Vol.4 Ch.60 – Strategy Meeting
Chapter 60: Strategy Meeting
“This is Private Bigsby speaking,” Alexis said into her CARD. “We have found the resistance movement in Buffalo. I repeat, we made contact with the resistance. They have civilians that need to be evacuated. I repeat, requesting evacuation for civilians.”
“Understood,” one of the mermaids, Clio, said. “Sending Prudence to pick them up. How many trips will she need to make?”
“If they really squeeze she can do it in three trips,” Alexis said.
“Four trips it is, then,” Clio said. “Thank you for your work.”
The mermaid signed off and Alexis breathed a sigh of relief. She hated talking on the phone but she'd volunteered to do the tech stuff while the others were occupied. And, sure enough, she found Elaine and Evelyn huddled up with that Marco guy and two of the other resistance mages while the blond angel was talking to the civilians, reassuring them and holding the ones who wept.
The combination of seeing a genuine angel and learning that they were being saved was apparently enough to comfort many weary souls, people who had only been holding it together out of sheer necessity. At the same time, the guy who had built this safehouse was unlikely to leave with everyone else. Or at least Alexis thought so. She still hadn't talked to the guy but she was curious to find out his story. This place was incredible and it would have easily been enough for your average nuclear family to weather the apocalypse for decades so... why had he been scavenging? It didn't add up. Not in a bad way, but still.
Either way, she walked over to her girlfriend talking to the tech guy and the others.
“Why are you so interested in that library anyway?” Marco asked. “The hospital I get. That's where the harvesters are coming from. But that library is so far out of the way.”
Elaine took a deep breath, then said: “There's a Necromancer on the loose in Buffalo and we have reason to believe he had his start at that library.”
“You're saying 'Necromancer' the way other people say 'Voldemort',” Marco said. “What's so bad about calling up a bunch of skellies?”
Elaine shook her head but before she could explain Esther took over, her expression grim.
“Necromancers are bad, bad news, Marco. If all of you, together, fought a Necromancer, you would all die. And if you had me along I'm not sure I would make it, either.” She paused, then looked at Elaine. “At least that explains what the Acheron Vector and the Radiant Prism are doing here.”
“The who?” Marco asked.
“The two angels,” Esther said. “They're famous for dealing with Outsider cults and that's what a Necromancer is.”
“Ah,” Marco said. “More Lovecraft shit. Awesome.” Then he paused and thought. “So, you're saying that guy has some connection to that library?”
“Yes,” Elaine said.
“Okay,” he said. “Because here's the thing. There are... deliveries, I guess, being sent from the hospital over to the college campus. I'm not sure what they're delivering but given that those deliveries ramp up whenever we fail to stop the harvesters I can take a guess. If this Necromancer of yours needs some kind of raw material for his rituals then I think it's fair to say those deliveries are for him.”
“Bingo,” Elaine said, then paused. “Actually, that's bad for us.”
“How so?” Esther asked and Alexis was beginning to notice something. This woman, this terrifying woman with the dawn-colored hair, was ogling Elaine. It wasn't too obvious but it was a look Alexis had seen before. She was leaning toward Elaine and looking at her lips when she spoke, her breathing growing a little more labored when Elaine's attention was on her. Alexis wasn't jealous of that behavior, exactly, but it was very noticeable, especially with how reserved she seemed in all other regards.
“Kaja and Omega are here for that Necromancer,” Elaine explained. “If he's not at the hospital they'll probably split off to go after him.”
“So long as you and your singer friend accompany us I think we should be fine,” Esther said.
“Us?” Alexis asked.
“Oui,” Esther said and Alexis noticed Elaine swallowing at the word. Huh. Apparently the French accent did it for her. “The rebels won't want to miss the chance to help with freeing the hospital.”
“Are you sure you want them along?” Elaine asked. “We've been fighting Caulder's abominations for a while now. What we've seen so far might shatter their minds.”
“They've seen plenty of horrific things. Not just civilians but friends turned into cyborgs, into monsters and into those fucking dogs...”
Elaine winced. “Alright, if you're sure. We'll take them along if they want to.”
“Thank you,” Esther said. “Don't worry, they can hold their own. They are not as strong as you.” She looked at Alexis. “They aren't even as strong as you. But they are resourceful. And if something truly dangerous shows up...”
“The last truly dangerous thing we fought had the ability to control weaker mortals,” Evelyn said. Esther winced but before she could say anything Evelyn added: “But I doubt he's had the time to finish another one of those.”
“What about the other Riders?” Elaine asked. “My Bible knowledge is a bit limited.”
“Why are we talking about the Bible now?” Esther asked.
“Ah, sorry,” Elaine said. “We're just back from a mission. Caulder attacked one of our refugee camps. And the centerpiece of his army was a monster called the Red Rider, which the angels think is the exact Red Rider that Revelations talks about. It could raise the dead and control the living, turning them into mindless puppets held together by Outsider energy.”
“How hard was it to kill?” Esther asked.
“It took our entire project, another military project and a ritual time hex cast by an angel to beat,” Elaine said.
“When you say the entire project,” Esther said, “do you mean your whole team?”
“Oh, sorry,” Elaine said. “There's five teams. Each with their own... Fuck.”
“What is it?”
“Alexis?” Elaine barked. “Which squad did we send to check out the library?”
“The Lib...” Alexis began, then understanding dawned. “Oh shit.” She pulled up her CARD's messaging app again. “This is Private Bigsby again. Whoever is headed for the library, do not engage. We have confirmation that the Necromancer is using it as a base of operations.”
There was a crackle. If the communication lines cut off at the worst possible moment like in a movie she'd scream. But no. A moment later a voice answered her.
“Sergeant Wright here. We have eyes on the library. What do you want us to do?”
“Stand by,” Alexis said. “Do you see anything out of the ordinary?”
“The lights are on,” Marcus said. “And the roof makes us all taste the color blue if we look at it too long. I think you're right about the Necromancer.”
“Alright,” Alexis said. “We'll inform the angels and send them over. Do not engage until you have backup.”
“Got it.”
She cut off the connection. “That's one crisis averted I guess.”
Elaine nodded. “I guess we should tell the angels.”
**
Prying Kaja away from the crowd of civilians took some effort but at least she had convinced most of them to leave for one of the refugee camps. Omega, meanwhile, had held himself back, brooding in a corner until Kaja had called him over.
“So the Necromancer is at the library,” Kaja summarized. “The rebels are sure of it and the Awakener you sent there talks about synesthesia when he looks at the building. That sounds promising.”
Omega let out a noncommittal grunt and Kaja translated:
“The original idea was to tag along with you so we would have backup while fighting the Necromancer.”
“Marcus' squad is currently stationed there,” Elaine began but then she noticed the expression on Kaja's face. “But you don't think Marcus' squad is strong enough to be of much help.”
Kaja nodded. “We would prefer to have at least one Lacrima along, as well as a few of your team members. Your team is a cut above the rest, after all, and against a Necromancer we can't afford too many weak links.”
Elaine absolutely loathed the idea of splitting up her team but at the same time Kaja was talking sense. “Who would you want to take along?”
“Well, we'd love to take you along but Omega would throw a fit if you let Esther out of your sight and I don't think you would both want to accompany us. So we would like to take Abigail with us. On top of her we would like to take Alexis and Ophelia along. They have similar magical affinities to the two of us so if nothing else, the two of them might learn something from us. And finally we would like to take Cassius along, for Darklight protection.”
That would take away most of Elaine's best fighters but at the same time she'd have Esther along. The more pressing concern would be that they'd taken most of her team's Darklight defense but they'd be much more likely to need it than her. Except for those fucking rifles Caulder's cyborgs didn't really seem to use much Darklight.
“Alright,” Elaine said. “But please don't call him Cassius to his face. He's Cassie.”
“Understood,” Kaja said.