I knelt at Cody’s side and cast lay on hands on the gunshot. The bleed debuff vanished, and second by second his health bar ticked up as the entry hole, and far larger exit wound, sealed themselves. Sun’s axe squelched wetly as she pulled it bodily from the dead soldier’s ruined face. His partner was laid on his back, the stumps of his hands held to the sky in a semblance of prayer.

Cody’s eyes fluttered open and he blinked a couple of times. “Liza!” he blurted, and winced as he tried to stand up. A look of unbridled shock passed over his face when there was no resulting agony. He began to probe at the scorch marked hole in his trouser leg with a finger. “What happened?”

“I healed you,” I replied, wiggling my blessed fingers. “It’s just another one of my gifts.”

I watched as Cody’s mind went through a complete rewire on what was real and what was not. He blinked rapidly again as if the update was being installed, then said, “We need to get Liza back.”

My quest log lit up with a ping.

Quest – Kill General Milley (Optional)

Description – He snatched your new friend and shot her brother, which is bad enough. What other secrets does he harbour? Find him. Question him. Then terminate him with extreme prejudice.

Reward – Party Loot Box (Legendary)

“Any idea where they’ll be going?” asked Cris as she checked over the quest on her HUD.

“No, and we’re deeply in the shit anyway. Those T-4s will be back soon,” he replied.

I spun to look at the heat haze on the horizon. “What? Why?”

“Because they would’ve needed to check in at some point,” he said, pointing at the soldiers. “Probably as soon as they’d shot me and taken off.”

“Fuck!” I snapped, looking at the destroyed radios. Of course they would need to stay in touch; they were a military combat unit. All I’d managed to achieve was a delay in the inevitable execution by chain-gun. This was what happened when an unsuccessful small business owner was put in charge of saving worlds. “Do you think they’d be expecting it soon? Like, straight after the gunfire?”

Cody shook his head. “They wouldn’t have heard shit over their escort, but the clock is ticking. We can try and split up, that way they can’t find us all out here. But I think even that’s doomed to fail.”

I was forced to ask again. “Why?”

“Because Milley has to be a part of it, and the only way they could’ve found me was to be watching on the satellites.”

“But they’re offline,” I argued.

“Only to us,” Cody replied. “Whoever’s done it would be able to turn them on and off at their leisure.”

I glanced skyward nervously. “So they could be watching us right now?”

Cody looked where I had been looking only moments before. “No, I don’t think so, or we’d already see the choppers flying back. I think we might’ve been lucky.”

“For a few minutes,” I added.

“Yeah, for a little while. As soon as they realise their men failed, they’ll fire them back up and have us mapped within minutes. It won’t matter how far we run. We’ll be under a microscope that we can’t get away from. They’ll be able to see the sweat on our faces as we get cut down.”

Damn it!

Think!

My happiness at being in a more modern world came crashing down as the technology posed its own threats to the overall quest. I’d been expecting lumbering beasts wanting to eat my tasty British arse, which was bad enough. What I had was lumbering beasts wanting to eat my tasty British arse, compounded by a rogue military or agency working with the perpetrator. That was a problem for later, if there was going to be a later. The two choices we had were really only one, and that was to stay and fight. Magic missiles versus actual missiles would be a fairly one sided confrontation. As my mind whirled around, I heard the low groan of the dying soldier. My brain yanked the handbrake, sending me into a tyre-shrieking, spinning halt. I slowly turned toward the ruined mess, and came up with a third possibility.

“He has that look again,” said Sun, as I walked toward the man whose health was rapidly nearing zero.

He was afflicted with blind on top of bleed, and as I neared I could see why. Slivers of the weapon and ammunition had shredded his eyes as well as the rest of his body. I did a quick search for a wallet, hoping to find a beaming family just inside the flap. The guy was out on some kind of black-op, so of course his pockets were empty of everything except items to kill and maim.

In case his hearing had been damaged too, I leaned in as close as I could. Being so close to the tattered gore of his face was awful, but I persisted. “Do you have a family?”

“Hnn,” he moaned, barely conscious. I think my words pulled him back from whatever light, or fire as was more likely, was calling to him. His head turned in my direction.

I wasn’t sure if that was an affirmative reply, but I kept going. “Would you like to see them again?”

He coughed up some blood as he tried to laugh. “Fu… fuck you.”

“I’m serious. I can heal you, as good as new, but I’ll need your help. The people you’re working for are trying to fuck the world. Kill everyone. Did they tell you that?”

He didn’t answer, but I heard his breath hitch a little. Hoping it was from fear for his kin rather than the dying, I threw it all out because my time was nearly up. And by mine, I meant his. The flashing health bar was almost gone. “They’re going to unleash a plague of creatures. Your boss is in league with Sheldon Lake. The world will fall. That includes your family. If you want to have a chance to see them again, open your mouth wide and no matter what, swallow the shit I pour in.” So much for Liza’s recommendation of keeping my trap shut. I was blabbing to everyone.

The last slivers of his fading pool ticked away and I thought he’d passed out completely. When I saw the trembling lips part, and then open wide, I mixed a triple stack and tipped the vile muck in. Even as close as he was to dying, I saw the natural revulsion shudder through his body as the liquid met unwilling tastebuds. “Don’t spit or you’re done!” I warned.

He gagged, the green filth bubbling up like an overfilled drain. Before it could spill out, he forced his mouth closed and swallowed audibly. Knowing how awful it tasted, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was reconsidering an eternity of damnation as an option. It was too late for hell, as the magical elixir started to go to work. His face was the first thing to heal, and he blinked away the crusty gunk that had been his previous eyes as new orbs formed within the sockets. The burns faded, and the buried shrapnel popped out of his flesh like pus ejected splinters. Fully awake now, the soldier held up the ragged stumps that had been his hands, feeling the same unimaginable awe that I had felt as fresh bone and meat grew where there had been nothing.

I remained kneeling at his side until he was whole again. Staring intently into the fearful face of the man, I asked, “Feeling better?”

He nodded slowly, shrinking away as if he wanted the ground to swallow him up.

“You’ve seen what we can do, and I’ve seen what you’re willing to do,” I growled. “But right now, I need what’s stored in there.” I tapped on his forehead, making him flinch even harder.

“Who are you?” he asked, barely a whisper.

“Someone you don’t want to fuck with. Now are you going to hold up your end of the deal?”

He looked once more at his regrown hands through regrown eyes, then nodded again. “Whatever you need.”

What I needed were answers and ongoing compliance. “Sun, can you have Fen say hello? And maybe show…” I checked his tab. “Scott Thorne your axe.”

My knowledge of his actual name was the least shocking thing about the encounter so far, and he was more intent on the creature that had appeared from nowhere. Fen was dressed in the full armour set which lent him an even greater level of menace. Sun cocked her head towards our prisoner, and Fen growled deeply. Padding over, he bared his massive fangs and drooled, right beside Scott’s head.

“Good boy,” said Sun, calling him back, while withdrawing the demon’s warcleaver. She moved toward us and held the ghastly blade inches from Scott’s face. I thought the hardened mercenary would start to cry judging by his horrified expression. Instead, he just shrunk down into himself even further, if that was even possible. As hard as he was, we were other, and our powers left him feeling utterly helpless.

“Thanks, Sun,” I said, and she retreated. “We’re here to stop what’s coming, even to arseholes like you. You said you have a family? Wife? Kids?”

“Ye… yeah,” Scott stammered. “Wife. Three boys. Eight, six, and four.”

“I’m not going to threaten them, because they’re already in danger,” I explained. “Do you believe me?”

“I believe you,” he mumbled. “Just keep that monster away from me.”

“Fen isn’t the monster here, dickhead! Now, let’s get to it, shall we? You’re CID. What’s that?”

Cody answered for him. “Central Intelligence Division. Spies, assassins, the dark underbelly of Osterland’s military.”

The similarities kept on mounting, but I ignored it. “When are you supposed to radio in. You know, speak to base or whatever?”

Fen and the trapped demon lord had ended any lingering doubts on the soldier’s part. “As soon as we’re airborne. Then at fifteen minute intervals until we’re back on base.”

“Is that where they’re taking Liza?” I demanded. “Your base?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

I was about to voice my displeasure with his failure when I noticed he was thinking.

“This was an off the books op, but there are two black sites that are close enough to be possibilities. We stow people there sometimes, before they’re moved on,” he explained. “I’ll give you the locations.”

My quest tab flashed to life, but I left it unchecked. “You said this was off the books? You mean not sanctioned from the government?”

“No, sir. Milley is working on his own thing. Has been for a while. I was just in it for the money. I don’t like…”

I wagged a menacing finger in his face. “Shut the fuck up! I don’t want to hear your bullshit. If we didn’t need you, I’d have let Fen eat your corpse. Do you have any idea how many millions of people are going to die because of your boss and that prick, Lake? Why do you think they’ve fucked the atmosphere?”

“I don’t know, sir,” he replied, miserably.

“You will soon enough. How do we get out of this mess? Your friend’s dead.”

Cody interjected. “He still needs to make it back to base, even in that state. The how of it is the main issue.”

“He’s right, but Clint being dead might not be a problem,” said Scott.

“Explain, and fast,” I ordered.

“You could… mess him up more. Use the rifle. That way, I can buy you some time when I get back to base. It might even be that they just disappear him anyway without looking too closely at the body.”

“You don’t seem too upset about us killing him,” I said, suspiciously.

“We’re not in units like when I was in service. I’ve only ever worked with him once before. If I go back without a body, they’ll never buy what I’m thinking of trying.”

“And that is?” asked Cris, summoning an arcane missile in her palm as a warning. It wasn’t necessary. I think we had him completely cowed, and if not, the threat to his family was enough to ensure compliance.

“Your man here overpowered us while we were fucking around. Clint got shot. I got into it with your man, and then killed him. You might need to give me a couple of licks to make it convincing, or maybe pop a round into somewhere that’s not vital to make it really convincing.”

“I’ll leave that choice to you. What’s all this for, though?”

“You need a ride, and I can give it to you up to a point. Then I drop you off, and carry on back to base to return Clint’s body and my story. As far as Milley’s concerned, I fucked up, but you’re still dead. They’ll have me working the graveyard shift scrubbing toilets or some shit, but it’ll do.”

“What do you think?” I asked, turning to Cody.

“I’m thinking we don’t have much choice in the matter. It’ll take a week on foot, or an hour or so in the air. If time’s of the essence, I want to get Liza back before the shit hits the fan. Are the black sites in the city near our base?”

Scott nodded. “Yeah. Kind of. An hour or two at most in a car between them all.”

“And you can drop us in Ashbourne, or one of the other suburbs to the south?” asked Cody.

“Wherever you want,” Scott agreed.

“What do you think?” I asked my group.

Sun was content to leave it to people who understood the type of world we were in. Cody was satisfied, and Cris agreed. “If Scott holds his end up, they won’t even know we’re coming. But if he doesn’t, I want to know where he lives first. That way, we know where to pay a visit.”

The threat was without teeth. Cris would no more hurt a child than I would, but she loomed over our prisoner, summoning something far darker. The afternoon sun faded as all light seemed to be drawn into her like she was a certain powerful wizard bollocking a recalcitrant short-arse who refused to hand over a semi-important ring when prompted.

“Address,” she demanded as a vortex of energy began to swirl around her body.

“7724 Maple Drive, Hillford, below the Virgin Mountains.”

Her incandescent purple eyes faded back to their typical blue as whatever spell she’d been building to was put back under wraps. “Good. Now let’s get to it.”