‘Daddy?’ Jennifer tilted her head to the side as she looked at the officer. ‘We need to get you out of here right away. The Thoth Foundation is willing to reveal all of its assets and commit treason. They aren’t going to let a loyalist walk out of the Capitol alive.”
‘Did your little traitor boyfriend tell you that?’ The gun was pointed at Dan once again. He tried his hardest to look inoffensive as the old man ranted. ‘He stole government research before he switched sides. Our dossier on him shows him disappearing for two entire years before showing back up with what he claims to be magic. Somehow, in that time, Thoth put together an army of super soldiers. Now I have a bunch of wizard rejects in tin cans knocking at our gates, ready to tear down democracy as we know it.”
“None of this adds up without Thrush betraying his country.” General Finch’s finger tightened on the trigger, drawing the pistol’s hammer back. “Seriously, dumpling, give me one good reason why I shouldn’t shoot him in the damn face right now.’
‘Because the bullet would literally bounce off of a wall of force about three inches from Dan?’ she responded sarcastically. ‘Look, Dan has plenty of reasons to dislike Henry Ibis. The director went off the deep end with his paranoia and tried to enslave us all. I don’t think you have to be worried that this is some sort of trap or something.’
‘Mr. Finch,’ Dan began, only for the older man to interrupt him.
‘General Finch!’ he growled, practically chewing his mustache. ‘General William Finch, as far as you’re concerned.’
‘I don’t care if you are the Grand Sultan Finch or the High Vizier of Finch,’ Dan bit back, his eyes flaring. ‘Ibis tried to screw me over, but so did you and that asshole Bowman. The Thoth Foundation might be power-mad lunatics, but they’re absolutely right that humanity needs to unite if we’re going to have any chance against the Tellask, or worse, the Orakh.
“On the other hand,” Dan continued, grimacing bitterly. “That unity shouldn’t come at the cost of all individual freedom and liberty. Given Ibis’ track record, basically, I don’t particularly like either side right now, but I agreed to help Jennifer out, so I’m here.’
William Finch pulled the trigger.
The hammer on the pistol fell, almost in slow motion, and the dark room was lit by a bright muzzle flash.
Dan’s ears screamed tinnitus at him, ringing from the loud report of the gun in an enclosed room. The compressed slug fell to the ground in front of Dan while he stared incredulously at the older man.
‘I just had to wipe that smug look off of your face,’ Finch shouted, barely audible over the constant high-pitched tone that had taken over Dan’s hearing. The older man holstered the gun and turned to Jennifer. ‘What now, dumpling? If the goal is to get out of here, how are we going to go about that?’
Dan frowned as he very deliberately deactivated his strength rune. William was ignoring him altogether, having completely moved on after firing the handgun at him. Dan balled up his fist and sucker punched the older man in the stomach.
The general’s eyes widened in surprise as he doubled over, clutching his torso. For a second, Jennifer stared at him blankly before she turned back to Dan and fixed an accusatory glare upon him.
‘He shot me in the face.’ Dan spoke slowly, not taking his eyes from the coughing officer. ‘I figure turnabout is fair play. I just wanted to wipe that smug look off of his face. He’ll be fine in a minute.’
‘You punched my dad in the stomach, Dan.’ The corners of Jennifer’s mouth flickered as she struggled to avoid cracking a smile. ‘When you meet a girl’s parents, you aren’t supposed to punch them in the stomach. It’s a bit uncouth.’
‘I’m risking my life to save his life, and he called me a traitor and shot me.’ Dan shrugged. ‘That warrants a punch in the stomach at minimum.’
William reared up to his full height, eyes raging as he stared down at Dan. ‘What in the Sam Hills was that? If you’re going to fight a man, at least have the good sense to let him know what’s coming. It’s mighty low of you to hit me with a sucker punch out of nowhere like that!’
‘Fine General.’ Dan reactivated his strength rune. ‘I’m about to punch you.’
‘Wait.’ William stepped backward, holding his hands up in front of his body. ‘That isn’t what I-‘
Finch had some martial arts training, Dan had to give him that. The older man managed to block the first punch, even if Dan’s enhanced strength knocked him to the side and out of his defensive stance. The second punch landed on his stomach, dropping him to his knees in the midst of a coughing fit.
‘Ok, Jennifer.’ Dan turned away from William. ‘How are we getting out of here? As far as I can tell, the Thoth Foundation has us completely surrounded. I can slap a shield over myself, and you have some protection from your force magic, but I don’t know how we’re going to be able to keep your dad from catching a bullet if we try to run through their lines.’
As if on cue, automatic weapon fire erupted just outside the Capitol, followed immediately by an explosion that rocked the building to its foundations. Plaster dust rained down from the ceiling. Screaming echoed from a nearby room. He couldn’t tell if someone had been hit, or if the gunfire had just scared them, but it seemed like a good sign that their time was running short.
‘Shit.’ Jennifer’s eyes were a bit wild as she glanced in the direction of the screams. ‘Look, all I can think of is that we split up. If you go first, you’ll probably draw the majority of their attention, and I might be able to sneak Dad out. I know it’s a lot to ask. You didn’t even want to come back to Earth, but I already dragged you down here.
‘I just don’t know what else to do.’ she exhaled, still visibly agitated. ‘You can probably escape through their lines without too much effort, so long as you keep moving and make a disturbance. I’d be slowing you down, and I have magic. If we try to bring Dad, it’d put both of us at risk. Honestly, I think that this is both of our best chances at getting out of here.’
Dan wracked his brain trying to think of a better answer. Every idea he could think of sounded like something out of an action movie. He doubted that the Capitol’s HVAC system would be large enough that the three of them could crawl through the vents. By the same token, he didn’t have the first idea where they could hide out the attack in order to escape later when things had calmed down. His final idea of stealing the enemy’s power armor to avoid being spotted wasn’t terrible, but he suspected that it would be difficult to take the armor intact, let alone operate it with any appropriate level of skill. He didn’t even have a proper plan for isolating any of the CHT suits long enough to attack them unseen.
‘Fine,’ he sighed. ‘We should exit from a direction that doesn’t have a door. About the only advantage we have is that the Thoth forces don’t know we’re here. At a minimum, I should be able to cut a new exit and buy us a little bit of time to get a head start. We can meet in Rosslyn once we get free. Dark Star Park has a suitably foreboding name, given the circumstances.’
Jennifer nodded wordlessly to him as Dan ignored William’s attempts to get his attention. He drew his sword and cut through a wall, in all likelihood destroying a wealth of art and history. He walked through the hole into an empty room and repeated the process. After walking through three rooms, he turned to the left wall and began cutting. Outside the Capitol, the sounds of fighting and explosions grew louder. Finally, the tip of his blade punched through the outer edifice of the building and into the night air. Dan pushed his shoulder against the wall, forcing the cut to fall outside of the Capitol.
He took off at a slow jog, confident that Jennifer and William would be following once he cleared the way. It took just under a minute before someone spotted him. A bullet slammed into his spellshield, and Dan poured extra mana into his strength rune to increase his speed as he began to serpentine across the grass of the National Mall. Someone began shouting, and bullets began falling all around him like raindrops in a storm.
Dan’s spellshield took occasional hits, but his speed threw off most of the shots. A pair of armored suits stepped into the light provided by the nearby burning buildings. One opened fire with its machine gun, and Dan slammed a Force Bolt into its head, knocking the soldier backward. The other triggered its flamethrower, bathing Dan in fire. The thermal resistance rune blunted almost all of the attack as Dan fired another Force Bolt into the knee of the reeling powered armor, knocking it to the ground.
Before the other suit could target him, Dan kicked off the ground and activated Gravitational Easing, soaring into the air. As he came down next to the grounded suit, he triggered a Lightning Stroke into its torso. He wasn’t even sure if electricity would work on the powered armor, or if the metallic shell would form a faraday cage, but the spell seemed better than nothing. He brought the sword down in a two-handed grip, its blade glowing purple as his mana reinforced it. The thin armor around the suit’s neck barely provided any resistance as the sword sheared through it, claiming the disabled soldier’s head.
Fire washed over Dan once again. Apparently, the remaining CHT soldier didn’t realize how ineffectual heat was against Dan after the first attack. He whirled around and frowned. The power suit hulked over him, almost nine feet tall and made of stainless steel. Its left arm remained pointed at him as the stream of fire from its flamethrower guttered out. In its right, it held a three-foot-long baton that crackled with electricity.
It stepped forward, raising the baton high in the air, only for a Forcebolt to take it in the hand, knocking the blow wide. Dan flowed smoothly inside its reach and brought his sword down on the armor’s wrist. Even with the sword’s enchantment, it only cut a large divot in the armor, eliciting another frown from Dan. The soldier tried to punch Dan, but he triggered his time dilation rune, giving him the time he needed to position his body just to the side of the suddenly poorly-telegraphed punch. He fired another Force Bolt into the suit’s helmet as he ended the dilation effect, rocking the armor back and stunning its pilot.
He triggered the time dilation rune once again as he took advantage of the armor’s confusion to swing his sword at its hand once again. Time slowed to a crawl, allowing him to make the minute adjustments necessary in his swing to ensure that the blade struck the same spot on his opponent’s wrist. This time, the weapon flared purple as it sunk three quarters of the way into the soldier’s armor before getting stuck. Dan switched his mana flow from the dilation rune back to his strength rune and ripped his sword out in a spray of blood.
The soldier fell back from Dan, only for him to fire a Lightning Stroke into its torso. Again, he was unsure if the attack caused damage, but it didn’t really matter as his opponent staggered and collapsed to its knees. Dan triggered the dilation rune a final time as he swung his sword, again slicing through the weakened armor around the power suit’s neck.
Stepping away from his two downed foes, Dan suddenly realized that two groups of CHT infantry were shooting at him from nearby. Almost absently, he tossed a Fireball into each cluster, claiming most of their lives and sending the rest running.
He paused, breathing heavily. For the moment, everything around him was still, but he could hear the screaming of the injured and voices calling for reinforcements. Gritting his teeth, all he could do was hope that Jennifer and William made it out of the Capitol in one piece. Dan began running. Virginia was some distance away, and he’d like to avoid another fight if possible. Those suits were tougher than they looked, and they barely provided any mana to the victor.
