and looking for odd movements of trees or bushes. If they were again in the stealth suits, that might be all that would alert her.
While maintaining her heightened state of awareness, Kryslie allowed herself to consider the message that her father had received. Jordan and Vila were obviously bait for him. Did Kellex really expect Tymoros to go there himself? Did he have suspicions that the king knew of their existence? Was his idea to capture the king or just to get Jordan and Vila onto the Estate?
Instinctively, Kryslie decided to transmit to her father’s palace. Just as she arrived in the Great Hall there, she heard Arden’s voice through the headpiece.
“The Jacen Tyr has lost contact with his Majesty and his group.”
Kryslie felt a shiver of warning, and asked Arden, “The new scrambler field that disrupts the stealth function of the Aeronite suits – where is it effective?”
Arden replied instantly, “Only within the palaces, your Highness.”
“Does that include down in the beam-in room?” Kryslie asked. She heard an indrawn breath over the comm. set. “No, only on the main levels of the palaces.”
“Initiate lock down, Arden,” Kryslie directed. She began to feel alarmed.
A brief moment of concern for her father and the people with him was all she would allow herself. Reslic had stressed that her father could look after himself, and Perrin Reslic, the President’s brother, was highly capable. She had other concerns and sent a mental warning to Jonko to be extra alert. She transmitted into the palace where the lockdown cadence was audible everywhere, accompanying the yellow flashing light.
Kryslie mentally checked the time. The students would be about to finish morning lessons. They would all transmit directly to quarters. They would have to wait for lunch, as the cooks would have to secure the kitchen and go to their own quarters or to safe areas in the kitchens. Similar actions would be occurring in each of the palaces, and in all departments.
In the Great Hall, those waiting to go down to beam to Dira, immediately returned to their quarters – only guards remained. She queried Arden about those down in the beam-in room.
An idea was nagging at her mind, that Jordan and Vila might have mastered the transmitters.
“Those there are continuing to Dira, but no more are going down. What is your concern, your Highness?”
“What if someone wanted to transmit here from another location, while others are going to Dira?” Kryslie asked. Normally it was possible, but with so many people being beamed out, it wasn’t safe.
Arden’s tone seemed to imply, ‘we’ve thought of that’ as he said, “All the cities will find this destination blocked, and Dira as well. Incoming travellers will be diverted to Reva or the farmlands. All those likely to need to come here have been alerted to the evacuation.”
That was all very well, Kryslie decided, but, “Arden, have the guards in the beam-in room noticed anything odd?”
She heard Arden relay the question, which he was taking seriously. She heard mention of an open door and asked in turn how long ago that had been. Too long, her mind mentally calculated. If an intruder had opened the door, they could have climbed, or transmitted up by now and be anywhere.
“Arden assume those I mentioned reached Reva, or the farmlands, and manually transmitted along the tunnel…”
The Guard chief instantly caught her implication. He issued orders, deploying guards to various strategic places.
Kryslie began to scout her father’s palace. She was certain, even with out having proof, that Jordan and Vila were on the Estate and coming for Llaimos.
Moving quickly, and with all senses alert, Kryslie checked the ground floor. Most of the rooms off the Great Hall were offices or meeting rooms. The former were locked by a panel sliding across from the frame - an automatic function when the alert was transmitted. The latter were open and a brief glance was enough to confirm they were empty, since the new security fields would nullify cloaking shields.
Passages opened off the hall, in three directions, and the Grand Stairway ascended to the next level. Kryslie started down the left passageway, passing locked doors and checking briefly in the alcoves that alternated with the usually open doors. Some alcoves had recessed seats, or painted murals, others had statues or pedestals with small sculptures. An intruder could duck into them and hide, but with the onset of the alarm, and the flashing yellow lights, he would know he needed to move fast.
Instinct made her turn back before reaching the furthest room, and she ran back past the staircase and began to check the other way. Again, she turned back before the end. This time she had to decide between going up, and checking the serving area at the back of the palace. The upper level drew her and she transmitted to the top of the stairs and looked around. Here the stairway split into two and wound up to the next level. She took a moment to look up, and saw several brown clad guards patrolling up higher.
Sensing they were alert but not alarmed, Kryslie concentrated on her surroundings. This first level was where her father had his suite. It was a possible target, as it was where Llaimos usually slept. She would check there first, she decided, and transmitted there - only needing a moment to visualise her destination.
Her arrival point was the room she used when staying in the suite, and from there, she first felt for other presences, and then cracked the door open and listened. All was quiet within the suite, she had checked all rooms to confirm it was empty.
Before transmitting through the securely locked door, she reported her position to Arden. He in turned warned the guards in the passage outside, so when she appeared, they saluted as well as stared at her un-regal appearance. Arden also added the disturbing information that Zacary was no longer in the isolation room, and two guards had been found unconscious.
Some feeling drew her up to the second level, which was mostly quarters for the people in the High King’s extended family. Her own were nearby, one of the inner suites, without windows and lit by indirect lighting. Tymos’s suite was in a different wing. She checked her own rooms, and then did a quick sweep of the nearby passages. She sensed people moving nervously behind the locked doors but if intruders broke into any of the rooms, an automatic alarm would alert the guards.
Kryslie found herself heading towards the service area of the level. The maintenance tunnels came up in the basement, and were close to the rear stairs.
Movement caught her eye as she turned into another of the criss-crossing passages. She ducked into a recess, and edged to look along the passage. No one was there, but she was sure the movement was not a trick of the now slowly flashing yellow light.
Using her power to reinforce the idea that she wasn’t there, Kryslie edged along the passage. A short figure suddenly darted out of one room, checked the next door, and the next and then entered another. She recognised Sacul, one of her friends, who should have been in the dormitory on the level above. When the boy emerged again, Kryslie sent a thought at him.
Sacul jerked and looked wildly around, believing he had heard his name called and very much aware that he was breaking some very strict rules.
Kryslie allowed herself to be seen, saw Sacul about to exclaim, and gestured with a finger to her lips, for him to be quiet. Then, after closing the gap between them and checking along each end of the passage, Kryslie grasped Sacul’s arm and pulled him back into the room he had just checked.
Just touching him, told Kryslie that her young friend knew the trouble he would be in if the guards saw him. She didn’t waste time on the obvious, just demanded in an intense whisper, “Why are you here?”
Although he paled, suddenly sensing in her the same aura of authority as the Governors had, he answered. “My friends, the ones that sleep in my dormitory, they aren’t there.”
Before Kryslie could ask why he hadn’t raised an alarm, he went on, “The comm. unit wasn’t working, and our dorm attendant, Jessie, was unconscious. I helped her and she woke up. Terryn and Lukon attacked her. That was all she remembered.”
The two named boys were imaged in Sacul’s mind, and Kryslie remembered them from her time in the small Lyceum. Neither were normally rough, or disobedient, but both had started to grow tall.
“Who else sleeps in your dormitory?”
Sacul listed another nine names - all boys - and all the children of missionaries like Sacul himself. None of the others had yet graduated to the large lyceum.
The younger boys would have come from the small lyceum, possibly Jessie would have escorted them. Sacul probably arrived later.
“I was having a lesson in the garden when the alert began. Markon ordered us back inside and told us to come to quarters straight from there.” He was babbling, Sacul knew, but he was worried about his friends.
“Were any of your friends acting oddly before today?”
“A bit…I mean, most of our parents have come back, but we haven’t seen them.”
What little colour that had returned to Sacul’s face, drained away as he realised what she was actually asking. “You mean, they might be controlled? Like I was that time?”
Sacul considered, recalling all too vividly, what a voice in his head had tried to make him do.
“No, I don’t think they were acting like that. They weren’t secretive.”
An idea occurred to Kryslie and, gesturing for Sacul to stay quiet, she spoke into her comm set.
“Arden, have the children from dormitory two been relocated to Dira?”
The pause was only brief, before Arden confirmed her fear. She reported that eleven boys were missing from there, and that medical aid was needed.
When the comm. set was off, she told Sacul, “I’ll look after things. You get back to Jessie, the medics will be there soon.”